Formalities

In a bank, everything is formal. Everyone is polite, customer service orientated- even to each other- in theory. In a call centre in a bank, it's every dog for himself. So much so that when I was in need of the help of one of our complaints team to provide information regarding the arrears status of one of the customers (we rarely, if ever, communicated with any team outside of our own) I sent him a very polite e-mail which started "Dear Mr xxx" and ended "Regards, etc."

The e-mail was as a result of instructions from a senior colleague so to avoid any problems I copied her into it. Within five minutes she (and the rest of the department) were laughing at my formal, polite, restrained language.

As far as I'm concerned though, this kind of communication is one to be observed until the people communicating are at a sufficient level of understanding that they can drop the proper English and reply "Ta!" instead. To that end, all of my job applications, university applications and queries have been addressed in this way.

I really hope that's normal...


In other news, Manchester today acknowledged my application, so I now have a direct contact with the school. In sending my references one of my lecturers accidentally gave me an alternative project title to the one I'd completed. I don't particularly fancy standing in an interview and being asked "So, tell us about your relaxation light unit" and correcting the mistake there and then with "Actually, it was a peak heat moderator, and took substantially more work to design" because it demonstrates that my lecturer couldn't remember my project.

I spoke to said forgetful lecturer today; he seemed unconcerned and took persuading to send a new letter. If I had done that there would be hell to pay. As it is though, I can't afford to annoy him just yet- I haven't received the correct reference.

Two Offers

I have two offers now for postgraduate study- one from Nottingham and one from Hull- both on the condition that they receive a satisfactory reference from the other of my listed academics. Along with a request for it to be sent, and a promise of a stupidly huge and expensive box of fresh coffee, I have also requested they both send another (glowing) reference for another application. The latest is to the Manchester Business School for a management course they run.

As for funding, I am still wondering how I'm going to afford this. One of my offers has granted me a full fee waiver and a sum for the year- not extravagant, but enough to live off (and that's all I need) if I take a place with them.

As soon as I have a clearer idea of exactly what options are possible, rather than just dreams, I will be straight on the telephone to find a sponsor. Failing that, the bank will be my friend.

"Yes Mr Bank Manager, in this economic climate, I need a loan of £x000 to live for a year and pay my fees. Yes I'll be working. Yes I won't be able to start paying it back until after I, fingers crossed, graduate."

I wonder if being an ex-employee of a certain lender might help with the interest rate? The fact that I left them over six weeks ago now has not deterred them from sending me packs and application forms to buy shares in their company at an employee price.


In other news, I suspect training as an emergency nurse might actually be more appropriate; one of my friends told me today that his young daughter and mother had been the victims of an armed attack. Thoughts are with the family, and thanks are owing to the fact that no-one got hurt. What kind of coward attacks a woman and small child?