When Sales in NEXT turns into competition ...

... You turn into a sales crazed Woman
 

I walk into NEXT yesterday morning just before work. I see a mob of 'working' women browsing and picking clothes. 'Shouldn’t they be running to work?' – I think. But then it hits me – SALES! It’s almost like a competition in there. Pushing, squeezing, running around, searching for something valuable. After a moment the atmosphere gets to me and I too take part in that silly competition. 2 dresses pop into my eyes. I grab them. And although I feel I’m not finished yet, I realise it’s almost 9 o’clock, I should be at work!

Build your confidence with working for free

Sometimes looking for work is like a full-time job. Looking through ads (even if online) takes at least several hours. Then filling the applications, moderating CV and covering letter and puff - seven hours gone from your day. That’s what I was doing recently, applying for jobs, or maybe I should say internships. 
Taking a new career path isn’t easy. Often you have to start from the scratch and do the least exciting job for free. I actually don’t mind working for free as long as it leads me somewhere. I would feel more confident if I knew that the work I’m doing is actually good and professional, and I wouldn’t stress about making a gaff. And that’s what internships are for – gaining that confidence.

Easy student’s life – not so easy!

Someone said once to someone else, and I overheard it, that students have it easy and that every working person would like to be a student and lead a student’s lifestyle. Yeah, right. I’m guessing that this person must have been a student for a very short time and a long time ago, because since I’ve went to my first university, I have to tell you, my life as a student wasn’t that easy and full of roses.

Being a student is not only about parties, late mornings and socialising. It’s long hours in the library, long hours at home working on your assignments, a lot of booooring reading, and trying to make ends meet so you can afford a

Camping can be dumping but still is triumphing

I haven’t been camping since I came to London. I didn’t even realise how much I missed it! It was only two days and two nights under the tent but it felt so different from what I usually do during weekends. I can’t say however that it was always warm, so the thing I would change would be the temperature in the evenings and at nights. Other then that fresh air, beautiful sights of Swanage cliffs, sea, green land, 1000 year old Corfe castle, grilled food, cute little lambs running around, my friends around, being away from crowded London and waking up early in the morning with sun over my head compensated more than enough for little inconveniences. 

 

What I missed however in my campsite were two things, which in my country are something common and in fact often the soul of such trips and sleepovers under the sky. They are bonfires (or campfires) and guitar playing and singing. Only when we got to the camping field we saw the sign: NO OPEN FIRES! And there, of course, was no designated area for such thing. And our excited spirits faded a little bit. After all, it was really cold at times. I can’t complain about the guitar – none of us had one and the other thing is… none of us can actually play one. So maybe not having the instrument with us was a good thing after all (although I've heard that one or two of my fellow capmers are actually learning the cords. Fingers crossed that next time we camp there will a guitar and the tallented guitarist). But the bonfire! This was something all of us regretted a lot.

And one of my friends observed and said: “There are two things British people are scared of. Fire and electricity.”

And I can’t actually deny. Have you even been to British bathroom? But seriously. I still miss having socket in my bathroom.

Boring vs Interesting People

My friend told me today: 
"Some people are boring and I don’t hang out with them."

I remembered when he said once that people who always talk about what other people do or did are more prone to be boring. Instantly I started analyzing my conversational habits and I actually tell anecdotes which not always concern me.

But he was out with me so there was a chance that I wasn’t boring. And yet, sometimes I feel like I'm struggling a bit to keep some conversations going and there is that threat that any day I’m seeing him I might become boring because there won’t be anything smart to discuss.

Who actually is always interesting? What does it mean? Someone who knows a lot about everything? Or someone who does interesting things, like bungee jumping or going to foreign countries a lot? Ahhh… And who is actually boring?

I asked Teddy (my second half) just to get a broader idea of what type of a person is a boring person. He said:

"Someone who tells obvious things, who repeats only what was said before, brings nothing new to the conversation."

Then I asked about interesting person: 
"You’re interesting" – and he smiled widely to me. "Because you have lots of different things in your head."

And then he pushed play button in YouTube video he was watching just seconds ago and which I made him stop so I could ask him these questions. And though I’m not sure he didn’t tell me this just to have me off his hear I still find it uplifting J.

One: Blogging - I need it for some reason

I never thought I would start a blog about me and people around. But lately I have a bit more time on my hands and because all my recent studying didn’t actually involve any light or creative writing I started to feel a nearly physical need of putting non-professionally related words on a notepad (and then on blogger of course).

So… here I’ll be writing about simple and small things, like i.e. what happened today, who pissed me most lately, the dream I had and remembered (cause I guess we dream every night but most of the time don’t remember), and maybe a few thoughts on other things. There might be more but I’m going to leave it to: ‘we will see how it goes’.