And Before I Forget

It was very remiss of me not to mention the parents who fed us over the weekends rehearsals thank you the quiche was excellent. Of course it seems to have become a panto tradition that Verity bakes a cake and this year was no exception, icing as well Verity we will miss her when she goes off to college.
As an aside it was noted that our Santa is a tad on the well skinny size for the great man so any more cake that can be poured down Nigel's throat between now and performance may add a touch of reality to his physical presence......

Oh no it isn't

Well actually it is panto time in Harberton again. Everyone is always surprised we have our Panto in February there must be a reason but it is lost in the mists of time. As usual I am surprised at the talent on hand in our small community. Of special note this year are Null & Void our comedy duo played by Charlie and Trigger. Comedy inside a panto is difficult lets face it as the whole thing has potential comic potential so to be the deliberate comics is hard. However their timing is excellent Charlie's trumpet playing only matched by Triggers incompetence on the triangle (that is deliberate in the Les Dawson  mould isn't it Trigg?). Of course our director and Nigel who although a seasoned performer stepped in only during January when we mislaid our Santa, who lets face it tends to be a central character in a play called Santa In Space!!

Unemployment comes to and end tomorrow with the start of my new job, hurrah with thanks to Helen for pointing me in the direction of the Kids Cooking Company. Although being on benefit has not been great the experience has shed a new light on all these benefit cheat stories the Daily Mail loves to publish.The system could really do with an overhaul the most interesting thing i found out was that in testing you suitability you have to be employed for two whole tax years to qualify for Contribution based payments. This sounds OK until you realise the arbitery nature of this date means if you are employed at the right time of year you may get away with this 2 year rule. However if not you may need at least 2 years and 11 months of contributions to qualify. As this pays the same as the other version of Job Seekers Allowance then why worry? Well this is the really crazy bit this version means they take any savings into account whereas Contribution based does not. When assessing your savings though no account is taken of any debts you may have so like me you may have 5-6k of credit card or overdraft but this is ignored. If you use your savings to pay down your debt I was informed this is benefit fraud for which you can be prosecuted......no way to run a country is it? The workers at the JCP are not really to blame as the system is huge and unwieldy, allows for no discretion and is I am sure filled with as many idiocies as the one i found. The upshot was they reduced to payment from £65 to £40 (just the size of my weekly utility bill). The morale is don't save it's bad for your future life on benefits!!! Rant over.........

What a New Year

Well it has been an interesting time this new year. I had a wonderful time over Christmas in Spain thank you Tony & Gill even better when i got home I was expecting a speed camera fine as I was flashed as I came off the M5 to Bristol airport, so thank you Somerset & Avon, perhaps there was a Christmas amnesty ( it was at about 3 in the morning, clear road, no other cars for miles). As our funding at work had been withdrawn a couple of weeks before Christmas I spent a portion of my time in Spain applying for jobs. This is not as bad as it may sound there is something about sunshine that makes you more optimistic. I had thought of going to the local restaurant for Christmas day dinner, an all you can drink 6 course extravaganza complete with opera singing Elvis impersonator but in the spirit of these austere times I made my own dinner and sang along to Elvis on the MP3 player, very satisfying. Marta the more sensitive of the dogs hid under table.

So home just after Christmas and arrived to find a nice fire laid by Gilly & Nigel my favourite cat sitters. It seems I had missed the worst of the cold (despite it still being below zero). As there was no food in the house the Indian provided supper. I decided to apply for job seekers and get my council tax paid as this is the first time in 40 years i have been unemployed. I had seen a long succession of clients on my training workshops who had been made redundant and so know the chances of finding something quickly are low, mind you so is winning the lottery and as they say " It could be You". I was frustrated in this claiming thing by the long British holiday. I had got used to Spain where they do not go over the top everyone is back to work on the 26th. I couldn't claim until the 30th. What transpired was an interview on the phone full of odd questions such as do you rent or own your home? Own. Do you live in sheltered accommodation? Do you receive any benefits? Err no that's why we are talking. I know it is not the interviewers fault they are just following the rules and regulations but you start to see the idea of simplifying the system of benefits is a really good idea. Especially as some of the questions are so obscure it is very easy to give a wrong answer and you then may be accused of making a false claim!!! However I have to say within the constraints they have the staff at the Job Centre are very nice and deal with you efficiently.

So now the good news I have an interview tomorrow. It came from a small company that got back to me before the New Year was here which bodes well. Had an interesting chat with the owner so fingers crossed.

There is one other job I have applied for that tickles my fancy which is with the Princes Trust but have not heard back from that one, strange I have many of the types of experience they are looking for, we will see.

The other option is to look at re-training to add in a skill needed by businesses such as bookkeeping that would provide the bread and butter to a business advice service. This may be more practical now that many of the services such as Business Link are being withdrawn and as yet the replacements are not clear. Perhaps this is a good window of opportunity.