Trip Coverage, Story 7: Not Enough of Not “tingham”

This story regards to my next trip in May which made me to stay in Nottingham, the UK for 2 nights:

Kids went to school and Dino got to work in the morning of Fri. and then Merissa said that she wanted to do shopping for Nick’s birthday which was Sun. and added that she would give me a ride to city centre. That was very rare of her. The bossy girl has Dino completely under her control. We hoped in her Range Rover and she drove away from home toward the city. They live in a type of suburb neighbourhood of Nottingham.
She drove over Trent River, by Nottingham Castle and through the city. Unfortunately I neither had time nor was in the mood of roaming around. So I just followed her wherever she went: Toy store, apparel retailer, hardware store and supermarket. She surprisingly bought me a chocolate bar and a hot dog! That was our lunch and dessert!
Everything is being run by Merissa at home, my aunt said once and I thought she was exaggerating. But she was right. She only needs to give Dino a look and everything is set. And I saw that once with my own eyes. She gave me a few things to take them to his family and Dino kidded me saying she would give me more and more and that was only the beginning. Merissa turned toward him and just gave him a look. Dino apologized a few times until was forgiven finally! In the afternoon we went to Black Lion, a local bar for beer festival. There were not many people around. Someone was doing karaoke. The kids got curly fries, chips (that’s what French Fries is called in Britain) hot dog and burger and we, adults just a glass of beer, me an Irish one. That was good but the way Merissa takes care of her guests is horrible. We were supposed to get our dinner but she was told that food is not served for whatever reason. I was tempted by the food kids where having so took a few bites.
Then we left the Black Lion and the question was either going to a Chips & Fish restaurant or an Italian one. The first one was only serving to go food so we went to the Italian called the Piano just a few min. away. I, very soon, found out that’s a friend’s restaurant, possibly an Iranian and later was notified by them that the restaurant is owned by an Iranian who's his Belgian wife help him as a waitress. My aunt told me later that Dino and an old friend of him, H. F., whom is also known as dirty fucking pig by me(!) has recently bought the restaurant. I also noticed that Merissa is saying things like helping the waitress or doing something in the kitchen which was kind of a proof.
Anyway they gave me a menu and I tried to order the cheapest so I chose a kind of pasta. It was pasta and bacon because that sounded delicious to me. And God help us all! When they brought the damn food, first I was surprised. She was about to put a big, deep bowl-like dish on the table and I was looking up and thinking of a pile of spaghetti with tomato and meat sauce. But when she put that fucking shit down, I was entirely disappointed: there was only a very few at the bottom of the bowl! It was OK, not something special. Fucking bastards! That’s how Merissa’s going to run the restaurant, I think. She’s one stingy girl who just feeds her Mom and sisters. The house is a whole big mess. Everything from waste food to toys and cloths is seen everywhere. She dresses like a gypsy and eats like a hobo while saves like a cheapskate.

(Photo: The Irish beer with the sign on the foam)

Fucked up in BC

It’s been almost 3 week since I’m back to Canada and staying with S. J., looking for a career: Nothing, Zip, a big goose egg, nada! All I’ve got is a short stupid interview with a recruiter in Downtown Vancouver regarding a Quality Control job. I was supposed to meet with the company people but nothing has happened yet.
Unemployment rate went up in the month of June according to Statistic Canada and Ontario suffered more amongst all the provinces. The fucking problem is my poor pretty F. F. is in the process of immigration and with no job it will be almost impossible to do anything. I don’t know if I’m staying here or going to Lethbridge but Alberta is not goin’ to happen before end of July. The only good thing that has been started last week and I see a little progress, is working out. I started that last Sun. and I decided to go at least 6 days a week, losing weight and getting lean. May be this all exercises eventually help me to get my job in the Navy or some similar force.

One funny and at the same time disappointing thing happened yesterday when I was doing job search: I found a good position in Quality field in Calgary. I made my resume ready and e-mailed to the guy, Ben from Placement Group. The e-mail was bounced! I looked in the job posting again and this time I saw another address and tried that one: Same shit!

I finally called the agency. They told me Ben didn't work there any more and they had no idea how that job, which is not in the list anymore, has found its way in Working.com!

Cheer up on your Competitor's Loss

There's no intention to turn this blog to a newscast but sometimes I'd like to write about the things which attract my attention. The Seattle-based coffee chain store, Starbucks, announced a few days ago that it will close more than 600 stores soon.

That doesn't bother me and I also have no sympathy for them because I never was a Starbucks fan and never liked it. What's surprising is all the people who are happy of what's happening to them. It's said the coffee shop grew to fast in a short period of time. There was once news of Starbucks cafe opening in Forbidden City in Peking, China. Some opposed to it as a sign of an assault to Chinese culture and history and some accepted it as a good, relaxing drink where it might be actually needed. I saw Starbucks both in Germany (Koln) and UK (Nottingham) but seem that those days are over.
Many people are happy because they see that as a relief for local businesses. Small town of Squamish has two Starbucks cafe and both are usually filled with customers while Tim Horton's, McDonald's and other local cafes have their patrons. So I don't that was a market to compete. What I see now is in some neighbourhoods people turn to other cafes and that's good for their businesses. Starbucks had already problem in Europe right after McCafe emerged. I tried it in Koln and that was good. Thus we can conclude that it lost a battle in this competing market.
(Photo: Starbucks sign)

The Jackass Offers!

Motherfucker A. J. called me another day and obviously I didn’t pick up. He kept calling and then called S. J. He told me that he wanted me to call him. It was a little late but I was a little afraid so called him and pretended that I was away from the phone. He had a job offer for me! Can you believe this? The asshole always says that I am lazy and this and that! Now he asks me to join him for another project in Squamish!
I didn’t say No because I still have my letters going to his fucking address so have to pretend that I’m willing to work with him. So I was there today to pick up the mail and he explained the story. He said that there’s a guy from Hong Kong and he expect that the project brings $35,000 as commission or percentage and he want s to pay me the most! Even a cooked turkey would laugh in a pot! He said that he counted on me!
I obviously need the money and if I get $20,000 and that’s in 6 months, it will be perfect but in the meantime I don’t want to work for him because I already know him and his craziness. I told F. F. on the phone and that drove her crazy! She insisted that she didn’t want me to work for him again and I said I wouldn’t. So What I will do when she calls me is either don’t pick up the phone or tell him that I’m not interested.

Price of Gasoline

Gasoline price hit ¢149.9 yesterday, driving people crazy. S. J. who works for the Ministry of Transportation of BC said that many road projects have been cancelled. It’s anticipated that the number of vehicles will dramatically drop. It’s said that 100,000 less vehicle will be driven in BC, next year. The prospected Surrey-Vancouver highway is the one which is never going to be under construction. It’s said: It’s not supposed that the one who lives in Surrey, works in Vancouver and vice versa.
So why is the price of oil and its products going up? There are different answers to this; the most accepted one is high market demand. And how this new high demand has been emerged? We now that major manufacturers in the world started shifting their facilities to Asia a few years ago. Nike and Adidas are good examples. Everything you buy these days in Canada, no exaggeration, almost everything is made in China. So a large group of people, probably millions, are getting rich and this has made a huge demand for cars, food, clothing and other things which used to look luxury to them.

Buntzen Lake

We went to Buntzen Lake in northern Coquitlam yesterday. We arrived at about 09:00 AM. There was me. S. J. and two fucking old friends of him. No matter where you go in British Columbia, you see the same fucking jungle, lake and everything. I was in another lake near Squamish and that was the same fucking thing except that I could ride my bike.
This group of people, who I went to the lake with, are just bunch of losers, like me! One of the guys’ wife left him shortly after their immigration and S. J.’s wife denied their marriage even before they get together and now he’s in deep shit! I’ve told the story already.
Anyways we were in the parking lot at about 09:00 AM as these people were not only loser, but fucking lazy! We walked around the lake and that took about 3 hours. We sat in the shadow of one of the pine trees for our breakfast while people in their swimsuits were sunbathing or walking around. Barbecued hot dog and other kinds of meat could be smelled all around the lake while we only had our cheese, poached egg, butter, jam and old bread! There was not even tea or coffee. A picnic trip, planned by S. J. cannot be better than this!

(Photo: Buntzen Lake beach in that sunny day of June)