Gainfully Employed

Hello and welcome to the world's worst blog...where nothing ever gets updated! Truthfully, I haven't posted anything in awhile because nothing was really happening, and I had zero motivation to post anything. Then suddenly, so much crap was happening that I didn't have time to post anything. Then I realized that it had been so long since I posted anything that I wasn't looking forward to writing one of my epic all-updates-at-once posts. Then I realized that I'm sitting in bed right now writing a new blog post, and I still haven't said anything!

The major news is that I got a job! A real one that pays money and everything! I don't start until April 20th, but I've officially been hired by Friern Barnet School as an "ICT Technician" (i.e. computer support).  Everything about this job is ideal:  it pays well, it's very close to Simone's school (about a mile away), and the hours are perfect so I'll still be able to drop off and pick up Simone from school.  I couldn't have asked for a better situation!  The way things were going, I was beginning to get worried that my experience wasn't amounting to much over here, but as soon as I accepted Friern Barnet School's job offer I suddenly became a hot commodity!  Here's a timeline of job search related events over the past couple of weeks:

1. I had 2 interviews on the same day.  The 1st was at Friern Barnet School, and the other was for a part-time job at another school (I liked the idea of this part-time job, too...but it paid a lot less and it was farther away).
   
2. I got a call from Friern Barnet School.  They said that they deliberated for a long time, and that it came down to me and another candidate.  They chose the other candidate, so I guess I was only 2nd place (or as my brother-in-law Tim would say, "1st loser").
   
3. I didn't get a call from the other school by the end of the week and assumed the worst.  I was pretty depressed all weekend, but at least I had one more interview the following week.
   
4. I got another call from Friern Barnet School.  They told me that the other candidate accepted another position, so I was in!  Huzzah for being 1st loser!
   
5. I got a call the same day inviting me to another interview, which I declined.  I also canceled my other scheduled interview.
   
6. I got invitations to 3 more interviews in the next few days!  Where were all these jobs for the past 3 months?
   
7. The other school I interviewed with called me up and offered me a job (which I declined, of course)!  I'm the most awesome 1st loser ever!
   

I should mention that all of the interviews I listed above, and the couple of interviews I had before, I got on my own.  I researched, found the vacancies, filled out lengthy applications, and got the interviews completely on my own.  Meanwhile, I sent out my CV (résumé to my Yank friends) literally hundreds of times to recruiters, and I spoke with dozens of recruiters about my qualifications.  Did I get any interviews thanks to my friendly recruiter?  No, not one.

So how did I celebrate my new-found employment?  I bought a car!  A 2002 Toyota Yaris, to be exact.  I really didn't plan on driving over here, but it didn't take long to realize that it would be necessary once I started working.  Driving a right-hand drive car on the left side of the road isn't actually that daunting (I've only driven on the wrong side of the road once...so far!), but the strange road signs, crazy roads, traffic, and the unfamiliarity of my bearings has proven somewhat stressful.  Anyway, I'm getting used to it.  I'm sure I'll have some kooky driving stories pretty soon.

The other exciting news is that we had our very 1st visitors from the USA!  Our good friends Jason and Brian came to mooch off/ grace us with their companionship.  I'll save that for the next post, though...and I've got a lot of pictures to go with it.  I'm really, really going to try to post again in the next couple of days before we go to Disneyland and Paris...but don't hold your breath.