I am cruising with these free movies! A while ago I mentioned how I'd found this site where people post links to freebies, and how I was going a bit ape shit on it. Well, it no longer holds quite the same appeal a month on, as for the most part, the freebies you apply for never actually arrive, and what you do get instead is spam. Not just the odd dirty e-mail detailing someone else's sexual deviances, but bucket loads of spam of all kinds; from cheap viagra to free weekends away to my personal favourite - petitions for money from our brothers in deepest darkest Africa - Nigeria being a clear forerunner in begging by e-mail. You had to know it was going to happen sooner or later; our inboxes are the virtual traffic lights of cyberspace, and there's a beggar lurking at each one.
One thing this site is really good for, though, is free movies. Basically, a website called SeeFilmFirst is responsible for handing out hundreds of tickets to film previews, which are then used to gauge audience reaction before the film is officially released to the public. Rather bizarrely, you can choose not to participate in the feedback request, leaving you with 2 free movie tickets and them with....????
Anyway, I am milking them for all its worth, having just got tickets to see a preview of Superbad, the new comedy from the guys who did Knocked Up (which I also got free tickets for, and which is currently my favourite rom / gross-out com ever. See it, you won't be disappointed). We also saw Atonement and the Keri Russell comedy/drama Waitress for the grand old price of nothing. Ok, so perhaps they should be paying people to go watch Waitress, rather than the other way around. It's not that it's a terrible movie, it's just that you have to channel your most girly, old-fashioned and extremely patient self in order to get through it... in other words, girls: proceed with caution and boys: EVADE EVADE EVADE.
Aside from hunting free movie tickets like a lion after a new Impala fawn, I've finally been forced to face up to the decision that I have known was coming for months, and make my final do or die choice. I am talking about, of course, my job becoming permanent. I've been temping here since the end of March, and am now pretty much part of the furniture - a very well liked part, so my team tells me, like a comfy old couch that you are too fond of to throw out. Not that they are in any way indicating that I will be thrown out soon; quite the opposite, in fact. I've been breaking it them gently over a few weeks now that I am looking around for something else, which doesn't involve organising their lives. They in turn have been trying every trick in the book to convince me to stay, and finally I am being offered the chance to make things official. The PA for the other half of my team, L, recently applied for and got an internal promotion, leaving her role wide open. I think with my role as it stands, they're still not sure whether they're going to get a perm PA in, or combine the two halves to work under one PA... it's all up in the air and could go any way at any time. But L's job is open, and they do want a perm candidate in there, and I would be a natural choice given that I've been here and am doing her job anyway, just with 7 different people. I would still have to apply like everybody else, and they'd still get external candidates in for interviews, but basically if I wanted to go for it, I'm 99% sure I would get it.
The problem lies in the fact that I don't want it. Why is this a problem? Well, 3 months ago I would have taken it. That was my low point, my desperate pit in which I sat, believing that no-one else will ever want me so what would I have to lose by going perm here? The only difference between that and my current situation is that going perm would give me sick leave, a tad more money and plenty of holidays - all things which elude me as the long-suffering temp. But now, despite the recent rejection a couple of weeks ago from the publishing house for the role I so badly wanted, I feel strangely at peace with the situation, as if it's really not about me or what I want, but rather about what destiny has in store for me, which will be what it will be despite my hang-ups about getting the right job. Maybe I'm deluding myself because this is a way to duck responsibility for my own career happiness, but I really think it wasn't the right thing, and that's why I didn't get it... much as I know taking this job permanently wouldn't be right either. I don't need to apply and be rejected to know that. So here I am, with what is practically a definitive offer on the table, planning how I can get away and make a move that will benefit me in the long run, not just give me security for the near future. And I would really like this Predestined Job to come along quite soon, as I feel I am talking about it ad nauseum and would like to give you, as much as myself, a break from my never-ending quest.
So in summary: I basically have an offer for a job that I don't want, and it's a problem because that just means you are going to have to suffer through more posts about my work situation, and I am going to bore myself to death by writing them. You suffer, I die and someone else gets a secure PA position in a nice company.... how did I work this out again?!?!?!
One thing this site is really good for, though, is free movies. Basically, a website called SeeFilmFirst is responsible for handing out hundreds of tickets to film previews, which are then used to gauge audience reaction before the film is officially released to the public. Rather bizarrely, you can choose not to participate in the feedback request, leaving you with 2 free movie tickets and them with....????
Anyway, I am milking them for all its worth, having just got tickets to see a preview of Superbad, the new comedy from the guys who did Knocked Up (which I also got free tickets for, and which is currently my favourite rom / gross-out com ever. See it, you won't be disappointed). We also saw Atonement and the Keri Russell comedy/drama Waitress for the grand old price of nothing. Ok, so perhaps they should be paying people to go watch Waitress, rather than the other way around. It's not that it's a terrible movie, it's just that you have to channel your most girly, old-fashioned and extremely patient self in order to get through it... in other words, girls: proceed with caution and boys: EVADE EVADE EVADE.
Aside from hunting free movie tickets like a lion after a new Impala fawn, I've finally been forced to face up to the decision that I have known was coming for months, and make my final do or die choice. I am talking about, of course, my job becoming permanent. I've been temping here since the end of March, and am now pretty much part of the furniture - a very well liked part, so my team tells me, like a comfy old couch that you are too fond of to throw out. Not that they are in any way indicating that I will be thrown out soon; quite the opposite, in fact. I've been breaking it them gently over a few weeks now that I am looking around for something else, which doesn't involve organising their lives. They in turn have been trying every trick in the book to convince me to stay, and finally I am being offered the chance to make things official. The PA for the other half of my team, L, recently applied for and got an internal promotion, leaving her role wide open. I think with my role as it stands, they're still not sure whether they're going to get a perm PA in, or combine the two halves to work under one PA... it's all up in the air and could go any way at any time. But L's job is open, and they do want a perm candidate in there, and I would be a natural choice given that I've been here and am doing her job anyway, just with 7 different people. I would still have to apply like everybody else, and they'd still get external candidates in for interviews, but basically if I wanted to go for it, I'm 99% sure I would get it.
The problem lies in the fact that I don't want it. Why is this a problem? Well, 3 months ago I would have taken it. That was my low point, my desperate pit in which I sat, believing that no-one else will ever want me so what would I have to lose by going perm here? The only difference between that and my current situation is that going perm would give me sick leave, a tad more money and plenty of holidays - all things which elude me as the long-suffering temp. But now, despite the recent rejection a couple of weeks ago from the publishing house for the role I so badly wanted, I feel strangely at peace with the situation, as if it's really not about me or what I want, but rather about what destiny has in store for me, which will be what it will be despite my hang-ups about getting the right job. Maybe I'm deluding myself because this is a way to duck responsibility for my own career happiness, but I really think it wasn't the right thing, and that's why I didn't get it... much as I know taking this job permanently wouldn't be right either. I don't need to apply and be rejected to know that. So here I am, with what is practically a definitive offer on the table, planning how I can get away and make a move that will benefit me in the long run, not just give me security for the near future. And I would really like this Predestined Job to come along quite soon, as I feel I am talking about it ad nauseum and would like to give you, as much as myself, a break from my never-ending quest.
So in summary: I basically have an offer for a job that I don't want, and it's a problem because that just means you are going to have to suffer through more posts about my work situation, and I am going to bore myself to death by writing them. You suffer, I die and someone else gets a secure PA position in a nice company.... how did I work this out again?!?!?!
No comments:
Post a Comment