Dear all,
I am THROUGH TO THE NEXT ROUND:)!!!!!!!!!
Let you know how things go.
Love you all!
Xxx Mariken
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Catalonia & Job Hunting
Dear all,
Sorry you haven't heard from me in a LLLOOONNNGGG time... I've been extremely busy hunting for jobs and I was on holiday in Catalonia June 3-17.
My holiday with Derek in Tarragona and Barcelona was absolutely wonderful. It was just what I needed after a horrible time at work.
In Tarragona first of all was lovely. A small city that is built on the ruins of the second city of the roman empire. Amazing history, ruins everywhere, a beautiful cathedral. Our apartment was nice, though basic. The only problem was that it was situated right next to the cathedral, in the middle of the old town. A perfect location one might say, but it also meant we had to endure bells every 15 minutes all day and night. On the hour the bells were really loud, and after two broken nights we decided to sleep with ear plugs. Apart from that it was perfect. Below the apartment for instance was out favourite restaurant, La Cuca Fera, where they served lovely Catalonian food with a modern twist; we ate there three times out of seven and one night we even got some drinks on the house:)! Every day we had a lunch of nice bread, meats, olives, salad and a bottle of rose and every night, bar one, we went out to dinner. Healthy living;)! All the roman ruins were impressive, and I especially liked the houses that were built into the roman (!) wall and that were still being lived in even now. The cathedral was my favourite place to visit; quiet and amazingly beautiful. The inner courtyard was especially lovely. My least favourite thing was probably going to the beach; too much sand;)! I would recommend Tarragona to anyone that wants to combine culture with relaxation: lovely:).
Then we went to Barcelona for something totally different. The journey was easy, especially as our apartment was very close to the Sagrada Familia and therefore very easy to find. We could see it from out wee balcony:)! We were met at the apartment by Olivier, who showed us round and told us what places we had to visit etc. We also asked him for the best restaurants and he gave us a list of 7 (!), with type of food, prices and what time to be there. Just what we needed;P! Over the week we tried to see many things, but did not try to see everything (definitely not enough time). My favourite things were the outside of the Sagrada Familia, the Miro museum and the roof of La Pedrera (another of Gaudi's masterpieces). The old part of the city is also very nice for strolling, with all its wee streets. I love how in Mediterranian inner cities there are still normal people living there; the washing hanging out etc. The restaurants were an experience in itself: the ones Olivier told us to go to were cheap, but at the same time the food was amazing and the interior suggested class and style. The only down side was that it was served very very fast, in order for them to make enough money of course. These restaurants were so popular that most of them has queues outside even before opening time (!). But our favourite was of a very different caliber, a restaurant called Meson David in a less touristy part of the city. On the outside, and indeed on the inside, it looked a bit shabby, but we decided to brave it. The waiter was fabulous; really friendly and chatty despite the fact that he only spoke Catalan and we didn't have much of a clue of what he was talking about. He seemed impressed that we managed to eat a (HUGE) starter, and a main and Derek also managed a desert. His main, a leg of pork, was just amazing. I'm not a pork fan generally, but it was beautiful, and the meat fell off the bone and melted in the mouth. Mmmmmm:).
As you can tell from the above I had a great holiday:). If you are wondering: yes I gained some weight;). The food is always one of the highlights of my holiday and Catalonian food is definitely lovely.
And the there was the going back to work... Not good... Especially as Derek moved to Cambridge on Friday morning...:'( The atmosphere at work is really quite horrible. Lots of people have already left as well. It is really quiet and people are not terribly cheerful. It just makes coming to work really hard, and because of the whole situation I just cannot enjoy my job very much. I am really ready to leave; my official redundancy date is September 5th, and I get £1300 if I do stay till that date. Realistically £1300 would last me about a month and a half though, so just finding myself a job now would be a lot easier. I have been applying like mad, and I had an interview with Explore Learning (again, see September 2005) on Thursday. I think it went well, but today (Tuesday and you're supposed to hear within three days) I still haven't heard anything. I will give Kate (the HR manager) a call this afternoon if there is still no word after lunch. Fingers crossed that I will now only receive invitations to interviews rather than rejection letters...
Derek is doing well in Cambridge. The wee house is apparently bigger than he remembered, and work (after one introduction day anyway) seems nice too. He will mostly do reading over the coming months, and work is quite flexible when it comes to hours etc. I will go visit him sometime soon for a (short...) weekend.
Hope you're all well! If you know anyone in Cambridge who is looking for a bright individual to join their company, please let me know!
Love,
Sorry you haven't heard from me in a LLLOOONNNGGG time... I've been extremely busy hunting for jobs and I was on holiday in Catalonia June 3-17.
My holiday with Derek in Tarragona and Barcelona was absolutely wonderful. It was just what I needed after a horrible time at work.
In Tarragona first of all was lovely. A small city that is built on the ruins of the second city of the roman empire. Amazing history, ruins everywhere, a beautiful cathedral. Our apartment was nice, though basic. The only problem was that it was situated right next to the cathedral, in the middle of the old town. A perfect location one might say, but it also meant we had to endure bells every 15 minutes all day and night. On the hour the bells were really loud, and after two broken nights we decided to sleep with ear plugs. Apart from that it was perfect. Below the apartment for instance was out favourite restaurant, La Cuca Fera, where they served lovely Catalonian food with a modern twist; we ate there three times out of seven and one night we even got some drinks on the house:)! Every day we had a lunch of nice bread, meats, olives, salad and a bottle of rose and every night, bar one, we went out to dinner. Healthy living;)! All the roman ruins were impressive, and I especially liked the houses that were built into the roman (!) wall and that were still being lived in even now. The cathedral was my favourite place to visit; quiet and amazingly beautiful. The inner courtyard was especially lovely. My least favourite thing was probably going to the beach; too much sand;)! I would recommend Tarragona to anyone that wants to combine culture with relaxation: lovely:).
Then we went to Barcelona for something totally different. The journey was easy, especially as our apartment was very close to the Sagrada Familia and therefore very easy to find. We could see it from out wee balcony:)! We were met at the apartment by Olivier, who showed us round and told us what places we had to visit etc. We also asked him for the best restaurants and he gave us a list of 7 (!), with type of food, prices and what time to be there. Just what we needed;P! Over the week we tried to see many things, but did not try to see everything (definitely not enough time). My favourite things were the outside of the Sagrada Familia, the Miro museum and the roof of La Pedrera (another of Gaudi's masterpieces). The old part of the city is also very nice for strolling, with all its wee streets. I love how in Mediterranian inner cities there are still normal people living there; the washing hanging out etc. The restaurants were an experience in itself: the ones Olivier told us to go to were cheap, but at the same time the food was amazing and the interior suggested class and style. The only down side was that it was served very very fast, in order for them to make enough money of course. These restaurants were so popular that most of them has queues outside even before opening time (!). But our favourite was of a very different caliber, a restaurant called Meson David in a less touristy part of the city. On the outside, and indeed on the inside, it looked a bit shabby, but we decided to brave it. The waiter was fabulous; really friendly and chatty despite the fact that he only spoke Catalan and we didn't have much of a clue of what he was talking about. He seemed impressed that we managed to eat a (HUGE) starter, and a main and Derek also managed a desert. His main, a leg of pork, was just amazing. I'm not a pork fan generally, but it was beautiful, and the meat fell off the bone and melted in the mouth. Mmmmmm:).
As you can tell from the above I had a great holiday:). If you are wondering: yes I gained some weight;). The food is always one of the highlights of my holiday and Catalonian food is definitely lovely.
And the there was the going back to work... Not good... Especially as Derek moved to Cambridge on Friday morning...:'( The atmosphere at work is really quite horrible. Lots of people have already left as well. It is really quiet and people are not terribly cheerful. It just makes coming to work really hard, and because of the whole situation I just cannot enjoy my job very much. I am really ready to leave; my official redundancy date is September 5th, and I get £1300 if I do stay till that date. Realistically £1300 would last me about a month and a half though, so just finding myself a job now would be a lot easier. I have been applying like mad, and I had an interview with Explore Learning (again, see September 2005) on Thursday. I think it went well, but today (Tuesday and you're supposed to hear within three days) I still haven't heard anything. I will give Kate (the HR manager) a call this afternoon if there is still no word after lunch. Fingers crossed that I will now only receive invitations to interviews rather than rejection letters...
Derek is doing well in Cambridge. The wee house is apparently bigger than he remembered, and work (after one introduction day anyway) seems nice too. He will mostly do reading over the coming months, and work is quite flexible when it comes to hours etc. I will go visit him sometime soon for a (short...) weekend.
Hope you're all well! If you know anyone in Cambridge who is looking for a bright individual to join their company, please let me know!
Love,
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