new times

It's been a couple of pretty big weeks for me!  I got my Ps, found a new tutoring student, got my uni overload approved and had my first job interview.  With luck and if everything goes perfectly to plan, I'll have a new job and play in a regular futsal team with some friends too.

The licence wasn't quite as straightforward as I had hoped.  The combination of light rain and cold surrounds required demisting skills which I didn't have.  However, my mum got all the settings right so the car was all ready to go. 

The paperwork was fairly straightforward.  I was attended to by this guy who looked like he was 70 and bore a resemblance to Mr Perry (cgs teacher).  He had a wierd accent and could be a little hard to listen to.  Later, my mum told me he was my examiner.  Great.

We got out and went through the regular check up things, like lights, indicators etc.  He then called for the high beam.  *panic*  I didn't know/forgot how to do it!  quickly pulled the stalk for a prolonged flash, and he moved on. 

"fraannt demister" *point*
"reaah demister" *point*
"horn"                *honk*

twenty seconds later:

"fraannt demister"
"reah demister"
"horn"

Awesome.  I've got an examiner who struggles with short term memory.  On the plus side, perhaps when I make a critical error he would've forgotten by the time he goes to write it down!

We roll out and immediately he goes around adjusting all of my mum's carefully calibrated settings.  Temperature? ramped up to 24 degrees.  Fan? full blast.  Air con? on. 

Immediately the front windscreen began fogging up.  In fact, every window fogged up.  We prepare to enter Burwood Highway, and its so bad I have to wind down the window to see outside.  I drive us to a side road where we try to fix it up. 

"maaasstt cleeahh", the examiner claims.  So we fix up the settings and wipe the side windows. 

Thankfully the rest of the test wasn't as eventful and I passed!  A huge relief and the freedom is great :D


My first job interview was a big deal for me.  Once I was told to have an interview, I prepared questions and answers in my head.  Friends and family gave me extensive and sometimes amusing tips.  I listened to Eminem's classic song 'Lose yourself' about 3 times in two days.  The lyrics described my mood perfectly:

'if you had one shot, one opportunity...would you capture it, or just let it slip?'
would I be the person who 'keeps on forgetting what he wrote down', and
'opens his mouth but the words won't come out'?

When it came to the actual interview though, it was reasonably straightforward.  I was shaking a bit (probably not visibly), but my voice didn't completely give out on me which was a relief.  Ultimately though, the interviewer said there were about '50 applications' for two positions.  Mathematically, I have a 4% chance of nabbing one of them.  Realistically?  probably about the same with my lack of experience.  I'm preparing myself for likely disappointment when they ring back on Wednesday. 

However, that 4% is not nothing.  There is no reason why I can't be that tiny percentage and defy the odds. 
For now at least, there is hope.