The Three P's

Slumped on the sofa watching music channels "Metal Monday" currently Guns n Roses with beer ... after this week its well deserved, loads has been going on all at once and i'm struggling to remember it all

Flat Search, Doctors, Job Centre, Claiming benefit, Browns, Royal Oak, Gym swap, Being lazy will basically sum this up but read on if you like rambley details

Wed, Thurs, Fri me and Chris, without fail each time decided to put off job hunting and follow our profound duty to play more lost planet, it went back to blockbuster on Friday so you know, but we did complete an epic amount

Thurs headed to the job centre to claim benefits, i know i said its not worth it but i sat down on Wednesday and did the call, money is money at the end of the day and it was only 30 minutes long but the centre isn't really what i had in mind, its got more security than interviewers, but you basically fill out a details form, get the claim done and then deal with an interviewer who helps you find work, you have to meet criteria like be up for traveling up to an hour to find work but then he basically searches through job postings based on your background experience. I found out about the royal oak and copa and also learnt i could claim housing benefit which is a major plus, but whilst I'm claiming i just have to go back every two weeks with my job progress and what I've done to find work so they can basically get me off benefits as soon as.

After was the doctors to hopefully get rid of the cyst on my face, lovely i know, plan was to make a small cut and remove the whole thing, job done. Another doctor was with me and the nurse to do the procedure but after having a feel realised just how big it is and how bigger scar it could leave, so instead we agreed to go at it with a needle and see if it could be deflated... was a good idea but it didn't work so when its healed i'm back in 2 weeks to talk it over where most likely they will refer me to the JR and the plastic surgeons. Although if they mention removing skin from my bum cheek or something along those lines, ill be gooone.

Friday met up with Sam (thomas), Adam and Sam for pub lunch and man banter at The Fox as i had half price vouchers left over, so headed on up and i basically got chatting to all the old staff, and nick (manager) asked if i'd clean the pond again, i fancied some extra cash to fund Monday night at bridge so said yes, anyways over lunch we came up with a list things we wanted to do over the summer, in all fairness this was over a few drinks so they get a little more optimistic towards the end but still, here it is

Sat, up at 7 and by 8:00am and i was knee deep in a freezing pond and it was tipping it down, ive mentioned the routine of the pond ages ago when i did it before in another post, so £30 and finished up around 12:15, shower, shave, hair, dressed bag sorted and at chris's by 12:45 and off we popped to town, hit up Royal Oak (got an interview) Then came across Browns and for the sake of it applied (got the trial for 10am on Monday but ill explain that in a minute) Game station and the other one for chris, the headed to the bear (pub) and found Dan on break so had a catch up which was cool, applied there and the mitre pub, the beefeater one slap bang in the centre of oxford. Did try and find copa but we didn't actually know where it was. We then embarked on the treck to the botley road to apply to the military surplus store, first line "hey, i was wondering if you had any jobs available?" ... "well you can have mine if you like and see how that goes" haha he was a dude. Pc world, Currys and Maplins for Chris, then it rained so spent like an hour in pets at home. I could live there happily and wanted the house rabbit there, although it could probably eat the puppy its that huge. so yeah

Sunday, flat hunting, ive been looking at both 1 bed flats and 2 bedroom (ill just find the flat, put an ad out saying im looking for someone to share it with and see what happens) and theres some really nice ones within my budget, i wont have the funds till mid july but something to look forward to and then researching bar tips really for the trial at browns, then pub dinner with family, Gavin and stacy and pulling all the crap back out the attic for yet another car boot...good times? ha

Monday, Got ready and packed in the bag, Black shoes and Black smart trousers then headed to oxford, i was aiming for around half 9 to then pick up a white shirt ready for the 10am trial... no shops open till 10am ... fml but republic and they don't sell plain shirts because they fail at life, but rang up and they didn't mind at all, got the shirt with the pond money then headed on there but ... well... Browns is the most stylish place I've ever applied for so it was a bit daunting. The fact its also a bank holiday doesn't help as it was going to be rammed, but got there and the bar manager was going to be busy for sort of 20-30 minutes anyways and all the staff where sat around having tea and coffee, oh its free to staff, win so got a cuppa but they teamed me up with David (hes french) and Chloe who has also only been there around 4 days, David is a joker and Chloe is rather easy on the eyes :P

To anyone who hasn't been there before theres two sections to the bar in an L shape, the side i'm on we work from tickets sent by the waiters/waitress's so don't deal with the customers. This covers everything from water and Pepsi to all Coffee's and teas (both are from leafs and beans so not instant) to beers/pulling pints and the extensive list of wine's and champagnes. Any cocktails David did as neither of us know how yet, when the drinks are done they go on the bar and the waiter's etc pick them up for there tables. but it was rammed so there was around 8-9 tickets half the time we had to do at once, ha tricky but i pulled it off pretty well. Then theres keeping up glass washing, stocking up the tea and coffee cup stuff, ice runs out dam quickly so needs to be got every half hour or so etc etc little to say it keeps you on your toes. at the end did the stocking up which went ok. So yeah after i'm pro at that side ill move onto the other side of the bar which is a proper bar, where ill deal with the customers, use the cash machine and learn every alcoholic drink and cocktail on the menu... oh did i mention these are free to me too? haha but had the talk at the end with the bar manager and he said "yeah me and you aren't going to have any problems i can see that, so i've got you down for these hours" ... :D yeeaahh he wants to move me over to that side of the bar within like 2 weeks if possible, so good times

Also after headed over to LA fitness as i need to swap to an oxford gym as apposed to the abingdon one if i intend to move to oxford. My God its awesome, It's slightly smaller than abingdon but just awesome is literally all i have to say. I got the tour around etc and it is full of win and they will match my current monthly gym cost, as theres is £59.99 and mines £44.

so yeah after all this i couldn't be arsed to go out for red lion and bridge Monday so laowed, I've got my interview with the Royal Oak tomorrow, Browns know this and said just to ring on Wednesday just to let them know what the plan is. so we shall see

Three P's ... I was born to Pull a Pint of Peroni. :D

:)

Is there anything better than flirty banter into the early hours?
i think not

xo

(-A-)

Loaded with information and questions, polished shoes, smart black trousers, slim fit shirt for the more butch approach and off i popped to the army careers office .... Last friday


When you get there you have to push a button for either Army, Navy or RAF and they let you into the waiting room where (surprisingly enough :) you wait for a recruiter from that background to come and talk to you. The room is basically rammed full of endless information, posters, magazines, leaflets, desk on the right corner, a model of a howitzer (mobile artillery gun) in the left corner just for the added touch. BUT theres a tv mounted on the wall in the middle that plays on loop a 1:00 long clip, like you'd find on the jobs website, just shows all the exciting bits, i'll get to that later, anyways


Now a guy came in, and asked "oh has anyone come down yet?" so i assumed he ment to come and talk to me so said no, said hey and shook his hand ... then there was an awkward pause ... yeah he wasn't the recruiter just another guy like me. fail but his name was jake and turns out he used to be an armourer but left for civi street and was back re enlisting so i basically quizzed him over the hour and a half it took for someone to come down on every aspect of it and found out loads.

Things like, posting preferences, i can choose 3 options anywhere the army is based (most popular being cyprus) or give an area for instance England, oxfordshire, oxford and they will try and get you posted as close as possible
What i'll be trained on, basically all standard equipment, to which i can go on to do specialist courses on the 50 cal machine gun and grenade launcher to go out with the mechanized infantry etc

now imagin seeing and hearing that tv clip just over 90 times. its enough to drive a man to kill something so i guess in a way its effective.

So yeah he came down in the end, hes called andy. hes a sergent but more importantly hes welsh. i really did try and take him seriously but the accent is amazing but hes my recruiter now through the process, basically asked me a few basic questions and what i wanted to do etc, he was going to have a go at trying to explain the course etc and what would happen next but was impressed i already knew all the details and in's and outs (think it saved him a job tbh)
he gave me another version of the online form to fill out, should of taken 20 mins but took 40 as i was eves dropping on the conversation behind me jake was having with another recruiter about what jobs are available, ... it's pretty bleak news really, most of the army is fully manned besides certain pinch's but the infantry is always hiring, i was tempted to ask more but the thought of family/friends disownment which got rid of that thought quickly. This just means ive been warned that the intake to my course after the assessments could take up to 8 months. yeah huge bad times this is miles off what i once thought
but its far more relaxed than i imagined it to be, the recruiter behind me came across and sat down at the table with me and had a chat for sort of 20 minutes about things, just not what i expected

Given more in depth forms to fill out at home, to which i need my doctors details, then i'll ring and book the barb test. done the forms over the weekend i'm just waiting till Thursday for the doctors as i can tie it in with having the lump on my face removed

so yeah, should be sitting that sometime next week, good times.

Feeling Good

I'll post properly soon, but right now i just cba
My day =

• Breakfast then fitness and a bit of a catch up on the news (thrilling i know)
• Rang to find out more about benefits, being out of work atm, little to say its not worth the time
• Rang to apply for my tax rebate, they do make this as difficult as possible but they should ring in the next few weeks
• Did my cv from scratch, realising that to find out dates of employment meant sorting out all my paperwork, so lame
• Looked for a plan b in case my mum actually follows through with kicking me out, i don't think she will but just in case kind of thing, its a bit unpredictable at the moment so i'd rather not have the "Oh shit what do i do now feeling". I have a couple of ideas but i need to be earning again asap, hence the cv but any other thoughts on this are welcome as right now i don't really know
• housework, washing up, clothes washing and hanging and putting more in etc etc
• walked the dog
• gym
• cook dinner, saw the last episode of house for this series, which was pretty good

so yeah, i'm basically slumped in the chair right now, with a cuppa and hobnobs. Plan for tomorrow, wake up early and head to chris's (hamblin) as he's offered to print all the cv stuff and come along as he needs a job too, after completing the last chapter of Lost Planet 2, which we will do. We have been playing the 2 player campaign that involves killing ridiculously large monsters in HD. when your burnt there's nothing better to do inside haha

Night

xo

Catch up

Quick ... yeah i'm never good at quick posts, anyways a recap of the past 2-3 weeks, besides gym, housework and babysitting

Saw some of the planes at the airshow flying around, however a jet fighter flew metres above my house, i could of thrown a tennis ball at the cockpit, ... i wish i had so it crashed and burned, the noise was redonkulous and fucking annoying.

Went and saw Gogol bordello at the 02 academy with a friend in Birmingham, also introduced them to playing the favorite past time of me and mum in the car of "spot the white man" but headed to the pub and meet up with some more of there family friends to skip the supports and then headed in, i was expecting it to be like a London venue for size etc as Birmingham is a huge city but the main room was like oxford, but instead of being narrow and deep it was wide and shallow with a bar running the length of the back, anyways besides this it was brilliant, i may of only known one song "start wearing purple" from reading years ago but it didn't really matter, when it comes to live bands i think i enjoy anything easy to go with and that's highly energetic, no matter what genre.

Super smash bro's on the n64 is one of the best games ever made.

Stayed there and headed out to the heath for a stroll in the sun the next day, she took pretty pictures, i climbed trees but theres some really good dirt tracks/country pubs at the end of the dirt tracks so I'm definitely going back with a mountain bike in the future.

We have yet another rabbit added to the family called Roxy.

Went over to dinner with family friends near Dalton barracks for Sunday lunch, i haven't had sunday lunch in months! there was everything in large quantity's but brussel sprouts with apple pie and brownies after, win. Then headed over to the airfield with the kids and their bikes which was pretty cool, there was around 5 training planes going out and landing so not to thrilling but just the size of the place (being flat ground you can see for a good few miles) and the fact it was guarded by military personnel made it cool... and finding a stream and playing poo sticks.. man I'm cool haha

Watch Micheal Mcintyre, Live and laughing. i did. it's awesome

I've been helping get all the stuff out of the attic tonight for the table top sale tomorrow, I'd of rather posted about this AND poping into the army careers office today but i'll do it tomorrow as its now 2am

Night xo

(-A-)

Well I'm going to do army stuff in a different colour/font, because some people really don't like reading about the topic, i don't think ill ever understand their reasons but i at least respect their decision.

Anyways, my plans have changed some what over the last 2 weeks which is why I've been majorly busy. I went with mum to visit a family friend (ill explain in another post) but hes a very high ranking armourer who explained loads of bits I'd of never got from the internet/books

Most will know my original plan of joining the Para's, what i didn't know is i can do p-coy (the para specific training) at any point in any career, i can also do the all arms commando course at any point in any career as well (both i intend to do) which opened up kind of everything

So after this looked at every other job there is, choosing what i'd want to do or find interesting then narrowed it down by pro's and con's like what skills/qualifications i could get out of it, what the army is most likely to need (they are cutting back, example: chefs contracts aren't being renewed/none are being taken on) how close to the action i'd be, civilian prospects when i come out etc

What i'm going for is to be an armourer, in short it means i'd fix/modify the army's weapons from small arms and rifles to complex machine guns, right up to the challenger 2 tank gun and artillery weapons.

(this is all as far as i know)

• i'd learn every weapon the army uses inside out and get to play with them all. thus incredibly interesting to me, i love the idea of getting payed to play with guns.
• skill and qualifications are ok
• future prospects not so much unless i moved to America where guns are legal
• i can be attached to any regiment from infantry to tanks/artillery so on the job stuff or i can stay back in the workshops and fix them through orders so how close i am to the action will depend entirely on me and can chop and change
• theres a shortage in the army (so far as i know)
• it will also leave me with time to do a lot of adventure training, like i really want to head back to boxing and do skydiving (i may have mentioned this but if i get to around the 200 jump mark i can learn to bass jump in Spain)
• then add in doing P-coy/ the all arms course at some point over the 4 years and i can be attached to the 16 air assault brigade and the para's, sticking to the original plan
• if i don't fancy it i can also apply for pilot training (helicopter) after 4 years of service, now you can see why i'm getting so excited, this is amazing to me

so all in all pure win, its just about getting onto the course now and passing the tests, i delayed it so its tomorrow morning now, i've filled out the online application so all i need now is to basically pop in, go over it and sign it, then go straight into my first interview and arrange a date for the barb test, i'll fill you in on the rest as it happens

Be good to know your opinions as well, i mean if you where to join the army, what would you do given the choice? what would interest you? from medical to tank driving? also if you have a spare 5 minutes, take this, it makes for interesting reading about yourself, http://pathfinder.armyjobs.mod.uk/

xo

running off in camouflage?, well you wouldnt see me if i did, so ... y'know

It hasn't been ages, i haven't been incredibley busy, 2010 is going really slowly .... ;)

I have the computer set back up, I'll fill you in on that to more interesting things such as rather big life changes at somepoint

However my army process and generally my future life starts tomorrow, so i should be in bed, but i haven't been this excited about anything, ever. again details soon but still :D

although getting back into the spirit of what i generally do with blogging, heres a little more youtube

.

I dont have a computer anymore, Long story
but here, just incase you dont have it already/loose your phone in the future
07792150355

xo