So due to the credit crunch a bunch of once viable lunch options that once existed are now gone (shut down), lowering the quality of food, or scamming you by giving you less food.

There was a pretty nice French place I used to go for lunch quite often. It was 1200 yen (13usd, 8gbp) and you would get a big plate with salad, soup, bread, quiche and some vegetables as a starter followed by another big plate with meat, vegetables, sauce and mash potato. Pretty filling, even for my standards.

One day they announced that they are closing down and not doing lunch anymore. It made me pretty sad because I enjoyed the food and it was reasonably priced.

However, one week later they re-open and now lunch is 1050 yen (11usd, 7gbp) and all you get is one plate with salad (taking half the plate) soup, some meat and some random piece. The amount of food you get now works out to literally half of what you were getting before but the price hardly changed. Those motherfuckers think they are smart …

We normally go to non-Japanese restaurants for lunch, but since we are out of options me and a colleague decided to go exploring for a week and try Japanese places only.

I am definitely going back to this place again

Before

After

And in other news, I had an interview for a bank job last week. I passed the first interview with the developers proving that I am indeed capable enough of working for the company. Now I have to pass the interview with the two main managers this week.

I actually interviewed with this company 2 years ago. The developers loved me but I failed at the interview with the main manager. Hopefully history doesn’t repeat itself. Anybody got tips on how to kiss ass in interviews? I assume not doing it well enough is what got me rejected last time…

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Based on my last blog some of you might be thinking that I killed someone either recently or in the past. Please rest assured that, that is not the case. I was just flexing my creative muscles.

But let us return to the real world (the matrix).

Credit crunch, housing market collapse, bad economy, recession, homelessness, skyrocketing unemployment, the end of the world, armageddon, 666, blah, blah yeah, yeah etc, etc.

Ladies and gentlemen, it might just be the end of the world as we know it.

But screw that topic, lets go back to talking about me :).

So yeah, had a general meeting on Tuesday. Got some bad news. The good ol’ be careful what you wish for.

Lets go back, back in time. It was a stormy night, or was it a sunny day?

We were rounded up like cattle for the slaughter and summoned to the meeting room.

The business isn’t doing well. We are losing revenue. So here is the plan. Three phases. The final phase will result in jobs being lost based on how important you are to the business.

After the meeting we were told phase 1 has already commenced.

The next month (January 2009) got an email saying we are in phase 2.

Phase 2 was apparently room cuts and a few other things but nobody getting fired.
However nobody was actually informed as to the specifics that the declaration of phase 2 would entail.

After sweating for 2 months we were all once again summoned on Tuesday. Basically one person who works off site is getting the chop at the end of this month. In two months time 2 more people will be getting the chop once the CEO is back from a business trip. People who are least important to the company and don’t work hard enough will be prime candidates (and here I am writing blogs instead of doing work LOL).

It was pretty intense because the first hour of the meeting was boring slides. Everybody was falling asleep. Then BANG. He just started talking about firing people and betting the house on a new business model…

Two people were even called out by names stating that their roles have become redundant of late due to the market. So either find new roles and functions or get a pay reduction or even worse the chop.

Harsh times are upon us. It is survival of the fittest. Who will survive? Only time will tell.

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