Not speaking?

"No-one can think of anything to say to you" was one of the things that was said to me yesterday. Well, it's funny but today I've received so many phonecalls, texts and emails from my former colleagues - they obviously can think of things to say....

Booted

Well, finally the day came and I got the not-so-golden boot. I can't really believe it. I'd completed all but two of my objectives (out of 20+). I was even feeling optimistic. This morning I looked at my job description - and I've achieved far more than is set out there. It's annoying that I don't have any employemnt rights, having been there less then a year. (I could only get them for racial or sexual discrmination) - which hasn't been the case).

Anyway, I went to my meeting and they basically questioned everything I said and turned things around to suit their aims. They even told me they didn't believe that I'd done all my work...! and questioned the facts I presented them with. Of course, when I told them to check with other people, they refused. But what they seemed most keen on was slagging off my personality. Apparently, no-one knows what to say to me and I have no communication skills. Instead of working towards my objectives I should have been running awareness sessions for all staff. This went on for 1.5 hours. I kept defending myself, but there wasn't much I could do pitted against 2 rabid senior staff. They even told me it was my fault that my boss left me out of meetings and made me cancel traing training sessions. "X is less experienced and younger than you!" is what they screamed at one point, referring to the interim manager. The only thing that kept me from walking out was that I probably wouldn't be able to sign on if I just left a job (how sad is that?!). So, the end of the meeting finally came and I had to give back my keys. To be honest, all I could feel was relief at the prospect at not having to work any more with such unprofessional managers, but it was also a bit of a shock.

I don't think I've said yet what sort of organistion I work for - well, it deals with anti-bullying, dignity at work issues...

Kings Cross, Russell Square, Leeds 6...

Well, I don't believe it... Houses, including a possible bomb-making factory, were searched in one of my old haunts. It's a bit further down from the street I lived in, I'd guess more towards the Burley Lodge area. Up to now the only infamy of the area is the predominance of burglaries - not so long ago, Chestnut Avenue was named the most burgled street in England... This is probably due to the fact that Leeds 6 is the student area in Leeds and full of dodgy landlords, multi-occupation houses, a transient population...

And Beeston

About 10 years ago, I used to teach ESOL to a couple of families in Leeds 11. I was totally hopeless at it. The lessons basically consisted of me struggling to teach them anything from rather dated visual props and then my students offering me a cup of tea and a piece of battenburg cake (as the weeks went on, the tea and cake was offered earlier and earlier into the lesson! I think it was a signal that they wanted the lesson to be over). I can't remember the exact addresses, but Colwyn Road sounds mighty familiar.

All the wrong reasons...

Well, I'm lazy and I haven't updated this blog for over a month... Today, I looked at the sitemeter statistics and was surprised to find out that I've been receiving rather more visitors than usual (an understatment!). I presume this is because I'm linked to Kings Cross and Aldgate East on the tube blogging thing (sorry I can't remember it's proper name, and I haven't enough time to look it up at the moment).

I'm getting a bit confused about the extent to which Aldgate East was affected by the bombs - in the confusion on Thursday I was presuming people were getting confused with its slightly more westerly cousin Aldgate. Anyway, I'm linked to Kings Cross as I work round there (inbetween KX and Russell Square). On Thursday I had to get in to work early (for me! - 9am) so I think I just missed the chaos.

A few minutes after I reached work all the phones started ringing with colleagues saying they'd be late into the office as there were problems (this was the time of the 'power surges') on the tube. Others were coming in saying they'd be held for around 20 minutes in the tube outside Kings Cross. All we could hear outside were sirens - never heard so many in my life. Then there was a bang and we were wondering what it was - it just seemed an odd noise. The news was still saying that the problems on the tube were due to power surges, but there was also a rumour that 2 tube trains had crashed between Aldgate and Liverpool Street. But by this time we knew something bad was happening. I tried to look at the TFL website and the travel page on the BBC but I just kept getting blank pages. Then we heard (I think from the internet, I can't remember) that there had been bombs at Kings Cross. Then people were saying there was also a bomb at Russell Square. I was getting rather worried, stuck in the middle wondering if anything else was going to happen in the area. There was also talk about other bombs at Edgware Road and Moorgate. Then someone came in who'd actually seen the bomb go off on the bus in Tavistock Square and this was followed by more rumours of further bus bombs. I think by the time I left work in the afternoon, I was under the impression that there had been bombs at Rusell Square, Edgeware Road, Kings Cross, Aldgate, Moorgate and Liverpool Street tubes along with 3 bombs on busses.

At one point we were sent into the basement of the building, but it really seemed by then that everything was over. Although outside there were loads of people on the pavements, looking as if they didn't know where to go. The pubs seemed to be doing good business though.

I'm lucky that I don't live too far away from work - it took around an hour and a half to walk home. Everywhere was cordoned off around Kings Cross so it was a bit of a squeeze walking through side streets along with hundreds of other people trying to get home. My mood on Thursday was one of nervous excitement, yesterday this turned to sadness and a bit of fear. I spent most of Friday watching all the reports on the news and avoiding the tube. I've just made my first tube journey and I must say I was incredibly nervous (I kept waking up in the night worrying how to get to work by avoiding the tube on Monday). There was hardly anyone on the Central line - it's usually packed on a Saturday.

Anyway, that's my story from what I can recall at the moment.