A stepping stone, thats sll

My boyfriend decided he had no choice but to change jobs this week, I can't really blame him, considering the boss was trying to sell it from right under his feet, I don't know why the boss didn't have the decency to tell him out straight that they are planning to close up, instead they just carry on some sort of charade.

To be honest I am not happy about where he is planning to work next, a place called Shelby's Brasserie, Bray The first time I went there with my family, I didn't know anything about the restaurant or how it was run, and thought the food was delicious. All European food, I think I had spare ribs, duck and choclate fudge cake.

They market themselves as a family run restaurant, which sounds really sweet and lovely, like a mom and pops sort of high class restaurant. Little did I know at that stage that not even one member of the kitchen crew was European, let alone Irish, The whole restaurant seems anything but European. Its just got an artificial dressing of Irish and European waitresses

Now I have nothing against people from outside Europe working in European restaurants. My issue is the pay. The owner "the supposed all round family front man" offered my boyfriend 300-350 euro per week to be a starter chef in the kitchen (I don't mean starter as in beginner. I mean responsible for cooking the first course) 8.65 per hour basically, Almost everyone working in that kitchen is getting that.

Do you know how many starters are on the menu? 15. My boyfriend has stayed up til 3 in the morning studying this menu for the last 3 nights and has been waking up early, cause hes stressed out thinking about the menu.

Then they asked him to come in for 3 days training Sunday, Monday and the coming Thursday. They worked him to the bone on Monday and Sunday and didn't even pay him twopence. Its unbelievable, I know its training but seriously I know he worked just as hard as the others in the kitchen.

The other reason I didn't want him to take this job, is because his friend who's working there as a kitchen porter, was given a zero hour contract, meaning they can call him any day at any time to come and work so basically he has no free days at all. I don't want my boyfriend trapped into something like that. Its disgraceful.

Last night when my boyfriend came home from the training he looked so sick and then he told me that the boss does not allow them to eat any of the food in the kitchen not even a morsel. I swear its like a modern form of slavery.

Anyway I tried to reassure him that this job is just a stepping stone. your not going to stay here forever, I told him to keep looking for another job in the meantime.

Pop that cork!

We almost didn't make it down to Cork, My boyfriend's job seems to be under jeopardy at the moment, well we have known this for quite awhile, The restaurant has got quieter and quieter as the weeks go by. Theres always been something to blame it on,

for instance, the bad weather is keeping people away since they have stopped doing delivery,

last week was back to school time and parents obviously didn't have any money left.

 I want this bag

but then this weekend it got considerably worse, we saw the restaurant is up for sale on Daft.ie, and they haven't even told my boyfriend or any of the staff there Then to put the cherry on the cake, they didn't pay him this week.

Which meant Cork was more or less out of the question. :( until my Mom finally agreed to pay for half of the hotel and I used some spare cash I had in my post office account and off we went.

Off we set we got the bus from Dublin to cork, and as usual were late, and ended up getting the worst seats on the whole bus, second from the back, with an extremely noisy and drunk, rude polish man behind us, who was more of a Dub than the Dubs themselves.

We couldn't wait to get away from him and rush off the bus and head to our lovely hotel, The Gresham Metropole. very nice hotel, although a little noisy at night time, We went to Tasty Oriental for dinner. It was really good and very reasonable 35 euro for 2 people. 3 courses.

The next morning we woke up bright and early, (because of the traffic outside) and had our traditional irish breakfast.

Then headed off into the city to explore, we went to the English market, then to St. Fin Barres Cathedral, University College Cork (I have to say it is almost as big as UCD) then we went to an art gallery which my boyfriend loved, it wasn't like a traditional gallery you would see in France, it was much more contemporary.

English Market

University College Cork

St Fin Barres Cathedral

Art Gallery

We were planning to go to FItzgerald park and Mueseum, but it started lashing raining and we were starving, so we gave it a miss, but sure theres always next time.

We got on our bus at 6 and were glad to see their were no drunk polish men around. We made it back to Bray at 12 and I crashed out on the bed straight away my poor little legs were walked off me!! lol

What an adventure!

Today was a very hectic day, I had to get up at 7.45 rush out the door to catch my bus and then once I arrived I had to start practicing for our presentation. To be honest I am usually a big bag of nerves before the presentation and I dislike practicing, the less times I have to perform in front of people the better.

Today was no different the first attempt at practicing gave me stage fright and I just went completely blank and I had to apologize to the rest of the group and go rooting for my notes. The second time I was talking like a mouse, very quietly. Then we gave up and decided we would be fine.

One thing I am always super worried about when doing presentations is that we will be under time. Which is absolutely totally embarrassing and it happened to me once last semester when I was presenting with a different group and I felt like it was all my fault. I tend to speak a lot faster when I am nervous. I just want to get it finished as possible. So since then I always prepare a little more than necessary as a back up.

Another thing that is a little annoying about college presentations is that some are formal some are informal. Most people like informal because we can wear whatever we want. But I actually prefer formal because I feel if your going to do a professional presentation then you might as well do it dressed professionally.

However I find Irish formal clothes for women is really lacking and lagging behind the likes of Asia. Which is not a surprise. Recently I was skimming through some Japanese fashion Magazines such as Vogue, Seventeen and Kera all April editions and came across some of these pics. The first few are Cute Formal

 

 Here are some gothic takes on Fomal wear, I don't know if i would be brave enough to try them..

 I might try the one below..

 I like the one below its not overly gothic and looks quite sweet

Here are some vogue formal wear

 

The funny thing about the presentation was that it was on a company called Sunflower, which are involved in Tire repairs in Lithuania and Latvia. Ironically me and my boyfriend use Sunflower and Rosemary as code names for each other. When we are messing around. But I never imagined a company with a name like Sunflower to be involved in Tires.It just seems so girly.

ultimately the presentation was a success. Then I came home and It was a beautiful sunny day so me and my boyfriend decided to go out and have an adventure. We went and climbed Bray Head! 

 This is BrayHead in the distance.

 Here's the view from the top

 This is the Dart/Train going around Bray Head.

 We also saw a bungee jumper today

Then when we followed a path which led us to the middle of Greystones's Highway (the next town to Bray) we then had to walk all the way back to Bray. (A good 7 miles) My boyfriend was so stubborn and didn't want to take the bus back because "today we are walking" 

This is the Pathway we followed

So now my legs and feet feel really sore. and my boyfriends eyes feel really sore, he caught conjunctivitis.... Not a happy camper. So I'm playing nurse. Although he is a very stubborn patient.

The Burglary...

As much as I hate to admit it, My former classmate, still has a habit of coming in and out of my life more often than not as he pleases, whether it is to annoy me, to joke with me, insist on playing with me, comfort me, etc. Even though he is quite annoying I still feel that he is rather misunderstood by most people Irish people and Chinese. 

Irish people don’t get him because he is outspoken and sometimes his frankness comes across as rudeness. Once I went shopping with him for a new suit and he tried one on. Now most sensible Irish people who try on something in front of a sales assistant would never insult the clothes. They usually make some polite excuse like oh I will think about it and come back later. But on the contrary my former classmate just came straight out with the insults, the texture is to fluffy, the lining is too thin, the shape is not very good, and the insults kept coming… I felt embarrassed just sitting there listening. I’m surprised this manner is accepted in China, but it definitely isn’t the norm in Ireland not by a long shot. He was totally unaware that he was being rude, as far as he was concerned the shop is just there to serve him and he can say what he likes to who he likes. After we left the shop I gently told him he was too rude in the shop and Irish people never carry on like that. He seemed totally alarmed so I just let it be.

As far as his dealing with Chinese and Irish students people don’t take him seriously. You never know if he is joking, lying or telling the truth. I think I was the only person in the class who was able to get his humor. As I got to know him on a more personal level than most people. I was often able to ask him why he did what he did and so on… You just have to take him with a pinch of salt.

I hadn’t talked to him for the whole summer and then one day in November for the first time in 4 months I picked up the phone to him and he told me he had bought a house and a Mercedes! I was thinking I will believe it when I see it. But evidently sure enough I did get to see the house and the Mercedes.

Which leads to the burglary! Yesterday as I was heading into the city centre I got a call from him to say, His car has been stolen and his front door smashed! And he wants to me to meet him tommorrow probably not going to happen…..

Regardless of his behavior he didn’t deserve this…