Month: June 2015

Life Lessons – Tell me about yourself

On By thestampsinmypassportIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

 

irish-handsIt has been almost five weeks since my job ended. The first few weeks went by pretty quickly, but the past few have been harder. I remember that people kept saying to me, “enjoy this time off while you figure things out”. I even snapped at a friend of mine saying, “this is not a vacation, I didn’t choose to take time off from my job”.

I know that for many, this is not a new thing. I know many people who have been in this situation before. Many more than once. I would consider myself lucky to have not had many experiences with this in 25 years of employment. I have been working, with the exception of a 2 month period in late 2000, solidly for 25 years. Understandably this is a difficult adjustment.

I would like to take this time to mention a great place in Thornhill. It is called The Thornhill Employment Hub and it is a wonderful place. It is a government subsidized that is open to the public who need help in the job market. Are you new to Canada? Newly unemployed and need help? Unemployed for an extended period of time and looking for a second career? They have it all. They even have yoga!

They have great workshops facilitated by their staff. I have attended two so far – Targeting Resume Writing and today an all day workshop on Interview Skills.

“The Interview” – something that everyone has anxiety over. That was the first question we were asked today – How do you feel about going on an interview? I know people who haven’t been on an interview in over 20 years. Over the past several years I have applied for jobs and have been on a few interviews, but not that many. A lot of them were leads from people I knew so the interviews were less formal than if you didn’t know the people.

One of the first tasks was to break off in pairs and introduce yourself to the other, give one strength and one weakness about yourself. Some of the terms that were used as “weakness” were: lack of confidence, public speaking, shyness, and language skills (or lack of English) came up several times. That seemed to be a running commentary for me through the day.

Here is the question that will come up at the start of any interview: Tell us a bit about yourself.

When you start to talk about this in an interview is should be 80% work related experiences about yourself and 20% non related work experiences. You need to have a script in your head that you can speak clearly and concise about who you are and what you can bring to the table.

When I had my chance to speak to my partner I realized that my experiences came quite easy to talk about. How my career in travel led me to being able to see the world, which led me to my passion for food, photography and writing. It all seemed to just flow.

She commented on how my ‘accent’ was so clear and my words were so perfect. She was from another country and had only been in Canada for 43 days. She was a civil engineer in her country and now she is in Canada. I said to her that I have always lived in Canada, and she said that I was lucky.

Towards the end of the session we were given a hand out on the 50 most common interview questions. You can actually google it and you will find several articles with different amounts – 50, 31, 10 etc. The handout we received was 50, but they all basically fall into five categories just asked in different ways.

1. Why are you here? 

2. What can you do for me? 

3. What kind of person are you? 

4. Why are you different?

5. Can I afford you. 

And so the search continues. Thanks to the Targeted Resume Workshop I have a brand new resume that is ready to be sent out. I know that putting it out there in the social sphere is not necessarily what people would do, but the last time I shared, it did bring out some great feedback and connections to new people. I am hoping that this will continue to do that. I am open to new conversations, new adventures, and a new experience to take my professional life to the next level.

Living my best life,

Lisa

One pot dinner – Spanish Beef Rice

On By thestampsinmypassportIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

spanish1

I remember when I was growing up, we ate home cooked meals all the time. Going out, I know we did go out, but it doesn’t seem to be nearly as often as families seem to go out today. There were staple meals, like spaghetti and meat sauce, meatloaf, of course chicken on Fridays. There was also grilled cheese and tomato soup, and KD and fish sticks (yes, together in one meal).

My mother is a good cook. She isn’t as adventurous as I am and doesn’t like as much ‘prep’ work as I am prepared to do for dishes or a meal, but her food was always tasty, and plentiful. It still is. I can cook many great meals, but I can’t beat her brisket. She is the winner, hands down.

One dish she frequently made for us seemed to have everything in one place – there was ground beef, rice, tomatoes and veggies. This easy one pot meal is called Spanish Beef Rice.

I am not sure if the folks in Spain make this dish, or what they would call it, but as per my Jewish Cookbook Bible (Second Helpings) says, this is the name of this dish/meal.

It really could not be any easier. It is 10 minutes prep, 30 minutes to cook (in one pot) and you are done.

spanish3Here is the recipe:

1lb.  ground meat ( Could be beef, chicken, turkey)

3 tbsp. oil

2 medium onions diced (I usually use 1)

1 green pepper diced

2 stalks celery

20 oz. tin tomatoes (Diced or whole, seasoned or not)spanish2

1 tbsp. salt (way too much)

¼ tsp. pepper

1 c. raw rice (I used brown)

Method:

Brown meat in hot oil. Add remaining ingredients and cover tightly. Simmer for ½ hour, stirring occasionally. Serves six.

Note: make sure you simmer on low, because if it overcooks, it sticks to the bottom (from personal experience).

Once it the rice is cooked all the way, the liquid is all gone, it is ready to serve.

Spanish

 

Eating for a mission at 541 Eatery

On By thestampsinmypassportIn Uncategorized1 Comment

Mission2

After attending the beautiful Ordination ceremony last week, Anita invited her friends and family to continue the celebration for a light meal. The restaurant was in Hamilton and it is called 541 Eatery and Exchange.

Before I share my experience with you, please watch this video about 541:

I was with Anita’s daughter on the way to the restaurant. I have to be honest with you, while we were driving there I felt like I was in another country. Maybe that is a naive thought to be having, since we WERE in Hamilton, but it didn’t feel that way. It felt like we were in a movie set of small town USA that had been forgotten about.

When we arrived, I parked on the street. Just to acknowledge my point about feeling like I was somewhere else, there were parking meters, as you can see here on the right. When was the last time youParking11027506_10155681300395192_69297465955091130_n saw a parking meter like this? Anita’s daughter (15) has probably never seen one of these. I put my toonie in and on the meter it started flashing 2:00 (it was $1 per hour). If you think back to those ‘back in the day’ meters, the time counts down from your starting point.

When I walked into the restaurant, my first reaction was, wow, it feels like home. I am not trying to sound trite or stuck up, but it felt like you were walking into someone’s kitchen, family room, home. In the centre of the room was a long wooden table with benches. That table was reserved for our party, but you could see that it was the focus of the community space. Above that table was the sign that read, The Meeting Place. Several times while we were waiting for our party, people tried to sit at our table.

mission7As the video said, 541 is a full service restaurant, with good quality foods. For some, this may be the only ‘home cooked’ quality meals they may eat. There were plenty of options. There was soup of the day, chili, personal sized pizza, roast chicken and salad, and so much more. Because of their mission statement, nothing was over $5. Which of course leads me to the next part of this amazing restaurant – the button payment plan.

What is the button payment plan? Very simple actually. There are two jars on the counter – Use a button or buy some buttons. If you can’t afford to pay for your meal, you can take up to 4 buttons per day andmission4 pay for your food with buttons. One button = $1.

If you can afford to pay and even pay it forward, you can buy some buttons for others to be able to eat. Pretty humbling, right? Think about that for a moment. How much did you spend on your last Frappuccino at Starbucks – at least $4, right? There are people that could eat for a day on that same amount of money.

There is no class distinction at this restaurant. You would never know who used a button, who paid for their food and/or paid for others to have buttons. What if the jar is empty and someone wants to eat and can’t pay. Anita said that if that was to happen, they would always get a bowl of soup and a piece of bread. No one should go hungry.

When Anita arrived we all started to order our food and started to celebrate. She immediately gravitated to this table full of children. I had been watching them for a while. One of the young girls drew a picture for Anita. I really got a great understanding of why she chose that place for us to celebrate her new life with her. She requested on the invitation that we don’t bring her gifts, that our gift to her would be to buy buttons at the 541 Eatery. Each of us ordering, asked the cashier the same question, “can we buy our buttons now?”

Some of us found out from Anita later that while she was talking to the children, she noticed that they Mission3didn’t really have food on their table, just a couple of milkshakes. The twelve year old sister told her that she brings her siblings here every night for dinner. Anita asked what they ate that day. They said, cereal at breakfast. Anita ordered grilled cheese sandwiches for them. Got the message, loud and clear.

It really was a wonderful experience. I know that I left the restaurant, full. Full with a good meal, and full knowing that I will help someone else have a meal as well.

I know that Hamilton isn’t around the corner from where we live, but if you want something special to do with your kids this summer, take a drive out to Hamilton and treat them to a life experience. Maybe phone ahead and find out if they accept donations of colouring books and crayons for the children in the community. Even if you don’t have kids, or they are grown, the next time you are on your way back from a shopping trip in Buffalo, go to the 541 Eatery and leave some of your money there. You will feel great for doing so.