CV Update

I had to update my CV last month after being made redundant from my previous job. As I got the job after impressing them during my placement year while at University, my most recent CV was from the middle of my second year at University, essentially necessitating a rewrite. What I would have had on it previously (my GCSEs and A-Levels) has now been reduced to two lines as the rest of my professional career is taking up the rest of the space. 

Perception of time

Having just done my first week back at work after a week and a half off, I've noticed that the time seemed to pass at different speeds each time.

Luckily, the time off seemed to last and the time working went fairly quickly. I don't usually notice it as the weekends seem to go at the same speed (or at least my perception of it), so its only really apparent when I have longer off. The only time I really notice the working week has gone fast is when its seeming suddenly got to Friday. Long term, it doesn't seem as though I've been working for as long as I have since finishing my masters (which, granted, has been less than a year, but it doesn't seem like anywhere near it).

As said, this is just my perception of the time passing. Maybe the seemingly quicker weeks is because my sleeping pattern has changed from late nights and sleep ins when I was a student to early mornings for work.

Part of me thinks I should be more productive in my spare time, albeit the small amount of it that I have, but the problem then comes of not being able to think of anything productive I can be doing for a few hours after work with less energy than I'd like as I've been at work all day. Think I'll just stick with relaxing in my spare time for the time being, seems to be working for me for the moment :)

End of the Masters

Have been quite busy since my last post, mainly focusing on my Masters thesis. Lots of writing and some last minute changes later, and it was gradually printing out ready to be handed in. Printing took a while (lots of appendix pages), but it was all eventually done and handed in (I handed it in on the original deadline as it had been pushed back a few days) on the same day I moved out of the Hatfield flat. 

Third year (placement)

Picking up where I left off (I believe some-when around the end of August), from September 2007 (seems so long ago...) I started working for a years placement at Anritsu in Luton. The degree I was doing at the time included a sandwich (mmmm) placement year, and that was to take place between second and third year.

Before starting work, myself and Dave (who also had a placement there) went looking for houses and soon discovered the main difference between student renting and non-student renting. With student renting, houses are allocated for a year ish (about 9 or 10 months usually) and are allocated from January, for that September. This is because the academic year is fixed, so student will all be started to move in at the same time, for 9 or so months, and all move out again over the summer (so the landlords can fix up any issues with the house (*cough* hole in the wall *cough* simon *cough*) for the next lot of student to move in). Unfortunately for me and Dave, anywhere that doesn't rent to students, will only give you about a week from reserving a place until you move in. So even though me and Dave were trying to be cautious and make sure we had somewhere to live for a year in advance, we had to wait around for ages until just before we were to start work for us to find somewhere. Luckily we managed to get a place reserved for two weeks before moving in, and I moved in about a week before starting work. We had a nice little place, about 5 minutes walk from work, 5 to 10 minutes from Luton town centre (although right at the top of a fairly steep hill), and fairly close to one of the bus stops of the Uno bus route. The flat itself was a living room and kitchen on one floor, and two bedrooms and bathroom up some stairs, with the flat itself being part of a larger house.