{one} what's your guilty pleasure tv show?
Some mornings I look in the mirror and I don't even recognise myself anymore...but it's Eastenders. Cannot get enough of it.
{two} ear piercings on men: yes or no?
Not really bothered, to be honest!
{three} do you have dish or comcast?
I don't speak your crazy language. Um. I presume you're talking about how I recieve Eastenders through my telebox? We have Virgin. Is so much better than Sky....
{four} what's your favorite current fashion trend?
Tunics, and long length stuff in general. Makes it so much easier for a big tall girl like me to look presentable!
{five} if you could learn to do anything, money not being an issue, what would it be?
How to make REAL jewellery. Like...not just wrapping wire around stuff, but silversmithing and working with precious gemstones and set them in rings I've made from scratch. You know what I mean. Hard core jeweller stuff.
{six} red or white wine?
I prefer sweet white german wines. Apparently that is so obvious that it's been pointed out to me on at least three occasions by different people before they even order. Am I really that much of a wine wuss? Anyhow, I had a lovely fruity red the other day, a shame I only realised how delicious it was after I'd used most of it in a bolognaise sauce, but we got a nice little whiff of it left over to go with dinner too!
{seven} what type of food is your favorite (ex. italian, mexican, etc.)
Well if we're going soley on country of origin, there's nothing quite like our stodgey old British fare! But if I had to choose, it would be French followed very closely by Spanish (which only comes second because Spanish food uses way too much rice for my liking and I cannot eat rice)
{eight} hp or mac?
Never used a mac in my life and have no reason to. However, why is HP the only other option? Just anything that isn't a mac will do for me!
{nine} what color is your bedroom?
Black and white. Mostly white. The black is the mould garden that we're growing on the outside facing wall.
{ten} what's your favorite form of exercise?
I really don't have a favourite exercise because I really don't exercise enough, so I'm going to be very immature and saw "bow chicka bow wow" and leave it at that.
Anyhow, yesterday was the only day all this entire week in which I got home before ten o clock (I got in at 9:45). I'm beginning to wonder at the wisdom of everything I've taken on but I have to remind myself it's only this one week. If work hadn't demanded I be in to meet our training coordinators on my day off I wouldn't be in this position, and anything ChildLine related I only have myself to blame for. I have to head out to work in ten minutes and once I finish work I get to come home, change clothes, put on the washer then head out for an observation shift that lasts from quarter to six till ten o clock tonight. I could have gone to one last night, but then I wouldn't have gotten out until half one in the morning!
The training for ChildLine is, on the whole, a rather enjoyable experience. Everyone is lovely and extremely thoughtful and intelligent. It is a wonderful contrast to the punters I deal with at work who can be lovely but can also be aggressive, drunk, generally disorderly, and of the opinion that it is quite alright to leave bodily excretions of varying natures around the shop (I have had the unpleasant duty of dealing with two such excretions). Not that everyone is like that at all! On the whole I enjoy the work, and those cases are the extreme...but I've been told that so far I've had it easy. I find that difficult to dispute from some of the stories I've been told. We deal with cash, so it's a very high strung atmosphere where mistrust and suspicion can grow rife if you let it; already I've heard rumours of at least two people stealing. I've no reason to believe either but you can't be too careful. I watch my every step and jump at my own shadow.
ChildLine is a different kettle of fish altogether. Tonight, as I said, I get to sit and listen in to calls with one of the counsellors. Anything could happen and I'm prepared to have to hear some disturbing information based on our training so far, although training has also taught me that a lot of calls are just "testing" the service. However the children use the service or whatever they ask, the support from supervisors and my fellow trainees is already wonderful. In fact in some ways I feel like a very tiny fish in a massive pond; for example, last night we were role playing some sticky situations and I was grouped with a middle aged woman and an older man, both with experience of this kind of work before (she on her last year of a degree which will take her into a career with child protection services, he having worked with a charity providing a similar service to ChildLine but specifically for young folk having questions about their sexuality and gender identity). Whilst none of us were perfect they seemed so much better equipped than I for this and that's a bit intimidating. Not that it's a competition at all, because it isn't, but still I feel like I could be as young and inexperienced as the children we've been role playing as in their face. At the same time, they've been nothing but supportive and generous towards me with their feedback, and have told me they were quite impressed with my mad counselling skillz.
Counselling skillz that are really quite difficult to aquire because you have to let go of everything that you hold onto instinctively when someone comes to cry on your shoulder or ask advice...but that is an entirely different blog post!
For now I really do have to get going. Half way through the week now, though who knows what next week is going to be like - I havent even got my rota yet!
