Tag Archives: dole

Nov9

I’m a bit depressed, and confused…

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I missed a call on the land line when I was outside doing laundry. It was from the same company I had the good interview with last week. It wasn’t the fellow who interviewed me, though – it was the head of the sales department.

Um. I’m not a sales person. I’ve never done sales. I couldn’t sell water to someone on fire.

I rang back, he was on another line, can he ring me back. Sure.

While I was waiting, I checked the classifieds in the three papers I read every week. Nothing for me: accountant, nurse, chef, childminder, and a dozen different kinds of engineer. Sigh.

Then I turned to something I’ve been putting off. My social welfare appeal form.

See, about three weeks ago they cut off my dole. Totally. It was only €53.80 a week, but still it would nearly fill our gas tank. Nearly. So now I’m getting nothing at all, and I had to appeal. Which is hard because they decided that hubby makes too much for me to qualify, and that isn’t true. Well, not exactly. It’s complicated, but basically comes down to this: he IS on the dole 1 out of 4 weeks. But instead of taking the pittance from the government, he’s been using up his holiday time. Otherwise, we’d be using the credit card to pay utilities. He’s now out of holidays and the next time they put him off work, he’ll have to go on the dole.

I’m not asking for my €53.80 now, but I don’t want my case to be closed when our situation changes all the time. Let’s hope the next change is due to me getting a damn job.

The sales manager called back and said the man who interviewed me passed on my CV to him. New guy reiterated the reason for the delay in hiring for the position I had interviewed for. He then asked if I wanted to interview with him.

Well, sure, I’ll come and talk to you about it. Next Monday? Okay.

But why? Why me, why now, what’s the story here? Did I impress the first guy so much that he wants to hire me into the company now and bring me into his department when the job is officially available? Did he not want to hire me for his department at all but thought I would do elsewhere? Did he just feel sorry for my can’t-even-get-welfare arse?

I donno. Will see on Monday. Maybe it’s an admin position in the sales department, I could do that…

Oct10

I saved 5 lives today, and maybe another

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It’s a red-letter day here in Culchieland! I left the house! I know, what on earth could possibly have happened to make me leave? On foot? In the rain? Hell, it’s Ireland, it’s nearly always raining…

Well, I had to make the trek down to the post office to get my dole. That’s welfare, for my Yank friends. On the way, I:

Met BD who is a manager at the post office, and my sometime Harley-Davidson biking buddy. He was making deliveries, which is not his normal job. We had a short chat and blamed the shortage of staff on the presidential election flyers tying up all the postal workers. He handed me my post – a presidential election flyer.

So, mail in pocket, I continue my walk to the post office… is that ironic? It had rained a LOT overnight so there were little earthworms drying up and dying in the church driveway. I picked up three and tossed them into the grass.

Continuing on my way, I saw a small tortoise-shell coloured kitten running around under the parked cars in front of the grocery store that we don’t patronise. I don’t know why not, we just don’t. I tried to coax her to me, but she was scared and probably feral. I wouldn’t let a young fella in a hurry leave until she moved from under his car to another.

Up to the PO, chat with the clerk – turns out two people are on holiday and one other had a funeral for his mother in law. Aren’t small towns fun? Can you imagine getting to have a chat at the post office instead of a surly government worker? Wheee! And my dole went up €20, why? no clue. I’ll take it, 70 is better than 50 any day. It still is a drop in the debt bucket.

Back out, down to the Paper Shop where my mother in law works. She’s usually only there in the afternoon, but she’s in, and so are the other three ladies that work there. They aren’t all working; mam and B are, and the other two are chatting and bringing coffee and sammiches to the others. Aw. Mam has a cold and can barely talk. They all ask me about my back, and my job hunt. A fella delivering magazines hears me talking about my back, and I get advice and the name of a physio who fixed him ‘in one go.’ A physio is someone who isn’t a doctor, or a chiropractor, but does stuff to people who are hurt, like a sports/physical therapist. This one apparently is the physio for a GAA team in B… okay, I don’t recall the name of the town, but it started with a B and I’d never heard of it. Apparently if I go to B… and ask anyone on the street for so-and-so, they will know him and give me directions. Yes, that is the way things work over here!

Back out for the walk home. Dammit, kitten is still under the cars along the main street. Very dangerous for the wee thing. So I try, and try, to get it to come to me. She talks to me, but runs. I gave up, walked away…then turned back and into the grocery. I went to the deli counter and asked if they had a tiny bit of ham or turkey or chicken, as I was trying to catch a cat. I would have paid for it, but she handed me a bit of ham off the slicer. Thanks, deli lady!

Back outside, the kitten finally gets sick of my attentions and runs off down the alley, past the back road behind the houses & shops on the main street, and into someone’s overgrown garden. I tore up the ham and left it in the grass. At least she was safe from cars, now.

On the way home, I find and save two more worms. I feel like an Annelida hero! Yes, I Googled that. I’m a geek, but not that much of a geek!

In case you were wondering, here’s why worms surface when it rains.