Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category

Job Searching Across The Globe

There is most certainly no rule that states that you have to look for a job in the same old city or town that you have lived in your whole life - by all means there is a wide world out there ready to invite you over…

You can apply for a job in the next city, in the next country or on the other side of the world.  It’s up to you to make the first step.  In a recession you may find that the jobs in your area are totally depleted and there has never been a better time to make the move.

Below are a few tips your should keep in mind when looking or a new job across the country, or abroad, to make the whole process a little easier;

Focus

The world is pretty big - the Internet can help you get a job almost anywhere in the world, but perhaps before you get too deep in a search you should focus your ideas and search to more of a specific place.

To help you trim down your options you should think about the cost of living in different countries and cities, interesting places and places where you have family and friends for example.  These factors will help you make a stronger decision.

Also think about the professional factors involved - which cities have the best prospects, is there any demand, what is the pay like?

Clarity

Be clear to your potential employers about your reasons for wanting to leave your current home town - explain your reasons clearly and honestly as they will most likely be attractive selling points.

Your reasons for leaving might show that you are strong and willing to take risks.

Phone Interview

Be prepared and ready for the possibility of a telephone interview - you probably won’t be able to get out to the new city or country for an interview and so you will have to work even harder over the telephone where you can’t win people over with your winner smile or smart dress sense.

Make sure you conduct the phone interview in a quite place and try and make sure you are relaxed throughout - try not to conduct the interview using your mobile phone as you can never guarantee quality of sound, and when speaking remember to smile as it will come over in your tone.

Flexibility

When looking to take a job in a new city or country you should remember that your best chance of doing so is by remaining flexible - this means you should think about working around your potential employers schedule when it comes to organising telephone calls and remember that you will probably have to pay for your own travel expenses, etc…You will have to be flexible to get what you want.

Moving?

Are you thinking about looking abroad for work?  Perhaps another city?  Let us know…

Holiday Hell?

The summer is here and more and more of us are taking the opportunity to leave our offices and our workloads to hit the beaches across not only the country but the world.

Unfortunately the black cloud hanging over all of our heads while on holiday is the workload waiting on our desks for our return - we all love going on holiday but you can never really switch off because you know it’s going to be a nightmare upon your return.

However, don’t let this stress turn you off holidays altogether - there are a few methods you should think about to make the transition from beach to cubicle a lot easier!

Plan

Not enough can be said for planning - if you can manage to plan before and after you leave for your holiday then the whole thing will run so much smoother.  Make sure to get specific work done before you leave for your trip and guestimate what will be waiting for you upon your return so you won’t be shocked when you arrive.

Work with those around you and you might be able to delegate some of the work you will be missing so you aren’t greeted with a mountain of paperwork on your desk when you get back.  You should also try and get ahead with your work before you leave so that it doesn’t seem like you are just starting from scratch when you get back.

From The Plane To The Office

It is much easier to make sure you give yourself at least a day at home before going back to the office - this is a great way to get back into the mindset of home living and break away from tropical ‘you’ that you met on the beach.

Use the time to unpack, feel comfortable at home again, catch up on any jet-lag and missed sleep, catch up on emails and give yourself a good home cooked meal if you’ve been eating out a lot recently.

Refresh Yourself

You may have lost touch with the work that you were doing before you left - a good idea is to spend the first couple of hours back in the office reading through the work to make sure you are back in the know about the work.

If possible have meetings with team mates to make sure you are fully sub-merged into the work and you are in the right mind set.  Once you are clued up once again you can then spend some time prioritising work and focusing on the more important work that requires your attention.  The key is to find your way around the office again slowly but surely.

Not Looking Forward To Coming Back?

Are you going on holiday this summer?  Do you struggle with relaxing because you’re worried about going back to the office?  Leave us a comment and let us know…

Things to know before travelling abroad…

We all love to travel abroad whether it is to Greece, Dubai or the United States – wherever we go, however, we need to know a few things before we step on to the plane.

•    Travel Advice – Get as much travel advice as possible.  There’s a lot of free travel advice available to you which you can get your hands on easily, whether through websites or travel agents for example.  Sign up for free newsletters and keep in the know about where you’re going to go.

•    Travel Insurance – If you find yourself falling ill on a beach in America and you don’t have any travel insurance then you’re going to be in a really sticky situation.  Get hold of some travel insurance if only for the peace of mind at least.

•    Understand the Law of the Land – Laws are different in each country…some country’s laws differ greatly compared to others so it is vital to understand exactly what you are going into.  You could do something that you don’t even know is illegal but in another country you could be in serious trouble.

•    Visas – Do you need a visa where you’re going?  Do the research and don’t get caught out when you arrive at the airport in the country.  The earlier you find out, the faster you can get it sorted out but keep in mind that just because you have a visa doesn’t necessarily mean you will be allowed in the country.

•    Copies of Everything – Make copies of your passport, visa, insurance policy, traveller’s cheques and credit card numbers in case the worst happens.  Leave one copy of everything with someone trustworthy at home so they are always available and carry the second copy in separate place to the originals.

•    Get Jabbed Up – Check with health professionals to make sure that you have all the injections that you would need to visit whichever countries you are going to.  You will be surprised what you can pick up in different countries and you can very often protect yourself with a simple injection.

•    Valid Passport – Make sure that your passport is valid and has at least six months left of validity on it otherwise you could find that you have problems when trying to travel.

•    Copy of Itinerary – Make a copy of your plans and leave it with someone trustworthy at home who you are in regular contact with – you don’t want to be stuck in a foreign country, lost and without the possibility of contacting friends and family at home…copying your itinerary will provide you with a little peace of mind.

Remember to be well prepared and understand every possible issue that could happen when travelling abroad!  Be prepared…

What about you?

Did you find our advice useful?  Are you planning a trip and have used some of our tips?  Do you disagree with our advice?  Leave us a comment and let us know what you think…

Be safe…no laughing!

We all know that we have to strap ourselves in when driving.  We can’t eat or drink when driving, no chance of using a phone and if you want to read a book behind the wheel then you might as well drive straight to the jail cell – but one motorist was pulled over in Liverpool for LAUGHING?

The motorist was shown the flashing blue and red lights, pulled over and questioned by police officers for driving under the influence of laughter.

The driver in question was Gary Saunders who was chatting to his brother-in-law over a hands-free mobile phone when he was told a joke and broke out in hysterics.

That’s a crime apparently…

Little did he know that the police that were on his tail were offended by the jovial spirits of the man and signalled him to pull over to the side of the road for a questioning session.

When he pulled over the policeman approached Mr Saunders and actually said “laughing while driving a car can be an offence.”

Mr Saunders was questioned for around half an hour which was a bit of problem for the company director of Spontex Workwear as he claimed that due to the questioning he missed an important appointment.

Mr Saunders was asked to show his license and other documents at a police station – all for laughing whilst driving…

“I couldn’t believe it when he told me I’d been pulled over for laughing.  I was driving very safely in the Birkenhead Tunnel and took a call,” clamed Mr Saunders.

“He said something funny and I was laughing - simple as that. I never took my eyes off the road and was in full control of the car.

“I definitely wasn’t speeding so I asked what the problem was and he told me I was laughing too much.”

No record – waste of time…

However, the incident wasn’t taken to be too serious by the police officer as Supt Kevin Hagger of the Mersey Tunnels Police has said, “There is no record of the incident in the system so it seems the gentleman was just spoken to by the officer and the matter not taken any further.”

However, Mr Saunders won’t be forgetting the incident too quickly as according to him it went from weird to surreal in an instant.

“The officer accused me of throwing my head back in a dangerous way, which I denied since it is definitely not something I do.

“It went from ludicrous to unbelievable. He definitely had a bee in his bonnet about something and I got the brunt of it.  In the end he reluctantly admitted that he had nothing he could accuse me of, but still required me to take my documents to the station.”

Should we be buying electric cars?

The car industry isn’t exactly having a fun time as the Government ploughs more and more money into the sinking ship – less people are wanting to buy thousands of pounds worth of automobile and as a result car companies are giving away two for one offers on their motors.  But is it time we should be switching to electric cars?

Obviously it’s not something that could be done tomorrow but there are a few reasons why you might think it’s time to leave the petrol under the ground and change to electricity to power our cars…

•    No Air Pollution – Surely that’s a winning reason if ever we heard one.  We want to stay on this world for more than another generation or two, but if we carry on ruining the planet then we’re not going to be able to enjoy our green and blue buddy for much longer.

Electric cars are an obvious way of clearing up the polluted air that we are constantly breathing in to our tired, old, tarred lungs – studies have shown that you could charge millions of electric cars overnight using existing surplus electrical generation.

•    Fuel for thought – The planet is running out of gasoline for cars and as we are aware electric cars don’t run on fuel – they run on electricity.  By using electric cars we will be avoiding depleting our planet’s gasoline deposits.

•    Saving you those precious pennies – It’s like telling a smoker that they could save a fiver everyday if they gave up smoking but switching from petrol cars to electric cars could save you an absolute fortune!

Running an electric car only costs a small fraction of the amount of money it costs to fill up a petrol or diesel car.

You will also be saving a few pennies at the garage as well as electric cars have fewer moving parts and therefore have fewer things that could cause problems.

•    It’s getting hot in here – Global warming is no laughing matter.  The o-zone layer is become more depleted month by month, the climate is changing and the globe is warming up and carbon emissions from cars are hardly helping to slow that change down.

Electric cars cut down on CO2 emissions by a staggering amount when compared to combustion cars as we all know…so they obviously make sense when you look at which wins against the fight to protect the planet.

It’s a very touchy subject, obviously, as there is so much money floating about the combustion car industry, whether it is involved with the fuel for the cars or selling them there’s a lot of money involved.

And you?

But what do you think – do these reasons make you think that we should take this opportunity to swap combustion cars for electric cars or do you think even the thought is to ridiculous to comprehend?

Mirror, signal, position…

Most of us pass our driving tests after the first few goes at the most.  However, what do you do when you have just failed for the 771st time?  Maybe get the hint?

A 68-year-old woman in South Korea has indeed taken the driving test 771 times and apparently she is nowhere near giving up just yet.

Although, the story doesn’t pan out exactly as you would expect.  In this country we get the opportunity to take the test after about a few weeks wait due to the high number of learner drivers, however, the woman was able to take the test almost every working day since 2005.

30-50 per cent…

Even more ridiculous is how she is failing the test.  Apparently she stumbles on the written aspect of the test, where she is averaging a score between 30 and 50 per cent, although the pass rate is 60 per cent.

The woman, only known as Cha, failed her latest test this week and the plans are already set for her to take the test for the 772nd time.

Cha currently delivers groceries door-to-door around her home city of Jeonju, and it is said that she could use a car to help her business.

4 million Won.

According to the police in Jeonju, Cha has up until now spent 4 million Won (£2,000) on the tests and has won over the hearts of the police officers that know her story.

According to Park Jung-Seok, a traffic police officer in Cha’s area, “I feel sorry every time I see Cha fail. When she passes, I’ll make a commemorative tablet myself and give it to her.”

Maybe she would appreciate a crib sheet in the mean time and maybe a helping hand in the actual exam.

Don’t even mention the practical test.

Apparently once she passes the theory test, costing her 6,000 Won a go, she will then be able to move on to the practical test.

According to the Driver’s License Agency in Jeonju, Cha has now broken the record for the amount of tests taken by a single person, although that little record will be little reward as all she wants is to pass her test.

Try a bit of technology.

We here in Britain don’t seem to have these issues due to all the literature, DVDs and technology surrounding the subject.  Even the Nintendo DS has recently announced that there is a game in the “brain-training” style that helps the user to gain a strong grasp of the Driving Theory Test.

Maybe we should all chip in a penny and buy her a DS and the Theory game and she might eventually get 60 per cent…but then there’s the practical test.

Ever thought about space? I mean the black stuff that appears at night time and is filled with shiny little stars. Space is cool, there is no denying that fact. So many questions get asked, like “how big is space” and “are we alone”. I can answer these ones. It’s massive. And it’s unlikely we’re alone. We’ve all seen Alien right?

Anyways, I’ve rounded up a few of my favourite facts about the cold vastness of space. *if this was a movie, I’d want the X-files theme music playing in the background while you read. Feel free to do this at home.

• In space, any free moving liquid will form itself into a sphere due to its surface tension.

• The first time humans actually left planet earth was December 21st, 1968 – unless you count jumping as leaving the earth. If you do it probably occurred the first time a man saw a sabre tooth tiger charge at him.

• There is a volcano on Mars that is the biggest found (so far) in the solar system. It measures an astounding 370 miles across and rises 15 miles into the sky.

• Next time you fall in the sea, try to forget the fact that we know more about space than the oceans. And that thing that just brushed passed your leg? It’s probably just a Kraken.

• The space age began on October 4th, 1957.

• The UK sucks when it comes to space – we have only ever launched one satellite, which was called the Black Arrow.

• You may feel safe walking around your countryside estate, but you have a reason to be fearful: 1 in 5 billion people could be killed by falling space debris. Just like the lottery ‘it could be you’.

• The earth’s revolution time speeds up every year – by .0001 seconds a year.

• If you had some kind of astro car, it would take you 258 days to drive round one of Saturn’s rings, at a steady sped of 75mph.

• When Neil Armstrong stepped off the shuttle for the first time, he stepped with hs left foot first.

• If you shouted in space quite literally no one could hear you scream – even if they were standing/floating right next to you.

• Proving that women love to do things differently, Venus is the only planet to rotate clockwise.

• When Apollo 11’s lunar module touched down on the moon, it had just 20 seconds of fuel left on board.

And that’s your lot. Cool huh? If you know anymore awesome facts send me a comment.

Yesterday I paid £80 to be lectured about how I drive too fast…good times.

Not too long ago I was caught speeding in my car doing a “terrifying” 36mph in a 30 on a practically empty road on a hill. I don’t deny that I was going to fast, because I was, but it’s not something I do often. I remember seeing the camera as I came round the corner (I thought the law was that police had to be in plain view, but hey-ho) and the heart sinking feeling of knowing that in a couple of weeks time a letter would come through with a £60 fine and 3 points.

Well, the letter came through, and I was ordered to pay the price for my slip-up, but I had an alternative: take a Speed Awareness course for £80, and I wouldn’t have to worry about the points on my license. Sweet. So I paid the £80, and was given a date to turn up to a venue where I would be taught the error of my ways.

The first thing I noticed is that I was, by far, the youngest person there, by a good ten years. Everyone was grumbling and mumbling about having to be there – to be honest I was glad I didn’t have to pay the points…

Now, I’d heard some horror stories about this course from friends who’ve been on it before. So I was expecting to see pictures of dead bodies, and horrible car accidents, etc, but in fact al I was given was a PowerPoint presentation, a pen and a key ring.

Now I’m not saying that the people taking the course were bad, but they certainly didn’t carry any weight with the materials they had to use. There is nothing unnerving about a power point presentation, well unless it’s documenting Amy Winehouse’s physical decline.

If I really wanted to stop people speeding, I’d show them horrific crashes and gory stuff because the only thing people react too now-a-days is a shock factor. Gentle persuasion maybe worked in 1965 when everyone was so high they’d agree to anything, but in the year 2008, we are not so easily offended.

I sat in a room that resembled a 1980s classroom, and was told off, not sternly but gently, for a couple of hours before having lunch, then heading out on a practical driving assessment.

Now I’d love to be able to show you my scorecard but I don’t have a scanner, but let’s just say I could be the next Ayrton Senna. My mad skillz behind the wheel were given nods of approval from my instructor, and he concluded that my speeding mistake was exactly that, a stupid mistake.

So after a whole day of driving orientated stuff what did I think of the experience? Well if I was running the course, I’d want more shock factor, less PowerPoint, more driving and a better key ring, but I was glad someone finally agreed that my driving is god like.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s gigantic inflatable dog crap. You actually can’t make this stuff up.

A Swiss museum is paying the price for showcasing some supremely crappy art, after the massive -house-sized - doo-doo floated free from its moorings, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.

The ?art’ by Paul McCarthy, an American ?artist’, took out a power line before landing on a nearby children’s home, where it broke a window. The teacher probably s##t themselves at that point…

The artist had supposedly secured a safety system that deflated the infla-poo in bad weather but his work, the not so cleverly titled: Complex S##t, got caught in a sudden gust of wind, which blew the faeces into the air.

The incident happened two weeks ago, but sadly has only been revealed this Monday. The exhibition is still running, but no news yet on whether the giant poo ill make its re-entry…

Reportedly (ok, just me) the artist is in hiding now, but exhibition members are said to be fuming, and say if they ever catch the artist, then the s##t really will hit the fan.

Ba-doom-tish.

A device that has been billed as “the worlds first practical jet pack”, has been unveiled at the Wisconsin air show by its designer Glenn Martin.In front of thousands of people, Martin’s 16-year-old son, Harrison, put on a helmet and climbed into the harness of the bulky contraption - with the help of two people. Revving the loud engine, he climbed to three feet and hovered for 45-seconds before touching back down to earth. The crowd went wild.

“Wow, that went better than expected,” the elder Martin said afterwards. “People will look back on this as a moment in history.”

Theoretically capable of flying an average-sized pilot 30 miles in 30 minutes on a full tank of fuel, the Martin Jet Pack carries five gallons. The inventor, 48, has been working on the craft for nearly 30 years, plans to start selling them next year for around ?50,000.

Whether it will catch on remains to be seen given its cost, and federal rules restricting the use of such devices to, “sport or recreational purposes” and barring them from congested areas.

The device is controlled by a joystick and weighs less than 254 pounds (115 kilograms) and capable of carrying only one passenger - so it won’t requires a pilot’s licence.

Rather than a pack, the craft contains two large, high-powered downward thrusting propellers powered by a 200-horsepower petrol driven engine. The propellers push the device and its pilot off the ground. So far it hasn’t been flown above a height of six feet, although it carries a parachute for emergencies.

Martin is already taking orders for models he hopes to sell next year. He hopes the jet pack will start out as a plaything for the wealthy before law enforcement officials take an interest after seeing it in operation.

Scientists and inventors have long tried to develop a successful jet pack akin to those used by James Bond in Thunderball or Buck Rogers. Two other companies - one in Mexico, one in Colorado - are also trying to market jet packs or rocket belts.

“There is nothing that even comes close to the dream that the jetpack allows you to achieve,” Robert Thompson, director of the Centre for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University, told the New York Times. It is “about the coolest desire left to mankind.”