Online job applications

So within a month I will be travelling back to England, that I'm sure has changed in the last four and a half years. I've been starting looking for work online. I forgot how tedious and time consuming it is just to fill in one, whatever happened to sending a CV and a covering letter? Now it's all done by computers, no need for human interaction, let a machine make the decisions so people are free from guilt. That's all I feel like I'm doing is sending a job application to a computer to decide my future plans in the UK. This is all before the online tests and the interviews where they asks questions based on a point system where if you score wrong they'll disregard you without a second thought.

Things are getting real.

It's official I've booked my flight back to the UK. I'm full of a mix of emotions now . I'm sad that'll have to be away from my wife, and filled with trepidation about the road ahead. But I have keep headstrong and try my best, because you'll never know unless you try in life. Life itself is full of hurdles and obstacles to test you. We have to deal with these as best we can with what we've got. So my advice for people in similar situations is, give it a shot if you're able to. You'll always regret in the future if you never tried. So for the next five weeks I have left in Taipei, I'm going to plan what I'm going to do once arrived, and also spend as much time I can with my beautiful wife who I love and miss dearly.

It's time to go back.

Sorry to people who have been checking out my blog, I've been busy the last three years or so since my last blog. I've recently re-activated this account to inform everyone of my plans to try and find a job in the UK. Now I know you are asking yourself why, but to cut a long story short I've had enough of the crappy jobs that are on offer in Taipei.




www.migrantsrights.org.uk

visit Migrants Rights to try and stop the Evil Theresa May from preventing UK Expats from bringing their non EU wife back to the UK where EEA citizens are not restricted to the same ridiculous law. let's hope and pray that the Conservatives and their alter ego group UKIP don't win the election as there'll be no hope for anyone.  

Betel Nut

If you've arrived in Taiwan you may notice a lot of people chewing and spitting horrid red saliva. When I first seen this I merely thought they were chewing tobacco. Later I was told that its what the locals call betel-nut or 槟榔 (Binlang).

What it is is an areca nut wrapped in a betel leaf which you chew, the feeling (what I've been told) is similar to a caffeine rush. The majority of people I see chewing these are builders, truck drivers and anyone else who have to work long hours.
   You can find betel-nut all around Taiwan, on most streets you'll see florescent lights advertising betel-nut. They also sell beer and cigarette too, but the main income i guess comes from betel-nut. If your lucky you might even seen one the many "Betel-nut beauty's"

Now when I first seen these scantly glad women I mistook them to be prostitutes. I was later informed they are selling betel-nut. Now I could write a whole post on "Betel-nut beauty's" which I will in a later post. But in short it stems from competition between betel-nut sellers, and they started to use attractive women to entice the mainly male buyers to buy from them. Anyway this has evolved over the years, and you can see the women have started to wear less clothes to attract more business. One misconception is these women are used, I have been told that some make more than the average lawyer here so all I can say is don't judge a book by it's cover until you read a little deeper.

The major reason why I don't try betel nut is the secretion can stain your teeth ( Like the image above) and excessive chewing has been linked to an increase in the chances of  oral cancer. So my advice is give it a go, but don't get hooked on it. 

Time to Judge

Tomorrow I've been roped in to judge a speech competition. I have to mark the children on their pronunciation,  intonation, fluency and stage manner. I'm not sure If I'm more of a Simon Cowell  or a Gary Barlow?

Rain Rain go Away!

Today seeing as it is pouring outside, I'll take a little time to explain what the weather is like out here. Depending on the time of year you'll arrive, you will experience different weather. For example, If you come to Taiwan from April all the way to September, it will be extremely hot. Sometimes the temperature has hit 39 degrees with 99% humidity. You will need to wear light clothes, and drink lots of water, try staying out of direct sunlight too. I tend to move from one air conditioning unit to the next. The summer also brings rain and the start of the typhoon season. I feel in Taipei, there are only two seasons. Hot and wet/cold. After September the temperature will start to slowly drop, and it will start to rain more. When the winter finally comes, you will feel the cold more then you would think. Sure the average temperature rarely drops below 12 degrees, but you will not get the warm feeling you would get on returning home. This coming from the fact most homes have no central heating for the winter, single pane windows and tiled floors.  All these are ideal for the scorching temperatures of the summer, but leaves you freezing in the winter. My advice would be to buy a small portable heater you can plug in to warm you up. Also to not just bring shorts and t-shirts when you come, bring a couple of jumpers and trousers too. Now this advice only reflects Taipei weather, if you were to visit the south things might be a little different. I know in summer the temperatures in the south are normally a little higher, also when typhoons hit they normally make landfall in the south first. i hope this information helps you a little, if you have any questions leave a comment and i'll get back to you.

No advertisements

Just to let everyone know I've decided not to plaster adverts on my blog. I have had a lot of people say ' dude you should start to monetize your blog' and to them I have said no. I want this blog to be advert free, I want the content to appeal to people not to make money from. That is all.