2005-02-26 - 11:46 a.m.

I guess I should catch up with what's been going on but first I need to get something off my chest 'cause I'm pissed off...

Y'know I have applied for the trainee Environmental Health Officer job? Well, there was a managerial position going too. My 'mate' Nigel told me that he was thinking of going for that one as the degree he recently passed via distance learning incorporated various aspects of environmental work. I encouraged him to go for it. Well, last night he calls me up to inform me that he's given my name as a reference (fair enough) and that after speaking with someone in Environmental Health it is unlikely that he would get the manager's job as he doesn't have the experience or the exact qualification required BUT he does think that they might offer him the job I WANT. He's already on �24,000 and the one I want starts off at a piddling �13,000 rising to �17,000 after 6 months and then �25,500 after a year (on completion of the training). What the hell does he want to drop �11,000 for when he knows I'm desperate for the work and he isn't?

He reckons that 'cause he won't need to complete the whole years worth of training he would take my job for �18,000 to start. I have stewed on this all night and have come to the shaky conclusion that they wouldn't offer him the lesser job 'cause they wouldn't expect him to start from the beginning having already achieved a decent career level as an engineer. But what do I know? It would be just my luck to attend an interview and discover that it's between me and him and I'VE GOT TO GIVE THE SOD A REFERENCE!

I am trying to be adult as he is a decent friend and has done me many a favour in the past. I will be gutted tho if he gets the job I want.

In other news: I've got an interview for the psychological assistant job in one of the local prisons. It's next Friday so fingers crossed...

Plus: Went to that induction evening to discover more about mentoring and guess what? I was pleasantly surprised! It's not befriending kids heavily involved in criminality, it's mentoring kids going through crisis such as being bullied or having other problems which are affecting them. We were shown a video of a tv interview the organisation gave to a local station and it showed a girl who was self-harming and was being bullied all because she was over weight and had little confidence. The mentor would be her friend, they'd chat about her problems and then they'd help solve her problems by going to aerobics together and engage in some confidence building. The girl is well now, confident and happy! I did this kinda thing for Phoe and I think I could do it again! The training course starts next Saturday and I'm going for it!

...and finally: I like to explore wild places and a couple of years ago pin-pointed somewhere new to try. For some reason I didn't go on the day I intended and later found out that a young girl was murdered there around the time I'd have been exploring. I think about her quite a lot and wonder if things would have been different had I actually been there. Perhaps I'd have disturbed the bastard or he'd have changed his mind thinking that the area was too busy. When they found the girl (Camilla) she had been sketching and had drawn a wonderfully detailed woodland warrior goddess. Obviously everyone was distraught at what had happened and as a tribute to this poor young girl they got a well known local artist to recreate Camilla's Goddess as a 10ft tall wooden carving which now stands in the area she was killed. It's truly wonderful, awe inspiring and touching to see. I finally went to see it a couple of days ago. You can see it too:

Camilla's Goddess

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