Since leaving my bar job of two years and four months (whilst I was doing a two year college course, city & guilds level 3 ICT systems support) I spent two agonising months of being out of work. My reason for leaving was down to another job opportunity to be a chauffer for a taxi company. I had never done anything like this before and was thrown on entirely into the deep end. I made a couple of mistakes and after 5 days, I was given the boot. Next, I did the unthinkable and started working for safestyle (the second window comapny I have worked for). My conscience just cannot handle pressurising prospective customers into being customers. So my suggestion would be to go where your heart is, think positively about something you want, and eventually it will come. I tried my hand at a bit of landscape gardenning and got ripped off come payday, so I give that one the boot. All the time I was doing odd jobs I was job hunting and had not signed on for a month and a half. Money was running out and I decided to sign-on. For all the jobs I have applied for, nine times out of ten in the job description, it will say experience required. I was coming to end of my tether, then someone suggested to me that I go and do some voluntary work for a IT company. This is what I did, I did a month with a company based in my area which got me a little experience that I could put down on my CV. A couple of weeks later, I got a job with a reputable company. So, NEVER give up, try and use as many resources as possible such as, the jobseekers either on the internet or where you go to sign on. Read the local papers, register with as many agencies as possible (with each agency not knowing that you have signed up with more than one). Keep CV updated, there is help from the job centre, and also there are job websites where one can upload their CV for employers looking for the right person. If you're not computer literate, then get help from somebody. I hope this is an uplift for those seeking what they want to do. Above all, be happy and think happy thoughts (like 'Bottom' with Adrian Edmondson and Rick Mayall)

It looks as though 1st Credit are a bit of an arse. I had a debt with them a while back, just over £1000 that was an old Barclay Card account that I had failed to pay on time and struggled to keep up with the repayments. So I called 1st Credit up over four months ago to get a settlement figure, which was £740. I had the money there and then so I paid it off. I now get a letter through the post from a company within 1st credit wanting the so-called outstanding £260 from a Barclays Bank account that I have never had, and although I was told over the phone that the company that is requesting the money is in the same building as 1st Credit! Anyway, I ring the number that is on the letter, and I hear a voice on the other end saying, "The number you have dialled is temporarily unavailable, please try again later". So they really want my money hey? With my credit buggered already, they can sit on my middle finger.