Unique Christmas pressie

I was off school yesterday for the first time in two years - not through illness as such, but just from sheer exhaustion. I was able to sleep 5 hours more than I would have done if I'd gone to school, and consequently felt much better than I have done all week. I didn't miss much at school anyway, I had two single lessons of pure maths and nothing else (it's my free afternoon, so I'd come home at lunchtime anyway).

I need to go out later to try and finish my Christmas shopping that I tried to start last week, but no luck - I became distracted by all the nice books and videos and things, ended up just buying things for myself! No matter... I've only managed to buy things for two people so far. The rest I'll have to do in the next week, when it'll be abolutely hectic in all the shops :(. I must, however, get something for the friend who I'm seeing The Two Towers with on Wednesday[1]. I have a brilliant pressie for my brother though, which I'll explain below.

A couple of weeks ago my driving instructor was regaling me with his celeb tales ["I sold the Spice Girls their Rolexs, and sold Ronnie Corbett his as well, oh, and Liam Neeson, and I live next door to Valerie Singleton, and I taught Alan Rickman's kids to drive.."]. He heard that my brother is a huge F1 fan - show him any two-second clip of any Grand Prix from about 1990 onwards and he'll be able to tell you which race it was and which year, who won, etc. So my driving instructor told me that when he worked in the jewellery business they set up a promotional thing between his company and Tag Heuer, who do the timing devices for some F1 cars. As part of this promotion, he had David Coulthard's car in his shop for two weeks (and I've seen the photos!). He also got passes to the British Grand Prix with full VIP access (pit lane, meals with the crew) and a free Tag Heuer hat, which he got David Coulthard to sign after he won the race. Pretty impressive, no?

The hat's sitting in my desk drawer waiting to be wrapped up as a Christmas pressie for my brother - my driving instructor isn't really an F1 fan, he only went to the Grand Prix because they were free tickets. I should probably get him a big present as well!

Driving-wise, my instructor says that I should easily be able to take my driving test in January. Yay(!), but a little daunting seeing as I've only had 12 lessons so far. I'm doing well though, generally, although in the mock driving test that I took today I only just scraped a pass. Must work on that. Oh well, I'll have plenty of time next week.

Other news - when I was applying to universities, I applied for a deferred entry so that I could have a gap year, during which I intend to gain some work experience working for a company's IT department or suchlike. I've applied to IBM's pre-university employment scheme and the Year In Industry scheme. IBM's website says they don't expect applications until the spring, so that'd be why they haven't replied to me since I applied in October. YinI, on the other hand...

Filling in the application you have to state which region of the country you are in [South], whether you're willing to live away from home [no], which university course you have applied for [Physics with Computer Science] and which is your area of interest [Information Technology]. I filled it in[2], sent it off, was summoned for an informal preliminary interview, which is just to check through your application form with you and make sure it's repesenting your intentions accurately. Apparently mine wasn't, as the man who was going through it with me started talking about all the physics research placements that they have on offer. I interrupted him and explained that I'd prefer to work in the IT sector, as indicated on my form. He stops.

Him: "But you're doing a Physics degree."
Me: "My preferred course would have been Computer Science with Physics (Comp Sci as the major subject), but none of the universities offer that, so I've had to opt for Physics with Computer Science instead. But I'd still prefer a placement within the IT industry."
Him: "Right..." pause "Where is that coming across on your form?"
Me: pointing "Under 'Area of interest', it says 'Information Technology'."
Him: "Yes, but I don't think that's very clear, really, do you? I think that, when you return this form to us to officially apply to the scheme, you'd better state clearly on your covering letter that you want to work in IT."

My covering letter reads: 'Please could it be noted that I would prefer a placement relating to Information Technology as opposed to a Physics-based placement, as indicated under the ?Area of Interest? section of the form. I trust that my form will be forwarded to the relevant companies.'

The next week I got a note asking me to call someone to arrange an interview with a company. I had to turn it down because (a) it was in Farnborough, which would take about 2 hours to get to every morning, and (b) it was a physics research placement. I get the impression that they're a little annoyed with me because apparently that's one of their top placements and I didn't even bother to go for an interview. I had another letter this week, saying: 'You are registered with The Year in Industry for a placement starting in September 2003, and indicated you may be prepared to move away from home for a good placement'...

Um, no, I didn't. And guess what, it's another physics reseach placement. They seem to have completely ignored my form and the extra letter that I sent. They just don't want to believe that I actually want to work in the computer industry ["Oh, she's doing Physics at university. This must be a mistake, she must want a physics placement.."]

I hope IBM come up trumps, else I think I might be stuck.