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High heels, fast cars, americans…

Something I learned from my asian trips, there is no problem on sharing a table at meal with someone else we don’t know. You just ask if it is free and seat. I use this regularly at the terrace of the canteen of my working place and enjoy it.

Many people in europe seem to have problems on making this, they spend minutes round and around looking for a completely free table. Don’t be afraid, no one will eat you. 🙂

A known intersection, bike lane on the right side, the cars can go straight or turn right, crossing over the bike lane. Was slowly going, car not indicating to turn, driver looking forward only. He turns. I brake strong enough to brake the front brake cable and not touch the car. The driver sees, sees me screaming at him but after small hesitation he accelerates and escapes the scene. It was a deja-vu.

Why they run away? They feel guilty and do not want admit an error? However they should think that over the bike there is an human, without a metal protection around.

Today I was given the task of creating a short list out of 45 candidates. It was a nice activity from which I learned ‘pas mal de choses’. My selection was based on the CV of the candidates which, for creating a short list, it was more than enough. Only 7 or 8 curriculums filled the requirements of the vacancy notice. Then from these a more deep study would be required.

Things I learned for the future:
– Use the keywords of the vacancy (if you are applying to banana picking, mention bananas)
– Put the more relevant information for the position at the beginning (start with professional experience or education depending when you had the most important banana picking activity). Usually work experience before before the education seems more visible.
– Mention what the banana picking activity included and your achievements (saying that you ‘picked bananas’ is not enough. Mention that ‘picked bananas in a 300hectares field; Followed a course on picking fruits; Good rate of tasty bananas picked’ helps a lot)
– Start on each heading from the most recent date.
– Best to use a unique page, maximum two.
– Send the CV as a PDF, not Word document (formatting changes too much)
– Do not include photo.
– Personal information is not important, should be only for information, but not take much place (you are not better because your wife name is Amanda or you were born in the Soho’s neighborhood).
– Having a web page can help a lot or destroy everything. Choose what you have there when putting the address in the CV.
– Make it easy to read, CV is not a text neither the story of your life.
– Extra activities (besides work, studies) are interesting but try to make it succinct.

Anyway, I must say that I became a bit worried that either you have experience on banana picking (maybe apple picking can be enough) or it is difficult to get a job these days… Unless is your best friend reading CVs.

Now I should go and update my CV following my own guidelines. 🙂

Euro de football: la Suisse n’a pas la patate

I skip many others. Below is the reason of no hike today.

Vim agora de jantar. Estou numa vila pequenina, junto a um lago. Os restaurantes aqui fecham as 20h. Eram 21h. Encontrei um supermercado com uma familia a porta a comer. Um deles decifrava algumas palavras em ingles. No entanto era um pouco atrasado mental e parecia-me agarrado a bebida. Os outros nao falavam ingles.

Comprei uma cerveja e noodles. Pedi agua quente mas nao me entendiam. Mostrei uma garrafa de agua, apontei para os noodles mas nada. Tentei utilizar o homem para me ajudar mas nao parecia ir a lado algum. Ate que a um certo momento entenderam que eu queria comer.

Disseram-me para sentar a mesa com eles e foram la dentro com os meus noodles buscar agua quente e meter o picante. Trouxeram-me ainda uma colher e perguntaram se queria pao.

Comi com eles, o que balbuciava ingles nao se calava e os outros riam-se. Eu comia e la lhes disse que era de Putuoya – Portugal em chines. Disse que depois do ‘ten’ vem o ‘eleven’. Foi uma refeicao em familia.

The other day I went to a body combat class in Taipei. To start with, the class was at 22:00. Ten minutes before, while walking in the pink and blue lighted gym, i spotted a queue of maybe 30 people at the entrance of the classroom. Once entered, several other from the previous class were staying, making more than 50 in the same class, mostly men (maybe 70%). The female teacher gave the class 90% chinese, 10% english and, at the middle asked for an applause for the foreigners in the course (me and a girl I believe korean).
After the class I wanted to congratulate her but she was surrounded by men showing her a huge bottle of protein additives.

Awareness tests for drivers

Do The Test
Safety rules when riding