Bunny Corcoran

So Boris went on to win one of the world’s plummest Mayoral jobs. I did vote Conservative in the end. My second vote was for Paddick.

The BBC have a good (albeit quite long, but very interesting) overview of Boris which I thought was an interesting read called ‘The Boris Johnson story‘.

Remember the interview I attended in the City on Tuesday afternoon this week?

I’d heard nothing back… until just now.

They liked me and want me back for a second interview with one of the senior Partners and also one of the main board directors who heads the functional role I work in (I don’t work in HR, Finance or IT, so you might guess the function I work in - which I love, I should add!). Anyway, these are the big guns.

My next interview is Thursday afternoon of next week.

It’s good news, and following the blow-out after I met that competitor (what, 6 weeks or so ago?) after stage 1, this has really boosted my confidence. It’s an extremely high-level / high-end City firm so it’s all good.

Will keep y’all posted.

An early train in.

A woman close to me on the platform, my age, smartly dressed in black, with trolley bag in tow. She must be going away for the weekend I think. She opens the bag there’s a big law book and a load of files inside. She’s a solicitor it seems. She had that rather ‘drawn’ face which I always associate with solicitors.

Train very busy, especially for one so early. Lots of young school girls jostling around me. I turn up my mp3 player to screen them out. They’re very smarlty dressed, grey tweed. They’ll be from one of the top London schools I’m sure - City of London, St Paul’s, Westminster School, etc. Probably 11-12. That was me 20 years ago… where on earth has the time gone??

I arrive in Mayfair. I have a last minute decision to make: rather than my usual bowl of All Bran shall I treat myself (I often do on a Friday) and have a bagel and takeaway coffee. I go to my usual haunt. To my horror they’re out of peanut butter; I have Nutella instead. I raise it with the Eastern European girl behind the counter (a friendly, agreeable thing) only to be told they “no longer do peanut butter”. Sacrilege!! I won’t be going back there in a hurry.

I’m at my desk by 8.20am.

Today was rather eventful in more ways than one.

Firstly, that vile crone at work that some of you will remember me having blogged about in my prior incarnation, wound me up something chronic to the point that I raised an official complaint that I sent to the Head of the London office, CC’d to the HR Manager, the CEO and the FD. Let’s just say I went in all guns blazing.

To cut a long story short I was summoned to a meeting (of head of London, CEO and HR Manager). I had no idea what to expect. I was somewhat shocked to be told they were very grateful for my email, that there were very serious issues with this employee and that they are trying to build up a bank of written evidence (i.e. complaints) that will be used to ‘pursue matters’. This woman has seriously, very seriously, upset a lot of people in the company. But they can’t just sack her as that kind of thing can’t just be done like that these days. One has to follow due process. If you don’t, you can be liable for constructive dismissal and it gets VERY messy. So they’re having to do things, understandably, fully by the book.

I encouraged others (who I know have been extremely wound up by this individual, bullied even, on previous occasions) to make written complaints which they have now done. We’ll see what happens. I imagine that she’ll have a written warning now (she’s had a verbal already). After that she’s on very thin ice indeed. There are also rumours that she is having an improper relationship with her boss (a wealthy divorcee and very senior director). C’est la vie.

In other news a major, major announcement was made by the CEO this morning. It was highly confidential and I daren’t reference it, suffice to say a long overdue step-change is coming. Something really seismic in the firm’s history and future that is well, well overdue. Interesting times indeed.

I’ve not yet had feedback from the interview I attended on Tuesday.

I went to the gym after work which was fine, enjoyable even. Dinner was a small M&S salad (one of those wild rice things) followed by a probiotic vanilla yoghurt with a chopped up apple and a handful of mixed nuts. Oh, and 3 glasses of wine (I’d opened a bottle last night and had 1/2 then).

I’m starting a new section of my blog known simply as ‘vignettes’.

It will be ‘observations’ of daily life. Rather nuanced and it will be quite abstract.

…

Ran for the train. First time in a LONG time. Made it by the skin of my teeth. The detour to go and vote had sidetracked my usual schedule.

Bus was busy.

Lunch (take-out) with a colleague, from Shepherd’s Market; Italian; risotto; nice, though filling.

I flew back from Praha (as it’s known locally) yesterday evening. Easyjet was surprisingly reliable. I got home about 12.30am this morning and we even managed to make the last train from central London.

I had an enjoyable 4 days. It’s a lovely city. Really pictureseque and beautiful without being massively over the top (like say Paris or Vienna are). I like both Paris and Vienna but they take things to the n-th degree whereas Prague is chocolate-box without the ‘meringue’, if you get my drift.

The hotel was lovely. Was recommended by a friend. It wasn’t in fairness particularly cheap but the location was fab and you had a wonderful breakfast each morning from the buffet (I would typically have 2x small poached eggs, a load of bacon and/or sausage, toast with nutella, juice, tea, croissant). Was great, really set you up for the day.

The city was fairly cheap to be a tourist in. I’m fairly lousy with remembering what exactly we did (’A’ will know in meticulous detail but I don’t really do meticulous detail and certainly can’t remember it!) but we did the main sights: castle, big churches, the old town (lovely), the Jewish quarter (fascinating though I refused point-blank to pay the 30 CZ crowns they wanted for admission to the Jewish cemetery (£10) as that was so much more expensive than all the other things we saw. Funnily enough an English couple directly in front of us said exactly the same and also went elsewhere). We did do the Old/New synagogue, though, which required wearing one of those Jewish skull caps which felt quite atmospheric.

I also dragged ‘A’ round the Gregory Crewdson exhibition at the Rudolfinum which for £4 was well worth it I thought. His stuff is quite far out (highly staged, uses Hollywood actors in some of his pics, etc, etc). His work focuses on the debasement of the American dream, among other motifs, and is certainly worth going to.

I adored the beer. ‘A’ hardly drank anything all holiday so I tended to drink the dark beer which I really loved. The food wasn’t bad and never very expensive. It’s like Austrian food - very ‘meat’ heavy - pork, goulash, etc. Also had sachertorte (cake) which I like and also apple strudel which they do very nicely (as you’d expect).

The weather was mixed. It rained most of the first day, overcast the second, mostly bright and sunny the third and almost completely sunny on the fourth. Lots of tourists in the city. Loads of Italians, absolutely masses of them, especially huge groups of school kids. Also lots of Germans/Austrians as you’d expect as they’re not far. We did see 2 separate stag parties on our flight on the way out but as we weren’t going to clubs or anything like that we didn’t see much of the nightlife. I hear it’s a gay mecca in many ways. Ah well, next time. Singledom is not a subject to be brought up last thing on a Tuesday evening!!

Photos below (you have to click each image twice to see it at the larger setting). When I get round to it I’ll set up a gallery plug in for this blog.

I had the job interview this afternoon. It went fine. Considering the firm (quite high profile), the location (premium location in the City) and the sector (commercial law) I was expecting to be quite nervy about the whole thing; but I wasn’t. I think the main reason for this is that I don’t know for sure I want the job.

Anyway, I was interviewed by 2 people. They were both nice enough and it went fine. It wasn’t an HR type interview (i.e. pain in the butt competency-based stuff), but actual questions relating to what I’ve done, what I’m looking for, etc, etc. I was able to give plenty of examples. I can do what’s required on the job spec. I haven’t worked in legal but I’ve worked in another subset of professional services for the past 7 years and I think it was fairly evident that I understand a partnership structure and all the rest of it.

The only issue I’m still unsure of is the hours. It’s not clear. I know that the big City law firms are known for VERY long hours (not something I have to do currently) though that’s usually the partners/lawyers themselves rather than the central teams. We’ll see.

I phoned the agency and gave them feedback. I’m now waiting to hear back from their side. I might not have been passionate enough in the interview. By that I mean I may have come across as slightly indifferent. I don’t think I did, but one has to self-analyse after an interview and I don’t think I asked enough questions at the end or truly ‘engaged’ them in as animated/interested way as I could have done. That may not be a deal breaker. This was a stage-1 interview of what could if it progressed be a reasonably lengthy process. We’ll see. There are other irons in the fire which is the main thing.

Anyway, I went back to ‘A’s only to find he’d locked himself out of his house (first time he’s ever done that) and as his spare keys are at my house it was a case of both of us walking back to mine and he then getting his spare keys and walking home (my car is at his house but the keys were in the house! Duh). So he drove my car over this evening and we had dinner (I had no food in so he brought some fresh pork sausages from the very good butcher near where he lives). He also brought carrots and cabbage and spuds so I cooked up bangers & mash.

He went through my holiday photos to have a look himself and has now gone home. I’ve craved a drink all evening but don’t have anything in. Well, I have a 2001 bottle of red that a supplier got me at Christmas but I keep telling myself that’s too nice to open just on the fly. I also have a bottle of La Chasse du Pape Reserve (2006) which sounds grand (but I’m almost sure isn’t) that a friend bought me for my birthday. Again, I’ve convinced myself it’s probably pricey and I shouldn’t waste it on a Tuesday night drink (’A’ hardly drinks anything these days so wouldn’t have partaken).

So I’m drinking tea instead!!

Not looking forward at all to work tomorrow… am sure it will be OK, but I am sooo desperate to leave that that’s all I can really think about these days. Will keep y’all posted on post-interview developments.

I’m just being a good neighbour, taking in the post and watering the plants while Bunny is away.

Shall I drink all the booze in his drinks cabinet while I’m here?

I have a pretty big job interview on Tuesday with a major City law firm. I’m expected to do quite a bit of prep. Not easy when I only found out I was being invited to interview yesterday - I’m now about to head to Prague and am not back until very late Monday!

I’ve printed out as much stuff to take with me as I can. I’ve also brought examples of my own work back from my current workplace that I think will look pretty good at the interview. I’m meeting a head of division and another executive (meeting 2 people at the same time is always rather intimidating but not much that can be done about that!). So gawd knows how it will go, but I’ll give it a very good shot.

The job search is going all guns blazing and I’m also being considered for a role in a Big4 consultancy at the moment, so it’s positive. There is only one direction I’m headed and that’s OUT of my current workplace, something I am desperate to do.

Will keep y’all posted. My days of ‘not blogging about it because it tempts fate’ have, from past experience, proved groundless and over-superstitious so I shall blog to my heart’s content about such things henceforth.

I had an enjoyable day. Sharing one’s birthday with a saint is never easy. OK, that’s an exaggeration. Anyway, the office laid on a saint’s day party in the office - not for my birthday, I should add, but because they’re trying to raise morale, etc. Anyway, we had big old pork pies, chunky sandwiches, stiltons, ginger beer, etc. Such things are very rare as we don’t normally do anything remotely like that at all and there is very rarely such a thing as a ‘free lunch’. The CEO was conspicuously absent and the guy who pretty much runs the London office headed the event. After a speech (there were a few awards for a couple of people that came via one of our affiliates) they sang happy birthday to me which I could have done without. It was an OK day at work.

Last night I met friends, first at a wine bar in Leicester Square and then on to my favourite Chinese haunt which always does reliable food (as they did last night).

I had some nice pressies. ‘O’, my ex (female) flatmate, bought me like a repro vintage poster showing my favourite spirit, which I really liked. Will definitely get that on the wall. She also bought me a nice bottle of red.

‘R’ at work bought me a book on 20th century photography and a Decleor cleansing product (for men). ‘J’, the receptionist bought me some Nivea anti-ageing cream that I’d asked for (don’t laugh! I quite like the more expensive Nivea for men stuff) and a nice bottle of wine. My mother bought me £100 of premium bonds. ‘A’ is giving me £50 towards the expensive mirror I’m buying from John Lewis. ‘D’ isn’t sure what he’s getting me yet and I have to give him more ideas. ‘A’ also bought me a cook book.

So it was all good. In fact, it was a low key day which I like. The big, massive, party-like celebrations are all to be saved for the day I resign. That will be the day I splash out on champagne and all the rest of it.