Another telephone call from a potential employer. This time it's the University. Their library system needs more casuals to work in it, and they want me to come in on Tuesday to be interviewed. Woo.

The legal receptionist/secretary position is no go, so the letter I received on Tuesday informed me, but I am not unduly suprised or upset. I knew that would happen, given that I've never worked as a receptionist, but it's always nice to be thought of as worth considering anyway. So, having been a casual assistant in a medical library where uni students training in medicine and allied health specialities were part of the daily round, maybe I have a bit more chance here. We will see. (I've been saying that a lot lately. Until someone says, "Yes, we'll take you!", it's probably the only thing I can say...)

Not a bad result, but I don't think I want to repeat the circumstances under which that essay was written. Not that one of the contributing factors can ever be repeated now, but still...

My criminology essay came back in the post today. The marker gave it a Distinction. This is an essay that I wrote in a week, including watching the films I had to relate the theories to, and doing some research for materials not in the textbook, the course notes or supplied readings. A week. That's where the wonder is coming in to it - if I'd been able to give it more time, would it have been a better essay? Or would it have been worse, because of overthinking the material and chosen theories?

...but I don't know if it will translate into full-blown employment of any variety yet.

Phone call today. It's a real estate agent, and brother, who took the call, thinks it's advertising at first. Then he hands the phone to me, as there's a point to the call. The call is to see that I am fully aware of the character of the position I've applied for, that of part-time receptionist. It's two days a week - Wednesday and Saturday - but it appears that some applicants haven't read the advertisement properly. Well, that's one way to cull the numbers, isn't it? Anyway, I must have met some basic level of approval for I'm told to expect another phone call either today, tomorrow or Wednesday for an interview time to be set up. Well. Much depends on whether or not they want someone who can drive a switchboard. I can't right now, but I could learn. However, if it's a small office that isn't relying on a fancy PABX system but just on transferring calls between phones in the building, then I could do that. We just have to see if someone else thinks so.

Hippo birdies deer ewe. I know, it's a bit early, but rather than let my preoccupied self* forget it altogether, well, here you are. On a virtual platter, with cherries. And probably hundreds and thousands as well. Chocolate icing? Yes indeed, ma'am, anything is possible...


*Half an hour on the telephone with a recruitment person about a job at an insurance company, and I have online testing to do shortly; checking my financial health after Dell told me I didn't have enough money in my account to buy the ink cartridges I need (all, thankfully, is well there); uni study; catching up on paperwork related to my status as an unemployed person; and this job interview for a secretarial/receptionist position tomorrow - that's where the preoccupation comes in.

That subject line sounds like a completely positive self-assessment in relation to how I deal with interviews with potential employers, doesn't it? ;-) It will be a bit like that, though.

That said, this is one of those unlikely interviews. Not having worked as a legal secretary or legal admin assistant or any sort of receptionist, I am pleasantly surprised when someone says to come in for an interview for that sort of thing, but not surprised when I don't get the job. That's what happened the last time, when I talked to a family law practitioner about a secretarial job. It's probably what will happen this time too, so I'm not going to get my hopes up too high. That said, I have to balance that out with presenting myself as a candidate worthy of consideration for the position. It's a tightrope walk, and maybe I fall off again. Or maybe I keep walking and reach the other side. We will see...

This is what happens when you are feeling anxious about typing application letters to employers.

You mean to type in:

Note to self: never try to study and write an essay at the same time, even if the topic is exactly the same. I don't care if some of the notes you are making sound like good sentences for the essay, because you aren't concentrating properly on either activity.

I don't think the episode of Time Team open and on pause is much of a good idea either...

Oh, yes, and you should be turning on a light too, now that daylight saving is over and done with and the sun is setting earlier...

I'll get back to myself if I think of anything else.

I've just printed out an e-mail from my brother. It contains a list of suggestions for what Mum and Dad can do while they're temporarily computerless. Yes, sometime between last night, when it was turning itself on and off for no reason at all, and this morning, when it refused to turn on at all, something has gone sproing! on their machine's innards. It's about five years old. Brother thinks the power supply thingies may have outlived their life span, leaving an ungetatable* hard drive. That means it's dead for the present. Most of the suggestions brother put forward involve him being home from PNG if they're to be done.

The suggestion that has the best chance of being implemented is that we set up his old laptop so Mum and Dad can access their e-mail and anything webby that they might want to see. (Like Rusty's blog. No, I'm not mad - there's a site called, heaven help us, Dogspace. It was set up by one of the pet food companies as promotion, but Mum continues to be fond of it, and Rusty has 'friended', and been 'friended' by, a number of other dogs and their humans.) That shouldn't be too hard, and Mum and Dad will have a breathing space until we know what exactly is wrong. I think they might be in the market for a new computer shortly, no matter what the diagnosis turns out to be.

*Pardon the coinage for a moment - it is a temporary blip.

I went for a walk after lunch because I needed to clear my head of cleaning product fumes (bathrooms are not fun things to make shiny again, but then again is anything?), and took a couple of books back to the library. While I was in there, Mum called my mobile. She'd taken a phone call from a legal firm, and could I hurry up and come home so I could ring them back? Of course I could. I borrowed one book via the d-i-y terminals near the lending desk, paused briefly to buy something to drink at a nearby supermarket (it's a hot day, and it's mostly uphill on the way home), and off I went.

Back at home, I grabbed the telephone number and other pieces of information Mum had written down for me and found somewhere quiet (Dad had the Dyson out and Rusty was barking at it when I arrived home). It turns out that an application I wrote just the other week seems to have sparked some interest at a firm specialising in Family Law. They want two legal secretaries, one for one of the partners and one for a new solicitor joining the practice shortly, and I've been asked to come in on Friday and talk to them on the off-chance that I might be the sort of person they're looking for.

I'm feeling a touch apprehensive, but I think that's fair enough...

It's more of a trickle than a Torrent.