Dough Diary

Nothing too interesting to report. I'm not out of the running for the Ipsos job as the decision has been delayed. I wish they'd told me that 3 days ago and saved me stressing.

Not had any decisions on rooms either other than I don't want 2 of the 5 I've seen and am indifferent about the other 3. Looks like I'll be in a hostel from Sunday.

Finally my work email has been disabled! Only took them five and half weeks.

Today a few interesting things have happened:

• On the bus on the way to see another room a dubious looking individual borded the bus. I wasn't too surprised a few minutes later when he dropped several syringes on the floor and didn't even notice. The lady sitting near him quickly left her seat to move to another part of the bus. Because this city is quite small and not too busy the smack addicts are totally obvious to all, unlike London where you don't even notice the vagrants after a while
• The house I went to see was pretty scary too. The main man in the house (Devon is his name) speaks like he is a leader of an occult group to the point where you find yourself responding to his questions in your most softly spoken tones. It was all very soothing and I felt like I was being groomed for membership to their "progressive household". To further maintain this image in your head you won't be surprised to hear that he had a meditation room in the loft that he was keen to show me. There was also no tv in the house and he asked me a few very loaded questions like, "so Nick, do you eat a lot of meat?". Further to this, he didn't smell too good and claimed to mostly satisfy his diet by eating things out of the garden. Yep, don't think I'll be moving in there.
• Then I went to the equivalent of the DSS to get my equivalent of the national insurance number, but alas, after 3 weeks it still wasn't available.
• Then some good news - a friend here called Maddy (thanks Maddy if you're reading this) has given me first option on her spare room for a few months. This makes everything a bit easier as it means I can be fussier with selecting a room as I know that I don't have to take any of them if I don't like them. It also means I know exactly how long I will have to stay in a hostel if I can't find anything before Maddy's room is available (Aug 26th)
• Still no word on the job - I really hope they put me out of my misery tomorrow as waiting any longer is almost worse than getting turned down.

On a slightly sour note, I can't believe Leeds lost to the dirty Gills! Anyway, at least it's a reality check for the team so they know that they're not invincible.

A note to Geoff - why does your poor mother have to traipse across Leeds to pick up the telly when my sister or mum would drop it over if you just asked them to?

Am supposed to hear today or tomorrow about the job. Today would be preferable so that I could know whether I'll be able to live normally or not, as no job = living like a student.
Had a good day yesterday. Have met with a Yank guy who advertised that he wanted to form a group to go house hunting. I met him on Saturday first and then yesterday we went to look at a house and then went for some beers. Later on this other girl came down who wants to join the house hunting gang and she seemed ok. There are 3 more girls potentially but I don't think we'll find a 6br house so 1 or 2 people will hopefully drop out.
Previous to that I went to look at a flat share. I totally fc*k'd up my directions and was 20 mins late and all sweaty when I got there. The girl was cute too but if she does pick me to live there then I'll have the dilemma of whether to take it and ditch the living in the cool house idea. I've also booked myself into a hostel for next week as a back up in case I don't get anything. Unfortunately they were out of private rooms so I'm booked into dorms.
After the beers with the Yank I went to a bbq of some fellow expats. I thought they were going to be quite old and stuffy as I worked out that they were quite a bit older and had a bit of cash. I was wrong. I got to their house and it was awesome. They had some funky 3 floor house built in the 70s with a balcony and a spiral staircase. It was full of flashy gadgets and brand new furniture. I met all their friends and they gave me beers and burgers. There was even a spliff going round at one point. I then got a lift home with some other brits who also told me that the driving test here is a piece of piss.
So all in all it was a good day and I hope the good fortune continues today by securing a job with Ipsos. I'm not that confident as I think they will recruit their favourite personality over experience as the job is an entry level job. I think I may be over qualified but we shall see.