Make Up

I’m on the train on my way to work, a new assignment in the middle of nowhere. An hour and half commute three times a week for now and probably four times a week from January. I always sit in the space where people can leave their bikes if they travel with one. There are two different spaces, one that has two extra seats opposite each other where the bike space is next to it -with fold down chairs- along the side of the train. And the other where there are only fold down chairs on both sides of the train.

The latter is a pain because when the train drives you basically move sideways which is nauseating to me at times. Anyway… I’m currently moving sideways as I write this. On my right side are three seats very close to each other.Opposite of me there are four. Because I move sideways I can see the two other people next to me from the corner of my eyes. This is when I noticed that the woman at the far end was doing something I’ve also seen many times on the tube in the UK. She is doing her make-up…

Ever since I’ve seen someone doing this on the tube I’ve mixed feelings about it. Doing your make-up on the train -in my opinion- is something you simply don’t. To me it is something private and I would never do this in public. It already gets on my nerves when I am in the bathroom getting ready and my partner watches closely let alone on a crowded train. In London some of these women would even carry an extra handbag for all the containers with blusher, eyeshadows, lipsticks, foundation and powder.

I have mixed feelings about this because to me it’s something private that you do at home and not on public transport. On the other hand I admire their skills to put it on without smudging their faces. But my goodness… The amount of warpaint that some of them use is shocking! Today the man sitting opposite of me is watching each and every move of the woman on my right with extreme interest. The disapproving look on his face says it all really. I can’t help but grinning quietly as I watch the performance…

Two Birds One Stone

I need to vent and I need to write a new post… I’m having one of those days where you feel like you haven’t done anything all day, didn’t accomplish anything and basically ended up doing everything you’d never planned for. I’ve been on the phone on and off with the hospital, with work, with the IT helpdesk, with the doctor’s assistant. I’ve been trying to solve an issue for two days in a row now and I’m becoming more and more impatient the longer it takes to solve the problem.

I’ve spent most of last week on filling in and sending out expenses claims for public transport and a dinner voucher which I’d received a couple of months ago. It takes at least half a day to sort this out as I have to do this separately for bus and train. It’s extremely time-consuming, not just sorting them but also having to fill in the forms. On top of that I had to take a compliancy test which took forever because I had to watch lots of informational movies and answer about 20+ questions.

I succeeded in the end but it took time… *again*. All of this had to be done before the 15th of this month. I realise it’s still early but I was already taking other things into consideration and in hindsight I’m glad I did. There’s also this evaluation that I need to write, a report about objectives and how and/or if you’ve achieved those. This is done through a web application that you had to fill out at the beginning of this year, back then you needed to set your goals for this year.

At the time I could easily access that tool but ever since I’ve tried to log in again I’m getting errors. Yesterday I had planned for writing this evaluation because I had finished all the chores and tasks that were on my to-do-list ahead of time in case something would go wrong. I didn’t want to find myself having to rush or being all stressed out for not planning this in time. I did… but of course, Murphy -once again- is sitting right next to me keeping me company for the last two days.

As I can’t access that tool, I can’t write the report, so the deadline of the 15th is getting closer each day. You might think ‘why doesn’t she call a helpdesk’… well I did. Our helpdesk is based on foreign grounds and most of the time incompetent, they put your ticket in the system, promise to call you back but never do. Let alone the moment they hear you mention the words ‘Apple Mac’, they instantly refuse help as they are not hired to give support for anything other than company laptops.

I’m a designer, I need my Mac as the company laptops don’t suffice, so I bought my own MacBook Air a while ago particularly for work. I got VPN access, I can access and use the mailserver through my mail client. But I don’t get support because I’m not mainstream thus an exception to the company rules. So far I’ve always managed to solve any (network related) problem even the VPN settings which were a pain to obtain and sort out. It took a while but I got the job done.

Each new policy becomes another drain as I have to deal with a multitude of intranet websites, logins and tools to work with. Ever since the company merged their systems with the global systems, it has been total chaos. I’ve managed to find workarounds or solved issues, just not today… nor yesterday. I’m anxiously waiting for thé phone call whilst day two is slowly ticking away. Pretty sure the problem will be solved next week, one day before the deadline, wanna bet?

Meantime I’m wondering, why am I getting so impatient… At least I’ve finished another post which was scheduled last week ;)