Merry Christmas!

I am officially off to Poole for the holidays for two weeks. Whoo hoo! Hope you are have a wonderful holiday and a happy New Year!!

Stupid Credit Crunch

Yesterday I lost my job at Credit Suisse. I am officially a lady of leisure. Until March that is which is when they stop paying me and I have to look for another job. But until then I am not allowed to work as I am still officially a Credit Suisse employee so I am forced to take some time off and do who knows what. I am already of thinking of knitting projects I can work on. And maybe using those Spanish CDs we got a while back. Despite all the negatives that go along with losing ones job, there are a couple of positives. One is I have Martin. He has been really amazing and I am not sure what I have done to deserve him. The other is I will get to apply for a skilled migrants visa and not have to rely on an employer to give me a work permit to stay in the country. This means I can contract and earn more money. I am sad I lost my job, I really liked it, but it could be a lot worse. They could not have paid me for as long as they are. And I could be going through it alone. I wish I had my friends and family around me but I am pretty lucky to have Martin and his family and my small group of friends here to support me. And my colleagues were really great yesterday. They all rallied behind myself and Emma, who also lost her position and bought us flowers and cried along with us. It was a long afternoon at the pub as they all stopped in to buy us a pint and to say goodbye. So, as they say, every cloud. But I am still sad.

Love In the Time of Cholera

I finished this book not to long ago and loved it. I had read 100 Years of Solitude by the same author a couple of years ago and I couldn't get into it. I think I had a hard time with the magical realism and getting my head around what exactly was going on. I have since read other books of the same genre, The House of the Spirits being one, which I really enjoyed, so I am curious to go back to 100 Years and see if I like it more this time around. Anyway, Love In the Time of Cholera was an excellent book and I highly recommend it. I think what I liked about it was it reminded me what it felt like to be a young girl who fancies herself madly in love. I could totally relate to the feelings expressed and how quickly they change. I can relate to the emotion of thinking you like someone and then in one small glance or movement or action it all changes and forever more you think of them in a totally non sexual, non intimate way. I think this book was a very interesting portrayal of relationships and how they can mean very different things to each person involved. I thought the writing was beautiful and I very much enjoyed reading this book. A winner. (literally. I think it won the Pulitzer but I cannot be sure) Now I am reading a biography on Mao which is not nearly as much fun and as soon as I get paid I am going out and buying a book that is.

Stupid Tree

This here is our Christmas tree which we cut down on a farm owned by a friend of Martin's parents. Our intention was to get a small tree but ended up with one over 6 feet tall. It is a nice tree although I have to say it was rather painful decorating it. Anytime I put on a decoration the little needles stabbed me. Maybe it was pissed we cut it down and this was its revenge. All I know is that there was a lot of swearing interspersed with my singing along to Andy Williams. It looks better in person. The flash made it look weird. I also made bon bons for the first time. They are, I have to admit, delicious, but an extreme pain to make. It all goes fine until you have to coat them with chocolate. I had to use milk chocolate as this country doesn't seem to sell semi-sweet and I am convinced this must have made it more difficult. The chocolate coating is a bit lumpy and not nice and even like when others make them. Still, like I said, delicious.

In other news redundancies are being announced this week and I should know by Friday if I get to keep my job. I am not too optimistic and preparing for the worst. I think the worst thing about this whole process is the waiting. They notified us last Monday there were going to be lay offs and we have had to wait all this time to find out who will be affected. At this point I am looking forward to the end of the week for at least the waiting will be over. It has been stressful but I feel prepared. It does make the holidays a little less fun though. And going to work right now is a major bummer. But at least I have work to go to. Plthth.