Some of the observations I have made about the relationship between the French and the English since arriving in the U.K. have been surprising to me.
I expected, as stereotypes have prevailed, that the Franco-Anglo symbiosis would be a frosty one. Especially, perhaps, as the relationship in Canada has been fraught with in-fighting and struggle.
But what I have seen, in person, and on reality television of British expats in France and cooking shows, is much more than begrudging respect or a sense of putting up with bad neighbours. The French and the Brits, in coy deference, are actually secretly smitten with each other.
Whereas I have seen Brits openly -- and quietly -- racist about people of colour at times, whenever they are paid attention to by the French they are flustered and proud. Even more surprisingly, the French appear genuinely taken aback by attentions from the Brits.
Perhaps this secret crush has emerged since the trials of World War II, never out of sight or remembrance in Europe, as that horror took place only sixty-plus years ago.
Whatever the reason, it is truly a case of 'vive la difference'.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
grand slam!
Last Saturday Cardiff was invaded by a strong contigent of red, white and blue-clad, beret-attired Frenchmen hoping to see the Franco-rugby team stop Wales in their last game of the Six Nations Tournament. Non chance. The Welsh dragons beat France to claim the Grand Slam, winning each of their games against the teams of Ireland, Scotland, England, Italy -- and the 2011 World Cup finalists, France.
It doesn't take long to become rugby-crazed in Wales. In mid-February, the lanes and streets of Cardiff city centre were marked by good numbers of kilt-wearing Scotsmen. A few weeks later a few intrepid Italians made the long journey. The French, however, came in multitudes. The hotel at which I work has more than 150 rooms and most of them were inhabited by the French.
As hotel guests, the French are welcome at any time! Reserved, so civilized, they exude a quiet seriousness and left the hotel rooms almost as immaculate as when they arrived. C'est si bon!
Cardiff's city centre buzzed a whole day before the big match and the Millennium Stadium is so near that the hum and roar of thousands can be heard from anywhere in the centre. It feels as if gladiators are thrilling the hordes at a nearby coliseum. At City Hall, only a mile or so from the stadium, a giant TV screen was erected for fans to watch the game. In The Hayes, smack in the centre of Cardiff, the square was filled with more watching the outdoor BBC screen. Pubs throughout Cardiff were packed with supporters of the Welsh brigade.
I watched a quiz show on TV the other night and was stunned that I actually knew the names of members of the Welsh rugby team. Rugby-mania is going to be hard to replace when I return to Canada.
It doesn't take long to become rugby-crazed in Wales. In mid-February, the lanes and streets of Cardiff city centre were marked by good numbers of kilt-wearing Scotsmen. A few weeks later a few intrepid Italians made the long journey. The French, however, came in multitudes. The hotel at which I work has more than 150 rooms and most of them were inhabited by the French.
As hotel guests, the French are welcome at any time! Reserved, so civilized, they exude a quiet seriousness and left the hotel rooms almost as immaculate as when they arrived. C'est si bon!
Cardiff's city centre buzzed a whole day before the big match and the Millennium Stadium is so near that the hum and roar of thousands can be heard from anywhere in the centre. It feels as if gladiators are thrilling the hordes at a nearby coliseum. At City Hall, only a mile or so from the stadium, a giant TV screen was erected for fans to watch the game. In The Hayes, smack in the centre of Cardiff, the square was filled with more watching the outdoor BBC screen. Pubs throughout Cardiff were packed with supporters of the Welsh brigade.
I watched a quiz show on TV the other night and was stunned that I actually knew the names of members of the Welsh rugby team. Rugby-mania is going to be hard to replace when I return to Canada.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
financial reprieve
Just a quick note to say that my financial concerns a few weeks ago have dissipated. Even though heating costs went up 18 per cent this last winter, I must be better at monitoring my heating -- or better at bundling up in layers -- as my three-month bill for the coldest months was actually about £70 less than last year. Yeah!!!
Also, apparently the price of a day trip to Swansea has not doubled and is the same as last year. It seems when I was checking the prices online a month ago I was punching in a return ticket for the next day. Next day return is double the price of a single day return. Don't know why, but that's how they do it. I'm just glad my favourite daytrip destination continues to be more than reasonable and easily within reach.
Also, apparently the price of a day trip to Swansea has not doubled and is the same as last year. It seems when I was checking the prices online a month ago I was punching in a return ticket for the next day. Next day return is double the price of a single day return. Don't know why, but that's how they do it. I'm just glad my favourite daytrip destination continues to be more than reasonable and easily within reach.
who(m) do you suppose?
 |
| The Silent -- Dr. Who |
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| Cyberman -- Dr. Who Photos BBC Wallpaper |
Late in the afternoon I saw a very small sign that looked as if it were about an open house at the newly built BBC Studios on Roath Lock. All it said was 'open'. The Studios were about a 15 minute walk away and upon arriving I found out there was an openhouse involving a two-hour tour with no charge for admission. However, apparently entrance was allowed only by pre-arranged admission tickets.
The security guard said to walk down to the gate and see if anyone had cancelled, as a tour was about to leave. There were five other people waiting there as well. A woman came, took the family of four and told another woman and me that we could come back for the last tour at 5:30 if we wanted. Why not? What an opportunity!
So, on a day I had purposely left my camera at home in order to travel light, I ended up inside the BBC Roath Lock studios surrounded by lifesize, breathing Dr. Who monsters and aliens.
Amazing, wonderful evening!
Thursday, February 23, 2012
holidays in sight
Countdown! One week from now I will be on a week's holiday! It will be my first substantial time off since I visited North America in October and I am ready, ready, ready. St. Malo, France -- here I come.
Also, the weather here in the U.K. has been becoming almost balmy and springlike. The daffodils, the national flower of Wales, are beginning to appear. They are planted everywhere in large expansives and last more than a month and are the most glorious flower, shining their cheerful yellow through grey, rainy days.
I always think of that field of daffodils in the film Dr. Zhivago whenever I see a daffodil http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl_YDWWypxY
And with the nicer weather, longer days, and a little travelling this blog should see some photos enlivening its rather pedestrian facade.
Also, the weather here in the U.K. has been becoming almost balmy and springlike. The daffodils, the national flower of Wales, are beginning to appear. They are planted everywhere in large expansives and last more than a month and are the most glorious flower, shining their cheerful yellow through grey, rainy days.
I always think of that field of daffodils in the film Dr. Zhivago whenever I see a daffodil http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl_YDWWypxY
And with the nicer weather, longer days, and a little travelling this blog should see some photos enlivening its rather pedestrian facade.
on the workfront
Over the last two weeks I have been having training as a house porter. It is not the same as being a porter and carrying guests' luggage. We don't have porters at our hotel (guests have to lug and wheel their belongings). A house porter is basically backup and support and part of the housekeeping department.
I'm glad I will only be doing this position a few days a week. As room attendants we probably only see 20 per cent of the job done by the porters. Sometimes the job is relatively easy, but often it is as difficult as cleaning rooms with similar ridiculously short time expectations.
It is a higher profile job with a lot of movement throughout the hotel, so I get a real sense of the whole picture and am in contact with more workers in other departments. This is the part I enjoy the best. Also, for the first time since I've been here, I get paid eight hours for eight hours work! Actually, this is the part I enjoy the best! To get paid for eight hours as a room attendant I would have to clean sixteen rooms a day, half an hour for each room, time not included for stacking trolleys, waiting for elevators, department meetings. Some people are able to clean sixteen rooms regularly, but most of us do twelve to fourteen rooms a day.
What I don't enjoy: having a phone attached to me and having to drop what I'm doing to do something else and hourly checks on the public toilets. Uggh.
Very often the house porters are male, though only some of the work requires heavier lifting than that done by room attendants. This is a step to broaden my horizons, so it is a very well-timed gift from my supervisors, though I have been stressed out about the training over the last week or so. Some days I work a full porter shift of eight hours from 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. I have to find a way to eat properly on this shift. I still expend a lot of energy on the job and meals in the canteen are quite later in the day. Other days I work as a porter for a couple of hours and do eight rooms to equal my usual six hour shift. Other days I do rooms only.
I'm glad I will only be doing this position a few days a week. As room attendants we probably only see 20 per cent of the job done by the porters. Sometimes the job is relatively easy, but often it is as difficult as cleaning rooms with similar ridiculously short time expectations.
It is a higher profile job with a lot of movement throughout the hotel, so I get a real sense of the whole picture and am in contact with more workers in other departments. This is the part I enjoy the best. Also, for the first time since I've been here, I get paid eight hours for eight hours work! Actually, this is the part I enjoy the best! To get paid for eight hours as a room attendant I would have to clean sixteen rooms a day, half an hour for each room, time not included for stacking trolleys, waiting for elevators, department meetings. Some people are able to clean sixteen rooms regularly, but most of us do twelve to fourteen rooms a day.
What I don't enjoy: having a phone attached to me and having to drop what I'm doing to do something else and hourly checks on the public toilets. Uggh.
Very often the house porters are male, though only some of the work requires heavier lifting than that done by room attendants. This is a step to broaden my horizons, so it is a very well-timed gift from my supervisors, though I have been stressed out about the training over the last week or so. Some days I work a full porter shift of eight hours from 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. I have to find a way to eat properly on this shift. I still expend a lot of energy on the job and meals in the canteen are quite later in the day. Other days I work as a porter for a couple of hours and do eight rooms to equal my usual six hour shift. Other days I do rooms only.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
seesaw
2012 has been a seesaw of events and emotions so far. Up, down, up, down, up ....
I officially became 'under contract' in the housekeeping department of the international hotel chain in which I have worked for more than a year and a quarter as of Jan. 1st. Three times before this date I had been told the contract would begin on the 1st, yet after working the holiday New Year's Day, I was informed that in actuality my contract hadn't been signed yet by management and I wouldn't be getting paid double holiday pay. DOWN ...
'Casual' employees don't get paid extra here in the U.K. for holidays, and it is one of the chief advantages of going on contract. Being under contract has its drawbacks as I lose about one-twelfth of my hourly wage -- about 70 pence an hour: the extra 70 cents as a casual is actually holiday pay. On my tight budget this eliminates my actual spending money for the most part, though in the long run it balances out with some benefits. In the past, if I took any holidays I wasn't paid at all for the time off. Basically now the holiday pay is spread out so when I take time off I still get a paycheque. This will make things easier in the long run. Also, the longer I'm here the fewer bigger purchases I need for my flat and the better I am at knowing where to buy things, so my spending is not as high.
However, when I received my paycheque in January, it turns out that the finance department apparently saw the contract differently than my manager and they began my contract at the first of the year; so, I am entitled to the extra pay and extra day. UP ...
I had been making plans to go to N. America for two weeks in early July to attend the fireworks at my brother Kelly's house and see a lot of people I haven't seen in at least two years. Then, unexpectedly we were told at the hotel that they didn't want anyone to take holidays in July or August because of Olympic 2012 commitments. So, here was another swing down on the seesaw. DOWN ... Fortunately, again, when I went in to discuss it with my department I found the holiday ban began in the middle of July and my plans were approved. UP ...
More good news as my brother Kelly and his wife informed me that they will likely come to visit me and see some of Wales when Kelly goes to Germany in May on a business trip! This is wonderful, wonderful news. HOLDING UP, UP, UP ...
As a contract employee I am tied to more regulations on when I can take my holidays and we are required to take one of our weeks before the end of April. This is not, weatherwise, the best time of year, nor is it the best time financially, as the big heating bill is due in mid-March. Europe and the U.K. have been in the midst of an unusual deep freeze for several weeks which has me and many people concerned about the heating bills, as gas went up 18% in the past year. DOWN ... As well as bankers being under attack for bonuses, the Big Six energy companies in the U.K. are beginning to feel a little heat from an organized campaign with some big backers such as The Independent.
I originally thought I would be eligible for two to three weeks holidays. As it turns out I have four weeks holidays and nine bank holidays! This is good news as my primary reason for being here is to see some of Europe and more of Wales. After my two weeks in Canada and the U.S. in July and a week in March, I will still have a week and more in which to hopefully take short trips. UP ...
I am concerned about the financial implications of a week off in March but have some UK funds yet as a buffer. So, for the price of £79 I am taking a mini-cruise on the weekend of March 2 to France! It will be my first landing in Europe, not counting landing at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport. It is actually costing me £109 as I have to pay a single premium and the cost does not include food on the cruise, so I will still have to watch my spending. However, it does include a coach ride to Portsmouth (haven't been) to catch a large, grand-looking ferry for a night's cruise to St. Malo, France, a day in St. Malo, a night's return cruise to Portsmouth and several hours in Bath (haven't been) before arriving back in Cardiff. UP, UP, UP ...
Last November on Fright Night I won a night's B&B at a sister hotel. Originally the voucher was for a very grand country hotel, which unfortunately is in the middle of nowhere and rather difficult for me to get to, as well as there being nothing for me to do once I got there. I was fortunate in that Human Resources was able to switch the voucher so I could use it in Swansea, one of my favourite places for a day getaway. The voucher is only good until May and I had been hoping to use it closer to my birthday in late April, but I was informed there are many restrictions as to when it can be used and I should use it before the end of March. DOWN ... Again, thwarted -- though only temporarily. As I was taking the first week off in March anyway, and only using three days of it to be away, I was able to get the OK to use my voucher on the Monday night of March 5th (when the hotel has openings and I won't be taking away a room from a paying guest). UP ...
Up, up, as things taking shape. Then, online to doublecheck rail times for Swansea to find out that rail prices have DOUBLED -- not only since last year, but since mid-January when I was online checking. DOWN WITH A THUD ... I had read of hikes of up to 10 per cent, but not double. Even now online I cannot find anything discussing this disproportionate hike, except something to the extent that the rail companies were only tied to an average -- hence higher hikes spread kamikaze-like throughout the network. So now, my favourite daytrip, which used to only cost a little more than an hour's wage for a return ticket, now is going to cost more than two hours' wages. Ouch, ouch, ouch.
I'm not certain of the premise for this posting. In many ways my job is getting easier and my position feels stronger. Today I have been offered a slight change in job, working one day a week or so as a house porter, which promises a solid 8 hour day and an easier workload. UP .... I am feeling solid muscle where I may never have felt muscle before in my life. I feel options opening up and they are. Opportunities have also been meeting obstacles, primarily financial ones, but not only financial ones. Flexibility is key. As is getting off the damn teeter totter. As is switching to the swing and letting any downward momentum push me into the skies.
I officially became 'under contract' in the housekeeping department of the international hotel chain in which I have worked for more than a year and a quarter as of Jan. 1st. Three times before this date I had been told the contract would begin on the 1st, yet after working the holiday New Year's Day, I was informed that in actuality my contract hadn't been signed yet by management and I wouldn't be getting paid double holiday pay. DOWN ...
'Casual' employees don't get paid extra here in the U.K. for holidays, and it is one of the chief advantages of going on contract. Being under contract has its drawbacks as I lose about one-twelfth of my hourly wage -- about 70 pence an hour: the extra 70 cents as a casual is actually holiday pay. On my tight budget this eliminates my actual spending money for the most part, though in the long run it balances out with some benefits. In the past, if I took any holidays I wasn't paid at all for the time off. Basically now the holiday pay is spread out so when I take time off I still get a paycheque. This will make things easier in the long run. Also, the longer I'm here the fewer bigger purchases I need for my flat and the better I am at knowing where to buy things, so my spending is not as high.
However, when I received my paycheque in January, it turns out that the finance department apparently saw the contract differently than my manager and they began my contract at the first of the year; so, I am entitled to the extra pay and extra day. UP ...
I had been making plans to go to N. America for two weeks in early July to attend the fireworks at my brother Kelly's house and see a lot of people I haven't seen in at least two years. Then, unexpectedly we were told at the hotel that they didn't want anyone to take holidays in July or August because of Olympic 2012 commitments. So, here was another swing down on the seesaw. DOWN ... Fortunately, again, when I went in to discuss it with my department I found the holiday ban began in the middle of July and my plans were approved. UP ...
More good news as my brother Kelly and his wife informed me that they will likely come to visit me and see some of Wales when Kelly goes to Germany in May on a business trip! This is wonderful, wonderful news. HOLDING UP, UP, UP ...
As a contract employee I am tied to more regulations on when I can take my holidays and we are required to take one of our weeks before the end of April. This is not, weatherwise, the best time of year, nor is it the best time financially, as the big heating bill is due in mid-March. Europe and the U.K. have been in the midst of an unusual deep freeze for several weeks which has me and many people concerned about the heating bills, as gas went up 18% in the past year. DOWN ... As well as bankers being under attack for bonuses, the Big Six energy companies in the U.K. are beginning to feel a little heat from an organized campaign with some big backers such as The Independent.
I originally thought I would be eligible for two to three weeks holidays. As it turns out I have four weeks holidays and nine bank holidays! This is good news as my primary reason for being here is to see some of Europe and more of Wales. After my two weeks in Canada and the U.S. in July and a week in March, I will still have a week and more in which to hopefully take short trips. UP ...
I am concerned about the financial implications of a week off in March but have some UK funds yet as a buffer. So, for the price of £79 I am taking a mini-cruise on the weekend of March 2 to France! It will be my first landing in Europe, not counting landing at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport. It is actually costing me £109 as I have to pay a single premium and the cost does not include food on the cruise, so I will still have to watch my spending. However, it does include a coach ride to Portsmouth (haven't been) to catch a large, grand-looking ferry for a night's cruise to St. Malo, France, a day in St. Malo, a night's return cruise to Portsmouth and several hours in Bath (haven't been) before arriving back in Cardiff. UP, UP, UP ...
Last November on Fright Night I won a night's B&B at a sister hotel. Originally the voucher was for a very grand country hotel, which unfortunately is in the middle of nowhere and rather difficult for me to get to, as well as there being nothing for me to do once I got there. I was fortunate in that Human Resources was able to switch the voucher so I could use it in Swansea, one of my favourite places for a day getaway. The voucher is only good until May and I had been hoping to use it closer to my birthday in late April, but I was informed there are many restrictions as to when it can be used and I should use it before the end of March. DOWN ... Again, thwarted -- though only temporarily. As I was taking the first week off in March anyway, and only using three days of it to be away, I was able to get the OK to use my voucher on the Monday night of March 5th (when the hotel has openings and I won't be taking away a room from a paying guest). UP ...
Up, up, as things taking shape. Then, online to doublecheck rail times for Swansea to find out that rail prices have DOUBLED -- not only since last year, but since mid-January when I was online checking. DOWN WITH A THUD ... I had read of hikes of up to 10 per cent, but not double. Even now online I cannot find anything discussing this disproportionate hike, except something to the extent that the rail companies were only tied to an average -- hence higher hikes spread kamikaze-like throughout the network. So now, my favourite daytrip, which used to only cost a little more than an hour's wage for a return ticket, now is going to cost more than two hours' wages. Ouch, ouch, ouch.
I'm not certain of the premise for this posting. In many ways my job is getting easier and my position feels stronger. Today I have been offered a slight change in job, working one day a week or so as a house porter, which promises a solid 8 hour day and an easier workload. UP .... I am feeling solid muscle where I may never have felt muscle before in my life. I feel options opening up and they are. Opportunities have also been meeting obstacles, primarily financial ones, but not only financial ones. Flexibility is key. As is getting off the damn teeter totter. As is switching to the swing and letting any downward momentum push me into the skies.
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