I for one love christmas...

I love Christmas!!! Back in Belgium... the whole crew is here now... had our first christmassy lunch... presents are wrapped, laughs here, laughs there... christmas music... I love the optimistic, happy attitude people have when it comes to Christmas... Was down at Carrefour shopping some more beer this morning and everyone was extremely friendly.. overly friendly if you will... and I'm the kind of person who likes when everyone is happy, even if its artificial for one holiday... I'd prefer one day of super happiness to no days anyday :-)

Don't want to write all too much, will post some pictures in the slideshow you can see on this page... but will even add one or two to this page... :-) The one where I'm wearing a purple shirt is taken today... the one with a green apple is taken yesterday:-)

Have great christmas and see you next year when I have a JOB:-)

Back in Belgium...

Have to find my last xmas presents today and then its finally done.

I'll write at least once more before xmas...

Did I hear that right???

December is notoriously a really bad month for job hunting. Strategy has to shift towards preparing for January / February when everything picks up again. Setting up meetings etc... meeting a recruiter on Wednesday, follow some other leads as well this week

Nevertheless weekend came and went as they always do... and the most interesting event occured on Sunday when I went down to Spitalfields market to do some Christmas shopping/browsing...
was walking around munching on a Ultra Chocolate Brownie (mmmm chocolatey...)... when i walked by this little girl and her mum... next thing I know... the little girl (maybe 8-10 years old) looks up and says "Mum, I think I'd rather be a man"... and the mom was like "But honey, why?"... unfortunately I didn't get the answer but that kind of genuinely innocent statement is absolutely fantastic... It would have been great to hear her explanation, is it because she was on her way to the toilets and the queue was longer for the womens? Or perhaps it was the fact that she saw a guy with a funny tie and wanted to wear funny ties... Or maybe it was because she just saw a guy eating an "ultra chocolate brownie" without worrying a second about his weight?


It was surprisingly calm at the markets, not too much pushing, no majorly stressed a-holes barging around... maybe its cause there's still quite a few weeks left to find that special something... and when I bought something, I started trying to work out what these people must earn ... obviously Christmas is the best time to sell cause people are all looking to get things, but some of the things that people are selling don't cost all that much to produce, and there are plenty of people willing to buy something novel... and boy was there a lot of novelty stuff... lots of creativity and smart ideas... most things would never be able to be mass-marketed and sold but every now and then a little idea might... its great to see that entrepreneurial spirit in one of the most competitive environments in the world... there can't be many cities with as many markets as London... Beijing maybe? but they're selling something completely different:-)

so it was an interesting sunday at the markets and I was only there for a short while but I definitely suggest going there if you're in London. They are closed on Saturdays but otherwise open every day... its nice when there's lots of people though, get that markety feel (and its all under cover so no need to worry bout the London weather.:-)

Tea break...

Thursday mornings I like to go out and sit down with my laptop somewhere where I can access a wireless network and preferably for free.


Here's me at the café... with a cup of tea... striking isn't it... both the guys working at this Cafe.. called Coffee just off of Old Street have crazy hair cuts and moustaches... thats probably why I like to go... to this place on Thursday mornings... it makes me smile...

There's always business meetings going on in the cafes I'm in... whether its starbucks, random cafes called Coffee or whatever...

another thing that I saw for the first time today was a christmas tree, hanging upside down from the ceiling as decoration...!!!thats a first :-) for me at least... but apparantly thats the new fashion these days...:-) Have you seen any upside down hanging xmas trees... ??? imagine everyone hung their christmas tree upside down one year, it would be quite comical... where would the presents lie then? would you have to glue them to the ceiling?!?!?

Speaking of christmas presents!!!! its about time to start shopping but its always nice when you're on a limited budget... means that you feel yuo need to put far more effort into choosing :-)

Strangers...

So today I had an arranged meeting with a complete stranger for coffee... Not that strange of course but... here's how it came about...

A friend of mine knows a girl, who knows a girl, who has a sister who works in Sports Event Management... and it is this person I met for coffee at a Starbucks near St. James Tube today... without knowing who she was nor how she looked, I turned up a little early and ordered a tea... (perhaps sacriligously at Starbucks)... with 10 minutes until the time we were supposed to meet, a woman arrived outside the starbucks... and was looking around and looking at her clock impatiently... it was clear she was waiting for someone, but it was not clear if she knew who she was waiting for or not...time went and the person i was waiting for had not arrived, the person she was waiting for had not arrived either and she had been walking around just outside the starbucks looking rather impatient... so I got up and walked outside and said, "excuse me, you don't happen to be Holly do you?" and she replied "Oh no... no.. i'm just waiting for someone that I've never met" and I laughed and added "so am i... "... ends up she was waitin for someone different and i met up with the person I was supposed to shortly after...

The person I was going to chat to works and has worked in an Event Manager type of role for 4 years at a sports agency and the 30 minute chat was extremely interesting and rewarding and she promised to help me out as best she could...

it is precisely this that gets one a job these days... its networking, its meeting people, its putting yourself out there and risking ... build build build build build... perhaps not this meeting, perhaps not the next, but it will come good... its character building and its important... i received great information from her so we'll see where that leads...


Following the coffee I went to meet an old high school friend of mine for a drink near Waterloo station and i walked past the Houses of Parliament and across the Westminster bridge... as I passed the Houses of Parliament Alistair Darling (Chancellor of the Exchequer) drove out just in front of me in a rather normal looking opel or ford or some basic car... interesting...

While walking past Big Ben I took a picture on my old school phone... might be interesting for someone out there... :-P
I'll leave you with that picture...

I will survive...

Rather fitting song... and dance huh:-p

Let me tell you the story...Today I went to a Conference event called Event Forum 2009. Companies in the Events industry exhibited here with everything from venue companies to experiential and fun gimmicky things companies...

Originally (and primarily :-p) I went there because they had a CV and Career Advice Surgery. It was interesting. But the funny thing was that their tips for interviews didn't mention "Be yourself once". They pretty much insisted on you being someone other than yourself.. obviously they have to say things like, sit straight, look them in the eye, bla bla bla bla bla.. but what if you're not like that, isn't the ultimate thing in an interview to portray who you are... quite entertaining.. Anyway...

After having spoken to some recruiters about opportunities in the Sports Event Management business, there were a lot of exhibitors showing different things that they offer at Corporate events that make things a little more fun. One of which was Dancing Heads... And now for the main event:-) Watch this clip :-)



Feel free to comment on my performance. :-) :-P

That was all for today...

you gotta have some fun while you look for jobs too:-)