One year later

I also forgot to mention I have now been in London for exactly one year!!! I arrived October 30th 2008... !!!! How time flies!!!

Chester, Ascot, Gothenburg

Last weekend Anne and I went to Chester to visit Byron here...

Byron and I went to middle school and High school together in Vienna. Vienna was (and still is) a fantastic place to live and we had such great times...

Byron and Gemma (his girlfriend) were kind enough to have us visit their lovely place in chester and stay with them for the weekend. Fantastic food, lovely fun talks and some great catching up and getting to know one another. Anne and Gemma had never met and Byron and myself hadn't spent any considerable time with our friends partner. But we all got on marvelously (This is a word that loads of people seem to use here in the UK, I haven't used Marvelous for quite a while but its a fun word, start using it...it's MARVELOUS)


Chester is a lovely town... very pituresque and quaint... definitely a place I would consider going to again just to relax. Anne snapped a great pic of me with the old shakespearan type houses in the background :-)

And the highlight of the weekend had to be Anne riding Joe (a horse that Gemma owns)...

Anne loves riding and horses and animals and so does Gemma. Rich loves beer, and football and beer and so does Byron... so it was a match made in heaven... :-) A quick detour to Burger king while the girls were riding allowed Byron and myself get down to some good ole burgering ..

A fantastic weekend topped off by seeing Mr. Hagan (my middle school football coach who is Byron's dad), Mr Heedles (my math teacher in high school and coach of my varisity football team at AIS) and Mrs. Hagan (Byron's mom who was also a teacher at AIS)...

Once back in London the stress started again and I've been super busy the past few weeks with lots of social arrangements outside of work as well... Dinner on Tuesday with Jennifer (one of Anne's closest friends who lives in Ystad) and her Jocke, Dinner on Wednesday for a girl that was leaving... great restaurant that does 50% off if you book in advance.. it was called the Clerkenwell Dining Room . I would recommend it for some good food if you can get the 50% off... I had the Salmon with loads of other seafood ... it was YUMMY!!!

Thursday finally a day off and headed to the gym and then Friday lovely dinner out at Ping Pong with Gemma, Alex, Bernie, Joao, Anne and myself. Farrrrrrrr too many glasses of wine.. I'm not normally a wine drinker but it was fantastically fun...

Didn't have time to be hungover because by 11 on Saturday morning I was at Waterloo station to meet Emma and Kieran (from my days in Bratislava) as well as John K, Laura and Gemma C. We headed to Ascot, the horse races.. it was an absolutely beautiful race course and it was a great day out... fantastic spending some quality time with Emma and Kieran but unfortunately I didn't win anyting on the horses... oh well :-) next time eh...

Now its a nice relaxing Sunday and we have one week until we fly to Sweden.. to Gothenburg to go to a Wedding of some really good friends ... John B and Carolina C... will be great.. more to come!!!

Mr &¤#=)#

This is Fantastic!!!!




Have a nice weekend

ever get the feeling...

ever get the feeling that you are the only one thinking something... the only one that notices something... you sit watching everyone else get mesmorised by a person, a thing or place and you're sitting there asking yourself...

"i don't get it..."

I don't get why everyone has adopted a little boy at our workplace... surely an immature little pestering brat should be frowned upon... and told to grow up.. instead... everyone acts as though he is the little child of the office and cuddles and treats him nicely... when that little boy grows up... he's in for a rude awakening...

Group psychology is an extremely interesting thing... once you feel out of the group.. it's tough to get into it again...

Another thing I think is absolutely disgusting but appears to be quite common is Bullying at the workplace... what makes certain "@$$#ö/e$" think they have the right to be mean to others... probably bullied themselves as a child... bullied themselves on the tube or in other public circumstances... maybe they've never grown up...

I have one thing to say to them... "GROW UP"...

There's plenty more I'd love to write about this but it''s late and I've got to head to bed... but I'm due to write more on this topic soon

October!!! Are you kidding me----

It's already October? I only managed one entry in September. Time really flies and instead of trying to fill you all in on whats happened the past month I'll just choose some random things that I've noticed, I've experienced, I'd like to comment on...

It's been an eventful few weeks

Really LOTS has happened since I last wrote having just returned from Manchester. I can't believe that that's almost a month ago now. Settling in to work and it's becoming more and more routine. I've obviously still got lots to learn but that's nothing new...

London is changing... Summer to Fall....

I walk to and from work every day... it's exactly 30 minutes door to door. Fantastic to be able to get that kind of exercise and its a fantastic way to start and finish a day... on my way I have noticed the change of the seasons... When I first started walking, Kids were not going to school, people were still away on holiday, the sun was still very much shining every day as I left to go to work and as I came home... now...

The majority of people I meet on my walk to work are kids or parents with their kids... The last three days it has gently rained on my way to and from work... it's still enjoyable only a little less so... still just a trinkle...!!!

I see the same people at the same spot everyday as I walk. Everyone has this wherever they are in the world as people have their routines... the funny thing is one of the guys I see every morning, had the SAME SHIRT and the SAME Trousers on everyday... and i would start getting crazy dejavu... one day I didn't see him, but when I turned around, i did see him, it's only he'd changed shirt and trousers and it looked like a totally different person. Really interesting... today he walked in a suit!!! First time i saw that... stay tuned to find out what he'll be wearing tomorrow...


Sales isn't such a bad job... people aren't always best pleased to hear from a salesperson and you've learned all the best ways to shut telesales people up in the future... but it's a real skill and something that takes time to perfect... the same with face-to-face sales... Ben, the guy I work with is quite articulate and a very good sales person for having never had experience of it before... there's a lot to learn from him despite our personalities clearly clashing... it's not often that I've had to work sooo close to someone who I quite clearly clash on a personality level... but that's part of the great experience...


I've been eating lots of fantastic things.. London is the best place in the world for eating out... had Chinese food in China town (in SOHO) with my friend Giang from my time working in Lund...it was a fantastic time!!! Italian, Japanese, English... you name it i've eaten it...!!! Really recommend you to come over for the food...

I have joined the gym, Anne and I got a "couples" price and I have my first session with a "personal trainer" tomorrow... should be an interesting day... they also have a swimming pool and sauna and steam room... everything included in the price, hopefully i'll make the most of the gym.. gotta get back in to some kind of shape for the christmas FEAST!!! :-p

That's a very quick, quite uninformative update of whats new with me... i'll try to find some pictures to upload for next time ... hopefully after I've been at the gym a few times with Anne...!!!

Manchester...

A week in Manchester... or more correctly.. in Wilmslow...

I spent a week in Wilmslow, a very posh suburb to Manchester where there are far more Bentley's than Fiats...

Having arrived to Wilmslow on Sunday evening (at 19-ish) following a two hour train trip from London... I immediately met up with a group of the others who were on the same training course. The reason I was up there was for Pareto Law (the recruitment agency that I got the job through) sales training (the foundations of selling). It was an extremely interesting week of training culminating in Thursday's cold-call test where we (we were a group of 23 people on the course) one by one had to call the trainer who was pretending to be a potential buyer of our product. We had to convince him to have a meeting. I went fourth out of 23 and was the first person to successfully book a meeting so I was extremely happy with that although I felt slightly like I had weaselled my way in... ie. there is a lot of room for improvement... but all in all, a great training session and learned a hell of a lot in terms of Sales...

It is also interesting, already on the day I arrived, I felt a bit under the weather and unfortunately I wasn't able to shake off the sore throat, stuffy nose and headache throughout the week... this in part meant that I wasn't as social with the other individuals in the group as I might have been. At the same time I was also not interested in spending any more time with the guy I work with than I would have to and he was ... as he normally is... loud and self-centered and good at initially connecting with people. The combination meant that I took a real backseat which is extremely interesting and worthwhile at times.

It's always interesting with group dynamics and especially when there are so many different personality types and people that want to take up a lot of place. The fact that the ages ranged from 21 to 47 also had a major part to play although some of the people in their 30's acted more like 21 year olds than certain 21 yo's... The English society is very much about going out and socialising and drinking every night... and if you miss out ... especially if it is a bad reason, then that can be quite detrimental to your "social-standing" ... it's definitely interesting... dynamics of a group!!!

While up in the Manchester area I was fortunate enough to meet up with two of my friends from yesteryear... I met with Ria, a Finnish PhD student in Manchester on the Monday night at Kro2. A great Danish bar in manchester. It was really interesting to hear how she's been doing. It's a completely different world, the world of doctoring!!!

On Tuesday I had the fantastic opportunity of going to Chester to meet my really close friend Byron... meet his lovely girlfriend Gemma, their dog Poppit, and see their current flat... everything was absolutely fantastic!!! Had a lovely lovely meal and a great chat... really miss Byron! Glad we're in the same country at least... Now Anne and I need to get up there so Anne and Gemma can ride horses and Byron and I sit in the pub and reminisce...!!! :-)

Finally, yesterday after having arrived back in London at 21.00, Anne and I went to meet another of my closest friends, Gemma and Alex... we went to a pub called the Queenshead & Artichoke on Albany Road (just opposite Great Portland Street). Great tapas and atmosphere.. highly recommend it!!!

Now I'm back in London with a cold... hopefully meeting up with my friend Santiago from Colombia who I met in Slovakia!!! Life keeps on tick tick ticking away...

Finally... last weekend Anne and I attended an AWESOME Michael Jackson themed party hosted by my sister Mathilda and Simon... it was their house warming party... to make things better Antonia and my cousin Louise came over from New York and Sweden respectively... earlier in the day a group of 15 of us had learned the Thriller dance at the Pineapple Dance Studios at Covent Garden... Hugely recommend it... it's expensive £25 per person for 2 hours.. but a great group activity, great bonding and a lot of fun!!! Get ready to sweat... I'll try to get a video up of the dance shortly...!!!

Here's one or two pictures to leave with... :-)

A fantastic August

It's terrible when you don't know where to begin... I've been extremely bad at keeping this updated this month but what a month it's been. I'll try to fill you in as much as possible...

Two weeks ago.. just before I was starting my new job at Purple Matrix, I went back to Sweden for a weekend and subsequently on a 5 day cruise starting in Copenhagen, going up to Bergen in Norway, and on through the FJORDS to GEIRANGER and then back. It was the trip of a lifetime and included only the members of my family.


All the food was included and a number of activities. The only thing you paid for really was the alcohol but they had a really good system in place. There are tons and tons and tons of pictures and I won't be able to put them all up but I can assure you it was an incredible trip. We ended up really catching up with eachother which is nice when we all live all over the place. The food was fantastic and we had two great waiters that served us every night. Antonio and Renante... One from India and the other from the Phillippines... All the service staff were extremely helpful and it was really such a relaxing week at sea. The cruise stopped in Bergen, Europe's rainiest city and also in Geiranger, a city of 200 people in the fjords up north in Norway. Breath-taking scenes. We kayaked around the big cruise ship and around waterfalls and went to the top of one of the mountains... Definitely recommend it. We went with a cruise ship operator called Royal Carribean and the ship we were sailing on was called Vision of the seas.

Before we went on the cruise Anne and I spent the weekend in Malmö/Skanör. We arrived in Sweden on the Friday night and the Saturday was spent with our respective friends in Malmö. For me it was a heavy beer-drinking session beginning at noon. It ended rather drunkenly with me crashing the party Anne was at with some of my friends... Took the last bus home at 3 after an absolutely fantastic day. Got to meet up with Per K, John B, Anders H, Fredrik N, Fredrik G, Arsim A and many more...

The following day... the Sunday, we had a giant Party for my parents who turned 60 + 70 this year. Anne and I decided to take pictures of everyone with a funny clown nose and will put together a book. Below is a picture of Anne and I...


This was also a phenomenol party... lots of fun... and we were really lucky with the weather and all.

Returning to London, I started my job on the Monday. It has definitely been an interesting two weeks and I am really enjoying being back in business. All my colleagues are extremely friendly, possibly with the exception of one whose first job this is. I can relate to the difficulties of starting to work and all the insecurity that comes with it and in his defence he has been getting better every week so fingers crossed. He's also extremely talented at what he's doing (selling) and I'm sure he'll be extremely successful. As I am indirectly competing with him, this adds an element to the equation as well.

The role at the moment involves a lot of cold-calling and a lot of rejection. We are going to Manchester next week for a weeks long training session. It promises to be an extremely interesting week I am sure. Apparantly a lot of drinks and the like which kind of scares me... drinking with a bunch of 21-22 year olds... :-/ but I'm sure it'll end up being alright.

The weekends have been action packed with dinners and shopping and relaxing... last night we had a crayfish party with Al and Nin (our flat mates), Mathilda & Simon (my sis and her bf) and Simon (Whitey) another friend... it got really messy though... way too many snaps (shots of aquavit) way too quickly... wasn't feeling all too well and collapsed in my bed at the early hour of 11.

The next few weeks promise to be good with a Michael Jackson themed party. A week in Manchester. Hopefully some good news from work and my first sales. I promise to try to update this a little more cause I have loads of fun thigns to say.

I'll leave you with a pic of my family from the cruise...

Triathlon, vacation and some fun

As promised let me tell you about last weekend...

It was really really interesting yet extremely tiring. I volunteered for the Mazda London Triathlon. For those of you who don't know what a Triathlon is, it is a sport in which you Swim, Bike and then Run a long long distance all one after the other. It's like a marathon in three different events.

I worked as a Marshall in the transition area. The Transistion area is where the competitors change between Swimming and Biking and where they change from biking to Swimming. The London Triathlon is the largest Mass participation Triathlon in the world with over 10,000 competitors in two days. It is split up in different types of races including the Super Sprint which is about 750 m swimming, 20 km biking and 10 km running up to the Olympic categories which is over 1700 m swimming, over 40 km biking and at least 25-30 km running. I can't remember what just now.

Below are some pictures of the transition area. You see how you basically have less than a meter to change. All the bikes are lined up and people obviously easily forgot where they were going. They were specified in special lanes but even then it was huge.



As you can see it was incredibly large. There were over 100 rows of bicycles and lots to keep track of including different racers transitioning at different times. People who were running colliding with those going out on bikes.

It started at 8 am on the Saturday and finished at around 8 on the Saturday as well. On the sunday however we needed to be there at 5 am and it finished at 8 am. you are standing the entire time and answering questions from competitors, leading people in the right place, checking different things. It was extremely tiring but very rewarding. To watch the nerves and anxiety of people before they start and the relief and sense of accomplishment when they have arrived is fantastic!!! I am inspired to do it one day but my swimming has to improve considerably.

As you can imagine I was completely dead on Monday though but otherwise this week has been extremely nice. Knowing that you have something to look forward to in two weeks time means that its easy to take a few days off now. I had a lovely Lunch with Bernie yesterday and have managed to get caught up on a lot of things that I've been meaning to do.

I leave you with a comic that I saw on the BBC yesterday. He's the One Line guy. He has some other good stuff as well. It's quite witty! Enjoy

Mission ACCOMPLISHED!!!

Well, it was a LONG time coming but it's finally happened.

As of Friday last week RICH has a PERMANENT JOB in LONDON!

First let me send out a huge thank you to everyone who has supported me in this crazy ordeal. Your support has meant A LOT LOT LOT to me.

So what is the job you may ask?
I am going to start work on the 17th August for a company called Purple Matrix.

The company is a fairly small entrepreneurial company located at Old street in London. The company provides Small and Medium sized enterprises (SME's) with IT- Support services. SME's often outsource these kind of services as it is too expensive to have someone looking at it solely within the company.

The company is run by two guys who have been selling it without the help of any sales force for 10 years but that is all about to change. Myself and another guy are going to join the company and begin selling their product. It is then thought that within 3-6 months one of the two of us will become team leader and eventually Sales director and run a team of 4-6 sales guys. It is an extremely exciting opportunity to help develop a sales organisation for a small company from scratch. There's potentially a lot of money to be earnt as well however there is great competition in the sector so that will definitely be an interesting challenge.


So what have I learnt? What tips can I give to others who are in the same situation?

1) Remain confident. - It is the hardest thing to do because rejection is extremely difficult. Often times you are not too sure why you didn't get the job/interview etc and the feedback is not that great. Don't forget that the feedback is not always true either. A lot of employers think it is easier to give one excuse when in fact it is down to something completely different that they don't want to touch. In my instance, they might say it is because I am over-qualified but in fact it is because I have been unemployed for 8 months and they worry what I have been doing in that time. It is far easier to say over-qualified than "I'm not willing to take a risk on you".

2) CALL. - The best and only way to get anywhere in London and probably anywhere is to call. Call the recruiters to show that you are interested. Call the company and ask them if there is any job openings. For many people this is extremely difficult because you end up calling strangers and in some cases irritating them but in most cases a person is interested to hear from you if you ask smart and interesting questions. Don't give them a reason to be uninterested in you.

3) Look at your CV, listen to your answers to questions from their perspective. If you are in the UK or US, do NOT be too humble. If someone asks you if you have any experience talking on the phone, do not think that only because you called 100 contacts in total at your last job, that that is not enough. Any experience is good experience and should be highlighted if you think you can and want to do it. Your mind is mightier than you think and if you put your mind to it you can do anything that you WANT to do. Yet again, it is all about confidence.

4) Set up ROUTINES. It is imperative that you have routines. Test out the way in which you best manage yourself. When looking for a job and when looking for a job for that long, discover how you like to work. For me it is getting up early and setting my day up like a real business day. I like to have my evenings free so I work until 5 or 6 having started at 7.30. With these routines you easily resist other temptations. If you are person who has less discipline, devise a way to prevent yourself from turning on the tv, picking up a book, and generally procrastinating.

5) Meet people. Don't isolate yourself. Don't sit indoors all day. Go out if only for a walk, for a shop, to meet friends for a drink. I found that when I had been indoors for too many days in a row that my productivity fell considerably. I remember going to Brussels or just doing something completely different for a weekend and coming back rejuvenated and ready to take a stab at it again. It is important to interact with others.

6) I fell into the trap where I isolated myself from my friends because I didn't want to constantly be saying that I'm still looking for work. I didn't like getting in touch with people without having interesting news for them. I felt I put my life on hold and this is a dangerous thing, especially if you have a relationship. I am the wrong person to ask how you do this because I believe that in my case it is my survival instinct that causes me to turn inwards and hide all the emotions.

7) Attend networking events. In any city there are an abundance of networking events that you can go to free. You might not have a clue as to why you are there and might find it tough to talk to people but it builds up your confidence and ultimately might lead to some great contacts which might help you get a job.

8) Be yourself. Don't forget that despite the frustration at not getting a job, you have to remain true to yourself. You have to determine which jobs are for you and which are not. You have to answer questions based on what you want to do as I said before because otherwise you won't get the jobs.

9) Surround yourself with good friends and supportive people. This is key because you need their support more than anything. You may need a right good kick in the backside as well at times and only good friends and people that know you, know when the right time for that is.

10) ....


I'm sure there are more things to say here but I can't think of them just now. If I remember anymore I will continue on where I left off.


Once again. What a feeling! There are still going to be tough times ahead but one hurdle has been overcome and I look forward to the next one.

What I am glad for is that I have an incredible girlfriend who has supported me throughout. A beautiful and tranquil new place to live. I have a new job which I am looking forward to starting. I have two weeks vacation before I start and I am going to Sweden this weekend to celebrate my parents 60 and 70 years on this planet and also to spend some Quality TIME with my close close friends in Malmö.

Next time I write I'll fill you in on my adventurous weekend at the Mazda London Triathlon!!!

The wedding

This is absolutly incredible. It makes me shed a tear of joy!!! Don't know why?!?! :-)