On being interviewed by a pirate.

Went to the interview for the call centre training course today. Lovely building - B listed apparently. Big marble stairs, black and white tiles, arched windows. As its halloween tomorrow the guy interviewing me was dressed as a pirate which amused me no end. Did get horribly lost though - either the map was backwards or I'm seeing the world slightly upside down. I feel like I should do something for halloween - but I can' find anything in this city that I really want to do. Boring club nights, movie nights of the movies I'v already seen. Guess Glasgow isn't a scary kind of city :(. Been getting endless phone calls from people offering me credit card or loan applications. I seem to have ended up on some list - means I'm now answering the phone with 'What?!' so heres hoping I dont get any calls from anyone wanting to interview me for a job until I'v chilled out a bit. Otherwise I'l scare them. Which reminds me - I really need to cut down on my caffiene and sugar intake! People are beginning to think I'm cheerful, talkative with a sunny personality. I'm scared!

My feet hurt!

Just had a very nice day - had to go out for a meeting with the regeneration agency which took me in the general area of the Burrell Collection. Since I had nothing better to do today I took a wander down there, sneezed my way through the trees til i found it. huge place - took one of the guided tours for about an hour and a half and i think iv seen about a third of the place. Dont know when I'l go back but I'm going to try to soon. I can see all the exhibits but can't read the tiny descriptions next to them - which is why I took the tour. Loved some of the items there - the tapestries are amazing, the rooms which have been moved, every piece, from a castle to the gallery are amazing. All dark oak and amazing carvings, rich red and green soft furnishings. I wish I could live in those rooms. Theres a small egyptian collection there in an area which looks a lot like the Cullens house in Twilight! One disandvantage of that is that there were foxes and, my mortal enemy, the squirrel everywhere. I kept imagining them tapping on the glass to get in, then hundreds of them tapping until the glass broke and they swarmed in. Its not as crazy as it sounds! As usual I got VERY lost on the way home - ended up wandering in the opposite direction for about a half mile. Got an interview tomorrow for a call centre training course - just a 7 week training course for a job I dont really want to do which sounds horribly depressing but it might be kind of fun. Id get to use Zoomtext - which is software that I have been dying to try out - it would be so much better than my current crappy split screen magnifier. I also have a 'training session' (which I guess means interview) for a part time call centre position on Tuesday and I'm looking at new flats on Monday. Rather busy time ahead. I am slightly apprehensive of this weekend though - after the last weekend I am slightly tempted to barricade myself in the flat.

6 weeks til tenancy agreement ends :)

Horrible weekend because of the dick next door. His friends were round again and caused havoc. Nearly dialled 999 again when they were banging and kicking my door. They were thumping on the walls and yelling insults at me cos I wouldnt open my door to them, throwing what sounded like bottles against the wall to smash them. The stairs and the door of the ground floor flat are splashed with what I hope is red wine. Again Iv called the letting agent and theyv promised to talk to him. Fine - they can hold a whole conversation with him, Iv got viewings for 3 flats set up for next week. All within my budget and with washing machines - and hopefully minus that twat. I hate moving - I hate trying to figure out the finances of it and getting a moving van.

Dont worry - theres a bullet point summary at the end. you dont have to read it all!

Today was supposed to be so simple – all I was going to do was go to one little meeting and then go home. I should never be allowed to do anything on impulse! Went into Glasgow early and had lunch at Queen Street Station watching the people and the pigeons – the pigeons were more interesting. I was just beginning to get annoyed at the crazed flying fleabags when I noticed a few of them were missing toes or a foot each. One of them seemed to be missing both feet – just little lumps on the end of its legs, balancing with its wings when it had to stand or walk. Poor little things. Took a taxi out to where my meeting was in Partick at a centre for sensory impairment. First a guy who was on Big Brother year before last walked past me – he works at the radio station that broadcasts from the same building. I think his name was Micheal? He was the blind guy who liked slightly crazy clothes – today he was wearing a jacket in some kind of yellow leopard skin style print. Anyway – after the meeting I decided to try and walk back to the city centre rather than pay another £6 for a taxi. Big mistake! I was sure I was walking back the way the taxi had come but then it started bucketing rain, I got soaked head to toe by a bus and took refuge in a costa coffee. I saw a sign for Kelvingrove Gallery so thought 'while i'm in the area' and started walking the way the sign was pointing – only I ended up at the Huntarian Gallery instead. Had a fun couple of hours there – though they shoot whoever did the lighting on the ground floor level – all I could see in most of the pictures was the reflections of the extra bright spotlights. Up the stairs was a very nice collection of engravings and sketches. I was the only visitor in that area and it was so nice I could have moved in and lived there forever. I left there and saw another sign for the Kelvingrove Gallery so I walked through all the students leaving class and staring at me (I dont look THAT strange!) and walked to the Kelvingrove Gallery which was just closing. From there I tried to figure out how to get back to the city centre and get a bus home. Im not really sure what happened after that – I got pretty lost and ultimately ended up in Maryhill. Which should be about 2 miles apart but because I went in the closest thing you can get to a circle when your walking round a city modelled on a grid pattern (square? Hexagon?) I must have walked around twice that. I was certainly walking for nearly 3 hours. Finally got a taxi home from a Tesco I happened upon. So. in summary - I saw someone off the tv I got soaked to the skin by the rain and a bus I got very lost and walked for miles around parts of the city that iv never seen and never really intended to see. It cost me £11 taxi fare to get home from where I ended up :(

Stalkers, Graveyards and Job hunting

The last few days I'v been getting some weird calls and texts from people asking whose number this is, is this really Lloyd etc. Couldnt figure it out til one of the callers told me they had seen my number on a bebo profile where it was claimed it was the number of an x factor contestant called Lloyd Daniels. Finally tracked down the profile responsible only to realize it was a guy I went to college with hiding behind a fake profile. This is the same guy who was thrown out of college for drunkeness, claiming to have slept with members of staff etc. He also claimed to have slept with half the guys at the college and nearly made me homeless over christmas and he tried to organise some sort of campaign against me at college when we were supposed to be friends. He has a whole network of fake bebo profiles of people he claims are friends, exes, cousins of his – last night I reported every fake profile I know about to bebo as well as the profile that posted my phone number. Contacted the police who cant really do anything at the moment – hes on the brink of a breach of the peace so if he continues I can probably get something done about him but today he can consider himself on his last warning. Don't know why my life seems to attract such odd people. Sitting here watching the news coverage of the Stephen Gately funeral. It's so sad. When I was a kid I was so into him. I had posters of him and thought he had pretty eyes! Feels like a little bit of a innocent time is gone. Last night I saw the most awful article on his death. A restaurant critic called Jan Moir wrote an article hinting that rather than an undiagnosed heart condition it was actually the fact he was a gay man in a civil partnership that killed him. She claimed that healthy men in their 30s don't just go to sleep and never wake up. The Daily Mail was flooded with about 800 comments from people complaining about how offensive the article was and upset people who had lost family and friends through similar circumstances of sudden adult death syndrome. Apparently somany complaints have been filed with PCC that it crashed their website. Doesn't look like the people who should be dealing with it are taking the outcry seriously though. Both Jan Moir and a spokesperson for the PCC have claimed it was part of an orchestrated campaign against her rather than a spontaneous demonstration of disgust by each and every person who has complained. Still looking for a job – got a meeting on Monday with someone to look over my CV and talk about what jobs I can do. Its really hard to get a straight answer out of some employers on whether I can do the job they are advertising with a vision problem. I get that theyr scared of being sued for discrimination but really I just want the information! If they could publish detailed job descriptions with duties that would really help. Been filling my time mostly by being ill – basically if there is a bug or virus out there I will catch it. Spending more time in the Necropolis than I probably should but I do like it there. Gonna see if I can do some more touristy stuff this coming week – havent been to the Burrell Collection which seems daft considering how close it is and Mondays meeting is kinda near the Kelvingrove gallery so might get to see that.

The Wierdest Things Make Me Happy

Had a lovely day on friday. Was just going to go to the job centre and go home but decided it was just too nice to go home. My kind of nice I mean, light like it was early evening rather than noon. I took a bus into the city, got slightly lost finding the Necropolis, eventually found it and spent a couple hours in there. Looking at all the pretty gravestones. Most of its 19th century but cos theres whole families in there I saw stones from 2007. Some very cruel names in there too. Never name a child Christian Flaws. After some time in there I went to the St Mungo Museum of Religious Art which is right outside its gate next to the cathedral. Some interesting stuff but it was a bit small and bare. Not really sure how much of there stuff is real and how much reproductions. Then I walked back towards the river, looking in all the shop windows. Theres some interesting new age shops in that area. Ended up walking to Gorbals and finding a supermarket so I got groceries and a taxi the rest of the way home. Must have walked for miles though – certainly over 5 hours I coverde a lot of area. Think Il go back to the graveyard with a camera and see if I can be a bit more organized this time. Perhaps do some research, get guide books, decide a plan of some kind so I see everything there rather than just wonder round going 'ooh thats pretty'. Was wearing some rather daft shoes for walking. Obviously since I just when into the city on a whim I hadnt planned to wear anything suitable shoes – so there I was in thin black plimsolls. When I was paying attention I could feel the stones through them, luckily I tend to get a bit distracted by graveyards and barely noticed til I got home and realised my feet were in a bit of a state. Well worth it for such a nice day though. My other big news is that I got a ticket for Marilyn Manson on the 15th december! Can't wait! Shrieked and jumped up and down when the ticket arrived! Im gonna be downstairs standing, unlike last time where I was up in the seats to the side and wasnt allowed to stand up – this time im gonna elbow my way to the front and no big viking is gonna pick me up and put me to the side like at Nightwish! does little dance I'm gonna see Marilyn Manson!!!!!!!!!! Still not found a job – kinda worried that I dont even seem to be getting many interviews. I mean I'v been applying for jobs in Glasgow for about 6 months now and I'v only gotten two interviews, neither of which even got me into the next stage of the selection process, never mind a job! Applying for colleges to keep my sanity. Education has one more chance, if it fucks me over again I'm going to join a religion or something. Can't apply for most summer-starting courses til january so I'm tapping my fingers impatiently until then. That and watching cartoons – loving Clone High and Drawn Together. Clearly the Family Guy writers are Clone High fans too – they both have very similar Marilyn Manson jokes. It's still funny though. Animation and Marilyn Manson, throw in a pizza and you'v got heaven :)