I did a lot of casual work before getting in to retail. I worked on a farm for a bit, then a trawler, I fixed nets too… they were pretty good jobs for me, plenty of fresh air and little to no contact with the public.

I know people that started off working in libraries too, they seemed to enjoy that.

You just need to think what suits you I suppose… and Roo’s advice is well worth taking.

But you’ll probably be able to whinge about it too, that’s what employment is all about, regardless of how good the job is you still have to moan about it otherwise they’d make us work all the time.

I should mention that every job has its perks. Working in a rather nice supermarket meant that not only did I get a staff discount on a lot of food, but I also got take home anything that went past its display date.

Cakes go past their display date every day.

What I’m saying is, I ate a lot of cake.

I wish they let me read while there are no customers, but no, instead they have me do stupid tasks. Whoever invented the concept of work should be shot.

It was either a pidgeon or a dove, likely a pidgeon tho.

Oh, wait, we’re not in a theatre… you can say Macbeth all you like.

It’s no King Lear… but I didn’t mind studying it at school. in fact i still have my school copy with all of my notes in it. blah blah animal imagery blah blah prophecy.

Worst memory: a cross between my essay on Wilfred Owen’s work that I did last year, that meant instead of celebrating my sister’s birthday by going to the cinema, I had to sit in a hotel and type like hell….I didn’t finish until gone midnight, it took hours…and my Macbeth essay, which didn’t take so long, but I hate that damn play.

Best memory: Personal writing. I got to write an essay on my own topic, so I chose happiness, and not only did I get to waffle as much as I like, use humour to my advantage and manage to mention Snoopy in an essay, I got an A* for it!
Or possibly the part of my Macbeth essay when I asked my sister for help and thus realised she’s going to be a fantastic English teacher.

And again!

A few of my friends moved over to Japan to teach, that was some years ago and they’re still there… they really like the job, but also the country seems to suit them better too… they like their experimental rock music.

I’m always going to be a fan of individual work… that way if you’re good at it you can take all the glory, and if you’re not so good at it at least you’ll know.

As I’ve just mentioned, the food-retail industry is renowned for poor working conditions and pay, even the more independant ones. Fast Food Nation really opened my eyes to some of the dubious practices that the bigger companies use to supress the rights of their workers… not cool.

So, a new job? Anything exciting?

A lot of science can be excrutiatingly tedious, especially at the experimental stage… and sligtly harmful… my lab supervisor experimented with LSD as a neurotransmitter substance, and so had to observe the 10 minute rule when experimenting. I’m pretty sure that it had a profound and life-long influence on him.

I’m glad you like the icons… why not give it a whirl with a different email address… I’m not sure what will happen…. think of it as an experiment of the quick variety.