Tag Archives: UK

New job…

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Well, the funemployment was extremely short-lived!

I think I mentioned in a previous post that I was having a bit of a job dilemma, and after thinking long and hard about it, I decided to take the short-term gig in Oxford. It will be great for my CV (it’s an extremely well-respected NGO Consortium) and it’s only 4 months, plus it will give me a chance to see a bit more of my friends and family for a little while, and remind everyone what my face looks like etc.

It’s a really interesting job, and I’ll get to travel to Nicagarua and Burkina Faso for some learning events I’m organising on cash and livelihoods, as well as going to Madrid for some project meetings, and I’ll be recruiting and managing a bunch of consultants delivering various projects.

So, it’ll be nice to be home for a little while, and spend some time with my lovely cats, and I plan to go overseas again in January.

Another interesting and fun thing is that since I took this job, I have been asked to interview for at least 3 other jobs that I applied for, so it’s a relief to know I’ve reached a place in my career where I can relax and breathe a bit, and not have to worry too much about being unemployed! One major NGO wants to put me onto their register/roster of emergency people (I’ve so far done an HR interview, technical test and technical interview….) and another NGO I applied for a job with wanted an interview, but I said that I’d already taken a job and wouldn’t be free til January. They came back and said they might have found some short-term cover for the post if I was still interested in taking the job in January? So they might hold the job for me! However that one’s in Afghanistan, so I’m still mulling….

And then today yet another NGO wants to interview me for their roster! I’ve got so many interviews lined up I barely have time for my new job! AND this one wants to fly me to Norway for a face-to-face interview! Quick mini-break to Oslo here I come!

It’s nice to be back in the office, seeing lots of friendly faces and remembering all the little ups and downs of open-plan office environments. Should be fun!

Home, home on the range…

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Hello there my lovelies!

Sorry for the brief hiatus – I’m back home from Iraq now, and have been so busy having fun and catching up with people I haven’t had time to write any posts!

Let’s see, since getting home I’ve been to Latitude Festival with some old friends, I’ve seen the family and been to the zoo with the niblings. I’ve caught up with various friends who have recently had babies (so many! It’s a baby-fest!), and visited a lavender farm, which was lovely! Photos to follow shortly…

I’ve also been on a mini-break to France via Geneva for a friend’s wedding, which was FABULOUS and there are many pictures of all the fun that ensued…

I’ve had lots of drinks with friends, and gorged myself on wine and cheese and other goodies, and spent plenty of time lounging about resting, sleeping, swimming, internetting, snapping pictures of my cats to put on instagram, going to the cinema and making movie dates with friends in Australia (we pick a time and a movie and watch it together, despite being on separate continents – it’s fun!). Continue reading →

Ramadan Kareem!

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This week, Facebook has been flooded with news of the UK’s heatwave, and the hot and sweaty plight of my friends and family (us Brits are unused to warm weather as a rule, and are not built to cope with it).

It was extremely tempting to mock them all with the fact that’s it’s 46 degrees here, and has been pretty consistently for the last month, so therefore 2 days of 30 degrees is hardly unbearable. (That’s 46 degree celcius for you non-metric people of the world – about 115 degrees if you’re working in farenheit)

However, then I remembered that it’s also Ramadan, and my amazing Kurdish and Arabic colleagues are not only going out into the 46 degree hear every day to provide much-needed support to people, but they also can’t eat or drink any water for 17 hours straight. And they come in to work every day and do it all over again with a smile on their faces.

Trust me when I tell you that, based on past experience of my own grumpiness factor when my blood sugar level drops too low, if I had to go out into 46 degree heat everyday and stand in the sun distributing emergency kits without a single drop of water or food for 17 hours, I’d either collapse or start World War 3.

So I can express nothing but awe and MASSIVE respect to my incredible colleagues for continuing to come into work everyday and help all those people in need of support.

Here’s to ALL my Muslim colleagues and friends working hard in humanitarian emergencies this Ramadan all over the world.

You are incredible.

Ramadan Kareem!

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Imagine this… The Story of Katie and Paul

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And now it’s time for something completely different…..

Picture yourself, in the not-too-distant future, or perhaps in an alternate universe, only slightly different from ours.

This is Katie.

She lives in a small flat in the east end of London, . She’s a single mum with 2 kids, Kai (7) and Tommy (3). She works as an office manager in a printing shop down the road, and volunteers at Tommy’s playschool twice a week. Things are going pretty well for Katie, and life is good.

Then the bombing started. Continue reading →