Nataly

Yep - just came out of a cool (not cold) bath. Today is the first day I've been able to wear (very loose) clothes - WOO HOO!!

Sunburn report, Day 4: - Face and arms are a lovely golden colour - no peeling yet - Chest and back are radioactive-red and covered in billions of tiny blisters - Calves/ankles red, puffy, and swollen - hurts to walk Moral of the story: pasty Canadians are not meant for sun exposure!!! Tried to take pics, but I either can't reduce the size enough, or the quality is really shite and just looks like a big blurr.. Perhaps when everything turns into a ginormous blister, it will photograph more easily! "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Where are you doing your yoga??? My yoga class was nothing like that! ETA - some of you DZ dudes aren't that pretty to look at either!! "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Oreilles de crisse Langue de bison à l'estragon PDC farci au foie gras Tête de cochon pour 2 Poutine au foie gras Tarte de boudin et foie gras au sel Pouding chômeur Pomme au four à l'érable Pot de crème au chocolat noir tarte à l'érable pour 2 tarte aux pacanes pour 2 MMMMMM!!! OMG... I am SO going to that restaurant the next time I'm in the land of joual!!! "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

I'm not sure why you constantly complain that "women have it so easy" due to ratios, et cetera... What's stopping you from enjoying the same imbalance? All you need to do is sign up for yoga, ballet, baking, knitting or pottery classes - or get out of engineering and re-train as a male nurse! Stop whining and do something about it!! "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

You know, this has just reminded me of something that happened a couple of years ago... I was flat-sharing with 2 other people... One of them was struggling to make ends meet so I helped him with his portion of the rent for about 4 months in a row... In this time, I saw him party hard and come home with lots of new clothes, et cetera... And this was kinda pissing me off because he owed me all this money. Well, I confronted him with it and his attitude was that he hadn't come to London to live like a poor person! And he didn't see the problem as he felt he would *eventually* get a decent job and pay me back, and anyway I earned shitloads of money, so what did I care? I sat him down and went through his vs. my financials... Turned out that my disposable monthly income (after bills and essential groceries) was about £20, whereas his was more like £500 (partly because I was paying his rent)!!! He felt pretty bad, and paid me back in increments until he didn't owe me anything anymore. The moral of the story? Some people don't really "get" where you're coming from... They may have different values/perspectives... Not saying your sister wasn't at fault, but from her point of view, maybe she didn't feel she was doing anything "wrong". "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

That is massively disrespectful - she should have run it past you first, or simply respected your wishes. "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

We were at an awesome restaurant on Wednesday... a few of us ordered a pig's head. When asked how it was prepared before ordering it,the waitress explained, as matter of factly as possible: "It's a pig's head, with a lobster on top of it". At that point, we had to. We started joking around how totally OTT it would be if the freaking lobster would be in the pig's mouth.... Well.... Wow... That level of AWESOME should have its own category!!! "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

A couple of months?? My pasty flesh has been exposed to nothing but office neon lights for about the last 6 years!!! "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Been reading this neat blog called 1000 Awesome Things... So I thought I'd come up with a few awesome things that I love.

Well, I'm not going back any time soon... "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

How did I know you were going to say TTIWWP??! Sorry dude... The only person who will see the girls blush is my boyfriend (and a bunch of random strangers at the beach!) "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Since she didn't burn her bum, sounds like she at least had the bottom half of a suit on. I live on the French Riviera - tops are for tourists!! Depending on the beach, bottoms are also optional, but I haven't graduated to that level of libertinisme yet!! "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Best transcription of Geordie ever. Away man, sounds aboot reet like, aye? "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Thanks for all the tips! I feel so dumb, but at least I have a good excuse to walk around nekkid in my apartment!! Thank goodness my bottom is the one unburnt bit of me, making sitting down still possible!!!

Yep... Shoulda had more water yesterday and not stayed there as long also... I'm just SO glad I wasn't drinking alcohol as well, because there were lots of bars and those cocktails did look very appealing... It was a bit scary when my heart was racing and my head was spinning and I woke up on the floor... Got a couple of weird bruises out of it, but nothing really bad happened in the end, thankfully... Guess I was pretty lucky, actually. Not doing THAT again!! It's HOT in Nice!! "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Is it funny or pathetic that I thought I was dying last night??? I woke up at 4 AM... I felt REALLY hot and flustered, and EVERYTHING hurt... You see, yesterday I carelessly lied on the beach and fell asleep in the blazing sun. It wasn't until I got home that I realised just exactly what shade of lobster-red I had turned... OUCH!! For once I felt thankful I had gotten so many free creams from my former job at "because you're worth it" - I slapped the stuff on like there was no tomorrow and hoped my nose wouldn't turn into a ginormous blister. Anyhoo, I felt exhausted, so I went to bed at about 7 PM! Anyone who knows me knows I more often go to bed at 7 AM rather than in the evening... I was knocked out, until I woke up in agony... Not only did the sheets hurt on my raw flesh, but I felt unbearably hot. I was dizzy, even though I was lying down. I felt like I could drink 10 litres of water. I got up and nearly fainted on the way to the sink... I fumbled for the light switch... I sat down on the toilet, just to calm my beating heart. I felt AWFUL. I drank a little, but this made me feel nauseous I started feeling dizzy again, and without thinking, I turned off the lights to head back to the bed and lie down. Well, the lights weren't the only thing that went out... I took a few steps, heard a very loud crash, and my brain took a nap for a bit... I don't know how long I lay on the cold floor, but I know when I came-to, I was very confused... Why was I on the ground? Why was my hair soaked? Why was there clothes on the floor? Why was I trapped in a wooden frame of some sort? Why was my heart beating so fast? I just surrendered and napped for a bit longer. I woke up again and thought: "hang on, something is weird"... Turns out that loud crash was the wardrobe I knocked over when I fainted - guess I had tried to steady myself with it on my way to the bed... I was trapped under this wooden frame, in pitch black dark - no wonder I didn't know what was going on! And the wet hair? Sweat - and lots of it. It was not pretty... I managed to find my phone for a bit of light... I escaped from the fallen wardrobe... I put back all my clothes that had fallen onto the floor... I went back to the bed... I slept. I woke up around noon. Well, all I can say is after that episode, I was glad to wake up at all!! I was thankful for the headache, and horrible thirst, and painful sunburn from head-to-toe... I was ALIVE!!! *sigh*... I am a massive dumbass...! I'm going to put on some more moisturiser now!!! "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

See? Aren't you glad you answered "Boobies" to everything? I sure hope you get the job, N@.

Thanks to everyone for their help

Good idea. Stayed logged into the Bonfire here and we'll cheer you on and suggest things you can talk about while you interview.

Well, there goes the edge that you might of had with that French Maid's outfit. JerryBaumchen I was SO waiting for that comment, but to be honest, I was expecting it from Ryoder!! Thanks to everyone for all the useful advice

Ha ha ha! That's exactly what I'm worried about!! I'm also worried about interrupting someone - when you don't see the person, it's not as easy to know when they're done talking... Mind you, all the candidates have phone interviews, and I'm guessing most people are better in person... At least no one has the edge in this sense. "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Thanks - some great tips so far

Tomorrow I have an interview for a job I'm REALLY keen on. Since some of the applicants are from abroad, all interviews are being conducted via the phone (no video). I'm told there will be a panel of 3 interviewers and that there is no "second round." I also know I am one of 4 ppl in total who were shortlisted for the interview. If anyone has had a telephone interview before I'd be keen to hear your thoughts on what it was like... Also, any tips / advice would be welcome

It's for things like this we need a "puke" emoticon... "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss