Erieversible

Between job hunting and studying today I nipped out to hunt down a tube of antiseptic cream.  The tube of Savlon we brought with us is running out.  Of course, the Savlon brand will mean nothing to the US readers, just as Foille will mean nothing to UK readers.  Anyway, must get to the point!

The shelves here are full of antibiotic creams, and lacking in antiseptic creams.  They are quite different beasties, and I wonder why there is a fundamental difference between what is on the shelves of UK and US pharmacists.  Hunting around the internet uncovers a couple of probable replacements, the aforementioned Foille and also something called Unguentine.  So, antiseptic creams are not totally unknown, just rare.

The expedition also found lots of cortizone based creams on the shelves.  In the UK these would be by prescription only (via a doctor).  Another basic medical difference.

And while on the medical subject, I absolutely LOVE the adverts on US TV for medical products.  More disclaimers than adverts, a total riot of entertainment.  The best was one recently which showed a load of happy customers all extolling the virtues of the product and amongst the text on the screen was, and I quote….”Do not expect to achieve these results”.  What?!  If I buy the product, what exactly can I expect then?  That would seem to me to be a key piece of information.  Nothing at all like this in the UK.

And job hunting?  Now applying for jobs further and further from Erie - I may have to change the title of this blog!

The kids are now at school and this is the time, on the original schedule, when the job hunting really gets cracking.  As mentioned before, lots of frustration about all other areas moving faster than planned, but no way to bring forward the stage where we have an income.  All attempts to persuade the education authorities to start schools a month earlier were unsuccessful

So, our days are now treated as 9 to 5 working days, with our efforts going into finding employment.  For my part it is quite different here.  First of all I have had to turn my UK CV (Curriculum Vitae) into a US resume.  There are some very notable differences.  I think I’ve been successful but really have no idea so if there’s anyone out there who is an expert on the format for a resume, and is willing to have a quick glance at my 2 pages and provide feedback, that would be most appreciated.  And if you are just interested the resume is here.

Earlier hope was dependent on an agency, and I’ve dealt with agencies from the other side of the fence, as a hirer, for many years - so I know how they work.  Therefore I was disappointed, but not surprised, that all of the positive waves coming from them came to nothing.  I wonder if the relationship between an agency and an individual is symbiotic or parasitic?

Also there’s the question of whether to put real effort into getting Celtic Grid up and running.  That’s another item to fit into the ‘daily work schedule’.  For someone without a job, and with kids now out of the house during the day, life is about to get very busy!

Today we had to operate at the speed of the rest of the world rather than at our speed.  Sometimes, however much you try, you just can’t drag the rest of the world along at your pace, however frustrating it may be.

We are now in a period of waiting for work.  There have been a number of job applications submitted and there’s nothing we can do to hurry the organizations along.  There’s no rush, it is just that neither of us are used to being idle and you can only put up with so much of the kids on a 24/7 basis   We took them shopping for beds today.  Proper beds rather than the temporary solution that met the “basic essentials” need of the rental house in the short term.  Both kids have clear ideas about what they want and why they want it.  As parents it is our job to adjust the “why they want it” to meet reality and then help them adjust the “what they want” to fit.  Or something like that.

Tomorrow we are heading away somewhere for the day.  Undecided exactly where….we’ll decide in the morning.  Meanwhile, we wait.  They say patience is a virtue, so maybe we need to learn to be more virtuous!  And to make sure the cell phones have a signal….