PPS' Recruitment Blog

Dear friends,

At the beginning of the year I read about a celebrity actor who sent an annual review of the year to all of his friends. I am sure that it was well written, funny, and full of highlights that everyone would appreciate.

Here follows my attempt at doing the same thing. I hope it is well written, if you find one or two of the articles amusing, then I am happy. And whether it is appreciated or not, I hope that you will let me know. That way I will know whether to repeat it next year. These are all articles that have amused, entertained or just occupied me in one way or another, and are collected intermittently from various publications and websites.

I have taken the liberty of using the PPS website to store the full articles, so click through where you want to read more.

I will start with by far the funniest thing that I have seen all year – a spoof on the Queen and Facebook.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIgdnlOSlps

Considering a permanent move to the Midlands in the New Year, I am always keen to hear about faster ways to stay in touch with London life. However I can’t help but agree that spending billions on a high speed link to Birmingham is money better spent in the current climate. See if you agree with me…… “Permit me to be underwhelmed by the news that in 15 years, I may be able to get to Birmingham in 49 minutes. …..”

Not always everyone’s cup of tea, I’m always a fan of Jeremy Clarkson’s Sunday Times column. Here he reminds us quite how the world in 2010 is changing “because this was the Nineties, and mobile phones barely existed…”

And now for a different perspective on the year’s biggest environmental disaster. She might be everyone’s favourite Dame, but Helen Mirren proves why actors and actresses should stick to what they know… “Dame Helen Mirren said yesterday she was ‘relieved’ that England did not beat the US in the World Cup because of the BP oil spill”

I have made several musical purchases over the past year, particularly since I joined the i-phone community. But my favourite album purchase of the year is an old one. I went to see Skinner & Baddiel live in London on the eve of the World Cup. As well as performing to their old Unplanned format, they were joined by several live musical acts including Keane, Ian Brodie from the Lighting Seeds, and James. Not sure how I managed to overlook James in my youth, but I have been enjoying them since last summer at least!

Also been a big fan of the Drums, although Amy & I weren’t so impressed with their live performance

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/the-drums/id367891513

The continuing news topic throughout the year has of course been the economy. The election provided an unfortunate distraction from actually getting on with dealing with our problems, and there is significant disagreement as to whether the current way forward is the right one. “To deliver such a fundamental change, not just in attitudes but also in the way society is structured, demands rather more thinking and planning than this government – in its urgency to appease the financial markets – has allowed itself.” While the world economy has moved on since this article was written, I think the principals remain. Such a shame that the Labour government wasted so many of the opportunities that it was given, but even worse that the fate of our economy now lies in the hands of the Coalition government (and the most unpleasant and dislikeable individual as Chancellor that I can remember)

Continuing the musical element of my review, we move now to Mr Liam Gallagher’s words. But not lyrics this time, instead his comments on various other artists. Maybe he should stick to singing!

Our funniest candidate application of the year arrived in September. He wasn’t selected for the next stage of the process, but we wish him luck for his desired role in 2011, and suggest that he is more flexible on relocation!

Having spent significant time trying to understand different European work and employment cultures over the past few years, I was interested to read an opinion that there are “troubling developments in Europe”. The world that we know will change culturally over the next ten years far more than it has over the last ten -we will all deal with it our own ways! Interested to know what those of you outside of the UK think!

And to finish, a final chuckle with the funniest joke of the year from the Edinburgh festival, and other associated one liners! “analysing a joke is like dissecting a frog; no one enjoys it, and the frog dies”

For anyone who wants to pass comment and let me know what they think about this annual review, I am also posting to the PPS blog, where comments are welcome.

http://blog.ppsworks.com/

Hope you all enjoy the last few days of 2010, and I wish you a happy, successful and fulfilling 2011!

All the best

Will