That Was the Week That Was

I’m now back home, after the Jersey trip and after a weekend down in London. It’s been a long week!

I enjoyed Jersey, it’s a lovely little island that feels like Devon & Cornwall mixed in with France – obviously helped by all the road signs being in french and all that – you feel like you’re still in the UK but at the same time it feels foreign. It’s quite odd. The weather out there was a mixed bag, but when the sun was out it was warm and pleasant, and that also coincided with me taking some of the better pictures. The beaches, villages etc. always look better when the sun is out.

The hotel was fine, everything you expect of a four star hotel, just a shame that the free hotel wifi didn’t reach my room! The hotel was also a ten minute walk toward the town centre, so I was certainly getting some exercise out there. I’d recommend Jersey to anyone who is thinking of going there, it’d make a brilliant holiday. I’ve took a ton of pictures, but seeing as they all need to be edited to get ‘em up to scratch, it could be some time before they appear on Flickr.

Of course, i was enjoying this break until I received a phone call on the Thursday. It was in reply to the interview I had the other week. I was unsuccessful. After the past week of my family and sister being overly positive about my chances of getting the job, it turns out that “We just don’t have the vacancies at the moment”. Now, the fact that they said that other than the typical “You just weren’t good enough” left me wondering if there was more to it, and a phone call from my sister Megan (who works there, of course!) led me to think that I would have got the job if the law of sod hadn’t come into play…

Basically, an employee who fancied returning to work after a FIVE YEAR career break, chose the same week that I had my interview to tell the company of her intentions to return, so they were duty bound to offer her the old job back, thus taking out one of the five vacancies they had going. Conversations with my sister since all this and I’ve learnt that had she not decided to return to work, I’d have got the job. It also transpires that I passed the skills test and the actual interview, which they score, but seeing as I had the lowest pass score out of all the applicants, I was the one who had to miss out when it came to deciding who got the four remaining vacancies. To say I’m disappointed is an understatement. If I’d been just no good for the job, then fair enough, but I was so CLOSE to getting a new job, only for things to go against me when it really matters.

However, when you ‘pass’ the interview but don’t get a job, they keep you on a reserve list for six months. That means if any vacancy – similar to the job i applied for – arises between now and January, I will be offered the position. That’s even without an interview. My sister remains confident that a new vacancy will open up in the coming months, but I’m not so optimistic. When you’re that close to getting a new job it all goes tits up, it does make you err on the side of pessimism. It also means that I go back to work this week with the prospect of NOT handing in my notice today, forced to carry on working at Royal Mail for the foreseeable. Great.

So, that didn’t help me enjoy the last few days of the Jersey break, but not to worry – London was next. Iain and Aleks are going to Bulgaria soon so it was a chance to see them before they jet off in a week or two. I love London, don’t care what anyone else thinks, i love that city.

We looked more closely around where he lives, Wood Green, before going into Central London for some food. We ended up on Tottenham Court Road and I saw for the first time all of the electrical shops that it is famed for. When the time comes for my new DSLR (and the time is close!) I’ll be certain to take a trip down there. So many places to shop!

We ate at this restaurant near to the British Museum. It was a Turkish place called Tas. A chain of restaurants all around London, this was some excellent food. By far and away the brst Turkish food I have tasted. Couple that with excellent service, it’s somewhere that I’ll be telling people to go if ever they are in that part of the city. Brilliant stuff!

Yesterday, we found ourselves in Tottenham. This place is a treasure trove of European supermarkets. They have all sorts of odd foreign chocolate bars, varieties of cheese, meat and crazy flavoured fizzy drinks (SuperMalt anyone?). I could also see White Hart Lane from where we were, even though Spurs were the other side of London yesterday.

So, a long week which was enjoyable on the whole, except for the crushing disappointment of Thursday!

Steppin’ Out

Just a quick blog, I’m off on my short break to Jersey tommorow. Looking forward to going somewhere on a plane, but is in the UK, but isn’t technically…as weird as that sounds.

It’s come at an odd time of the month, as I went for a job interview at my sisters workplace last week. She works in an office, so it’ll be doing what she does. I’ve been so focused on the interview that I haven’t even thought of the holiday. Well, until this weekend that is!

I should know wether I have a new job come the end of next week, so it’ll be something good to come home to. In the meantime, I’ll just hope that this hotel has free wifi. The lack of Internet AND a telly at that hotel in Malta was horrible. I have been promised free wifi and selected sky channels – so there will be uproar if they aren’t there.

Spent this afternoon watching a cricket match at Trent Bridge. Notts took on Somerset in a Pro 40 game. It got rained off in the end, but I saw some fine cricket by Notts – despite having to rely on my dad to tell me what was happening at various points throughout the game!

Snap Happy

It’s been a while since I intentionally took out my camera with me to shoot some pictures. I do take photos now and again, but I’m really starting to gain a greater interest in DSLR photography. I’ve always been impressed with the results of the 50mm f/1.8 lens I have on my Nikon D50, but the D50 itself is starting to show its age. I got it about four years ago now, and soon after I bought it the camera was discontinued, replaced with the D40 (!?). Since then, DSLR’s have come on leaps and bounds. Even Nikon’s D90 is boasting a HD movie function!

In an ideal world, i’d get a Canon 5D Mk2, but it costs a few grand, so I can sit and forlornly hope that I’ll win the lottery or something. And in the meantime I’ll check a certain Mr Gaz Liddon’s photostream, as I know he’s got a 5D and is also quite a bit better at photography than me! I’ll probably settle for something between the Nikon D90 and the Canon 5D – whatever the middle ground between those two are. But of course, that’s in the future. I think I might get a 18-200mm lens for the D50, or even a 35mm. It’s good to know that the lenses I buy now would be usable on any future Nikon purchase.

Animals are always a good subject to shoot, so a nature reserve was a good place to go – geese, swans, ducks… Take a shedload of food and they’ll follow you round forever.

And today I was once again able to indulge my not-so-secret love of food photography, as evidenced by previous pictures here and here!