For about five seconds there I suffered a dilemma, do I write this as one whole blog entry or split it into three? Evidently I went for one, mainly as I don't think I'm going to be writing loads.
The last few days have been a bit alright, if tiring. Matt R contacted me last week saying he was going to attempt a bit of a tour of the north of England, considering he'd hardly ever spent any time out of the south. In this tour he was going to go and visit Liverpool and would I like to join him? Yes was my answer. So on Thursday afternoon, after an interview with a telesales company in Bolton, more of which will come later, I jumped on a train over to the north-west coast.
Pretty much Matt's whole reason for being in Liverpool was to pay tribute to The Beatles, which meant us spending the evening in the Cavern Club and generally bumming around Matthew Street. We went down around 4:00, there was a John Lennon tribute act playing who Matt had caught a couple nights before and hadn't stopped raving about since. Suffice to say he deserved all the praise Matt had heaped on him. He looked and sounded exactly like John and seemed to be able to play any song that was shouted out to him. The venue was filled with typical Beatles tourists, a mix of students who probably came down every single night and tourists from America, Japan and Europe, filming and photographing every inch of the place.
He played until 8pm, at which point myself and Matt wondered down to the Cavern Pub, not to be confused with the Cavern Club, a similarly Beatles inspired venue with a lesser tribute act playing, walls covered in nearly Beatles memorabilia. Here we drank, and drank, and chatted, and drank until 10pm when we made our way back to the Cavern Club. By now the place was packed wall to wall, The Mersey Beatles were playing and it was fantastic, the atmosphere was great, Beatles fans young and old from all around the world having a big singalong, it was great! And that was my evening in Liverpool. Sadly it was a little soured by the man in the Beatles inspired turkish kebab shop only giving me change for a tenner when I gave him twenty and proceeding to insist I'd only given him a tenner, but I let it go. The actual burger wasn't bad.
Next day Matt was supposed to be coming back with me to Manchester, but he decided he had a throat infection so caught the first train back to Bath instead. So a bleary eyed me caught the train back to Manchester alone.
During the day I got a phonecall from the recruitment firm who had arranged my interview the previous day telling me I had the job I'd gone for. It's a telesales job in Bolton. In detail it involves phoning small businesses and asking if they want to buy toilet roll from us. 12% of the money from the toilet rolls goes to charity. Initially I was pleased. But then things begin to creep into my mind, people deciding to tell me at this point that they could never imagine themselves doing telesales, that all telesales people they know have a terrible attitude and just aren't nice people to be around, coupled with the people at the recruitment firm telling me I'd get all the training I need but the people at the actually company saying how they have reservations employing me because I don't have the experience. However the recruitment agency told me the employer had said he liked my attitude, my confidence and the way I carry myself. I guess I just have a massive amount of nerves, it's to be expected seeming though I've been doing a dead-end job for the last 5 years, tucked away in the confines of north devon. It's just about getting myself out there, used to the office atmosphere and more cut-throat, ruthless workplace. I'm all for trying it out and seeing if I can succeed. I start this on Tuesday. There are a couple plus points with this job also, it is currently in Bolton but they're hoping to relocate to central Manchester in the next few weeks so it'll be a perfect location, and also the work hours are only 9.15-4.30, apart from on Friday when it's 9.15-3.30. Plus an hours lunchbreak. With a pretty average wage as well. £12k inititally, going up to £14k after thirteen weeks.
Between you and me I have a little back-up job in the pipeline as well in case that all goes belly up, for a catalogue firm in Manchester as a 'blended sales advisor', basically meaning I'll be taking calls from people wanting to order things and also calling people up who have ordered things previously and trying to get them to buy something else. I have the interview for this job on Monday afternoon. If I'm successful the job doesn't start until the 10th May, so I can give this first one a go with the option of bailing out if I'm too overwhelmed. The second firm is a much bigger firm and they had a lot less emphasis on the need for previous experience. I'll give the first one a go anyway and see what comes of it. I'm confident I can make it happen. Even if I am slightly bluffing it a bit at the moment, if you can bluff the talk, you can bluff the walk, and before you know it the bluff becomes the truth.
By the time last night came around I was whacked. I ended up falling asleep on the sofa whilst Robin Williams told a load of jokes on Channel 4. Woke up at 7.30am, peered out of my window and saw a queue of people lining up outside Piccadilly Records waiting to buy their limited edition Record Store Day releases. I considered joining them but my bed was too comfortable, warm a place to be in so I stayed put. For a while I drifted in and out of sleep, eventually I looked at my watch and it was 11.20am. I felt myself being pulled toward the window to have another look at the queue for the record shop. It was still there but the idea of vinyl I want being inside of that building and me not purchasing it or being a part of it was too strong, so I pulled my clothes on and got out there. After queing for an hour I finally got to the sales counter, give the man a list of what I wanted and he brought back only four of them - Babyshambles Side Of The Road ltd 7", She & Him In The Sun ltd 7", The Futureheads Heartbeat Song signed 7" and Slow Club Yeah So ltd LP, £32 of vinyl joy.
And there we have it, right up to this very minute when I find myself sat alone in the living room of the flat I currently stay in in Manchester city centre. I've been eating so much rubbish the past few weeks, I'm resisting the urge to order myself a Dominos pizza. The sun's out and I've not been making the most of it either. I've even got the blinds down. I'm hoping that me starting work next week will kick-start my urge to do stuff, would be nice to meet a few people through it. It also means I'll be able to find somewhere of my own to live as well which excites me.
Over and pout. x
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