Typical conversation with work agencies:

Agent: we have this wonderful opportunity working for the best company in X industry.

Me: Did you read my CV? Been there, done that, got the T-shirt...

Agent: Blah, blah, blah ..they are the most respected company in the field ... Blah.

Me: How much?

Agent: £(X)

Me: I used to earn £ (1.3 * X) . Many thanks for your time...

I may have to become an entrepreneur, the only problem is that I have nothing to sell.

My previous employer kindly offered, for free, the services of a company that helps during this "transition".

When offered help with my CV I pointed out that I  used to interview people in my previous jobs. Since I was not believed (something in the eyes of the advisor told me she wasn't having none of it) I produced my CV. She told me, sheepishly, that such advice would not be necessary...

Learning to negotiate job offers was more instructive, but most people saw themselves in a position of weakness in respect to prospective employers. With such an attitude they will struggle....

Opera front:

I also went to a performance of Hampstead Garden Opera ( http://www.hgo.org.uk/ ) which was charming and engaging in an eccentric English way.

Not to say that the performance was not good, it was actually quite good, but the Quixotic nature of the endeavour (opera performed in top of an old pub) is quintessentially English, a feeling further deepened after having a meal in the pub surrounded by all the regular pub goers.

The three leading ladies were very good singers and very good looking (one of them very thin and fragile, long wavy hair, very fine delicate features: I am in love, the other one a Polish lady with the deepest blue eyes I have ever seen: I am in love, and the third one a mezzo with a very wholesome figure that sung wearing a very sexy dress and what an stupendous voice: I am not in love but would not say no to her).

The tenor in the main role seemed handsome and dashing (according to the popular opinion of the female concert goers) and had a decent voice.

So if you are in London and remotely interested in opera this could be something for you.

Finally I spend my weekend in a workshop for aspiring writers. No, I am not an aspiring writer,  but I was kindly invited to attend by an acquaintance and decided to go.

The experience was most moving, the group was formed mostly by distinguished Chileans that had to flee Chile when the beast called Augusto Pinochet raised to power. As you can expect they are all very politically aware, and have points of view built with pain and blood (literally) during incarceration and forced exile, but they still manage to be humorous and fail to be bitter.

At the end of the workshop some of them read poems written by themselves or by poets like Fedrico Garcia Lorca, Cesar Vallejo or Pablo Neruda.

Sheer beauty in the simplicity of words, we could have stayed there for hours and time would have continued to flow away unnoticed....