Hollywood has idealised successful women

It's remarkable how quickly time passes when you have nothing to do. I look back upon the past few weeks and wonder where has the time all gone?

Now every time I watch a romantic comedy about a woman with a successful career and perfect boyfriend all I'm fantasising about is, gosh I wish I had her job. Whereas before I'd say, gosh I wish I had her relationship. I realise however that they equally idealise the job as much as they do the man in movies. No one I know has one hour lunch breaks, a multi million dollar new York apartment, a sexy boss who they can inappropriately flirt with, colleagues that are all witty and time for drinks every night. Even more important no successful woman I know can be as feminine as these women behave and dress at work and still be respected by their colleagues. It's an impossible ideal.



Yes, because when I am a working journalist for a New York newspaper column I can afford Dior and YSL and do nothing all week! Nice try Sex and the City.

Volunteering- good for the soul but what about a job?

It was recently suggested in a newspaper that volunteering will gain us the experience required for a job. Although I love to volunteer and have done so on more than three occasions I can't seem to find a place for it on my CV.

I would rather think that work experience in the field you want to work in would be far more beneficial than volunteering in an unrelated industry. As much as teaching Afican children English helps the soul it doesn't help your chances of employment. Am I a bad person for reaching a point where I choose helping myself over an opportunity to help others? As much as I'd like to say that volunteering my time is sufficient whenever I do volunteer I am often then asked for money. So I would say, not from a place of ignorance, but of experience that having both time and money is the most beneficial thing for a volunteering experience.

St. Ali Cafe- a review

Clerkenwell Road belongs to a hipster area. The kind of place know for its eclectic pubs and boutique shops. You can access the road via Barbican tube stop or if you are up for a walk Chancery Lane.

St. Ali is more than a cafe, it is an oasis along a bleak part of Clerkenwell Road. When I walk past the white tiles into the two storey cafe there is a man with a rockabilly hair style, leather jacket and rolled up jeans sitting across from me. Then sitting in front of me is a man with the largest Johnny Bravo quiff, chinos, blazer and black patent loafers. It all feels so East London.

The cafe is open plan with exposed brick and then hidden behind an open barista bar is a wall made of ferns growing right underneath an enormous sky light. I thought it was an ingenious way to bring the outdoors indoors. Everyone who works there has an Australian accent and a very boho vibe to them. Their coffee is made from an industrial sized machine so they are serious about quality, which here in London is hard to find.

Their menu is limited but there is something for everyone's palette. I chose corn fritters with tomato chutney, poached eggs, wilted spinach and haloumi cheese. All of this cost me 9 pounds 25 and the coffee was only 2 pounds 60. I was in gourmand heaven.

(Sample menu, Ali had the beans and I had the corn fritters)


Now why was I there? To meet Ali. She isn't a saint but she should be considering her employment hell. Like me she is a graduate who is now undertaking her second internship in Frankfurt, Germany because no one wants to employ someone fresh out of University with a law degree. I may not be a maths whizz but if a company pays you 600 euro a month to intern but the rent costs you 500 a month and a transport card costs you 75 you aren't left with enough to feed yourself or socialise. That is unless you are Victoria Beckham and content to live off a diet of air and ice.

However if she doesn't take the internship she is unemployed and will miss an opportunity to gain "experience". I feel what internships teach us is less about the job and more about how undervalued young people are regardless of their intelligence and qualifications. Despite my negativity Ali has inspired me though to start looking overseas at internship opportunities because it seems an amazing way to combine travel with work.

Bathing in Bath- a review of the city

While I have been trying my hardest to search for a job I decided that a short mini break to Bath would put my worries at ease. So here is my review of this wonderful and welcoming city. Once you arrive at Bath Spa train station you realise that everything is made from sandstone from the footpaths to the buildings. It is the type of city where the bank has a crystal chandelier inside and everything feels as quintessentially British as a cup of tea. You can understand why Jane Austen was inspired to write such romantic novels after living there.

(Word of advice: Book your train tickets in advance and save yourself over thirty pounds!)

The Queensberry Hotel:
When it comes to hotels it all depends on your budget and your taste however I am a boutique hotel girl all the way. The Queensberry was an ideal fit for me and I would come again in a heart beat. We stayed in a classic room but it felt like luxury so don't think you are not getting quality and high standards just because you are not paying for their suite room.



When we walked into our room we were both impressed. There were bathrobes, a large bathroom, a comfortable bed and complimentary water. The hotel also has a living room with a fireplace and complimentary coffee or tea, an award winning restaurant and a bar that is open all hours of the day and night! Perfect when the local bars close at 12 am and you still want to continue the fun.

Thermae Spa:
We went to the Thermae Bath Spa located on Bath Street. It is the only place in England to have natural thermal baths located on 3 floors. They also have a beauty spa attached to the thermal baths on the bottom floor along with a cafe on the 2nd floor. Unfortunately when we were there the steam rooms were closed so our ticket prices were halved to 13 pounds and we loaned robes and slippers for the 2 hour slot we were given. The most ideal time to go is during sunset because one of the two baths is located on a roof top. So both of us watched the sun set across Bath while we relaxed in the lukewarm water.


Dinner:
After the spa we went to the Firehouse Rotisserie and had a delicious and well priced meal of crispy squid, caramelised barbecue duck with mashed potato and rocket salad while Mr. had fish cakes with wasabi mayo. The restaurant itself has lots of exposed sandstone, an open kitchen, dimly lit candles and a warm atmosphere. I cannot recommend it enough.

By the time we retired back to the open bar at our hotel I realised that I really could not fault the day we had. It truly is a romantic city ideal for couples and people wanting to set the mood with their potential future couple.

Below are the links for the places we went in case anyone else wants to go:

http://www.thequeensberry.co.uk/photo-gallery.htm
http://www.thermaebathspa.com/
http://www.firehouserotisserie.co.uk/mainmenu.html

BBC's take on youth unemployment

Anyone else noticed in the BBC video that there are tumbleweeds blowing across the factory in Italy? What I find particularly scary is how similar these images look to the black and white news clips of the 1930s depression. Empty factories. Unused machinery. It's a bleak outlook for the youths of today.

The reality of this recession is sad. We are young graduates who don't have experience. Now we are forced to accept internships to gain experience where all we should expect in return is for our transport costs to be covered. It feels like a losing battle.

Oh curse you recession

(ANYONE ELSE GOING MAD?)

There are days when that altruistic feeling dies within you because you are not contributing to anything and you begin to wonder if you ever will. Today is one of those days. I woke up and felt embarrassed to be me.

Was anyone else told that when you went to University it was going to help you get employed? That you would not be a waitress or a supermarket check out woman at 50 as long as you had a degree. Now I found out that regardless if I speak one language or seven, have one degree or none, the recession does not want young graduates.

Is anyone else feeling frustrated about how a recession caused by another greedy generation has become their problem?




(An animation that always put me back into a optimistic mood)

Tonight's dinner...

I made chicken enchiladas today for less than 10 pounds per person. They are so easy to make and you can be creative with what you have on the side. I chose barbecue baked beans, tomato salsa, sour cream and guacamole. I then soaked the enchiladas in passata and cheese and threw them in the oven for half an hour. Fantastic!

They are perfect when you're in a rush:

Ingredients:
5 breasts of chicken
Coriander
2 punnets of tomatoes
1 x Red Onion
Fajita spices
1 x White Onion
1 x Lime
6 x Tortilla bread
1 tin of Pasatta
3 teaspoons of olive Oil
garlic (one head)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius

1. Cook chicken with onions and tomato until the meat is cooked and the onions are clear, add as much fajita spice as you like
2. Once cooked place the chicken mixture onto one piece of tortilla bread, then fold the top and bottom sides of the bread in and roll so that the meat is enveloped inside
3. Continue this process until your baking dish is full of chicken enchiladas
4. Pour Pasatta over the enchiladas and then add cheese
5. Place the enchiladas into the oven and cook until cheese is melted and brown
6. To make tomato salsa, finely chop a head of garlic, cut a punnet of tomatoes and finely chop red onions into a bowl
7. Then add olive oil, salt, pepper and squish the tomatoes with your hands until the juices come out of them




(What my flatmates did while I cooked- useless)

Dr. Seuss and the Unemployed

I hate impatiently waiting to hear back from employers and a lot of my time is spent doing exactly that. One of my favorite writers in the world is Dr. Seuss. For those who are unemployed I hope you can relate to his book "Oh, the places you will go" and yes even he calls where we are useless.

"headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
The Waiting Place...

...for people just waiting.
Waiting for a train to go
or a bus to come, or a plane to go
or the mail to come, or the rain to go
or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow
or the waiting around for a Yes or No
or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting."

Weekend work advice: Facebook and work do not mix. May this video be a word of warning to anyone who thought otherwise. Someone obviously didn't tell this girl that being bored at work still pays a lot more than being bored at home. Facebook status's in recent months have been reaching an all time imaginative low- here are some of the worst from my "friends":

"just bought my books..."
"Bunny farts... Possibly the funniest-cutest thing ever..."
"So....what do I do?"
"hahaha i had the system on "cool" for 4 hours no wonder the house didn't feel like it was warming up"

I wish Facebook had a care factor attached to each status so when wonderful moments of inspiration like the ones I just mentioned came up users would be disallowed from uploading them.

So... what do you do?

My mother has told me after reading this blog that most people would die to have the week I just wrote about. That is because she is employed with a salary and works from 7-7. I would die to have her working week so I could not worry about paying my rent. Why does everyone assume that not working is fun? That I relish admitting that at 24 I am doing nothing with my life despite having two degrees, speaking three languages and a lot of work experience. I AM EMBARRASSED.

I looked this word up and the definition of embarrassed has been modernised to this economic recession. Can you believe this is what came up?



Someone asked me what I did the other night and I either had to be honest and say, "Absolutely nothing" or make up a fake job. This question has become the equivalent of the single girl Bridget Jones dilemma, be honest that you are miserable and alone or make up a Mills and Boon story about a sexy Brazilian named Jesus you shagged all weekend.

Two degrees, Zero Job

Why does no business want me you may be wondering. I am sure you assume that I must tick one or more of the following list:

1. Unintelligent
2. Ugly (because let's face it we have all been told that if a woman wears make up to an interview her chances are 25% higher than women who don't)
3. Answer job interview questions like George Bush, awkward silences and unable to pronounce simple words like nuclear
4. Not be applying for a job at all
5. Not networking
6. Have a trust fund so large I don't need a job
7. Have my Facebook photos public

May I say I am none and do none of those things.

1. My IQ is over 150
2. My face does not offend people
3. I am an English major so I can pronounce words like zephyr and hierarchical
4. I apply for jobs daily
5. I connect with everyone from old bosses, businesses through A Small World
6. I have no trust fund
7. My Facebook photos are as private as the whereabouts of Eva Brauns corpse