schlackman.org

So yesterday I experienced a fairly bizarre and bumpy flight back from the US, during which my attempts to sleep were interrupted by a guy playing music too loud his headphones, and some crazy woman who spent the entire flight slumped in her chair with her eyes closed, singing to herself. Not bad singing, but nonetheless annoying when you’re trying to sleep. At least I wasn’t right next to her.

When I arrived in the UK, my first stop was IBM, since I had left my car in my company’s car park instead of the airport car park (IBM have a big office near Heathrow airport), but when I tried to leave the car park my company ID would not open the swipe-card barrier. Security let me out after a short delay, and I blamed the card reader. However, when I try to get into my normal office back home in the afternoon, that didn’t let me in either.

I would like to blame the airport X-ray machine for somehow erasing all the information on my ID card, but I put my wallet through there too and all my ATM cards work still. Perhaps IBM are trying to tell me something. I responded by telling them something; that I am leaving in 2 months. My job is a combination of boredom and frustration, and more importantly I have to start renting a house in Reading in 2 months in preparation for my final year at uni, and I can’t afford to rent 2 places at once. Student housing is in high demand in Reading, and everywhere starts their tenancy at the start of the summer so I have no choice about when I start renting. Now all I have to do is find paid employment of some kind to pay rent until my student loan comes through in October.

I then proceeded to spend the afternoon at work trying not to a) fall asleep at my desk b) destroy my computer, or more specifically, the awful testing software we use at work. I swear that in years to come, people will only have to mention the word ‘Cantata’ to me and I will go into some sort of ‘Nam-style shell shock that will have me cowering under desks shouting “Compile! Just compile you b******!” to myself, rocking back and forth and biting my nails.