What are the Main European Languages?
Today I think I did a slight un-PC faux-pas at the jobs fair we attended.
Totally unintentionally though. Here’s what happened:
We are currently recruiting for people with European languages, but only Western European (i.e. French, German, Italian, Spanish, plus BENELUX and Scandinavia, Portuguese). There were naturally some students at the jobs fair who were bilingual with European languages not part of the list above (e.g. Polish, Bulgarian, Romanian, etc.).
When someone asked me which languages we recruit for, I said:
Just the main European languages.
The person was slightly taken aback – she was Russian and asked me,
Is Russian not a main European language?
I.e. my usage of ‘main’ implied a hierarchy, and then I said: ‘Nothing East of Germany’ (I don’t even know if this is geographically correct – I meant to exclude any Eastern European languages).
I can see now why she was slightly annoyed. It’s not really fair to talk of main European languages, and exclude any East European ones. Next time I’ll say ‘Western European’.
Knackered/Ill
I’m feeling a bit knackered tonight, and slightly weak. Maybe I’m coming down with a cold. Either way, I’m queasy 
Hopefully by tomorrow I’ll be back to normal – we’re attending a jobs fair tomorrow, to get some more workers 
Speeding into Scotland = 200 Quid
Quite some time ago, I mentioned as a side note that I was flashed by speeding cameras when racing into Scotland (this was in July).
Today I received the letter in the post containing my fine. It’s 200 quid. That’s fine by me – I made my bed so I have to lie in it.
The slightly confusing part of it is whether or not I’ll be getting any points on my German license. The letter states:
The Court ordered that any future DVLA Driving License obtained by you will be endorsed with 5 penalty points.
Hm.. I don’t quite understand. I had to send in my German license (which they still haven’t sent back to me! In Germany, THAT would be illegal. You are by law required to always have your license on you when driving). So, does this mean that:
- they will be returning my GE license without any points, but if I ever apply for a British license the points will be added to it?
- they will be exchanging my GE license for a British one, and add the points, then send a British license to me (I doubt they are allowed to do that)?
- they will be returning my GE license with points on them?
- I will get points in Germany on my license, but this doesn’t apply in Britain?
I think I’ll have to phone them tomorrow. Maybe I shouldn’t have sent in my license in the first place. Just ignored th3 l4w and moved away 
Attack of the Common People
Last night, I was quite aggressively attacked by a common person. I don’t mind common people – I have some common friends and my family is not exactly posh or middle class.
Yesterday, the common person was a drunk, Irish woman. She was probably in her late 20s/ early 30s, extremely pished and extremely desperate for attention, especially from men. I don’t like attention seekers at all, particularly, if the discourse and behaviour engaged in to gain attention is REALLY FUCKING DULL. This pisshead shouted ‘Hackney is a shanty town’ for roughly 15 minutes, while falling over, sitting on men’s laps, and shouting ’shut up’ (or ’shut your fucking mouth, you bastard’ etc.) to our little group that had sat quite happily in the garden talking until her arrival.
Now, in a situation where a dull person is seeking attention, I usually keep quiet and observe in the background, until they fuck off. I tend not to show any support (such as spurning the person on by engaging with them, laughing in approval, or smiling/nodding or any other body language). Attention seekers hate that kind of thing. They are desperate for approval as well as disapproval – anything that helps affirm their sorry existence.
The aggressive, threatening verbal attack the common person subjected me to occurred after she asked me for the 5th time what my name was/if I was Polish/worked in a caff (lmfao especially at the last one, ‘Do you work in a caff?’ – I think it was intended as an insult, i.e. the ‘Polish immigrant taking away our jobs blah blah blah, working in a caff low wage taking away our houses/our benefits’, that kind of thing. Unfortunately, many common people seem to have this view).
Anyway, when she asked me these stupid questions for the 5th time, I, after previously always responding in a polite, albeit frosty, manner, said:
“You’ve asked me that 4 times already.”
The person then started shouting at me and verbally abusing me, towering above me in an aggressive, threatening manner (I was sitting on a bench) for about 2-3 minutes while staring down at me in drunk stupor and hatred. I listened to her tirades, looking at her with a blank, motionless face (I hadn’t had a drink – I don’t drink – so I felt 100% rational and alert). I felt pity but didn’t want to say anything – I just didn’t want to engage (her attack was just another attempt at attention seeking – I hadn’t given her any until then and wasn’t going to start now, however desperate or aggressive her behaviour).
The situation was then dissolved by both my BF who asked her to stop, and another party-goer who took her to one side, calmly explaining that her behaviour was unacceptable. So that was that. She then came to ‘kiss and make up’ WTF, and I gave her my best false smile, with a glint of despise in my eyes).
So there. Common people, especially women for some reason, like attacking lenina. I don’t know why. The last time it happened the scenario was similar – a drunk woman, desperately seeking male attention/approval, singing and dancing and generally making a fool of herself. Lenina (alpha-female) quietly sitting there observing, not engaging. That woman not only flirted with all the men (offering herself on a plate, getting her tits out etc.) but also started touching up lenina’s BF, at which point lenina intervened. Naturally.
On a final note, these attacks have all happened in London, and within the last few months. I wonder if I should take up some form of self-defense – not to physically defend myself, but maybe to learn some restraining techniques just to calm this kind of person down.
“This is YouTube Material” – Update
The guy who pissed on a woman while she lay dying and shouted “This is YouTube material” while it was filmed with a camera phone has been jailed for 3 years:
He tried to rouse her by throwing a bucket of water over her, before urinating on her and covering her with shaving foam.
A crowd had gathered around, watching and laughing, and the incident was filmed on a mobile phone.
via BBC news
Family Visit: BF’s family
This week-end, we’ve got my BF’s mother, boyfriend, and half-brother visiting London. Not actually staying with us (thank god – flat is too small and it was hard enough with my family), but staying in a hotel in Notting Hill. On Saturday, we’ll be replicating exactly the same itinerary that I created for my family for the Saturday (i.e. Broadway Market, then drive to Isle of Dogs, walk through Greenwich foot tunnel, go to Greenwich markets, then pub).
I’m going to charge my camera and then my BF can take some pics. The good thing this time round is that I don’t have to be in the driver’s seat (i.e. organising things, being the main person who is being visited, etc.). Instead, it’s my BF’s turn so I can just tag along and say generic stuff.
To be honest, I’m not a big family person. That’s probably why I moved away – I’d hate to see mine every week-end. I can deal with them from a distance. I feel the same towards my BF’s family, though of course I’m even less attached to them than to my own. Thankfully, the BF isn’t a big family person either
Human Species May Split in Half
This was on the BBC News RSS feed and I only saw it yesterday. Seeing that my name was inspired by Lenina Crowne, the female protagonist in Huxley’s Brave New World, I thought I post this fantastic imagination:
Evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry of the London School of Economics expects a genetic upper class and a dim-witted underclass to emerge…
The descendants of the genetic upper class would be tall, slim, healthy, attractive, intelligent, and creative and a far cry from the “underclass” humans who would have evolved into dim-witted, ugly, squat goblin-like creatures.
I guess we’ll have the Alphas and the Epsilons out of Brave New World left, and nothing in between. Lenina Crowne, of course, was a Beta – though I am not
Jeremy Kyle Show in lenina’s Front Room
Our neighbour chav friend J. today had his ‘court date’. He’s separated from his missus (evil bitch) and she now has removed his access to his daughter, claiming he is ‘not the father’.
He now has to do a DNA test!
It makes me wonder what is behind these people going onto Jeremy Kyle. This is the kind of issue Jeremy Kyle constantly deals with (it’s a circus full of chavs for the general public to look and laugh at, just like the sideshows of the late 19th/early 20th century).
Actually, J. is a real person and I like him very much. It’s difficult marrying this with the portrayal of chavs in the general media (i.e. Jeremy Kyle). I just hope the baby is his (I’m pretty sure it is – tune in in 6 weeks’ time to find out ).
WordPress WTF; M$ F Off
Last night, when trying to post my blog in the tiny time window that I had, WP was down
It’s a shame as I was quite excited about posting that Micro$oft have finally accepted that they’re in the wrong with their anti-competitive business practice that has been bugging me for ages (and that I also wrote about in my thesis).
On a different (but related) note, yesterday our neighbour J. brought round his Xbox 360, and it’s no good. It looks like a Windows OS and screams of Microsoft (I hate for instance the software’s American English spelling – hmm, might be possible to change such settings but who knows. I won’t be getting one so doesn’t really affect me that much).
I much prefer my futuristic, sexy PS3. I’ve always appreciated Sony (I guess I’m a bit of a fangirl) but their stuff is just sleeker, and more aesthetically appealing. The PS2 was a design classic and, while the PS3 doesn’t look as good, its software is very sweet. No all-obliterating blue M$ colours.
The Xbox 360 is just too much like a PC. Rave about its spec and its price as much as you want – I’m not going to convert.
Michael Palin’s New Europe: Poland
Tonight on the telly: Michael Palin’s (of Monthy Python-fame) ‘Pole to Pole’. In his series on new Europe, he’s in Poland tonight. I’ll be watching it, to gain more understanding of the country my friend automatthias escaped from
Plus, I need some kind of counter-narrative to Ross Kemp on Gangs, which a week or so ago featured Polish Neo-Nazi Hooligan skinhead gangs. Quite frightening really, and making me slap my head in anger several times, wondering how on fucking earth any person would be allowed to display such abominable, illegal behaviour.
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