Pilkingtons make glass here too. They must be the leaders of the World Glass Domination Conspiracy.

they pretty much are.... they make glass in 27 different countries over 4 continents

they produce over 60% of the worlds flat glass

they invented the float process (where moltern glass is floated on top of a tin bath rather than rolled through rollers) this gives perfectly flat glass with no faults whereas rolled glass can be faulty by rollers marking it, temperatures not being right so you get a slight continuous "wave" in the ribbon of glass

they also make low-iron glass for use in solar panels/solar cells

I work in a factory that make patterned glass, low iron glass and wired glass (soon stopping production of wired due to the decreasing demand)

we make rolled glass (not float) because it is impossible to make patterned glass using the float process.

The low iron glass we make also has a very fine pattern on it to control the direction of the light.

How is the job hunting going Paul, I supose it is a bit early yet though to have any aplications in yet though.

Wow Mike! You've been doing your homework. :

The hunt begins again today, bootneck. Friday was a public holiday here in Australia for Anzac Day so I didn't bother too much about it last week. But Saturday's paper had a few ads that are worth my pursuit.
I had a call from the lady who I was going to replace last night. I felt rather bad about leaving because she had been trying to move out of that job for more than a year, but they wouldn't let her move to something else until they had a replacement properly in place. Everyone thought that was going to be me... She was back there as soon as I got my marching orders of course. But she bears no grudges. Which is a relief, because she lives only ten doors down the street from me. No joke.
She said that the bastard director came over late last week. That tends to confirm my suspicion that he ordered my immediate exit - didn't want to face me, I'd bet.

Ha! She probably holds a secret grudge against you... you just haven't figured it out yet... youre a man (sorry, couldn't resist saying that )

What sort of job are you looking for?

What kind of work? Whatever pays the bills. I did a few years with a labour hire firm and I worked with everything from gold nuggets at the Perth Mint to bags of dog food. Mostly I do stores work, but I did a few years in the office supplies industry too. I've done retail as well.
At 47 I think I'm just hitting the point where my age is becoming a factor - although a few interviewers have said that they were tired of hiring youngsters who took off to the beach every day the sun was out. Here in Perth, that's a lot of days!
People here are much more casual in their attitudes. Having grown up in Melbourne I have a solid work ethic. The weather in Melbourne is so dreary most of the year you only want to be inside anyway. Perth is more of an outdoors city, and even in winter we see days that are warm enough for a surf.

Got to agree with you Paul about age, over here we have laws about employers being ageist but it still happens, but proving it is another thing. I remember when I came out of the fire service I was 46 with a knackered back, at the time getting another job was almost impossible I was out of work for 6 months I eventualy got a job as a security officer long hours and little pay 15 hrs nights and 12 hrs shift at weekends. I think I stayed there for about five months until I got a job as a sales supervisor for Currys which led to other jobs including taxi driving, self employed courier driver and for the last 11 years a local athority handy man in an office block.

It is a shame that the ideals that we leave school and college with is not nessary what life deals out to us, but that is life. As we used to say in the Marines " life is a bitch and then we marry one". Better not let my good lady see that coment she would be most displeased But I lover her lots.

Would you still consider going to college Paul. I have a friend in Australia, apparantly it is end of school... nd then straight to University. What happened to college?

Tell me if i've got it wrong about the whole school, college, university thing... but right now, i'm a little confused.

I bet you'd be a good manager.

In Australia 'college' is usually a secondary school, what you call Years 6-12 nowadays. When I was at school it was Grade 1-6 for primary and Form 1-6 for secondary.
Colleges are also usually non-government denominational schools too. So if an Australian tells you they've been to college it most likely means their family were churchgoers of one sort or another.
College means something in between 'high school' and 'university' as I understand it. Their system has never been too clear to me.

On the job front, I have an interview today and another for sure on Monday. There are a couple of other places I might hear from as well.
I sent out some fishing letters yesterday. This strategy has scored me employment a few times, when the letter landed on the right desk at the right time.

As for being a manager, I had an assistant at the University job and he genuinely made the job easier for me. He was switched-on and keen. I don't know how well I'd cope with a dumb subordinate; I have trouble enough with dumb bosses!