Six Weeks of Adventure

I've not written a post for a while. This is because the last six weeks of my life have been insane.

Last time I posted I was about to embark on 'a new adventure'. Uni was over, the summer was coming to an end and my graduate job was starting. I was full of nerves about stepping into the relatively unknown.

Six weeks on from Induction all that can be said is 'So Far, So Good'.
I met the other graduates, 20 in total. Obviously some oddballs mixed in there but you always get one (or three) on a bus trip. We had induction together, since then we've all seen eachother several times. We went on a MESSY night out in London a few weekends ago. Just what was needed to break the ice. I don't think anyone really knows the other until they've had a few glasses of wine (translation: MANY Long Island Iced Teas) and let their barriers down. It was so good to see those who did. The Grad family is a good strong concept I think. We move around so much in this scheme but these 20 people are a constant and it's one of the wierder things to think i didn't know some of those guys 6 weeks ago. I can genuinely imagine becoming real friends with a few.

I'm in IT. I've been given people to manage and projects to deliver. I now have an IT Service Management Qualification which is a joke because I'm still a complete Techtard. I'm obviously shitting bricks (excuse my terminology), feeling way out of my depth but people keep telling me this is healthy? I remain unconvinced.

Mega issues with the people I've been given to manage but bearing in mind this is going on the internet (to however a tiny audience), I'll say this, they are 'interesting characters'. Read into that what you will. No don't I might as well tell you, one feels as though the world has fucked him over and as a consequence hates everything and everyone in it. And the other hates women. No... not so much hates, merely has no respect for them other than in the role of wife and mother. Which means in his eyes I am a pointless individual who is now his supervisor. It's all sunshine and laughter in my team meetings.... *MASSIVE SARCASM*

I've been travelling around loads. and loads. and loads. Which has been brilliant. I was in Holland the other week. Score! I'm now an international, jetsetting business executive. I WISH. I was so excited when they said we were flying to Amsterdam aber, kein Amsterdam fun for me. Still a pretty snazzy experience, not going to moan.

The incredible upside of me managing 'my favourite people in the world' (insert actual emotions as you feel appropriate) is I'm in a very cool office. We're not talking the office next to Tower Bridge with all the glamorous people, cool but genuinely friendly, laid back people, cool. One thing about the Black Country people is they're basically Yorkshire folk with a different dialect. They are such a lovely bunch of people in the office, everyone has gone so far out of their way to make me feel welcome. A few Friday nights at the pub have ensued which I class as a massive positive. Although I've had to learn to understand the accent pretty quickly I'm getting there with my favourite saying so far being: "Y'am saft y'am". Translation "You are daft you are". Faaantastic :)

My weekends have been packed with nights out in London, binge weekends in Newcastle with the Hurst bezzies, weekends in Reading carrying on the battle that has become my relationship, visiting the parents and various other misdemeanours.  This all means basically that my feet don't seem to have touched the ground in the past six weeks and it really has been an adventure. Will blog about more interesting things soon, like my new obsession with the TV show Girls!

Update complete, K over and out.
x

11.11

There are no words that have not been said before....

"Please wear a poppy," the lady said

And held one forth, but I shook my head.

Then I stopped and watched as she offered them there,

And her face was old and lined with care;

But beneath the scars the years had made

There remained a smile that refused to fade.

A boy came whistling down the street,

Bouncing along on care-free feet.

His smile was full of joy and fun,

"Lady," said he, "may I have one?"

When she's pinned in on he turned to say,

"Why do we wear a poppy today?"

The lady smiled in her wistful way

And answered, "This is Remembrance Day,

And the poppy there is the symbol for

The gallant men who died in war.

And because they did, you and I are free -

That's why we wear a poppy, you see.

"I had a boy about your size,

With golden hair and big blue eyes.

He loved to play and jump and shout,

Free as a bird he would race about.

As the years went by he learned and grew

and became a man - as you will, too.

"He was fine and strong, with a boyish smile,

But he'd seemed with us such a little while

When war broke out and he went away.

I still remember his face that day

When he smiled at me and said, Goodbye,

I'll be back soon, Mom, so please don't cry.

"But the war went on and he had to stay,

And all I could do was wait and pray.

His letters told of the awful fight,

(I can see it still in my dreams at night),

With the tanks and guns and cruel barbed wire,

And the mines and bullets, the bombs and fire.

"Till at last, at last, the war was won -

And that's why we wear a poppy son."

The small boy turned as if to go,

Then said, "Thanks, lady, I'm glad to know.

That sure did sound like an awful fight,

But your son - did he come back all right?"

A tear rolled down each faded check;

She shook her head, but didn't speak.

I slunk away in a sort of shame,

And if you were me you'd have done the same;

For our thanks, in giving, if oft delayed,

Thought our freedom was bought - and thousands paid!

And so when we see a poppy worn,

Let us reflect on the burden borne,

By those who gave their very all

When asked to answer their country's call

That we at home in peace might live.

Then wear a poppy! Remember - and give!

Don Crawford. 

At the going down of the sun and in the morning. We will remember them...

K x