Best man for the job

Upto the fatherland last weekend to attend Josh & Christie's wedding in Norwich for best man duties. However these were pretty small duties apart from the speech I decided to give. It didn't start well as Christie asked me to give the ring to her oldest daughter, Lily at the crucial moment so she had the honour of passing it to her mum. I gave it to a look-a-like bridesmaid who looked completely confused as 4 year-olds would do. All eyes drilled into me of which we knew hardly anyone there. You couldn't fault the day's weather and we were spoiled all day. The reception part at Reepham Old Brewery was just a guilt trip and nerve building session as I downed a couple of drinks in dread of delivering the speech. Josh had covered most of the points I wanted to say without knowing it so when I did deliver I felt it went flat.

After a quick visit to Norwich for Kerry's shopping addiction, we headed over to our guesthouse for the night so we could at least have a decent drink. As house sizes go, this was between your country barn house and a stately home with dead animals nailed to the wall. And our hostess was a cross between Margot and Barbara from the Good Life though we feared the worst after changing our arrival time. The party was kid kaos and strange old mates who scared me slightly reminding me of audience members from the Tricia Goddard show and stranger ones bragging their love of happy hardcore.

Breakfast was delicious with home-grown rhubarb and yoghurt. Although we were left on our own to dine we had the company of Magnet (short for flea magnet I'm sure), the owner's Norfolk terrier which actually smiled (or rather beared his teeth) when you showed any indication of feeding him. A morning and lunch visit to my folks then back home.

Brighton plan bites our arse

Last night I received some bad news (again). The Cruiseline job said no. This is the same job where the MD asked me for my middle name to calculate the Numerology score.

Another piece of news to test our will is that the buyer of our house is ready to exchange! Looks like the survey went without fault (surprisingly). We now have to look for rented accommodation and move out quickly. With the job situation still looking bleak it looks like another month or two at least in Southampton. Crap!

Well done James

On Sunday we watched the London marathon in the slim hope of seeing old Uni mate, James. No chance really. He completed the full 26 miles in 4 hours 26 minutes. I think he came in before Gordon Ramsey which is good.

Later we biked over to Romsey, about 16 mile return journey. Quaint old town which had a St Georges march with hundreds of scout groups walking past the mayor and cronies to a brass band. Most of them looked embarassed whilst others didn't look like anything to do with scouting such a guy carrying a Tesco bag.

Spamalot of money for souvenirs

Kerry's birthday went very well. Only Viv and Trev decided to celebrate the night before with a sheepish text to say they 'had an accident', 'Viv was incapable of moving', 'I may be a liability' and 'expect to be severly reprimanded'. Whether it was concentrating on driving or a small moment of dyslexia, it read a lot more serious than I thought and had visions of Trev crashing the car.

Kettners was our pre-theatre nosh-up with (nearly) 40 year old raver, Mike turning up to surprise us. Good on ya mate! On to the Palace Theatre for Spamalot with no hassles. It started ok but quickly annoyed me with the same comedy lines from the film. However it got a lot better with the exception of one song about Jews in showbusiness - didn't quite suit British tastes. In the interval we looked at the merchandise store and bought souvenir coconuts (nearly a tenner!) and fridge magnet. Ended the evening round Karol's.

Happy Birthday Kerry

Today is Kerry's 31st birthday - ahh, Happy Birthday Mrs Coleman. A trip up to London later for a surprise and a meal, and maybe other things.

Just a small note to remind me how bad the day went at work for me after organising an 80 strong seminar only to book a room on the wrong day! Plus someone screwed me over as the multi-room event went from bad to worse with double-bookings.

There's been a strong smell of jobs wafting in the air lately. Another interview coming up on 1st May for Plumbase and a couple of agencies said they'll put me forward for 2 or 3 more. An email yesterday confirmed that the Cruiseline job has been shortlisted to two people which includes me. However, slightly worrying was the phonecall from the MD of Cruiseline last night as he stated that someone suggested he used Numerology to decide between us. At the time I thought he was getting mixed up with psycho-metric tests or some number test I would have to perform. But no, he next asked me what my middle name was. He said it was more accurate than horoscopes and wanted to check my compatibility with the rest of the team. If he still can't decide between me and the other candidate I'm assuming he'll consult his local gypsy fortune-teller or will wait for a different wind direction as a sign of fate.

So let's say he does use Numerology, what can he learn about me? According to PaulSadowski.com my number is 8 with the characteristics of practical endeavors, status oriented, power-seeking, high-material goals. I have a 'Soul Urge' of 1 meaning I want to lead and direct, to work independent of supervision, by yourself or with subordinates. And have a 'Inner Dream' is 7 which means I can see myself as a teacher, mystic or clergy! Looks like I'm destined to be the next Pope.

Ego-bruising and cruising

After the psycho-metric wind-up and the kick-in-the-balls no 2nd interview prospect last week my confidence was knocked. The feeling didn't last long as out of the blue another interview invite came up. E-commerce Manager was the job title working for a travel agent specialising in Cruising...the big boat kind aimed at loaded old codgers. Quite weird really as we're moving away from the home of the cruise ships (as well as chavs and Transit vans).

The interview went well spending over 2 hours there. The MD reminded me of my dad and bizarrely never uses the internet or email! Trying to convince him he needs to have a strategy of branding could be a challenge. The other staff were friendly and seemed happy there with no dress code and 9 to 5 hours. I'll know the result by Friday.

Sunshine leaves me a little cold

Dragged Kerry along to the cinema to see Sunshine, the Danny Boyle sci-fi flick. Reviews were mostly good and with Karl Hyde providing the soundtrack it should have been great. Started off ok with the introduction to the psychologist of the doomed crew to save the sun. Unfortunately he was the only character you would care about as the rest were paper-thin even though ‘on paper’ they were good. Visually it was amazing with enough special effects to do it justice but the soundtrack was a little shy in fact nearly non-existent. Similarities to 2001: A Space Odyssey, Event Horizon and a little bit of Alien crept in and by midway you wondered what story would unfold. Unfortunately none of the suspense I expected came through making it expensive eye-candy.

Very wrong

Would you answer the following questions in a job interview with only Yes/Maybe/No?

102. Would it take a definite effort on your part to consider the subject of suicide?

• 172. Is the idea of death, or reminders of death, abhorrent to you?

62. Do you often "sit and think" about death, sickness, pain and sorrow?

63. Do you remain upset for some time following an accident or other disturbing incident?

99. If you were invading another country would you feel sympathetic towards conscientious objectors in this country?

169. Would you stand by and fail to protect an animal from needless suffering?

These were all asked in a psycho-metric test to apply for a job. Was it an SAS officer role, a CIA marksman, hired goon? No, it was the same job I was getting excited about in an earlier entry and thought I had the best chance after a really good first stage. Yet someone out there feels the results of such questions can define your personality.

Death by chocolate

Quite a tame one over Easter with the job interview excitement from last Thursday still buzzing. The first one was for a PR agency in the middle of Brighton. After the first good impressions of the location, the interviewer had discovered my blog and Flickr site which I'm not sure put me in a good light or not. Second interview went really well recommending me to go through to the second interview stage with the MD. The lady who interviewed me acts as the company's marketing consultant and would be the mentor to the role. It was a cosy, relaxed interview round her house and I must have made a great impression as she showed me her prized, rare chickens! I even got to feed them as a couple of teen-hens pecked into my hand at the seed. Watch this space for more job news.

BBQ at Trev's with a pre-party play on his PS3. Very impressed by the graphics and the tilt control pads were a novelty. Motorstorm hogged the limelight but I stuill don't think its worth over £450 to buy. Whilst at the party, Steve told me about seeing the Modified Toy Orchestra. They do exactly as they say on the tin using toy instruments to play real songs. Haven't been able to find a local gig but according to their MySpace site they're playing at the Faster than Sound festival which sounds quite good plus its cheap.

Monday was dusting off Kerry's bike and, after failing to attach the rack to the car, we cycled all the way to Lyndhurst in the New Forest (8 miles!). A spot of lunch then another 8 miles back home laughing at the traffic queues. 16 miles in an afternoon is a record for us!

Glastonbury Fool's Day

So, no Sunday lay-in instead we prepared ourselves for the Glastonbury ticket lottery. The last time was 3 years ago when I discovered the nastiness of Spyware which screwed up our chances only to be saved at the last minute by a 'back-door' entrance to the ticket website. Although not on sale until 9am we tried the website at 8.45am with no luck. Nothing changed until around 11.00am with no luck on the phones. Radio 1 announced a rumour at 10.45am that they had sold out and that was that.

Looking back at the organisation of this, Michael Eavis shouldn't have extended the registration deadline by another week which actually doubled the demand. Next time I think it should be scratchcards at £1 each with second prizes for cash and 3rd prize some Glastonbury milk! At least we've secured our Big Chill tickets.

A BBC news web page states that when some people did get on to the site they were able to buy bulk! What's that about!

Slightly better news: I have a job interview on Thursday for a PR agency.