The 50th blog post/ The three things I really don't want to hear today

Here we are, readers. We've made it to the big 5-0. Not age, I'm not quite there yet. But my 50th blog post. In some ways this seems like a lot, but in others it  doesn't seem like much at all. Considering where I was when I wrote that very first post and where I am now, many things have changed. When I started the blog I was full of direction, inspiration, joie de vivre- surrounded by friends and family and full of excitement for all my travel adventures to come. Now, I am somewhat directionless and lonesome, being hundreds of miles from most of my friends and family, without a real job and without much changing. You've probably noticed the decline of the frequency of my blog posts. This is a sorry shame. I always thought when things picked up a bit I'd start writing again...but things never really picked up.

Now, that's not to say that some wonderful things haven't happened from the start until now, I've met amazing people, I've seen lots of new things and done lots of new things, I've experienced a lot of things both fantastically great and horrifyingly low. And I've grown (not just around the waist). But I can't help missing the optimistic girl at the start. And I'm determined to get her back somehow.

Anyway, I've made it to 50...and here's to another inspired 50 posts of embarassing dancing, and strange encounters, and new places and a bit of sunshine (hopefully).

The point of today's post is to highlight a few things that I, and probably a lot of you too, don't want to hear these days.

1) The Guardian did a survey of all current graduates looking for jobs. The results were as I expected. We're all going through the same depressing farce. 25% of us have lost out on jobs we want, due to 'lack of experience.' This brings me to the first thing I don't want to hear. Every single job, in the hundreds I've applied for in the last 6 months, has ended with the same inevitable result. I've passed tests (even numerical), I've submitted CVs. I've gone to interviews. The final feedback is always the same: "We liked you but another candidate was more experienced for the role."
This really frustrates me. These are jobs advertised as first job positions. Jobs geared towards graduates. Job advertisments which say 'No previous experience required. Full training provided.'. The sheer magnitude of applications mean, however, that they are able to add further boundaries because somewhat over experienced people are going for these jobs as well, due to a never diminishing over-subscribed job market. I get it, honestly I do. I accept the fact that others are more qualified than me and deserve the job more. What I don't get is how you go about getting the experience needed. Because nobody hires without experience!!! 'Internships?' I hear you ask. Alas, according to the Guardian, another sizeable chunk of us found that unless you know somebody in the business, or have a relative working there, you aren't going to get in. Brilliant.


2) The second thing I really don't want to hear is "The orchid's dead, move on." Since a very kind friend gifted me with some beautiful purple orchids at a dinner party in March, I've been caring for them like they are my child. I've been watering them with tepid water (the instructions said TEPID), I been monitoring their moistness (MOIST) to make sure I don't over-water, and I've been moving them from room to room, and climate to climate, to ensure they have variety in their day to day life. And so far, much to my immense surprise, they've survived and they're healthy. I think they've become a social experiment for me. Keeping them alive is proving that I am not incompetent. That I can do something successful. It's a necessary component for my remaining optimism. So the day I hear, "The orchid's dead, move on" will be the day I officially give up. Maybe it's like the rose in Beauty and the Beast. Except I'm less mean (and less furry). If the last petal drops, I'll be stuck this way forever! But does that mean I won't age?? Because I really wouldn't mind that.

3) The third thing I really don't want to hear is 'Looks like snow's on the way again'. I'm a patient woman. That's a fact. If you remember my post last year about our current weather being much colder than other countries at this time of year (http://au-where.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/here-comes-sun.html) I wrote my complaint last year while it was still April, so obviously things had cheered up by this time of the year. It's a week until June. JUNE. This time last year, because I remember it was when my sister was visiting for Eurovision (http://au-where.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/nil-pointsbut-big-love.html) for the last time I saw her before she became a Californian Girl, we were sunbathing. SUNBATHING. In shorts! In England! It was literally high 20s! This year- it isn't even scraping mid-teens. And according to the weather people (not to be mistaken with the Village People http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InBXu-iY7cw- sorry, I have to sing that. Every time. Part of my own personal Constitution.) there could be snow in places in the U.K this weekend?? What??? I've gone so long without sun that my skin has become a dangerously white colour, the equivalent of Voldemort. Not an exaggeration.If I develop a snake's nose, you'll know something a tad more sinister is going on. It's gotten to that point that it usually gets to in mid-Winter where you think "I can't honestly imagine it ever being sunny again." Except that emotion has been continuing for about 8 months now. I haven't gone out without a jacket since mid-September. Wow.

What I saw when I smiled in the mirror this morning

So there you have it, crew. Sorry, that sounded a bit nautical, guess I shouldn't have watched the entire 'In the Navy' music video there
"I'm afraid of waaaater!"

Those are the three things I really don't want to hear today. What do you not want to hear? Do let me know. Unless of course it's "She's posted another blog, oh crud!"

QOTR

'William Wallace was watching'- my trip to Edinburgh

Howdy!
I just returned from Edinburgh last night and it was so friggin' cold that it should have been renamed Edin-brrrrrr....a poor pun, I'm sorry. I woke up in the middle of the night last night with my light on and my kindle still in my hand, I must have been very tired, it freaked me out a bit, I slept like a dead person until 10 this morning and this whole day has proceeded to fly by, I can't catch a breath at all! Anyway, this is not the purpose of my entry today.

This review comes from INFINITY AND BEYOND!

That leads me to this. The Al Capone of the review world. My 'unique' perspective on all things Edinburgh and this weekend. I'm sure there will be many blogs written about Edinburgh, many photos shared, as it was PACKED FULL of tourists from every which country in the world. It is one of my true pleasures in life to try and work out where people are from, by a wonderful thing called observation. Well, what can I say? I had a blast! I seen a lot of things. All of them interesting. A lot of them funny. It was great to be back with my sister again, we hadn't seen each other since my last trip to the North of Scotland, so it was glorious to catch up!

After meeting at the train station, where we dressed almost identically unintentionally, we sojourned into the city for a breakfast. That first Flat White (best coffee EVER!) was blissful after the ridiculously early start we'd both had that morning. I had some gorgeous granola and yoghurt and compote which fuelled me for the morning. I heard my first pipes of the stay once we breached the centre of the city and that part, I'm glad to say, is certainly not a myth. Every which way you turned there was another piper hiding in a crevice. I never thought I'd hear the Highland Fling so very often in such quick succession. There was a bit of a legendary piper who attempted to play what sounded like the Foo Fighters- it was GLORIOUS!

Girls just wanna....WELD?

We headed off to the National Museum of Scotland which was reaaaaallllly good, seriously the best museum I've been to! There was just SO MUCH, all in one place: history, science, geography, food, art, fashion, modernity- *pause for breath* and lots of things to play with and try on- ALWAYS A PLUS! here I am, learning about welding, learning about ship building, learning that I really suit having a hat that'll literally cover up my face...

We spent several giddy hours playing with the museum and learning lots (because learning is fun!) and it was a heck of a nice change from sitting in the house doing not much of anything. After all of these revels, it was time for lunch. We feasted in a lovely vegetarian deli called Hendersons where I had a lovely cheese and potato and brocolli pie and my sister learnt the joys of being able to finally try a wee bit of someone else's food and it wouldn't be meat. After this, we went to leave our bags in the hotel, after briefly stopping for a 99 at an ice cream van, because Saturday was blissfully warm-ish weather. The hotel room was loooooovely, really comfy, and the bathroom was very spacious and white and I had visions of a man dressed as an angel singing 'Beauty School Dropout' emerging from the harrowed doorway.

Our room....with an eskimo in the corner.

We proceeded to lie like beached whales on the bed for a while, relishing finally ditching our back packs and being freeeee. Enjoying a beverage made with our mini room kettle and the generously provided Viennese Swirls, we watched 'Come Dine With Me' and chilled. After reading some hotel recommendations, we headed out for dinner in an Indian Tapas-style restaurant were we indulged in a huge garlic naan, poppadoms, lentils, samosas etc. We were STUFFED and rolled our way back to the hotel heavier ladies. It seemed, the only way to soothe our stuffed bellies....was to put up our gilet hoods and pretend to be eskimos.

Tough snow to you, sir

 What did you say, sir? That's a bit weird? Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn! We had a blast pulling faces and hiding behind doors and generally acting a little bit foolish. We filmed crime scene photos and shower paparazzi shots and my sister hid in the wardrobe and behind a curtain and tried to scare me. 

After all of these shenanigans, we retired to bed, where we tried to watch 'The Proposal' and feel asleep before it got too far (although some of us survived longer than others *cough*)


As the sun rose over the Edinburgh city-side...Escape to the Country, eat your heart out... we proceeded to the dining room in the hotel for a delightful binge eat. I had yoghurt and pastries and cooked breakfast- even a SQUARE sausage!- but still did not try haggis or black pudding, although they were both on offer for my perusal. There were even free refills of coffee- one of life's true pleasures! 

That's the castle...up there behind my huge head!

Of course, there's lots to see in Edinburgh so we jolly well got our move on.  We went to see the castle but it cost a fortune to get inside so we just took a picture and left again. We proceeded to go to the Musuem of Surgery where my sister, the dentist, fell in love. Her eyes lit up like it was Christmas morning and someone had commented on her Youtube video of her riding a pony to the sound of 'I Love Horses'. She revelled over all of the tools and all of the old techniques and poured over things in jars while I tried to control my absolute terror of dummies re-enacting medical scenarios (a fear which has haunted me since my first visit as a 6 year old to the Underground Hospital in Jersey).

We finished our trip with one last lunch out, this time in the gorgeous David Bann restaurant. I feasted on more vegetarian dishes, this time with humus and bread and pear and passionfruit tarts and perfectly cooked celeriac and puff pastry. It was all delicious! We parted ways at the train station and made our lonely way homes. A train journey in which I tried unsuccessfully to strike up conversation with a handsome boy, nearly missed my stop, and told a taxi driver he was 'awful young' for being a taxi driver (I swear my fare was lower than usual!) When we shall meet again Edinburgh, I do not know.  Someday I'll look out of my little thatched cottage window and I'll know, oh yes I'll know, that this is not goodbye but a see you later! Edinburgh, you've been a blast!

QOTR                                                           

Introducing:

So here it goes.

The challenge: see, experience, learn, breathe in as many people, countries and lifestyles as I possibly can.

The contestant: I, soon to be graduate, eager traveller, soon to be employed au-pair, ready to travel with just a ready mind and no baggage.

The experiment, should I succeed, is to become completely and total absorbed in the cultures I will be encountering.

After the pressure and stress of trying to become employed after graduating, after spending hundreds of pounds on travelling to interviews, after revising maths again for numerical reasoning tests, after learning reems of information about companies and then to receive the same incipidly polite rejection letter from every single employer, I came to the very good decision that I had had enough. Enough of the U.K. Enough of being turned down. Enough of feeling my chest tighten with the pressure. Enough of being puppeted into fighting others almost to the death for a job I don't even care about. I want out!!! I want out of this stuffy little island and being forced into a stuffy little office and being forced to be ambitious.

It just isn't me.

I want to learn new languages, try new food, meet new people, climb new mountains.

So that's what I'm doing.

This blog, for any who care to follow, will be a place where I hope to share my adventures and my experiences and hopefully some lovely pictures because I am very excited to be moving out of the country, and until I make it onto that plane and see the English channel pass by, I shall keep you enthralled (hopefully) with anything else I can think of that's interesting

Feel free to share any comments or thoughts.

Thank you for listening!

QOTR