Congratulations!

I think I did quite well seeing as I was only searching for a month and considering the economic climate and competition for jobs. I have to admit I will be subject to a six month trial period before I will officially become a permanent member of staff.

Well done! I hope you really enjoy the new job.

Many congratulations on your new job. I hope you enjoy it.

However, I am not sure that the outlook for job seekers is quite as gloomy as it is painted.

Our son is currently looking for a gap-year job, having almost completed his A-Levels, and has been pleasantly surprised by the response from several prospective employers.

One company, involved in recycling electronic equipment (under the RoHS scheme) is currently looking for around 220 staff, but is facing the prospect of relocation because it cannot find enough suitable applicants to fill the available vacancies. This is a company based at Billingham, (near to Stockton-on-Tees), which is supposed to be an unemployment black spot.

I have no doubt that many people do genuinely struggle to find work, but similarly, many businesses are struggling to find people who are willing to get out of bed in the morning to do a day's work.

SB

Being able to hear out of my right ear properly. (rach is now)

Looking forward to my daughter's school music evening tonight. After two terms of horrendously expensive singing lessons, she's going to perfom an unaccompanied song.

A day off. Pottering and doing nothing much. No need to go anywhere. Fish and chips.

Performance exams done, Relax

A surprise visit from Alpha Male Jazz Cat in his beloved old Corvette

Sadly he caught me in my cow pants and no make up. Golly, I sure know how to do glamour.

He has just left, utterly traumatised

Can't-Imagine-Why-I'm-Still-A-Spinster-Bag x

Wrote a new song

I just changed my forum signature. Up until last night it read "Shouldn't be on here really... dissertation to write! "

Well... not any more!

This feels quite harsh, I must admit - it perhaps depends on the area in which you live? For each of the part-time positions I have secured to pay my way through university, I applied for around 30-40 jobs, usually gaining one or two interviews and then finally securing a position. I have experience, am willing and able and would pretty much have turned my hand to anything to get me through my degree. Now that I'm looking for graduate jobs, of course the ratio of applications : interviews is even less fruitful...! But good luck to your son, SB - I found a gap year job quite easy to come by as well, but then I was living at that time in a completely different part of the UK!

Congratulations!

I must have applied for 30 jobs and got 1 interview, where I was hired. The other 5 interviews were all via agencies who called me directly wanting to submit my CV for the job they had going. Must also add that I am getting the average graduate salary for this role, despite not being a graduate!

I've had a lovely walk along my local canal this morning

My mental Midget (basically running a race spec engine) turned up last night

Ooh - which canal is that? We are planning a canal holiday next year.....!

A lovely beach walk for me.

A fantastic afternoon at the Army pool, outdoor, 50 m, and a gorgeous day. The lifeguards are fab and the kids had so much fun with them Think I know where we will be spending most of the summer

I have no wish to offend anybody, but what I said is my experience.

We live in the North East of England (Co. Durham), which is reputed to be an unemployment black spot. There are certainly plenty of people in the region who are not in work, but I believe could and should be working, and certainly have no medical reasons for not doing so. Yet, employers in the region struggle to find staff. Why is there such a gap between the two?

Do prospective employees have unrealistic expectations of employers, or is it simply a case that large numbers of people don't want the inconvenience of work when the benefit system pays almost as much?

SB

Maybe the employers are rejecting these people......

After last week's Guildhall teaching where I ended up feeling like A Very Bad Teacher, today I had a really lovely morning and ended up feeling like A Very Good Teacher !

My Year 6s were absolutely AMAZING and I felt really proud. I've never got this far with this age group at GH before.

And JudithJ came to watch, having returned from two years studying at the Kodaly Institute - lovely to see her again and to have someone watching whom I knew understood what she was seeing. She said it was good to see some lessons in English for a change .

AND she brought me a cup of coffee in the break - lifesaver!!!

I can offer the Llangollen branch of the Shropshire Union canal....

It's only a short stretch of canal that was re-opened about 10 years ago, joins one of the rivers before joining one of the larger canals. Can PM you details if you're still interested I'd love to do a narrow boat holiday, they're so expensive though.

River Thames is the best - I love boats but I'm afraid canals don't do it for me in the same way as rivers - it's 'dead' water and doesn't have the same appeal as a 'living' river...

I don't think so.

As the owner of a small business myself, (and knowing many others in the same position), I/we have found that there is very little interest in jobs advertised locally.

As I mentioned previously, one local firm based on Teesside is looking for additional staff to expand it's plastic recycling operations, but despite a BBC Look North Report it is still struggling to fill the advertised vacancies.

In my wife's firm, (a Solicitors Practice), some of the youngsters who start on government backed schemes only turn up for a day or two and then just disappear, whilst others cannot stay off of their iPhones for long enough to do an hour's work.

One of the problems in this area seems to be that large council estates were built in the 1950's and 1960's to service the heavy industries which prospered at that time, such as coal mines, steel mills and chemical works; but most of those industries have now closed down or moved abroad, and the workforce is not prepared to move from or travel from these estates to find work in the many new industries that have sprung up.

When I first moved to the North East in the late 1980's I bought a house about twenty minutes away from where I worked. I was surprised by how many people expected me to 'move closer to work', as they simply didn't understand the concept of commuting over that distance.

Those who live in the South of England will know that there is usually a clear demarcation between residential areas and industry, so almost everybody has to travel to and from work; even if it is only a short drive. However, here in the North East, no such demarcations exist in many older communities, as people are used to living in houses built for and around their workplaces.

From an environmental persective it would be good not to have to travel to work, but what happens when 'work' moves or closes, as it has done all too often in this area?

SB

I can relate to that point. When I started work in the late 70s, most people (I'm talking about Liverpool now) would work within an easy commute of work. It would be a bus ride, a cycle ride, a train, or a short drive away. In my office then I doubt if many travelled more than 10 miles (there were one or two - one lived in North Wales for example).

That has been the largest change since I started work - it is now unusual to live and work in the same town.Admittedly I live in a small market town: I have one neighbour who works locally in a craft industry, everyone else is 20+ miles away in Warrington, Chester, Shrewsbury, Telford, Wolverhampton etc. It's either that or don't work.

I know what you mean. The River Thames has a wonderful breadth, but canals are not all 'dead water' as you might think. The Llangollen Canal, for example, carries drinking water for Manchester from the River Dee at Llangollen, and can be quite fast flowing in parts.

SB

Still beaming from a wonderful one day introductory course on blues piano at City Lit yesterday. City Lit is a wonderful place, the teacher was really enthusiastic and it was a good group of learners, we really dropped onto a collective groove, to use the lingo.

Possibly I'm biased but I think the Mersey in the centre of Liverpool is more dramtic. It's about a mile wide at the point were the ferries cross (Pier Head on Liverpool side to Hamilton Square on Birkenhead side). The tidal flow can be dramatic as spring tides can be more than 10 metres.

Swell Box, it sounds like people in that area are rather more lazy than the people I have encountered who are currently looking for work. At 18 I commuted for 3 hours a day to work at one point and thought nothing of it - my parents can walk to work now but at one point my Dad had to live 3 hours away during the week.

I think it largely depends on your upbringing, but I don't think I ought to get into that here for fear of offending anyone. I will however say that I have a friend who left school at 16, worked for a year but hasn't worked since, has a baby and is better off than me... To the extent that she is able to afford to get married later this year. Anyway, I shall get off my soap box!

Seeing as this is the happy thread, I am happy that it isn't raining today.

It's a very long way away though......

Trying to persuade OH that it would be worth trying the Caledonian Canal - but he's stuck on narrowboats (not literally, that is!)

Helping little sis buy a tent

Golly. I hope MY sis doesn't decide to help HER little sis buy a tent ...

Mmm.

Anyway, Bag is happy watching Great Spotted Woodpeckers on her nuts (oo-er, Matron). I have a grown up and a juvenile. The adult is still feeding the youngster although also letting it have a go for itself.

How pleasing is this?

Bird-Bag x

Oooh - great spotted! we get a couple of green ones round here, but I don't think I've ever seen a Great Spotted.

It is MOST PLEASING!

I am sitting in my music room with my binoculars spying on them

Easily-Pleased Bag x

and if she does????????


enjoy the birdwatching (great hobby when camping btw )

Stanford, Elgar, Darke and Charles Wood.

We like bird-watching from a boat on the river . Actually Bag and I have A Plan which is not a zillion miles away from camping...or the river...

Mysterious-Cyrilla







Ah, but I'm not into 'dramatic'...I love the river further up, where a lot of people don't know the 'younger' Thames...

I live very close to a nature reserve (about 100 yards away), there is a small stream that runs between me and it and the canal is about 200 yards away.

There's a green woodpecker which lives in the woodland. There's usually a cuckoo each year. There are buzzards in the area and occasionally red kites pop over for an afternoon visit from Wales. Quite a few owls about and there are bats too. Friend of mine who was over spied a kingfisher once, I've never seen it though. we do have water voles and there are otters about apparently, according to the local warden from the wildlife trust.

Finishing my degree...

Congratulations!

WOW!!!!!! Yayyyyyyyy


Wishing you ALL the best for whatever you do next!!!

Finally getting in 3 assignments for college (even if they are late). Just have a presentation to do and i've finishd college.

Fantastic parade for Prince Edward's arrival this morning in the searing heat (32degC) - we were sticking to the lines on the runway!!

Thank you Lottie! Just got the agonizing wait for results now!

That's my jealous face! It is COLD here, and very, very wet!

Wish I were in Prince Edward's shoes!

Sorry about the rain but I'm not so sure you would be..the heat was so much on the runway we could feel it radiating through our boots - and the painted/tarred lines were melting.

The Royals then went on a walkabout in horrendously hot temps, full sun, and then sat watching a dance production....hope Edward put sunscreen on or he will have a burned bald patch!! They followed that by a garden party in the convent where they are staying (the Band's Dance Band played...I got the night off as there aren't any flute parts!).

Tonight is our BIG parade, I think there are going to be alot of onlookers with Royalty there too....pressure is on!!

there's a book that is somewhere along those lines...........

I know! One of my all-time favourites...but actually this is not The Plan...

Some light relief here