David Campbell: A suitcase full of marmalade sandwiches

Dear all

Long time no speak, sorry for the lack of chat over the last wee while but I’ve spent my evenings writing whimsical tales, set in days of yore, recounting an age when the horse and cart ruled the highways, doctors protested that the cure for cholera was a hot cup of tea and The A-Team were being framed for a crime they didn’t commit……actually that all pretty much a lie.

One of the other inters living in the same apartment complex as us, Hugh ‘Sweeping Statement’ Brown, whose spending a year working for the Wood Group, bought a Nintendo Wii and we’ve been round there whiling away the wee hours trying to master bowling!!

Anyway I’m now midway through my penultimate week working for the Wood Group. Last Monday I started working within the Business Development department for my final placement, at this stage I’m working on a wee project inputting data into a spreadsheet.

However for this wee blog I want to write about an aspect of this placement that I’ve thus far neglected to mention.

The Wood Group (and in particular the fantastic HR Department) have been brilliant in letting us join the Spanish classes that are held within the office (during office hours I might add). These classes are taken by a wonderful woman; Ludy Zulaik Diaz Corrasco or ‘Zully’ for short (the fact that I can spell her name is testament to just how much of an amazing teacher she is!!)

So for the last six and a half weeks ‘Zully’ has shown the most incredible amount of patience with us as well has the most staggering degree of enthusiasm and passion for her language. Her unwavering belief that even those of us with a Gàidhlig drenched tongue can master Spanish pronunciation has been so infectious that I’m now utterly determined to master the language within a year.

Grant ‘Chicken-fel-a’ Munro and I have signed up to attend evening classes in Spanish when we get back to Glasgow provided by the majestic Glasgow University (The Number 1 University in Scotland 2007-08 no less) but if anyone from the uni is reading this and would like to offer to forgo the fee associated with this class then please feel free to do so….em…er…

In other news, I’ve decided to move to Peru….

Maybe I should go into a bit of background here. About three years ago my brother Niall and Cousin John were sitting in the flat enjoying a leisurely case of absinth when they decided that we (the two of them, one of my other brother’s Jamie and myself) were going to move to Peru, they then phoned me at quarter to six in the morning to inform me that I had to get up and pack my case because we were about to fly to the to “the nearest airport or flat bit of land next to Machu Picchu”.

If I’m being honest, at the time it sounded like one of the most ridiculously far fetched ideas ever - the sort of thing associated with a liver full of absinth.

However, over the last 6 weeks a number of contributing factors (not least of which are the efforts of Zully to help us get to grips with the native language) have made the idea of spending a period of time in South America more and more attractive. Houston is a melting pot of South American people, culture and cuisine and has given me a real desire to sample the continent (I just re-read that last sentence and realized just how daft it is to suggest that living in Texas for 6 weeks has filled me with a desire to live in South America….it’s like saying that living in Aberdeen for a period of time would fill you with a desire to move in Mongolia…..nah I’m not even going to go there, that ones waaaaaay to obvious!)

So I’ve spent the last couple of days emailing the boys informing them that this time we are all moving to Peru….it’s now their turn to think I’ve been hitting the booze a bit hard!

I don’t think Peru have ever really been fully compensated for sending us Paddington Bear and thus (taking into account inflation) four ‘Deasaich’ would just about make things even. I should also say that the people the Wood Group have working in Houston from South America are basically the greatest tourist-sales-folk you’re ever likely to some across and it’s really down to them that I’m looking into this.

So anyway I’m off to listen to Enrique Iglesias - No Apagues La Luz now that I understand nearly an entire four word of the chorus (time to confess, I actually bought this album when I was in first year in uni as part of ‘late night entertainment package’ the poor females of Glasgow were subjected too!....bad times!! J )

Anyway, Grant, Hugh and I are meant to be heading over to New Orleans tomorrow to spend Labor Day weekend, however Hurricane Gustav may result in large parts of Louisiana being evacuated so we might have to make some last minute changes of plans.

I’m sure you’re also aware it’s ‘Old Firm’ weekend and thus to mark the return of the prodigal son Shaun Maloney (please see the following link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZECrmmK568) I’d like everyone to stand and give a 1 minute round of applause

**clap****clap****clap****clap****clap****clap****clap****clap****clap****clap****clap**

**clap****clap****clap****clap**………..**clap**

Speak next week

David

Comments

You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

On behalf of those South Americans that work in the WG office (I hope you included me in them) thanks for the compliments!!!

We still need to visit the Venezuelan joint and then you'll have the full picture!

It's been great knowing all of you, and we will, certainly, miss you loads!

Take care boys!

Posted by: Ana | August 28, 2008 at 04:11 PM

Verify your Comment

Previewing your Comment

Posted by: |

This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.

Your comment could not be posted. Error type:

Your comment has been posted. Post another comment

The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.

As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.

Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.

David Campbell

August 28, 2008

A suitcase full of marmalade sandwiches

TrackBack

Comments

Verify your Comment

Previewing your Comment

Post a comment

About

Categories

Archives