ASDA

Well, my last day with my previous employer was the 6th of March. I have had a couple of meetings with a lovely lady from the ASDA in Long Eaton about the transfer that is ongoing, one on the 5th and then one on the 6th. On the 6th, I received my official transfer letter welcoming me to the company. I had already received similar to this when one of the HR lady came for a meeting with us all at Larklands but, that was just for welcoming purposes. I can't believe the wait is finally over. I remember my boss telling me about what is going to happen back in mid January and now the site is empty and well... gone! I was there on the last day of trading despite working nights in Daybrook at the same time. One the last day we didn't sell any fuel just cigarettes and whatever else was left in the shop, even though most of the stock was packed in boxes ready to be sent to the other site. It was a bit weird actually. No costa coffee machine as that had been collected on the 27th of February. Some of our regular customers reaction were brilliantly entertaining when they had realised the machine had gone, baring in mind most of them brought one every single day.

Goodbye, Esso! 06/03/15

I don't have to go back into ASDA Long Eaton until Thursday now, it is a little strange having so much time to myself. I'm so used to just working all of the time I just don't know what to do. Anyone would think I am bored or something. I do hope to try and get something recorded while I have the time. I managed to tidy up a drum track I had started for one of my new songs yesterday but, I still have a lot of work to do with that and there could still be some changes made. As it stands, I have only recorded 3 out of 10 (at least) songs. I am still planning on going ahead with my ep, I just still can't put a finger on when it will be ready. I said December before but, I didn't state which year!

EP Postponed Till idk.

So, over the last 3 months with working at the petrol station I have not been able to even start work on my upcoming EP: Alone or even practice all that much. I originally promised that my EP would be ready by around late August but, I simply have not had the chance to record. I am still in the process of making my new studio set up work purely because of a problem PC which, trust me has many problems leading to BSOD that I still don't know the exact reason for. It will work fine for a while, then after a bit it will blue screen.

I am truly hoping to get this EP out before Christmas if not, then I may have more fun making it in the new year with even more tech behind me. I feel so luck have my job, the hours are alot but, it pays well plus work can be a challenge on it's own. I get to train a new member of staff tomorrow who is on his third week of training. It makes me feel so proud where I stand now that I am in a position to help others.

I'm not going to set any dates this time because I know that I will most probably surpass them. I still have a lot of work to do towards this I just really hope that I can find the time and effort after all these long days at work.

Thanks for reading

Here's To A New Start

It's been a busy two weeks at the ESSO Petrol Station on Nottingham Road, Ilkeston for my training, the last couple of days in particular. Today, I have the day off so I will be making he most of it and going to the cinema to see "How To Train Your Dragon 2" with a good friend. Tomorrow, I start my new job properly as I will no longer be on training. My first paid shift is a night shift that technically doesn't start till Tuesday morning but, hey it's all a part of the fun. I will most  likely have trouble getting a healthy amount of rest beforehand but, as long as I don't fall asleep on the job (which I doubt) everything will be fine.

In other news, I've been thinking more and more about taking myself seriously as a solo artist. I hardly have anytime for a full band at the moment and it is already proving difficult to organize any musical get together. I already have a good albums worth of songs that I have written myself, it's just getting around to actually recording them all. Some have been heard before like, Innocent Romance but not many more. At the moment, I have two others recorded that are still unhead/unpublished to the general public. I plan to release them with a couple more tracks as an EP called "Alone". A slightly sinister name but, it sums up a lot of things recently, with the band spiting, song themes and with my new job how it feels with my new kind of social life. Without a doubt, I still have friends and the title may change but, that is the best I can come up with for now.

I will try to post make some artwork for this album soon, I may take my camera out with me today to try to give myself some ideas. It's been a while since I've been out to play with my camera and I've missed the creative freedom dearly. Yes, I will take my little Nikon with me today. I might need a canoe....

Excellent News!

Not to long ago I told you all that I got randomly selected for the Derbyshire Mandatory Youth Activity Programme and that I wasn't very happy with this because I was blackmailed into thinking I would be free of any more of these courses that the JobCentre would direct me too. The Princes Trust Course Turned out to be a great experience but this other one I just knew would have been bad. The main aim of the course being to get involved helping out the community. I myself, am already a volunteer for The British Heart Foundation and in a way was quite offended that I should be doing more. Generally, I guess this course is aimed at people that do nothing whist on JSA who are people I frown upon. I'm not saying everyone that does it is lazy but, it seems that what the 'course' suggests.

I never did really explain fully about the course content. Basically, for eight weeks you will be sent to a charity organisation and work with them for that amount of time whilst receiving help job searching for a couple of hours a week. I think my message is getting more and more clearer of why I though this was all a waste of time but, hey. Now, to explain the good news.

Not long ago, I had an interview at the ESSO Petrol Station on Nottingham Road, Ilkeston. I have had an interview for work there before so the manager knew my name and to my amazement remembered me. The interview went really well and he told me that if I have been succesful I would hear back from him within a couple of days. On Thursday, mid whist I was running around like a headless chicken on behalf of the stupid DMYAP I had a call just before ten in the morning from the manager of the Petrol Station asking for my National Insurance Number. Lets just say things we looking up at this point. Later on in the day he called me back to tell me that he wants me to pop in so that he can tell me the good news. I was ecstatic. I might not have shown it but, this really lightened my mood from all of the stress the JobCentre had put me under.

The next day, I wandered down to 'Work Pays' which is the most ironic name for the company that provides the DMYAP course and I basically told them the good news. I was also told that I was very good at keeping in contact with them, I just kind of thought to myself that it was mostly because the office was just down the road from where I live but at least I got a compliment out of them in saying I am more organised than them. Before my second to last PassPlus lesson, I drove up to the Ilkeston Jobcentre to tell them I could no longer do the programme. At first I thought the adviser I had the meeting with was going to say that I couldn't not do it. Not as a general assumption either, he displayed that in his knowledge I would still have to do the DMYAP. This made me nervous for a second but, then he wandered off to talk to two other members of staff that went on to say that if it is going to benefit me more that it is allowed. I'm just glad I'm nearly rid of them.

One thing that has annoyed me is that for my training, the JobCentre will still be paying me JSA as if I was on WORK EXPERIENCE. The thing is, I'm not on work experience, I'm on training and they will take it under their statistic that another young person has gained employment through me doing 'work experience' though the 'JobCentre' when really it's all a lie. I found this job myself and I do feel like they are taking away a part of my independence by partially claiming that they found this for me. At the end of the day, I'm just another false statistic they will use to encourage someone else to do work experience and it is still all good news.

The Prince's Trust Team Programme: Week 12

I can't believe that it is the final week of The Prince's Trust Team Programme already. I seems strange that in less than four days it will all come to a glorious end. This Thursday is our Final Team Presentation where every member of the team gives a speech, now I haven't quite got my speech ready yet but I am preparing something else. The other week I started working on an original song to go with my team, almost like a theme tune but also something to commemorate that we have finished the course. I didn't want to make it to extravagant but, enough to show off my skills as a amateur producer that mostly uses Audacity. I probably shouldn't bring myself down so much but, I assume that's what most people think if I'm using free software.

The song is coming along nicely now, even though at the moment it is lacking in the lyrical department in fact I'm missing a whole verse even though musically it is in there. I'm hoping that my Team Leaders will join in on the song featuring for a Rap Battle, it sounds a little immature and maybe a little risky to use for the final performance but, I really think it will go down well and that most people would take it with a great sense on humor. The only problem is that I have two days left to complete this whole song, which only makes it even more challenging. I will be so proud of myself if I manage to complete this on time. I think my team will be too!

#Team160

Here is a snippet of what I have been working on:
https://soundcloud.com/kimkeeton/team-160

These Months Fly By...

Unsurprisingly it has been a while since I have wrote. I have been extremely busy of late and have many highlights to mention that have gone and PASSED. I may as well go ahead and say it. On 1st of April 2014 (this sounds like a good first line of a joke) I passed my driving theory, following that on the 20th of May 2014 I also managed to pass my practical driving test! Both for the first time. It's good to be able to get about more easily now and I am so proud that I passed both first time around. It doesn't even feel like I had been learning for the last 4 months, it really has flown by!!

In other news, The Prince's Trust Team Programme that I am involved with is in it's 10th week and not too far from being over. Most of the paperwork is out of the way, today as well as tomorrow is going to consist of bag packing in Heanor Tesco to raise some extra money for out Team Challenges next week, though todays collection went towards Diabetes UK. I'm not sure how much we raised today but, the donations so far have been very generous and I'm hoping that we manage to raise even more tomorrow! All of our Team Challenges have been planned and we know exactly what we are doing throughout the week, though I don't want to list them right at this minute. The week after next we have the last load of paperwork to look forward to, that and our final presentation. I'm hoping to produce a song especially for my team but, I want my team mates to help me do so otherwise it seems a little pointless and in some way contradicting or ironic. I know that some of them are interested, I think the underlining problem is that this is something that will be 'out of hours' which could prove to make things more complicated as people have their own commitments to attend.

I managed to get a rough draft of the first verse recorded and even got to show it to my Team Leader today, I'm not totally sure how impressed she was but, she called me talented. It's funny because I don;t see what I do as a talent and never really have. I have learnt most of my trade in the music world, studying countless hours of music theory and memorizing scales and functional chord progressions. I don't find it an insult but, I don't find it an honor either in fact I never really know how to deal with compliments like that. I guess I usually just shrug them off like I did today, blush a little and go back to my usual quiet self.

I'm not entirely sure where this post is leading anymore, it is quite late as it is 23:08 and I can't quite tell if I am just debating with myself or just rambling on. I should probably go to bed now as I have to drive tomorrow. I guess this is a conclusion. Good night.

A Mid October Moan

Well, again it has been a while since I last posted. Time has been going by so fast recently it's starting to become difficult to keep on track. My last month has mostly consisted of job searching and all things associated and such, that and practicing with my band Zebra Crossing. We've played at a couple of open mic nights now but, we are wanting to build up our set list now. We're still not even completely sure what genre we are but, we're content with what we do and that is all that matters.

More recently, in fact last Sunday we started working on a new song which we managed to finish yesterday in our practice session. We haven't recorded it yet in anyway but, I do think it needs a little bit of 'tidying up' first. It's early days! We usually video parts of our practice and put them on YouTube. We've had a couple of views and likes. It's really nice to get feedback.

Not too long, ago we sent around a link to video of ourselves performing live at The Guitar Bar in Nottingham. That video at current has just reached 15 likes, 345 views and it's still live and counting. Check out the video here!

CLICK-HERE>Zebra Crossing - Chocolate (Cover)<CLICK-HERE

Lucy, our singer recently brought into some post cards for us to pass around for promotion. I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with mine yet but, I'll think of something.

Check out our Facebook page!

CLICK-HERE>Zebra Crossing<CLICK-HERE

In other news, my job searching isn't going to well but I have some possible work experience on the line as an Assistant Theatre Technician. It sounds interesting and I am looking forward to it. I've been told there is a lot of traveling and 'time in the van' involved but, also that travel is provided.

In other news, the Ilkeston Charter Fair starts today and as if by chance it is raining! Every year, it rains for the fair so it's not exactly unbelievable. *sighs* No doubt, I will go this year. If the weather is miserable or not, it's almost tradition. Besides, it really is the only time of the year when Ilkeston is busier than out neighboring cities Derby or Nottingham. It's not far off a ghost town now, it's already been ripped on national television by being compared to a better town. Still, I will continue to listen to The Piano Guys and mull it over in deep thought.

Till the next time!