6 Puzzle pieces falling into their places

Working at Jamie Oliver’s Recipease

So there I sit, with my feet up in the air, my husband making me a cup of British tea, my Jamie Oliver apron hanging over our new couch and my staff member card of the shop on our new dining room table. I just finished another busy but lovely day at work. How proud I am of being one of Jamie’s Recipease staff! Can you believe it, this is my boss: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQ4nJB-NjTE I just started a couple of weeks ago. It is hard work and yet so much fun to lead Jamie’s amazing team and to see customers enjoying themselves whilst doing a cooking class. Jamie calls his business a food emporium, a place to learn all about cooking. We have over 30 cooking classes a week so you can imagine what that must be like: the flavors in the shop keep changing every couple of hours! I love it the most when one of our chefs is teaching the Vietnamese Street food class, because when the customers start cooking the whole shop starts smelling like Vietnam. If I just close my eyes, I picture myself walking around the food markets in Hanoi again, just like 3 years ago when I was there. At Jamie’s Recipease, we are not only doing cooking classes, but we also have a little coffee corner a restaurant and a shop section. The business looks very ‘hip’ as we Dutch people would say, very rustic and even a bit chaotic, very much Jamie’s style. For an impression, see the quick video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeJ9az5e4Ro Lots of people pop in quickly for a take away latte or cappuccino as they are on their way to the train station next door.  And the people who aren’t in a hurry, come in for breakfast that I serve them at the table. You can get some inspiration by buying one of his cooking books, as well as browsing through all sorts of different products in the shop. The chefs prepare take away lovely fresh food that you can heat up yourself in the oven. That food tastes amazing. The other day we went to see our uncle and aunt plus their daughters, husbands and children for dinner. When I used to stay with them we had ‘dinner parties’ with different themes. They really loved my Thai dishes that I made from my cooking class recipe book from Bangkok. We would even have the background music in the same theme! Well, this time it was Jamie’s theme. I brought some lovely Mediterranean fish dish a la Jamie to put straight in the oven that just tasted great!

All the jobs together at the same time

When I arrived in London in January by myself, I struggled to get a job. And now I got even more than one! I am really grateful that God answered our prayers and He opened doors for me. I am busy encouraging Andrew on his career-change-journey. God is in control and He will make a way. Only if I knew… My main job at Jamie is quite different as to what I expected, but yet I learn so much about how to run a business. From how to lead a team, how to deal with customers, how to run a business profitable and how to work out the sales and finances et cetera. I wanted to do something with at least two of my skills: I am academic, social and creative. Well, I can tick two off because Jamie’s my job is all about working for and working with people as well as creative thinking. Maybe not a fulltime job in education, but still a very nice job! I met this Dutch mum the other day at the excusive cheese shop who put me in contact with the principal of a Dutch school just a 10 minutes cycle down the road from us. It seems like I got all the jobs all together at the same time. Andrew spends his days networking with top people, job seeking and studying life coaching. As long as Andrew is studying and actively job seeking, I am still working for the cheese shop and I am also working for a recruitment agency in schools and nurseries. They just phone me in the morning to let me know they got some jobs for me and when I am not working for Jamie, then I don’t mind earning some extra pounds and gaining some extra UK experience in those fields. In September I will start for a couple of hours per week at a Dutch primary school, teaching Dutch language and culture. How amazing! Although I possess a Pedagogical Sciences degree and Educational Sciences degree, it won’t harm me to find our what it is like to work WITH children myself rather than to work FOR children behind the scenes. That recruitment job is a great opportunity to network. During lunch breaks I make sure I get to know some other staff. It also has his challenges. Toddlers throwing food all over me as I am trying to get them all to eat during lunch hour, toddlers throwing sand all over me as I am trying to teach them we should share stuff during play hour outside and….. toddlers  vomiting all over me as I am trying to organise the story telling hour after their little snack moment. It pushes my boundaries but hey, with all my life experience, I am not surprised anymore. Apart from food, sand and vomit all over me, I so enjoy going to different workplaces, fulfilling different roles and meeting lots of people. Good to get an idea of workplaces like that and what an opportunity to meet interesting people. You never know!

Same same… but different

That is what Thai people say at every corner of touristy streets in Bangkok. Probably the only English words they know… but a good way to convince your customer that your stuff, although exactly the same as the salesmen on the other side of the road, is different. I have been in Thailand three times and over the years I noticed they still sell the same stuff.. Well, London is a little world in between Andrew’s and mine. We have so much fun exploring London and we laugh a lot about differences and similarities. Same kind of European culture as I have, same kind of British traditions as Andrew’s family has. Lots of similarities and yet so different. That makes it so funny for the two of us. We laugh about almost everything.

When I get home from work by bicycle, I always love to chill out on the couch for a while. Let’s see what is on the TV for tonight. As I browse through the different channels,  all of the sudden I hear this woman echoing  through our lounge ‘Look there is an elephant!’ Of course, I am sitting in my apartment in London and on tv is a nature programme about this group of people is visiting… Addo Elephant Park in the Eastern Cape. That is the province I used to live! That park is not far from Port Elizabeth. And then I zap to the next channel: I see the British version of Lowlands called Glastonbury.  Same amount of rain, the same tent, same mud, same fun. Let’s see if I can see my colleague in the big crowd.  The next channel shows me The voice of Holland’. I recently went to see a show of the final singers together with my Cape Townian friends. One of them works at the O2, it is the same like the Gelredome in the Netherlands, a big stadium. She gets those free VIP lounge tickets and invited me to come along. What a special treatment! When I go from the one channel to the other, I see loads of commercials that are the same as in Holland. Only in Holland those lips don’t sync with what the person is saying, but here they do. Same same, but different!

Living on the other side of the river

Andrew and I are having so much fun exploring central London and the other side of the river. It feels like we have never been separated for those couple of weeks, because time has gone by so quickly! Our little trip to Holland and Belgium really did us good. We are very grateful that in the midst of this ‘transition period’, we are able to do all sorts of fun things. In between my work, Andrew’s job hunting and his studying… we often go out together. We go for runs, cycles, walks through London together, as well as museums, festivals, nature reserves et cetera. The other day Andrew took me out on a date to the ‘Beating Retreat’ at Horseguards Parade with all those funny chaps with their funny hats. And for the last couple of weeks I have been taking Andrew out on dates to pubs. One condition, he had to wear his orange hat and t shirt because we were going to watch the Netherlands playing in the world cup! We love the fact that there is so much to do here. Don’t they say, ‘When you are tired of London, you are tired of life’. There is a red bus stop just next from our front door where busses stop 24/7 as well as a train station close by. From my first salary I bought Andrew a bicycle, believe it or not. We cycle most of the time and we are really enjoying it. The other day we cycled to Richmond park that is not far from our home. I was very amused by Andrew’s comments. For me it was just another nature park, for him it was just absolutely a-ma-zing. Andrew and I live in the south western part of London. We are really enjoying our little own place. And boy we have had a lot of family and friends visiting us!

 The other day when Wendy, my mother in law from South Africa came to visit us here in London, we invited our uncle, aunt and their children around for dinner in our brand new flat. It was much fun! And finally that moment I realised that it was no longer me by myself entering my uncle and aunt’s front door after a busy job and house hunting day. Now this time they are the ones entering our front door, us welcoming them to our own spot in London. It was hard work to find a suitable place, but here we are! Then we had Andrew’s colleagues from Cape Town coming to visit us, as well as my secondary school friends from Holland, my cousin and my friends from my Dutch church as well as friends from our Port Elizabeth church. We have been making some new friendships here in the area. I meet so many new people via my work place that it is impossible to be lonely and locked up on the ‘other side of the river’.

Don’t worry mate

There are always puzzle pieces missing in life. We as people are never ever 100% satisfied, there is always something that does not make the picture complete. Life is like making a puzzle, it is the joy of getting those thousands of pieces together, not just only seeing the full picture. It’s about getting excited to be ‘on your way’ and to celebrate your progress. I actually quite enjoyed ‘exploring London’ when I was here by myself. But I must say I am loving the fact that Andrew and I are together again after those couple of weeks of hard work tidying up the last bits in South Africa and me searching for the first bits in the UK. I am loving cycling in 5 minutes home from work, walking into the main door of the stylish apartment complex we just moved into. Our flat is small, but absolutely amazing. And what I love the most is that I know when I get home, Andrew will be there. No more Skype calls and whatsapp messages! Unfortunately Andrew has struggled a bit with his health, so we really take one step at a time. He is enjoying his Life Coaching study and we hope we can start our business one day. I am also loving my job at Jamie. Every time I walk past the "meet our team" sign it makes me feel so proud to see my name under the heading ‘management team’. I am loving life. It makes me aware that I only have the here and now. I can’t live in the past by regretting or trying to control my future. Circumstances keep changing and my happiness should not depend on what I do or don’t have. No more ‘if only I get this and that, then I’d be happy’ thoughts!

I left South Africa exactly half a year ago. I can still imagine arriving at London Gatwick airport, walking past Jamie’s Italian, one of his restaurants, as I was on my way to meet my uncle and aunt at arrivals. I can picture Jamie Oliver himself, standing in front of his business as I walk passed him. I can hear him welcoming me to London with the words "don't worry about jobs mate, soon you will be running one of my business" and "by the way your stylish apartment will get sorted as well, your home is going to be next to the Thames, close to Waterloo and just a quick five minute cycle down the road from my business.."
 My story, my life is unique and I hope I can change other people’s lives by telling my one. At least I am helping Andrew in dealing with starting all over again, because he left his fulltime job, is studying now and seeking employment. He is in the same ‘transition’ as I used to be. All I can say is ‘don’t worry mate, soon all puzzle pieces will fall into their places!”