Wednesday Wonders.

Hello!
I've been feeling very out of sync recently and not really up for much. I've not taken any photographs since coming back from Cornwall really and I haven't been sleeping very well. I guess it's a combination of bewilderment over Christmas and the shopping experience and having to get people gifts, as well as the prospect of once again facing the Jobcentre twice a week for the foreseeable future. Perhaps one positive thing being that I can get back onto the job hunt wagon, but ideally it is not where I want to be and I'd much rather have a job than be looking for one.
I've done a bit of networking and I'm scouting out new things all the time so it isn't as though things have dried up yet, it's just that it would seem that I still don't have enough experience I can't really remember how to prove myself.

Anyway, enough of the doom and gloom, it's Christmas soon and it's a time for overall merriment. Moon and I are heading down to the Isle of Wight on Saturday for a reunion with all our University friends, which will be nice as everyone will be able to make it, I just hope I can pep myself up before then.

The last week or so has seen a lot about retrospectives, with many websites posting their 'best of 2011' lists and images from the year. My favourite compilation so far however, is a video by filmmaker, Barry Pilling. I've been following Barry's work in stop-animation for a little while now and you should definitely check out his Youtube because it's pretty neat. I felt this video was particularly powerful, it's almost easy to forget that all of this happened in the last twelve months.
*contains some graphic imagery*

(Barry Pilling)

You may remember a little while ago when I did my Keep Calm and Carry On post, that I mentioned a little shop on Etsy called 'Keep Calm Arsenal' that produces numerous parody, and actually quite good prints. Well, the subject came up today and I went back to the shop, which is sadly closed for the holidays, I did however discover that 'Keep Calm Arsenal' is part of a bigger network, Stay Gold Media. Stay Gold Media also has a variety of beautiful artwork for sale on Etsy and an awesome blog showing it all off, and it's so reasonably priced!

(Stay Gold Media on Etsy)

'Imagine, John Lennon Vintage Dictionary Print', 8x10, £4.63
'Forest Life Art', 8x8, £6.61
Following on (yes, another follow-up) from the wrapped trees from the series, 'Bound' by Phillipa Lawrence featured in a post from a couple of weeks ago. I recently encountered this stunning series by Zander Olsen, playing with nature and visible lines in the horizon. It's such a simple idea but works really well, I'm also intrigued by the fact that this series was created in Surrey, as well as Hampshire and Wales, but where in Surrey?

(Tree, Line - Zander Olsen via PetaPixel)

(The Maccabees, © Louise Haywood-Schiefer)

I'm unsure as to whether I have much else to say, but I thought it had been a while since my last post and my tabs were looking a bit clogged.

Other things I like this week:

The three-part Channel 4 return of Shane Meadows brainchild 'This is England' in the form of This is England '88'; love the fashion, the history and the story, I am hoping that poor Woody gets a break though.

Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror; I still haven't got around to watching the first one, but Sunday's was brilliant, can't wait for the final instalment.

Buzzfeed's 45 of the Most Powerful Images from 2011

The National Geographic Photography Contest 2011; There are too many good images to choose from, I really like this one, but I also like this one, and they're completely different, whoever is judging these has one hell of a job!

This week's episode of The Simpsons was amazing!

Christmas Nails; These are my favourites I've seen so far but one of my current favourite Tumblr, The Illustrated Nail is coming up with new things all the time. My WAH nail pens have kind of died right now but I'm holding out for some new ones for Christmas, my lack of inspiration has sadly spread to my fingernails.

These shoes from ASOS

Things I must do by the end of the week (Friday):

Practice driving theory

Edit my Cornwall video

Stop putting off doing my portfolio, really, it's looking pretty sad right now.

675.

I might get a chance to flex my photography muscles at Ink on Monday. Hopefully anyway, we're going to a restaurant to get some nice shots of these cookery books for one of the magazines.

I had to do a (terrible) test shoot yesterday to display them but it was a bit flat in terms of lighting, if I am photographing I hope there will be a bit more depth and control. But the test was just to get an idea of how to lay them out, it was all quite exciting, I got to move from my desk and use a sexy Canon, secretly nerdgasmed, but it only took about 10 minutes.





Currently waiting for Moon to get here, my driving lesson today went really well, I think I definitely need to open my ears a bit more though, to avoid getting unnecessarily flustered at roundabouts.

While I'm here, it would appear that the JobCentre need further complaints made to them as within the last few days I have received both my P45 and a letter letting me know that my claim had been closed and what I can do in terms of additional funding, which is great and all, if I didn't only have three days left with Ink. Morons, it's as though they've done it on purpose and know there is no point in me doing anything about it... funny that..

Job Centre casually letting me down again.

Good job as always...

21st November 2011

Dear Kingston Jobcentre Plus,

I am writing to make a formal complaint about how my claim has been handled within the last few weeks. Since the lead up to and beginning my unpaid internship with Ink Global Publishing, I believe that Jobcentre Plus has been both incredibly unhelpful and unsupportive.

Having attended a meeting with my advisor today, it was only then that I was alerted that my claim had been closed, with no prior notice at all. Perhaps the first thing that has annoyed me is the fact that I was allowed to attend the meeting and had made the effort to travel to the centre and missed almost the entire morning that day at the internship – which affects how I may appear to my employer and therefore what I may get out of the experience, which is the whole point of carrying out the internship in the first place!

The only statement that came close to meeting a real explanation for essentially wasting my time was that I was aware that my claim 'might' be closed. However, my response to this is that 'might' does not account for official confirmation and does not allow me to know where I stand with my claim at all. In fact, I was even allowed to assume that I was able to carry on as normal.
No effort was made to contact me prior to the close of my claim and it must be understood that first and foremost, I rely on the income that Jobseeker's Allowance provides to continue the internship, which was only carrying on for a further week and a half anyway.

Before beginning the internship I was asked to provide many different vague pieces of documentation, which never seemed to be correct or satisfactory. This meant that on the first day of the internship, before I had even settled in, I had to ask my supervisor to write me a letter outlining the internship for Jobcentre Plus. In terms of common sense, I hope you will understand why this would have been awkward for me. Too many people were involved in the process of how we would go about dealing with this situation and I find it hard to believe that I would be the first Jobcentre customer to come across these circumstances. This is of a particularly poor standard considering that there was no ultimate resolution despite what should have been arguably combined knowledge.

The internship will go on to finish at the end of this month, in this time I would have only visited the Jobcentre twice, and my job search has been ongoing while on the internship. Ink provided me with a lot of flexibility which would mean I would have been allowed to attend meetings outside of the internship if I had needed to. The lack of communication and overall bad organisation of this situation has resulted in me believing that I would have been better off not informing the Jobcentre of this internship at all, particularly regarding funding myself during the process.

Ink's system for internships is structured and I think it was inconsiderate to try and make them change it when I already had a guaranteed month of work experience with them. I think it is disgraceful that I was allowed to continue thinking that my claim was still open as well as attend the meeting this morning. I am unsatisfied with how the Jobcentre has supported me both within this internship and overall during my Jobseeking process. This internship with Ink has been more beneficial to my current training and work experience than any alternative that has been offered to me by Jobcentre Plus could end up being (Admin assistant roles/banking etc). I understand that my creative background is particularly competitive but therefore think that I should be nurtured when I do find work experience rather than shunned and let down.

I will be making a rapid reclaim as suggested but would ask that more careful consideration be taken to my case as I feel that I have been dealt with very unsympathetically. I would also hope to receive a higher level of communication both between myself and advisors and those advising them; something I believe to be the root of this complaint.

Thank you very much for your time and I hope to hear back from you shortly.

Yours sincerely,




Ruth Johnston

Channel 4 Battlefront presents: Ready 4 Work.

Aside from needing to not being on the internet to preserve my sanity, if you happened to be wondering, another reason that I have been a bit MIA over the last few days is because yesterday I took part in T4 Battlefront: Ready 4 Work's Walk 4 Work campaign.

I'm just above the 'R' in 'FOR'.
Photo credit: Channel 4

Ready 4 Work is a campaign under Channel 4's online and television project, Battlefront. The campaign seeks to give a voice to NEETs (Not in Education, Employment or Training) aged 18-25, to prove we're not lazy and we're willing to make a pro-active difference in our job hunt.
The Walk 4 Work part was an act to further demonstrate Ready 4 Work's message, head campaigners Joseph and Hafsah want to make a dent in the 973,000 figure placed upon youth unemployment.







It was a really interesting experience, learning about the work that goes into the production of a television programme, as well as hearing everybody's different stories. I think I might even be on telly, so that will be fun. My star-status is already on the rise (jk), with a headshot and quote in The Independent today. I think it's a very important message though and I would love to do something similar again, standing nose-to-back with Charlie Simpson is just oh too exciting.

My face wasn't in the Metro but I did get a whole three sentences in The Independent so...

The march ended at the Houses of Parliament where Joseph and Hafsah went in to talk to the employment minister, Chris Grayling. Grayling was in full support of the campaign and has promised to get the Job Centre to work alongside Battlefront to create 1000 work placements (source).
I think that the whole day helped to make me feel as though not being the only one isn't a negative thing, and I learnt that everyone hates the Job Centre, everyone. I think we were creating a lot of positive attention while walking on the streets as well so it's quite exciting really and what's been written today about the campaign only adds to the value of the message.
I also got a free bowler hat, t-shirt and pin out of it so if nothing else but the photos I'm sharing with you now, I will also have physical objects to always remember the day I Walked 4 Work.




To find out more about Ready 4 Work as well as additional campaigns run by Battlefront, please visit the Battlefront website.

Today was exciting.

Here is a photo of me outside a Job Centre behind Ms Dynamite and Charlie Simpson.

(via Battlefront on Twitter)

More from me to come soon, as well as some more press stuff relating to Battlefront's Ready 4 Work Walk 4 Work campaign.
I'm so tired and have to face up to my earliest Job Centre Plus meeting so far, so updates will have to wait as I relax and recover from today's exciting events.

634.

Last week I felt really motivated and I was posting a lot and taking a lot of photos, this week, I just feel kind of flat. It's becoming increasingly difficult to maintain the get-up-and-go required to sustain a job hunt of this length.

I understand the need to possibly settle for less than I want but I also wonder how bad of me it is to not want to settle. I have begun to wonder what those who are perhaps following my ongoing job hunt think of me, Boots won't even call me back. I haven't even been able to get any freelance work, but I have tried less and less as time has gone on. I don't even know where the time has gone and despite my summer travels, everything just feels like one massive, rude reality check.

I don't know how difficult it is for companies to simply respond to emails with a 'we got this' confirmation, a real one, just so you know that you're actually getting through to someone. I may have applied to my dream job this week, but they won't even answer the phone to confirm. I'm much better on the phone than I am in emails.

I just want a break and I want to be happy.

I promise I'll stop being 15 soon and post something nice.

Another weekend post.

Because at the moment I've been spending nearly every weekday applying for jobs and trying to keep myself busy, I very rarely feel that I should be allowing myself time to get out there and take photographs. It's kind of a sad opening sentence, but I believe it to be very true anyway. It does feel quite silly to tell people I'm not really looking for 'photography things' anymore and I can tell people think it's unimpressive that I still don't even have a normal job so it's no wonder that I'm really finding the whole job hunting experience both depressing and repressive, not to mention pretty stressful.

I have been seeing the weekends as my down time (as though I was a normal person who has a job), no one replies to application emails at weekends anyway. So, I took this weekend to spend some time with Moon in Beare Green. He is feeling equally downtrodden about being lacking in the job department, but he has the added pressure of a dissertation still to do! I got round to finishing 'New Life Stories', the David Attenborough book that Moon bought me for my birthday, I even brought my scrapbook thinking that Moon would have his face in his laptop. It turned out to be quite a good weekend though, we met up with some friends at the pub, had a nose around Crawley and went to a carboot. We also baked the most amazing cookies!

It was just really nice and I enjoyed myself, after probably one of the most boring/frustrating weeks so far, it really does suck not living with each other anymore.

Here are some photos both from last week which don't really fit anywhere else and some photos from the weekend, which is what this post is meant to be about.

This is my Job Seekers booklet, I hate how meticulous it is and basically everything it stands for. I thought I would share it with you in this post because I was unsure when I would have the chance to do so again. I signed on again today, but due to being early (which is meant to be good), it was another wasted appointment, so that was good...

From a passage in 'New Life Stories', it brought a smile to my face.

On the way back from Crawley we passed the road leading up to my old house. We did a creepy thing and drove up it so I could show Moon where I used to live. It was probably the best place I've ever lived and where I remember being happiest in my childhood. There are so many surrounding fields and it's beautiful - I lived in the house on the left, the one of the right used to be a manor house but is now posh flats. It was nice to see that nothing had really changed much.

This is the carboot that Moon took me to on Sunday, it really was great. I think it will be really useful when it comes to furnishing our first place together because everything was so cheap!

There was a lot of character there, which is why I got my camera out, obviously not because I generally love carboot sales. It was nice to document the area, even if I only had my 35mm lens on me.

I thought this black cab being there was quite intriguing, doesn't Stephen Fry drive one of these?

We didn't walk away empty handed either! We stumbled across a pitch that was selling some really cute Scooby Doo and Simpsons glasses that had been collected with Nutella. They were only 30p so we got three of each, you know, just for our someday home.


I think I enjoyed the carboot best, I also think that if I hadn't have been so ridiculously hungry (I don't even know), I would have enjoyed it more. I was also in a hurry because I wanted to have a quick chat with my Gran before I left back for New Malden. I think when I go next time I will try and be in less of a rush.

I've got a face-to-face interview tomorrow, first one I've had in a while, I hope it goes better than the telephone interview I had last week, I didn't get that job because they wanted someone who knew less...

Favourite recent links

Kaylah from The Dainty Squid posted a DIY Stawberry Nails tutorial, which I'll definitely be trying out when I get bored of my current manicure.

Gem Fatales London Fashion Week Vlogs are nice.

Signed up to Hello You Creatives by accident after a mistake while taking referrals from a graduate recruitment agency, but they actually post some really good stuff both on Tumblr and their Facebook. They also have Twitter, it's more fun and less serious but they do have a few opportunities available for creative people if you really look.

Wednesday 14th September.

Day 10 of 'keeping myself active', it certainly is weird to be home while knowing that in a week's time students will be returning to University and I won't be, probably ever again.

Thorpe Park yesterday was good, and it was great to catch up with my friend Laura too, who I haven't seen in ages. I think my favourite ride was 'Stealth', which I forgot was so fast. Probably the best freebie, I've had all year.

It was Mid-Autumn festival a couple of days ago and the moon looked beautiful, so I took the opportunity to get a snap. I don't think that it's quite as good as what I got when the moon was really big (Supermoon), but I like the result, especially as there was no tripod involved and I just took it from my bedroom window.

I've noticed more and more that a lot of bloggers seem to be posting photos taken with their phones, so here's a bit of a weekly digest. It's quite useful to have a camera on your phone, I used to hate the idea of it, but since I now have a decent camera on my phone I tend to use it a fair amount when out and about. Although an actual camera/my SLR (when I'm feeling strong) is obviously preferential.

Ed Sheeran paw prints outside Banquet Record Store, Kingston

Cute prizes at Thorpe Park that reminded me of Moon's drawings.

Sadly, despite being out all day yesterday, I had no replies from any jobs, but I do have a 'professional' blogging opportunity in the works, which I'll link to if I'm successful.

My second driving lesson went much better than the first one, which I'm very pleased about, I actually can't wait until I've had enough lessons and can drive off and around all over the place. I know I've still got a while to go yet, but it's still exciting, even though there's still things like parking to learn and the actual proper rules when it comes to the test.

---

What I wore 14/09/11:

Cardigan: H&M
Dress: Primark
Belt: Primark
Tights: New Look
Nails:

Stripes: Models Own, Sophie's Pink
Models Own/WAH Nail Art Pen, White
Leopard Print: Models Own: Peach Puff (My new favourite colour)
Models Own/WAH Nail Art Pen, Black
It's back to the grind of the job hunting this afternoon, which of course I must write down in my Jobseeker's 'diary'. I just received a rejection for my application to Kingston Disney Store, darn, there goes my post-degree hopes and goals down the drain...