Don't Poop on my Parade!

Monday afternoon,at 2pm, I had a job interview.

At present,  I'm a care worker, out in the field but for 3 weeks I've been doing paperwork in the office.  When the job as Branch Co-ordinator was advertised I wasn't sure whether to apply because I have no idea how the computer system works or how to do half of the things involved in the job. After much consideration i figured that I may as well have a go.  What's the worst that could happen?  It's not as if I don't have a job now.

So, my cv was jazzed up a bit from 2 years ago, when I last used it, and emailed off to recruitment.  In all honesty,  even getting an interview was an achievement in my eyes,  given my lack of experience. 
Despite feeling like I had nothing to lose, the hours leading up to 2pm, left me slightly frazzled.  Nervous was not the word!

The actual interview is a bit of a blur.  Steve,  the HR Director,  was very friendly but, for some bizarre reason, I couldn't stop myself from talking!  I was chattering away and gesticulating like someone possessed!!!! Coming out an hour later I felt it had gone terribly.  I was so disappointed in myself and felt like I'd come across as a bit of a crazy person.

At work this morning,  I discovered that the decision had been made yesterday and that Steve would be calling everyone today. My close friend, Esa, is our manager in the south west so she knew who had the job but wasn't allowed to tell me! That must have been so difficult for her.

Imagine my extreme surprise when I received the call offering me the position!!! Naturally,  I was proud and astonished that he'd seen past my verbal diarrhoea! I don't start until the new year but I'll have to train before then,  of course.

Everyone in the office and the majority of the carers have been really happy for me bar one. He has been at Ark for a long time and can be weird but we've always got along ok. He found out that I was successful and immediately "unfriended" me on Facebook!  Not only that but has completely blocked me! His lack of friendship doesn't particularly bother me but his attitude really got up my nose. Why couldn't he just be happy for me?  Everyone knows that life has not been fun and games for me lately and I really needed the boost but instead he has been a total moron and put a right dampener on my good mood. How pathetic can one person be?

I refuse to let anyone make me feel bad though.  I work hard and earned this chance all on my own so he can just do one! So, to anyone who feels threatened or put out by my success, I say "Keep it to yourself and don't poop on my parade!"

Benefit House

Sometimes you watch a programme on tv and it surprises you and changes your perspective.  This show did not do that. At all! It confirmed what I already knew, that there are lazy scroungers in the world who don't want to work for anything.
Who can blame them though when they can bring in £80000 a year by just having children left, right and centre?! Every family featured in the show was demanding larger council houses for their big families not even considering spending a little extra and private renting to allow the children to live more comfortably.  Not one of the parents mentioned trying to look for work either so clearly have no intention of coming off benefits. 

Mark and I work around 70 hours a week between us for a mere fraction of what these people bring in. We receive no help from the government whatsoever.  To me this is a slap in the face. Having been on income support myself for a while I do understand that benefits are important but the families on this show are blatantly abusing the system.  Why are they constantly having children when they aren't supporting those that they have?

One man has 26 children with different women and claimed he is better than most Dads because he threw one of the kids a party and was there videoing it. Not being funny but Mark has been there for Emma every birthday and every Christmas since she was born.  That's not even mentioning all the rest of the time he spends with her.  Unlike the parents on this programme,  we raise and support our daughter and set her the example that you should work for whatever you want. I would hate for her to grow up thinking that living on benefits your whole life is the way to go.

We're on the right track with her though because she was outraged by the fact that tax is taken from us to support these people.  Personally,  I find it incredibly demoralising thinking about how hard we work and what a struggle it is to make ends meet when you have these families exploiting the country and taking the mick out of us, basically. 

There is no way that I would choose to be like them. What infuriates me the most with them is that they still believe they deserve more. They want bigger homes and more money and see no reason why they are not entitled to those things.

Nothing will ever change, however,  because the government will continue to enable them whilst punishing the rest of us who actually contribute to the country and the economy. 

And people wonder why I believe our politicians are a complete waste of space! Let's reward laziness shall we?! Plus it's rubbish that they don't have the children for money. Contraception costs nothing.  Don't keep procreating when you can't look after the children you already have!

It's Too Soon!

So much has changed since I started this blog. We've moved 3 times,  got married and been on our first family holiday abroad but the biggest change by far has been in Emma. Our little baby has gone and the child in her place is barely recognisable.
It wasn't that long ago that we would walk to school hand in hand and she would look to me as if I had all the answers.  Sadly,  beginning secondary school life and the appearance of hair in strange places has led her to believe that she is now a woman and, as such, is far wiser than those of us who brought her into the world! 

Where can I find the chapter on puberty in the parenting handbook?  Walking to school must be done with her mates,  heaven forbid she should be seen with me.  Don't get me wrong,  there are still times when she reverts to being our babe and wants kissing goodnight or cuddles on the sofa and we'll always have football,  but these occasions become more rare with each passing day.

It's all snap chat, Facebook and YouTube these days,  in between the xbox and doing "stuff" with her mates. One thing I can say is that she's still a star at school and has done all her homework without being asked so I try not to feel completely despondent.  I suppose I feel the same way as parents the world over but it's so hard. You can't help feeling like the years are passing too quickly which,  in turn,  leads you to the realisation that you are getting old.

Having freedom to do more myself now that Emma is more independent is nice. It's just a shame that we can't have the best of both worlds.  We're lucky with her,  I know,  and love her dearly but it's sad. Hopefully,  by now,  we've taught her enough and raised her well enough to give her a good foundation for this part of her life.

What more can we do? Our child is growing up no matter how hard I try to stop it

It's A Nice Day For A ....... Yellow Wedding?!

So, it was around this time 2 years ago that Mark finally asked me to marry him. We've been through a lot together since our first date on 2nd October 2001 so we can definitely say we knew each other inside out before we took the plunge,  as they say.  The funny thing is, I never realised how much I wanted to get married until he asked me.

I would love to sit here and say I wasn't like every other woman in the world who turns into a crazy person when planning a wedding but I can't because I was an absolute mental case! Far too much money was spent on wedding magazines and hours wasted on wedding programmes when,  at the end of the day,  we had no intention of following the crowd in any way. 

The choice of venue was a no-brainer. It had to be the Torquay United Stadium. Football is our religion and Plainmoor is our Church,  you get the picture. Not people to do things by halves,  we immersed ourselves in the Torquay United theme and so everything was yellow and blue.
Abbot Coach Travel were great and gave us a deal on a coach for our guests and car for me. Don't ask me what model of car as I have no idea but I can tell you it was a fancy silver one, with yellow ribbon obviously.  From the start I'd decided on a yellow dress and we wanted blue suits with yellow waistcoats and ties. Yellow button holes,  yellow handkerchiefs,  yellow and blue posies and bouquet etc etc. My friends were very helpful and made my invites with me - yellow outside,  blue inside,  blue ribbon. They also got roped in to the favour making - some yellow bags, some blue,  blue chocolate balls and yellow rock with either Mr & Mrs or Just Married on them. Mark and I made our own 3 tier cake decorated with icing footballs and boots and little yellow and blue flowers then wrapped yellow and blue strips of ribbon around each tier. The cake topper was fun with the bride and groom playing football.
Name cards and table labels were all on yellow card in the shape of football shirts, with the table names being different Torquay players. The top table was the Directors Box, naturally.  Our table plan was a green pitch with the yellow footie kits representing the tables. Even I was impressed by how cool that looked. Hanging on the door was a Torquay Shirt with Mark & Vicki 15-06-13 printed on the back. 

When you watch all these shows on tv, the brides are always stressy but I wasn't at all. Everything went smoothly.  Palm FM mentioned us on air in the morning which was really cool actually.  Our daughter,  Emma,  and my sister,  Emily,  looked gorgeous in their blue bridesmaid's dresses.  Emma was brilliant because she had a reading to do during the ceremony and recited it by heart as the registrar had forgotten the book! Emma walked me down the aisle to Amazed  by Lonestar.

Of course we had our group photos in the stands then just the wedding party on the pitch. The photos did go on a little long though because we had our own photographer and the Torquay United photographer asking us to do different shots but nothing could ruin our day.
Callum, the Torquay chef, did a fabulous job on the buffet and setting up the tables etc as we ate in the same room that we had the ceremony.  Yes,  you guessed it, the seat covers had yellow ribbon apart from our chairs that had blue.

We weren't terribly original with our first dance - Still the One by Shania Twain but it fit us well.  Chris,  the best man,  made a good speech then Mark did one which was really lovely. Then we got drunk and partied!

The coach came and picked up all the guests at midnight so that Mark and I could wander down the road to spend the night at the Seabury. By the way that was a marvellous b&b that did a decent breakfast in the morning. 

Everything about the day was absolutely perfect.  I didn't even care that my parents and my mom's family decided not to come. Everyone that mattered was there. Plus the Herald Express did an article on our wedding because it was the first at Plainmoor and we get to see pictures on the big screen every home game as they use them for events publicity.

Hands down best day ever!

All Aboard The Ark!

So, it's been an awfully long time since I last posted but I have been incredibly busy. Most importantly,  I finally rejoined the working world! I think I had applied for literally every job available and been rejected when one of my best friends suggested that I work for her.  Now, she had mentioned before that she would give me a job but I honestly didn't think that I would be able to do it.  At this point though there wasn't really a choice, I couldn't spend another day at home feeling sorry for myself!

Ark Home Health Care are a national company,  my friend is south west regional manager. At the time she was still only the branch manager in Torbay.  Well,  after doing a week of Induction training I went off shadowing one of the other care workers and haven't looked back since.  I absolutely love my job! 

Care work isn't for everybody but, in it, I have found my niche.  My start was a rocky one,  however.  One particular lady took a dislike to me from the get go, insisting that I was an uneducated (being as I was new), immoral ( having a daughter whilst unmarried), gold-digger ( saying Mark was in his 50s and I was in my 20s). I felt the need to point out that I was, in fact, very well educated, had been with my partner for 11 years and that  I was was 30 and my partner was 47. She phoned the office the next day claiming that I had poured acid on her face! Then another woman slapped me around the face and spat on me. There was an incident which ended up with me being covered head to toe in diarrhea, which was probably an all time low, but I've lived to tell the tale!

I suppose that it's like any other job involving the public in that you meet some wonderful people as well as some rude ones but thankfully we don't have too many of the latter. My regular service users are all fab, of course.

From fairly early on I realised that I wanted to make social care my career rather than just a job and enrolled in NVQ level 3. It's called QCF now but no one ever gets what I'm talking about if I tell them that.  Linda, the assessor, visited today to pick up two assignments i had completed and give me a couple more to do. Learning is so much fun when it's something you're interested in and it's your personal choice to do it. Linda loves me, she tells me how great my work is all the time, which is always a good boost for the confidence. 

For the past 3 weeks,  most of my time has been spent in the office going through every scrap of paper work to either file it correctly or archive it. You have no idea how time consuming that is! Anything over 5 years old can go in the confidential waste bin and I filled it and had to call for collection several times so far. Archiving has to be boxed and a list made of everything that's in there if we should need to produce it for the CQC (Care Quality Commission) or for any legal proceedings so it's all numbered. I honestly have no idea how I ended up being roped in but I don't mind because being in the office has been a nice change.

Our Care Co-ordinator, Becky,  is going on maternity leave soon and last week a letter was sent advertising the job to cover her while she's off. After much debate with Esa, my boss, and a lot of internal contemplation I decided I would apply. 
It occurred to me that I know all the carers in Brixham as well as the service users, I get on really well with the office staff and I can learn to use the computer system so I may as well have a go.
Everyone thought that loads of the care workers would apply but there were 2 external candidates,  me and a woman who only started working for Ark a few months ago when we took over the Guinness care company.

My interview is next Monday at 2pm.  Wish me luck!

Squeaky Bum Time :)

At this point in the football season teams begin to be relegated or promoted and, for those of us involved, every match becomes crucial. I know many people who hate the drama of it but for me it's what being a supporter is all about.

Last season everything was riding on the last game for Torquay. We were glued to Sky Sports, looking at the table 'as it stands', which was insanely nerve-wracking watching us go in and out of the play-offs like a yo-yo! Sadly we ended up losing the final but I'm over it.

It was much the same with Wolves as I sat chewing my nails praying that they would avoid relegation. However, this season has been another trying one. In all honesty I believe that their exit from the Premier League will be confirmed sooner rather than later. Much as I love them I just can't see them clinging on.

On the other hand, Torquay have had another stonker of a season! Nobody is more surprised than me at how well things have gone. Losing our manager and several players made us all apprehensive and staying in the league seemed like the best we could hope for. Yet, here we are on the cusp of automatic promotion! It's true that teams around us have games in hand but the fact that we even have a chance is an unbelievable feeling. Torquay is a small club but everyone involved has fight and passion in abundance and I'm so proud of the lads for making it count. Whatever happens I can say, hand on heart, that they are a pleasure to support.

All in all I am conflicted. The dire situation at Wolves shows no signs of changing, however, the fortunes of Torquay leave me feeling positively jubilant! It has not escaped my notice that there may only be a division difference between my teams next season which I could not have predicted back in August.

There's games to play still though and I football is a rollercoaster. A lot can change in a few weeks. :)

Teamwork

Just a quick post inspired by the dire situation at Wolves at the moment. Jamie O'Hara tweets saying that he ran more than any other premier league player. Great, I'm sure that's true but football is not an individual sport.

Quite simply I think this is a perfect time to bring in the Finding Nemo philosophy. Don't laugh, it makes sense! Remember the part where all the fish are trapped in the fishing net? Well, they're all swimming every which way doing their own thing and getting nowhere. Nemo comes along and tells them all to swim in the same direction. Consequently they manage to achieve the objective and save themselves.

My point is that, whilst the Wolves players might be giving it 100%, they're all directing their efforts towards their own purpose. They need to pull together as a whole instead of an isolated unit and focus on a singular goal.

You see? Disney has all the answers. ;)