Psychic Recruiters

Today I received an email from a recruiter:

Good afternoon
Thank you for your email and CV.
Unfortunately your application has been unsuccessful on this occasion.

Now, I'm not shocked because I was rejected, I'm shocked because I haven't applied for a job through them. So I'm wondering if they knew I was looking at a job and thought, "hold it, lets email her now and say NO!" or they're just doing a blanket email to everyone reiterating the point that we're unemployed... :/

Camping in Devon

I went camping for the first time in a little place called Morthoe in Devon. It was a chance to go somewhere and ignore technology, well some of it like my phone, my laptop and basically anything i could be contacted on.

it poured down with rain, except for the day i left where it was so hot that those who were staying on had a bit of a sunbathe outside.

all in all it was a pretty good camping experience, i also learnt that without technology you have to make your own fun, for example, when your friend decides to take a nap next to a gravel/pebble filled area, always take the opportunity to make pictures on their stomach whilst they sleep, and don't forget to take photos so you can remember the moment :)

i had this conversation at the job centre...

personal advisor 1: "what does IDOC mean?"
personal advisor 2: effective date of claim
personal advisor 1: but effective begins with an e not an i
personal advisor 2: but it's always been like that..
me: i stands for initial, as in initial date of claim

personal advisor1 & personal advisor2: ?

me: *sigh*

Sarkanniemi in the Sunshine

We'd promised the host's 4 year old daughter that if the weather was good we'd go to Tampere's answer to Alton Towers. She'd not been able to go up until now because her mother is 37 weeks pregnant and therefore couldn't fit onto the childrens rides to help her on. Plus she also has an 18 month old baby brother too.

The theme park is called Sarkanniemi and i was suprised at how good it was. It caters to people of all ages and I found they were particularly good for providing facilities for the younger children,

for example they had baby changing areas that included microwaves and hobs for heating baby food so you don't have to harrass the local food vendor for something they're not allowed to do! they also had carts that you could put all of your heavy stuff and your children into and then drag around the park, all of this was free of charge!

You'd expect that they would have spent all the money on making it child friendly and not much on the rides but they had a fair few number of rides that would easily rival the other theme parks i've been to.

The other plus side to Sarkanniemi over the other theme parks is that you can buy wrist bands according to what you intend to do in the park. so for example if you have a small child who cannot fit on any rides above a certain height you can pay for just access to those rides. on top of this there is alway someone who gets dragged along to these things merely as a coat/bag holder/babysitter, they could go in for the price of a basic entry fee of 8 euros and not feel ripped off. Those adults who paid for the big rides and access all areas were able to then take the children round to various attractions and shows for free.

Sarkanniemi also contains a massive tower which you can go and investigate and eat a picnic whilst admiring the 360^o veiws or you could go to the revolving restaurant. It isn't until you go up here that you realise that the park could almost be considered some kind of isle. the majority of the high flying rides are positioned on the edge so as you pretend to be superman on Trombi you actually feel like you're flying over the lake.

In conclusion if you like rides, have a reasonable group of people with varying ages and needs this could be the theme park for you!

Sunshine on a Rainy Day..

We woke up reasonably late on Sunday morning to find the weather had improved dramatically and looked like how it should've done!

This was still good news though as it meant everyone could pack up their tents and the two marquees relatively quickly and enjoy some more bbq food which I once again offered to cook mainly because it makes me feel useful :)

In the late afternoon we caught a bus back to Tampere and headed to a fabulous italian restuarant where I got to try a pizza containing Deer, Moose, Elk and Ostrich meat! The restaurant is also one of those rare places that serves minced garlic in olive oil as a topping.

Unfortunately one of our younger less experienced guests had thought it would be a good idea to eat a spoonful of the stuff.. needless to say she was rather shocked and I don't think she'll be doing that again in a hurry!

Queen of Crepes

Yesterday I decided that the Sauna Kotta was an excellent place to stay during the wet weather so once again I offered to cook, this time however it was pancakes/crepes with a long spatula and crepes that ended up being about 16" in diameter. The first couple looked like Africa but after a while I felt like I was getting the hang of it, I managed to finish all of the batter and I'm told that it would have made approximately 40 pancakes. I also had the opportunity to rant in person though I'm told that my audience found my comedy stylings so funny that tears were streaming down their faces, I'm pretty sure they just enjoyed me slating IKEA..

After the big pancake making session we had an impromptu gig which turned out to be one of the funniest things I'd seen in a while. One of the band members has made quite a hobby out of his love for music, I believe some of his humour can be found at www.niknewark.com

As soon as the gig was over and we were able to stop ourselves laughing for long enough to light a fire without injury I offered to bbq some more food. I have to say by this point I was starting to love that Sauna Kotta!

The Protege's Sister Survives a Night of Camping

Yesterday we woke late to find the weather was still attrocious and I had survived my first night of camping. We gathered up our costumes for the rockstar event and I opted to wear my outfit over my regular clothes because it was far too soggy to contemplate anything else. Whilst up at the cottage we raided the kitchen for some food to tide us over till the bbq which was due to start after the band played.

Once everyone had finished getting themselves ready we moved back down to the marquee where the band had set up their equipment. We got ready to hear what I thought was going to be traditionally shouty rock in Finnish. Turns out the band had many influences and prefered to play songs that appealed to them rather than sticking to just one genre. I think the majority of people enjoyed this gig, the singer's girlfriend especially, i believe she nearly gave herself whiplash dancing so much! the band are called Boneslide by the way.

After the band finished playing I went to the Sauna Kotta to get warm and discovered there was some food to be cooked on the bbq which I gladly offered to help cook so I could stay next to the fire!

We noticed that there were a couple of empty charred cans here. at first I had wondered why any of the locals would be that silly to ruin a couple of cans.

In Finland they have a really good collection system where you bring back the cans in tact and get about 15cents. the machine reads the barcode to determine how much money the person should get back (sometimes it's more and sometimes less)

We then realised that they'd been boiling water in these to cans to give them water for coffee and tea. I will have to remember that the next time I go camping..