Old company
So 8 months ago I was left go. My internal contacts in my former company tell me that my former team is putting long hours and weekends, half of the chaps in India that was there when I left is not there anymore (surprise, surprise: as soon as they get any good they go for a better pay or a better, less exploitative company...) and that big projects that should have gone ahead in order to save the company tons of money (certainly more than our relative UK paltry salaries) have been canned because they don't have the right people (i.e. us the unemployed) to pursue them.
If I told you the name of this company you would not be surprised, but alas, I can't.
German Film Festival
I have been attending the unheralded German Film Festival, in my uninformed opinion Germany is producing the best cinema in Europe, and this keeps showing. While the UK produces all the top grossing movies, France the glamorous ones, Italy the hard hitting ones and Spain the funny ones, Germany produces the important, intelligent ones (this is of course an exaggeration, UK movies are the intelligent part of the Hollywoodian system, Italian movies masquerade real social issues behind thrilling action, Spanish humour can be quite hard hitting and so on).
So far I have watched 3 movies and I am very impressed, I think I will make a separate diary about this later. They are dealing with issues like war and the influence it is having in German families, human trafficking and the recollections of the Spanish Civil War by means of personal memories.
Funnily enough 2 of the movies did not include a single line in German, one was completely in Spanish and the other in a mix of English, Spanish and Russian. More about that in another diary.
New house progress
Mortgage application gone, no apparent problems so far. Friends in the suburbs don't understand why somebody would prefer inner London to the leafy streets in Surrey. Well, boredom. Surrey is like a supermodel: very pretty bud did not finish even high school.
If your neighbours are horses and cows (really, not joking) and the local cinema shows only blockbusters you know you are in trouble. Add to that the dependency on the car, 1:30 of commuting time each way (at close to £3000 p.a. plus parking if you drive) and I just don't see any reason to remain there.
The children! Think of the children they tell me. I will not tell you if this is an issue for me or not, what I will tell is that the couple I am buying from has children and the street where the new house is has several families with them. So the "think in the children" card remains unconvincing.
Criminality? I come from Mexico City. Enough said.
Flat: furnished or unfurnished?
Which brings me to my flat. Should I let it furnished or unfurnished?
Poor British Parliament.
When I see the inner workings of the British parliament it reminds me of my grandmother: somebody that was wise, looks grand and has occasional moments of brilliance but that is absent-minded, disorganized and a bit of a eccentric.
So 8 months ago I was left go. My internal contacts in my former company tell me that my former team is putting long hours and weekends, half of the chaps in India that was there when I left is not there anymore (surprise, surprise: as soon as they get any good they go for a better pay or a better, less exploitative company...) and that big projects that should have gone ahead in order to save the company tons of money (certainly more than our relative UK paltry salaries) have been canned because they don't have the right people (i.e. us the unemployed) to pursue them.
If I told you the name of this company you would not be surprised, but alas, I can't.
German Film Festival
I have been attending the unheralded German Film Festival, in my uninformed opinion Germany is producing the best cinema in Europe, and this keeps showing. While the UK produces all the top grossing movies, France the glamorous ones, Italy the hard hitting ones and Spain the funny ones, Germany produces the important, intelligent ones (this is of course an exaggeration, UK movies are the intelligent part of the Hollywoodian system, Italian movies masquerade real social issues behind thrilling action, Spanish humour can be quite hard hitting and so on).
So far I have watched 3 movies and I am very impressed, I think I will make a separate diary about this later. They are dealing with issues like war and the influence it is having in German families, human trafficking and the recollections of the Spanish Civil War by means of personal memories.
Funnily enough 2 of the movies did not include a single line in German, one was completely in Spanish and the other in a mix of English, Spanish and Russian. More about that in another diary.
New house progress
Mortgage application gone, no apparent problems so far. Friends in the suburbs don't understand why somebody would prefer inner London to the leafy streets in Surrey. Well, boredom. Surrey is like a supermodel: very pretty bud did not finish even high school.
If your neighbours are horses and cows (really, not joking) and the local cinema shows only blockbusters you know you are in trouble. Add to that the dependency on the car, 1:30 of commuting time each way (at close to £3000 p.a. plus parking if you drive) and I just don't see any reason to remain there.
The children! Think of the children they tell me. I will not tell you if this is an issue for me or not, what I will tell is that the couple I am buying from has children and the street where the new house is has several families with them. So the "think in the children" card remains unconvincing.
Criminality? I come from Mexico City. Enough said.
Flat: furnished or unfurnished?
Which brings me to my flat. Should I let it furnished or unfurnished?
Poor British Parliament.
When I see the inner workings of the British parliament it reminds me of my grandmother: somebody that was wise, looks grand and has occasional moments of brilliance but that is absent-minded, disorganized and a bit of a eccentric.
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