New job - new future

Well, today has been a very interesting day indeed. I had an interview with ACS Clothing, who desperately need some help in their IT department to upgrade existing software to use web applications and fun stuff like that. After a 3.5 hour interview they sent me on my way with the assurance they would be in touch very soon. (The fact that I had mentioned interviews scheduled for Thursday and Friday might have something to do with it!)

When I got home, I got a phone call from the agency who had arranged the interview to tell me that I had been offered the job! I was so pleased to hear it. She said it was amazing because they offered me the top of the range they had quoted to her which she said was unheard of. In fact, she said she's never seen that happen at all. So thanks to God for that. I'm truly blessed and highly favoured.

It's a strange feeling to be about to start another job. I think I'll actually enjoy being around people again. It's like coming out of hibernation or something like that.

I'm now finding myself wondering what to buy now that I actually have an income. I think a car might be a worthwhile investment. Stay tuned for more details to follow!

This doesn't look good...

Ok, so even the least "computer-savvy" individual can tell this image does not show a good situation. A few weeks ago I was playing Swat 4 (a thinking man's shooting game) and all of a sudden it froze and rebooted my machine. That had happened once or twice before, however this was the first time I saw what you can see in the photo - a rather ominous line of plain white text in the top-left corner of a very black screen announcing "Operating System not found". I thought to myself, "Hmm, that can't be good" as I turned off my computer.

Thankfully when I turned my computer on again, it had an Operating System after all. Phew, thank goodness for that! I can just imagine the call to a client now, "Umm, no, the software's not finished. Yeh, my computer broke when I was... playing a game."

According to Microsoft's website, it could be a problem with the hard disk, so I suppose I should check that out...

Alan Johnston is free!

I was so excited yesterday to hear the news of the release of Alan Johnston. I had been following the news and praying for his release. It's so brilliant to see that prayer answered. It's great to have some good news in the media.

I don't have malaria

Good news everyone - I definitely don't have malaria. You might wonder why on earth this is relevant information, so I will explain. Many years ago (1999-2000) I lived in Pakistan for a year. Although I was living in the mountains where there is no malaria, I often went to Islamabad which was at a much lower altitude. It is considered an area where malaria could be present.

Well, when I came home I wanted to give blood as I have done in the past. However, I was told that there was a risk I could be carrying malaria so I was to wait six months and then come back. I dutifully waited the six months and returned to the blood donor centre only to learn that they didn't actually have any test for malaria so I couldn't give blood until they did.

Fast-forward to a few months ago when I saw an advert on the TV saying they were desperately short of blood. I thought I would check if they were now able to test for malaria. It turns out they do now have a test. I got the test done and the results came back today. I do NOT have malaria so I can give blood again. Let the good times flow!