I need negotiating skills

I got a call today about the new job. It's an okay offer - more than I'm getting now but not a "jump-up-and-down-singing-hallelujah" offer. Anyway, it's complicated because the person offering me the job (let's call him W) is an ex-colleague of mine and we were on very friendy terms, which is why he is quite keen for us to work together again. But on the other hand, negotiating a pay package is quite delicate and friendliness really doesn't come into it.

I noticed that after I asked for a written offer, W started to get a bit uppity, saying "Well, let me know if you are really interested and then I'll send you a written offer because there's no point wasting your time ....". Meaning, of course, that there was no point wasting his time. So I said yes, send me a written offer. It doesn't mean that I have to accept it. Frankly, I'm not going to make any decisions without seeing the offer on paper - and then we can start negotiating.

However, now the doubts are creeping in. Did I say "yes" too quickly? Well OK, I didn't actually commit to anything; and besides we both know that my present employer will probably try to match the offer, or even top it. And I would be stupid not to try to get more money out of this.

Thinking about all this manouevring makes me nervous. I hate this stuff. Good job I'm not some kind of high level diplomat trying to broker trade agreements between countries, or God forbid, nuclear disarmament treaties. I'll have to practise my "show no feelings/give nothing away" face in the mirror this weekend.

Shop till you drop

After work I met my sister-in-law, C, at Borders near Oxford Circus for the Liberty "Christmas Fantasy" event. She has a Liberty store card, so she gets invited to these events where we can get 20% discount. I haven't been into Liberty for ages, so it was nice to shop in the swish surroundings. Its a lovely building and tonight it was completely packed full of shoppers.

The event started at seven, so we had dinner beforehand at a Korean restaurant, RAN. The food was OK, we had the Korean grill where the food is cooked at the table (similar to our Mongolian barbeque in Brunei).

Then, suitably re-charged, we tackled all five floors of beautiful but expensive luxury goods. Yes, we spent lots of money - but hey it was all 20% off. Except "beauty" which was only 10% off. Grrr. I like Liberty because its full of unusual items that you can't find in other department stores. Almost everything you buy is wrapped in their trademark orange tissue paper, and they put it in these purple gift boxes for you.

My favourite thing tonight - A Stila lipstick palette which C bought as a present to me.

(It doesn't look that great in the picture, but trust me it's gorgeous)


Other shopping successes included a box of soaps for Mr-K-E's mother. 4 soaps for £18!!! Extortionate I know, but the packaging is fabulous. I'm such a sucker for these things. Also bought some chocolate for Mr K-E's dad.

And I finally bought C a present for her birthday (which was in September) - at £95 , 20% off equals £76. Happy Belated Birthday from me and Mr K-E!

I know I'm going to regret this reckless spending tomorrow, but for now, woo-hoo! I love shopping!

The Ashes

No news about the job. Hhmmm. Maybe I'm too expensive. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

I work in a male-dominated industry and today all the men were talking about the cricket, or more accurately how rubbish the England cricket team are. The Australians were trying not to look too smug but you could detect the tell-tale smirk. Someone explained it to me thus, "If it were football, it's like being seven-nil up at half time and then coming back to lose seven-eight".

Anyway, I still don't get cricket. I have had the rules explained to me about 30 times but I still can't remember them. If you are really interested, here is a link explaining all the rules. Too complicated for me. (Don't tell me its like baseball or rounders, I don't understand how they work either)

It seems to me that cricket is an excuse to stay out in the sun all day and drink lots of beer. I mean, come on, most of time the game ends in a draw and you can never tell who is winning until the end. (Not strictly true, if one team completely "collapses" like England did today)

Cricket is in the news because The Ashes is on in Australia. The Ashes is a test cricket series, with Australia and England playing 5 test matches. It is held (roughly) every two years, alternating between England and Australia. A "test" cricket match is played between two teams over 5 days, with about 6 hours of play per day. And that is just about all I know about cricket.

"The Ashes" is an interesting name for a sporting event, don't you think? When the Australian cricket team beat England in England for the first time in 1882, The Sporting Times printed a spoof obituary:

"In Affectionate Remembrance of ENGLISH CRICKET, which died at the Oval on 29th AUGUST, 1882, Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances R.I.P.

N.B. — The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia."

The media (yes, they had "media" back then!) seized this, and the next tour of the England cricket team to Australia was dubbed "the quest to regain The Ashes of English cricket".

The Ashes are represented by an urn, which as the story goes, was presented to the Hon Ivo Bligh, captain of the England cricket team during the 1882-1883 tour, by a group of women. The urn is said to contain the ashes of a cricket bail, but there is some discussion about this - you can read more here. (The bails are the cross-pieces which sit on top of the stumps)

What this really means is - lots of men checking the BBC Sport website all day to see how England is doing. If England do well, all the newspapers will be full of glowing reports, ministers will make speeches about sport in schools, the Olympics are bound to be a success, house prices will rise, the angle of the Earth will change so that England gets more sunshine.......OK OK I'm exaggerating. But the converse is true too. If England gets trashed, then this country "has gone down the toilet, the NHS is on its last legs and my god, the situation with immigration is completely out of control." So for the sake of racial harmony and peace across middle class dining tables everywhere, good luck England!!

New job?

I have leave to use up before Christmas so I had another day off today. I went into town because I had to see someone about a job offer. It went well, and they just need to make me an offer now. Well, they approached me, so from my point of view, its a case of "show me the money". I'm trying not to stress over it, can you tell?

Anyway, after that I had lunch in Chinatown. After barbequed pork and crispy belly pork on rice, I felt pretty "porked out" so I wandered around Soho and ended up in Covent Garden where I bought more Christmas presents. Here are some below:




For Mr K-E's sister







For Mr K-E's brother's girlfriend

For my Aunt

Also for my Aunt








Not very imaginative presents, I know. I'm saving the helicopter for next year.

Lazy Sunday

Today Mr K-E and I spent the afternoon on the sofa watching Sunday afternoon TV. We didn't get to watch X-Factor last night so we cheered when The Macdonald Brothers were booted out. Those guys were rubbish. They were like a joke that Scotland was inflicting on the rest of the country. This week they were finally voted out despite tartan-waving antics and Louis Walsh desperately decribing them as the "nicest guys ever".

We want Leona to win because she's fab.

I also looked through all the stuff on my laptop and found some photos that Mr K-E had taken during our holiday in Rome a few weeks ago. Despite my whinging during the holiday ( ...how many photos do you need anyway? can we go now?....) , I must admit that he's taken some cracking shots.

Il Vittoriano

A random street in Rome

One of the statues on Ponte Sant Angelo

If you have never been to Rome, go. It's really lovely and there is so much to see. I'm not an "arty" person, but it's impossible not to be amazed by the beautiful works of art and architecture in the Eternal City. And it's not just in museums or art galleries, but in all the little corners and back streets. The food is delicious and for an ice-cream lover like Mr K-E, the hardest thing was choosing which flavours to have.

Christmas shopping

This morning Mr K-E and I went into town for some Christmas shopping.


We bought

1. a snowboarding jacket for Mr K-E who is going snowboarding in Chamonix, France
2. books for me
3. a belt for me
4. a jumper for Mr K-E
5. plants for Mr K-E's mother
6. plants for Mr-K-E's Auntie
7. fluffy pink socks for Mr K-E's sister
8. polka dot pajamas for Mr K-E's brother's girlfriend
9. liqueur chocolates for Mr K-E's father
10. christmas cards
11. wrapping paper and gift tags
12. sellotape

(Mr K-E says that no one is interested in reading this crap. Well, gee honey, thanks for your support.)

We were out in town all frigging day and we were absolutely knackered at the end of it. At least we made some progress on the present-buying front, although we still have more to do. The small "fun" presents are easy; it's the "main" present thats the killer.

For lunch we had nice food in Wagamama mmm chicken katsu curry.

The crowds were vicious as expected. I don't think I can face another Saturday in town before Christmas. It's going to be another Amazon christmas in the K-E household.

Prince Jefri and Brunei

There was article about Brunei's Prince Jefri in the Telegraph yesterday. Prince Jefri is the current Sultan's youngest brother.

(Prince Jefri is on the left, the other guy is the HM Sultan of Brunei)

Prince Jefri used to be Brunei's Minister of Finance before it all went wrong in the late 90s. In short, he had grand (but ultimately unrealistic) plans for Brunei's development through a company he set up called Amedeo. Unfortunately, as the world now knows, he didn't seem to have the business sense to make sure the projects were "best-value", so to speak. He was taken for a ride by con-men who charged $2,000 for $2 lightbulbs. This coupled with over-ambitious ideas and bad taste, led a period in Brunei's history that shall be known as the "cloud-cuckooland phase", when expatriates from all over the world feasted on Brunei's expense account. To be fair, a few Bruneians made a lot of money too and we got a nice free amusement park as well as a fine hotel.

At the time, most people were swept along with it - hey, everyone who came to Brunei at the time thought - My God, this country is swimming in money! And let's face it, who doesn't like to be rich? (Or at least have all their neighbours think that they are rich....) No one likes it when the bill from the credit card company arrives.

Slowly, inevitably, the cracks started to appear and one day, it seemed that the people who were really in charge woke up. Like, uh, where have you been for the last five years?? All the projects came to standstill and there was talk of misappropriation of funds, scandalous behaviour, house arrest, international lawsuits etc etc. The word on the street was that Brunei's coffers were empty.

So yes, Prince Jefri has been a very bad boy. But when he says he is being made into a scapegoat, there is an element of truth there. I mean, Brunei is a smaaall country ....... everybody knows everyone else's business. It's not as if you could miss the great big amusement park, hotel, marina and various assorted palaces he was building all over the place.

Its a shame the dream ended in a nightmare. Obviously the unbridled spending had to come to an end, but at least he had a -I don't know - a vision, a plan, a dream of what Brunei could be. Or maybe he was just a megalomaniac who had more money than sense. Small fish like me will never know the truth.

All I know is, whenever I see pictures of Dubai's amazing development on TV, (a country that doesn't even have any oil, aarrggghhhh!), I always think of Brunei. Sigh.