dont forget me

i havent landed a new contract. i should be getting a little anxious as its been over a month since i got back from holiday and started looking, but strangely enough, i am not. am in the very fortunate situation of not having money pressures given my modest lifestyle and am comfortable. 


met up with a couple of the guys from the hedge fund i worked at last and the same can not be said for them. nice guys and good friends, but its times like these that extravagances like 45grand convertible audi's and dropping a thousand pounds on iphones seems a bit like folly. am not even going mention £2,500 on a 5 day skiing holiday or £1,000 for a pair of headphones or the £4000 on a TV. i didnt get and audi or an iphone or the headphones or the telly, most because i didnt need them and so i have the cash instead and am chilling. not everyone who works in a hedge fund or the city is burning through money, although being in that environment you can see how people get taken in by it. 


have had a couple of calls about various jobs, but am still being selective. i dont want to get a shit contract and feel like leaving after a week. i have been there and done that, and i would rather pass them up straight away. 


have been playing football evey thursday and its been good. weather has been ok this week and it was nice and sunny today as i was cycling to the gym. nothing else major to report. 


bought another book about the congo. it has a fascinating recent history. why didnt they teach us this in history lessons at school?. it was all WW2 and american civil rights and kings and queens from hundreds of years ago, which i dont give a fuck about. actually i know why they didnt teach us this at school. its the same reason we didnt get taught anything about iran in the 50's or indonesia and south east in the 60's or latin america in the 70's, or central america in the 80s. lets just say that britain and the US dont come out smelling of roses and their rhetoric about promoting democracy and freedom is....er.....how can i put it?.....er.....lies. 


here is an interesting and compelling explanation of why we dont get taught this stuff.




anyways, today i have mostly been listening to red hot chilli peppers - dont forget me. this is epic. 

landslide

one of the greatest female singers ever and very underated. the wonderful stevie nicks. enjoy

stockholm syndrome

its been dull and boring. the contract market seems dead. occasionally i get a call about something coming up but usually i then hear nothing. a couple of days a go i got a random email about a vmware contract in stockholm sweden. i decided to send them my cv and they called me back straight away and it all sounded good. a few hours later they sent me the address of where the job would be based and it was about 20 miles outside of stockholm in a small town. it would mean i would either have to stay in small town sweden, or live in stockholm but have to take a train and a bus every day. it the equivalent of saying the job is in new york but it was actually in trenton. it then wouldnt make any sense to rent a place in new york and commute and trenton new jersey is just not as much fun as the big apple. no offence to jersey.   :-)


i cant be staying in some disconnected small town in sweden for 6 months on my own. i would go out of my mind. stockholm would have been good and an experience with a chance to soak up the city and culture. working in nowheresville was not appealing. anyways, today they called me back and said they wanted to see me but i told them i would pass as it was not in stockholm like i thought (and they originally said). turns out they had hired someone for the role a few weeks ago and after the guy had been hired, he withdrew, hence they were looking again. i wonder if he checked them out on google maps after getting the job and suddenly realised it wasnt as cool as first thought. 


anyways, an hour or two after turning down sweden, i got a call about something going at a bank in the city. yes, it means i am still stuck in london, and i really have had enough of this city, but i think i would rather be in london and saving lots of money so i can buy cool furniture for my flat and having my friends nearby and football on thurday nights than stuck in smalltown scandinavia. have been to some small towns in holland and they do seem a little quiet and dull compared to the big smoke. 


will see how it goes. i was told there might be something going in dublin, ireland as well. i could definitely do 6 months there. i also looked up the cost of renting an apartment and it was a lot cheaper than sweden, and i am sure lots of my friends would come over as well to visit as they are always going to ireland to see folks. 


today i have mostly been listening to blink 182 - stockholm syndrome. its off their self titled album which is a great record and one of the best albums released in the last 10 years. am struggling to think of a better album, and yes i am considering radiohead and other big bands that are supposedly more cooler and more celebrated and revered, but this is better than all of them. no video as this was not a single but its awesome. 

midnight lion