A Renewed Sense Of Hope
I am currently walking to my local fish and chip shop, the Waterloo Chicken Shop.
In Australia, fish and chip shops sell hot and cold cooked chickens and related meals as well as fish and chips. Apparently they don't do this in England and they sell "curries" instead.
It's currently 8oC or around 44oF and my hands are cold as I type this on my phone. Some hot food should change that though.
I've just downloaded that sweary weather app that everyone likes because I needed a laugh.
I'm also listening to a podcast being broadcast to my hearing aids via my iPad.
The Housing Trust Inspection went OK, and a plumber has fixed my leaking showerhead and I am largely free to do what I want again.
I asked the plumber about my toilet and my other taps and they will need to be looked at at some point but it's not urgent.
The renewed sense of hope I am experiencing is coming from the realisation that I now have a very loose sense of life direction going forward.
There is work coming up for the FIFA Women's World Cup but it's only a few days a week. They can still cancel this at any time, and already have cancelled a shift and reduced my hours on some exisitng shifts.
They are looking for qualified baristas and I considered doing a barista course earlier in the year but I had started the call centre job by then.
It's also not a cheap course coming in at AU$350. But, like the Responsible Service Of Alcohol qualification it should pay for itself and as it's work related I should get some of that back in tax. I'll have to ask my tax accountant.
Anything that opens employment doors is a good thing and at this stage I can't turn anything down.
There are other shifts with other companies coming up that will also help somewhat. I only wish that the shifts with these companies weren't so sporadic.
In order to keep me available, they have to keep me unemployed. One company has a policy that if you work with them, then you can't work with their clients for an entire year after you stop working with them!
I'm not sure that's entirely legal. I've also heard that their clients don't particularly care and that it's just the company being difficult. They can't offer me enough work to pay my rent regularly which was why I accepted the job at the call centre.
Full-time, permanent work. However, I had to leave the job because the toxic work environment and policies were causing me anxiety attacks.
Micromanagement, lack of help when I needed it and the constant reminder that I just wasn't good enough to meet their ever changing goalposts were detrimental to my mental health and it took at least two weeks to recover.
Right now though, I am open to anything and everything, knowing that in order to move forward in the present and have a better future I need to jettison the past and I can no longer say no to opportunity.
I have also been offered another shift for the FIFA for tomorrow and because there needs to be accreditation in order to work there, hopefully there won't be an excessive amount of people and it turns out to be a full day's work this time.
I don't know what the future holds, but I do know that I
now have a renewed sense of hope and determination to succeed.
Thank you for reading.
Shaidon
All photos are haven been taken by me, unless otherwise indicated and the sources supplied.
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