Video killed the radio star

I think the missus hit the nail on the head when she recently commented that Twitter had taken away from blogging. Anyone else finding this? Most of my tweets would of been padded out to more then 160 letters and turned in to an actually blog entry, Twitter spam followers, craving for pasties, messy sandwich eater. It's time to claw some blog time back.

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Work has been taking up A LOT of time for me. Until very recently I was doing regular 8 hours days all month. And I don't mean being in the office from 9 to 5 and actually doing half a days work, really working for 8 hours.
In the current job climate that is a good thing. Whereas many people are finding it hard looking for work I'm getting snowed under. Plus with working in the car industry that is quite a surprise.

My work though has effected other parts of my life. Blogging has gone awol, although I put time aside to comment on blogs when I can. But mainly hobbies and especially my Spanish lessons have gone. Not finishing work until gone six most nights has prevented me from attending class. I do have Spanish lessons that I can do from home but by time I finish I'm not really in the mood to sit behind the computer for another hour listening to more audio.
I hope that the weather gets more stable and warmer quicker as I will be able to sit on the balcony, away from being indoors and all electrical "entertainment" appliances that get in the way of my learning.

All this work has got me thinking about the summer to. Or at least when it starts to get hot in a few months. What will happen with my work routine? Will I be able to juggle work and beach/snorkeling. I hope so, I'd hate to lose fish chasing as well as Spanish class.

In other news. The sandwich deli that was supposed to turn up down on the beach still hasn't materialised. I did go down there for a sandwich a few weeks back and all they had to offer was ham and cheese, which I can get from my fridge. But I have started recently buying tomato and lettuce, never sure why I stopped buying them in the first place, as well as adding ham to egg sandwiches and I'm going through an explosion in sandwich fillings. Which is all good.

Still, it no deli.

The way things are

Things here are started to calm down a bit. It's still sunny, but no where near as hot as 1 or 2 weeks ago. We're still waiting to get our first taste of rain since MAY! There ahve been times when we have seen rain clouds....nearby ,not above where we live though, which is the closest we have come to rain.
I think once we do get a bit of rain I might have a little dance....then hurry up inside.

The vacationers are slowly going away. The centre of the town is far more quiter now. Plus I don't have to squeeze past slow walkers as I make my nightly trip to pick up the missus.
Also alot of the roads are much bearer now. There did used to be alot of cars parked anywhere at all they could find. Behind lamposts, in other peoples drive ways, under some trees but most just parked in the middle of paths. A lot of them did get toed away by the police without any notice, which I always watched with a evil smile on my face (it deserves you right pesky motorist for making me walk in the middle of a busy road).
With the streets, roads and the beach being less busy it's kind of almost got the feeling like you've just thrown a big house party and now it's time to relax and enjoy the weekend.
(Although there are some French holiday makers left -definitely the loudest ones we've had all summer- who are like that annoying person at the end of the party that no ones knows and wont go home.)

My work is starting to calm down a bit. The last few days I've had a bit of a backlog at work that I have been working my way through. Working whatever hours you want often leads to strange working hours. I was up working until 1am yesterday, although I didn't mind as I was watching the text commentary on the BBC about the last day of the football transfer (and all I learnt was this)

Although I did learn about Googles Chrome which I've been constantly refreshing the Google Blog all day to see if they have started the download.

But I'm trying to get as much work done as I can in the next few days. Luckily there isn't any decent football on this weekend, although some Pub Team is playing, but I expect I'll be doing a few more late nights until then, firstly to catch up on my work, but mainly so I can start playing Spore.

PS I've changed one or two things round on the blog. Most notable being comments. Blogger bloggers will find they will need to manually enter in details now, I'm sorry about this, although I think Blogger allows your title to act as OpenID. Also you can now score other peoples comments, reply direct to comments and a few other things. Have a look)

Hi ho. Hi ho.

So I've been working from home for about 2 months now. I've still not had my first proper pay. In fact it's been about 3 months since I last got a decent pay. But things are going well.

At first I wasn't getting that much work. I'm not doing a 9-5 job were I get paid no matter how much -or little- I do, my pay depends on how much work there is.

When I first started there wasn't that much. I was able to go the beach or pool of a morning, come back during the hottest part of the day and do my work and be finished before lunch. It didn't really feel like work.
And not being paid helped with that feeling too.

In the last few days there has been a huge leap in the amount of work I have. It's been good to do some actual work. It's taken up the whole of my day though and I've not really been outside. It's felt like a proper day's work in fact.
And for the first time in a long time I actually looked foward to the weekend -and that's not just because the football season starts. Infact I was so excited about the weekend I set the alarm to get up early and beat everyone to the beach -more on that later.

But working from home has some major downsides. Mainly there aren't many people to talk to. Infact there's just this one guy in the "office." He often gets distracted by the internet and wastes a lot of time. And he hardly talks.
Also he seems to go anywhere I go, canteen/kitchen; he's there, bathroom; he's there. He keep's following me.
Also there is this one other girl in the "office." I never see her work. I'm pretty sure she doesn't actually work for the company. And most of the time she will come in about 2 or 3 o'clock for a few hours and totally distract me. She'll just stick the TV on or make me cook her something to eat. She is quite a distraction. And then she will leave.

I miss being able to socialise with other colleagues -I'm still looking out for a bar job to help with this. I miss going for my lunch time sandwich.
But I get paid next week so things are really starting to look up.

Ah so it feels like this

I'm starting to settle in more with Spain.

I had my first "Spanish" haircut. The whole coversation the hairdresser went like this
ME: Habla ingles?
HD: Poco
ME: Hmmmm, vale. Queiro, .... erm haircut? (I wasn't sure if she knew what I was saying? But I was in a hairdressers, I was going to bet on she knew.)
HD: Now?
ME: Si.
I sit down and try to think what was the best way to say "I want a kind of mullet at the back, much shorter then now though. A mohican kind of thing on top. And all very choppy. What I said was.
Me: Um.....Er,....Tiene libro? (close my hands and fold them out) Um...magazines?
HD: SI! (It's good to see that it wasn't just me who was happy that they had magazines.
A few pages later and couple of dozen minutes later and I have a much shorter haircut that doesnt trap heat as much. Although the missus did comment "she didnt do much" It appears that I was able to find the one haircut, one described above, that I ALWAYS have.
Although she did style it different. She kind of had my hair all shaggy and sticking up and to the side. It looked good. Except she stuck about a tub of gel on and my hair all stuck together and looked like I had LEGO hair.

Also, after a previous evening out with some friends I now know some tapas places. Tapas bars in Spain are far better then English places. You get half a pint of beer, free tapas and for just €1,50. Some, I'm told, are cheaper still. You can have a few drinks, have a few dishes and still have change from €5.
And there is loads to chose from, gambas (prawns my favourite), gulash (I think it was called, but reminds me of a stew I used to have back home), pasta, chicken curry, fried potato in tomato sauce. And it's all lovely.
Whats better is there is a great tapas bar around the corner from the missus work that has a great atmosphere and music. It's just nice to be in either with friends or if your on your own.

And one more thing. After I alost bumped in to someone today I automatically said "lo siento" which basically means "I'm sorry." I've bumped in to a few people while in the Supermarket. I'm a very bumpy person, but I've always said sorry. So to say lo siento without thinking about it was huge for me.

There is so much other great news though, like how I've started work now and how I enjoy each morning by going down the beach to do some snorkling, but I have to get ready as I'm meeting the missus for more tapas now.

It should all work out

So if you have been watching my Tweets you may already know a little about this next entry.

On Monday I quit my job.

It just wasn't working out. The original job I was doing there I did enjoy. It was working in sales face to face. We were told that we had to do a two and a half to three hour presentation with people about the product. A holiday club.
When I did my training I almost bought one of the memberships myself. It was a great deal. It looked fantastic.
So I felt good with what I was doing.

Unfortunately there wasn't enough people visiting the sales deck so I was recently moved to telesales.
I was told this was pretty much the same thing, just with a differnet club.

But the whole set up was totally different. Plus you only had a few minutes once someone picked up the phone to get it sold.
Obvioulsy there were some advantages to this picth, like it cost a tiny fraction of the other sell. But this one just felt wrong.
I just always thought if someone phoned me up with the same pitch I wouldn't go along with it.

So I just couldn't do a good job. Which meant that the manager was always having a word with me about how to improve. Which just made me feel rubbish.

Anyway on Monday I walked in and told them I was leaving.
Don't get me wrong there was one product that I didn't like but the office were very helpful and good with me. They gave me a job as soon as I moved to Spain. Plus the people that work there are really good people and I hope that I spot them outside of work.

But I do have another job lined up thankfully. The missus brother-in-law told me about a job listening to telephone calls and ranking them. It can all be done over the internet so I can do it from home.
At first I was unsure that I would get the job. I sent off my application form and hadn't heard anything for a few days.
Plus I thought that the brother in law was only putting my name forward as a possible applicant.
Then the missus tells me not to worry. The in-law is in fact a huge deal at the company and owns quite a few shares. I thought he was just one of their best sales trainers.
Then I get an email which I have been copied in to, which is of my CV sent from the in-law to the HR team. I'm told that the in-law has put himself on my references. I have a look and under job title it says 'Director.'
Then I stop worrying and think, "if a director is going to try and get me a job then it might go through."

So now I am just waiting for some log on details and I'll soon be able to work form home.
I really do hope I don't pick up any bad habbits, like reading blogs all day.
Plus I've promised the missus I'll stay away from the pool of a morning.
I'll still be looking around for any bar work/waitering just for some extra cash/hours. The season here has just started and I have seen a few adverts in restaurant windows. Only problem is they are in Spanish or you have to be able to speak Spanish. So that's how I've been spendning a few of my hours. Getting back to learning my Spanish.

Just one more thing about the office. I was watching an episode of the American version of the sitcom 'The Office,' when Dwight (the US version of Gareth) was giving help to another character on how to do god in sales.
The advice he gave, "K.I.S.S - Keep It Simple Stupid," was the same advice I was given to me when I first start selling face to face.
I'm not sure whether that means that this office have been getting selling tips from The Office.
Or whether both offices are using the same sources for all of their material?

Lizard Spot Update

Lizard spot has been pretty quiet of late. That's not to say that I haven't spotted lizards though.

On my way home I spotted quite a large lizard (for a small lizard he was large). He got quite frightened by my clippy cloppy shoes. He probably seen my massive winklepickers and thought
"This isn't how I role. See ya!"
Or something Spanish like. He was too quick for me to photograph though.

Then after walking the missus to work and heading home I seen another lizard, bigger then the first one, running about. He stopped and I thought I had time to photograph him, but he was also too fast.

And yesterday after a day at the beach, heading home, I spotted a tiny tiny lizard in some shrubs were I often see lizards just outside our home. This guy was far too small and disappeared in the shrubs pretty quick before I even had chance to think "CAMERA!"

I have spotted lizard, but they've all been too fast for me. And so lizard spot doesn't lose integrity, from now on I am only including lizards that I have photographical proof off. Although I am not conducting a retrospective review. All unphotographed lizards from previous blogs will stay in the count.

So lizard spot stays at 9, as from previous entry.

Good luck lizards, now I mean business.

In's and out's

Well here is what I have been up to in the last few days.

Work has been pretty slow. We've not really been having people come to the sales deck so I've not had the chance to earn any cash. I've been told that more effort is being made to get people on to the sales deck this week, so hopefully I should start to be earnig some money soon. Working for €20 a day isn't great.

Life has been pretty much quite since the family left. The missus has been busy loking for a job and after work I have been trying to get some stuff sorted out that has needed to be done for a while, mainly tidying, getting a new bed and sorting out some home movies. And playing lots of Mario Kart and Wii Fit.
If you would like to see our movies then check out robbiesherman.blip.tv or look at the rss feed on the side of my blog.
Here is the video of our first day. Take in to account that we had been up since 3, been stuck out shopping for a few hours, rained on and very hungry.

Apologies about the screen size. I think the camera records in widescreen and the ratio has been messed around somewhere, not sure where.

My feet, having spoke about them in teh previous post, are fine now. I think in another week or two I might try and climb one of the large hills/small mountains outback. Or at least see how far up I can get. Although Spain does not have maps anything like Ordnance Survey maps, so I might have to take a pad and pencil and draw my own. Hopefully I'll come back with plenty of pictures though (although not sure on the quality as I won't have my regular camera.)

The weather also hasn't been great this last week. And it isn't forecast to get much better over the next week but I believe the UK has been seeing some great weather the last few days though. Lucky.....
But today will be spent in the pub. The missus has found a bar that will be showing both the Chelse and Man United games so I'll be down there in a few hours watching the last 90 minutes of the season with my fingers crossed that Chelsea pip United at the post.

Anyways, that's what I have been up to lately.

Lizard Spot 05.05

Well after a little absence lizard spot has jumped right up.

Lizard 7 was spotted while at work. It was crawling on the wall behind where some colleagues were eating.
I had to quickly describe to them my fascination with lizards and how I needed to take a photo. Next minute I'm trying to stick my hands down the back of the bench to photo this lizard.
Although I think this is a gecko not a lizard.

Photo 2

Lizard numero 8 was spotted just yesterday. On the way home from the beach with the missus parents. This one was tiny and took a while for me to point out to everyone. In fact I had to scare it a bit to make it move so people could spot it.
This one was so small that it made me wonder how I manage to be able to spot such small reptiles.
Can you spot it?

Photo 2 might be easier?

Lizard number 9 was spotted today as we headed to work. I seen a little rustling about in the scrub beside the path. I grabbed hold of the missus and quickly said "don't move."
As she had no clue, she freaked out and shook thinking something vicious and scary was about to eat her, possibly a t-rex.
I explained it was a different kind of lizard and tried to get a photo of it, but it was to quick and ran away.
Sorry no photo. :(

Lizard Spot: 9


It's not just lizard's that I have spotted.
While heading the beach the other day the missus spotted this guy throwing himself off a wall (a bit similar to what I did a few weeks back)

Photo 2 Photo 3

Also while on the way home late one evening I spotted a big train of ants walking about. Now these were massive ants. Really big. About the length of a finger nail.
This one stood out the most to me, it was trying to carry the biggest sun flower seed I have ever seen.
I recommend you check out the larger photo.

Back to reality

Well the parents have gone. I'm back at the house. Hear is what has been happening.

Last Friday mine and the missus parents landed in Spain to see how our new life is coming along.
We went to the villa they were staying at to surprise them. We were only suppose to stay the weekend, but were asked and offered lifts to work all week if we did stay. Of course how could we say no?
So the last week I have been away from Home.

In that time work has been very hectic and strange. Sunday night I had a phone call to say not to go in Monday. On Tuesday I found out that the company I work for were changing their franchise from one holiday club company to another. The rest of the week there have been some changes and some extra training starts on Monday. I've not really had chance to do any proper work yet so I haven't earned any money and have only been picking up very basic wage.
I'm kind of hoping things settle down this week so I can start earning money to play out.
Although once I get my N.I.E card this week I'll hand my CV in to a few bars for extra work.
I've also found out that I can't have any holidays at work but we get the whole of August off. Unpaid. So I need something to cover me for those weeks.
Plus I have just had a text saying to go in at 1230 tomorrow rather then 10. In a company were things are changing all the time I hope I'm not going in to be told "go home, you're not needed!"

Also my camera has broke. It just stopped working one day. Well half of it doesn't work. I can see photos that I have taken, but when I try to go in to shoot mode the screen goes black. Plus the lens cover wont close properly. We've sent it home with the parents to be sent to a repair shop and sent back when the next visitors come over. So my photos might not be as many for the next few weeks.

I've also picked up Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii this week so I'll be playing a lot of them. But more about them later.
For those with Mario Kart Wii my FC is 1719-3801-4792.
Also my Wii FC is 4859-7530-9312-3844

The weather is getting much better here. Far better then the first week we were here. It's nothing but sun. I know you don't want to hear that back in the UK, but there is a point to this. I hope the damn pool gets filled up soon.
I'm waiting to have a nice splash around, but the pool is still empty. And it's pretty hard to swim without water. As you may of guessed.
But the other point is that with the pool being empty, the pool area which has a lot of space for sunbathing and chilling out is closed. As we have no balcony there isn't many places for us to go at the moment if we want to sit outside, except the car park.
But I still haven't got that much of a tan. I'm taking my time with that.

Lizard Spot tally is going up. But more on that soon.

Also the missus has been shopping for the house. We have throws for the couches, new colourful plastic cups. A candle in the shape of a giant crab shell and the house furniture has been moved around and all looks much much better and homely.

The main portion of this week has been spending time with the parents. It was really great to see them and to show them that all is going well here (apart from my foot injury at the beginning). We ate out a lot and drank a lot of alcohol, so all this week I'm drinking nothing but water - except for tomorrow when the Chelsea Newcastle game is on - and learning how to use that big block thing in the kitchen that shoots our flames.
There were a one or two things that I didn't get to show my parents, like Tutti Frutti - the local night spot - but that can be done another time. It was nice just to see them and spend time with them.
The parents have already said that they will be revisiting soon. I hope my dad can make it out soon as there are plenty of mountains here for him to climb and not a lot of maps. Any maps that are out there aren't very detailed. A walk in the park without a map is a favourite method of my dad's hill walking.

Anyway it's getting late. I have about 160+ feeds to go through, so I'll try and catch up soon.

Whats going on with you then?

Well things are now getting in to their stride in Nerja. We've gone from taking little steps and finding our place in this town to strides.
We've done a proper big shop (although the next big shop is at a different mercado just to test their prices - neither sell spit roast chicken which would easily tip the scales in favour of that establishment)

My feet are getting much better. I was able to walk down to the beach today in my sandals.
This may not seem like a great deal, but I have lately been walking around with as much padding on my feet as possible to stop too much pressure being put on my heels. That has meant I have been walking around in my hiking boots, not ideal for Spring time on the South coast of Spain.

The missus has been getting better sleeping. We underestimated how cold it would get of a night and didn't pick up a thick enough blanket. That's been fixed thanks to the blanket we bought off the airline. (Until a permanent fix can be found or it warms up)

We had interviews for are jobs today. I was told by the girl who we applied through that we both had jobs.
When I got to the interview/meeting thing, the gentleman I was talking to didn't know about the interview. Although he did seem pleased with me he said that a position had just come up. Which put me off as I was expecting to be told I had a job anyway regardless of someone else leaving.
I was told I'd get a call back today about starting Monday. I've not heard from them. We have spent the afternoon on the beach, but they had my mobile number which is excepting calls.
We've inquired about this so hopefully will know more tomorrow morning.
What I do know is that the person who interviewed us doesn't hire people, his boss does. Who was the person that greeted us at the beginning and was expecting us and also interviewed and hired the missus. So hopes are high.
Regardless of the outcome though, once I do have the call I'll start applying for bar work as extra income/socializing reason/practising Spanish.

We also got a video camera as a gift. It hasn't really been used yet. I'll try and get on to that and upload some videos soon.
Oh and sort out a photos post of my favourite photos up to now.

Me tengo que ir

Or "I have to go"

Around me boxes are being packed. The office is relocating soon. Just like me. I'm sure there is a metaphor in there I could be using.

But that time has come, I have just handed in my notice with work.

Just a few more days and then woooooosh.

Controller of the radio

The radio at work has been moved and placed right behind me. The regular whorer controller of the radio will be off for a few days so I have taken it upon myself to be controller of the radio.

I'm sick and tired of Capital Radio as they play the same 8 songs over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over.....
I hate listening to BBC Radio1 of a morning as Chris Moyles is the most annoying person. Ever. Just writing about him makes me want to......"aaarrrghhhhh motherhubardkungfu"

....
....
Sorry about that.
Yeah, so I don't want to keep changing the channel before/after each show.

So I've opted for the nations and OAP's favourite BBC Radio2.
But why do all presenters on Radio2 sound like Terry Wogan? I'm sure he should of gone home after his show but it sounds like he is doing some overtime. I'm sure if Terry did actually do some overtime this would confuse OAP's making them late for everything and jamming up the public transport service - more then normal - during rush hour.
But Radio2 does have great hits like ELO's Showdown and a playlist longer then a Hear'say Greatest Hits album.

I just wished some of the presenters would try and put on a higher/lower pitched voice just so they don't sound like Mr BBC Radio2 Terry Wogan.

Anyway, I'm off to get a sandwich. Hopefully when I return the computers at work will be working and I will have more to do then listen to the amusing ramblings of the lovely Terry "Trousersnake" Wogan.

Another slow day at work

Well its was another slow day at work. The newly updated software had a few flaws. Some of those being major applications in our work. So I spent all day doing nothing.
It got so slow infact that Sleeping Guy had another nap.

But this time I was prepared and snapped this.

He is asleep, I promise.

Next I promise to get a photo of the polling Chip and Pin machines, as long as there are no slow old ladies taking FOREVER to bag their groceries and I have more then 1 item giving me time to take photo.
Stay tuned.

Everyone shhhhhh

I'm at work and typing this very gently. The guy next to me is asleep. Its a very busy office we have here.

But it is quiet funny as he keeps waking up for a few seconds then gently nodding back off.

hehe