I have had a full year at home, my grown up gap year, I would love to say that the house is immaculate, all the cupboards and drawers are tidy, the decorating is done and the garden is perfect, but I have to say that I really don't know where the day goes. I have travelled a lot and spent more time planning and booking the travel than actually being in the places we have visited. I have served home-cooked from scratch meals and nutritious packed lunches for the lovely man almost every day (don't underestimate how long this takes), and I have exercised lots. I have dabbled in cake decorating, loved it but very time consuming and not very financially rewarding, and I have spent lots of time being a lady who lunches catching up with friends. I did do a major wardrobe edit, getting rid of or packing away things that I would never fit into again, then a determined go at getting into one particular frock resulted in more than a stone lost - now everything is too big - hooray!
But, now I have a paid job - back into the world of pharmaceutical sales, but without leaving my house other than for training! It seems like the perfect compromise for me, working part-time from home and still using my brain. The reason for the post is to explain my absence for the next two weeks - I won't have chance to catch up with you all until the beginning of April.
Second reason for posting is that you are as young as you feel unless you are looking for employment, when it is nigh on impossible to get an interview. I have lost count of the number of jobs where I knew I was a suitable candidate but heard nothing after my application - ageism is a real issue for women, and although once you have an interview it is illegal for the age question to be mentioned, when you make your application the dates of your qualifications will often give your age away, and certainly many positions have an ethnicity questionaire which happens to ask for your date of birth, just for records - if you falsify this you are liable to instant dismissal should you get the job and be found out!
Thursday 17 March 2011
Friday 4 March 2011
London - fab
A long gap since my last post, I have been applying for jobs and having interviews and waiting with baited breath for the phone to ring. In the midst of this I managed a quick visit to London and as usual it didn't disappoint - apart from Jamie Oliver's Barbacoa - more of which later.
We stayed in The Grange St Paul's - which is actually across the road from St Paul's - amazing view from the rooms and the bar. We could stroll across the Millenium Bridge and along the Thames Pathway up to Borough Market (as featured in Masterchef) which is really worth a visit - I went three times, twice to browse and then last minute on Saturday to stock up on foodie ingredients and to sample oysters and champagne at Wrights Oyster Bar, we can call that our starter, because we then went to the Oxo Tower restaurant for a late lunch which was wonderful (didn't know it was part of the Harvey Nichols group).
The concierge got us a table at Jamie's new beef restaurant and we had really high expectations - especially when we saw the butcher's shop of the same name, the meat looked fantastic. The table was booked for 9.15, the place was packed and we were eventually seated at 9.45, our waitress presented at 10.00 and told us the specials, then 15 minutes later when she took our order, the special was sold out, they " hadn't had oysters for ages " even though they were on that day's menu, and I ordered cavolo nero which went it came was actually overcooked watery salty spring cabbage. All this together with being seated six inches from the next table, and the bill having two mojitos added to it for good measure, was too much - I took it to the front of house who agreed with all the gripes and said it was going to be sorted, then deducted all our drinks from the bill - it was still around £90 and really not worth it. I was disappointed to be disappointed though - I love Jamie's concepts, I was expecting the best steak ever and it didn't happen. I hope they do put everything right.
We stayed in The Grange St Paul's - which is actually across the road from St Paul's - amazing view from the rooms and the bar. We could stroll across the Millenium Bridge and along the Thames Pathway up to Borough Market (as featured in Masterchef) which is really worth a visit - I went three times, twice to browse and then last minute on Saturday to stock up on foodie ingredients and to sample oysters and champagne at Wrights Oyster Bar, we can call that our starter, because we then went to the Oxo Tower restaurant for a late lunch which was wonderful (didn't know it was part of the Harvey Nichols group).
The concierge got us a table at Jamie's new beef restaurant and we had really high expectations - especially when we saw the butcher's shop of the same name, the meat looked fantastic. The table was booked for 9.15, the place was packed and we were eventually seated at 9.45, our waitress presented at 10.00 and told us the specials, then 15 minutes later when she took our order, the special was sold out, they " hadn't had oysters for ages " even though they were on that day's menu, and I ordered cavolo nero which went it came was actually overcooked watery salty spring cabbage. All this together with being seated six inches from the next table, and the bill having two mojitos added to it for good measure, was too much - I took it to the front of house who agreed with all the gripes and said it was going to be sorted, then deducted all our drinks from the bill - it was still around £90 and really not worth it. I was disappointed to be disappointed though - I love Jamie's concepts, I was expecting the best steak ever and it didn't happen. I hope they do put everything right.
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