Ahh Sweet Unemployment

Here's an update...

Bye Bye Penthouse
Well I've finally moved out of the penthouse in Govanhill. It was sad, especially standing in the empty place, once all the stuff had been moved out. I'll miss the sound of neds fighting, breaking glass, screams, bangra music and the pungent smell of curry/buckfast in the air. Sigh.

I'm pleased for Shagger though, as shortly before the lease ended, he met a girl, a blonde air hostess called Mary. He's now shacked up with her for a couple of weeks, and apparently his uncle knows a guy who can get him another flat. I'm happy for him, to be honest, as things have worked out ok.

However, I'm still waiting to hear back form Edzell about my deposit. They took Shagger's half to pay off the last rent and I'm due a cheque for the rest (£280 minus about £40 for the damage - we were let off lightly I think!). I could use the money - I'll soon explain why.

Ibiza
After moving out of my old place, I stayed with Suzi's brother Joe for 3 nights - in his cupboard! Then, me and Suzi jetted off to Ibiza. I really needed the holiday and it was a good week. Not wonderful but still good fun. We went to Space (not nearly as good as the previous couple of years) and Pacha (phenomenal). I was very wary of buying rounds of drinks in these big clubs, as a bottle of beer can cost about 8 euros and a double vodka & Red Bull 15 euros (£10!!). We did however go to the cheap & not-so-cheerful West End in San Antonio (where we were staying); the first night we each got a bucket (almost) of vodka & Red Bull on the house as Suzi's pal Yvonne works in the bar. The 2 nights in the West End we got absolutely blitzed. As it was the end of the season, there were hardly any neds, but apparently it gets really wild during peak season.

You might think me going on holiday with a girl on her own there might be some romantic involvement, but Suzi and I are just friends (more through her choice than mine!).

The other thing worth noting is that I think I got mild sunstroke; I didn't apply sun cream to my legs and ended up getting burned. Thereafter I felt really hot and flustered all over. There then came a stage when my body freezed over for a while. I think this was to counter the overheating. Fortunately it wasn't serious and I was still able to go out and get plastered.

Since we came back, neither of us have been very well. I still feel as if I have a cold and apparently Suzi is unwell :(

The Triangle is Now Complete
I've now moved into my new flat, a spacious yet cosy place in the heart of the snobby west end. It's a really decent place, with all mod cons, including a large living room with home cinema with surround sound. The rent includes communal stuff like cleaning products, bin bags, milk etc, and a cleaner cleans all the communal areas once a week. There is no lease, and all you or the landlord need is a month's notice for moving out. The landlord himself seems a decent guy. He lived in the flat for 10 years, and obviously cares about the place, which makes such a big difference. I'm sharing with 3 other guys: a doctor, a guy with his own business and another guy who is trying to get work offshore on the rigs. The landlord himself has his own business and uses one of the large rooms as an office. This is handy if you've any queries as he's just next door.

This flat is like the anti-penthouse, the complete opposite; quiet, dark, with mature, laid-back flatmates. I'm now the youngest in the flat, as opposed to in the brightly-lit penthouse, with young Shagger, who could be quite loud and in-your-face! This new place is exactly what I was looking for. It's almost as if someone had read my mind and made my ideal flat reality! Another thing worth mentioning is that if you pinpoint this place on the map along with my previous 2 student flats (round the corner), and join them up, they form an equilateral triangle. Bizarre, and probably not actually significant, but still worthy of a mention. Once I can be bothered, I'll post a map image to prove it!

And Now the Bad News...
The downside to all this is that I'm now effectively unemployed. As my holiday requests for Ibiza were declined, I just took them off anyway, with the intention of phoning in sick from abroad. However, I then decided simply not to go back, as I couldn't take any more of those 12-hour shifts. You might say I'm stupid, but I just couldn't go back there (for a huge number of reasons). I've only just emailed my supervisor to say I'm resigning and I think by now if I wanted to go back they wouldn't let me. I'll see what he says.

Basically I'm unemployed now, and am in the process of sending CVs everywhere in the hope of getting another job soon (with more regular hours). It's essentially a race against time - find another job before my money runs out. Wish me luck as I'll need it.

In the meantime there are a lot of DVDs/videos in the flat I have yet to see, so I won't be completely fed up. If i'm stuck there's always the botanics with a bottle of White Lighning...