Stress!

I am going through a very stressful time at the moment; just started new job, relocating from London to Manchester AND buying my first ever property. I wouldn’t usually say I get stressed, as I do have a good perspective on life and am a great believer in everything unfolding as it is meant to be, however I am finding that unbelievably incompetent people and companies drive me up the wall! I do not want to rant about it, but example include the train from my local station being late every single time I catch it (which thankfully isn’t everyday as I work from home), Vodaphone’s piss poor customer service sending me on a jolly round the world speaking to customer advisors in the UK, Egypt, India and South Africa when trying to get advice on a large bill, my mortgage advisor disappearing off the face of the earth and her company, Countrywide, not being able to help and banks never sending me through to the right department / person and charging 14p per minute for the pleasure!!!!! I don’t know if it is just me but have we always dealt with stuff like this or are we simply increasingly irritable / impatient? I don’t smoke anymore but this kind of stress has me reaching for the nearest cigarette/chocolate bar; so it must be proven that stress also makes you more unhealthy/fat! I have to get a control over this; is it me or society?!

Time to get serious about this Training Contract!

For a few years I have been studying law but not really been serious about pursuing it to a full blow career – I guess I had an idea that there would be something else out there for me and being a solicitor wasn’t the ‘be all and end-all’. However, after recently finishiing and passing my Legal Practice Course (and my 7th year of study), I have decided to pursue the course of action. All well and good, but now I need to get myself a Training Contract! The problem is it is a job and training all in one – not all law firms offer them, and the ones that do are in very high demand. I am no dummy but I didn’t get all A* s – but I think every employer would look for and value different things in trainees and I know I will be just what one (or hopefully some) are looking for!

I have spent the last couple of months preparing – getting my CV and cover letter polished and double checked by my recruitment consultant friend, and also compiling a database of all the potential law firms to write to. I went to the library and there was about 1000 firms in the UK which take on legally aided work (criminal/family/human rights) which I the route I wish to pursue. I have spent hours researching all of the firms in the internet, and now have 200 firms in London and Essex to contact. I have also put a Video CV on Youtube, which I intend to put a face to a name and hopefully make me stand out to employers.

Luckily, I can use pre paid envelopes from my current job to save on some of the cost of stamps, and print my cvs and letters at work to save on printing costs. Time is the biggest cost of this, but it will be worth it when the job offers come rolling in 🙂

Wow…it’s been a LONG time!!!

It’s been about a year since I last blogged on here! I’ve been so busy, doing this and that! So much has happened! Got my first ‘real’ job, left, got sacked from the next one, got a new one, left and went back to the original one! Crazy huh. In more debt now than I was a year ago, but thats down to having too much fun, and have woken up to the fact now! Been on holiday alone, been to educational seminars, been with my boyfriend 5 and a half years and have started a different blog following his journey into the music industry!

Left facebook the other day, have my own business just getting off the ground, finished my LPC (unless I have t resit property!) and looking to move out ASAP. Dont watch shows like the X Factor and Big Brother anymore (too mainstream lol.)

Am currently reading 50 shades of Grey (like everyone else on the planet) and planning my 25th birthday party (gona do it in style!)

Will blog if anything else interesting happens….

Chapter 26 – some inspiration…

I found some really cool images and stole them off other people’s blogs to put on mine, here you go 🙂

this is really cool

totally agree!

too true!

terms and conditions apply! love!

real beauty aint hard to find!

I <3 tattoos….

I love tattoos, and have recently discovered this cool blog where people display their works of body art!!! The following are my favourites…

I like the position and although it is big and bold the girl still looks gorgeous and feminine!really like the quirky position!

 

worth a listen…

Jhene Aiko- Stranger

Chapter 25 – ‘In other news’…

In other news, this is what’s going on closer to home.

My job as a PA intern for an actress is, unfortunetly, for now coming to an end. This is due to lack of funs enabling me to change from an intern to full time employee. I have managed to land myself a position at Deloitte, which is a huge and well-known money management company, taking care of PPI claims (Payment Protection Insurance.) The money is the best I ‘ve ever earnt in my whole life, the hours are good and I think it will be good to work for such a big company.

I have also discovered what my true ‘colour palette’ is thanks to a book called ‘How not to wear black’ by Jules Standish. Everyone has different skin tone, eye colour and persinality type, and this should reflect in the clothes and make up you wear. It’s amazing how much better you look and feel after you discover your colour palette. I am a spring, which means I should wear a lot of bright colours, mixed in which tans and creams. Some black is OK if I am mixing with bright colours. I would recommend everyone to do this!

Went to Ascot races for the first time with my partner David and his work mates – we went on a big coach, they had loadsa food and drinks organised, it was a real fun day. The only small disappointment was it rained a little sporadically, but overall a really fun day. I wore the most expensive dress I have ever bought – felt really good in it so was worth it! I find spending a bit extra on your clothes works out in my favour as they fit so much better, are more flattering and last longer as they are better quality!

So starting new job Monday and recently got half of my new tattoo too! It’s a large backpiece on my lower back, a dragon chasing a tiger which is a Chinese yin yang symbol which represents balance in everything – so for each good theres also an oposite bad. It reminds me that everything is fair and balanced and to not get too depressed! It took 2 hours of sheer pain to get the tiger done, and I have to go back in a month to get the dragon done! Not looking forward to the pain but looking forward to the tattoo being complete! I love tattoos- I think they really represent creativity and expression and are really personal and subjective. They do really hurt though!!!

Chapter 24 – ‘London’s Burning’

Wow, things have been really popping off over here! I can’ even say I’m surprised, sadly. It all started Sat 6th August 2011 when a man was shot and killed by police in Tottenham, North London. First story was that he shot at police first, which is why they killed him. However, on further investigation by police, it was discovered that the bullet wedged in the police radio was actually police issue! This led to a peaceful protest outside Tottenham police station, where locals were obviously angry that their friend/family member had been killed wrongly annd unnecessarily by the police (let’s not forget this isn’t the first time this happened!) However, a small group of thugs turned this peaceful protest into a violent riot – setting fire to places in Tottenham and looting local shops. On the next evening, Monday, this turned into the whole of London doing the same – Lewisham, Brixton, Peckham, Croydon, Enfield, Hackney, Clapham and Camden. The scale of devastation was huge, and frightening. The worst part was that the people at the heart of this revolt were young people – teenagers – some as young as 7. Hooded up, ganging up with others in their own gang and other gangs, and taking it as an oppurtunity to show how much they hate the police and get free stuff. They set fire to buildings, cars and homes, pelted the police with bricks, wooden sticks and firebombs and looted shops for everything from cigerettes and alcohol to TVs. This continued up North the following night, with Bristol, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Nottingham following suit.

It has finally calmed down now. 800 arrests have been made in London, 16,000 police are patrolling the streets every night, London’s police cells are full and people are trying to get their lives back. The best thing I’ve seen is the community’s rallying together to help sort out the mess  a website called www.riotcleanup.co.uk was set up and hundreds of people have visited sites with brooms and plastic bags to clear the remnants of the devastation.

The question everyone asking is why? Why would the youth of England feel so angry and frustrated towards the police and government that they would do this? I’ve heard a couple of good theories, including the generation being sociopaths who, due to bad parenting and lack of proper nutrition or development, have got under-developed brains which mean they have no moral code, conscience or empathy. I have also heard that this is a generation of ‘Labour Babies’, who are suffering because of the extent of the equality laws bought in by Labour, including the ‘Every Child Matters’ manifesto, which took away adults power to discipline kids. Parents can’t discipline their kids or they could get taken into care, and this is the same with teachers and other adults. The kid’s had too much power, and this has led to a generation of undisciplined and entitled kids.

Whatever you think the reason is, we have a lost generation on our hands, and the question is what is going to happen to them and what are we going to change in the UK to stop this from ever happening again.

In my opinion, as a young person myself (23), I understand the emotions of these people. I have a good education and a good solid family background, and it has been so hard for me since leaving university to get a job, I have sometimes felt depressed. I cannot imagine coming from an unstable family background, living on a council estate around the dregs of society, living everyday in poverty and fear and feeling like there is no way out as nobody will give you a chance. I think most of these kids probably clinically suffer from depression. Then you get so frustrated with lack of money and power that you do extreme things, like robbing, selling drugs, taking drugs etc, anything to vent the high emtions you are feeling. Add into this the mix that these kids have no discipline and can get away with whatever they want, watch the rich rappers on TV with the bling and the girls, and are seriously bored when they’re not in school, it’s a recipe for disaster! The first thing that needs to come back is discipline – the right for a parent, teacher and other adults to discipline children without feeling the wrath of the law themselves. The second thing is some kind of service as we used to have, where teenagers are sent away for a short space of time to train and learn respect, skills and discipline. More help with parenting, jobs and harsher criminal punishment and the problem should gradually get better.

 

Chapter 23 – ‘the next steps’…

I haven’t written a blog for a while, not because there has been nothing to write about but because I had a crisis of confidence in my writing and didn’t feel like doing it! But I’m doing this blog mainly for myself and as a kind of journal to look back on so shall continue!

Professionally, I am still a PA for an actress who is getting her career back. We have made progress. After the photoshoot and interview for Mail on Sunday, we managed to get a PR guru to say he would act for us (which he would’nt do unless her felt he could make a difference.) He ‘put out some feelers’ in the industry, and then we met in West London (Notting Hill, v.posh!) and discussed how to work social media and traditional media to our advantage and capitalise on my boss’ role in the new BBC drama thriller ‘The Hour’, which is prestigious and going to be watched by millions. I found the whole thing exciting! He has put us in touch with a company that specify in social media as we are going to develop the social media platform before this guy goes to work on the traditional media. Already, we have seen a small article about her in the Daily Mail last Saturday named ‘Comeback Corner’, with 2 pictures! So will definately make a difference! Very expensive though!

Privately, I have also started my own ‘Kleeneze’ business. It works like this: you buy a number of brochures from the company. I bought 200 for £99. Then you distribute them round your local area on one day, for people to browse through, and pick them up the next day. Hopefully, some people have made orders from the brochure! You order the goods from Kleeneze, take them to the people who ordered and take the payment. Then you get to keep 21% of all the money you take. This is the retail side of it. The other side of it is where you can grow your own company by growing your team. The more people that so this that are on your team, the more residual income you get as you get a precentage of their profits from the company too. It takes a good few years to build teams, as most people don’t want to do the leg work for such little money at first, but it is a good extra source of income and can grow to work really well in 10-15 years! I have already been to one meeting and although I was amongst people I wouldn’t usually be around, I was inspired by one man’s story of starting off doing it part time and on top of a full time job, 15 years ago, and he now makes around £6000 a month residual income! Amazing!

I ran the London 10k a few weeks ago with my boss and boyfriend David to support the charity Depression Alliance, as me and my boss have links with them and she is a kind of ambassador for them. It was much harder than I thought it would be, seemed to go on forever, even though I run about 5k every morning! We managed to do it in under an hour and a half, so not bad, and it was a great experience and the atmosphere was electric. I have applied to run the 2012 London Marathon for Merlin charity, but we don’t find out until September whether we have been successful, so fingers crossed! I really want to run the marathon next year as it’s the big Olympics year!

Also, found out I pased the first year of my Legal Practice Course! Absolutely chuffed I don’t have to re-take any exams, as I studied real long hours to do them and really don’t want to do that again!

Going to Ascot races in a couple of weeks with my partner David and his work colleagues, only been once before and I was working as a hostess, so this time should be a lot more fun and I’ll be a lot more dressed up! Good times!

Chapter 22 – it’s all a bit surreal…

The world and society is divided in 2 – the ‘normal’ people (ie those who aren’t famous) and the famous people. The normal people wish they were rich and possibly famous and the famous people probably wish they were normal again, but the two don’t mix, unless you go to a famous person’s book signing, concert or happen to see them in the street/airport etc.

I am a normal person from a normal family. I have never met/known anyone famous or been famous myself. But now, in my new job as PA to actress, I find myself crossing over the divide occasionally, and it is surreal.

For example, sending emails to ‘famous’ people who are friends/associates of my boss, or talking to them on the phone. Doing ‘showbiz’ things like sitting in on an interview for national newspapers and being part at the photoshoot, and attending meetings with famous people or their connections! Also seeing books written by people my boss knows and speaks to, with their actual name on the front cover! Proper published books! You have to understand it’s a little strange, but very interesting and enjoyable at the same time.  I’m liking this glimpse into the other world!