Summary of the past two months. Pt VI

Dear All,

Hope you all had a good week and weekend. As you know I am not one to revel in other poeple's misery, but I did notice that the weather in the UK this weekend was not exactly brilliant. I tried to read the weather pages of the internet but it was difficult with the sweat pouring down my face and the sun shining in my eyes. Sunday reached 32C (high 80s) and the whole weekend was blue skies and sunny. This is particularly warm for this time of year but I'm not complaining.

I am however going to apply for a job with the Romanian Customs Authority (RCA). In the course of our work last week we asked for the breakdown of the performance markings for all staff (they have performance related pay like we do.) They have 5 categories: exceptional; very good; good; satisfactory and unsatisfactory. You can only get promoted if you have one of the two top markings and of course they also carry the highest pay increase. For the year ending 2005 the proportions were: exceptional 88.4%; very good 11.6%; good 0%; satisfactory 0% and unsatisfactory 0%. For those of you in HM Revenue and Customs this makes very interesting reading! Absolutely everyone in the RCA is ready for promotion and exceeded expectations. Mmmmm.

Moving on, the farewell party for the British Ambassador was very nice. About 50 people were there so it was a great chance for me to meet people. No there were no Ferro Rocher on view but very nice canapes on trays and waiters/waitresses on hand to fill up your glass as soon as the level of your drink dropped 1cm from the top of the glass. One of the admin staff gave me my Embassy ID at the party which means I am officially attached to the Embassy, so I don't have to worry about getting work permits etc. I am now here legally - hurrah! I also have my administrative diplomatic status now.

On Friday evening I went to the Bucharest Mall, which is the city's only shopping mall as we would understand it. (Like the Trafford Centre but much smaller). To my shame I have to admit buying 3 Marks and Spencers shirts there and a tie. Well I only have 7 shirts here so I needed to expand the wardrobe a bit. There was all the familiar M&S stuff but it is not cheap here - so for the Romanians it must be hugely expensive. They also have other high street names - Body Shop, Mango, Swatch, Timberland, Greggs (OK I might have made that last one up!).

Very disappointed with Eurovision on Saturday night. No not at the UK entry because it was absolutely awful and deserved to be treated as such. I wanted Romania to win so that everyone could come to my apartment next year to stay and we would all go to the final. They came 4th which was very good (the UK hasn't seen that sort of placing for nearly a decade!) And trust the Dutch presenter to start chatting up Stakis the male host in Greece!! I did miss Terry Wogan's commentary. Instead Romanian coverage had a completely unemotional woman translating the whole proceeding (even to the point when they werte counting down for the voting to end and saying 10, 9, 8, 7.... she was saying zece, noa, opt, sapte.....I think everyone could work out what was happening!) The only time she did not translate was when the Dutch presenter asked Stakis for his mobile number and he said it was 69 69 69 and she remained quiet!! Overall I thought the songs were bad, even by Eurovision standards.

This week the 3 experts currently here are finishing their reports and leaving on Friday. The office has been very busy and crowded at times but good fun too. Because we had two different pieces of work going on at the same time we had to get another translator in for the week. The lady enjoyed herself so much she asked on Friday if she can work permanently with us!

Well the temperature in the office has already reached melting point and it is only 8.15am so I think it is time for the air conditioning to go on.

Many thanks again for all your e-mails etc. Once I have internet in my apartment (estimated date of installation October 2009) I will be able to reply personally. Until then I'm afraid you have to put up with these dear all e-mails.

Take care of yourselves.

Andrew xx