Architects Anonymous

My friend told me the other day that he watching a programme a while ago about a woman who was diagnosed with HIV, 10 years after a 1 night stand when she was 16. She didn't suspect anything until 10 years later and she was going for a check up. Thanks to this we are now both on a full scale HIV paranoia-fest.

I've never had unprotected sex but the woman's story freaked me out. What if I have it and don't know? Now I'm analysing every muscle-ache I get, every sore on my tongue that I see. I'm trying to remember whether I have ever had a fever 4 weeks after I have had sex. I'm trawling through websites looking for any stred of consolance. Everything it seems, bears a risk - if it's not HIV, then it's herpes, chlamydia or syphilis and the worst thing is, none of them seem to have obvious symptoms.

I guess the only safe kind of sex is with yourself - atleast it's with someone you love....although, don't you go blind from that?

Andy

Apologies for the lack of blogs lately. I knew this would happen. I always get all excited about something and then I get bored unfortunately.

So since the last time I blogged, my "friend" has supposedly given in my CV yet I haven't heard anything from his company yet, I turned down my job at my old office my arch-nemesis/best friend got herself a job at Norman Fosters (GRRRRRRRRR....) and I got a new job offer from Arup!

So let's start with my arch-nemesis/best friend. She was offered an interview at Norman Foster's Office after we displayed our work at the exhibition. Not sure WHY they chose her over me but whatever. I suspect it was somewhat to do with chance rather than talent considering they also asked someone who had FAILED the year - so go figure. Anyway for those who don't know, Sir Norman is the architect behind the Gherkin in London, so extremely prestigious as you can imagine. It annoys me, because even though we are best friends, we are also the bitterest of rivals and her managing to blag a place working at one of the most prestigious firms in England without even trying of course, means that she is winning. Having said that, it will also mean that she will have to work til 4am sometimes and become just another cog in a well oiled machine...so I'm not too bitter.

I sent in my CV to Arup by email on Monday and got an interview within a few hours! My interview was then scheduled for Wednesday. On Wednesday I had my interview and within 2 hours they had offered me a place! You see, people, that's how it should be! From unemployed to job offer in 3 days! However they are paying me £24,000 which is £2,000 lower than the average - but at the same time, they are given me £4000 as golden hand shake which effectively puts me on £28,000 - although what happens next year? Do I go back down to £24,000? My rival/best friend is getting £26k so I'm trying to negotiate my salary as we speak, although everyone I've spoken to has said that it's pointless. Whatever.

Then finally, let's talk about my traitor of a friend who was supposed to give in my CV to his boss. After 2 weeks of excuses and no response, he tells me that he accidently "SPILT WATER ON MY CV" - whoopsee! Whoopsee indeed -undeterred, I printed off another one and demanded he hand it in, immediately. A few days later and he tells me his boss has officially received my CV, yet here we are 1 week on and no email, no interview - nothing. I've sent an email to his boss just to make sure that he has actually received it. I mean, talk about suspicious, right? I've gone through every scenario in my head and I just can't make sense of it at the moment. Looks like a job for Hercule Poirot.

Anyway, wish me luck.

Andy

What is up with people who pretend to go offline on msn as soon as they see you log in? I wish they would block me instead - it's so much easier and so much less obvious...

I mention this because I've notice my friend (the one who got a distinction) doing this to me lately everytime I sign in. I know for a fact he is doing this because when i log in I appear offline alot and see him log in...then after a few seconds, as soon as I appear online, magically his name disappears....then after a few minutes when i appear offline, his name comes back online again. It's happened a few times now so i'm sure it's not me being paranoid.

I know it's because i keep asking him whether his boss has seen my CV yet...but I'm only hassling him because he waited like a week before giving in my CV. Infact, I'm not even sure if he's handed it in yet. Do you think he just secretly doesn't want me working at his office?

Hmm...Paranoid Andy-roid.

Andy

I've given many fake email addresses over the years - yes I'm a dog, but it's surely easier to give a fake address than to say "I only wanted to sleep with you and don't really want to talk to you again" or "I never really wanted to talk to you but my friends weren't here yet".

Anyway, the hustler finally got conned on Friday and now I know how it feels. I tried every iteration I could - was it hotmail.com or hotmail.co.uk? Was there an underscore or a dot? I tried for half a day until i realised, that maybe the email was a fake. I should have known really considering they had to think about it before giving it to me, i mean, who think about their email address in this day and age. It's a shame really because we had so much in common.

Anyway, I've learnt my lesson, in future I'll stick to "I DON'T LIKE YOU and I don't want to give you my email address, OK???!"

Andy

Just as I feel things are getting better in my life, God/Allah/Buddha/Krishna/Fate/Satan always finds a way to throw a spanner in the works

Yesterday, I met up with a friend for coffee. We were at university together and we were never like Best Friends Forever, but he was a cool guy who you could talk to. Anyway when we graduated, I passed with first class honours while he passed with a 2.1. I knew he worked hard but he was never the type of person who would actively go for the highest mark, prefering to work at his own pace and settle for whatever he got. I'm not saying that I am necessarily better than him, perhaps more driven and determined/ruthless - yes, but in terms of design and Architecture, I guess we were on the same level.

So when we had to go back to University to do the next part of our course, we had the choice of either staying at the same university or we could transfer to a different one. Because I don't like to settle, I decided to choose a more well renowned and let's say, "higher class" university whereas my friend decided to stay. It's always easy to slip back into a pair of comfortable shoes and I wanted a change.

So 2 years of suffering and torture pass, we meet up for coffee again. I hear that he's got a DISTINCTION while I "only" passed. What's more, I learn that he didn't even have to work that hard for it.

It annoys me because if I had stayed AND SETTLED FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE, I could have got a distinction as well, instead I decided to go to go to a better university and I paid the price for it - I worked twice as hard as him and received a worse mark. I also learnt that one of the "weaker" students who is a mutual friend of ours, struggled throughout the year and still managed to get a commendation!

However the most annoying thing is that I went to an interview for a job a few weeks ago where the interviewers on seeing my portfolio said to me that basically if i had submitted my work to a different university I would have got a much higher mark - and this is coming from 2 external examiners.

I don't regret moving universities because I think I met a stronger class of student and I was forced to adapt to it whereas if I had stayed at my old univeristy i may have just stayed at the same level - as they say, when you play a weak opponent, your game suffers. It just grates a bit and there's always an underlying feeling of injustice.

Of course, if this was a TV show, I would be "happy" for my friend - But that's just not me. Worst of all, I'm relying on this friend to get me an interview at his office so I can't break all ties and burn bridges, instead I have to pretend to be all chummy with him which is beginning to annoy me.

Maybe I'm overacting, maybe this isn't that big a deal. Maybe I'm only happy when I'm not happy.

Andy

So many people may have been wondering where I've been - actually considering like 2 people read this, "many people" might be somewhat sensationalist.

Well, I've spent the last few weeks in Denial Lala land, theme park to those of us who don't want to deal with reality.

A while ago i told you that i had a job offer from a place that I didn't really want to work at. Well, in the past few weeks, they have been pressuring me to make a decision. This would have been an easy decision if I had other offers (or actually bothered to send out CVs etc) but the fact is, i was hoping that this offer would be my "back up" so that if all my other (yet to come) interviews were unsuccessful, i would still have a life line.

Now they are threatening to fill my place if I don't make a decision soon. Meanwhile, I've just handed in my CV to my friend who works at a place I DO want to work at...but his boss's son has just died in a car accident which therefore means he's not at work to look at my CV. Also, there's no guarantee I'll get the job or an interview either, so i desperately need to keep that deflating life-ring floating.

Anyway, I'm back in reality now but who knows for how long.

Andy