Author: Thomas

At 10-4 down with two Saturday evening fourballs out on the course and twelve Sunday singles matches to come Europe looked dead and buried in the Ryder Cup contest at Medina Country Club. Victories for Eruope in the those last remaining fourball matches made it 10-6 to the US, and Europe merely needed to equal the greatest final day comeback in Ryder Cup history.

Gradually through that astonishing final day the impossible became merely improbable, then possible, then probable and finally materialised. When Lee Westwood won his singles match Europe were ahead 13-12, and were all square in two of the remaining matches, and as defending champions a 14-14 draw would be enough to retain the cup. One of the three closing games was firmly under US control, but when Martin Kaymer won the 17th hole in his match to go one up with one to play Europe were favourites for the first time since Friday morning. The US gained their expected point in the third-last match, to make it 13-13. When Tiger Woods won the 17th to go one up on Francesco Molinari the pressure was on Kaymer to win his match and settle it for Europe. Twenty-one years ago a German, Bernhard Langer, missed a five-footer on the 18th at Kiawah which would have retained the Ryder Cup for Europe, now, another German, Martin Kaymer faced a putt of the same length to retain the cup for Europe, and holed it. Woods then missed a short put moments later to give Molinari the final hole, a halved match and outright victory for Europe.

England’s men are out of the World T20, beaten comfortably by Sri Lanka, who therefore qualified for the semi-finals alongside the West Indies who had beaten New Zealand in a super-over eliminator after the main match finished tied. The Women’s team meanwhile are carrying all before them in their tournament.

As usual I have some photographs for you…

I wiill be covering a lot of ground in this post, so to enable people to pick and choose should they so wish, I will be starting with the trivial stuff and dealing with more serious matters later.

The cricket season is over, with Warwickshire (county champions and losing fnalists in the CB40) and Hampshire (winners of both limited overs competitions – the CB40 and the T20) taking the honours. Derbyshire have brought to an end the longest spell in the second division since the two division structure was introduced by winning the second division. Also congratulations to Joe Root and Nick Compton (the latter following in his grandfather’s footsteps) on being named in the test squad for India this winter. These two will fill the gaps left by Strauss’s retirement (Root, an old fashioned Yorkshire opener with a first class double century already to his credit) and Pietersen’s fall from grace. The World T20 championship is under way in Sri Lanka. The hosts marmalised Zimbabwe in the first match, while Australia spearheaded by Shane Watson (3-21 off his four overs and 51 off 31 balls) accounted for Ireland. Afghanistan, whose presence at the tournament is a minor miracle in itself, made a brave though losing start against India, winning themselves many friends in the process.

Virgin Media have earned themselves several demerit marks in my book. I had passed the first two stages of their recruitment process and was all set to attend the assessment sessionin Peterborough when that was postponed due the assessor being ill. A week later I was told that they were looking to reschedule the assessments and asked about my availability for the following week. I then heard nothing for two weeks, at which point I phoned the agency who were handling the vacancy and was told that they (Virgin Media) had filled the vacancies with internal candidates. The person I spoke to at the agency did have the grace to apologise for the fact that I had not been inforned of this.

Last week I spent a day at Learning Works’ centre in Spalding. Spalding is a small market town set in the flattest expanse of land I have ever seen, in deepest Lincolnshire. Getting there for the start of the working day involved catching the 6:55 bus from Lynn, which should have arrived at Spalding bus station at 8:18 but was delayed ten minutes by roadworks on the way in to Spalding. Learning Works’ Spalding Centre is in a building that was once part of a huge factory that dominated the entire town, which means that there are no windows, which makes it a very curious place to work. Unlike certain organisations I could name Learning Works did pay my travel expenses (a mere bagatelle of £6.80)

There is a major database project in the offing at Learning Works, which if they decide to go for it, they would have to pay me for. I cannot reveal any detail about this project beyond that, and the fact that to enable me to work on producing a prototype database with complete security they will either be provding me with one of their laptops, or with a copy of the full version of Office 2010 to load on to my laptop.

Enjoy these photos from my archives…

This is going to be a big post (you have been warned!)

The Paralympics have finished, having managed to outdo the Olympics which preceded them. The noise that greeted Peacock when he won 100m gold (in a race that was of such quality that the great Oscar Pistorius finished out of the medals) was far louder even than the noise that greeted the triumphs of Ennis, Farah and Bolt. David Weir brought the games to suitable conclusion by winning the wheelchair marathon, for his fourth gold of the games. Meanwhile in the pool, where the British olympians had been almost uniformly disappointing, there were some incredible moments. China dominated, as they dominated the overall medals table, but Ellie Simmons took two gold, a silver and a bronze medal from her four events, and established four new world records along the way.

Meanwhiile at the US Open, in spite of the tournament organisers worst efforts, which have led to a Monday finish (Murray vs Djokovic in the final tonight), the tennis itself has been magnificent. Laura Robson showed the sky is the limit for her by taking out two grand slam winners before finally losing a humdinger of a match to the defending champion. The women’s final last night was a quite superb match, Serena Williams winning 7-5 in the final set to confirm once again that whatever the rankings say she is the best in the world.

Saturday saw a double header of T20 cricket (there is another today), which started with England Women dismantling the West Indies (winning by eight wickets with over half of their overs to spare) but unfortunately the men could not match that against South Africa, losing emphatically.

Yesterday I got to have a look around the Red Mount Chapel, one of the buildings that was open was part of a heritage day. Inside it is quite astonishing, with all manner of curiosities (see the photos at the end of this piece).

The Support Group I run for Adults with Asperger’s Syndrome will need to find a new meeting place because Norfolk County Council have cut the funding that Asperger East Anglia used to get for these groups. We will find a way to keep the group running (I have already been in touch with King’s Lynn and West Norfolk Borough Council and the Lynn News), but our current meeting room is too expensive to retain in these circumstances. Of course, AEA are being thoroughly supportive, and we will still be able to have regular visits from them once we have sorted out a new room.

Photos as usual…

On Saturday I visited Norwich to take advantage of the fact that I had received payment for attending to my Aunt’s house while she was away and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Yesterday I sent wn email to the Guardian about the job descriptiion that recently aroused my ire (having carefully constructed a reasoned argument about it). This morning at Seetec during my jobsearch there another job identical in all salinet respects including location cropped up. I decideed on the direct approach and actually applied for it, detailing in the process why i considered their requirement of own transport unjustified and inviting them to justify it if they could. Watch this space!

Enjoy my latest photos….

As today’s photos will make clear, the Nicotiana and Geraniums that featured earlier in this blog are in magnfiicent fetle, helped by the belated arrival of some proper summer weather.

The following job description comes from Friday’s job search, and was a source of considerable annoyance:

Description

We are currently looking to recruit an enthusiastic and highly efficient candidate to work within our team. Day to day tasks will include scanning, filing, photocopying, post runs and assisting in the smooth running of the office. You will be highly organised with a strong work ethic and have experience of working in a busy office. A full driving licence and basic computor skills are essential. The position is a full time position however part time applicants will be considered. The vacancy has an immediate start date.

How to apply

You can apply for this job by sending a CV/written application to Karen Farrell at Mick George LTD, Second Drove, St Ives, Cambridgeshire, PE27 4YQ or to karenf@mickgeorge.co.uk.

Most of the job description is standard fare for an office job. The bit that aroused my ire is the demand for a full driving licence in his context. A few seconds on Google maps confirmed that the location is not such as to make a demand for a full driving licence defensible. Yes the job requires getting there for an 8AM start, but leaving King’s Lynn on the 5:46 train and changing to he appropriate bus at Cambridge would see me getting there at 7:42AM (and this would not represent the earliest start I have ever had to make to arrive at work on time). Full details can be seen by clicking the link below:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

If there is a VALID reason such as a location hat is genuinely inaccessible oher than by car, or the job actually requires driving then no problem (evidence as to why a driving licence is a necessity would be a big help), but requiring a driving licence for an office job without justification is a form of discrimination agains both those who are officially barred from driving due to a medical condition, and those who better than to trust themselves in sole control of a ton of metal with people’s lives depending on the outcome. Given the failure to explain this requirement and the fact that a trifling amount of reserach on my part made it clear that location is not a proper explanation I am disinclined to be charitable. As a final point, there is no contest as to who is more likely to be punctual out of me, with a clearly worked out public transport route, or any motorist relying on an estimate of how long the journey will take them, and it is not the motorist who wins.

After the rainout in Cardiff on Frday, the ODI series between England and South Africa should get underway properly today.

The promised photos…

I travelled to Peterborough yesterday to provide Hays Recruitment with some proofs of ID as required for the vacancy that I was supposed to be interviewing for today. Peterborough is a surprsingly pleasant place once you get away from the area round the bus and train stations, which is even more hideous than the corresponding part of Lynn. I got back to Lynn to find an email from a Hays consultant asking me to phone them. It turns out that the assessor is sick and no replacement has yet been found, so I now endure a wait to find out when thi interview will be happening.

Belated congratulations to South Africa who outplayed England conclusively in the recently concluded test series and thoroughly deserve their world number one ranking. Jonathan Bairstow, replacing the ostracised Kevin Pietersen in the side contributed two fine innings (95 and 54), but the top order failed in both innings. The other youngster in the side, James Taylor, showed that he has the temperament for the big occasion, and was unlucky in the second innings when his senior partner, Jonathan Trott, caused him to be run out. Surrey kept alive their hopes of qualifying from thier group of the CB40 (Clydesdale Bank 40 overs per side competition in full) by winning the Tom Maynard memorial match against Glamorgan on Tuesday. I listened to this first on my radio, and then on the computer when the powers that be decided that spoilt babies in football kits (yes, they are back in action for the new season) took precedence on 5 live sports extra.

I have some photos for you as usual (please note that the first and last pictures were taken through the window of a bus)…

As I write this England are struggling horribly in the third test match against South Africa, which they need to win to retain their world no 1 ranking. Kevin Pietersen was omitted because he sent derogatory text messages about Andrew Strauss to various members of the South African squad. Quite rightly this was considered unacceptable, so England have two youngsters (James Taylor and Jonathan Bairstow) on the middle order.

The big event for me this week was a telephone interview for a job as Order Administrator for Virgin Media, based in Peterborough. If you are thinking that a telephone interview would be tough for an aspi you are absolutely right, but having located a document that explained how to handle an interview of this nature (competency based) I was able to succeed. The approach is known by the acronym STAR, which stands for Situation/Task; Action; Result. more details on this technique can be found at http://www.interview-skills.co.uk/competency-based-interviews-STAR.aspx

I now wait to find out exactly when I will need to go to Peterborough for the next stage (it will be some time on Thursday, with a view if all is still well to a start on Tuesday 28 August (last Monday in August is always a bank holiday).

As always I have some photos for you…

I have had a busy week. On Monday I attended an interview at Sainsbury’s. This consisted of two parts, a DVD based assessment which was in the main very straightforward. The only part of this assessment that caused me a furrowed brow was the attention to detail section. At the opposite end of the scale was the “basic maths” section, which Elias or Evie could probably have done without undue difficulty. This was followed by a fairly informal one to one discussion which seemed to go well.

The online learning for the course I am acting as guinea pig for three my week slightly off kilter because owing to a problem on my own computer I had to book a session at Learning Works (outside my volunteer hours) to complete it. The combination of this, my other plans and the fact that I have to stow my computer away somewhere when the cleaner comes because she, understandably, does not like trailing wires meant that I concluded my weeks jobsearch only just in time to email the results to my caseworker at Seetec, which leads to…..

The latest example that I have personally received of the contempt that the mollycoddled old Etonians who comprise our government have for the unemployed. I received a letter from the DWP today reminding of the sanctions that can placed on people who are on the Work Programme if they do not meet their obligations. The implication behind this could not be clearer had they spelt it out: If you are unemployed it must be because you are slacking. Not only is unemployment overall rising, but the statistics relating to disabled people make especially grim reading (and if the Remploy closures go ahead they are about to get even more disgraceful). 51% of all disabled people in this coutry are unemployed, and for those with non-physical disabilities that rises to a jaw-dropping 75%. I makes these points not in any spirit of self pity but just to back up the fact that unemployed does not equate to lazy.

Thursday gave me an opportunity to hone my timekeeping skills. I had booked a morning session at Learning Works to finish the online learning for my current course. Knowing that for the rest of my day to work as planned I needed to be on the 1:45 bus to East Rudham (whence I would going on to Norwich for an evening meeting having attended to matters there) I set myself to have the work done by 12:00. This was achieved comfortably inspite of having to switch computers part way through. I was thus able to to visit East Rudham and then get on to Norwich by 4:30PM, which gave me time to visit the library and get some supper before the meeting.

just a couple og photos this week…

Last Saturday was Norwich Pride, and what a huge success it was. The parade was much bigger than last years. The whole of Norwich was dominated by the events that formed Norwich Pride, with rainbow flags adorning the castle and the city hall among other buildings. The forum was packed for most of the day with people looking at the stalls.

Wall to wall sport this week, with the Olympics in full swing and a test match going on. The test match is interestingly poised, with England 48-0 in reply to South Africa’s 371. 

Last night’s meeting of my Aspergers group went well, and we had a new person attend, which is always good news.

Two big events coming up next week for me: The interview on Monday, and an Open Day at Learning Works on Wednesday at which I shall be assisting.

All todays photo’s are from Norwich Pride…

To start with the Sainsbury’s developments: Having made sure that I logged into the Sainsbury’s site first thing on Monday morning to catch any suitable vacancies, and duly applied for an administrative job I have got through the first stage of their recruitment process and have an interview coming on 6 August at 12:00.

The T20 quarter finals are done, and the four teams who will take part in Finals day are Somerset, Sussex, Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire. The star individual performance from these matches came from Scott Styris of Sussex who scored 100 not out off 37 balls (yes, you read that right) to boost Sussex to an unassailable 230-4 from their 20 overs. Samit Patel for Notts scored a rapid half century and followed up with three wickets making the decision as to who was man of that particular match very straightforward. Yorkshire’s star was Gary Ballance (although Joe Root’s 65 was invaluable in laying the foundation it was Ballance’s 46 not out off about 20 balls at the end that made the Yorkshire total unassailable). Also to be noted is the fact that all four winning teams batted first – which makes Hampshire’s decision to field first in the last fo the four matches seem rather curious.

I have completed another secttion of my current course at Learning Works, and found it veyr enjoyable. My recommendation (unless something very dramatic happens during what is left of the course) will be that they do offer it, but take a bit of care over who they offer it to. Anyone who made heavy weather of the more basic employability course would definitely struggle with this one (it is not possible to genuinely struggle with the other).

Some more photos (making full use of the warm weather we have finally got)!