Anyhow, we took these rather cute pics of the kids last night…. have to admit I copied the idea from a friend, but I think they’re rather cool anyhow

So the 2nd interview is next week and is for a job I really, really, really want (Job 1) and the 1st interview is the following week and is for a job I’m ambivalent about (Job 2).  Here’s my plan – put everything into getting Job 1, wait to hear, get it, Celebrate.  Fallback, start prepping for Job 2 midweek next week.

In the meantime, blog like I mean it and finish the bloody book!

Here’s hoping I can bag the job.

There now follows a gratuitous request for support in my mission to become the proud owner of an iphone:

If I haven’t asked you already then please, please, please hop on over to this post and hit the facebook like button.  I’m desperate for an iphone/ipad and you could help me win one. I’ll love you forever.  In case you missed it, here’s the link again.  Thankyou.

Oh, and if you’d like to take part in NaBloPoMo, here’s the NaBloPoMo Facebook page.  See you over there

I love being able to speak other languages because it brings me closer to the people in the countries I travel to.  It’s that simple.  Seeing a country without speaking the language is like seeing half the country.

I faffed around with languages at school and by the time I left could come up with some passable utterances in French but certainly not a conversation.  Fast forward a few years (well, a lot actually) and I’m fluent in French, have a passable nit noi of Thai and a smattering of Spanish and Italian.  I know I’ll never be French, Thai, Spanish or Italian but I also know that I can have a conversation with the people, get to know them a bit and make friends.  There is definitely a sense of trust and respect which comes from someone attempting to speak your language.  It shows that you’re making an effort, that you want to get to know their country more than a passing tourist.  In some countries (like Thailand) there is a huge amount of surprise and delight from people when you ask for something in their native tongue since so few people make the effort.

My mother tongue is English and with that comes an ambivalence, an assumption that people will speak your own language.  This makes it even more important to try other languages, to step beyond the arrogance of that assumption.  Of course, I love the possibility that I might be sexier because I’m bilingual, that I know what I’m getting when I order in a French restaurant and that apparently I’m less likely to suffer “cognitive impairment” (see below), but the main thing for me is simply the people factor.  We are all different, and by speaking other languages I can get to know and understand those differences, tell people about my own country and come to understand theirs.  What a fantastic gift!

PS If you hit the Facebook “Like” button on this page I’ll love you forever (it’s above the post and under the title)  Thanks

Learn English with Kaplan

For Fi’s Fab Stroganoffy Dish, you’ll need:

• a cup of cashew nuts
• a cup and a bit of water
• three big open cap mushrooms or equivalent of closed caps
• one onion
• a load of garlic
• teaspoon of vegan stock powder (I use marigold) or you could just add salt
• pepper to taste (I crush my own in a pestle and mortar and use loads, but it’s up to you)
• a smigin of olive oil

Method:
If you think of it in time it’s good to soak the cashews for 8 hours before you make the cashew nut cream.  I never do and it still seems to turn out just fine.  So, soak the cashews for 5 mins drain them and then put them in a blender just covered in water (note: if you were making cashew milk you’d use one cup of cashews to four cups water and then strain it through muslin or a jelly bag).  Blend them to smithereens (a good few minutes) until it’s the consistency of a smooth thick cream.

While you’re doing this you can be chopping your onion gently frying it in the olive oil until it’s soft.  At this point add the garlic and the mushrooms and fry them on a low heat with a lid on the pan.  Once done you just need to add the cashew cream and the pepper and you have a fabulous vegan sauce.

Tonight I served it with a baked potato and a bit of brocolli, but you could just as well serve it with noodles or pasta.  Yum.

Not Mushroom Stroganoff!

As usual, I ate the food before thinking to photograph it, so here’s a picture of the fantastic Sourdough I made this morning using this recipe.

If you like this you might also like my totally awesome vegan tagine recipe.

When you’ve tried it, do leave me a comment or a link to any of your great recipes.

So, thinking about how the walk effected me I remembered this little Ted talk by Amy Cuddy.  She’s talking about the way in which mind effects body effects mind.  It’s pretty well known that when we feel happy we generally adopt a happy looking body position (head up, smile on face, twinkling eyes etc)….. and likewise, when we feel down our body reflects that.  But, did you know that you can change the state of your mind by adopting a different body position?  I’ve heard of this before (notably, Tony Robbins talks about how changing your physiology will change your thought processes (NB the link shows and extreme example, but it sure works)).  Interestingly, even the simple act of faking a smile by putting a pencil in your mouth can make you feel happy….. but you do look a bit silly:

Wallace 'n Gromit eat yer heart out

Anyhow, faking it can have much deeper impact, in fact, it can be life changing.  Watch the video and let me know what you think:

It’s great to volunteer and do things you believe in for free but really all of us big societyers have to eat too.  Just sayin’

Turns out, it’s kinda about NLP and how we can condition our brains for success, but I really like the spin on it which emphasises happiness and the way we’ve flipped the equation.  So, the way we currently think about things is:

“If I work hard I’ll be more successful, if I’m more successful, I’ll be happier.”
This is broken thinking because 1.  when we achieve our goals, we move the goalposts – you get good grades, you then want to get to the best university, you hit your sales target, your sales target rises etc. and 2.  If happiness is on the other side of success, then you never get there, in fact, we keep pushing it away as our criteria for success get ever more ambitious.

What we actually need to do is to flip this around to:

“If I’m happy, I’ll perform better and have greater success.”
In effect, you’ll realise a “happiness advantage” by raising your happiness levels in the present.  Your positive brain will perform much better than a neutral, negative or stressed brain.

I think there are a number of things at work here -

• your positivity makes others feel positive about you so you end up in a positive feedback loop, gaining positive feedback, feeling better about yourself and getting more positive feedback etc
• you start to pick out the positive things that are happening in your world and ignoring or putting less importance on the less positive things
• being positive releases chemicals in the brain (dopomine and adrenaline) which make you more sensitive and open to all sorts of things including learning, excitement and love

You can train your brain to become more positive.  There are a number of ways of doing this; Shawn Achor talks about doing the following things:

• 3 gratitudes – I’ve talked about this before in this post.  Try to end every day thinking of the good things that have happened that day….. there is always something…. always…. if you can think of three good things, so much the better!  Give thanks for the things which are good in your life and you’ll gradually find your attitude to all things changing.
• Journaling – relive one positive thing that happens every day by writing about it.  Try not to think too hard but write as a stream of consciousness.
• Exercise – creates positive endorphins which make you feel better.
• Meditiation – helps you focus on one thing and allows you to be calm.
• Random acts of kindness – Do something unexpected and kind at least once a day.  Give someone a compliment, give someone a gift, tell someone how much they mean to you.

You’ll be amazed at the results. Do just a couple of these things every day and you will change the way you view your world…… and changing your view, changes your reality….. don’t believe me, give it a go….. oh, and do let me know how you get on.

So, it turns out, that if we forget about success, we might just find ourselves more likely to achieve it!

If you like this post you might also like this one about the failure feedback loop or perhaps this about changing your thoughts.

• discussions over what Julian Clarey might have been doing in Scarborough yesterday
• mulling over the concept of vidocam podcasts of a friends snoring
• the delivery of bark chippings to a nearby street
• crying with a great mate
• the adoption of a telephone box to turn into a book exchange point
• wild dancing in the kitchen to this - much to the neighbours amusement
• lots of guitar playing on the front step to amuse passers by
• jigging around again now to Bob Dylan
• considering the methodone vs abstinence arguements
• wedding attire decisions involving mad missoni trousers vs sophistication (I’m thinking bonkers is going to win today)

What do you do when you’re left to your own devices?

Last week, after numerous job applications I had my first interview. Yay! By all accounts I did pretty well… got to the last 9 out of 111, but failed at the interview hurdle. I knew where I’d fallen over but rang for feedback anyway…. basically I wasn’t able to talk fluently enough about my past work experience…. well, no, it was 7 years ago….. can you remember what you were up to 7 years ago? I was great on my communications and knowledge of strategy and I knew all about the company I was interviewing for – well I would, wouldn’t I, I’d read about them yesterday… but, blow me down, talking about stuff from a previous life I wasn’t great at. They said I was a hairs breadth away from 2nd interview though, so all is not lost AND they want me to reapply which I will do. Clearly I need to be better prepared, but, given that I really can’t remember the intricate details of the projects I worked on I’m faced with a dilemma: do I semi-fabricate my experience so that I can talk about it fluently? (risky ‘cos it’ll be easy to catch me out) Do I use experience from my 7 years of being a mum to sell myself (after all this is the most challenging job I’ve ever done and I’ve had to employ all sorts of skills to pull it off…. but, somehow I think this might be a risky strategy….. but on the other hand, shouldn’t employers be looking for rounded individuals who can multitask?) or what? (answers in the comment section please…. I really need help here!)

The irony is that this interview was in a sector that I have no experience of whatsoever…. at this juncture perhaps I need to explain myself a bit…. you see I’m a business analyst/strategic consultant, so I could work in any sector where an employer was willing to give me a chance, but therein lies the rub. The above interview was in the public sector where selectors are forced to follow a rigorous and fair process… if you fit the person spec then you get an interview, it’s a question of ticking the boxes and they don’t seem to penalise you when your work experience is in the distant past (at least not at the CV stage). In the sector I used to work in seemingly ALL jobs go through agencies…. so last week I was beginning to suspect that agencies were weeding me out purely on the basis of my “time out”. I’ve been systematically ringing to get feedback from every application but last week was the first time that an agency deemed to speak to me. Yup, my experience matched up but he had candidates who had more recent experience. Brilliant. The one thing I can do nothing about is the thing which is holding me back. Blatent discrimination against mums and dads who opt to look after their kids for any length of time.

So, the upshot is that it still seems that my most likely route back into work is to create a job for myself. On that front, I’m writing a book and considering becoming an MP at the next election should I still not have a job job by then. Seems to me that might be a great platform to shout loud about the vast number of hugely skilled people in the jobless pool who can’t get work because they’ve opted to look after kids for a few years. In the meantime, I trog on in my search for gainful employment. As always, any great offers of gainful employment will be gratefully received.

Fascinating.