N-2: Starting a New Book!

I have got a new book to read during my holidays. It promises to be an interesting one!

N-3: Special Celebration with Family

I´m in the N-3 days!!!! Unbelievable! Honestly, when I started, I did not think that I was going to be able to make it. I thought that it would be quite difficult "to find out" every day something that makes me feel good and a little bit happier. I had the feeling of: "I have to make an effort". And it was because I had quite a lot on my roof.

Well... the today treat is that I will celebrate 2 important events (at the same time) with my family:

1) My 35 years old birthday (a big deal!!!!!). It´s still not sure about the dates but something is coming!!!

2) I cannot still tell anything but I hope to "close" something in the middle of September or at the beginning of October as latest (I´ll keep u informed).

I´m so excited to make something different this summer with my mother and sis!

I wish to all of u a nice evening!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

xoxo

I have received this photo twice in two days from two different people... So, I need to post it because it´s a BIG TRUTH.

(Lindehof)

N-4: Full Breakfast and some Thinking Time

Today was not possible for me to go to work. So, I had time to had calmly a full Spanish breakfast (my chocolate milk glass with a couple of butter toasts).

That´s a real achievement because of two reasons:

1) I rarely have breakfast (including weekends)

2) If I do, I have it while I do some other things and not time to sit for having it. Synonymous of: I do not enjoy my breakfast because I do not really notice what I drink or eat with the hurry

At the end of the afternoon, things worked out better and I went to one out of my 2 favourite places in Zurich: "Lindenhof". I needed some time for thinking. And I knew it was the perfect place for it... and it did not disappointed me.

By surprise, I found a group of people who were playing some music, some others were dancing, a guy was painting, some others were recording the scene... and of course, there were also the regular tourists and people playing to the big chess and petanque.

I sat there and was contemplating everything immersed in my thoughts.

It was good. It was a good decision to go there. And the most important, everything will be good. I "just" need some extra patience and tenacity.

N-5: "Starbuck-eando" and "Zuriqu-eando"

Sunday started with a breakfust in Starbucks. For me: chocolate frapuccino + chocolate donut.

I have a Starbucks in 10 min walking from my flat. It´s a small one but cozy. When I went there, I always did the "take-away". But last Sunday, I met a friend and we stayed there around 1 hour (the most of it, talking and talking).

It´d be around 10:00 am when we decided that we were finished there but we could go for a walk to the lake. It was a cloudy morning but temperature was pleasant.

We sat in Bürkiplatz, the most of the time looking at how some children played with soap bubbles. Something so easy and so fun for them. Also for big people, who stopped and made some videos and fotos (like me).


In the afternoon, we discovered that the previous night was the party in "Ida Platz" and there was still some stands with food, second hand stuffs and music. We stayed there for a while, drank something in a close place and go home.



It was a relaxing Sunday where I recover some energy that I needed.

N-6: Trip booked!!

My friend blondi-Marta and I have bought the flight! We will spend 4 days together in a city where I was supposed to visit 3 years ago (but finally, it couldn´t be).

Since then, I have the guide!! and I will be able to use it :)

Guess what is the place and if you already know, any tipp is welcome.

Blondi-Marta visited me in June 2014. We met in Madrid at our first job. After 4 weeks in the company, we were sent with another girl (blacky-Marta) and a guy to Glasgow & Edimburgh.

I stayed in that Company just 3 months but the time spent with her during this time was soooooo intense, that since then we are good friends.

I will tell you about it in a different post. At the moment, I let you see some pics that we have together from June'14.

N-7: Sleep

When the alarm o'clock woke me up at 5:08, I stood up and as soon as I started to walk, I decided that I had to come back to my bed and sleep a little bit more. 1 hour more to be sharp.

I even dreamed during that excellent hour.

When I left my apartment, it was 26ºC and the sky was with a nice blue colour. I loved the feeling of walking along the street under that atmosphere (and later as usually!)

HAPPY FRIDAY TO ALL OF U!!!!!

xoxo

           

N-8: Top Dinner

Yesterday I had for dinner my favourite food: "patatas fritas con huevo frito".

N-9: Hi5 (to me)!

I have the feeling that I made today a great job. I still fell good when I think in it. As soon as "I delivered it", I went to have a look at some shops and I found a book that I was interested in since long time ago and I had not the chance to buy yet.

It´s a book to learn German vocabulary: foto + word.

As I made it really good, I bought two books instead of one (one of them is basic and the other advance).

I´ll let u know when I have completely learned the 1.000 most important words in German!!! (for the "advance" I will need a little bit longer).

N-10: Giulia

I love this girl. She is Giulia from Schio (Italy). We met in Sept. 2004 when we were in Erasmus in Cottbus. 

She visited me in Madrid in Sept. 2006 for my Birthday and till yesterday, we had not seen each other again. 

She is lovely. She is sweet. And she is one of the most generous persons that I have ever met... so generous that she game me a 0,5l bottle of bear in one party in Cottbus to become a "litle bit happy" instead of keeping it by herself (she got some other bears later for her) :)

After that 0.5l bottle bear, a second bottle came to me (I do not remember from whom) and when I needed to go to the toilette, as I was not able to measure correctly the distance between the step and my foot, she had to accompany me. 

Beside that "small hitch", she was so brave that she came to my room to listen to my final project of career the night before the official presentation. 

Also, she invited me to spend Easter 2005 with her family and they were soooo warm and nice. 

As she is dating a guy who lives in Zurich, I´m totally sure that yesterday meeting was the first of many following ones.

What are the odds of radomly meeting someone you just met once?

I am not able to answer this question. For that, I would need to be a super expert in statistics and probabilities.

Be needless to say that I would have to make a lot of assumptions.

What I can tell you is that the probability is much higher as you can think at first.

Last year I travelled from Zurich to Milan. The train had several problems and we had to transfer twice. During the last transfer, I met one guy from Basel who was going to meet some friends in Verona. We were talking (with 1 more guy) for a while and he explained to me how to take the last train to get my destiny.

Well, last Saturday I took a train with direction to Luzern. But I had to get off earlier. I sat on a free seat and when I looked at the guy in front of me, his face was familiar. After some seconds, I remembered him and I asked him if he took a train to Milan with many problems last year. He laughed a little bit and he started to remember me too.

2 people. Absolutely nothing in common... OK, just the train... meeting in one train that I rarely take and never at that time...

It was quite weird (in the positive meaning) and funny. We were speaking a till my train stop and telling us about that weekend: he in Verona and I in Milan, and about how our work is going on.

We did not exchange numbers, emails or whatever. We just said goodbye with: "until next time!".

N-11: Relaxation

I went to Yoga again. I felt good today in it. I have realized that I have improved my flexibility and lost tension up was easier than previuos times.

Honestly! I did not want to go... but after not find any good excuse, I had to and I am happy I did.

It´s said that "every effort has its rewards" and this time, I can say without any hesitation, that it´s true.

One of my workmates was in Croatia on holidays and he remembered me when he saw the name of this village.

N-12:

Sunday Cocktails

N-13: Street Parade

Yeah! Today and after 3 years, I will participate in the Street Parade.

Post some pictures on Monday!!

Have a nice weekend all of you.

xoxo

N-14: ¡Hasta Pronto! (See you soon!)

Yesterday I had to say "¡hasta pronto!" to one of the person who has helped me in my current office the most.

He will be 65 years on 19th September.

I wish him a happy retirement and tell him thank you very much for all his help and patiente with me.

He is a great worker and a best person!!!


Yesterday I also met a person who has been very special for me during the last 7 months. It was a while that I didn´t see him.

Yesterday was also special.

Happy to have finally meeting him. No clue when it will be the next time that we can meet again, but as latest, hopefully, in 3 years. (a.h., a.w.)

Summer Kisses, Winter Tears

N-15: Take my 15min Pausa + an extra

In my Company, we are allowed to have 15min pausa.

Since 1,5 years that I have started here, I have rarely take them. But today, I did. Twice (second one I had to clock in).

First one was with one of the person who has helped me here the most. He also rarely makes pausas (and by a long shot 15min!). But he does with me. And unfortunately, he is retired tomorrow.

Second one, I went with two Spanish buddies to count the outside firma logos. I bet for a wrong number of logos and I will have to pay for a lunch.

It could seem a little bit stupid this "treat", but it is something that I am not used to and maybe I should practice more often. In both pausas, I laughed quite a lot with these mates.

Letter to all worldwide companies and recruiters

The most of us have had to create a Curriculum Vitae due to get a job. I say “the most of us” because I already know some people, depending of the profession that they have never needed it or because they have been all their lives in the same Company.

But for all that people who has to create a CV to apply for a job, I think that you will be agree that the administrative job that we must do in order to have the chance to be a candidate is quite tedious. 

Above all, when the web hast a technical failure in the middle of the process application and we have to start from the beginning.

Is it familiar to you?

If it is, you will also get used to the recruitment team’s behavior. How many times have you received a call from them to inform you that they are not interested in you (even after you got a face-to-face interview) explaining why your profile is not adequate for the requirements which you thought you were perfect for? And how many times have you received an email where they give you a feedback (no mention a “detailed feedback”. That’s unthinkable!!) explaining the reason to reject you?

I dare say that the most of us can count it with the fingers of one hand.

And because of it, I have decided to write this letter to all people who are in charge of recruiting processes.

Letter:

Dear Companies, HR Department and Headhunters,

I write you because I feel quite disappointed about the way the most of you carry out the selection processes.

I will explain to you what we need to do in order to apply to those open positions in your companies.

Firstly, read well the job description to understand which your needs are by ourselves, because in the most of the cases, no contact details are provided to check the requirements with any of you. And to call to the company is not worth it, because the Lady who answers on the phone tells us that she is not allowed to transfer our call to HR department or that she cannot help because she is unknown the contact person and cannot help us. But that for sure there is a link and we can apply via it.

Secondly, going to the Company website to investigate a little bit more about the Business.

Once that we have decided that we can satisfy your needs and it is also an interesting job for our professional growth, we are forced to go to a web site where we have to fill many many tabs with many and many fields with the same data that you can easily get if you read our CV document. 

Beside copy what we have in our CV in your website, we will be requested to add the CV document (and of course, all sizes are not allowed! That means, that sometimes we need to re-write our CV again and change several times the type format), cover/motivational and reference letters and certificates. If we are lucky and we are in the last step: “saving”, during the saving time we pray. Yes, we pray and cross our fingers for not getting the error message which says that “the web has had technical issues and it is not available at the moment”. Some other times, we are “lucky” and that just happens 2 or 3 times when we jump from tab to tab. “At least, it did not happen at the end! Thanks God!!” – it´s what is supposed that we should think.

When everything went according to the plan and our documentation is stored in your database, we get the automatic email giving thanks. I´ve to say, that it´s a nice gesture from your system. At least the 45minutes minimum that we spend filling all your website data were worth.

Then, we wait for your feedback… check the website to see the process status of our candidature. Sometimes during weeks till we see that it´s rejected.

Yes, we are in the “rejection phase”, because if you are not rejected, needless to say, you will personally call us.

So, “rejection”… why have we been rejected? Good question but the most of the times no answer from you. I mean, a standard and automatic email cannot be considered an answer. Can it? Be careful with the answer, because if it can, then why cannot all of us can have a standard CV, cover/motivational letters for every position? For sure that your answer here comes outright: “because although you are interested in different positions, the motivation cannot be the same” (for example…). Then, you cannot expect that we accept a standard email. Different people, with different CVs, different motivations cannot be rejected for the same reason. Can they? Mmmm… Well, when the reason is: “we have candidates whose profiles fit better to this position”, then it can be. But it is not enough for us.

For a generic answer, we shouldn´t spend quite a lot of time filling an unnecessary website with the data that as I have already explained, you have in our CV document, just because of helping you with your statistics (age of the people who are interested in this offer, source where they found this ad, etc.).

And if you decide to provide your feedback with a standard answer, why don´t you just simplify our life sending you only our CV doc. instead of having us about 45min minimum filling customized fields for you?

Sorry but we deserve a personalized answer.

And if you decide to send the personalized answer, why do not you just take 30 sec before you send the email just to check if we are a Mr. or a Ms.? It goes without saying, that every time that I receive an email with “Dear Mr. Rodríguez”, I get quite upset because it shows me that you have not even open my CV document or check the field of your website where I have already specified: “Ms.” or “female”. Please, simplify our life and don´t make us filled data that u do not read. Or not tell us that you have better candidates when you have not opened my documents (then, you will know that I am not a man!).

I would say that it´s easy to understand that we would appreciate a little bit more of courtesy from your side and give a personalized feedback about the reason of why our profile does not match your requirements. Because obviously, when we have applied for it, it´s because we think that we perfectly fit them.

In the exceptional cases where contact details are provided or you give your answer via email identifying us correctly with “Mr.” or “Ms.” and we decide to call you due to verify some info before applying or to check the reason of our rejection, and you are happy to be our contact person for future open positions which we can be interested for, please, be nice when we call/write u a second time for a new position. Otherwise, do not offer yourself.

If we are currently working and we apply for a position in your company, do not think that we do not have issue at our work, email to answers and calls to attend. And if we are unemployed, for sure, we have also a life and things to do. And one of those things is to find a job. Or do you think that our time is not as precious as yours? The difference is that you are working in “Human Resources” (although sometimes it could be called Un-human Resources). Shouldn´t you take care of you workers and people who is willing to work in your company? If you are not, maybe it´d be good that you also start to apply to some other position because it seems that you do not fit very well with the one that you have at the moment.

I always thought that it was a vocational job… but I am not sure about it anymore.

I would also like to make a mention to all headhunters who contact us with job offers that we have not even applied for. They tell us that we fulfill requirements for that vacancy and that we can be the perfect candidate. They will contact the client and they will come back to us. And then, as if by magic, they disappear. Please, I request to all of you who are working like headhunter not to contact me in the first place if they do not think in giving me the final feedback.

All of you, Recruiters, should think in it, because maybe, next time, in this small world, it´s you the one who needs me (not for being one of your worker, but because there is a position in the company where I am that can be interesting for you) and for sure, you will not like that I treat you in the same way as you currently do.

And also for all of us who do not agree with this system and have a job and at the moment are not willing to change. We are the ones who can also contribute to change this way of “impersonal-recruitment”. We will help ourselves because maybe, one day, we stop to be just a simple number in the company, and to all people who are currently searching for a job.

Your sincerely,

Pilar Gil Rodríguez

N-16: Using that special perfume

I like (and try) to smell always good.

I have several perfumes for different occasions:

1) for work (+ body milk)
2) for parties (+ body milk)
3) for shopping
4) for really "special" occasions (+ body milk)
5) for being at home

And the daily/nightly/seasonly version of each of the first 3 categories.

Well, tonight I used the perfume of categofy 4 just for me, just to be at home and I really smell f* good!!

PS. When people smell good, it does not matter how they look like because they are automatically more attractive and sexier

N-17:

I go early to bed (as soon as I finish writing this post).

Today I was thinking on the beach. Concretely in Cape Cod and Wilmington (because of the Serie "Dawson's Creek"). I think that was there when I started to love these kind of images.



And with these photos in my mind... Good night readers! xo

N-18: A big toast for the real friends!!!!

Since 2008 that I did not see this guy.

We met in Cottbus (2004) when we were in Erasmus.

He was the one who initiated me into Tequila shots!!

One Party. Tequila night. Each shot of Tequila costed 50cts.I tried never any alcohol. I accepted the first invitation from him. Then 3 more from some other friends (I remember one of them, but not the others) in 20min. And before 3:00am, I sent everybody to sleep because I thought that it was 8:00am and we had to start German course at 9:00am.

Everybody went home without any complain. It was normal because normally I was the one who had to be convinced to go home... When I arrived to my room and I saw that it was just 3:00 am, I called them to say that I was wrong, that it was 3am and not 8am and we could party a little bit more. No success at all!!!!!!

And now, after 8 years, it´s been a real pleasure to meet him again. 

PS. It´s true that no matter the time that you do not have contact with someone. As long as the relationship lives in the heart, as soon as you are together again, there is no gap between you two, you laugh till your both stomachs hurt and you realized that you did not miss a beat.

N-19: Peace

Today, Sunday, after lunch, I took my time to go to the lake and enjoying the views. Just thinking in nothing (or trying it!!) and get the most out of everything what was around me.

N-20

Meet spontaneously a friend of mine (have not seen him since last November?) instead of managing the stuffs that were pending to be done in my flat.

Result: 

I had a short but great time with him. I finished my tasks at 00.15 but I did not mind and either didn´t feel any kind of tiredness.

4 Me!!

I´m going to make a resolution: I will treat me during 20 days.

Why? Because I think that I deserve it.

I have the feeling that I need/want some changes, and I have to be ready for them.

“Changes” are “challenges”.  

Lately, “challenge” is understood as a synonymous of “you are lucky of having a challenge. Take it because it will help you to grow up”. Somehow it is true, but officially, “challenge” definition is: “(the situation of being faced with) something that needs great mental or physical effort in order to be done successfully and therefore tests a person's ability”.

Stop and read it again: “(the situation of being faced with) something that needs great mental or physical effort in order to be done successfully and therefore tests a person's ability”.

Pay attention: “sth that needs GREAT MENTAL OR PHYSICAL EFFORT in order TO BE DONE SUCCESSFULLY”.

“Great effort to be done successfully” - Are we always ready for it? From my point of view, the answer is: NO.

Changes/challenges sometimes come because of external circumstances, but sometimes they come because we want/need them. And it´s in this last case when we can mentally and physically be prepared (the first ones take us by surprise).

No long time ago, someone told me: “you are the boss of your life”. Somehow I wanted to believe it but I was not 100% convinced. That sentence has come to my mind several times since last weeks.

I cannot really complain anything about my life. I can say that I am happy. I am very lucky of the family that I have. I have a job. I have a flat where I can sleep warm every day and my fridge is full. But even with all of this comfort, I would like to change some aspects where I do not feel comfortable.

There are some quotes that I really like:

- “Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you”. (By Carl Sandburg)

- Harley Davidson ad: “When writing the story of your life, don't let anyone else hold the pen”
- “Your life is a result of the choices you make…If you don’t like your life it’s time to make better choices". (By  Ingrid Law)

- “You will never change your life until you change something you do daily”. (By John C. Maxwell)

Time: Since years I do not remember any day where I have not said: “I do not have time for it”. There are many things that I would like to do or people to meet, but because of my organization, I do not have time for it and I delay and delay and delay. And at the end, I finish doing the most of the times a lot of foolish things that they were not so important/urgent as I thought.

Resolution:

“Time for people/stuffs that I like” = “people/stuffs that I like to be prioritized”. 

What´s the story of your life? - Good question…

Resolution: 

Nobody better than me can write my story. I will be the one.

Make better choices: Life is a continuous decision. When I complain, I complain about my decisions and I have to assume that I am the responsible. I cannot/shouldn´t blame anyones else than me.

Resolution: 

Next diagram will be my Bible!

Change daily routine – Get out of the comfort zone! (even if it´s not sooooo “comfort”).

Resolution: 

Doing everyday something that I really fancy.  

 
Fortunately (or not), nobody is dependent on me and I can allow myself to try and work out on these 4 points during 20 days. After those 20 days, I hope to be ready mentally and physically to facilitate/welcome the “challenges” that are close to coming.

If you are also in, let me know!!!

Anti-aging Secrets

I am on track!!!!! Just need to increase the frequency of yoga and change Tekila for Wine and drink a looootttt!!!!!

Sissi

When I was a child, I used to play to "Sissi". I watch her films again and again and then, I imitated her. From there, that I always wanted to be a Princess :)

Finally, this weekend, I met her in Trauttmansdorff Castle Gardens in Merano.

I was sooooo happy as when I was a child and I enjoyed playing to be her.