J-Day

Well, this is the end of my not being at work.
As of tomorrow I start working and that's a very exciting thing.
I will have a place in Cambridge, but it's going to be ready next weekend so there's going to be a week of relying on the kindness of others before that. My place is small, it's cheap and I'll go into more detail when I'm there.

So I'm currently being very excited about work - lots of packing and outfit planning and travel planning and so on which is kinda fun.

As far as things that have happened goes; I have a tale of coldness and misery on a hillside. But ultimately there are lessons learnt and character growth.
I went hiking!

When someone says to me, "Doug, do you fancy going trekking?" after I ask them if they actually mean watching a lot of Star Trek, I envision a sort of leisurely extended pub crawl with camping in the middle and pleasant views in between pubs.

When someone asks me, "Do you fancy going trekking?" what they actually mean is serious hiking, with little to no pubbage and a lot of pain, cold winds and hail.
Unfortunately this is a difference I found out once we'd arrived and were too far up the side of a hill to get back to a pub.

The drama that ensued took place over Good Friday, with the plan being that it continue until Easter Sunday. These days we snowy. They were cold. They were some of the nastiest days weatherwise this year and we took full advantage of that by getting as high up as we could. Oh how dumb are we?

The first hour was nice, a new view and sunny weather lulled us into thinking that perhaps all the panicky weather folks were wrong. But then we actually reached the top. The hail and wind found us. We started to freeze. Noses started to run, leading to hours of sniffing, leading to sinus aches of a serious cold. That wasn't all! The differences in expectation were clear in the equipment and so after the first hours I discovered my old boots were now half a size to small for my feet and as such were doing their darnedest to peel off my toenails. This would of been a mild irritation on a three day pub to pub walk, but on a cross country hike it was hours of torture. Similarly, the bag I brought would have served me well walking betwixt pubs and removing it to drink and sit, but carrying it for hours over varying terrains was not something either of us were designed for.

We did make it to a pub, dragging ourselves off the hills long after sunset, but the sniffing was too painful for me to drink so this did very little to lift my spirits apart from being warm (which was wonderful, but not enough to balance out the suffering.)

Day Two should of consisted of a greater distance. This plan was very quickly rejected. Plan B took us quickly over the hills (now covered in snow). This plan was rejected. Finally plans that involved motorized vehicles began appearing, to more enthusiasm.

The best bit was when we got back in the car. This was warm and also involved sitting which was lovely. This was also before all the aches of overused muscles kicked in.

After that was very painful but I wouldn't want to bore you with moaning...

Lesson learnt:
I am not an outdoors, fit, energetic type of man. What a wonderful thing to learn about yourself. But at least I could comfort myself with chocolate.

Hooray for Doug

Do you have a victory song?
You know, when the hero finally succeeds, there's a song that blasts out and everything's ok?
I hadn't really thought about it, so it came as bit of a surpirse when I got some good news and this blasted out inside my head:



I guess if you know my tendencies towards the bizzare that odd choice isn't too big a surprise, but I thought I'd share it and see what you thought.

So what is this victory that someone who's been complaining about being unemployed with nothing to do for months, achieve?
Hmm...
That's right!
I am un-unemployed!
Or to say it without hurting the English language, I am employed!

I'm going to work for a law magazine in Cambridge!
Huzzah!
Law?
Law!
It's not science, (the subject of subjects that my communication skills have been groomed for,) but the position is writing news and features and tons of other different formats and there's a bunch of other tasks as well. All the variety will certainly keep me occupied and everyone seems nice there, so yay! Now all I have to do is get myself down to Cambridge. That's some leaving the house excitement to look forward to.

Excitement! Variety! The Law! Shocking Twists! Cambridge! (Hopefully with the shocking twists taking the pleasent forms, unless law is the shocking twist and then that's already accounted for?)
All this to come in the next few blogs, in the finally continuing adventures of me, Doug.

Weird Dreams 2

Yay! I've got an interview! It's really nice to have something to be heading towards, rather than the aimless existing that I've been doing lately.
So, yay me and yay them, for they are about to experience a interview that will pierce the heavens.

But the really important reason for this is my remebering the dream that came after my Torchwood dream. So without further adu, I present;

The "Traveling in a country where they speak Spainish" dream.

This lacks the pure lunacy of Torchwood, but ends well.
I start remembering while in a building; one of the ones that has appeared a few times in my dreams but not reality, I'm hiding out/probably resting for the night in the basement of this place, plastered uneven walls. It's dark, because it's night and we're underground.
It belongs to Salma Hayek and her younger sibling, (as much as you'd expect me to remember if the child was a boy or a girl, I'm afraid I don't, just that they were young), (also I'm only 90% sure it was Salma Hayek, as her voice was the thing I have the strongest memories of.) I chat with the kid for a while, in the way that impressive traveller types do, amusing them with stories and the like, before the kid goes to bed.
So I rest for the night in the basement, (sleeping within a dream while you're asleep? now thats some heavy duty sleeping) but in the morning some kind of terrible something happens in the B&Q type hardware store that they run in the ground level part of the building.
It's wrecked and Salma etc, are in really big trouble, (some kind of opressive land Baron - I think - who will be extrememly displeased at the state of affairs and also my presence.)
It's going to be ok though, because I'm sure, not only that we can get it fixed up before opening time, but also that it won't feel like hours of hard work because the fixing stuff up montage music, (that you get in the movies,) is about to kick in and time will whizz past when that happens.
Unfortunatly, before I can find out what montage music my unconcious feels is approprate for such a situation, I wake up.
Damn it, coz I just know that taking part in a musical montage would be so much fun. (I'm serious here, because it would actually be fantasic.)

As well as strange dreams and an upcoming interview, I've been cooking. Biscuits/Cookies/Smores depending on your defintion, but they are resting over night before getting properly baked. I mention this because they contain toffee, and the toffee required some Captain Doug cooking to be added.
I need small toffee chucks.
I have large toffee chucks.
The solutions available here are all pretty fun, but I statred with freezing the toffee. Once hard I dropped the bag out of an upstairs window, smashing it on the patio below. And then one more time to be sure.

Why can't all cooking work like that?

Weird Dreams

Still no job.
Starting to try to look at temping, but no work from there yet either.
But that's just me keeping you up to date on the hunt rather than whining (coz I'm no whiner).

But with no work and very few tasks or quests to do what can I possibly write about?
Well, just because my conscious mind is doing bugger all, doesn't mean my unconscious isn't busy. Busy with some really weird dreams. So busy in fact that I'm almost concerned. Those of you schooled in psychology, prepare for your skills to be tested. Everyone else strap in; it's going to get weird.

My Torchwood dream.
Yes, that's right. Once again, proof that I watch too much TV (no adverts or credits in this one though, so that's a positive step).
So me and a bunch of other people are driving round what is presumably Cardiff, presumably hunting for aliens. I say presumably, because none of this was made explicit in the dream itself, but we was clearly Torchwood, because we were dressed like them, had the car and also visited a warehouse. (Thankfully no gay innuendo, so maybe it was Torchwood lite?) Anyway, we kick the doors down and storm into this warehouse only to find it alien-less, but full of "simulation devices" (I'm quoting the Ianto alike who was on the team here
Simulation devices? Weirder than they sound, trust me.
So being me, I climb onto one.
"What's this for then?", I say, or something to that effect.
"Oooh," says the Ianto alike, "That's the digger simulator."
That's right, a digger.
It's a seat with the digger arm gubbins in front of it and the controls of the other side of the arm, so I'm hugging the arm to drive this thing (which is on a raised platform and just spins round) when other members of the team sit in the seat around the platform I'm on. Oh and all their seats have paintball guns in front of them.
So I'm hugging a digger arm, spinning round and getting shot in the back.
This is when I wake up, feeling thoroughly confused about what was going on.

As for the job I feel I would be perfect for now (assuming that crazy Torchwood don't need me):

Dear Mr Doo,

I wish to express my interest in the position with your team.

I have a very analytical mind, and am excellent at problem solving, which led me to my undergraduate degree in maths and physics. I really enjoy communicating those solutions, which is why I recently completed a masters degree in Science Communication. The degree involved wearing many different hats; solving crimes within science, unmasking those that would otherwise get away with poor communication and working for treats not unlike your snacks. I feel this experience makes me a strong candidate for this position.

In addition, I have great skills at running away, wearing costumes and enjoy working with animals. I have a full driving licence and would be happy to drive the Mystery Machine in needed.

Also, it may be of interest that I have Shaggy hair and scruffy facial hair.

Yours, etc...