Kirstie's job log: 28

The weather over the past week has been amazing: clear blue skies, hardly any wind, white hot sun, holiday temperatures…and an office without air conditioning.

I have found that sitting in a hot office with the blinds closed on a gorgeous sunny day makes finding the willpower to do anything productive very hard indeed. Those jobs that no one wants to do in November suddenly have a host of willing volunteers come July, and I make sure I take my time walking to the nearest post box. Ice lollies become the snack of choice from the local shop, and constant cups of tea and coffee are replaced by cups of water from the cooler.

 The heat is off

Just as I started to pack away my winter wardrobe and dig out all my summer clothes, the rain reappeared in time for the weekend. This means I’ll now spend the weekend indoors watching TV instead of sunbathing outside as planned; although at least I won’t have to worry about a lack of air-conditioning at my weekend job! I received my first payslip from them this week, and I’m trying to resist the urge to go out and spend it all in one day. There’s nothing like a bit of rain and a paycheque to bring out the instinct in me to shop!

Radio on

It’s now only three weeks until I leave work, and I’ve been trying to decide what to do with the spare time I’ll have. I’ll have very little money to spend in the time before I head off to university again, otherwise I would have liked to try and get some work experience around the country. However, I have spoken to the local paper where I worked previously, and they are happy to try and arrange for me to come in again for a week.

I have also been spending more time at the local radio station, helping out on the show that sets up many of the gigs and festivals in the local area. It’s been great to watch how the show is put together, and see how important little things like timing are. In order to get everything that’s planned into the show the presenter can’t be more than a few seconds out; yet if there is a problem he has to be prepared to fill for a couple of minutes. I’ve been thinking about asking if I can spend some time with them as well; but there is so much going on and all the equipment looks so technical that I’d be afraid of accidentally putting myself on air!

More sales work

In another attempt to raise some cash, I decided to go back onto eBay. However, I am useless at eBay; whenever I go on there to sell something I get frustrated and give up, and more than likely end up buying something instead. When I do manage to go through the whole process and get something listed; it either sells for very little, or doesn’t sell for anything at all. So I have come up with a novel idea to make some extra cash; I’m going to go back to the traditional idea of selling my things in the flesh, at a car boot sale.

I have set a date and found a decent sized event that doesn’t charge too much to set up a stall. This means rummaging through the house looking for anything remotely sellable that I don’t want any more, and asking all my flatmates to go through their stuff as well. At some point I will have to take a trip round to my parents’ house, and go through all the stuff I left behind when I moved out. My flatmates, who are the greatest people in the world, have helped me sort out everything we’ve found so far, figure out prices I should ask, and pack it all away into boxes that are now piling up in a corner of the kitchen. I just have to hope now that it’s a sunny day and lots of people are interested in my old stuff!

Kirstie's previous entries

Read about Kirstie's highs and lows in getting her career on track since graduating at Kirstie's previous job logs.

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