I was having a really nice week until yesterday. I had an interview yesterday, didn't mention anything on here in case I didn't get it but as it goes down as one of the worst interviews in history, I felt you may all want to revel in the pain with me.
First off when I sent in my original application, they emailed back with a brush off. Then, out of nowhere, I get an email the next day looking to set up an interview for yesterday. They wanted to interview me at 5:30 but the website I've been using to find my way around said that it would take at least 40 minutes to get there and I finish work at 5 so I asked them if we could do it for 6:15 instead. They said yes and it was set. I figured if I got to the area at 5:40 or so then I would still have 20 minutes to find the place and then be on time (to me, 15 minutes early is on time for an interview only, in the rest of life, arriving about 5 minutes late is on time). Wednesday I got all prepared, printed out my portfolio pieces, put them with my reference letters, chose my outfit with the help of my temp coworker's advice. I started quizzing myself on what they might ask me. I also printed out my map of how to get there.
Now it's Thursday, I'm done work, I've changed and I'm off! I have my map, my portfolio, my beautiful purple pumps to put on right before I get there (they match my bag) and the girl at work gushed that I looked 'so smart' so I was feeling good. Sun was shining, birds singing...little did I know...(that's called foreshadowing people). I get on the tube, do the sardine can thing cause it's rush hour, transfer, do the sardine can again. Get out of the tube and follow my handy little map to where the office should be. As I arrive, I realize that I've only got the post code because that's what what I normally use on the website to find directions. Ah well, it's fine, I figure, I've got 20 minutes and it's got to be one of the little side streets off this one block.
15 minutes later and it's not in the block and no one appears to have even heard of it. Alright, I think, maybe it's on the other side of the square, so I try over there. 10 minutes later and I'm freaking out. I've just realized I FORGOT TO BRING THEIR NUMBER. Ok, I'll just check my email on my phone and get it from there. But my brand new phone that has never had a problem decides now is the time to freeze. HAHA (panicked, deranged laugh), alright, I'll phone information. I ask a woman passing by and she gives me the number for directory assistance but it doesn't work. I approach two ladies having a smoke and they tell me the number like I'm an idiot for not knowing it. I say thanks in spite of their rudeness (I actually wanted to kick them each in the shin). It's now 6:15 and I am starting to lose my shit. I phone directory assistance and the girl is not the shiniest button in the drawer and tells me there is no listing in London for the company. And then my phone cuts off the call because I'm apparently out of credit. Lovely.
I am now beyond frustrated. I do the round of the block again quickly. A security/receptionist man at one building takes pity on me and asks me what street I'm looking for. I tell him but he doesn't know it (I find out later it's because I was pronouncing it wrong). I ask him if he has a computer I can use and he says he just shut down his laptop. My bottom lip starts to quiver and he quickly says he'll turn it back on and take a look. I want to hug him but I think he senses it and hurries away behind to the desk to get his laptop. I wait for what feels like forever as he loads it up and waits for EVERY SINGLE START UP PROGRAM to finish loading before closing them. A good 2 minutes go by. It's now about 6:25. I want to tell the man that he needs to go into the control panel and select which programs should run at start up but I just don't have the time. We Google the company and I phone the number. It goes to voicemail and I leave a panicked fumbling message cause I don't know my new mobile number cause I just got it on Monday so I have to find the card in my wallet and *sigh* it just was not a good message.
While I'm leaving the message the receptionist security guard man has Googled the address as opposed to the post code. It's a ten minute walk from where my stupid map told me to go!! He gives me directions and off I go. I wander around, asking people for the landmarks the receptionist security guard man told me to look out for but which are actually unrecognizable if you don't know the city. I FINALLY find it by fluke after going the wrong way and doubling back only to realize if I'd wasted 5 more minutes cause it was right behind me. I walk in and the security guard for the building phones upstairs but it goes to voicemail like it did for me. We have to wait until another security guard comes down to watch the desk and he takes me up to the 4th floor. There he realizes he doesn't have his swipe card and can't get past the main lobby area on that floor. At this point I was resigned. I knew there was no way I would get the job being over 30 minutes late for the interview, I just didn't want to be a no show. Better late than never, right? Barely, but right.
Just as the security guard is waiting for the elevator to go get his swipe card, a girl comes down one of the halls and opens the door. 'Delly?' I wanted to cry. Finally, SOMETHING had gone right (and I'd put on my pumps in the elevator just in case so I was ready. The security guard seemed uncomfortable with this elevator wardrobe change but he was the least of my worries). She was very sweet and understanding because she was American and had gotten lost in London a lot as well. But she wasn't the person interviewing me so I was still worried.
I'm not going to go into the interview in detail here as I still haven't heard back and it's not the kind of thing you should send off into cyberspace. Sorry.
I'm still so upset with myself and everything that went wrong but ah well, what will be will be, right? No point in rehashing and stressing. Typing this out was my therapy. Woooooossaaaaa. Moving on.
PS. More pictures this weekend, promise. Tho the internet is being a bit wonky so it may be Monday. But it will be soon! And I'll try to make them good.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Temping and things
Sorry for the long break between posts. Unfortunately the break was not because I was off doing fabulous things that would make you insanely jealous to hear about. Quite the opposite actually. I've been working and meeting creepy people.
First the job; it's good. Very very very slack. Cleary since it's 2.30 in the afternoon and I'm blogging. I had some mindless admin work to do yesterday and this morning but since about 11:30 I've had nothing to do but answer the phone. 'Pretend you're busy Delly!' you may think BUT in my turnover notes from the girl I'm covering, she noted that the internet is available to me if I have any downtime. She also said to bring in a book. I thought the book might look kind of bad, though I always have one with me, so I'm doing the internet thing instead.
It's an office of nine people, five of whom are on vacation. I am temping for one of those five (the office assistant). I've so far met three of the ones actually working this week and one of the ones supposed to be on vacation. The company is a brand of Bars across England. Pretty posh bars, more what we would refer to as 'lounges' back home. The people so far have all been very nice, fun, young, trendy, you know the sort I mean. It would probably be a good place to work on a permanent basis but they're not looking for anyone. They've got a marketing team of two people and they seem quite good (too bad for me, hehe). This temp position has opened my eyes to the fact that it would be AWESOME to do marketing/brand management/PR/advertising for a brand of bars or restaurants. I've always contemplated a hotel chain or airline or clothing line, but bars and restaurants, hello! What do I love? Food, drinks, clothes and sleep! Bars and restaurants cover 2 out of 4 of those things (ie.food and drinks). This place is full of alcohol, red bull and juice. Way more alcohol even than my previous workplace when it's well stocked. And such variety! Perfect for me. I'm going to look into it. I also love music and movies, but I think that might be aiming a bit too high right now, maybe down the road in my career.
So that covers one of the things that's kept me away from the blog. The other thing that's kept me away was meeting creepy people. This isn't an activity I set out to do (but that would be an interesting mission, probably easy too) but rather something that happened by chance. On Monday I went with a friend of mine to a shoot she was doing. She is an amateur model and was approached by an amateur photographer to get together for a free shoot for both of their portfolios. She's done a number of these sessions and has gotten some really great portfolio items out of it. And it was in my area so I said I would come with her. So we're walking down Portobello Road following the vague directions of the photographer woman when we see this hippy-looking grey haired woman in a baggy blue dress approaching us. 'Hi there!' she shouts out. I nearly grabbed my friend and took off, but then she called my friend's name and I realized she was the photographer. I pushed away my natural tendency to judge a book by its cover and tried to be openminded.
My friend introduced me to the woman and she said 'oh, it's so smart of you to bring a chaperone! You never know with all these guys out there just waiting to get their hands on a pretty young thing like you'. AAHH!!!! This is what I thought. Is that not the strangest thing to say?? Especially because my friend did not introduce me as her chaperone, just a friend that was coming to watch. I started wondering if maybe this woman was dying to get her hands on a pretty young thing like my friend. She then started asking me all about myself and when I said I was from Canada she exclaimed 'A canuck, eh?!' I was instantly annoyed. Don't know why really, all I know was that cemented the fact that I did not like this woman. Maybe that's unfair, but LIFE is unfair people. She also asked me if I modeled, I laughed and said no and then she kept looking at me just a second too long. You know what I mean? Not in a lesbian way or anything, just uncomfortable extended eye contact. Well, uncomfortable for me, at least. As we get to the door of the flat we're shooting in, she tells us that there are three other men that will be shooting my friend as well and they're 'really sweet, nothing to worry about' (another reference to us being raped and/or taken advantage of). I was ready to turn around and head back to the tubes but my friend kept walking so I couldn't leave her.
We got into the flat and it there were not lights on. It wasn't pitch black or anything but the only light was from one small window. Again, I was ready to leave. You're probably thinking this was dangerous, but it wasn't. I should note that I have excellent instincts and I am an extremely cautious person but I didn't really think we were in danger. If my instincts had been flashing, I would have insisted we not even go in, but it wasn't my danger instincts flashing, it was more my 'waste of time ahead' instincts. Anyways, my friend got ready and the 'shoot' began. While she was getting ready, Creepy Lady tried to trap me into conversation with her again, little did she know that I am amazing at one word responses and bringing a conversation to a dead end if I want. Hehe, she figured out pretty quick and then just left me alone. This has no real relevance, but she had terrible teeth (they were grey) and she kept invading my personal bubble by standing way too close to me when talking. I noticed she did that to everyone.
Back to the 'shoot'. These people were beyond amateur. They gave my friend no direction whatsoever, had no concepts or anything except the fact that they were trying to teach themselves how to work with bad lighting (hence the near darkness). They had a lighting kit which they did not know how to use and a black velvet curtain set up. The shots were not good for the most part. Though a few good ones slipped through by fluke. There was no real thought to compostion or even head room! My 'waste of time' instinct was correct, as usual. The 'shoot' went on for about an hour or so and then we bounced out of there.
I walked home and Creepy Lady and one of the men were going in the same direction as me. Creepy Lady saw me looking at my little map and kept trying to give me WRONG directions. Not on purpose, I'm sure, but everything she told me was wrong and even I knew that and I have no sense of direction.
Got home safe and tired as did my friend. What a waste of a perfectly good Monday evening. Ah well.
Sidenote: had KFC here for the first time after the club on Saturday. Had a craving for fried chicken and it was delicious! Much smaller menu here than at home but I found what I needed. And they're open very late here, it was about 2:30 am when my cab driver stopped there for me. Now I've made myself hungry...
First the job; it's good. Very very very slack. Cleary since it's 2.30 in the afternoon and I'm blogging. I had some mindless admin work to do yesterday and this morning but since about 11:30 I've had nothing to do but answer the phone. 'Pretend you're busy Delly!' you may think BUT in my turnover notes from the girl I'm covering, she noted that the internet is available to me if I have any downtime. She also said to bring in a book. I thought the book might look kind of bad, though I always have one with me, so I'm doing the internet thing instead.
It's an office of nine people, five of whom are on vacation. I am temping for one of those five (the office assistant). I've so far met three of the ones actually working this week and one of the ones supposed to be on vacation. The company is a brand of Bars across England. Pretty posh bars, more what we would refer to as 'lounges' back home. The people so far have all been very nice, fun, young, trendy, you know the sort I mean. It would probably be a good place to work on a permanent basis but they're not looking for anyone. They've got a marketing team of two people and they seem quite good (too bad for me, hehe). This temp position has opened my eyes to the fact that it would be AWESOME to do marketing/brand management/PR/advertising for a brand of bars or restaurants. I've always contemplated a hotel chain or airline or clothing line, but bars and restaurants, hello! What do I love? Food, drinks, clothes and sleep! Bars and restaurants cover 2 out of 4 of those things (ie.food and drinks). This place is full of alcohol, red bull and juice. Way more alcohol even than my previous workplace when it's well stocked. And such variety! Perfect for me. I'm going to look into it. I also love music and movies, but I think that might be aiming a bit too high right now, maybe down the road in my career.
So that covers one of the things that's kept me away from the blog. The other thing that's kept me away was meeting creepy people. This isn't an activity I set out to do (but that would be an interesting mission, probably easy too) but rather something that happened by chance. On Monday I went with a friend of mine to a shoot she was doing. She is an amateur model and was approached by an amateur photographer to get together for a free shoot for both of their portfolios. She's done a number of these sessions and has gotten some really great portfolio items out of it. And it was in my area so I said I would come with her. So we're walking down Portobello Road following the vague directions of the photographer woman when we see this hippy-looking grey haired woman in a baggy blue dress approaching us. 'Hi there!' she shouts out. I nearly grabbed my friend and took off, but then she called my friend's name and I realized she was the photographer. I pushed away my natural tendency to judge a book by its cover and tried to be openminded.
My friend introduced me to the woman and she said 'oh, it's so smart of you to bring a chaperone! You never know with all these guys out there just waiting to get their hands on a pretty young thing like you'. AAHH!!!! This is what I thought. Is that not the strangest thing to say?? Especially because my friend did not introduce me as her chaperone, just a friend that was coming to watch. I started wondering if maybe this woman was dying to get her hands on a pretty young thing like my friend. She then started asking me all about myself and when I said I was from Canada she exclaimed 'A canuck, eh?!' I was instantly annoyed. Don't know why really, all I know was that cemented the fact that I did not like this woman. Maybe that's unfair, but LIFE is unfair people. She also asked me if I modeled, I laughed and said no and then she kept looking at me just a second too long. You know what I mean? Not in a lesbian way or anything, just uncomfortable extended eye contact. Well, uncomfortable for me, at least. As we get to the door of the flat we're shooting in, she tells us that there are three other men that will be shooting my friend as well and they're 'really sweet, nothing to worry about' (another reference to us being raped and/or taken advantage of). I was ready to turn around and head back to the tubes but my friend kept walking so I couldn't leave her.
We got into the flat and it there were not lights on. It wasn't pitch black or anything but the only light was from one small window. Again, I was ready to leave. You're probably thinking this was dangerous, but it wasn't. I should note that I have excellent instincts and I am an extremely cautious person but I didn't really think we were in danger. If my instincts had been flashing, I would have insisted we not even go in, but it wasn't my danger instincts flashing, it was more my 'waste of time ahead' instincts. Anyways, my friend got ready and the 'shoot' began. While she was getting ready, Creepy Lady tried to trap me into conversation with her again, little did she know that I am amazing at one word responses and bringing a conversation to a dead end if I want. Hehe, she figured out pretty quick and then just left me alone. This has no real relevance, but she had terrible teeth (they were grey) and she kept invading my personal bubble by standing way too close to me when talking. I noticed she did that to everyone.
Back to the 'shoot'. These people were beyond amateur. They gave my friend no direction whatsoever, had no concepts or anything except the fact that they were trying to teach themselves how to work with bad lighting (hence the near darkness). They had a lighting kit which they did not know how to use and a black velvet curtain set up. The shots were not good for the most part. Though a few good ones slipped through by fluke. There was no real thought to compostion or even head room! My 'waste of time' instinct was correct, as usual. The 'shoot' went on for about an hour or so and then we bounced out of there.
I walked home and Creepy Lady and one of the men were going in the same direction as me. Creepy Lady saw me looking at my little map and kept trying to give me WRONG directions. Not on purpose, I'm sure, but everything she told me was wrong and even I knew that and I have no sense of direction.
Got home safe and tired as did my friend. What a waste of a perfectly good Monday evening. Ah well.
Sidenote: had KFC here for the first time after the club on Saturday. Had a craving for fried chicken and it was delicious! Much smaller menu here than at home but I found what I needed. And they're open very late here, it was about 2:30 am when my cab driver stopped there for me. Now I've made myself hungry...
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Why Fried Food is Bad for You
I just very nearly burned down the kitchen. It was terrifying, I'm still very shaky from the incident and I think I need to go lie down. I was making my dinner, fried plantain and these turkey rasher things which are the UK's answer to turkey bacon (they were crap, nothing even close to bacon). So, I've finished frying the plantain and the oil is very hot. I put it on a cool burner to cool off so that I can dump it in the garbage and use the same pan to make my rashers. I clean up a bit, watch a little Friends, which I have playing on my laptop. 15 minutes goes by and the oil is still really hot and my plantains are cooling off so I need to cook my rashers asap so that I can eat. So I decide to just put a bit of cold water in the oil to help cool it off. Makes sense, right? Good plan, right?
Wrong. Not just a little wrong. Unbelievably, mindblowingly wrong.
I open the tap a bit and put the frying pan under it. It immediately starts to sizzle. Excellent, I think, it's...POP POP ZZZZZ POP PIP PIPLE! Didn't even get to finish my thought before the oil started exploding out of the frying pan and all over the kitchen!!!! I nearly shat right then and there. I quickly returned the frying pan to the cool stove, ducking and dodging the flying hot oil, and then run to the door way to watch helplessly as the oil continues to bubble and pop and explode sending hot oil everywhere! I was in shock I think, all I remember is silence except for the popping and sizzling. Then slowly I hear laughing in the background and realize my laptop is still on the table, within range of the oil. I run and grab it, and my cell phone and go back to the door way. The popping oil continued for a full minute, at least! When it finally started to settle down, I started to make my way back into the kitchen and then POP, another large explosion sending oil everywhere again. Seriously, I thought that something was going to catch on fire and that I would stand there and have to watch as the kitchen burned down.
About three minutes after that last scary pop, I went back in to survey the damage. Oil was everywhere. My cousins went out to the country yesterday and are due back today so I kept imagine them walking in at that very second and I was freaking out! I grabbed a cloth and started cleaning like a mad woman. It took me about 40 minutes to clean everything up. 40 minutes imagining I heard a key in the doorway or the gate squeak open.
It is now nearly two hours later and I'm done eating and my heart is still pounding. The kitchen reeks of oil and the floor is a bit streaky looking but aside from that, everything looks fine. I still can not believe that happened. Scariest thing to happen since I've been here. Possibly scariest thing to happen to me ever. Funny thing is I hardly ever eat fried foods and I rarely fry things myself. After this I may never fry anything ever again. Except I love fried plantain and my mom isn't here to fry them for me, and plantains are so readily available here............k, well I'll still fry plantain...but that's it!!!
Wrong. Not just a little wrong. Unbelievably, mindblowingly wrong.
I open the tap a bit and put the frying pan under it. It immediately starts to sizzle. Excellent, I think, it's...POP POP ZZZZZ POP PIP PIPLE! Didn't even get to finish my thought before the oil started exploding out of the frying pan and all over the kitchen!!!! I nearly shat right then and there. I quickly returned the frying pan to the cool stove, ducking and dodging the flying hot oil, and then run to the door way to watch helplessly as the oil continues to bubble and pop and explode sending hot oil everywhere! I was in shock I think, all I remember is silence except for the popping and sizzling. Then slowly I hear laughing in the background and realize my laptop is still on the table, within range of the oil. I run and grab it, and my cell phone and go back to the door way. The popping oil continued for a full minute, at least! When it finally started to settle down, I started to make my way back into the kitchen and then POP, another large explosion sending oil everywhere again. Seriously, I thought that something was going to catch on fire and that I would stand there and have to watch as the kitchen burned down.
About three minutes after that last scary pop, I went back in to survey the damage. Oil was everywhere. My cousins went out to the country yesterday and are due back today so I kept imagine them walking in at that very second and I was freaking out! I grabbed a cloth and started cleaning like a mad woman. It took me about 40 minutes to clean everything up. 40 minutes imagining I heard a key in the doorway or the gate squeak open.
It is now nearly two hours later and I'm done eating and my heart is still pounding. The kitchen reeks of oil and the floor is a bit streaky looking but aside from that, everything looks fine. I still can not believe that happened. Scariest thing to happen since I've been here. Possibly scariest thing to happen to me ever. Funny thing is I hardly ever eat fried foods and I rarely fry things myself. After this I may never fry anything ever again. Except I love fried plantain and my mom isn't here to fry them for me, and plantains are so readily available here............k, well I'll still fry plantain...but that's it!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)