Casually does it

Oh right, a blog is for, like, writing down what you've been doing and stuff. Me forgotted.

So! This week I've been working some casual hours at the BOA where I used to work back in the day. Not much has changed - in fact there are still four people there from my last BOA stint eight years ago. I've been helping out with the orthopaedic manpower census, which has enabled me to line up some funds while I search for a good analyst contract or suchlike. One definite highlight is the hours - at the moment I'm working 10 to 4, which is I've rapidly decided is the way the world should be all the time.

There's also a certain contentment in just wandering over the bridge to Hammersmith in the morning and hopping on the first Piccadilly or District Line train that happens along - it takes no time at all to get to the West End. If I don't have a book with me, I can always peruse one of the quite decent free newspapers on offer at most stations, or buy one of the former broadsheets (now tabloid-sized, like the, err... tabloids) and be tempted by numerous free offers. For example, this Friday if I buy the Times I think it comes with a free copy of Len Deighton's "The Ipcress Files". On Saturday I got a DVD copy "The Killing Fields" with my morning paper. And if I was desperate enough to buy the Telegraph, I'd get a free bottle of Evian to wash away the fusty aroma of general unpleasantness.

Before I go completely tangential, one other major plus of working at the BOA is that the cafeteria in the basement of the Royal College of Surgeons does tasty cooked lunches for GBP2.05. Can't be beat. And I must pay a return visit to the Hunterian Museum upstairs, which is a famous and well-heeled medical museum. The collection was purchased by the government in 1799 and first exhibited in 1813, don'cha know.

As far as future employment prospects go, a longer-term contract will most likely come my way through one of the three agencies I've signed up with. I keep in touch with the consultants there on a weekly basis, and occasionally they ring me with suggestions for possible work. Nothing solid yet, but it's early days yet and it's likely to pick up closer to the end of the financial year.

I'll definitely be keen to get my first pay so I can start spending a little money, and then the next target will be that aforementioned good contract, so I can get some more gear and search for a more permanent flat. The lure of the fab '3 for the price of 2' book deals in all the shops, and all the music gigs that happen every week, and the clothes sales, and all the travel there is to get stuck into... let's just say I'm drawing up a list and checking it twice.

I've not been watching a great deal of TV lately, despite Eleanor and Aaron having a gigantic LCD screen with plenty of Sky bells and whistles. A few episodes of the omnipresent Friends and a Daily Show here and there. But one highlight of the viewing week was this season's finale of Top Gear, in which the lads had to convert regular cars into stretched limos. Clarkson turned a Fiat Panda into a 46-foot monster with a turning circle about as wide as the Colosseum; Hammond turned a convertible MG roadster into a vastly long open-top limo with a 15 foot high spoiler; and May welded together the front halves of a Volvo and an Alfa to create a schizophrenic double-ended motoring catastrophe. And then they had to use the cars to chauffeur actual celebs to the Brit Awards in Earl's Court. Which is a bit hard when your limo snaps in two going around a bend. (There are a couple of pics here)

Best wishes to all and sundry! Shall report soon on my ongoing campaign to get myself a job, a life, and a super posh accent to boot.

Tally-ho!
eT