I am still alive and well! I’ve realised that I’ve not posted on this blog in a while, so thought I’d take some time to write this blog post to give an update on what I’ve been up to.
First of all, I’m now a published co-author. I work in the marketing field, specifically regarding search engine optimisation (SEO), and so I’ve managed to get myself included in a book which effectively covers the work I did at MoneySuperMarket (my previous job).
Second, I’m now managing a business called Energy Switching which is an energy comparison & editorial advice website. It is doing well from an organic search point of view and I’m hoping to grow it further this year. With more people stuck at home, people will be paying higher energy bills — and with many out of work, saving money is now a key objective for people.
Last, but not least, I’m still exercising. It’s definitely a lot tougher in the conditions we have in London with the whole lock down situation. However, mentally, it is something I need to do – and physically, I’d like to be in a good position during and after all of this craziness.
You can see I’ve been running around the track (and I’ve been trying to do this most days):
I’m definitely behind on my targets.
The hot weather isn’t going to make running easy, but it’ll be worth it! Wish me luck!
It’s now officially 13 minutes past, and we’re well into 2020.
For the past 3 years, I’ve been going to Hampstead Heath Park with Victoria Levine, to celebrate with the many hundreds that turn up to watch the London firework celebrations from afar:
Here you can see a video I’ve posted up on Twitter:
Happy New Year from Hampstead Heath Park,London! #2020
Hope everyone has an amazing and prosperous year. Here’s to all my peeps in the SEO community succeeding next year. ? pic.twitter.com/4zorvgzwZM
Be successful in my new role at Forbes.com and achieve some great results for that business
Sign up, be fit enough, and complete the triathlon in Norway in June
Working on my fitness is definitely something I struggled within 2019, but I am keen to get back on track (and yes, I know I did Tough Mudder and a Half Marathon, but I just about did those)
Setup new websites to make more passive income, with websites I am passionate about
Have enough to put down a deposit on a house in Q4 2020
Read more books (I’ve already ordered Zero to One: Notes on Start Ups, or How to Build the Future)
I’ll hopefully hit some of these goals for 2020. 🙂 But for now, let’s not worry about this and see what happens.
I’m actually fuming at the moment. I love when I can write a post on here that comes from the heart and soul. So I live with a live in landlord or a resident landlord and it has been an utter nightmare to live in this place. I mean the house is nice, my room is nice and the other flatmate is nice. It’s the landlord that is the problem.
The reason I’m writing this blog post at the moment is because my landlord just turned off the washing machine – full of my clothes that was half way to being fully washed. I’d already put the washing powder and the clothes softener in – in fact, it was the last of my washing powder. I’ve been looking for opportunities to wash my clothes, but he always leaves his washing in the washing machine and by the time I want to use it, it’s too late. Today, I had enough and sent a text to him and asked him if he could take his washing out of the washing machine. He didn’t respond (this was at around 10:30pm), so I decided to take his washing out and put it on the counter. It’s pretty inconsiderate to leave your washing in the washing machine in the first place, especially if, like him, you do it on a regular basis. So my clothes are being washed and it’s around 11:30pm and my washing has been in the machine for a good hour. He then comes out of his room, and knocks on my door saying that it’s too late to do my washing and then goes into the kitchen and turns off the washing machine with my washing still in there.
Of course, I’m fuming and give him the dirtiest look ever. I didn’t say anything that I’d later regret. All I say is that I’ve not had the opportunity to wash my clothes this week. The thing with him is that he works from home, so I’m thinking in my head that he can do his clothes washing in the middle of the day. On the other hand, I’ve got to do my washing when I come back from work. I can’t do this if someone else has their washing still in the washing machine. He responds by telling me that I should do it in the morning, but he knows that I leave for work quite early in the morning. Plus, if I turn the washing machine on in the morning then it’ll be in the washing machine with a smell and if I leave it on a timer then that would be inconsiderate because then other people wouldn’t be able to use the washing machine. Either way, I’ve now got to take time away from work to wash my clothes – as I’ve literally got no clean towels left to dry myself after a shower and I’m running out of shirts to wear.
It’s not only this that I’m having trouble with either. I cooked in the kitchen on the first week that I moved in and he complained about the smell of bacon and told me to put it in the oven and not to fry the bacon. The fucker smokes weed, and is complaining about the smell of bacon when I can smell his weed from inside my room. So instead of cooking, I’m literally eating out all of the time – an additional cost I never expected before. He’s also coming in to my room on regular intervals without telling me. I come home after work and find something has changed in my room. He seems like a nice and honest guy, but he is absolutely a horrible person to live with. He actually asked me if I would like to renew my contract here for another 6 months. Hell no. Just hell no. I can’t wait till the contract expires, so I can move out.
How do you know when the time’s right to move on and find something that you really find challenging? A colleague of mine very recently was accepted for a job at Twitter. It kind of opens your eyes as to what is available out there when someone doing the same job as you is able to get a nice job like that somewhere. You kind of think, “if she can do that, then maybe it’s possible I can find something as prestigious as Twitter?”
I mean at the moment I find my job challenging to a degree. I love my colleagues (who I consider friends) and life isn’t going too badly. The only bad thing that has happened is that it’s a little difficult finding somewhere in London that is affordable (and decent) and not too far of a journey from work. Aside from that, the only issues I’m having is the re-organisation that we are going through as the team I work on has been a little disjointed from the day I started working there. We’ve grown quite rapidly from just a team of 4 to now over 20 people on the team. It became quite apparent that you can’t run a team in such a laissez-faire environment with no real sense of coordination or hierarchy.
But, things have changed for me quite dramatically as a result of this restructuring. It seems I’m being moved from one account to another. It’s the account that everyone has patted me on the back for the work I’ve done and the account that I was on when I was offered a position and called an “asset” by my boss. This is why I’m finding it hard to understand why I’m being moved off that account when I’ve clearly in every aspect done well for that account.
They’ll be hiring a new person to replace the role that I’ve had for that account for the past 6 months, but it will be a little kick in the teeth if I have to train someone who is being employed above my level/pay to work on that account. There’s no real explanation as to why this is happening, and I’m frankly disappointed for the first time in working at this company. A little communication before they decided on all of this would have been nice. After they decide on this is a little too late; there’s no room left for change.
I’ve been infected somehow as I had to miss a day of work today. I’ve been a complete mess since Sunday. Friday evening was fine. Saturday… well, was also fine. Aside from the fact I fell down the stairs with a plate in my hand. I had to go out and buy a new plate. I’m not putting that down to old age, but the fact that my head was spinning from Friday evening where I had drunk too much. I still managed to go to the gym on Saturday and Sunday. But Sunday evening was just terrible. I couldn’t sleep, I was heating up, even though it wasn’t that hot, and I just didn’t feel right. I likely caught some germ/bug whilst at the gym. I bought myself a packet of Lockets, which helped me sneeze quite a bit, but I still felt quite awful. Thus why I did not go in to work today. I did try working from home, but that didn’t work out well, and I just fell asleep.
I know I have to go into work tomorrow, no matter what. There’s just too much work to be done and taking 2 days of work off at the moment isn’t going to work without disrupting the workflow. (I try my best to be a good employee)
We’ll see how it goes tomorrow. I feel like this at the moment:
I’m actually feeling quite anxious, as I have two presentations to give this week. Oh, and did I say that I’m really bad at public speaking? It’ll be a test, as I haven’t really been tested for this sort of stuff yet, but we’ll see how it goes. I definitely won’t be chicken and not turn up. What deters me is the fact that I could humiliate myself and that would effectively ruin my self-esteem.
On the 29th of October it was my birthday and I turned 22. In celebration of this I thought I’d go to a Chinese restaurant as it’s food that I love and it’s part of my heritage. What better place to go to than Chinatown in Leicester Square to experience the awesomeness that Chinese food generally is. I went with my sister to a restaurant in the heart of Chinatown called China Buffet – a mistake and one that I won’t be repeating. It looked great on the outside and it had most of the Chinese food that I enjoy eating. (Sweat & Sour chicken being one of my favourite Chinese dishes)
So what was actually wrong?
Just take a look at this picture of food that looks like had been sitting there for hours:
And of course, the food tasted bland, as it was quite obviously not fresh. Sure, one will argue it’s a buffet, but buffets still need to taste nice and this is a Chinese restaurant, so I expected something that tasted authentic and I definitely did not receive that. Perhaps my standards are a little high due to myself living in Taiwan for the past 2 and a half years, but this food was sub-standard and even my sister did not like the food. Bland is the perfect adjective to be using and it’s the last word you would associate with Chinese food.
How were the staff?
I can’t complain too much about the staff; however, the reason why I even have this sub header is because I experienced another customer receive the poorest customer service that I have experienced before.
A customer asked:
“Where are the bins?”
Worker responded by saying:
“We have no bins” and then simply walked off.
I was quite baffled by this and attributed this to the worker’s poor English skills. Either way, I was shocked, and so was the customer asking the question. I almost wanted to use my Chinese skills to tell the worker that it’s not acceptable to respond in such a way.
The decor
The decor was just dreadful. It looked like it hadn’t been updated in a decade. The lighting was also quite poor and it was as if they were trying to hide the poor decor by dimming the lights a bit. I also didn’t like the fact that tables were so close to each other, and this really stops any chat during eating a meal there. It just makes things so awkward.
Would I go there again?
No. It’s just sub standard food and I would not touch that place again. My recommendations to them is have someone review the food every 5 minutes to make sure it’s at least presentable, and to ensure that food is replaced after a certain time; not only if a certain tray has been finished, but if food has simply been sitting there for over an hour. They would also do better to clean up the place and re-do the entire decor. It looks rancid and should not be representative of the cheap Chinese restaurants you should be going to in London.
Note: I know this is quite negative, so I’ll definitely review other restaurants in Chinatown, and hopefully give more positive reviews. Like most people would, I only went to China Buffet as it was cheap and it looked delicious from the outside. Unfortunately my taste buds disagreed.
