Run up to Christmas

Hello again, Happy Christmas,

Since I last blogged,  I have been to the job centre to sign on, normally I dont mention it, but on this occasion , my job centre person said , that her whole life had gone to ratshit,. Now whilst I have been there, I had a sudden flash of inspiration and suddenly said "oh well it could be worse you could be out of job coming up to christmas and only get your national insurance paid...", needless to say it was a short appointment.

Good news and bad news, I have been applying for loads of jobs and whilst 90% of employers suffer from very poor admin in that they dont acknowledge the application let alone respond, I got an interview for a job. It was for the civil service at Leconfield. I had a days work experience in the same environment to prepare me for possible interview quaetions. Turns out wasnt such a great idea, because all of the hull veterans work club did the same,  but needlesss to say it was enjoyable. At the interview we had a variety of competency questions, but needless to say they ticked the " we identified with the stronger candidates" box. I asked for feedback, but in real terms it was repeated in every box , close but no cigar...

I have started taking photographs again properly. I started again at the breakfast club and have started taking some everytime I go into the city. Theres something quite surreal to living in hull, its really quiet but every now and agin we get a rag and bone man, and  its not some bloke in a transit van. these guys do the job properly. They came again today and I finally got the chance to photograph them coming down the street. I am going to edit this picture to show passing of time, maybe some black and white in the middle, im not sure yet, but never the less I thought I would share it with you.

Alex Politzzis Programme on BBC2

Since I last blogged I have applied for another 20 jobs and I do have some good news. I have an interview on Monday with the Civil Service. So we will see.

Im watching the Alex Politzzis programme on hiring veterans, obviously these guys are my brothers so it helps to see Im not the only one going through this.

In the mean time there have been no sightings of the mouse/mice and financially things have been really tight, but the veterans support groups in Hull have been amazing. I can wait to get a job tho... Til next time

Syrian Air war

Today, the government sanctioned airstrikes against Daesh.  its ok taking the war to the enemy, but how are we doing that? when we atacked Iraq we had a strict UN resolution framework to work within. It hasnt been mentioned that we have a legal basis to allow these attacks.
People say it will make Britain a target for terrorists. My response is that Britain has always been a target for terrorists. Look at the IRA. they were far more technically savvy than ISIS. We combatted the IRA as we will Daesh, and our domestic security has improved alot since the early 90s.
The other point is that the Tornado is in demand because of the brimstone missile. this missile is awesome its an anti armour missile and can take out any vehicle at any speed (so far) and limit collateral damage. , the replacement for tornado , the F35  cannot carry Brimstone..

On the work front I got an interview for the storekeeper position at Leconfield in the civil service, thats not for a couple of weeks tho. so fingers crossed.

In other news, there was a mass shooting in the US and a number of people are dead after 3 gunmen opened fire. Before we panic guns are legal in the US.

Above all that the real debate is, is the fashion to have a beard waning? i have a goatee and tash,and wondering if its time to go of whether I should keep it a bit longer.....

No Mouse sitings

Scouse Mouse

Its amazing you know, you start talking about rats and drain pipes and a mouse appears and I mean actually appears in the lounge. Now our new tenancy agreement is very clear about not harbouring animals so I duelly rang the landlord to notify them of the new occupant and felt they should come and do something about it when Jenny screamed the house down. I thought someone was being murdered in the lounge ( couldn't be Jenny she was still screaming..) so I told the landlord to hold and went to find out that Jenny had actually just seen the mouse...( she had seen it before and not screamed, because she saw it in her periferal vision and thought she was imagining it, so i gave her loads of grief prior to this because it only appeared when I wasn't there. So I said it was her guardian angel) but then it got braver...( and maybe a bit deaf) it didn't care if we were in the lounge and we started to see it or them or whatever daily. we saw it in the dining room too, and the the pest control person appeared. He is a nice chap he keeps snakes he furnished the house with some fetching white boxes and trays of blue mouse sweets. Typically we didn't see it for three days, but then before the mouse man was due to show up again it appeared again, the mouse had tried to fill its hole with a cake wrapper from the bin.so that was removed.

When the mouse man came back he said the mouse or something had partaken in the free mouse sweets in the buffet but the white boxes were untouched. We haven't seen it since that last mouse man visit, so fingers crossed....I thought it had died under the fridge because of the smell, but then  I found a rotten potato.So the elusive Scouse mouse ( so called as we are on Mersey streeet) Saga continues....

I will get better at this blogging malarky soon as I will start taking some pictures..why not eh? Mice are a bit fast tho lol

Christmas approaches

Here we are 3 months in and whilst I feel supported, by the excellent Barkers Breakfast club and the Hull veterans work club, I had my CV professionally reviewed and basically they tore it to shreds, which is maybe why I havent heard from any of my 50 applications, but then part of me says they were a professional company and they want me to pay for them to rewrite it.

   So my mission here is to prove that not all ex military people are alcoholic fighters that are only fit for military service. It has kind of hit me for six, I have a wealth of skills and feel desperately old and overlooked. the last interview I went to I wasnt the oldest however...in fact as I Know I will never work for that particular company like ever , here is the story...

I applied for a job with this company ( despite knowing i will never work for them I'm not completely stupid in naming them lol) , they made me go thru several hoops to get to this particular stage, including an online customer service test which i scored 93% in, a typing test 6241 key depressions per hour, ( 90%) and another test which was role related and I got 100% in that one. This got me thru to a video interview, well I say interview there was nobody there , the questions popped up o nscreen and I answered them, it was horrible but necessary. This got me thru to a group discussion which was like going for RAF Selection all over again. This group discussion was split into three parts. The first part was an ice breaker where we introduced ourselves and said some other interesting things, this then went into a communication exercise, where we were given a laminate to describe for the rest of the group to draw and everyone drew what I described. What followed was a cave rescue scenario where we decided as an individual who in the party we would rescue. Then we had to decide as a group, no one came forward to present their ideas, as we sat there for 5 minutes. So I stepped in and chaired the meeting getting my own opinions across but taking everybody elses opinions into account to come up with a definitive order for the party to come out. The final list looked nothing like I had written down but we all presented why that person should be in that order, and that was the final decision. 

 I got an email 3 days later saying thanks but no thanks and that detailed feedback was available and so I emailed them and im still waiting.....I guess they wanted a sheep rather than a shepherd.....

 I took it as a postive experience and when I went to the Hull veterans work club and they said that was common for this particular company. So undeterred I have applied for another 5 positions at this company with different Cvs and whilst ( in my head) they give me due consideration..(NOT!) they probably just laugh and chuck my application in the bin. Don't fear tho readers they haven't posted a new job in a while but as soon as they do..I'll be in there like a rat up a drain pipe...( do rats run up drain pipes btw? )