Neglect
So I disappeared for a week. Yeah, sorry about that. I feel like someone who cheated in a relationship. I've gone around behind your back, seeing other blogs and not telling you about it. Instead of dwelling on the terrible things I've done, let's just talk about this like adults, kay?
Where have I been?
Believe it or not, I haven't just been laying around purposefully not writing. The past week has been beyond hectic.
Last Sunday, my cousin was due in to hospital to have her baby. He was diagnosed with heart problems during the pregnancy so he had to go into the special children's hospital in Glasgow to have him with surgeons and stuff there. Anyway, Sunday. She got into the hospital and waited around for a couple hours until the doctors told her to go home again because they didn't have an incubator available for him. So my entire extended family was on edge from then.
On Monday, I started work experience at Network Rail. (For those of you who aren't British, Network Rail are the company that own, build and maintain the tracks for the railway system throughout the UK). One of my cousins works in the finance department of Network Rail Scotland HQ. I spent that morning exhausted and seriously struggling to stay awake as he explained his job and the role of the finance department as a whole and blah blah blah. By the time 12 rolled around, I was ready to run away and abandon my family to avoid ever going to that office of facing him ever again. When I got back to the office for 1, I was seriously dreading 3 more hours before I could escape. Then I was taken in to a series of meeting where the accountants interacted with different departments and I got a much more hand-on view of the job. This, paired with a Venti English Breakfast Tea from Starbucks woke me up and the hours flew by as I scribbled down as much as I could and tried to understand all the technical terms being thrown around. We had a full house at the beginning of this week and, because of work, I was exhausted and headed to bed, hoping to get to sleep before the booming snores of my mother kicked in. (Yes, I do call her Mother)
Tuesday was much like Monday, I got in to work shattered on 4 hours of sleep. However, on the train in, I got a message from my cousin saying "Baby Robbie was born an hour ago". I've been the youngest member of my family for almost 18 years now and, when she sent me a picture of my nephew, it was all I could do not to burst in to floods of tears inn the middle of a train packed full of businessmen and women. I celebrated the new addition to the family with another Venti English Breakfast Tea on my walk from the station. Fresh faced and a little more comfortable in my new surroundings, I settled into a piece of data analysis given to me by a woman called Allison. Because I'm a strange creature, I really enjoyed it, sifting through tonnes of numbers, looking for patterns and explanations. Judge as you like. Another lunch, this time much less rushed and more relaxing then back to the office for more data analysis and fun exciting meetings and stuff you really don't want me to talk about.
Wednesday was the day I had been dreading for months. Results. I got up at 6.30 and sat on mum's bed as I opened them up. Fortunately, I'd been preparing my mum for awful so when they popped up, we were both surprised. That's right, folks, I passed. Enjoy the variety of celebratory gifs, littered around. Sure, they're not straight A's. But this week, I've learnt that not everything is going to go as perfectly as you hope. Some things will go tits up. Some things with surprise you. You just have to look at everything in to most positive way possible and grow from the things that try to weaken you. So yay, passing! The rest of Wednesday was spent with the engineering department in the building my cousin works for. I saw all the different jobs you can get with one degree and, despite some boring talk of bridges and stuff,
I had a great time. I even go to go over the the signalling centre for Glasgow and see all the controllers making sure nothing crashes. OOOH ALSO, you know those massive great big fancy board rooms you see in movies where there's like a meteor strike or an alien attack or something and all the very important leaders of the world gather to have very important meetings about very important things. I got to sit in there in a meeting. I know, you wish you were me.
On Thursday, I was super confused about my life choices and what I wanted to do with myself after school so a lot of the day was spent zoned out, considering my options. In the morning, I sat in on a meeting with all the accountants for Network Rail Scotland and MY NAME GOT MENTIONED
when they were talking about jobs that needed done. Turns out the data analysis I had done on Tuesday was actually useful and was gonna be used for a report that goes out to the whole company. (Yay me, I'm like a professional already!). Thursday afternoon was spent in a different office building with a man who showed me how the financial people work with project managers to make sure people are sticking to budget when building and repairing thing and, although almost all of you are falling asleep at how boring that sounds, I think it was fun. So screw you haha.
Friday was a short day in the office. I went back out to the same building as the signalling centre and spent the morning with a beautiful engineer in a gorgeous suit who told me how much potential I had and that I was always welcome to come back and visit him. If he wasn't like 15 years older than me, I reckon I would be having his children right now. Back to work, I was taken out by a guy who deals with public enquiries and we spoke to a lovely little old couple who wanted to get rid of a tree and then some not so lovely ladies who were worried about Japanese Knotweed encroaching on their land from the raised. I'm not going to go in to as much detail as this guy did explaining what Japanese Knotweed is, but lets just say, it's bad and you don't want it because it spreads like Strep Throat in an American High School.
So yes, I've been busy. I know that doesn't excuse me for the serious neglect you guys may have felt but I hope maybe you may go a little lighter on me now that you know what I've been up to. Also, just to soften the blow a little more, look how gorgeous my nephew is.
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