November 2009
10 posts
Day 24.
No one calls in sick to redundancy. If you’re in bed, you’re in trouble. Recently my flat mates, both girls, have been pulling ‘sickies’ on pretty much alternate days. It’s getting to the point where now it just seems like showing off. In fact I’m starting to feel a bit sorry for their employers.
I was a bit under the weather on the weekend. So what do you do...
AFX - I’m Self Employed
The optimism of...
Day 21.
First, a trip to the Barbican with AH to see Kusmirowski’s Bunker. It’s okay but they forgot to paint the ceiling = feet of clay. Then a walk to ICCO’s where we bumped into LM, an artist.
Artists make good company for the redundant: entrepreneurial types who have jobs they keep solely to fund whatever materials they need to buy. They won’t be judging your new job as a tea packer and...
Day 20.
Those of you who have been paying attention will already know what happened on day 19. After the final consultation meeting I spent a contemplative half-hour at the Serpentine before deciding it was time to cash some cheques.
Everything in my bank has it’s own infuriating little sign. “Take the wait off your feet” a chair suggests, “Your place or my pen box!” the...
Day 18.
On day 18 it rained pretty much continuously, so I had to Skype for human contact. Skype basically allows potentially redundant people to contact others (redundant or otherwise) without having to use money: a powerful weapon in any job-seeker’s arsenal.
I had a look at my contacts and saw my mum was online. My mother has an interesting relationship with technology: drawn to it as a moth to...
Day 17.
For today’s ECA I watched Jarvis Cocker and some other musicians perform a ‘jam’. As you’ll notice, I arrived just as they were finishing the sign. The idea is somewhere between Rankin Live and that hobbit of a musican from the T Mobile ads. The result was surprisingly musical: a directionless kraut-rock mercifully free of the ubiquitous bongos that usually scourge such...
Day 16.
When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells.
On Friday I received a curse from hell in email form asking me to review a recently purchased innertube and pump. I deleted the message and smiled wryly: for over a year I’ve averaged twenty miles a day with no punctures. Later that day at Hatton Garden, the inevitable happened. I got the bike...
Day 14.
John has won five league titles, with five different teams. He explains his success in the league is a direct result of having all day to think of nothing but the game ahead.
“Painters and decorators are some of the greatest thinkers in the world.”
He grins and we laugh together, but I think he may have a point. I have been troubled for some time by the fact that I currently...
Day 13.
Some retailers are making it really easy to see how you can save money right now. I appreciate it when they draw my eye to these bargains with fluorescent tabs because it means that I can go on autopilot in the supermarket and just buy what they suggest.
NoNoNo my friend. If you agreed with the above you are not ready for potential redundancy. Get back to work. When your source of income is...
Day 12.
I noticed this on the floor of the entrance to our studios for the first time today and it cleared up any doubts I’d had about the former purpose of the building. When exactly did people stop doing awesome mosaics and start gutting pubs? This is not progress.
The former pub I’ve been working in the past days shared a name with my local back east. The Albion I know is a strange affair...