W język polski przypadki nie trzeba

 

Niestety, z ta promocja mogą korzystać użytkownicy telefony od firma Nokia, działające w sieć operator komórkowy Orange.

O co do cholery chodzi? Po wpisaniu w google “od nokia” pojawia się mnóstwo wyników!

Loch Lomond

 

I’d been wanting to visit Loch Lomond for far too long and I’d never had the opportunity. Well, I’ve finally done it! I don’t think I would’ve ever gone there had it not been for Paulinka and Paweł. They took me there on the a few days ago, we spend the night and went back home the next day. That’s in short. The longer version goes more or less like this:

We agreed to go on Wednesday, 5th May. The day was pleasant with occasional spells of sunshine, I took the underground to meet them in the West End and from where we drove (in Paweł’s car) to Lidl to get some supplies (food and cheap German beer). Not long after we’d left Glasgow, the landscape became charmingly Scottish: vast open space with narrow, meandering roads and dotted with old houses.

Scotland on a sunny day

After a not so long journey interrupted by one stop at a bank and another at a shop, we reached the loch. At first it, the shore looked terribly crowded. There were a few campsites, yacht marinas and what not. We drove a bit further north along the right (eastern) shore until a suitable parking spot could be found.

No parking? So what?

So, the plan was that Paulinka and I would continue the route on foot and Paweł would go to the hostel by car as he needed to be there earlier because he was working. We only had several minutes before Paweł would leave us but before that happened, we all drank some beer and spend the time sitting on the rocks and talking.

Paweł’s last piece of advice was that, to find the hostel, we just needed to made our way along the shore. And then he drove off.

No later than after 10 or 20 minutes did it turn out that he should’ve said ‘follow the trail’.

It was the first out of many times that found ourselves in a difficult terrain. A huge rocky wall loomed out of nowhere in front of us, forcing us to climb up a steep hillside.

But it wasn’t too bad ‘cause the view from the top was, yet again, beautiful.

Yes, the scenery was really nice and for this (and some other) reasons, we took a break far too often. One time as we were resting, a duck came towards us. It probably wanted to be fed but we had nothing to give it except for crisps. I guess Paulina thought it was a good idea to feed the duck with crisps and that’s exactly what she did. More birds soon joined the feast.

Loch Lomond ducks enjoy crisps

The views were simply breathtaking (am I repeating myself?)

After walking for another hour or so, Paulinka announced that she knew where we were and that it was very close to the hostel. Without hesitation, I smoked a ‘victory cigarette'. Afterwards, the road got almost impassable. The footpath had disappeared and because it was very difficult to go on, we were forced to climb up a steep slope while avoiding getting caught in thorny bushes. At the top, we realised that we had no idea where were were and how to get back on the trail. The only way out of there led several metres down again onto a flat area which then turned out to be a bog. Our feet got wet and muddy but we kept up our spirits (we even made some silly video clips but I’m not going to publish them!). We reached the shore again and though it best not to lose sight of it ever again. It was time for another break, especially that it had got colder and we needed to put some more clothes on and to have something to drink and eat. If I now remember correctly, there was only a can of beer and some crisps, which Paulina ,thankfully, hadn’t given to the ducks, left.

As we were sat there, we saw something we’d never expected to see in that place. A human being! My initial thought was that we weren’t lost after all and that that route was frequented, albeit not very often. So I quickly rose to my feet and ran to ask him how to get back on the footpath. He said he didn’t know ‘cause he was lost too! Although he looked a bit Spanish, he turned out to be a German guy travelling around Scotland, mostly on foot. We offered him some beer and together headed in the direction of the hostel. The conversation went quite nicely and it wasn’t long before we started seeing first sings of civilisation.

After what was almost 5 hours since Paweł dropped us off, we finally managed to find the hostel. And even though we were really tired, we knew that the next day was going to be even more exhausting.

Bez pracy nie ma kołaczy

 

Looking for work is no easy task, especially if you’re as unlucky as I am. I know people whom works find, instead of them finding it. I haven’t been this fortunate, at all. I, despite sending dozens CVs and filling in a multitude of application forms, have not managed to find a proper job in months. The only time I thought I had something turned out to be work on a casual basis (which meant doing just a few hours a week on average).

Job hunting involves lots of frustration and disappointment, even more so in times like these. A few weeks ago, I attended a job interview for work at a warehouse with aquarium fish – the job was nothing great, looked rather boring and they only offered about 15 hours a week. To my surprise, the owner of the place told me that he’d received almost a hundred applications. Needless to say I didn’t get the job, not that I really wanted it but it would've been good to have something for the time being, but I was at least invited to the interview and after that got an email saying that 'my application was not successful at this time’. Unfortunately, it is rather the exception than the rule.

All too often, prospective employers don’t even bother sending you a small note to let you know they don’t want you to work for them. No thank you, no sorry, not even a fuck off, nothing at all, as if you don’t deserve to be contacted about your application after taking your time to write a covering letter and/or filling in their stupid application form and all those ‘kind regards’, ‘yours faithfullys’, ‘thank yous’ and ‘pleases’. I am tempted to write to them and teach them some decency but I’m not going to do it.

Another annoyance is the names and descriptions of jobs. While browsing all those adverts, you often come across names that are (at least for me) extremely difficult to decipher. Take this one for example:

Skills Development Specialist LEP

Description:

FPSG Connect are currently looking for a Skills Development Specialist with high levels of experience in delivering Contact Centre Training, to have the ability to identify training & development needs across several business areas, to design, source, deliver & evaluate all training & development programmes, ensuring all training mediums covered. Our clients have gone through a change period and the role will be to fully activate this to ensure that a seamless & continual enhancement of all training & development support is utilised for all operational staff.

That’s what I call ‘corporate gibberish’. It tells me absolutely nothing about the job except for one little thing: it’s exactly the kind of work I certainly don’t want to do.

For more ridiculous ideas some companies have had look here.

Why make things so difficult by using all these fancy words and risk losing intelligibility? I have no idea.

Anyway, tonight’s jackpot for Euromillions is £51,000,000! Wish me luck and I may not have to continue my job hunt after all :)

The Commission’s after me?

 

 

 

 

:)

Keep smoking!

 

Smoke from Eyjafjallajökull, a volcano in Iceland that started spewing lava a few days ago, has paralysed almost all air traffic in the northern part of Europe. The huge, and apparently, invisible cloud of volcanic ash could be a serious threat to passenger planes and so the authorities have decided to close a big chunk of European airspace.

Terrible?

No. I might be becoming a cynic but I smile every time I hear new pieces of news about this situation. Of course I feel sorry for all those who can’t get back home or make an important visit but this media panic at the sight of empty airports, quiet skies and grounded aeroplanes is exaggerated. People seem to have forgotten that people travelled before the aeroplane, and we still do have trains, ferries, coaches and so on; so there are alternatives.

I think I’d be great if airtravel was next to impossible for months to come. It could result in lowering of train ticket prices and rising awareness of other modes of transport. I have for some time now wanted to make a journey from here to Poland but it was simply too expensive. Now things might change – trains may get cheaper or there may be no other way to go :)

Many people, I’m sure, would welcome going back to the romantic times when travelling meant travelling and not just getting from A to B.

So, Eyjafjallajökull, keep smoking!