Its Been a while!!!!

Well only like 20days since my last posting so this could be a long one!!!! Some might already know bits of bobs from talking to me on Skype and so on but yeah may as well repeat it all.

So last thing I posted was how we went to Newcastle and helped out at a Rat Race and also how I had my first interview. Since then a lot has happened hence why I haven’t posted in a while (ok also I have been lazy) so anyway I didn’t get the job working on the trains I waited and waited for a phone call but it never came then got a letter in the mail so wasn’t really to surprised but yeah kind of wanted it as just really needed some work. So Piret and I then had the Adventure Race in the Lake District to help out at. The event itself was in a random little town but we had no way of getting there so plan was to catch a train to closest place then try and hitchhike. We arrived in a place called Windermere which was about 40km from where we wanted to be and it was pissing down great day for standing there trying to get a lift!!! Lucky for us after about 5min someone picked us up!! She was a American lady who has moved to UK and lived here for the last 40 years, she had just got back from watching her daughter at the Olympics so that was quite cool to hear about that, she was in the K1 kayaking which is a dam hard event!!! The lady even drove us the extra 10km from her house to where we needed to be so that was good. Once there had to try and set out tent up in the rain great fun!!!


Our job for the event was to help out on the Bike leg, it was a pretty simple adventure race as it was just raising money for Guide dogs so they did all the events in different order the events where mountain biking, Hiking, kayaking. Piret and I had to man two different points and just mark off teams as they went past us so was kind of boring and had to sit there the whole day. Then problems started!!! We had 4 teams left to come past me as I was last point on the bike. Then one team came saying they got lost then another and another but still one missing, waited and waited on the radio to the event control center but after an hour of waiting it was decided the search party should start so land rovers were dispatched into the forest looking for them but still no sign!!! They then got me to meet another guy and try and bike around some of the tracks whilst Piret waited at point to see if they came past. The event center had just got off the phone to mountain rescue when they turned up. They had been down in another village sitting at the pub!!! Good on them!!!! That night the rain seemed to stop but the wind took over!! It was like a hurricane was blowing through the area I’m sure our tent was about to take off!!! Well we lived to tell the tale so that’s a good thing. Over all the weekend wasn’t to bad apart from what seemed like nonstop rain!!! Pirets back was playing up to so she wasn’t to happy. We got a ride back easy enough too so that was good!!!

Well the week that followed turned out to be a good one on Tuesday I got a call from Evolution Recruitment which where the agency that was in charge of the work on the trains they organized all the applicants and the tests but then didn’t do the interviews. Anyway they rung me up saying how they didn’t understand why I didn’t get a job as they thought I was going to, then said they have found me another one, told me to go to Sheffield station in the morning for a interview but said I’m the only one they had sent for the interview so I should really get it. I arrived and asked for the lady I was supposed to meet but turns out she had gone to London. Met some other guy and he asked why I was here and then he was like ok well you have the job we will take you to Chesterfield now (it’s a little city 20min train away from Sheffield) so jumped on a train and yeah started to work. Kind of funny really here I am can’t find a job anywhere then all of a sudden have a interview and start that day!!! So yeah now I have a job!!! Im working at Chesterfield station as a Passenger asstantance which is really just answering questions, helping the people who have asked for help when buying tickets on, off and also transferring between trains. The funny thing is I did an hour in Sheffield learning about what I had to do and they had a list of passengers like 5 pages long so like one ever 10min but in Chesterfield I have maybe 4 people a day some days I only have one person to help!!! So that can be kind of good but also shit cos then it means the day takes forever!!! Moneys not that great but yeah least it’s something. It’s a massive company so hopefully can move on sometime soon to something better. My hours are good thou its just Monday to Friday 9 till 5

So after two and half days of work I got the weekend. I had been asked by some mates from Sheffield if I wanted to be in there team this weekend in a running race. The only thing was it was carrying a barrel of beer from one pub to another. Sounds easy doesn’t it, well not when the pubs are split by this massive hill in the peak district!!!! The team I was in was the previous year’s winners and were out again to defend their title luckily I wasn’t the only newbie half the team was new!!! The team was made up of 8 runners and you could carry the barrel anyway you wanted as long as you kept it under control going down the hill. So the team went with last year’s plan which was to tie the barrel to a ladder then had straps to hold the ladder. The barrel had 72 pints which is 40L they had taken the beer out but put water in instead. It doesn’t really sound like much 40L divided by 8 team members but man maybe it was the weight of the ladder or the barrel itself!!! But by the time I was half way up the hill I was wasted!!!! We started last, 4min behind the team that came second last year but halfway up the hill we had already past that team and were gaining on the next. We got to the hill top then had to fun across the top which wasn’t too bad but by this stage it was getting harder to hold the ladder up high enough not to keep hitting the ground. At one stage I got waist deep in a bog and had to be pulled out by some random spectator!!! Once we got across the top it was the easy part!!! DOWNHILL was nice to run down but didn’t last long enough to let me recover fully!!! Once at the bottom then had to run another 10min to the pub I was in so much pain by this stage I thought I was going to die!!! Arms where so tired from holding onto the dam ladder for so long!!! When we crossed the line we knew we had done enough to defend the title but couldn’t beat last year’s time!!! Was a lot of fun but man it hurt so much!!! Might need to do some upper body strength before next year!!! As reward from winning we got to drink the 72 pints as you can imagine not many of us are regular drinkers so 72 ended up to be way too much. Made for a good night!!!

The week that has just passed started off with me going to work with what felt like every muscle in my body sore!!! Piret had to go away for two days to help at a adventure race so she left Tuesday afternoon then came back late Wednesday, She said it wasn’t too bad they were at some flash hotel where she got dinner and Bfast brought for her by the company so she was rather happy!!! On Thursday she had a Interview in the morning at a gym in a Uni hostel thing so she was hoped to get that she thought the interview went well so that was a good sign. She left again late on Thursday night and came back on Friday night. I got a call from her during the day saying that she got the Job!!!! YAY we both have jobs!!!! And they asked if she could start the next day!!! So she went to work yesterday and has again today. She thinks that she will normally work Monday to Friday but had to work this weekend because all the uni students came back this weekend they wanted everybody on so help sign people up!!! The gym is brand new!!! So said it’s so nice and clean and very flash!!! Her work will be much the same as what she was doing in wellington so that’s not to bad just hopefully I can go there as well for free but will have to see I guess!!! So I have been home alone this weekend hasn’t been to bad went into town and did some shopping then have cleaned the flat up today!!!


This week Piret has a day off her normal job to go and help out at the adventure race then on Friday we both head to London to help out at the Rat race there which should be fun as it’s the Main one for the year!!! So Piret is bussing down early morning and I will train down after work on Friday. Well I think that’s all for now!!! I hope to update a bit more regularly now

Busy bee

Last week Oli got an email from one of their friends asking if he knew anybody that could help out at the event he was planning. He was organizing what’s called a Rat Race, it’s pretty much a 1 or 2 day Urban Adventure race. So Piret and I both were very keen to help as it sounded like a lot of fun!!! Also we were getting paid for it.
So Wednesday we got the call and then planned to train to Newcastle on the Friday morning. Before that thou I had my first job interview!!!! Yep an interview very exciting. The job was working on East Midlands trains which run between Sheffield and London, and so mainly all you do is sell food help passengers and clean up!!! Pretty simple that any old Joe blogs could do you would think. Well I turn up to this interview the letter said to wear smart casual so I wore my Black pants black shoes and a short sleeved shirt!!! I get there to find 15 other people heaps dressed in full suits and then girls dressed up flasher than any lawyers I know would but then thought ohh maybe they are here for a different job. Turns out they weren’t also turns out it we were the second group of people so in other words there were other 40 people applying for this job. Turns out to start the process off we had to do tests starting with a kind of reading test, the test was reading a paragraph then answering some multiple choice questions about what we just read. Some questions were just so weird and all of which had nothing to do with the job. We had all up 27 questions and only 8min to do it in. Once I had done that was happy to think it was over. But no!! Next came the maths test, another 28 questions and only 7min to do them in. We then got a break after those and on return about 6 people were asked to leave the room never to be seen again so guessing they failed the tests. After that was over had we were told a little more about the job and company. Once they stopped talking it was the start of the interviews there were 5 different groups of people doing the interviews so one person went to each group for there interview then once they were done the next would go, each interview was taking at least 20min some even more. Lucky for me I was the last to go so 90min after the first person went in I was lucky enough to get my turn!!! Interview was a bit scary as it was my first one since umm maybe 5th form when I was getting my job at the supermarket!!! Didn’t go to bad answered all their questions the best I could and went on my way. I was supposed to hear back from them on Friday but no word so I’m guessing I didn’t get it. They were only hiring like 4 people out of the 35ish people so my chances weren’t to high and they all seemed to have a lot more experience than me in serving people so that was always going to be hard but ohh well next time. Just crazy the process we had to go through for such a simple job!!!

So anyway on Friday we left Sheffield at 11ish and headed for Newcastle arriving at 1pm, we found out where the event centre was and went there to see if we could leave our bags there while we had a look around town. So dumped them and walked around town for the next few hours. About 5ish we decided we should see if they needed any help so then worked in till 12pm when finally we finished and went back to the apartment they had rented for some of the helpers. Turned out to be this flash penthouse with LCD TVs by the bath a bar and all the other bells and whistles!!! Only problem was it was on the street with all the clubs!!! Turns out Newcastle is the city in UK where everybody goes for Hens nights, stag do's, or just for a large party!!! So was a bit noise but after a while just got to tired and fell asleep.

We had to wake at 6am so we could be back at the event centre to be ready for the 7.30am registration. The race didn’t start till 11am but before then Piret and I were handing out packs and all the bits and bobs then I had to go out and put out the Pro log control sites. Once that was done went back to the job of helping handing out packs. Once the race started at 11 gave us a bit of time to recover but before we knew it we were on the go again. Had to walk down the road to the Tyne Bridge where competitors had to abseil off. Half way through that Piret had to go and get some controls ready to put out then not longer after I was told to leave to, so then went with Piret and put out the 10 controls which were at the top and bottom of 5 different flights of steps throughout town.

Once raced finished had to help pack up and then at around 8pm finally could go to the Accom couldn't stay in same place which was very dumb but still was in a hotel in town. After a shower headed for the pub with Shane. Shane is Jenny’s friend who is one of UK best rock climbers and the craziest people I have meet. He was the course planner for the day so had a rather stressful day making sure it all ran smoothly!!! So he was looking forward to a nice beer to unwind. As 11pm rolled around we finally decided it was time to get some dinner so we headed down to the local Italian restaurant with Shane and Gray who was another organiser. Much to our luck Gary said the meal was going on the company credit card!!! After dinner we went off to another Pub to meet up with the rest of the helpers. Before we knew it was already 1am and were all shattered from the day’s events so decided to head back to the hotel only to find a security card checking to see if you had room keys and how many were in your room. And yep well there were 4 of us staying in a room for 3 so where told one of us had to go!!! great just what we wanted at 1am luckily from some smart thinking from Shane he went in the back door and we went in front so all sorted. Yes sleep at last just before 2 we finally hit the hay!!! 3am some damm ringing sound starts up what the hell’s going on!!! Ohh it’s the damm fire alarm wicked so then had to exit hotel. The hotel we were in isn’t the kind of hotel that anyone would really want to check into, this is the one where all the hens and stag party seem to stay some stupid drunk had come home and decided it would be fun to hit the alarm. Finally got back in and into bed by 3.30. We were up again at 7 to get out and start collecting in the controls. Didn’t take too long but still, we then headed back to event centre to hand in last controls and get a ride home with Shane.

Finally got back to jenny and Olis at 2pm then started packing to move to our new flat, We caught the bus around with our big bags and a few other smaller ones and then had the fun job of unpacking it all again. Luckily we have no gear so it didn’t take too long at all!!!
So over all it was a very busy weekend which was good for a change and also making a bit of money helps too.
We might have a few more events to help out at now too. This weekend coming these an event in the Lake District and for one day work we get 125 pounds each so that’s like 300nz each!!! And then there is a 3 day event mid month that we might do as well but that one is only 50 pounds a day again but still it’s so easy and great fun!!!