What a difference a week makes...

One week...

it feels like a lot longer.

Last Thursday I took the chance to visit my parents in Brussels for the extended weekend. What an incredibly lucky guy I am to have two super supportive and understanding parents who believe in me and in the decisions I've taken. I must admit that one weekend away has given me a new-found energy to continue attacking this most difficult of challenges. Either its something in the water in their home, or just their wise wise words and relaxing nature but it was awesome.


I must say, the EUROSTAR is incredible.. 2 hours from London to Brussels... and as I take the early train due to my "busy" schedule... its practically empty... so I jumped on the train in the morning (alone may I add.. Anne left London later that evening to go back to visit her mother in Sweden)

The whole situation is quite luxurious though... have you ever heard of a person job hunting going on a Business trip and working remotely... well that's what i did... Thursday and half of Friday were normal working days for me and I got some good work done with some CV's and other research... Friday afternoon however it was time to welcome in the weekend with some shopping. Always great to shop in another city, country, place...

At dinner that night we decided that we should go on a "day-trip" and after having suggested Gent and Antwerpen I then mentioned Amsterdam and Paris to which my parents quickly insisted on Paris... so Saturday morning at around 9 we set off to Paris in the car... 3 hours later... I was driving down the Champs du lycée... and around the Arc de Triomphe... now what I can tell you is that the Swedes and French have completely different ways of looking at city planning and particularly road markings.. in Paris there quite frankly are none... and as a Newly-found Swede this chaos created anxiety in my little organised mind... nevertheless...I survived.. while in Paris we managed to get Tourist shots at the Eiffel Tower (pic by myself), Notre Dam, Saccre something or other up on a hill and we drove to Versailles (pic with dad)... we truly lived the EU dream...



after 5 hours in the beautiful capital of France we drove back to Belgium and returned at 20.00... Paris... I'll be back with Anne in the "Spring/Summer/Autumn" when far more of the flowers have bloomed but except for the fact that my French is horribél... it is a great city...

On the Sunday we went downtown Brussels to the royal castle to go see an exhibition of cartoonists in Belgium... funny story... there was one lone demonstrator outside the castle with a large Jewish flag... and there was this BIG Police truck... a water cannon truck... for one Jewish demonstrator.. quite comic the view (look at the picture below)...


we later found out that there was a demonstration for something else which we couldn't work out just down the next block so the cannon was probably there for that... let's hope Belgian tax-payers aren't paying to hose down one sole protester...

With great food, great talk and a relaxing quiet atmosphere, I managed to focus my mind on my continuing pursuit... and I must say the results are clear from my first two days back. I've been far more productive than the past two weeks and I'm raring to go... go go...

Now it might seem a bit sad but up until recently I had not met or spoken to anyone else who is in my situation... ie. looking for work in these frustrating times... its quite tough fighting alone which is why the last few days have been interesting. I've started getting in touch with some others that are currently looking for work... either made redundant.. or changed job at the wrong time or whatever the case... for this reason I've started a group which I've probably introduced before... namely

Lon-doers... for people in London who are currently out of work and frustrated because they want to do something... its a group that will meet for coffee now and then and just share ideas about potential projects we can work on together or merely just talk to each other and share our trials and tribulations... I think its healthy to talk to others in the same situation as yourself...if you know of anyone in London who is currently unemployed or looking for work please let me know... our first meeting is scheduled to be this Thursday...


Spoke to a recruiter today who once again reinforced my situation... he said

"The problem is that a year ago, there were more jobs than candidates and companies were more than willing to take slight risks with people and not require the candidate to have exactly the right experience, but now the whole thing has turned upside down, now there are more candidates than jobs and employers are being extremely picky with who they choose."

This position I was calling him about was a telecom sales role at O2 (an operator) towards the public sector... a fairly simple role really which I don't think required any particular insight into any different industry.. the recruiter filled me in on a little more detail of the role.. namely that the public sector was primarily selling to the Police... and he said that at least 5 candidates applying to the role had worked for an operator in London and sold to the Police... is it just me or is that crazy... 5 people who are looking for work already have the exact criteria... it's quite nuts really because yes, there is an advantage gained by already having contacts in the police etc... but C'mon... this wasn't a senior position, this was a junior-ish position... I'm just waiting until there is some job that says:

"Looking for a Swedish 25-27 year old male born in May who has experience from Marketing, Sales and operations who has lived in at least 10 cities around the world. He must be able to prove examples in which he has written................................, It would also be an advantage if candidates enjoyed playing soccer and has a profound love for Schnitzel. Preference given to those with international school background."

Fancy that... funnily enough there'd be three others like that here... and someone who managed answered the following question with a higher number... "How many schnitzels have you eaten in your life"... :-) I'm definitely not giving up though and I'm in a real optimistic and enthusiastic state of mind right now!!! Long may it continue!!! :-)

I also arrived at the conclusion that perhaps I should begin learning the texts to all the national anthems in the world.... I mean, as my own boss I now have the time... and with that kind of a skill I'm sure you could make a decent living... might be a novelty that would rub off... but in the meantime the exposure of being on the Letterman show, Late night with Jonathan Ross, Xi Hua Guang Gau Hu show might mean that I can get my voice heard... if nothing else I can put on my CV that I can speak at least 50 words of every language on earth!!! now to decide which anthem to start with.. perhaps perfecting my Swedish would be a good place to start :-) Du gamla du fria du fjäll....