Threading the needle

Wednesday was kind of D-Day for me in more ways than one.  

First of all it was the day that I was finally going to get my NIE number, secondly it was the day I was told to come back as an Irish bar made a decision about employing me.

I made my way to the office to get my NIE number, waited patiently and when I got to speak to the woman, in Spanish, she told me I didn't have the right documents, in Spanish.  She gave me some paperwork that I'm doing a rather good job of translating myself.  It tells me what I need.  I do feel like I've made progress.

I left there devastated and angry.  I'm pissed off at my landlord refusing to meet me in the middle and provide me with the required documents.  I have options with regard to the NIE number so watch this space.

I made my way to the Irish bar looking for good news, nothing yet, the manager spoke with the owner and they're not employing anyone until the end of September.  The rugby World Cup starts in the middle of September so I'm going to keep in regular contact with them until then.

On Sunday a friend on Twitter gave me a link to a English speaking website that covers Spanish football.  They're looking for writers.  I've applied, had a chat over email, written an article and I've been accepted.

I will now be reporting on the goings on of FC Barcelona, the games, the transfers and any other stories surrounding the club.

This is the big bit, they're sorting out press accreditation for me.  I'll have access to the Camp Nou on match days, reporting on their games and on what I see.

I've mentioned that I'm a photographer and that I could possibly do both the match reports and photography of the games, they're looking into that for me.

We haven't discussed expenses but they were mentioned in the job description.  If they want me to travel all over Spain and indeed Europe covering Barcelona then I believe they're going to pay my expenses.  If they're not then they're going to need to wait until I'm making some decent money.

The downer is that at first I won't be getting paid, I need to prove that my stories can get website hits and I need to be doing it for long enough.

As things stand I can't afford to stay here throughout September.  I need more money.

I'm looking at that, I'm going to set up a Crowdfunding page to see if I can make this work.  Help on doing that would be handy.

Imagine taking pictures every week of Messi et el?  Build up a decent collection and sell them on.  That would make me enough money to live here, just supplying pictures to photography agencies.  Then if I can carry on the reporting long enough I'll be getting paid.

Plus with this I'll be able to get the paperwork sorted that has so far eluded me.

Last week some people were begging me to come home back to the UK.  I said I wanted to give it one more month and try to stay here throughout September and return back to the UK having succeeded or failed in October.  Obviously if it is me having succeeded then it'll only be a short break.

If I do return home at the beginning of September, I'd need to leave here on September 1st, then the flight will be about £100, if I leave here at the beginning of October it'll be about £30.  

If people were queuing up to lend me the cash to pay for my flight then that's a few hundred quid, I could pay my rent and book my flight at the beginning of October now.  

Every penny will be paid back so if you were looking to lend me the money for the plane home then get in touch.

I don't have enough money to live on but I'm taking pictures of the best team in the world, honestly, my life.

I've also written a script if you want to read it and give me your opinions then get in touch.

Premier League Twitter Hashtags

I'm on one of my rants!

Anyone that uses Twitter and follows the world of football will have surely seen the new franchised "Premier League Twitter hashtags".  No?  I have, they're annoying. Here's why.

First of all I need to start by explaining what hashtags are for anyone that doesn't know.  Basically if you put a hash # in front of an acronym, a word or any any formation of letters on Twitter it creates a hashtag.  So if I was to do #Paul that would create a hashtag, it's basically a way for you to create a code, like a sort of computer language. If you then click the hashtag '#Paul' then it will take you through to a page where it will display a page in chronological order, newest at the top, of everyone else who has written that hashtag and will display those tweets.  It has to be exactly right though, any mistakes like #Paiul and it will take you somewhere different.

Football clubs have been using the hashtags to display news to their fans who can then repeat those hashtags and display their messages to anyone looking up that hashtag.  Potentially millions of people could be looking at that hashtag and then read your tweet but chances are if millions of people are looking it up then millions of people will be tweeting it so your tweet will just get lost.  The people with the most followers will rise to the top so it won't help your chances.

During major tournaments like the World Cup or Olympics hashtags will have badges after them.  So for example during the World Cup the hashtag for England, #ENG, will have a little St George's flag at the end of it, a clever touch from Twitter.  Before I thought this was just a little bit harmless fun but now I realise it's been taken to the next level.

Someone, presumably at the Premier League, has put forward a motion that the hashtags for each of the PL clubs should have their club badges at the end of the tag.  So Manchester United's hashtag, #MUFC, now has the Manchester United club badge after it. That's fine, but what about other people that want to use the #MUFC?  Maidstone United, for example?  Being the most self righteous club in the history of football won't get you very far now, will it Maidstone?  I think this is slightly unfair, in fact I think it's grossly unfair.  

The League and the clubs have basically franchised the alphabet.

What if there are a small band of people who want to use, say #EFC (Everton), as their way of talking, tagging or whatever an event or something taking place?  Do they have to put up with having an Everton badge after their hashtag?

People will say well they should come up with another hashtag then, shouldn't they?  Well no, actually, they shouldn't.  If the Premier League wants to do this they should come up with more creative hashtags than those that anyone is likely to use.

To be fair some of them are fairly creative and fine.  To use Arsenal's hashtag, for example, you need to use #Arsenal, I'd possibly prefer it personally if it were #ArsenalFC like Southampton have done with #SaintsFC.  Swansea, although they've tried to be creative, is actually the worst.  They've gone with #Swans.  Yeah, good one, so anyone taking their kids to the lake to feed some swans and then wanting to display the pictures on Twitter will use the hashtag #Swans will now have a Swansea City badge, something they probably don't want, in their tweet.  They could have gone with #SwansCFC, Swansea City FC.

I think the way around this is we start up our own campaign.  Something like #GiveUsOurCharactersBack and we use the Hashtag whenever there's a big game on. So say if Manchester United are playing Liverpool the tweet could go something like this. "#GiveUsOurChartactersBack #MUFC #LFC Here's my dinner" and then post a picture of your dinner, or whatever, something completely unrelated to either club.  If this had enough people following it fans of these clubs will be drawn away from using that hashtag and towards using something more specific to their club.

I'm all for clubs having their badges after their hashtag, look how far we've moved on in 30 years since MS Dos but I think clubs need to be a little bit more creative than just the four letter code which happens to be the initials of their club.

Politics (Not boring)

I've been hearing a lot about the Labour Party leadership race.  It won't surprise any of you to hear that I'm delighted that fellow socialist Jeremy Corbyn appears to be out on top.  However it might surprise some of you to hear that there are many Tory party voters who are also delighted by this news.  The reason for this is because they deem Corbyn as being unelectable by the wider public.

I think there is something going on here, I think the Tories are scared of Corbyn and this is their defence mechanism, to make fun of him and Labour.  When your policies are crap and you've finally got someone in opposition who is shouting from the rooftops that we should spend more money on the NHS than saving a bank then you're going to be worried.

The funny thing is the response of Corbyn's "Tory lite" co-candidates.  They're all running scared of him as well.  Because he has the audacity to properly oppose the Tories.  Austerity is the policy that will define this generation, we need someone that will properly oppose it.

People think immigration is the policy that will define this generation but that's actually the policy that thinks it defines every generation but doesn't define any of them.

The government are pushing through their austerity policies so we need an opposition to that and we need someone that gives those people who don't want austerity a voice.  Labour currently don't and herein lies the problem with politics in the UK and many countries around the world.

Traditionally we had our parties who stood for their various classes and sections of society, some parties like Labour stood for a number of unions etc...

Now you have traditional Labour voters who will still only vote Labour because they're stuck in that mindset, Tories the same, Lib Dems etc. We have various parties that come along as knock off forgeries of "the big three", they'll attract a few but we're only ever looking at Labour or Tories being the major party in government.  I say major party as obviously in the last government we had a coalition between the LD and Tories, the latter were clearly running the show.

Herein is where I think the problem lies and this is why Corbyn's popularity in the leadership race is so interesting.

This may seem to be slightly conspiracy theorist but I don't think it matters who gets into the power, I think the decision has already been made.

Labour are no longer the Labour of old, they're slightly to the left of what the Tories are, who, by the way, are not quite as conservative as they used to be and neither party quite does exactly what it says on the tin anymore.  Isn't it time we did away with the old party system and listened to what the people really think?  More on this later.

On Wednesday evening I heard on the radio a guy, a devout Tory voter who was running a campaign backing Corbyn.  As I said earlier the reason for this is because the Tories will deem him as unelectable and therefore they're a shoe in for victory in the next election.

This, as I said earlier is the problem with politics in the UK.  No wonder so many people are turned off by politics if there are a large number of people have already decided who they're voting for five years before the election takes place.

I don't even know what I'm having for dinner tomorrow (chortle) let alone who I'm voting for in five years time.  The guy I heard on the radio was delighted at receiving such media attention, he'd registered three times as a member of the Labour Party so that he could vote for Corbyn.  Two of the registrations came under him, he used his real name for the first and his middle name for the second.  The third registration came under his wive's name so I guess he could just say it's her that voted.

It'd be interesting if you tried a similar thing with the Tory party.  You could put forward a policy where it was outlawed for party members to snort coke off a prostitutes body but then we'd be looking for a new chancellor of the exchequer.

The question needs to be asked is if this is legal.  Would anyone know for sure, I'd be interested to know.  But now more to my point.

Isn't the old party system old and outdated?  It's even worse in the States, they only have two parties.  Is that the law or can they have more?  Can they have say five parties/candidates but no-one bothers because they know they won't get any votes to make it worth doing? In their General Election you vote for the person you want to run the country, nothing else matters.

Back to the UK this is what I think we should do.

First off when we have a general election we're actually having two elections.  We should be only having one but we actually have two.  The one we should be having is who you elect as your MP, the additional one that we shouldn't be having is we elect who we want as PM.  There's a little bit of a conflict going on here, what if I like what my Labour candidate is saying but I want the Greens in as a party?  You can reverse that scenario if you like but I feel the Greens being I power is just as realistic as Labour right now so does it matter?

Those two votes should be split for a start.  You vote for who you want as your MP on one card and on the other you vote for who you want as "the party in power".

Now here's what I think we should do with the party system.  The person who wants to be say PM should build his team from the ground up.  This is the best way of finding out what each candidate wants.  

They start advertising and then hiring the people they want to run each of the government departments.  I say "hiring" but the money would come out of the treasury and they wouldn't be paid until they got into power and started working for the electorate.

I think the person who is Health Secretary should have a history in health, the Education Secretary should have a history in in education etc.  I'm pretty sure you could work this down to every government department although I do seem to be hearing a new previously unheard of government department every week but I reckon it could work, or at least could be looked at.

I can see a lot of people saying "but wouldn't that mean that the person that ran a campaign would need to be rich?" What, opposed to now, you mean?

Anyway no, the money could say come from the treasury.  You appeal to them, tell them how much you'd need, show them your workings out etc, maybe receive sponsorship but that would lead to corruption possibly?

You choose who you want in your cabinet and then with them you write your manifesto.  Your MP has no allegiance to the party in power so has no reason to cover up any indescrepencies but they also have no affiliation to anyone else so no reason not to work with them, I see that side of things work.  Obviously your MP would have his own opinions on way things should be done so may be swaying things and be more responsive to one party over another but that should be too much of a problem.

This is all beer mat politics, it's something I've thought about for a while but not shared too widely.  No doubt there are gaping holes but it was going through my mind and so I thought I'd share it.

What do people think?  Leave a comment below, or Twitter, Facebook, graffiti my front door......

At least I'm blogging more

I've always had a bit of a strange relationship with money, compared to normal people. It seems to be the only thing you can't ask other people for, out of pride.  I'm asking for people to pay to give me a chance to build my future.  I'm in a really happy place right now.  I'm living somewhere I love, I'm finding a lot out about myself, I just need to make this last as long as I possibly can so that I can maintain my happiness.

Imagine this.  There are two billionaires walking through the desert.  One of the billionaires has a load of water, more than he needs, he'll complete the journey without any problem and has enough water for the both of them.  However the other billionaire hasn't got any water.  They've got a long way to go, say about three weeks.  The billionaire without any water asks his friend if he can have some of his water.  Obviously offering him money is a useless task, they're both billionaires but he does say to him "Look, there is nothing I can offer you that you can't get yourself, all I'm asking for is this chance to survive.  If you give me this and we make it out of the desert safely then if whenever you need anything just ask me and if I can help I will".

Would you not ask for water if you needed it, out of pride?  Okay, so I should have planed this a little better maybe.  Ever since I got the travel bug all I've done is plan trips and see how much it costs to do them, I plan and plan and plan without ever doing anything.  I had to just remove the plaster from the wound that was my life and do it.

I guess what I'm saying is that money does not define us, the amount of money we have in our bank does not define us.  Possessions do not define us.  What does define us is spirit, character and personality.  There used to be a time when that was all you needed to get on in life, now you need a university degree just to get a £20,000 a year job in central London.

I'm not in that bad a position.  As I write this one of the many jobs I've applied for could be emailing me to offer me something, then it's done, it's that simple.  One job market opens up in September, Irish bars.  That was previously closed to me but now I have a chance of getting a job in one of those.  I know of one bar where there are two people leaving in a week or two and in other I get one rather well with the owner.  Do I not stay here because one of them may not come off?

I've played it safe for 33 years, where exactly has that got me?  It's not even as if I'm not safe, I'm in Barcelona, not Beirut! I'm first running out of places beginning with B that are slightly on edge and dangerous to live in with no money that I can compare with Barcelona.

It may surprise some of you but I have, on occasion, made my own decisions in life. No, really, honestly, it's true.  I evaluate the risk and I'll weigh up the options and see how badly things will effect me depending on what I choose to do.  It hasn't done me too badly so while I do appreciate the love and advice if I say okay, no problem, thanks for telling me what you think but I'm still going to go through with this then please don't accuse me of acting like a child just because I had the gall to ignore your marvellous, genius, must always be listened to advice, I am a man of almost 33 years of age. I'm also a bright, intelligent, clever, creative individual who has his own mind, will and determination to achieve his dreams and not just play things safely because that's what society tells him he has to do.

This is happening and just because I don't listen to what you tell me to do doesn't mean that I don't appreciate it, if you want to help find other ways, shouting your opinion at me on repeat clearly doesn't have an effect.  Neither does sharing my blog with others and using it to take the piss, although I appreciate it being shared.

We're reminded on a daily basis how immigrants have travelled thousands of miles across over land and sea in foreign lands where they can't speak the language and have no money and you think I'll have trouble living slightly outside of my comfort zone?  How patronising....

I read one PoV the other day that said I was in the deep pits of depression.  For anyone that doesn't know I spent half of last year off sick from work for stress and depression. My work sorted out some counselling for me an this commenced in March and ended in May.  My counsellor and me obviously spoke at great length about my mental state but the conclusion was that the reason for my depression was that I had things that I wanted to do and because I wasn't doing them this lead to my depression.

The reason I don't do stuff is because I'm always told to play it safe, don't leave your comfort zone, save up and then do it, you can't do that, it's not safe.  No ta, I'd rather just go off and do it thanks.

You have all done me a favour though, helping me realise this.  I'm going to be doing this more, get used to it.  

I was still awake at 3:30 this morning.  Sorry if this doesn't fit in with you feel I should or shouldn't be doing.  Suddenly the power went out in the flat.  You don't know darkness until you see darkness like that, I had no light coming from anywhere.  I got a few things together and decided to go for a walk, yes at 3:30am.  

I decided to make my way half way up Mount Tibidabo where I sat and watched the sun rise, it was beautiful. At 7:00am I got up and went home.

Nothing too dangerous, a little bit spontaneous, a little bit weird and out there but those were all things that made me want to do it more.

The only thing that prevents us from doing what we want to do is us

Shortly after my last blog I was getting messages of support. My sister sent me some money and told me to come home.  I also got an email from my parents telling me to come home and I know that behind the messages of support there will be people thinking 'he should just come home'.

Come home to what?  Are the streets of Gravesend suddenly paved with gold?  I won't be able to claim any benefits as it is within six months of me handing in my resignation.  That's basing my knowledge on what it was under a Labour government, a Tory government isn't going to give me any money, I don't own a bank.

Currency is one thing but having no euros also equates to having no pounds sterling, believe me, I've checked.

Okay so someone might have a spare room for me to stay in while I get a job, I can then move into to somewhere else and start paying my way but then what?  I'll be earning just about enough to live on and all the while wishing I was still in Barcelona.

For crying out loud, I'm living in Barcelona, not Baghdad, it's a western city.

The thing that prevents me from succeeding is fear, if I have no fear of failure then I can't lose, going back to the UK is failing, staying in Barcelona and doing anything else is not.

It'll be much better when I get my phone and I'll be able to talk to some of you.  It sounds like you could do with it more than I could.

Still no further on that.  Three won't send me the phone for nothing, despite the money I spend with them, despite the fact I can't get service on my iPad and despite that fact they've been fucking me around for over a month with the "we'll email you" and then the "we can't sort this out over email" nonsense.  I'm just going to stop the direct debit to them so they'll lose out more in the long run, smart move Three.

This is what I'm going to do.  I planned to return to/visit the UK at the beginning of October anyway, even if I'd set up a life in Barcelona.

That's still on.  I'm going to give myself between now and then to find work, if it happens then I'll work in how I can visit the UK for a short holiday, if it doesn't then I can just stay in the UK and plan what to do.  I think three months is enough time to say I gave it a good go and should shield me from the stick from the people who would love to do something like this but would never have the guts to, some of whom still live with their parents.

Between now and then I'm going to need two things from people.

1 Please share this blog.  I get paid for allowing adverts on my page.  At the moment I'm not earning nearly enough but that could change.  What if you're friends on Facebook with someone you haven't seen for years that is looking for a travel writer and likes my style.  I'm not saying anyone has to share it, I'm sure people have their reasons not to but if the only reason is "I'm not sharing it, there's no point" then you might as well share it.  Share, retweet and post anywhere you like.

2 The subject I hate and have tried to avoid, money!  I'm thinking about setting up a crowd funding page with the target of about £500.  That would pay for my rent, possibly a new phone and my flight back to the UK plus my living costs.  I have no idea about how to go about this.  Any advice would be great.

I could have had money.  At my place of work I was on my final written warning, I went sick at the end of April and on that occasion I didn't even ring them, I ignored all of their calls and texts for half the day when I finally let them know that I wasn't at the bottom of a river.  I then went sick for two weeks in the middle of May.

They were trying to arrange me an Atos referral which means a company assess you to see how fit you are for work.  I was ten minutes late for this (bloody SouthEastern!!) and the woman didn't stick around so it didn't take place.  Four days later I handed in my resignation and four weeks later was my last day.

If I had stayed I would have had the Atos referral, had an attendance review meeting where I would probably have lost my job.  However they can't just get rid of you without giving you some money.  I reckon I would have at least got a few grand, anything up to about £5,000 plus my wages.

Should I have done that just so that I could have got more money?  What about Katie Hopkins, this vermin looks at how to be as controversial as possible just so people get outraged and complain thus sharing her words.  Should I go down that road just for cash?  No thanks, I'd rather focus on being the best person I can be and just hope that rubs off on others.

Now for the good news (if you're still here).

I do have a voluntary position working for a company that does projects bringing people from different communities together.  They've been looking for a photographer for a while. Meeting new people and showcasing my talents is the best way of getting a job.  Plus depending on how much interest the project I'm working on gets I could get paid.  I can also work this around my job when I get one.

September is when the Irish bars start employing and for that you don't need to speak Spanish.  I'll have the NIE number by then and I'll be able to start immediately, a massive plus.  

Barcelona's homeless

One thing that has really struck me since I got here is the number of homeless people I see in Barcelona.

I didn't think it would be that much, it's a city right but Barcelona is slightly left leaning.

I don't know, I just didn't think there would be so many homeless people here, for some reason.  Maybe there isn't that many and every time I see one it's as if I've seen five because I notice it more, if that makes sense?

I wonder if there is any city in the world that doesn't have any homeless people?  I think I heard that Dubai doesn't have homeless people?  They either don't let them live there or something? Not sure.

When I make it I'm going to look into what can be done to help these people in Barcelona.

There must be an empty disused building in this city that we can get some beds in and we can house people in?

We can set up a soup kitchen to feed large numbers and set up a way of getting them back on their feet.

Being homeless can happen to anyone.  It's not just druggies and hippies.  Give people the chance to get back on their feet and they can get their lives back.

Maybe set up some classes teaching English or something?  Give people the tools they need to help themselves.

I don't know, it's something I'm going to look into.  There are already countless numbers of homeless charities in Barcelona, I don't want to tread on any toes, just help the needy and those less fortunate than me.  Perhaps I can help and contribute to something to someone's life.  I'll look into what is already here and see if I can help.

Ask not what Barcelona can do for me but what I can do for Barcelona.

How to survive on absolutely nothing

What an eventful few days without doing very much.

On Saturday I went to get some shopping only to find out that my card was declined.  I tried it at the bank, the computer said no.

I got home to find my bank account empty, well I had about £3.50 but what's that going to buy?  I started up an online chat with NatWest who informed me that a company had taken money out.  This withdrawal is something that I didn't sanction or want, the money was just taken.

I emailed the company and today, two days later, they've finally said they'll pay the money back in but that can take between 3-7 business days.  

This is interesting, how can I survive on the small amount of money I have?

Fortunately I had a few bags of crisps, family size so nice and big.  For drink I have a bottle of water and when that runs out I go to the public fountain and refill it.

I haven't spent a penny in three days and I'm still alive, take that, capitalism!

I'm seeing how long I can last, I really think I can do this. It'll stand me in good stead if I ever get to a stage where I have nothing.  Make what you have last for as long as possible and that will prolong the chance of survival.

Still no phone although I think I am a little further to getting there, Three are allowing me to have a friend speak to them on my behalf.  They won't communicate through email but they will discuss my account with another person, the crazy world we live in, eh....

Tonight (Monday) is interesting.  My landlord has a friend coming over from Germany so they've asked if I can stay at their friends house for the night.  Err, yeah, okay.  I'm thinking play ball and then at the end of the month when I can't pay the rent they'll be a little more understanding.

I tell you the grass is always greener. In the last hostel they have a movie on every night, twice (and a half) times I watched the incredibly shit film ‘Vicky Christina Barcelona’, it was truly awful.

However as the two boys who are the sons of my landlord were screaming the house down at each other at 1am the other morning I was thinking I'd do anything to watch that weird swingers film, now I'm like bring back the 1am screaming.

The problem with the two boys is that they're in that tiny flat all day.  Their mother takes them out at about 10pm (I know that's weird but I don't have time to dissect that now) for an hour or so but generally they spend most of their time in one room.  The older one winds the younger one up and then the younger one moans, oh how he moans.  It's not crying, it's a constant wine noise, often high-pitched.

When she showed me the way to this flat she brought the two boys with her.  The woman who lives here has a young girl.  As soon as we got in the younger boy went straight up to the young girl and kissed her.  She screamed at the top of her voice as she stood right next to me.  I don't do loud noises so this was eardrum piercing.

Now I'm in this flat.  My door doesn't shut properly so I have to hold it closed as best I can and then push the bolt across.  If the door opens the girl walks up to it, stands in the door way and screams until her mother comes to get her, I found that out the hard way.

My window opens out to a yard where there seem to be some spices stored, they smell a bit but it's not too bad.

Nothing came from that job in the shop, he went with the other guy.  

On the job front I have made progress.  I have my appointment to get a NIE number next Wednesday.  Once I have that I can effectively start work right away.  Right now I can't work until I have the number.  It takes about two weeks to set up the appointment to get the number so an employer is more likely to take someone that can start straight away as opposed to someone who they have to wait for for a fortnight.

Now for the words that I think some of you have been waiting for, I think I miss home a little bit.  I miss my friends and family, especially my niece and nephew who I absolutely dote on.  Having a phone will help with this but I do miss things like watching Ebbsfleet, going down the Daws, parts of London, parts of Gravesend.

Now you can sit back down and stop celebrating that I'm "coming home". I am home, missing things is all part of the journey.

Talking of journeys I'm thinking about going on one.  At the moment it's a pipe dream but there's a friend on Facebook who travels all over the place as cheaply as possible. Why not, eh?  The only thing that's stopping me at the moment is the insane thought that I "cannot do it" which is silly.

Clearly it can be done.  Imagine getting to Asia on no money, what an adventure.

I listen to British radio a lot.  I've always listened to Five Live and for music it's Absolute Radio.  On Five Live on Friday evening I heard a woman who, with her husband and three year old daughter, gave up everything, went travelling to Asia and set up home there.  

She said that she was coming back off holiday from Mexico and was thinking that she would miss it.  After talking about it with her husband and deciding that she didn't want to wait until retirement to go and do the things they wanted so instead they were like why not?

Five years later she has written 14 books, including one about her travels called ‘Can We Live Here’ and she is currently working on turning her first book I to a film.

I'm writing, well you're reading it, maybe it'll come true for me one day?