Now breathe...

I think this image will be far too big for the blog - Ever so sorry! I am getting used once more to my own laptop, since it has had its 'heat sink' removed and re-soldered and it stopped 'eating and destroying disks'...

Of course, tippy-tappying away on this little shiny thing compared to using my son's new Vaio, it's rather like using a toy typewriter. But, as they say, mustn't grumble!

I hope you like the technical nature of my foray here... This is as far as it goes!

As for the picture, this is Rhein Maidens by Arthur Rackham - I've always liked his faery and fairtale drawings. Click into it, please, to see its full beauty, if you can only see part of it today.

Well, I heard back from the job interview I went for last week. As I thought, I didn't get the job. Too bad. Or 'tant pis' as les Francais say...

I felt I'd really handled it badly. I was nervous, probably unprepared. This is the first 'outside' interview I'd had in years of working in the Civil Service. The panel of 3 women were all younger than me. I don't think that's a good thing, really. I worked with women older than me when I first started out and they didn't make the going easy, if that makes sense. I was viewed as a threat and they down-played my ability and wondered how I could possibly be doing the job, when I didn't have their years of experience, etc...

Now the boot's on the other foot, and I can see things from another perspective, if you were young would you feel confident about having a 'subordinate' who had more experience than you?

Like I say, the worst of it was that I was distinctly unprepared for what came up, and waffled some questions and examples... I went on about never having missed a deadline. (I never have). And then they gave me a suite of tests - Half an hour, ten minutes per test, 3 tests, and I only fully completed the first one, which was to compose and save a letter in Word. The second test concerned creating two spreadsheets - I managed one and three quarters... The third test was another letter, compiled from a policy document... FAIL.

So, I'll live and learn another day, folks. At least I got an interview in these challenging economic times...

I was also up for another job that I really fancied. My friend who works there found out I got into the top 7 to be interviewed, but only 6 were selected... Of those 6, 3 went on to decline the interview... Hey ho.

Sometimes I do wonder whether I am merely trying to exchange one institution for another. Maybe I need to take time out to fathom that one, mes bloggy buds?
Earlier this week, I stopped in the street on a busy road to feel the silky velveteen softness of an unfurled spring leaf.

I commend it to the house as an exercise in just being...