Personal

Fashion fabulous No. 3

/ Lisa

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I had a job interview on Monday. I didn’t really know what to wear so decided to have a play around with what I had, instead of going to my old fall-back black dress.

This is what I ended up with:

It’s not a very good picture, but you get the idea.

I started off with my high-waisted black stretch skirt from Farmers and added one of my long-sleeved t-shirts from Glassons. Whenever I wear a skirt or dress, I have to put either pantihose or leggings with it. I just can’t stand wearing a skirt by itself. So I pulled out one of my new pairs of We Love Colours tights in Royal Blue.

Finally a pair of tights that fit me that I don’t have to pull up every hour. They just fit and they’re bright!

I then added my new grey and navy stripped cardi from Ezibuy, but it looked a little wrong just sitting open, so I added a belt around my waist to pull it in and tie everything together.

I am very happy with this look and I can change it up a little bit with the different colours of tights and long-sleeved t-shirts that I have. I also have several other cardis this look could work with.

I may even use it for other interviews that come up.

My fashion mind has finally kicked in. It only took 24 years.

In other fabulous fashion news, I went into City Chic today – my favourite clothing store – and put a couple of items on lay-by, because they are ridiculously expensive.

First there was this dress that I had previously seen on the website and really wanted straight away. Today I walked in to the store, saw it, they had it in my size, I tried it on, it fitted and I bought it. Done. It was like it was meant to be.

The same went for this jacket. Originally saw it online, but wanted to see if it fitted before I bought it. I did contemplate not buying it because I can’t do it up, just because of the way it sits and the small zip is on an angle. It would look awesome done up, yes, but Lisa O’Neill says with jackets that as long as it fits across your back and you can essentially pick up a toddler, the jacket is fine. And it looked fiiiine.

Yay for fashion!

Man Piece and his special-ness.

/ Lisa / 2 Comments

Lately Man Piece has been coming out with a few gems. Although they tend to be a little scary in thought, they are quite hilarious.

1. “You only married me for my looks, aye babe?”

2. “Snagglepuff* is an important member of our family.”

3. In an IM conversation:
Man Piece: whoisthecutest.com
Me: awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww #omgcheese
Man Piece: #omgindeed WE WOULD HAVE THE CUTEST BABIES #omgnotclucky
Me: :O WHO ARE YOU!?

As you can see, there is need for consternation.

I probably should say, we are not married, or will be in the near future, or have any kind of sprogs on the way. No. No. No.

Apart from Snagglepuff, who is apparently my adopted child who I’m not allowed to touch.

*Snagglepuff is his laptop.

WINZ brings me back to "winning".

/ Lisa

Today I had an appointment at WINZ. I can’t remember what they called it, but it was because I missed an employment workshop about a month ago, which I wrote down on the wrong day.

Doi.

Anyway, I rock up there explain what happened and they finally book me in for another employment workshop today.

So I waited around till 9.30 to attend. It was a lot of basic stuff that I already know, but it’s spurred me on.

The motivation is back to do stuff. If you get what I mean, to actually find a job, or at least find some more experience. If I’m writing, it’s only a matter of time till I get a job.

It’s what I love to do and nothing is going to stop me from doing it.

It’s funny how motivation kind of comes in waves. I’ve found over the last year and a bit that I will go through phases of having a huge amount of motivation, but it will slowly fade, then something will bring it back. Then the cycle repeats itself. Why can’t it just stick around? Or is that something I have to work on?

I’ve hummed and haaaed most of my life about what I wanted to do as a career. I felt I had to choose, there was so much pressure on me. But I’ve found what I want to do and I’m having trouble getting into it.

So, I’m just going to do it, whether I get paid or not. I kind of am doing it already with writing for Oh, The Scandal! But I need to do more.

Sure, I’ll keep applying for jobs that I see, but I need to get some more experience of just writing for a newspaper.

The plan: call them. There are plenty around Wellington and I’m living there currently.

Update: I wrote this a few hours ago and was undecided on whether I wanted to publish it as is, so left it for a bit. I changed a few things and now I can also say that I have another job interview on Monday. Yay!

To tweet or not to tweet?

/ Lisa / 4 Comments

I am contemplating amalgamating my twitter accounts.

Currently I have two @splatdevil and @lisarapley.

@splatdevil is on lockdown because I don’t see it as a very professional twitter account. It does not portray the person that I am wanting to put forward, but in saying that, it is who I am. At times it could go a little overboard. It is really a “friends” account, whereas @lisarapley is a professional “work” account. (Not that I actually have a job.)

These days you have to be careful with what you put on the internet, because with a quick Google search you can find anything. In fact this blog probably doesn’t cast me in a very good light, which is why I have been blogging less. The whole, putting less of myself online.

Which is where the idea of deleting one account came from.

I also rely a lot on twitter. It has literally taken over my life in the last two years. Sure, I didn’t have much else to do, but I’m wanting to change that. I’m sick of being unemployed and I feel I’m getting the short end of the stick sometimes.

I guess there are two ways I could do it.
1. Keep @splatdevil, but follow everyone from @lisarapley that I don’t follow; change my name (most likely to lisarapley) and unlock my account.
2.Vice versa – keep @lisarapley and follow everyone from @splatdevil that I don’t follow.

The second one seems the easiest, there is less to do. But the issues I’m coming up against – I will lose my tweet count from @splatdevil if I do that.

I’ve put in two years of work on that one and have made some fantastic friends through it. I have almost 38k tweets. Could I really undo all of that with a simple click of my mouse?

Another is, would people know it was me? Deleting @splatdevil and following all I did over on @lisarapley, would I get back the people that I have followed and become, somewhat, friends with?

There are other options. I could delete both and start afresh. People have done it. Or I could make @lisaraply my main account and cut down on the amount of people I follow on @splatdevil. That would turn it in to a strictly “friends only” account, which might not be a bad thing.

I want to do something and having only one account would be awesome. But in this world where I have submerged myself in social media and the career that I am trying to get off the ground, is having one account realistic?

What are your thoughts? Do you have multiple accounts? If so, what do you use them for? Am I worrying over nothing? Tweet me or leave a comment below.

Chur.

WINZ makes my head want to explode.

/ Lisa

Being unemployed, you’ve got no income at all. You have to rely on Work and Income New Zealand and the unemployment benefit in order to afford even the simplest things. Even then, you don’t get a whole hell of a lot.

But, they can be the cause of many, many headaches.

I have a particular one going right now. I’m raging. Actually blind rage, because what they are asking me to do/telling me and what I have told them and done, just doesn’t add up.

From the beginning: I was on the sickness benefit because after all my university study I had very severe depression and needed a break. But at the start of May, my medical certificate ran out and my doctor wanted me to transition from the sickness to the unemployment. I did not question this, I was quite ready to get a job, beyond ready actually.

I had an appointment at the Flaxmere office, went through the unemployment seminar, which was actually a waste of time for me because it was all “where to find a job”. Yeah, I know where to do that. I then met with a case worker. I told her that there weren’t many opportunities for me in Hastings and that I was wanting to move to Wellington. Because of me wanting to move, they were not able to give me any benefit.

So I moved.

I then made an appointment at the Willis St office and again underwent an unemployment seminar and met with a case worker. Who, I might add, was a lot more understanding than the case worker I met with in Flaxmere. He actually understood that I had skills above physical labour and didn’t want to do any course for practical skills or retraining, because I already had them. He also saw that I had been applying for every and any job that I thought I could do. All of this I did tell the Flaxmere case worker, but she didn’t seem to understand me.

After my first appointment in Wellington, I had to go to a second one with a case worker in order to get the unemployment benefit. I did this the next week and I got my benefit.

This was a HUGE relief, because I also got back pay. By huge relief, think: at the extent of my overdraft starting to panic, relief.

Being on the unemployment benefit, you do have to meet certain requirements. I’m up for that. I’ve been applying for jobs left, right and centre. I just haven’t been getting anywhere with them, which really upsets me.

You also have to go to several employment seminars etc etc. So I had an appointment for one of these at the Wellington office. In a stupid silly mistake of mine, I missed this one. I thought it was on the Wednesday, not the Tuesday. For some reason I thought June 14 was the Wednesday, not the Tuesday. But once I realised my mistake, I called the 0800 number and explained the situation and asked whether I could book in for another one.

However, the guy that I was talking to said that this type of thing had to be booked through an office. I was ok with this, because I walk past the WINZ office quite regularly. It wouldn’t affect me much.

So the next day, I went into the Willis St office and explained the situation to the person on reception and again asked whether I could book for another one. At this point I was told that if I had missed it, someone would call me and that they couldn’t book it there.

Ok.

So I waited.

Earlier this week I finally got a phone call to re-book this appointment. Unfortunately because I am in Hastings for family obligations currently I couldn’t do it this week or next. I would also like to not have anything to do with the Flaxmere office ever again, because they actually make me feel worthless. So I have an appointment for July 12, when I am back in Wellington.

Now, this is where it starts to make me angry.

Dated June 16, that would be two days after I missed the Wellington appointment, I received a letter saying there was an appointment for me to discuss “Work and Training opportunities” at the Flaxmere office for June 22.

Naturally, being in Wellington, my mother called and canceled this appointment for me saying I had done what they told me and moved.

Another letter arrived, dated June 22, advising me that I had another appointment for the same thing on June 30, at the Flaxmere office.

Because my mother didn’t want to spend another 30 mins on hold to explain the situation she wrote on the letter, “You have already been advised that Lisa is now in Wellington. She has had several appointments at an office there. Please cancel,” and faxed it to the Flaxmere office.

Today I got another letter, dated June 29 saying that I failed to attend an appointment on June 28, to meet work obligations and did not carry out the agreed Job Search Activity. Subsequently, my benefit will reduce from next week.

Um, what?

As far as I am aware, I never had an appointment on June 28.

Other inconsistencies include:
Why are they making appointments for me at the FLAXMERE office, when I have been dealing with the WELLINGTON office to get my benefit and they know I have moved to Wellington.

Why did it take TWO WEEKS for someone to call me and reschedule my missed appointment, when I could have had the appointment re-booked the day of, or day after I had missed one? I put in the effort to rectify my mistake, and now I am been penalised for them making mistakes.

Yes, the first mistake was mine. I am not challenging that. I’m challenging everything that has come AFTER that.

It is not like I have been sitting around on my arse doing nothing. Since I got the unemployment benefit, I have had testing and an interview with Media Monitors, which I didn’t get because they said I wouldn’t fit with the team. As in, my personality wouldn’t fit with the team.

I also had testing with the Wellington Courts for potentially becoming a court reporter. However, I only managed to get to 65wpm on the test and they need at least 70wpm. Damn.

I did some contract work for the Department of Building and Housing.

I’ve also finished my photography diploma. That was A LOT of work.

I’ve also been applying for jobs, as you do when you are looking for a job.

And finally, I have been continuing to write for Oh, The Scandal!

Not that any of these are the employment seminars etc that you have to attend, but they have obviously missed something. LIKE THE FACT I NOW LIVE IN WELLINGTON.

Now, I could have actually gone to the June 30 appointment, because I was actually in Flaxmere at this time. But at the time of the letter, I did not know I was going to be here.

So now I have to call them on Monday to try and sort all this out. Taking up more of my time.
I tweeted earlier: “It’s like, how can they expect you to find time to look for a job, when you’re constantly fighting them?”

Maybe if they actually left me alone, I’d have found a job by now.

That might be a bit unlikely. For some reason no newspaper or media company wants to hire me. I do not know why. And I am getting forever more angry and frustrated about it all. I actually want to crawl in to a hole and forget this entire world exists.

I’d prefer to have nothing to do with WINZ, but alas, I need some money.