Want to live and work in Ibiza? These tips might help you… :o)
Sorry for the random “I know everything” post – I really don’t, but a friend just made me extremely jealous by telling me he’s moving to Ibiza to work for the rest of the summer. I went out there and survived a couple of months last summer, and he asked me for any pointers or advice I can offer.
Having had one too many Red Bulls this evening, my reply to him, which was only supposed to be a couple of lines long, ended up looking like this. I hope it’s of some help if you’re planning on going out there yourself, but if it isn’t then feel free just to add a comment telling me what a rambling waste of space I am :o)
“Hi buddy,
I’ll do my best to impart everything I know [about living in Ibiza], but my honest recommendation is that you listen carefully to everything I say… and then do the exact opposite!
First things first – accommodation. If you don’t have anything out there, get in touch with anyone and everyone who’s out there that you know and do some unashamed grovelling. If you don’t know anyone, make sure you have a hotel for a week – there’s nothing worse than the prospect of having to spend a night sleeping against your case down by the fountains in San An.
Talking of which, I assume you’rep planning to live and work in San An?
When you get there, go to The Ship Inn, and make a point of walking up and down the West End strip talking to as many of the workers you can find. Work out which ones are tossers and which ones aren’t – most you can judge easily enough as the majority are sound as a pound, but be on the look out for unusually pushy people.
If in doubt, avoid like the plague – there’s nothing worse than finding yourself living with someone who you don’t feel you can trust not to nick and sell your stuff.
On that subject, don’t take anything you’d be heartbroken to lose – phones, cameras, your passport, etc. Don’t leave them anywhere someone can find them – find a way to stash them (but be original) or find someone you totally trust. Again, be wary of landlords or employers who want to hold on to your passport as security (although I’ve let UpMarket do it once when I tried selling tickets for them, but had I been robbed I would have been fucked).
Anyway, when you get there, buy yourself a cheap Spanish mobile and sim – make sure you get one with a good text rate as you’ll be sending a shitload of texts and making calls looking for jobs and accommodation. I was on an Orange plan which cost me a frankly ridiculous 50c per text. You should be able to get down to 20c if you look around. Try asking at the Western Union internet cafe just past the Spa at the bottom of the West End strip.
… all this talking of San An is making me very, very nostalgic. If I could, I’d be out there with you in a flash. Gutted I decided not to stick it, but at the same time I’m not complaining ‘cos I like how things are here… :o)
One last thing – if the only thing you can find is someone’s sofa in a cramped flat, go for it, but don’t get stung on rent. E250 to E300 a month is sensible if you’re sharing a room and have your own bed. Aim for less if you’re sleeping on a sofa bed with your nose literally inches from someone else’s athlete’s foot.
Also, avoid rent agreements which involve selling your body unless your landlady is hot. Which (s)he won’t be… ;o)
As far as jobs go, take anything and try it one – in fact, try saying “yes” to as many opportunities as possible. Every single amazing thing which happened to me in San An last year came from saying “yes” to something I would have probably said “no” to had I not stopped myself in time. Things like nights at Cala Gracio, random trips to the island’s most beautifuil beaches, making friends with some truly awesome people, and dancing with some of the loveliest people I’ve ever chatted to and seen.
One last thing, be careful with your money, but don’t be **too** careful. You have to enjoy yourself. Try and agree with someone back home that, while you’re going to be really really careful, they can lend you up to £300 or £400 FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE OF REPATRIATING YOU if it all goes a bit squiffy!
That said, that’s a last resort, and you won’t need it. You’re going to go out there and have a great time, meet great people, see amazing things and find out just as much about yourself as you will about how strangely and wonderfully other people can be.
The only thing you really have to worry about is drunken British holidaymakers who think they have a right to act like wankers because “we’re British and we do what we like”. If, like me, you get injured by a stupid, thuggish twat while you’re out there – and I hope you don’t! – take comfort in the fact that there’s a good chance they’ll square up to either the Policia Local or La Guardia Civil, thinking they – like UK police – won’t bite back.
Then they’ll be sorry ;o)
p.s. Have fun. Don’t miss home (it’ll still be there when you come back), and keep your soul and your pants intact.
Ibiza rocks – what are you waiting for?! :o)
/Al”
Posted by Alex on Thu 2nd July 2009
Fireshot: grab screenshots of webpages with one click
I don’t know why I didn’t look for this before. Maybe I did but I didn’t find anything very good. Anyhoo…
I’ve just discovered an excellent plugin for Firefox, called Fireshot. It has a lod of options, but in a nutshell it makes it one-click simple to grab a screenshot of a webpage to the clipboard.
This is excellent for me because I find it a pain in the neck to put together thumbnails of websites I’ve created or just want a screenshot of.
Anyhoo, Fireshot – grab it here (Windows only at the moment).
Eeeeeexcellent :o)
Posted by Alex on Tue 9th June 2009
Back to Blighty; now to get a McJob… :o)
Ok, I admit it – my decision to up sticks and head to Ibiza for the summer backfired a bit after I’d been in Ibiza for only one week and realised I was bored as anything.
That’s not to say Ibiza is boring – of course not – but after I’d worked my socks off during the winter on a big web development project, I realised very quickly that I missed the daily “fun” (if you can call it that) of trying to make an open source content management system like Drupal do things it doesn’t think it’s meant to do.
Actually, I should make sure I remember this decision when, in many years’ time, I mistakenly think that I want to retire.
Anyhoo, I’m now back in the UK and surveying the damage done:
- I no longer have a job – d’oh
- I’m still bored, but at least I have more people to talk to (Ibiza at the start of May is still a bit of a ghost town)
- I’m fast running out of money
Right, time to re-write my CV. No, of course I don’t have a copy lying around – it was lost when I managed to trash my laptop last week. I know there’s a copy on the Time Machine backup of the Mac, but I don’t have a Mac at the moment, so getting to it is pretty much impossible :(
Posted by Alex on Thu 4th June 2009
Geeky Drupal-related bootnote: ‘HTTP status request fails’ – fixed
I’ve been having a problem for the last couple of weeks with the Drupal website I’ve been working on where the webserver couldn’t resolve any external URLs, which meant that the website couldn’t check for updates, send e-mails, or access anything on the internet because it couldn’t resolve web addresses through DNS. Drupal was reporting the error “HTTP status request status: fails”.
The problem was in PHP only – command line nslookups and pings were working fine, and I was completely stumped.
It turns out that the problem was caused by a DNS server failure we had a little while back and, while the server came back online very quickly, Apache wasn’t able to get itself together.
To fix it, all I had to do was issue the following two commands at the command line:
- apachectl graceful-stop
- apachectl -k start
… and voila – all working again.
What a pain in the arse… ;o)
Posted by Alex on Thu 26th March 2009
The hard part is keeping it…
After a soul-destroyingly long hunt, and possibly the most botched-up example of a job interview I’ve ever given, I’ve been offered a job for the next few months working with a division of the NHS on one of their websites, based at London Bridge. Yey!
I can’t go into details about *why* I botched the interview – just believe me when I say I couldn’t have stuck my foot much further into my mouth if I’d tried. Still, I got the job, so it can’t be too awful… Unless they employed me with the sole intention of punishing me for the next few months. Stranger things have happened…
All I’ve got to do now is keep the job. Sure, I’m qualified to do it, but that doesn’t mean I’ve not got any nerves about the position.
Anyway, have something random: here’s an example of a Nice Rejection Letter – yup, they do exist…
Posted by Alex on Thu 27th November 2008
Ross/Brand – how not to let a molehill become a mountain (version 2,137)
This thought-provoking blog entry by the BBC’s Steve Bowbrick on how the BBC might have been able to avoid the media storm is well worth a look:
This is interesting for me: in my last job at Portsmouth students’ union, I remember trying – and failing – to express as eloquently as Steve has exactly why openness in a crisis is A Good Thing, and this school of thinking – be open and honest with your stakeholders and always maintain a dialogue – is one I really do believe in (uhhm, unless you’re MI5…).
Well worth a read, especially if you’re in a position of power in any company. Or if you’re bored ;o)
Posted by Alex on Tue 18th November 2008
A 2-second Ibiza update… ;o)
Hello everyone!
Here’s a lightning recap of the last few days, ‘cos I know you’re all *really* interested (note: this is sarcasm, ;o)
Steph and I have moved into our new apartment, which is right above the fabled Ship Inn (Ibiza workers’ central). We’ve got free interweb (blagged, of course) and are right opposite UPmarket, one of the bigger ticket sellers-cum-bit of everything shops in Ibiza.
Steph’s doing a trial selling Clubland tickets tonight, and did a PRing trial for one of the strip clubs in the West End the other night. I think she’s dropped the Shades PR gig now – not a bad thing, ‘cos the place is in a nightmare location for getting customers through the door.
I did my first night selling photo keyrings in the West End last night. The photo printer is set up in a back-room in That Bar, a room whose decor reminds me of the prison cells from Midnight Express (i.e. grim, for those of you who haven’t seen the film). The basic idea is that Luis (the boss) does his salesman/David Bailey thing (fussing about where people are standing or sitting and generally overdoing the Customer Feng Shui aspect), while I try not to look too embarrassed and get a good photo, keep track of the orders, and then run back to my prison cell/photo booth and print up the keyrings before people get bored and wander off.
Still, he’s paying my wages, so I’m not arguing. Yet!
More importantly, GOOD NEWS! Carla at Ibiza Voice got in touch this afternoon and asked whether I wanted to photograph the DC10 opening parties on the 15th and 18th August. As you can imagine, I deliberated long and hard… For about 2 hundredths of a second, and gave her a resounding “f*** yes” so, unless she changes her mind, I should be off for My First Photography Gig where I might actually get paid (and, let’s face it, it’s DC10, so even if I don’t get a penny for it, it’ll be a good night).
Right, it appears that I lied about this being a 2 second update, so a huge apology to Jade for making you jealous again, and to everyone else out there who isn’t in La La Land, I hope you’re all peachy-good :o)
Big luv,
Al & Steph
Posted by Alex on Sat 9th August 2008
Bye bye, Portsmouth!
(This has been lifted from my UPSU work blog)
Well folks, that’s all from me. As of 5pm last night I ceased to be an employee of the University of Portsmouth Students’ Union. Tom Worman has officially taken over the reins of the Media & Publications Officer role, and as I speak is probably swinging 50 new projects into action.
I’ve been employed by the Union in one capacity or another for one month short of the last six years, so it’s quite strange to think that yesterday was the last time I’d be poking around the place as an employee. In my time there, I’ve learnt to pull the perfect snakebite (although I’ve probably forgotten how to, as well) as a bar monkey, put together and run a sound system and lighting rig as an ents monkey, been involved in designing, building and running the website as a pixel monkey, and – for the last year – been the media officer, looking after the Union’s student media output.
I’ve made a few friends, upset plenty of people, and been given some very cool opportunities, so really this is a thankyou from me to everyone who’s made the last six years – and especially the last year – as fun, interesting, and challenging as it could have been.
I’m not sure what’s next for me. I have a one-way ticket to Ibiza booked for this Saturday, and I’ll be out there looking for a job and a flat with next year’s Pugwash editor Steph Hall. We might only survive a week and find there’s nowhere to live, or we might get lucky and make it through the last two months of the summer season – I really don’t know. If you fancy laughing at me, join the Facebook group and I’ll keep you updated on the latest stupid thing I’ve done…
No doubt I’ll be in the news soon for being involved in some embarrassing scandal involving a goat and a nudists’ beach in Ibiza…
Rena, Elle, Mike, Steve, Jaf, Fraggy, Tom, Jacob, Tallie, Laura, Pete, other Pete, Ben, Darby, other Steve, Jo, Karen, Tracey, Cherelyn, Sharon, Graeme, Wayne, Cat, Gamel, other Tom, Aakash, Caroline, Gina, Fred, Maz, Sloppy, Carl, Clive, Jim, Ryan, Rob, Hannah, Bex, Shrey, Rich, Alex, Scott, Janet, Stuart, John, Mario, Adrian… ok, «everyone» at the Union: thanks :)
Good luck Tom, goodbye everybody and, of course, bloody cheers :o)
/al
Posted by Alex on Fri 1st August 2008
A common problem
(This post was originally published on my work blog)
It is strangely encouraging to see that, about the same time that Pugwash News was suffering its own dramas during issue 9 this year, Imperial College Union’s Felix newspaper was suffering as a result of non-editorial pressure to censor itself.
This isn’t going to be a rant – or any kind of discussion – about the role of independent student media within a parent students’ union institution, but it is interesting to read the following comment:
“We decided not to take the “publish and be damned” approach because it is ridiculous that Editor after Editor, year after year, Felix should keep coming up against the same problems over censorship by the constitution.
“Felix is regularly faced with the question of whether it is allowed by the Union to publish its news stories that are in the public interest. This is what must change.”
Pugwash News, and Pugwash Online (currently at upsu.net/news, but for how long?) will inevitably – if it is doing what it’s designed to do – run into similar problems next year. This year has already seen several occasions where the publications have been specifically instructed not to publish, for a variety of reasons, stories which have been arguably in the public interest.
That’s not to say that every story which was pulled was in the public interest, of course, but this year’s introduction of a newspaper and larger news-orientated media team has led the Union into a lot of previously unchartered territory, and has naturally caused concern among some members as to the role of student media – should it be an unbiased source of incisive observation about the effectiveness of the Union and the University? Or is it ever right to play down the problems and bad news encountered by its parent institution?
While it is important for students’ unions to act in the best interests of their membership, there are cases around the country where student media editors have questioned whether censorship has been thrust upon them appropriately, or whether it has been done to save face or due to an overcautious approach to information dissemination by their union, as is the case with the Felix article I mentioned above; for the sake of Portsmouth’s students and the Union’s media, I hope this never needs to happen again.
Two more days to go for me at Portsmouth, but the learning curve still continues…
Posted by Alex on Tue 29th July 2008
Two weeks left – time’s ticking…
I’ve just realised that I only have two weeks left in office. That’s two weeks to change the world, train Tom (my successor) in changing the world, write a whole raft of training documentation for Tom and whoever else is unfortunate enough to have to tidy up my mess after I’m gone, and God-knows what else.
Fun times ahead indeed… ;o)
Posted by Alex on Thu 17th July 2008