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Cooking, Gardening, Angst and More. Including Job Search Tales and lifestyle tips about island living.

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User: ChefNeal
Outspoken Podcasting Chef, Sustainability Advocate and Farmer.

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Home » May 2006
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Nightmare

Raced around all day. Drained both bank accounts temporarily. Just about got everything I need for this weekend. However, got to the ferry terminal and was overloaded. Too much traffic. Wait three hours. I've actually ducked back into town for a coffee and to have lunch--which will really be more like dinner.

All this means my perishibles will be in the hot sun for the rest of the day. They are in a cooler on ice, so that should help. But I hate this condition. I just want to be on my way home. I am dizzy from lack of food and spending way to much money all day long. And I didn't get the power inverter for my laptop so I could run it in the car and the battery is almost dead.

Long day. Won't get home till almost 8pm tonight. With another hour to unload the station wagon that has taken me all day to load up. I mean it is packed. No sense running empty with these fuel prices--which were down $.03 from last week!

Still, after all of this I'm left thinking I've forgotten something, or that a check is going to bounce or--fill in a dreaded feeling here.

To add further tragedy to this situation I am in a town where there really isn't anything I want to eat for lunch/dinner--at least not alone. I just ducked into Subway, but their price for a 6" sub has doubled since I last bought one and they weren't worth the price back then. Perhaps the Chinese place for some Hunan Cat.

Gotta go. Later.

posted by: ChefNeal at May 25, 2006 14:30 | link | comments (2) |

Town Again

Second time on the mainland in as many weeks--and on one of the craziest holiday weekends to boot.
Almost didn't make the ferry this morning. Apparently there were several other people with the same idea. Head off today for shopping before the weekend crowds start flooding to the islands. Still, this afternoon could be a nightmare for trying to get back home.
The ferry system is limiting the number of sailings. One of the ferries is broken and has been replaced with a smaller, slower vessel. This all amounts to less service for more cost. Ferry rates have gone up again and there is talk of surcharges for travel due to fuel costs and the fact that the bloated beauracracy didn't think ahead and do some planning and has already burnt through their years fuel budget and is scrambling to think of who to beg from next. Several statewide road projects have already lost their funding to the ferry's appetitie. They need to make the ships more fuel efficient, plan the runs better and switch to biodiesel for starters. 

So the day. Shopping for shellfish, fish and groceries. I have a three day cooking job--two dinners and a brunch. Looks like we'll fire up the brick oven as well and bake french bread.  It's going to be crazy but I'm going to have to raise my prices dramatically to cover the cost of increases in fuel and food supplies.

What really sucks about days like these is that there is no "me" time. No relaxing--although I suppose I should view not being around the 5 girls should be relaxing enough. . . . It's all rush, rush, rush. Get everything done in 6 or so hours. But I'm not complaining. Not really. It's Life. I live in one of the most beautiful parts of the world. I have a family, a roof over my head and I am too well fed. Shouldn't that be enough? Well, with empty bank accounts, mortgage, debt and an economy swirling down the bowl I'm not so sure.

I find I can't sleep at night with all the darkness in my world. The evaporation of personal and public freedoms, the Orwellian, Machiavellian, Huxleyan world we're living in drives me crazy.  The Global village is becoming a concentration camp. And the world police are on the march.  Will free citizens have the spine to stand up against the growing oppression or has their sheepification already begun? Is it too late? Will the revolution be soon enough or will my trips to town on a day like this, to source local ingredients, fresh produce, and palatible foodstuff I can create with be a thing of the past?

posted by: ChefNeal at May 25, 2006 08:02 | link | comments |
thoughts, mainland, future

Monday, May 22, 2006
Lost

On the one hand I am upset that I have lost a job in September cooking a wedding shower brunch for a few hundred people (the couple broke up due to insanity). On the other hand I am relieved--I have the summer free and any full-time job I take has no restrictions. The promise of work is always just a promise until the job's done.

Self-employment is likewise a blessing and curse. Sometimes I want to jump ship, give up my ideals and join the darkside. The slavish employee of someone who pays regularly, but not much. It has been over 5 years since I have been in that position, and it was only by seniority that I managed to hold that. Being the second-in-command is almost like being the boss, almost like working for yourself. My arrogance, anti-social moods, difficult and argumentative personality all played well in that arena. I got the job done and was paid well to do it.

As an employee I don't think I can kowtow any longer. At almost 40, my back has bent and snapped under the weight of others orders. Will I merely sulk and say "To hear is to obey" or like the seemingly friendly cur, skulk behind while backs are turned and lash out with bites and snarls?
I have already accepted a few cooking jobs--stop gaps really--that I would never before have considered. They won't even really pay the bills. The clients have and will complain constantly, demand too much and I will fight tooth and nail to be paid. I usually pass these jobs up. But there is a certain madness which sets in when there is no business, no money coming in. Anything is better than nothing, or is it? Add them to the skill set, but don't give out their names with the clients list.

There are jobs out there for me. There has to be. Just has to. . . .

posted by: ChefNeal at May 22, 2006 15:30 | link | comments |
work

Monday, May 08, 2006
Job Wanted

Wanted: A Job

I am told I am not to be fussy about this. It needs to be full time and pay at least $20 per hour--if this doesn't classify about fussy.

The job can be in any sector and really anything--as long as it meets the first two requirements.  The obvious categories would be in food or computing. However, photography would not be a stretch, nor would construction. I have often though about going back to my first career lately--if it weren't for the grim reminder of what it did to me: cronic back pain and a five year backslide into poverty.

I have loads of experience in many things. Been a foreman, a supervisor, worked in retail, food service, logging and much more. Furthermore, I'm current with web 2.0 methods of publishing, and self-promotion. Podcasting, blogging, social media, etc.

But, you say, you own a company why are you looking for work? The answer is simple and complex. Simply the economy for my niche market isn't good where I am located. Business is picking up for the year, but I don't think I will break last year's earnings as I have no weddings to arrange. Also, my past clients have trimmed back their lifestyles in the past few years and there doesn't seem to be an abundance of new clients coming forward.

I am sure my location has a lot to do with this. Living on a small, remote island isn't conducive to jumping into the job pool. I haven't expanded my own business due to regulations, cost, and lack of clientele. Despite seven years of trying to move off the island it hasn't happened yet. The formation of the company and establishing of my business plan were hinged on moving to a larger property, and having capital investment funds to build a catering facility and growing the business  from there. For three years that plan has been erroded and for those three years I have scrambled from job to job barely scratching an existence.

I have had job offers from the UK. I have dreamed of working elsewhere. However, being an American in the Global Market seems to be some grave penalty. We hire countless foreigners in this country, but they don't seem to hire many Americans abroad, at least not in the jobs I'm looking at.

So if you are reading this and you have some sort of job to offer, do. If you know some one who needs a worker point them my way. Connections. We all need them. It's hard to get them. In the past three years I have helped place countless friends by recommending them for jobs they were better qualified for than I. Call me fussy, but I draw the line at being a Male Nanny. As a stay-at-home father for the last few years, I've had quite enough of that. . . .

Oh, and if you are wondering--it doesn't matter too much where I live, at least it shouldn't. It shouldn't matter that I'm married and have children (although to some it does). I won't tell you whether I am a religious person or not--I have been discriminated enough on both sides of that issue already. If I were the sort to sue I could have been a wealthy man after being fired from one job for working at another with religious overtones. I should also be resting in the Riviera on a medical malpractice suit for the 2 doctors who mis-diagnosed my broken back and were grossly negligent. But I am not the litigious sort. Just hard working and loyal.

posted by: ChefNeal at May 08, 2006 06:36 | link | comments (4) |
work, jobs, work wanted, job wanted, job search

Sunday, May 07, 2006
Mo Motime

Howard and team have done it again! Three cheers for Motime! Can't wait to see what's next. And you've gotta love the semi-Italian mishmash of words on some of the buttons still. . . .

posted by: ChefNeal at May 07, 2006 06:32 | link | comments (1) |
motime