Catching up/Coming Down

[f4f3]

Just drove 200 miles over some of the most beautiful roads I know - in the dark and it was raining, so I didn't enjoy it as much as usual.

No writing at all this weekend, and I'm too jittery to start now - I'll catch up next week, honest.

Random stuff: Ain't Bonfire Night Great? We celebrate an attempt to blow up parliament - are we celebrating the attempt or the failure? A few years ago, I wouldn't have asked (burning the Catholic in effigy was a bit of a give away) but we seem to have stopped burning Guy's - in fact, I only saw one in a pram this year and it kind of took me aback.

When I was little, I wanted to be a... An athlete or a lawyer or a writer
At University/College, I studied... Law - Matt Murdock and Petroceli have a lot to be blamed for
My first real job was as a... Repo man. I was a graduate trainee with Ford, they gave us a car and said "While you're out, if you see any of the cars on this list..."
I have also spent a lot of time as a...pawn in game of life.
I am currently working as an IT consultant who knows nothing about IT, a communications manager who knows too much about communication, and a writer.
I am happy/hideously disappointed with my career choice. Still surprised daily - once I make a choice I'll let you know.
I would secretly like to be a... rich man, tiddly tiddly tiddle.

Planning on spending the rest of the night making kedgeree and listening to Deacon Blue. All together now:

"When will you, make my phone ring..."

Comments

[blonde222.livejournal.com]

what is a repo man? I still don't understand from this description...

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Repossession man - I got to go to complete strangers' houses and steal their cars. For money.

This included a memorable evening in the worst part of Glasgow with a tow-truck, two dobermanns (dobermen?) and a tyre iron, and learning how to bounce a Sierra 4X4.

I was a snot-nosed law graduate, and we were supposed to be doing work in all the parts of the businesss so that, um... I don't know why, exactly.

But this, and learning to juggle, were the two things I thank Mr Ford for.

[morgaine-x.livejournal.com]

Now that I would never have guessed you for... I had to check whose entry I was reading.

[itchyfidget.livejournal.com]

Deacon Blue rule :)

[eidechsenengel.livejournal.com]

I work with repo men on a daily basis, trying to help them avoid being shot in the dead of the night... I DO NOT envy them their jobs, poor souls... ;p

[morgaine-x.livejournal.com]

I certainly don't envy them their jobs, in any way whatsoever. I have to deal with tax collectors and bailiffs (and I realise they are not exactly the same) on clients' behalf regularly, and I am unfortunately too often reminded of the squaddie mentality they commonly exhibit - and of course, that is usually their exact background. As I said, I am surprised, based on previous experience.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm just full of surprises...

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Well, it was a pretty small part of my job, but by far the most interesting. Not much problem with guns in Scotland in those days, and the job was mostly social engineering.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I suppose we were more like the officer class, and that the jobs were given to us as the equivalent of sending an apprentice for a Long Stand, a tin of tartan paint, or a bubble for a spirit level. At that time I was just sort of soaking up any experience going, and I did enjoy it. I suppose, too, that they weren't used to getting University entrants who'd grown up in Maryhill and Balornock...

[morgaine-x.livejournal.com]

Apparently so!
Now, following the comments I made to someone else on the point, you aren't an ex-squaddie, are you?

[(Anonymous)]

They do indeed. No one made my telephone ring, though.

[itchyfidget.livejournal.com]

Not even the chocolate girl?

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Far from it! They did take us to an army camp one day when I was in my final year at school, and let us play with guns and run assault courses, but it never appealed. If I couldn't be an astronaut, I didn't want to wear a uniform.

My stint in the arrears departments goes down under "Character forming" I think...

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Nope, she had too much dignity for that.

[morgaine-x.livejournal.com]

Phew! For a minute there, I thought I was going to end up like the time I want off into one of my anti-military rants - and the correspondent turned out to be an ex-Scots Guard... (Actually, the "Grim"/Graeme I once said you remind me of.)

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

No, no, rant away. I'm with Bill Hicks on this one...

[itchyfidget.livejournal.com]

Easy for her - she wasn't born in a storm.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Yup, she was a real gone kid

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Actually, she was the sad-loved girl of the neighbourhood and I was the boy who chose happy over good...

[itchyfidget.livejournal.com]

Caught in the headlights, and I'm telling you.

[itchyfidget.livejournal.com]

*g*

[blonde222.livejournal.com]

i had a friend at university who was quite posh and terribly well educated who managed to fall victim to Procter and Gamble on the milk round: they spun him all sorts of tales about an international jet set career in marketing blah blah blah. But on his first day he was told to report to a windy car park somewhere near Glasgow where they gave him a Ford Escort and six cases of soap and told him to go and sell it round all the corner stores.

He is now a human rights barrister, like Mr Darcy.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

I got the Ford Escort, but not the bars of soap. They tried to make me into a financey-managery sort of person, but it didn't stick, and I left to go off and write stuff.

I'm not a human rights barrister, but one of my chums is, and I'm very proud of her. If I end up in a Turkish prison, I'll be sure to phone her.