tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1266728146524664122012-02-16T11:27:36.942ZYosser said it best, "Gissajob."Yosser Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04135176692633361230noreply@blogger.comBlogger151100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126672814652466412.post-11855020181961653022008-02-19T12:55:00.001Z2008-02-19T12:55:05.377Z

Today was my final trip over to the local Job Centre to sign on, and they didn't disappoint. Anyone who is looking for something to blog about could do worse than visit a Job Centre, sit in the waiting area and listen to some of the conversations. As with Ronald MacDonald and the Nazi timekeeper, I swear the people in there knew that I was writing a blog and today they really put on a show for

Yosser Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04135176692633361230noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126672814652466412.post-74764802220320421232008-02-14T20:14:00.001Z2008-02-14T20:14:56.156Z

Great title and well worth a visit - The Sturdy Soapbox

Yosser Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04135176692633361230noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126672814652466412.post-74680087922770145302008-02-14T19:15:00.001Z2008-02-14T19:15:22.352Z

So, no posts for nearly a fortnight, but thanks to the precarious state of my love-life I find myself with more than enough time on Valentine's Day to write this. The hunt is over, I got the job in Canterbury and it starts next month. I have relinquished my status as dole monkey: I'm now merely 'between jobs.' I'm looking forward to the new job - the company seems like a good one and the

Yosser Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04135176692633361230noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126672814652466412.post-69506024305207637622008-02-03T11:23:00.001Z2008-02-03T11:25:34.296Z

As I mentioned in my last post, I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the train going down to London. I also noted that by praising the service I had undoubtedly jinxed all future travel. I was right. There were no seat reservations due to a printer fault, the wi-fi didn't work and we eventually arrived about half an hour late. I'm on the train again today and the printer fault

Yosser Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04135176692633361230noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126672814652466412.post-18378779688874092552008-01-30T12:54:00.001Z2008-01-30T12:54:59.296Z

I may have been too quick to damn the British rail system. The train I'm on left on time, is fairly comfortable (at least at the table seats - the airline seats are a bit cramped), has electrical sockets at each pair of seats and, best of all, has free wi-fi. Hell, even Japanese trains never had that. Had I known this I would have brought the papers with me and applied for some more of the

Yosser Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04135176692633361230noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126672814652466412.post-89302646126961189092008-01-29T23:53:00.000Z2008-01-30T00:01:01.728Z

It's almost the end of my birthday and it's been the quietest and soberest one I've had in a long time. Going to London tomorrow for entrance exam/open day and I really didn't want to face the infamous British railway system with a hangover and a headful of fuzzy memories. Despite living in Tokyo for the best part of five years I find myself heading to London with small-town trepidation: will I

Yosser Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04135176692633361230noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126672814652466412.post-88010323164948300792008-01-24T17:22:00.000Z2008-01-24T17:46:18.188Z

I may not be working but the good people at my local council must be getting close to budget renewal time as there have four big yellow vans and lorries sitting outside my house all day. Much like the average Scottish Premier League football team there seems to have been an awful lot of effort expended for minimal results. Pneumatic drills, a mini-steamroller and numerous traffic cones all made

Yosser Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04135176692633361230noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126672814652466412.post-64980466439077566782008-01-23T17:48:00.000Z2008-01-23T17:58:25.229Z

Shocking title, I know, but hell, I may end up working at a tabloid one of these days so I ought to get some practice. Signed on yesterday and realised that the woman I had the misfortune to meet on my first visit is the exception rather than the rule. Unfortunately, that doesn't make for particularly good blogging, so here's a story from The Onion website that seems appropriate for this blog (

Yosser Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04135176692633361230noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126672814652466412.post-51298629720841500002008-01-21T13:13:00.000Z2008-01-21T13:51:20.165Z

The lull over the last few days is, unfortunately, not a result of me finding gainful employment. No, it's more a mixture of laziness, dull repetition and the simple fact that one of the highlights of last week was putting up an Ikea CD tower thing without any damage, any swearing or any monumental mistakes. Hardly relevant to job-hunting but a minor success nonetheless.Friday morning brought a

Yosser Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04135176692633361230noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126672814652466412.post-27235503760067390892008-01-16T22:48:00.000Z2008-01-21T13:54:42.154Z

Seeking solace in alcohol, is there anything we Brits do any better? I don't think so. I'm not hammered, just pleasantly toasted and the world seems slightly smoother at the edges. The healing power of shiraz is a wonderful thing. Given that this is ostensibly a blog about my attempts to find a job I probably shouldn't go on about the pleasures of drinking my way through my parents' booze, but

Yosser Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04135176692633361230noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126672814652466412.post-79442647797207348272008-01-15T22:40:00.000Z2008-01-15T22:56:17.909Z

My rescheduled appointment was today and thankfully I had no contact with the evil bitch from Hell who set about me last week when I was a few minutes late. Mind you, I think the people who run the job centre must know about this blog as yet again they provided me with some fantastic material for these posts.The first man I spoke to there was called ... wait for it ... Ronald MacDonald (you can

Yosser Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04135176692633361230noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126672814652466412.post-59302787402872757632008-01-14T01:05:00.000Z2008-01-14T01:15:42.854Z

So, the blog is a few days old and the hunt itself has been going on since before Christmas. Planned to post a daily summary of the jobs I'd applied for, the responses I'd received etc, but spent the weekend in true dole monkey style: getting drunk and watching crap TV. That being the case, it'll have to be a summary of all the jobs I've applied for up until now.According to a couple of the

Yosser Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04135176692633361230noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126672814652466412.post-37389160412380269922008-01-10T16:03:00.000Z2008-01-10T16:44:51.729Z

The trains may be slower than a chav trying to read his ASBO and the buses clearly follow a timetable that's based on chaos theory, but there is at least one British institution that runs bang on time: The Job Centre. Unfortunately the only way I was able to find this out was to arrive three or four minutes late for my appointment. Yep, I arrived at around 3:24 for a 3:20 appointment, was

Yosser Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04135176692633361230noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126672814652466412.post-70251805928007910882008-01-09T22:58:00.000Z2008-01-09T23:24:39.610Z

I decided on Monday that it was time to sign on, so off I toddled to my local Job Centre. I've only ever done this once before, the last time I came back to the UK. That was five years ago and as far as I can remember I went along to the Job Centre, filled out some forms, had an interview and promised that I'd do my best to find gainful employment (the fact that I ended up working in a Shell

Yosser Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04135176692633361230noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126672814652466412.post-18916894354842935792008-01-09T20:44:00.000Z2008-01-09T21:12:39.302Z

I wrote a blog like this a couple of years ago when I was living in Tokyo and looking for a job. I'm now back in the UK and going through the whole rigmarole again. The last time I lived in the UK I signed on, and one of the requirements was that I keep a diary of the jobs I'd applied for. Given that we're five years down the line and blogging is the new __________ (insert your own witty way

Yosser Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04135176692633361230noreply@blogger.com5