Germany wins World Cup against Brazil

w00t. The second time in a row:

The experience and consistency of the Germans did for them today 

More tomorrow :|

/me coughs

More tomorrow

This family thing means that I have no spare minute for myself, let alone my computer. I don’t mind the being away from the computer so much; what I do mind is that I haven’t been able to blog.

Either way, I took some cool pics and will upload them to my Flickr-account on Sunday, and I will write a bit more then

Laptop in Wrong Room

I didn’t take my laptop out of the bedroom, where my mum and sister are sleeping, so I was unable to post. Must remember it next time

My mum and sister are coming tomorrow

so I’ll be well busy. In fact I’ve been busy all day. Will be nice when they’re here as I won’t have to work or even turn on the computer!

On the other hand, I’ll be glad when they leave on Sunday

I’ll still blog every day – I brought my lappy back from wrk today.

How Not to Get a Job

I’m currently doing another round of recruitment (don’t ask me for a job people, unless you are native of either: GE, SP, FR, IT, NL, NO, SE, or DE). It’s really annoying what kind of shit people send in and really think they’re going to be considered for the job.

For instance, I always ask for a cover letter as well as CV, and the cover letter really is crucial. If you have a shit cover letter, I won’t even look at your CV (unless I’m really desperate for people). Here’s a cover letter I got today:

My interest in your company was ignited when I saw the add [sic] on Internet. . Having read your recruitment literature I feel your training will enable me to meet my own personal goals in a dynamic, yet friendly environment.

 

Ehm…: what recruitment literature? Your own personal goals? A dynamic, yet friendly environment? You’ve come to the wrong fucking place.

and another one, similarly meaningless:

 

I would like to apply for a position in your company considering my previous experience and education which you can learn about in my c.v.

ehm..: learn about in your CV? I.e. I have to look through your (likely chaotic, poor, and irrelevant to the job) CV to try and understand how your experience matches the job? No fucking chance.

Please take note everyone: The best way to a recruiter’s heart is through a cover letter that is tailored to the actual ad, supported by a strong CV (easy on the eye, succinct, but informative about your experiences and skills).

Applications containing generic cover letters such as the ones above are immediately deleted, and I hope not just by me! Imagine these people sending out their pointless, generic applications to loads of different jobs, then wondering why they don’t hear back.

 

 

I can buy my council flat now (if I want to)

Yesterday marked the 5th anniversary since I became a council tenant in Edinburgh. This means I can now buy my flat if I want to (the new qualifying period for the Right-to-buy is 5 years – it used to be just 2 years).

Obviously, right now I live in London and my flat is sublet, and I don’t really have the energy to buy my flat just now. What I’ll do is save some more money (I’ve already got enough for the deposit ) and then I’ll buy it some time next year, I think. Then sublet it to the council so they can use it for their emergency housing, while paying me £££.

Alternatively, I might just move back to Edinburgh

Watch this space…

Google planning Facebook competitor?

Well, not quite. But it looks like Google is a bit peeved that Facebook rules the world (at least according to its discourse).

I am on Google’s social networking site, orkut, but it’s rubbish and apparently more popular than MySpace in Brazil (w00t). orkut is invit-only BTW – let me know if you want one.

Either way, Techcrunch reports that:

In the long run, Google seems to be planning to add a social layer on top of the entire suite of Google services, with Orkut as their initial main source of social graph information and, as I said above, possibly adding third party networks to the back end as well.

They want to merge iGoogle with orkut to have a Facebook – competitor. Hmm, not sure if it’s going to work. The field of social networking is already too overcrowded. Notice also Yahoo’s recently announced social network, Mash.

Family Visit Preparations

Next Thursday, my mum and sister are visiting us for the first time here in London. I’m picking them up on Thursday, and they’ll be leaving on Sunday.

There are 2 tasks that need to be done in preparation:

1. Preparing the flat
2. Preparing an itinerary

1. Preparing the flat:

• BF is doing the decorating – wallpapering the hallway and lounge, painting, etc. (I don’t want to get involved with that as we’ll only argue)
• Me: Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. The filth I’m used to will need to give way to cleanliness and order. Today I’m going to do the kitchen: washing out the fridge (foul) and the freezer (not too bad), scrubbing down the hob and cleaning the oven (filthy, greasy) and washing out the kitchen cupboards.

2. Preparing an itinerary:

It’s going to be something along these lines:

Thursday: picking them up from the airport, driving back here, unpacking etc. In the evening probably go to a pub (locally)

Friday: London sight-seeing. I hope the weather is good. I want to take them on a good walk around London. There are various walk itineraries on the Jubilee Walkway website – very good idea btw! – and I’m thinking of taking them on walk 1 - the Western Loop walk. It’s 9km long and will take 4 hours (w00t) which is why I want to do this on Friday, when my BF is working (he wouldn’t like walking for 4 hours).

Saturday: Fun London things. In the AM, we can go to Broadway Market to the farmers’ market. After a hearty breakfast, I’m thinking of going to do some more sightseeing and then maybe go on the London Eye which I’ve never done myself but have always wanted to do. The BF hasn’t done it yet either, so it’s a great thing for us all. Afterwards, we could walk across the bridge and to the Tattershall Castle for a meal (fish and chips would be great, though I’m not sure they would eat it ).

Alternatively, we could go to Greenwich after the farmers’ market – we could walk through the foot tunnel from Island Gardens, coming out in Greenwich near the Cutty Sark. We could then walk around Greenwich town centre, see the market, and go for a meal at the Trafalgar Tavern pub right on the Thames.

Actually, I prefer that idea to the idea of spending a second day in central London

Saturday evening we could just go somewhere local, e.g. a pub on Broadway Market

Sunday: On Sunday, I’m taking them back to the airport

My Salatgewuerze have arrived!

The Salatgewuerze which anaj sent me in the post a few weeks ago have finally arrived.

It took ages! I thought someone had stolen the parcel.