Then what about voluntary work? It would look nice on your resume, that you have working spirit.

Most voluntary work available is "not relevant" if you want a job in an administrative direction it seems... however I'm thinking about inquiring at the "Natuurhulpcentrum" near here if they still need volunteers to help raise the baby animals people bring in this time of year (maybe if they know my face, they might offer me an actual paid job if a position should open up in the near future), just not sure what the unemployment agency has to say about that Or I may try a career change (if I knew in what direction)

Too bad. And I have no experience with the jobs so I can't give you a good advice.

Working at the Natuurhelpcentrum is good. You have something to do, and what you're doing is good. I'd go for it if you can't find a paid job.

Yeah, at least it'll be appreciated what I do, and it'd be a useful thing.

The biggest annoyance however is not that I can't seem to find a job, but that I have to go by at the unemployment office every month to prove I'm doing an effort to find a job That means printing out every vacancy you apply to, every letter you send, every reply you get, which I have to show to them... and then they pretend to help you by printing out some vacancies (vacancies I can find at home on their website as well).

Well maybe with voluntary work you don't have to get through annoying things like that

Anyway, story of sadness from my side: my grandmother passed away last Wednesday. I didn't see her much in my life compared to my other grandmother (which isn't that hard because my other grandmother lives very close), but often enough that she wasn't a person to be jealous at. My consolation is that she said that "He up there would take care of her". I saw her last Saturday, and I was inclined to be more emotional than I had thought I would be in a situation like that. I'm happy I went to see her one last time.

Alas, not gonna happen I have to keep going every month until I find a paid job, because I'm currently unemployed and therefore I'm on welfare ("dopgeld" as we say, I think it's "Bijstand" in Dutch).



Sorry to hear that, wishing you and your family lots of strength

I am very sorry to hear that. My grandmother's sister, who was coming to my place very often before she got really sick, died several months ago. I haven't seen her for years, and whenever my grandmother visited her, she said that she'd like to see me, and I never made it to find some time to visit her. And she died. You can imagine how sorry, and how angry I am at myself.

That really sucks. At the other hand, there's no point in being angry at yourself. Just ask yourself this question: what have I learnt from this? Because the past is the past, it's the present (and the future) that matters.

Well, that's one solution that can even make you feel better sometimes, thanks.