Yes yes we know, its been a while but what can we say, we are working girls now. We are now both earning money in interesting fashions, if not necessarily enjoying it entirely. Anyone who has spoken to Hollie will know that a career in IT is most definitely NOT beckoning; the money may be good but it doesn’t make up for mind numbingly painful work, combined with mind numbingly boring colleagues! On the other hand it’s pay day tomorrow so who knows, her frame of mind may take a turn for the better.
All this work and some very hard playing at weekends such as going to media parties, travelling round the country and lots of drinking has meant there is little time for world musing however today there was a break and a flash of inspiration…
Office Rabbits. Sarah’s family have been toying with the idea of getting a rabbit for a while; though we probably won’t get one the idea of having one appeals.
So we were thinking what would happen if you had a pets corner at work like in primary school?
The influence it would have on the work place would be brilliant. For a start, it would make people shout less, because if they shouted it would scare it and then they would feel bad about scaring a poor little rabbit so not shout as much.
Also if anyone was really stressed they could go and stroke the rabbit for a while and it would calm them down and then they could go back to work happy and whistling a merry tune.
You would also need a rabbit monitor and everyone could take it in turns, this would require a rota and everyone getting involved so instantly there would be more communication rather than everyone just sitting at their desks not talking. Screw those expensive bonding weekends organised by the management department just get a rabbit then everyone will get along. Well that’s our theory anyway.
Then if the rabbit went down well you could get a hamster. The options are endless.
On that note there is wine to be drunk and thoughts of rabbits to be had. We’re off to see lovely people in Oxford tomorrow night and seeing more friend type things on Saturday so we’re feeling very popular all of a sudden. Hooray for university holidays and our un-culled friends who are still at uni.
Thursday 22 March 2007
Monday 5 March 2007
Tales of the Unemployed Part 12 (Doors and Holidays)
Today is an extraordinary day - for the first time in quite a while both of us are in paid employment and will be all week; yes, an entire week of work. However kids, don’t get too excited, Hollie hates her job with the fire of a thousand suns and next week Sarah goes back to earning only three days a week.
In other news, there is more rejection for the team, Hollie's mum thinks Sam's number is up and Sarah literally walked into a door this morning (it really hurt) !!!
However these are all things we don’t want to talk about, on a lighter subject the weekend was jolly good fun with Sarah becoming the dancing queen of Brighton whilst Hollie booked a holiday (as clearly she hasn't had enough holidays recently)! Yippy.
With all this work happening we both realise and apologise for the lack of unemployed musing that used to take place. Frankly I can’t think of anything to muse about but as soon as I do you shall all know about it.
On that note I guess its back to work!
In other news, there is more rejection for the team, Hollie's mum thinks Sam's number is up and Sarah literally walked into a door this morning (it really hurt) !!!
However these are all things we don’t want to talk about, on a lighter subject the weekend was jolly good fun with Sarah becoming the dancing queen of Brighton whilst Hollie booked a holiday (as clearly she hasn't had enough holidays recently)! Yippy.
With all this work happening we both realise and apologise for the lack of unemployed musing that used to take place. Frankly I can’t think of anything to muse about but as soon as I do you shall all know about it.
On that note I guess its back to work!
Tuesday 27 February 2007
Tales of the Unemployed Part 11 (The End of An Era - For A While)
It’s a bit strange. I’m looking at my diary and there are lots of things written in it. To be precise, I am going to be busy until the first of June! It’s rather perturbing, having a feeling of usefulness where before there was just general apathy. The void of unemployment is coming to an end for me, at least for a little while. It’s not just me either – part of the reason I’m bumming about writing this is because Sarah’s at work *cough*traitor*cough*.
So why all this activity all of a sudden? Well further to our discussion of our dads getting us work the other day, I am definitely going to be working full time for a month, starting this Friday. In the space of this morning I’ve also managed to get a month’s publishing work experience sorted for after that, with just a couple of weeks’ breathing space to convince myself I’m not really a full time working woman. What with a sort of job interview thing on Thursday and another enthralling day of data entry (hoorah), the upshot of all of this is that today is my last day of sitting on my arse eating yoghurt and watching the Tyra Banks Show!
Watching ‘Spaced’ the other day (yes I ran out of Peep Show) I was presented with the question, ‘Does inactivity breed laziness?’. Well the answer is yes. If today is the time to reflect on my six weeks of almost unadulterated sloth since my return from more pleasant lands, I can safely say that I have never been so unproductive in my life (excluding infanthood, obviously). Being a lady of leisure is undoubtedly over rated.
Well I feel like I've talked about myself enough for one day. I'll leave you with an exciting follow up to the West Morlands Gazette story - here. Once again the comments are priceless. Good old West Morlands I say.
Hollie
So why all this activity all of a sudden? Well further to our discussion of our dads getting us work the other day, I am definitely going to be working full time for a month, starting this Friday. In the space of this morning I’ve also managed to get a month’s publishing work experience sorted for after that, with just a couple of weeks’ breathing space to convince myself I’m not really a full time working woman. What with a sort of job interview thing on Thursday and another enthralling day of data entry (hoorah), the upshot of all of this is that today is my last day of sitting on my arse eating yoghurt and watching the Tyra Banks Show!
Watching ‘Spaced’ the other day (yes I ran out of Peep Show) I was presented with the question, ‘Does inactivity breed laziness?’. Well the answer is yes. If today is the time to reflect on my six weeks of almost unadulterated sloth since my return from more pleasant lands, I can safely say that I have never been so unproductive in my life (excluding infanthood, obviously). Being a lady of leisure is undoubtedly over rated.
Well I feel like I've talked about myself enough for one day. I'll leave you with an exciting follow up to the West Morlands Gazette story - here. Once again the comments are priceless. Good old West Morlands I say.
Hollie
Friday 23 February 2007
Tales of the Unemployed Part 10 (Burning Chairs)
Today we realised that no matter how bad it gets, there is still someone that has it a little bit worse; we could be the journalist that to report on this. However if you look at the comments it has been the most commented story the West Morlands Gazette has had for a while. So in fact it could be much worse we could be resident of West Morlands, if this story is anything to go by it is clearly the most happening place in the whole country!
Its been a fairly active week for the two of us, with job interviews (don't worry, I doubt anything will come of it), cinema outings, trips to gigs and the pub (well in Sarah's case anyway). Hollie entered data (she's really lucky).
We have also come to the conclusion this week that nepotism is a very good thing as we now both owe our main sources of income to our fathers getting us work. This however is a clever ruse on their part as they no longer have to pay for us and their companies do.
Well as it's Friday night we are going to do what any crazy fun loving London girl does - we're uploading tunes to Hollie's computer and eating lots of chocolate. Rock on!
Its been a fairly active week for the two of us, with job interviews (don't worry, I doubt anything will come of it), cinema outings, trips to gigs and the pub (well in Sarah's case anyway). Hollie entered data (she's really lucky).
We have also come to the conclusion this week that nepotism is a very good thing as we now both owe our main sources of income to our fathers getting us work. This however is a clever ruse on their part as they no longer have to pay for us and their companies do.
Well as it's Friday night we are going to do what any crazy fun loving London girl does - we're uploading tunes to Hollie's computer and eating lots of chocolate. Rock on!
Tuesday 20 February 2007
Tales of the Unemployed Part 9 (Mmm... Brownies)
Another week has passed filled with… well, not very much at all, actually. Hollie has begun temping in earnest and has so far spent one day making a database of builders in the North East (but now knows there are plenty of bricklayers in Yarm) and another stuffing envelopes and entertaining a 9 month old. Other than that, most assignments seem to be 6 months long, which is clearly not the name of the game. Continued employment? Pah! Clearly £50 per week isn’t going to help the ‘moving out of home’ fund but at least it pays for the occasional pilgrimage to the pub.
In terms of ‘real jobs’, our findings from the last few days are that there aren’t any. This phase of Operation Get A Job may take a little while yet at this rate. This tempts us to make Rhetorical Question of the Day: ‘Where Are The Jobs?’ but we unfortunately know the answer – people with non-arty farty degrees have got them. God damn!
The Friend Cull was in serious risk of being revoked last weekend. Frighteningly, we spent not just one, but two evenings in the company of people other than ourselves. Friday was especially scary as Hollie spoke to a couple of people she didn’t know, thereby putting herself at risk of gaining a new friend! Luckily Saturday was more low key and involved watching Brokeback Mountain and eating brownies. Jake Gyllenhaal and chocolate, what more could a girl want? (Jake Gyllenhaal covered in chocolate hummmm)
Sarah’s paid work seems to be going ok, if only in an administrative-y sort of way. Disturbingly she was at work until 10.30pm the other day – she seems a bit too keen to work if you ask me. If she carries on like this someone might want her full time! What makes it worse is she had to give up doing free work to enable her to get paid!!! Ahhh whats happening the balance is all wrong. Fear not she still does some free work so the world isn’t ending just yet.
It would be wrong to let this blog slip by with out mentioning Valentines. Frankly it is overrated and passed both of us by in a fairly understated fashion. Hollie ate chocolate with her mum and Sarah went to see two films she had already seen (Annie Hall and Brief Encounter) and ate doughnuts. Who needs romantic weekend breaks and over priced meals at crap resturants!
Well that’s all for now surely there must be some brownies left to consume.
P.S. If you Google our names this website is now number two! Unfortunately number one is still a Canadian hairdresser for Hollie, but you can't win em all. Aaaand if you Google 'Tales of the Unemployed', we are no less than number 5. Fame and fortune, here we come!!
In terms of ‘real jobs’, our findings from the last few days are that there aren’t any. This phase of Operation Get A Job may take a little while yet at this rate. This tempts us to make Rhetorical Question of the Day: ‘Where Are The Jobs?’ but we unfortunately know the answer – people with non-arty farty degrees have got them. God damn!
The Friend Cull was in serious risk of being revoked last weekend. Frighteningly, we spent not just one, but two evenings in the company of people other than ourselves. Friday was especially scary as Hollie spoke to a couple of people she didn’t know, thereby putting herself at risk of gaining a new friend! Luckily Saturday was more low key and involved watching Brokeback Mountain and eating brownies. Jake Gyllenhaal and chocolate, what more could a girl want? (Jake Gyllenhaal covered in chocolate hummmm)
Sarah’s paid work seems to be going ok, if only in an administrative-y sort of way. Disturbingly she was at work until 10.30pm the other day – she seems a bit too keen to work if you ask me. If she carries on like this someone might want her full time! What makes it worse is she had to give up doing free work to enable her to get paid!!! Ahhh whats happening the balance is all wrong. Fear not she still does some free work so the world isn’t ending just yet.
It would be wrong to let this blog slip by with out mentioning Valentines. Frankly it is overrated and passed both of us by in a fairly understated fashion. Hollie ate chocolate with her mum and Sarah went to see two films she had already seen (Annie Hall and Brief Encounter) and ate doughnuts. Who needs romantic weekend breaks and over priced meals at crap resturants!
Well that’s all for now surely there must be some brownies left to consume.
P.S. If you Google our names this website is now number two! Unfortunately number one is still a Canadian hairdresser for Hollie, but you can't win em all. Aaaand if you Google 'Tales of the Unemployed', we are no less than number 5. Fame and fortune, here we come!!
Wednesday 14 February 2007
Comments
Hello, just to let people know that I've changed the setting on comments so now anyone can make one, not just google members or whatever it was.
Hope everyone's having an equally productive V-Day to me!
Hope everyone's having an equally productive V-Day to me!
Saturday 10 February 2007
Tales Of The Unemployed Part 8 (Rejection and cups of tea)
Big news, Hollie received her first rejection (cheer noises) yes she is now a lesser mortal like Sarah, but did she let it get her down? Nope! She drank tea and made a cake, it would seem that rejection has turned her into somewhat of a domestic goddess. Oh she also joined a temp agency, but that’s not as exciting as cake.
We are still being writers and have spent most of today working on your future BAFTA winning screen play!!!!! And then decided that we needed to be achieving more so set up our own PR agency and all before lunch! This being job less is a doddle.
We think that it is now time to introduce Sam to our readers. He is small fluffy and always there when we need him, he also smells a bit. Yep he is Hollies little dog. He is not and we must stress this a lap dog or a handbag dog, Sam is a foot dog (he sits on our feet). Having said that he may have to be upgraded for something handbag sized if we are to become Sex and The City-esque PR moguls. The reason we are mentioning him is that most of our readers will know him as something of an institution. After all he is 15 and a half years old (that’s over 100 in dog years we think) and has survived through many of Hollie’s house parties. This is despite once being dyed pink and hiding out under a bush, meaning he had to be coaxed out using Maltesers. Now in old age, unable to hear and slightly incontinent, Sam still manages to entertain us while we are lazing about… I mean job hunting. I might try and put a photo up so everyone can pay their respects to the living legend that is Hollie’s dog.
And now it is time for our occasional feature, Rhetorical Question Of The Day.
Where Are The Famous Lesbians?
Think about it, seriously. We can only think of a few off hand. Moira Stewart and Pat Butcher, obviously. Ellen. Jodie Foster. Anne Heche until she went all straight. There have GOT to be more. Answers on a postcard.
Anyway we’d better go. We’re meeting actual friends tonight and are so excited that we’re going to start getting ready now. Even though it’s 4.20. Yay! Sarah has lots of pretty new clothes to wear in a pre-emptive spending of her salary (but they’re clothes she can wear to work… allegedly).
We are still being writers and have spent most of today working on your future BAFTA winning screen play!!!!! And then decided that we needed to be achieving more so set up our own PR agency and all before lunch! This being job less is a doddle.
We think that it is now time to introduce Sam to our readers. He is small fluffy and always there when we need him, he also smells a bit. Yep he is Hollies little dog. He is not and we must stress this a lap dog or a handbag dog, Sam is a foot dog (he sits on our feet). Having said that he may have to be upgraded for something handbag sized if we are to become Sex and The City-esque PR moguls. The reason we are mentioning him is that most of our readers will know him as something of an institution. After all he is 15 and a half years old (that’s over 100 in dog years we think) and has survived through many of Hollie’s house parties. This is despite once being dyed pink and hiding out under a bush, meaning he had to be coaxed out using Maltesers. Now in old age, unable to hear and slightly incontinent, Sam still manages to entertain us while we are lazing about… I mean job hunting. I might try and put a photo up so everyone can pay their respects to the living legend that is Hollie’s dog.
And now it is time for our occasional feature, Rhetorical Question Of The Day.
Where Are The Famous Lesbians?
Think about it, seriously. We can only think of a few off hand. Moira Stewart and Pat Butcher, obviously. Ellen. Jodie Foster. Anne Heche until she went all straight. There have GOT to be more. Answers on a postcard.
Anyway we’d better go. We’re meeting actual friends tonight and are so excited that we’re going to start getting ready now. Even though it’s 4.20. Yay! Sarah has lots of pretty new clothes to wear in a pre-emptive spending of her salary (but they’re clothes she can wear to work… allegedly).
Friday 9 February 2007
Thursday 8 February 2007
Tales of the Unemployed Part 7 (Well at least no one's at work today)
First off, a hello to our new readers (assuming there are some). We realised that creating a blog wasn’t much use without publicising it, and being the publicity mogul that I am, a press release seemed the wisest idea. So woo, readers! Next stop, appearing on Google. We’ll be famous really soon, I can tell.
So what news. Hollie has now finished with all things work experience related and spent the last few days celebrating with trips to Sheffield and Oxford, both of which involved lots of alcohol and catching up with old friends. Its all been quite good in terms of distracting attention from the fact that she really isn’t even pretending to do anything any more. But when this snow has disappeared it’s off to Office Angels to start Phase 2 of Operation Employment: Temping. I’m not sure how many phases there are of this operation, but I’m hoping it’s not too many.
Sarah is being a bit of a traitor to the cause and starting actual PAID WORK next week. Yes it may only be three days a week, but not really in the spirit of things eh. Also what makes it even more against our general ethos is that she has had to give up doing free work to enable to her to earn money. What ever next real jobs!!!! Nah don’t be silly that will never happen.
Um… what else. Well it’s snowed a lot, meaning that even the resident employed people chez Rendall (i.e. my parents) haven’t made it out today. I’ve been showing them how it’s done and gently leading my dad away from his computer when he’s made noises about ‘working from home’. It’s been very clear that I am the pro at bumming around the house which is quite comforting in a way.
That’s about it I think. In between all these trips away and having a cold I pretty much only have time for Peep Show and that’s not very interesting to write about. I’m going to have some lunch now and possibly contemplate the meaning of life.
So what news. Hollie has now finished with all things work experience related and spent the last few days celebrating with trips to Sheffield and Oxford, both of which involved lots of alcohol and catching up with old friends. Its all been quite good in terms of distracting attention from the fact that she really isn’t even pretending to do anything any more. But when this snow has disappeared it’s off to Office Angels to start Phase 2 of Operation Employment: Temping. I’m not sure how many phases there are of this operation, but I’m hoping it’s not too many.
Sarah is being a bit of a traitor to the cause and starting actual PAID WORK next week. Yes it may only be three days a week, but not really in the spirit of things eh. Also what makes it even more against our general ethos is that she has had to give up doing free work to enable to her to earn money. What ever next real jobs!!!! Nah don’t be silly that will never happen.
Um… what else. Well it’s snowed a lot, meaning that even the resident employed people chez Rendall (i.e. my parents) haven’t made it out today. I’ve been showing them how it’s done and gently leading my dad away from his computer when he’s made noises about ‘working from home’. It’s been very clear that I am the pro at bumming around the house which is quite comforting in a way.
That’s about it I think. In between all these trips away and having a cold I pretty much only have time for Peep Show and that’s not very interesting to write about. I’m going to have some lunch now and possibly contemplate the meaning of life.
Tuesday 30 January 2007
Tales of the Unemployed Part 6 (How Many Friends Is Too Many?)
So what to report since our last meeting. Well Hollie is now doing more work experience in the children’s department of that place where she does work experience. Whooo kids books for everyone! Also she met Gillian McKeith at a party last week and confirmed previous suspicions that she looks like an angry camel (Gillian that is not Hollie). It appears that publishing houses have a strict policy on hiring staff; in contrast with the fashion-esque norm in publicity, things are a bit more relaxed in the children’s department. On stepping into Editorial today it quickly became clear that this is where the size 14s hide, far from the judgemental eyes of the Cosmo fashionista wannabe’s. All huge generalisations of course.
Sarah spent yesterday at the National Archives (it was like being back at University) researching for the documentary/TV drama we are writing (humm that sounds a bit grand, it’s not really). So as you can see we are actually doing things. How exciting. But fear not, still no sign of imminent employment.
Something we know you are all dying for us to tell you… now Big Brother is over and Sarah has watched every episode of Scrubs ever released, what are we doing with our spare time? Well don’t worry kids because fortunately for all concerned the new Season (7) of America’s Next Top Model started last night. It was as if they heard our call and answered with fantastically bitchy wanna be model drama. Go Tyra!
Continuing on from the last blog’s theme of using rhetorical questions to set up long rambling answers or indeed entire episodes of Sex in the City we have come up with another one.
How Many Friends Is Too Many Friends?
It has been brought to our attention that you can indeed have too many friends so we had a ruthless cull of ours a while back. The advantages of this were that we have fewer people to try and keep in contact with so fewer laborious e-mails about what we are not doing with our lives and fewer phone calls. It also means that we don’t have to feel bad when we can’t see them for months and then get guilt tripped into expensive catch up dinner. Also (and most importantly for us) it means we get fewer inquiries about what we are doing, meaning we then have to reply ‘nothing’ to those expectant faces - only to see them drop a bit as we go down in their estimations.
However this cull may have backfired on us as it now seems that we have no friends left at all – apart from each other that is. So what do we do now? Try and get back some of the old ones or just make new ones. Or does it just not matter? In today’s fast moving and consumer driven society who needs friends anyway?
Sarah spent yesterday at the National Archives (it was like being back at University) researching for the documentary/TV drama we are writing (humm that sounds a bit grand, it’s not really). So as you can see we are actually doing things. How exciting. But fear not, still no sign of imminent employment.
Something we know you are all dying for us to tell you… now Big Brother is over and Sarah has watched every episode of Scrubs ever released, what are we doing with our spare time? Well don’t worry kids because fortunately for all concerned the new Season (7) of America’s Next Top Model started last night. It was as if they heard our call and answered with fantastically bitchy wanna be model drama. Go Tyra!
Continuing on from the last blog’s theme of using rhetorical questions to set up long rambling answers or indeed entire episodes of Sex in the City we have come up with another one.
How Many Friends Is Too Many Friends?
It has been brought to our attention that you can indeed have too many friends so we had a ruthless cull of ours a while back. The advantages of this were that we have fewer people to try and keep in contact with so fewer laborious e-mails about what we are not doing with our lives and fewer phone calls. It also means that we don’t have to feel bad when we can’t see them for months and then get guilt tripped into expensive catch up dinner. Also (and most importantly for us) it means we get fewer inquiries about what we are doing, meaning we then have to reply ‘nothing’ to those expectant faces - only to see them drop a bit as we go down in their estimations.
However this cull may have backfired on us as it now seems that we have no friends left at all – apart from each other that is. So what do we do now? Try and get back some of the old ones or just make new ones. Or does it just not matter? In today’s fast moving and consumer driven society who needs friends anyway?
Wednesday 24 January 2007
Tales of the Unemployed Part 5 (Mmm... Scrubs)
Scrubs is back in my life and being unemployed is sweeeeeeeet once again! So Hollie is still at her work experience of doom ™ and I have been left to tend for the blog on my own. As we all know I don’t like to rant as much as her but I’ll give it a go. That being said I’ll do my best to keep up to her standards.
Speaking of the Hollie she is soooo busy at work that she just sent me a rather amusing link to an article she found on the Times Website. Yes luckily for Hollie and all the other single women in Wales a group of desperate dairy farmers are advertising themselves on cartoons of their organic milk.
The Times claims that ‘their pictures are accompanied by the slogan Fancy A Farmer?, and "Ffansi Ffarmwr?" in Welsh, along with a website address where potential love interests can find out more details.” So all Hollie need to do now is hop on a train to Wales and any farmer is hers.
….. sorry I stopped writing for a mo then I got distracted by Scrubs… god its good.
Oh so trivial stuff aside I actually did something yesterday, I interviewed a chap called Patrick Wolf. You will all be able to view it on that web site I write things for next week. Go me.
It has also been brought to my attention this week that the how shall we say ‘traditional blogs’ use a lot of rhetorical questions and sum things up nicely at the end in case you fell asleep during the middle, like in Sex in the City.
I think we should ask some of our own questions and do some summing up of things which is what I shall do now to signify the end of this yet another thrilling blog entry.
‘Sitting at home today doing nothing but watching scrubs gave me some time to reflect on all the things I could be doing with my life. Like working, or looking for work. However what I realised was that sitting watching scrubs all day is ok it has a lot of lessons to teach me and when daddy turns up with a glass of Cava it gets even better. So another day is over I still have no job but I’ve learnt something and now I’m drunk!’
P.S. From Hollie: I'm going to a book launch tomorrow, yay! (Clearly I've got to the point where 3 hours of extra unpaid work in a day is cause for jubilation. Likewise, I'm very happy that they've offered me 2 extra weeks in the children's books section).
Speaking of the Hollie she is soooo busy at work that she just sent me a rather amusing link to an article she found on the Times Website. Yes luckily for Hollie and all the other single women in Wales a group of desperate dairy farmers are advertising themselves on cartoons of their organic milk.
The Times claims that ‘their pictures are accompanied by the slogan Fancy A Farmer?, and "Ffansi Ffarmwr?" in Welsh, along with a website address where potential love interests can find out more details.” So all Hollie need to do now is hop on a train to Wales and any farmer is hers.
….. sorry I stopped writing for a mo then I got distracted by Scrubs… god its good.
Oh so trivial stuff aside I actually did something yesterday, I interviewed a chap called Patrick Wolf. You will all be able to view it on that web site I write things for next week. Go me.
It has also been brought to my attention this week that the how shall we say ‘traditional blogs’ use a lot of rhetorical questions and sum things up nicely at the end in case you fell asleep during the middle, like in Sex in the City.
I think we should ask some of our own questions and do some summing up of things which is what I shall do now to signify the end of this yet another thrilling blog entry.
‘Sitting at home today doing nothing but watching scrubs gave me some time to reflect on all the things I could be doing with my life. Like working, or looking for work. However what I realised was that sitting watching scrubs all day is ok it has a lot of lessons to teach me and when daddy turns up with a glass of Cava it gets even better. So another day is over I still have no job but I’ve learnt something and now I’m drunk!’
P.S. From Hollie: I'm going to a book launch tomorrow, yay! (Clearly I've got to the point where 3 hours of extra unpaid work in a day is cause for jubilation. Likewise, I'm very happy that they've offered me 2 extra weeks in the children's books section).
Sunday 21 January 2007
Tales of the Unemployed Part 4 (Now We Are Writers)
After another week of bumbling around not doing very much Sarah has somehow found us a new venture to focus our attentions on (AND we can use our degrees!). She went to see a man about a proverbial dog and it now turns out we're writing a script loosely based on crime in Victorian England. Who knows whether it will work but at the moment we are nievely enthusiastic about it all and planning trips to the National Archives, once Hollie's Work Experience Of Doom (TM) is finished. So you heard it here first (don't be surprised when you see us on telly collecting our BAFTA)! Thats of course if this blog isn't published beforehand.
We are concerned at our lack of googleability (TM, again). Sarah being the frantically busy person she is tried to google this site the other day, to no avail. In order to get up the Google rankings we need
1) more people to view our site
2) possibly to name drop famous people so those looking for, say, 'BRITNEY SPEARS SEX TAPE' or the classic 'ONE NIGHT IN PARIS' would see us listed and click away. If that's what you've just done, you're a pervert. But feel free to read the blog anyway, you never know you might learn something.
Speaking of which, in response to Andy's comment I did actually manage to do some research on the rumour that Lisa Stansfield was once allergic to her own saliva. According to the Daily Mail (yeah, I know) Lisa Stansfield did go through a period of being unable to sing or eat anything because she had become allergic to her saliva. I'm not sure how she was cured of this, but she was and thankfully for the music loving community she was soon back on top form.
Whilst at Tristan's house last night our good friend Emma came up with another good question which we will attempt to answer next time: Why is belly button fluff blue? Please write in with any suggestions. Or indeed questions of your own.
[Back to googleability, we've discovered that if you type 'Sarah Grun' into Google it does actually come up with stuff she's done. So in a vain attempt to up our ratings we're going to name drop my (Sarah Grun's) name as much as possible.
By Sarah Grun]
Having said that, people probably wouldn't be searching for Sarah Grun anyway.
All this googling is actually quite amusing. If you have a few moment to spare (and we do) try googling yourself and your friends. We've found one site describing Chrissie as 'lovely and smiley' and another dedicated entirely to Tristan. Have a go, see what you can find! We're going to do some more googling now.
We are concerned at our lack of googleability (TM, again). Sarah being the frantically busy person she is tried to google this site the other day, to no avail. In order to get up the Google rankings we need
1) more people to view our site
2) possibly to name drop famous people so those looking for, say, 'BRITNEY SPEARS SEX TAPE' or the classic 'ONE NIGHT IN PARIS' would see us listed and click away. If that's what you've just done, you're a pervert. But feel free to read the blog anyway, you never know you might learn something.
Speaking of which, in response to Andy's comment I did actually manage to do some research on the rumour that Lisa Stansfield was once allergic to her own saliva. According to the Daily Mail (yeah, I know) Lisa Stansfield did go through a period of being unable to sing or eat anything because she had become allergic to her saliva. I'm not sure how she was cured of this, but she was and thankfully for the music loving community she was soon back on top form.
Whilst at Tristan's house last night our good friend Emma came up with another good question which we will attempt to answer next time: Why is belly button fluff blue? Please write in with any suggestions. Or indeed questions of your own.
[Back to googleability, we've discovered that if you type 'Sarah Grun' into Google it does actually come up with stuff she's done. So in a vain attempt to up our ratings we're going to name drop my (Sarah Grun's) name as much as possible.
By Sarah Grun]
Having said that, people probably wouldn't be searching for Sarah Grun anyway.
All this googling is actually quite amusing. If you have a few moment to spare (and we do) try googling yourself and your friends. We've found one site describing Chrissie as 'lovely and smiley' and another dedicated entirely to Tristan. Have a go, see what you can find! We're going to do some more googling now.
Thursday 18 January 2007
Tales of the Unemployed Part 3 (Rejection and Red wine)
Well the rejections are coming in thick and fast making me feel like a bit of looser yes but then if I had got a job this darling little blog we have started wouldn’t have quite the same resonance to it. Plus being rejected from things give me a jolly good excuse to drink a lot of red wine! The main problem with applying for jobs is being rejected and rather unfortunately for me I take rejection rather badly though again this another good excuse for lots of red wine!
Shock in the big brother house my love Dirk is up for evection! I don’t know what I’ll do if he leaves! Cry probably!
I think that’s it for today I’m not as good at ranting as Hollie is.
I’m off to eat spaghetti.
Shock in the big brother house my love Dirk is up for evection! I don’t know what I’ll do if he leaves! Cry probably!
I think that’s it for today I’m not as good at ranting as Hollie is.
I’m off to eat spaghetti.
Wednesday 17 January 2007
Tales of the Unemployed Part 2 (Not Quite Unemployed, Just Unpaid)
Well well it's been a week since the last blog already. We seem to have managed to fill our time, which is probably unsurprising as even I (Hollie) have managed to procure some form of meaningful employment this week. Having pursued the publishing thing, I applied for work experience at a major publishing house and promptly got 2 weeks in the publicity department.
3 days in and I'm repeating, mantra-style, 'It's good for the CV, it's good for the CV (and I get free books...)'. The distinct disadvantages of working somewhere for free - and in fact, PAYING to be there - are that:
a) everyone at the said place of employment knows you're desperate and will do any job, no matter how menial, in order to ingratiate yourself with them.
b) leading on from this, there is no need for them to bother learning your name or indeed refer to you in any other terms than 'the work experience girl'
c) whenever you're photocopying/cutting things out/sticking bits of paper to things, there's a little voice in your head saying, 'you're not being paid, nur nur ne nur nur'.
Added to this is the feeling that I'm wandering around in a world vaguely reminiscent of 'The Devil Wears Prada'. It turns out that book publicity is quite closely related to the magazine world, which means that everyone is extremely thin and (in my experience so far) extremely female. I saw someone eat today and I nearly had a heart attack. I'm not saying that I'm so blimp-like that this alone would discount me from the industry, but it's not really my style. Whilst I think the work that the girls are doing is quite interesting it's not screaming 'Future Career' at me. Then again, does anything? As always, I wish that someone would give me a big pile of money to read things and possibly write things as well. Sadly this job does not seem to exist (please someone let me know if I'm wrong).
In other news, Sarah interviewed a man about a club night today and then wrote about it. That's more interesting than my life, definately.
Right I'm going to stop ranting now and watch Desperate Housewives or something. I do enjoy working Monday - Friday in a macabre sort of way, because it means the weekends are something to enjoy rather than being like the weekdays, but without This Morning. Isn't that philosophical.
3 days in and I'm repeating, mantra-style, 'It's good for the CV, it's good for the CV (and I get free books...)'. The distinct disadvantages of working somewhere for free - and in fact, PAYING to be there - are that:
a) everyone at the said place of employment knows you're desperate and will do any job, no matter how menial, in order to ingratiate yourself with them.
b) leading on from this, there is no need for them to bother learning your name or indeed refer to you in any other terms than 'the work experience girl'
c) whenever you're photocopying/cutting things out/sticking bits of paper to things, there's a little voice in your head saying, 'you're not being paid, nur nur ne nur nur'.
Added to this is the feeling that I'm wandering around in a world vaguely reminiscent of 'The Devil Wears Prada'. It turns out that book publicity is quite closely related to the magazine world, which means that everyone is extremely thin and (in my experience so far) extremely female. I saw someone eat today and I nearly had a heart attack. I'm not saying that I'm so blimp-like that this alone would discount me from the industry, but it's not really my style. Whilst I think the work that the girls are doing is quite interesting it's not screaming 'Future Career' at me. Then again, does anything? As always, I wish that someone would give me a big pile of money to read things and possibly write things as well. Sadly this job does not seem to exist (please someone let me know if I'm wrong).
In other news, Sarah interviewed a man about a club night today and then wrote about it. That's more interesting than my life, definately.
Right I'm going to stop ranting now and watch Desperate Housewives or something. I do enjoy working Monday - Friday in a macabre sort of way, because it means the weekends are something to enjoy rather than being like the weekdays, but without This Morning. Isn't that philosophical.
Wednesday 10 January 2007
Tales of the Unemployed Part 1 (Was Texas a Country)
This may seem like an eager start - two blogs in two days, however don’t expect them to come at this rapid rate much after this week. One because the novelty will have worn off and two being unemployed makes you terribly lazy!
To prove to the world that we do things occasionally such as meeting up to eat soup for lunch (butternut squash, apricot and ginger – yum) we bring you Random Trivia of the Day. This one originated from an argument we were having in the pub on Monday! Sparked off by Sarah talking about the existence of the Texas Embassy near Trafalgar Square: was Texas a country?
After some hard core research it was discovered that Texas had indeed been a country for the grand total of 9 years! To commemorate this and because some like to think it still is a country, a few enthusiastic Americans in London have set up the Texas Embassy which is essentially is a glorified Mexican restaurant. Strictly speaking of course, Hollie was correct in saying that Texas can’t have a real embassy as it is not a real country. (Stop referring to yourself in the third person you twat. I was right it was at one point in the past a real country – Sarah).
So there you go – Random Trivia of the Day: Texas was once a country.
Other than this amazing revelation, very little has happened in the last day. Sarah has become obsessed with Celebrity Big Brother and particularly with Celebrity Big Brother and particularly with Dirk (The Face) Benedict. In fact we will award him the status of a DOM (dishy older man), an honour also held by Howard from Take That.
Whilst on the topic of acronyms, when reading the Times the other day I discovered that Sarah and I have our very own, bestowed by our gracious government. We are NEETs – not in education, employment or training. That this title is usually applied to council estate inhabitants named Wayne has not escaped us, and is slightly perturbing. Never mind eh.
That’s all for now. We should probably look for jobs, or something.
To prove to the world that we do things occasionally such as meeting up to eat soup for lunch (butternut squash, apricot and ginger – yum) we bring you Random Trivia of the Day. This one originated from an argument we were having in the pub on Monday! Sparked off by Sarah talking about the existence of the Texas Embassy near Trafalgar Square: was Texas a country?
After some hard core research it was discovered that Texas had indeed been a country for the grand total of 9 years! To commemorate this and because some like to think it still is a country, a few enthusiastic Americans in London have set up the Texas Embassy which is essentially is a glorified Mexican restaurant. Strictly speaking of course, Hollie was correct in saying that Texas can’t have a real embassy as it is not a real country. (Stop referring to yourself in the third person you twat. I was right it was at one point in the past a real country – Sarah).
So there you go – Random Trivia of the Day: Texas was once a country.
Other than this amazing revelation, very little has happened in the last day. Sarah has become obsessed with Celebrity Big Brother and particularly with Celebrity Big Brother and particularly with Dirk (The Face) Benedict. In fact we will award him the status of a DOM (dishy older man), an honour also held by Howard from Take That.
Whilst on the topic of acronyms, when reading the Times the other day I discovered that Sarah and I have our very own, bestowed by our gracious government. We are NEETs – not in education, employment or training. That this title is usually applied to council estate inhabitants named Wayne has not escaped us, and is slightly perturbing. Never mind eh.
That’s all for now. We should probably look for jobs, or something.
Tuesday 9 January 2007
The Beginning
From dictionary.com:
"Schadenfreude - a feeling of pleasure or satisfaction when something bad happens to someone else".
Neid zu fühlen ist menschlich, Schadenfreude zu genießen teuflisch: "To feel envy is human, to enjoy schadenfreude is devilish." (Arthur Schopenhauer)
Wikipedia lists 21 translations of the term and several references to it in popular culture (including the obligatory Simpsons episode). It seems appropriate to begin this new blog by setting the tone, as it were; having returned from my travels around the world - a thoroughly great experience filled with daring escapades, intrepid adventures and a vast amount of boxed wine - I find myself unemployed, skint and living with my parents.
The time has come to find myself a career - but in what? I have no work experience and very little idea of how to go about finding a job that I won't find soul-destroyingly dull (unfortunately this seems to apply to most careers out there and at the least, any involving numbers). Having settled upon publishing as something I could probably deal with (all you have to do is read books, right) I intend to ignore the average starting salary and insanely competitive nature of the field, and make my first steps towards Goal Of The Year: moving out of chez Rendall.
It's not all bad though. Despite the fact that the vast majority of my friends from home are decided on their careers and either on the first stages of them, or waiting to finish uni and begin training on ridiculously high starting salaries, I have an ally. Sarah is trying to get into production and has three years of unpaid work experience to back her up yet is finding it impossible to get a pay cheque out of anybody. Basically no one will give her a paid job until she's had a paid job. We came up with the idea for this blog yesterday over our second coffee of the day, after laughing about how distant the getjealous website seems to me now. We hope to track our trials and tribulations, and of course the number of free coffees we receive due to our unswerving loyalty to Caffe Nero.
Right, back to that recruitment website...
"Schadenfreude - a feeling of pleasure or satisfaction when something bad happens to someone else".
Neid zu fühlen ist menschlich, Schadenfreude zu genießen teuflisch: "To feel envy is human, to enjoy schadenfreude is devilish." (Arthur Schopenhauer)
Wikipedia lists 21 translations of the term and several references to it in popular culture (including the obligatory Simpsons episode). It seems appropriate to begin this new blog by setting the tone, as it were; having returned from my travels around the world - a thoroughly great experience filled with daring escapades, intrepid adventures and a vast amount of boxed wine - I find myself unemployed, skint and living with my parents.
The time has come to find myself a career - but in what? I have no work experience and very little idea of how to go about finding a job that I won't find soul-destroyingly dull (unfortunately this seems to apply to most careers out there and at the least, any involving numbers). Having settled upon publishing as something I could probably deal with (all you have to do is read books, right) I intend to ignore the average starting salary and insanely competitive nature of the field, and make my first steps towards Goal Of The Year: moving out of chez Rendall.
It's not all bad though. Despite the fact that the vast majority of my friends from home are decided on their careers and either on the first stages of them, or waiting to finish uni and begin training on ridiculously high starting salaries, I have an ally. Sarah is trying to get into production and has three years of unpaid work experience to back her up yet is finding it impossible to get a pay cheque out of anybody. Basically no one will give her a paid job until she's had a paid job. We came up with the idea for this blog yesterday over our second coffee of the day, after laughing about how distant the getjealous website seems to me now. We hope to track our trials and tribulations, and of course the number of free coffees we receive due to our unswerving loyalty to Caffe Nero.
Right, back to that recruitment website...
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