The joys of work

I'll be the first to admit it, I have had some rubbish jobs in my time. In my first job, a paper round, I was given the route that was not only the furthest away, with dog yapping at the letter box everytime I arrived at the bottom of the garden, but it was also the worst paid of all the rounds. My luck only got worse when I got myself a proper part-time job, I was stuck on the kids section at Ravel's Shoes and worked in the complaints department at Transco Gas, receiving daily poundings from unhappy customers, to which I could merely reply 'Please just put that in writing'. This just made it worse.

So, when I began my work experience at the Millennium Stadium this summer I had reason to believe my luck had changed. I had completley forgotten about the yapping dog and mouthings from unhappy builders when, on my second day I was lucky enough to sit and watch the live draw for the Heineken Cup and meet such great stars as Craig Quinnell and Jonathan Davies. I had been extremely fortuitous in my first few weeks and when a paid job became available working for the Organising Committee for the Rugby World Cup I jumped at the opportunity to be a part of this great tournament

My earliest rugby memory was Rob Andrew's drop goal sailing through the posts in Cape Town to knock the Aussies out at the quarter-final stage back in 1995. Eight years later, in this same event, a more famous English fly half, and drop goal provided me with my greatest, and most of the nations, favourite sporting memory ever. So, when the job was offered to work as part of the team to bring a few games to Cardiff's Millennium Stadium I could not have been more excited.

When I took the job, friends envied the position I was in, and my mum proudly told whoever was in sight that her son was working for the Rugby World Cup. I imagined trips to Paris, Toulouse and Edinburgh to meet and greet the teams and contribute proudly to this famous event.

Two months later, however, this job gives me a different cause of optimism. It is not because of the opportunity it gives me to build contacts in the sporting world (which, of course it does) and the pride it gives me in contributing to the tournament's success. No. The reason, my job at Rugby World Cup gives me cause for optimism is because of the rewards it can give me, due to a new business venture I thought of today, while angrily sinking my finger onto another character on the keyboard.

My new idea is that my job, or more my situation, could become a succesful cure for depression. This premise comes from experience. Each person I have spoken to about what my day involves, manages to get an instant lift about themselves, A friend of mine spends his days building bonfires at 'work' and generally sweeping and still manages to feel better when he hears that I have performed one of my rewarding tasks, ranging from being a personal driver for whoever doesn't feel like driving, to changing tyres for colleagues can't be bothered to go to the garage to get them to change it for them!! And the tasks are bound to get worse, particularly after my boss reads this!

So, now I intend to visit hospitals across the country and offer this treatment for a small fee. It's a simple method really, anyone who is feeling slightly down about themselves just needs ten minutes with me, I will reel of my tasks for the week and what plans I have for the following week and they will instantly be cured. Its flawless!

I must go to sleep now as I have a hard day ahead of me tomorrow. I wonder what exciting tasks await me. Perhaps, the official cars need washing..although I know the toilets weren't their usual sparkling selves yesterday.

So there you have it. Oli's-quick-way-to-cure-depression. It can't fail.

What have you achieved today?

Arriving home from work this evening with the Internet finally installed in our student house, I intended to go for a short run, cook some food and get on with writing my first 'Blog'. I arrived home at about six-thirty it is now nearly three hours later, and so far I have eaten a bag of Nacho's for dinner and caught up on e-mails and more specifically Facebook. I won't dwell on the national, or even global addiction to this self-described 'social entity' but it is safe to say it has made me much less productive since joining.

However, in recent weeks my attitude to Facebook, and life in general has changed dramatically. Two weeks or so ago my routine was extremely different to what it is now. I would return home from work, slump on my bed listening to the end of Scott Mills' Radio show. As soon as that finished, the radio would be swapped for the TV where some DVD I had watched a hundred times before would run to its end, before heading to the kitchen to cook some, and then finally retiring to bed, achieving nothing with my day. In the last two weeks, since my twenty-first birthday in fact, my habits could not be more different. While I do not have a set routine, I will make sure I can go to bed proud of something I have achieved.

Before you start this is not a case of realising that my next big birthday will celebrate being half-way to sixty, but a result of a night of soul-searching for no real reason, and realising that while I am still young I need to take advantage of that by living life to the full. We've all had those evenings, you come home to an empty house and maybe its a piece of music that makes you think, or something you're reading and you find yourself reflect on certain aspects of life, what you have achieved recently and what the future holds. Maybe you don't, maybe it's just me, but I found myself in bed at ten-thirty on my twenty-first birthday and realised that I was not quite living it up.

The day after my epiphany, while sifting through Facebook on my bosses time, a friend of mine added a link to his Blog. I had a read and realised what a good way that would be to get on the road to becoming a journalist...that's my intended career path by the way. I have always had trouble sharing things I have written, and most people will agree sharing my feelings generally (except when drunk of course), and can guarantee that when I finish writing this, I will sit for a good half-hour or so, wondering whether or not to press the 'Publish' button. I realise this is not an ideal way to be if you're wanting to write a best-selling novel or have articles published in national newspapers and that is one of the reasons for joining the not so exclusive club of Internet Bloggers.

Without wanting to get too deep, the main reason for me spending this Tuesday evening spilling my fillings onto a computer screen comes from my Dad. We lost him a few years ago, well we know where he is-sorry, cheap gag-and I have spent a lot of time racking my brains about what he taught me in terms of life lessons. While a number come up, when you're drunk become an embarassement is a particular one I seem to have inherited, the one that figures so prominently in my memory is 'You can do anything you want'. For some reason I remember him telling me this more vividly than anything else.

When I first heard this I didn't believe it in the slightest. I always assumed that anyone succesful in life had a god-given right to be that way and that I had no hope of being succesful like them. And while there is every chance I will not be a succesful writer/rugby player whatever it is I want to achieve, it is only in recent months that I realise anyone who is succesful was, when it got difficult, willing to put the hours in.

Scouring the Internet this week, on bosses time of course, I found that two lads I played county Golf with a few years ago had only just missed out on qualifying for this years British Open (that's the big one if you don't follow Golf), and admittedly my first feeling was a slight pang of jealousy, 'how the hell did they achieve that they're not that good', I soon realised that while I spent my late teens attempting to get into Dartford's clubs and waking up hungover at mates houses, they were out on the driving range (golf practise place, again) putting the hours then. This is not me regretting what I did, I had a great few years, but more a recognition of what a good achievement it was for these lads.

So, that is my first entry as a Blogger complete. As I said previously this may not be the greatest written piece of work ever, there are probably countless grammar errors and my dictionary is not quite that of Shakespeare, but before you judge it ask yourself this, What have you achieved today?



Yes, I'm still here wondering whether to push the button or not. Might as well.