...somewhere else. Other than South America. With the Rough Guide.
I didn't win, but that's okay.
Now I don't have to travel for 6 weeks as soon as I return from The Other Side of the World, I get to...
- do Fringe (wahey!) and witness Nicola be an awesome venue manager,
- help redecorate the lovely flat that Helen and Mr and Mrs Helen picked out,
- spend time in my favourite city in all the world, London, (I love you too Ediburgh)
- spend time with all my London chums who I haven't seen for a year,
- spend time with all my Edinburgh chums who I haven't seen for a year,
- spend time with Ma Brewer, Pa Brewer and G'Pa,
- go other places, like maybe Vietnam or Canada, to see all my international chums,
- other stuff - please feel free to add your own suggestions.
Anyway, the lady was really nice about it, it seemed like I didn't do badly, just other people did the same thing better. Clearly. But she was glad I'd come across and so was I, so maybe one day in the future I can wrangle some sort of work with them. I'd like that.
So, see you in July! (Or sooner, if, you know, you're in NZ...)
A x
Tuesday 30 March 2010
Thursday 18 March 2010
Rough Guide to a competition
So a while back, end of January, I entered a competition with the Rough Guide (guide books) to write for them. 500 words on a place you know well, in the Rough Guide style. Now, the prize entailed (roughly; they've been pretty vague) approx. 4-6 weeks in South or Central America this summer, updating (part of) the RG for a country in that area, with flights and 'an advance fee' paid for by the company. Sweet as! At last, I could finally silence all those people who assume that as someone who likes travel and can hold a pen I simply *must* be a travel writer. So I entered.
And a few weeks or a month ago, I got an email saying congrats, you're one of 10 people out of 580 through to the next round.
In London.
After much umm-ing and ahh-ing, I decided to go for it. I mean, there were a lot of pros, and a lot more cons, but ultimately, I could never win if I wasn't there.
Yesterday was the day of the competition, so here's an update for those of you who knew and an explanation for those of who might be wondering what my Facebook statuses were referring to, (Plus: apologies for not telling you I was in the UK. I only had five days and to say I've been jet lagged is an understatement. It's only three months til I'm back properly anyway and I promise we'll be friends then.)
Anyways, competiton day was spent in the RG HQ on the Strand with nine other finalists, 3 boys, 6 girls, all of whom were absolutely lovely and basically like me. We kept remarking on how similar we were (essentially predominantly white, middle class uni students from the south east of England, heh) and how nice it was that we got on so well. I would be totally fine with any one of them winning and think we all have an equal chance of doing so. One girl was also from Edinburgh and on exchange; there were three people from Bristol university and everyone did some sort of arts/languagues degree. The Edinburgh girl had come from Barcelona but obviously I had come the furthest. Yes, that's right, NZ. For a week. You heard me. Stop asking.
We were shown round the office - RG is owned by another company, along with DK and Penguin - which was occupied by people who seemed ostensibly to be just like us. I guess that was no big surprise. We all would have fitted in just fine - why couldn't they hire us all? Whatever the outcome of the competition, I could be totally happy working there, if they'd have me, whether or not as a writer, perhaps even preferably in some sort of editor/manager role at some point in the future. So an interesting insight anyway.
We got free coffee, pastries, pizza, beer, books, stationary and t-shirts as the day ticked on, discussing where'd we come from, why we'd entered the competition, chatting generally about uni and the like, as well as being interviewed in a rather rushed fashion (which was a bit of a shame - that's the only part I'm worried about; whether I chatted crap or answered the questions at all) and getting to meet everyone from the RG office in an informal way at the end of the day. They all seemed very nice.
The main exercise tho involved updating an older, inaccurate version of the RG to London. Between us we would each cover one of four nearby areas and spend three hours walking around checking the map, spellings, opening hours, prices, whether places still existed, if their descriptions were accurate and adding one eating and one drinking place of our choice. I was based in Covent Garden and after a slow start tried not to always be the next person in the museum saying, 'Hi, I'm from the RG, we're just updating...' as often that would be greeted with a bemused/annoyed, 'I just answered your questions!' I also kept getting paranoid that I was just being stupid, rather than accepting that some places simply weren't there any more. I also got a free pie out of the eating place I chose to add and chatted with a nice man in a specialist tea shop. Plus I got to go in to the Royal Opera House, which I haven't done for years, and it really is gorgeous. It was tiring pounding the streets of London like that, but quite satisfying to gather all the correct information. I guess it might be a bit harder in South America because of the language barrier, but one thing at a time.
After that the writing up process wasn't too bad, tho out of determination to have it perfect we still spent over two hours on it. Essentially just a bit of ammending of details and correcting of the map, plus a slight reworking of the introduction and the little blurbs (each of us only had a page's worth of info, so about 5 sights and 3 eating/drinking places). And that was it!
It was an exciting day and I had a great time and a lot of fun. Hurrah. At the drinks bit in the evening everyone kept saying, 'Oh! So *you're* the one from New Zealand!' which was quite nice - they were all impressed by my 'enthusiasm.' I shall keep you all posted on the final result - the woman said we might not know for another week or perhaps two. Bah. In the meantime, it's back to NZ, uni, Greenpeace, the pub quiz and a trip to Australia. I just have to pack my bag now and get in that metal box for another 30 hour trip. Can't wait.
A x
PS. the other thing about being in London - apart from it being wonderful to see my parents and Grandpa - was that it was a reminder, a confirmation, that I'm not going crazy in NZ without reason - it really is stupidly empty, and London really is where my heart belongs.
Crammed in to the tube carriage like the proverbial sardine on my way to the competition, I thought to myself that there were probably more people on the train and the others before and after it going in to London this morning than there are people in NZ.
And that crush, that crowd, the people, the lack of space, the busy-ness, the self-imposed sense of purpose, is just the way I like things to be.
And a few weeks or a month ago, I got an email saying congrats, you're one of 10 people out of 580 through to the next round.
In London.
After much umm-ing and ahh-ing, I decided to go for it. I mean, there were a lot of pros, and a lot more cons, but ultimately, I could never win if I wasn't there.
Yesterday was the day of the competition, so here's an update for those of you who knew and an explanation for those of who might be wondering what my Facebook statuses were referring to, (Plus: apologies for not telling you I was in the UK. I only had five days and to say I've been jet lagged is an understatement. It's only three months til I'm back properly anyway and I promise we'll be friends then.)
Anyways, competiton day was spent in the RG HQ on the Strand with nine other finalists, 3 boys, 6 girls, all of whom were absolutely lovely and basically like me. We kept remarking on how similar we were (essentially predominantly white, middle class uni students from the south east of England, heh) and how nice it was that we got on so well. I would be totally fine with any one of them winning and think we all have an equal chance of doing so. One girl was also from Edinburgh and on exchange; there were three people from Bristol university and everyone did some sort of arts/languagues degree. The Edinburgh girl had come from Barcelona but obviously I had come the furthest. Yes, that's right, NZ. For a week. You heard me. Stop asking.
We were shown round the office - RG is owned by another company, along with DK and Penguin - which was occupied by people who seemed ostensibly to be just like us. I guess that was no big surprise. We all would have fitted in just fine - why couldn't they hire us all? Whatever the outcome of the competition, I could be totally happy working there, if they'd have me, whether or not as a writer, perhaps even preferably in some sort of editor/manager role at some point in the future. So an interesting insight anyway.
We got free coffee, pastries, pizza, beer, books, stationary and t-shirts as the day ticked on, discussing where'd we come from, why we'd entered the competition, chatting generally about uni and the like, as well as being interviewed in a rather rushed fashion (which was a bit of a shame - that's the only part I'm worried about; whether I chatted crap or answered the questions at all) and getting to meet everyone from the RG office in an informal way at the end of the day. They all seemed very nice.
The main exercise tho involved updating an older, inaccurate version of the RG to London. Between us we would each cover one of four nearby areas and spend three hours walking around checking the map, spellings, opening hours, prices, whether places still existed, if their descriptions were accurate and adding one eating and one drinking place of our choice. I was based in Covent Garden and after a slow start tried not to always be the next person in the museum saying, 'Hi, I'm from the RG, we're just updating...' as often that would be greeted with a bemused/annoyed, 'I just answered your questions!' I also kept getting paranoid that I was just being stupid, rather than accepting that some places simply weren't there any more. I also got a free pie out of the eating place I chose to add and chatted with a nice man in a specialist tea shop. Plus I got to go in to the Royal Opera House, which I haven't done for years, and it really is gorgeous. It was tiring pounding the streets of London like that, but quite satisfying to gather all the correct information. I guess it might be a bit harder in South America because of the language barrier, but one thing at a time.
After that the writing up process wasn't too bad, tho out of determination to have it perfect we still spent over two hours on it. Essentially just a bit of ammending of details and correcting of the map, plus a slight reworking of the introduction and the little blurbs (each of us only had a page's worth of info, so about 5 sights and 3 eating/drinking places). And that was it!
It was an exciting day and I had a great time and a lot of fun. Hurrah. At the drinks bit in the evening everyone kept saying, 'Oh! So *you're* the one from New Zealand!' which was quite nice - they were all impressed by my 'enthusiasm.' I shall keep you all posted on the final result - the woman said we might not know for another week or perhaps two. Bah. In the meantime, it's back to NZ, uni, Greenpeace, the pub quiz and a trip to Australia. I just have to pack my bag now and get in that metal box for another 30 hour trip. Can't wait.
A x
PS. the other thing about being in London - apart from it being wonderful to see my parents and Grandpa - was that it was a reminder, a confirmation, that I'm not going crazy in NZ without reason - it really is stupidly empty, and London really is where my heart belongs.
Crammed in to the tube carriage like the proverbial sardine on my way to the competition, I thought to myself that there were probably more people on the train and the others before and after it going in to London this morning than there are people in NZ.
And that crush, that crowd, the people, the lack of space, the busy-ness, the self-imposed sense of purpose, is just the way I like things to be.
Tuesday 16 March 2010
'Auflauf' and other answers to the question 'what's the German for that?'
Hello friends.
So it's all busy busy in Auckers. Before uni started I was working at Greenpeace full time for two weeks, but now term has started again I'm just going in part time. The place has such a great vibe, everyone's so dedicated and passionate about the work they do, but they also have a lot of fun. I've been to quite a few drinks parties and BBQs which has been great to get to know people and I'm really in to the work I'm doing as well. The first week I had a lot of meetings and inductions with various key people which was interesting and I am finding it fascinating to see how the organisation is run. My job involves sifting through numbers of records about our members and looking at why people sign up to donate and then never do, or donate once, twice, three times and then cancel. At the end of it all I'll make suggestions on how to retain these people who cancel, where possible, and give a presentation on my findings. So interesting. And it's giving me an idea of the kind of work I'd like to do when I'm a Grown Up too.
Then I'm back to uni too, which it turns out is much harder than going to work - I have to listen and take notes, I can't access Facebook the whole time, I can't access free coffee the whole time, I have to go from one location to the next and worst of all I have to do homework! But my courses are interesting, I guess, a bit of Anthropology for variety, which is really cool, and then Applied English Grammar (boo), Advanced Phonology (seemingly no less advanced than anything I've previously done) and Conversational Analysis, taught by a woman who's been lecturing on it for twenty years. In he last two classes there's only about 15 of us, so you get to know people better, and in CA the second half of the lecture is a kind of practical analysis of conversations and I really like actually getting to use the knowledge we've just been given. Au contraire, in Anthro it's a first year course and the tutorials are like being back at school. Ugh.
I'm also still enjoying living in my new flat. I'm big in to cooking now and luckily the place has about twelve of everything so all resources are available for carrot cakes, samosas, falafel, banana bread, pizza etc. Newest recruit, German Marc, is also handy to have as a resource, as he likes to help and he's got a handy logical, efficient German mind. He's a student at AU like me (whereas the other flatmates are Real People) so we get the bus to school together and I probably would miss the first ten minutes of my classes if it wasn't for him. Everyone in the flat is still enjoying the summer too, with afternoons and evenings sitting on the balconies with the occasional beer, guitar or in my case, book. We can also see any fireworks at the harbour from the balcony and hear any concerts in a nearby park, Western Springs. Sweet as, bro.
A few weeks ago school friend Jess arrived in NZ on her gap year, which was great. She spent a few days staying at mine and it was great to hang out and see a familiar face. We also went off for a day trip to the Waitomo Glow worm Caves, where we went black water rafting. This involved floating through rocky caves on inner tubes, staring up at a ceiling peppered with glow worms, which looked like stars. It was a pretty neat adventure. Now Jess has gone off galavanting around NZ, but we'll meet up at the end of her trip in Christchurch and I'll join her in Melbourne, where she's headed next, to hang out more and catch up with Rachel, Nick and JJ, who have moved there now.
Right, there are a few other things to report, but it depends what happens in the next few days before I fill you in. I hope you're all well, A x
So it's all busy busy in Auckers. Before uni started I was working at Greenpeace full time for two weeks, but now term has started again I'm just going in part time. The place has such a great vibe, everyone's so dedicated and passionate about the work they do, but they also have a lot of fun. I've been to quite a few drinks parties and BBQs which has been great to get to know people and I'm really in to the work I'm doing as well. The first week I had a lot of meetings and inductions with various key people which was interesting and I am finding it fascinating to see how the organisation is run. My job involves sifting through numbers of records about our members and looking at why people sign up to donate and then never do, or donate once, twice, three times and then cancel. At the end of it all I'll make suggestions on how to retain these people who cancel, where possible, and give a presentation on my findings. So interesting. And it's giving me an idea of the kind of work I'd like to do when I'm a Grown Up too.
Then I'm back to uni too, which it turns out is much harder than going to work - I have to listen and take notes, I can't access Facebook the whole time, I can't access free coffee the whole time, I have to go from one location to the next and worst of all I have to do homework! But my courses are interesting, I guess, a bit of Anthropology for variety, which is really cool, and then Applied English Grammar (boo), Advanced Phonology (seemingly no less advanced than anything I've previously done) and Conversational Analysis, taught by a woman who's been lecturing on it for twenty years. In he last two classes there's only about 15 of us, so you get to know people better, and in CA the second half of the lecture is a kind of practical analysis of conversations and I really like actually getting to use the knowledge we've just been given. Au contraire, in Anthro it's a first year course and the tutorials are like being back at school. Ugh.
I'm also still enjoying living in my new flat. I'm big in to cooking now and luckily the place has about twelve of everything so all resources are available for carrot cakes, samosas, falafel, banana bread, pizza etc. Newest recruit, German Marc, is also handy to have as a resource, as he likes to help and he's got a handy logical, efficient German mind. He's a student at AU like me (whereas the other flatmates are Real People) so we get the bus to school together and I probably would miss the first ten minutes of my classes if it wasn't for him. Everyone in the flat is still enjoying the summer too, with afternoons and evenings sitting on the balconies with the occasional beer, guitar or in my case, book. We can also see any fireworks at the harbour from the balcony and hear any concerts in a nearby park, Western Springs. Sweet as, bro.
A few weeks ago school friend Jess arrived in NZ on her gap year, which was great. She spent a few days staying at mine and it was great to hang out and see a familiar face. We also went off for a day trip to the Waitomo Glow worm Caves, where we went black water rafting. This involved floating through rocky caves on inner tubes, staring up at a ceiling peppered with glow worms, which looked like stars. It was a pretty neat adventure. Now Jess has gone off galavanting around NZ, but we'll meet up at the end of her trip in Christchurch and I'll join her in Melbourne, where she's headed next, to hang out more and catch up with Rachel, Nick and JJ, who have moved there now.
Right, there are a few other things to report, but it depends what happens in the next few days before I fill you in. I hope you're all well, A x
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)