What A Dream That Turned Out To Be...

After weeks and weeks of toiling, waging a war scathed with battle scars (a paper cut in my first week), I was ecstatic when it had seemed I had won the battle. When I posted last week about my dream coming true, and having been able to put 50 files into my folder at once, I thought that it would be a once in a lifetime achievement. A memorable event. Never to be seen again on the face of this Earth. And now... I can't seem to stop putting the damn things all in at once! ('damn' isn't a bad word in England... (that's for my overseas readers..)). I mean, now I'm just starting to get sick of it. There's no enjoyment in it anymore. No sense of fulfillment. It's started to make me thing that maybe I had slightly over reacted with my celebrations last week... Oh dear, that thought is tantalisingly close to turning my whole world upside down and making me re-evaluate my priorities and focuses in life. So let's just forget about it...

WOHOOOOOO! I got another 50 in at once! For like the 10th time!! I'm awesome :).

A Dream Come True

I've been working here for about 3 and a half weeks now, and for about the last 2 and a half weeks I'd set a goal for myself. It's one of those goals that realistically you know you can't achieve, but you still try for it anyway. And alhamdulillah, I did it :). But before I jump straight in there, let me give you a little background..

One of my jobs here as a 'Vacation Engineering Student' (which they didn't tell me actually meant 'Glorified Admin Assistant') is to update their old system. I get big folders filled with about 500 sheets of paper, I take out the papers, I re-write the dates on some of them where the stamps have faded, I then scan the pages, then come back to my desk, put them back in the folder, re-name them on the computer, and then upload them on to a server that's all the way in New Jersey (I'm in London) whilst punching in the details of each individual sheet as I upload them. I do the whole thing in groups of 50 pages (2 successive sets of 25 for the scanner). Sometimes I have to do other little annoying things with the pages, like make sure their the right size, etc. So anyway, when I come back to my desk, I'm there with about 50 pieces of paper (that all date to around 1995) that I need to put back into that big fat folder. And here's that goal I set myself. I've tried it about (quick calculation...) 30ish times, and I managed it yesterday. Here it is...

I managed to put all the pages back in one go!!! Wohoooooo!

I mean, do you know how tediously long it is having to put the pages back in little groups. The holes on the side never line up properly, 'cos of the different paper sizes and other peoples' dodgy hole punching. So I end up putting them back in about 10 at a time, sometimes even individually! But subhanAllah, min fadli Rabbi, I got all 50 in in one go yesterday :). Not only that, but I managed it again today. Allahu akbar. What a feeling that was... You see, your job doesn't always have to be boring. You just have to make the most of these little things. And some people said I'd go crazy doing that for 9 weeks... ha!

On a side note, I'd like to add that I now have (un)official sponsorship for my blog. Yep, that's right :). My company now pays me to update my blog. How awesome is that? I haven't got round to informing them about that yet, though...

Working 9-5 (well, 8.30-6, but you can't make a song out of that.. ...no music of course)

Words cannot describe how bored I actually am. Oh my God. No one, in the history of mankind, has ever been as bored as I am right now. Oh. My. God. The most boring day of my life ever. In fact, the most boring day of ANYBODY'S life ever. Alhamdulillah.

I sit here at work, as I have done for the past 7 hours or so (in which time I could have flown to India... that's how I gain a relative grasp of long hours, by comparing them to flight journeys. I find that it makes for better complaining...), and all that I'm honestly achieving (and I've thought deep and hard about this) is WASTING MY LIFE. Ahhhh, I mean, OK. I'm getting paid. Alhamdulillah. It'll look good on my CV. Alhamdulillah. But all of that will only matter if I make it out of this place and don't DIE OF BOREDOM.

OK OK, maybe I'm slightly over exaggerating. But only slightly. A really small slightly. I just spend the whole day, sitting in this little depressing cubicle, and doing nothing. I mean, sometimes to spice things up I'll throw in a little bit of work in between all the nothing, but it never lasts too long. I get work, I do the work, then there's no work. And I sit. Eat raisins. Spend hours sneaking around online with a little tiny browser on my screen so no one can see. And try and not go to the bathroom. That's my average day. That's how it's been for 2 weeks, and that's how it'll be for another 7... eurgh.

My office has pretty much cleared up now, no longer need to worry about sneaking online. But I think I'll go pray now. Alhamdulillah for masah on khuffain.

P.S. It's lonely being the only beard in the office...

Alhamdulillah 'ala kulli haal

I've noticed that I haven't really done any Islamic posts. That's quite strange, it doesn't really reflect how much I talk about it in real life. I don't wanna force it though, so here goes another non-religious (should I just call it secular for the fun of it?) post..

OK so I've been working for 3 days now. Alhamdulillah. And I really mean that. But I can't deny that it's pretty boring. No, wait. It's REEEEAALLY boring. Alhamdulillah. I don't wanna sound like I'm complaining, I'm very greatful (stupid spell checker, I AM NOT IN AMERICA, stop telling me to incorrectly spell it as grateful!) to have a job when so many people (especially in the current economic climate) are so desperate to find a job. I'm just trying to describe how I'm finding it so far. So let me give you a break down of how it's gone..

Day 1

1. I woke up waay too early (well it was actually on time, but generally speaking, it was waay too early).
2. Got in the car (my sister drives me, it's the Qadr of Allah that I managed to get a job 45 minutes away from home in the building exactly opposite hers).
3. Fell asleep in the car (she didn't appreciate that too much).
4. Got to work.
5. Got bored.
6. Had lunch.
7. Got bored.
8. Finished work, went hunting around the area for somewhere to pray (found a place after 45 minutes), and then waited for my sister to finish work in the car (which took about another 45 minutes).

Once again, alhamdulillah. I need to keep saying that to myself, or else I might start taking it for granted. Why was the day so boring? Mainly because of problems with setting up the computer I was working on, and so I ended up actually spending the day doing nothing but sitting around, staring, sticking out as the only bearded guy in a shirt and trousers in a building full of beardless men in shirts and trousers (the word bearded and brown can be used interchangeably there). But hey, they still paid me. Paid me to sit around all day doing nothing. Alhamdulillah :).

Day 2

A much better day. My computer was working, so I got cracking on the work they gave me. Despite working in a company that is intrinsically linked with my degree (I'm studying chemical engineering, what a stereotype..), the role I can be given can only be described as a glorified Administration Assistant. I don't mind, but the work gets pretty tedious pretty soon. But it keeps me busy.

Day 3

Went for a little drive with someone at work to a site further up north in the country. Took 2.5 hours to get there, was there for about 3 hours, and then it took about 4.5 hours to get back (plenty of traffic, we covered about 2 miles in 2 hours, no joke). Which was highly convenient as I had a driving lesson at 6.30 (my test is on Friday, make du'a!), at which time I had only gotten back to the office. But once again, I got paid. I got paid for sitting in a car for 7 hours and falling asleep and eating some raisins.

Alhamdulillah :).

My First Job

I'm expecting a sleepless night tonight. It happens to me every year, whenever the new academic year starts, although it looks like this year it's gonna happen twice. Tomorrow I start my first day of work. I've never worked a day in my life (well, at a real job), but surprisingly I'm not feeling that nervous. I never really get nervous. I'm actually quite looking forward to it. It's kind of like a placement type of job, linked to my degree. I found it pretty boring last year when I went for like a little taster, but now for some reason I'm grown to the idea of working in that whole office type of environment. Maybe it's because I'll feel more grown up. Or maybe it's because I'm getting paid this time :P. Let's just hope 24 hours from now I won't be writing a post that will be the beginning of 9 weeks of complaining on my blog..