KierNet

Slightly annoyed at the moment, as I’ve said in a post before, I currently own a Ford Focus, which I thought would be a lot more reliable than my old car, a Fiat Punto.

Anyway, on Sunday I was driving home from dropping something off, and it was a little bit jumpy, but I put that down to me being in the wrong gear, carried on going, about 5 minutes later it cut out completely, managed to steer it off the main road. Tried starting it a few times, and nothing happened. Phoned the AA and got toed home as they couldn’t fix it at the side of the road. Then got toed to a garage in the morning.

Got a phone call today, its the diesel pump that has gone, and brand new one from Ford costs £900! Plus £300 labour. Really did feel like crying when they told me .

I know I’ve not updated for months, but I’ve been a little busy…well, that’s my excuse anyway.

I’ve started my training for the Police Specials, and not got long left, don’t want to say too much, but loving every minute of it so far, a lot better than what I thought it would be, mixture of theory and practical. We’ve got a knowledge check this week, for all the units we’ve covered so far, so spending a lot of time going over my notes…also printed some stuff off to put over my walls in my room. Personal safety has been a lot of fun, hard work though, had two days of it, and body was killing me by the end of the second day, bruises all over me at the moment .

Little worried that I am going to be based at a place that I know very little about, although I wont be allowed out by myself until after a year, so hopefully I’ll learn my way around, also got myself a map, which will hopefully help.

Become a bit obsessed with Road Wars and the such, watching them pretty much all the time now, does annoy me when some channels (Watch) play the same one 3 times a day…and yet I still watch it…

I’ll hopefully blog again within a few days, but dont hold your breath.

Since my last post, I’ve had my Police fitness test!  Happened in the 21st of November, and passed!  Just got my medical left which is on this Friday, and then I start training.

I’m not sure when I start training, I got a letter on Friday saying that I’ll be starting in January, however, I got a phone call a few hours later asking if I can start in April…little disappointed, going to phone up on Monday saying that it would be easier if I could stay doing the January session, as I’ve already got the time off work.  Hoping that they’ll be OK with it.

I’ve also got myself a new car, decided to get a Ford Focus 1.8 TDDi.

Very pleased with it, drives brilliantly, nice and comfy to drive, and seems very economical at the moment, managed to get 250 miles out of half a tank, which isn’t too bad I dont think, was getting around 300 from my Punto.

Was a little shocked when I first filled up, £55, hopefully it will last a month though, think I’ll cry if not. Doesn’t help that I have been driving it everywhere lately, since Tuesday I’ve done 250 miles. Tempted to go for a drive now xD.

Think thats all for now, I’ll most likely post again at the end of the week after my medical.

As I said in my last blog, I had my assessment day for the Police Specials on Sunday, the day involved my PIRT’s (Verbal Usage, Checking, Numerical Reasoning, Verbal Logical Reasoning and Observation), although we only did 4, and not sure which one we didn’t do and my interview. Was pretty nervous the night before, and before I sat my PIRT’s, and again waiting for my interview, I was due to go in at 11.30, but didn’t go in until around 1pm.

Wasn’t too sure on how the interview went, cant really remember what I said and what they asked, and wasn’t sure about the PIRT side of the day, if I failed any of it, I hoped it was the PIRT as I only had to wait 6 months before re-sitting it, rather than 12 months and re-applying for the interview.

I phoned up on Monday, and passed both parts! Got my results in the post today, and only just passed the PIRT’s…pass mark is 168 out of 264, and I got 173, but still a pass, so its all good.

I’ve got my fitness test on the 14th of November, and my medical on the 4th of December, and if I pass both of them, I start training on the 9th of January.

In my last blog I said about my PIRT and Interview for the Police Specials might be in either, November or January, however, last Thursday (or Wednesday) I got a phone call from recruitment asking me if I was available to attend the assessment centre on the 4th of October. Of course I said I would be able to attend, but starting to get really nervous. The amount of forms I have to fill in before hand is unbelievable, medical forms, then security questions and then the core competency questions in which my interview is based around. Which is a lot harder than I first thought, I’m hoping the answers that I have will be enough.

Also got the 5 tests as I mentioned below, I’ve got a book that has practice questions in to help me for this, which I’m going to start working though tomorrow, got my suit ready, just need to get a tie to wear. Part that I’m not looking forward to is having to get at the Headquarters for 8.45am…which is around a 45 minute drive away…really not looking forward to getting up early .

Got myself a new laptop today, my old one had been playing up for a while, and was getting out of date, and thought as I had been paid for Feedback Fun over the summer I would treat myself.

Ended up buying this one which I’m rather pleased with, also comes with the Windows 7 upgrade which I’m looking forward to, as I already cant stand Vista.

Not sure when I’ll next be blogging, its my 20th tomorrow so doubt I’ll be doing it then, so maybe before my interview.

Decided that I needed a new layout, got rather bored with the old one, similar idea, but I believe it looks better, still got a few things to get sorted, but hopefully that will be done within the week, depends when I find the time.

Right, little update about my Police Specials application, on the 16th I had a awareness evening at the headquarters, was a good evening, answered a few questions that I was wondering about, and got to have a go at the Police Initial Recruitment Tests (PIRT) (5 altogether, Verbal Usage, Checking, Numerical Reasoning, Verbal Logical Reasoning and Observation), and also got to watch the fitness test, I was going to take part in the fitness test, however, the day before I had a ingrown toenail removed, and it was still a little painful to walk, so couldn’t take part. However, it doesn’t look as bad as I first thought it would be, believe I should be able to pass. Going read up on some of the English based PIR, English has never been a strong subject of mine, but hopefully its something I can work on.

While I was at the awareness evening, we where told that the dates for the assessment day (PIRT and interviews are held on this day), one in October, one in November and one in January, they said that most of the people in the room (40 to 50) would be taking them in January, which is rather annoying, would rather it was sooner, but gives me more time to get ready.

Different topic now…F1…always some drama going on off the track, which is one of the reasons I love it so much, latest is that Renault have been fixing races, for more information, the following links explain whats happened.

Renault called to face fix charge
Renault to launch Piquet lawsuit
Briatore out over Renault fix row
Renault blames Briatore & Symonds
Renault face Formula 1 fix fate

I’m really liking this latest twist in F1, I’m not a big fan of Renault, and despise Alonso, always happy when he has a crap race, but it doesn’t look like he’ll be charged with anything, which is rather annoying, but maybe he was involved, will hopefully find out soon, FIA have got their meeting tomorrow.

Not done too well with blogging lately, opps. In my defence though, I have been rather busy the last month, as I’ve said in a few posts down, I got a second job, which I’ve been doing over August, and have loved every minute of it! Really hope that I can do something similar again soon, got some great memories from it.

Been catching up on my sleep this weekend, had a staff party on Friday evening, had a great night, but not much sleep, 3 hours tops maybe, and then work for 9 hours, which was a nightmare, head was killing me all day.

Last few days I’ve been looking to buy a new car, at the moment I’ve got my eye on a BMW 3 Series, my aim is to get one by this time next year, seems a long way away, but, I’m crap at saving money, need to save around £4,000 for it, so going to need to save roughly half my wages each month until then…hopefully I can, just got to hope my car doesn’t break down in that time.

Talking about my car, just had to spend £150 on getting it past its MOT, wasn’t happy with that, knew that my tyres would need replacing, but was hoping that was it, sadly not.

Right, think its time for bed, start work at 8am tomorrow, not really looking forward to it, forgot I said I would do the overtime few months ago, just need to think of the money…time and a half…love it.

Today has been a great day, first of all, I got paid , just got to wait for the money to clear, hopefully it wont be long, kinda need the money…logged on to internet banking today, and it said I had gone overdrawn…and I dont have a overdraft…last time that happened Llyods TSB tried to charge me £26 for going 5p overdrawn. Hoping it wont happen again, although with Barcleys now…and hopefully if I do get a letter I can explain what happened and it will all get sorted.

In even better news, I phoned my mum during my lunch break today, in which she said there was a letter for me, that said it was from Dorchester…the Police HQ is in Dorchester, and thats all I could think it could be, spent the rest of the day waiting to get home to open it.

Anyway to cut a long story short, I’ve passed the initial paper sift! (IPT). Over the moon about it, wasn’t expecting to hear back until a month or so, I’ve got to go for a open evening on the 16th of September, also got the chance to do a mock fitness test, which I will most likely do, still a little worried about the bleep test, believe I can do the push and pull test without any trouble. Still need to find out how long I need to run for so I can start working upto it at the gym.

Today I had a interview for the restpite home that my brother goes to, to help out during the summer, and now will be working there a few times during the summer, which is pretty cool, really looking forward to it, just need to find a way of doing the training, its Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings, and I work those evenings, hopefully I can get something sorted out though.

Also, cleaned my room today, was going to be getting a new bed, well, sisters old bed as shes getting a new one, and had to clean my room, which took a while, but worth it, I’m now changing a few things, at the moment I have a built in wardrobe, but changing that, I’m putting my TV in my wardrobe thing (hard to explain…hole in a wall really), taking the shelves out and putting new and bigger ones in, bottom one will be for my TV, then my Xbox, and then DVD’s, Games and Books along the rest. Should hopefully make it look neater, at the moment I’ve got wires all over my desk. Also getting rid of my desk, only use it to put my TV on, so taking up room, and thats where my wardrobe is going to go.

Getting the wardrobe tomorrow, and then hopefully over the next few days I’ll get the rest of it all sorted out.

Watched the F1 over the weekend…great win for Webber, even better of him as he had a drive though, hopefully there will be a lot more for him. Little annoyed with the BBC though, was at work on Saturday so couldn’t watch the qualifying, so was going to watch it when I got back from work on BBC iPlayer, just as I sit down the news is on, and they give the results, really annoyed me, although not as much as when they told the results before it was replayed again when the race was on at 6am. That really was annoying.

Found a rather cool game online a few days ago, and finally finished it, great fun though.
Can you escape?

Worried about our cat, Baloo, our neighbour came round earlier and said that he was in their garden and looked like he had hurt his foot, she brought him round and he is limping, I phoned the vets, hoping he could go today, but they didn’t have anything until tomorrow, so taking him up at 9.10, he doesn’t appear in much pain at the moment, just when he is walking. But still jumping up on the chairs and stuff, so hopefully its nothing too bad. Spike (our other cat) keeps hissing at him though, but they are both asleep on the chair now, so hopefully he will leave him alone.

Little worried about pay day…normally get paid around 11pm on Thursday, but still not got paid yet, changed bank accounts few weeks ago, just hope its all sorted in time…kinda need the money at the moment.