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Odd Jobs (Unusual Gigs, Positions & Vocations)

Can you vomit on command? If so, there's a gig in Amsterdam you might want to pursue. Be advised - many applications have already been submitted.
Amsterdam phobia clinic seeks employee to vomit on command

A phobia clinic in Amsterdam has open applications for an employee who is able to vomit at will. So far, around a hundred people have showed interest in the position, according to AT5.

Kindt Clinics in Amsterdam deals with people who have anxiety, phobias or PTSD ... Its specialists treat phobias such as fear of heights, aversion to needles and claustrophobia ...

The clinic also helps people overcome a fear of vomiting. It has put out a call for a part-time position in which a person will vomit on command to help the clinic's patients deal with their vomiting phobia, according to AT5. The new hire will replace a previous employee, who retired.

The new employee's job will consist of vomiting during a session with the patient, to allow the patient to face their phobia. "There are many more [applications] than expected. Our new transmitter is certainly among them," Kroesse said. ...
FULL STORY: https://nltimes.nl/2022/09/04/amsterdam-phobia-clinic-seeks-employee-vomit-command
 
In my early days in the Civil Service I worked in personnel. When we added staff to the payroll or promoted someone we had to enter a computer code for their pay grade. There was a big book of the codes for all the grades in the Civil Service and we had great fun flicking through looking at the different job titles. My two favourites were Object Cleaner and Inseminator (the mind boggles!)
 
Can you vomit on command? If so, there's a gig in Amsterdam you might want to pursue. Be advised - many applications have already been submitted.

FULL STORY: https://nltimes.nl/2022/09/04/amsterdam-phobia-clinic-seeks-employee-vomit-command
I used to know someone who could do that as a party trick in the early 90's. He'd lean out the second story window of Hamlets in Tamworth with us all chanting outside and egging him on. He didn't have to stick his fingers down his throat or use any other techniques. He's a practising surgeon nowadays, before that he was a mortician and before that a nude male model .. before that he played slap bass guitar in a funk metal band. I still know him on facebook so I'm going to send him this link for fun in case he can still freestyle puke :)
 
I used to know someone who could do that as a party trick in the early 90's. He'd lean out the second story window of Hamlets in Tamworth with us all chanting outside and egging him on. He didn't have to stick his fingers down his throat or use any other techniques. He's a practising surgeon nowadays, before that he was a mortician and before that a nude male model .. before that he played slap bass guitar in a funk metal band. I still know him on facebook so I'm going to send him this link for fun in case he can still freestyle puke :)
Wait... he's a surgeon and a rock star? His name isn't Buckaroo Banzai, is it?
 
Wait... he's a surgeon and a rock star? His name isn't Buckaroo Banzai, is it?
Nah .. he's not a star, he just used to play in bands and now he's a B8 Neuroscience surgeon if his profile's to be believed. I've seen a pic of him in a theatre wearing the clobber. And he used to be good at vomiting on command.
 
An Icelandic yogurt company will pay someone $50,000 to move to Iceland and document / promote the simpler lifestyle available there.
This Company Will Pay You $50,000 to Move to Iceland for a 'Simpler Life'

While the grass isn't always greener on the other side, sometimes it actually is. Now, you can test that theory. Yogurt maker siggi's is hiring for a freelance gig—officially dubbed Chief Simplicity Offiskyr—which would task you with just that.

The company will pay one person $50,000 to move to Iceland, one of the world's happiest countries, and document their experience with its newly implemented four-day work week.

The job requires you to capture content for siggi's social channels and document the mission of simplicity while also experiencing all that Iceland has to offer, including the Northern Lights and Icelandic food. It shouldn't be too hard, huh? Along with that $50k paycheck, you'll also get a camera for said content creation and insider connections to hiking guides, restaurant owners and chefs, and more. ...
FULL STORY: https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/siggis-move-to-iceland-contest
 
An Icelandic yogurt company will pay someone $50,000 to move to Iceland and document / promote the simpler lifestyle available there.

FULL STORY: https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/siggis-move-to-iceland-contest

Seriously thought about it. Mrs. Coal not so keen. So many Saga locations to scout and amazing fishing.
After visiting Iceland and liking it a lot, I read a book a few years ago by a university lecturer from the south of England who moved to Reykjavik to work at the uni there thinking it would be a Nordic paradise. She hated it - the people kept themselves to themselves so it was virtually impossible to make friends, the language is very difficult to learn (she claimed there were no adult learning classes for immigrants at all), there was nothing to do at the weekend and the cost of living was crazy.

Perhaps it’ll be different for the Skyr promoter but her experiences painted a really bleak picture of an unhappy place.
 
After visiting Iceland and liking it a lot, I read a book a few years ago by a university lecturer from the south of England who moved to Reykjavik to work at the uni there thinking it would be a Nordic paradise. She hated it - the people kept themselves to themselves so it was virtually impossible to make friends, the language is very difficult to learn (she claimed there were no adult learning classes for immigrants at all), there was nothing to do at the weekend and the cost of living was crazy.

Perhaps it’ll be different for the Skyr promoter but her experiences painted a really bleak picture of an unhappy place.
Nothing to do at the weekend? They do quite a bit of off-roading or jumping into pools of hot water.
 
After visiting Iceland and liking it a lot, I read a book a few years ago by a university lecturer from the south of England who moved to Reykjavik to work at the uni there thinking it would be a Nordic paradise. She hated it - the people kept themselves to themselves so it was virtually impossible to make friends, the language is very difficult to learn (she claimed there were no adult learning classes for immigrants at all), there was nothing to do at the weekend and the cost of living was crazy.
You see this in the UK - people move to the country expecting a 'village community' and discover folk living there are like folk everywhere and many like to keep themselves to themselves - I and Mrs Coal are such and our new neighbours are baffled we are indifferent to becoming their instant friends.

It takes years to build ties into a community like that, and one doesn't do it by pushing in and setting about 'building a community', there already is one, you're just not part of it yet. I expect that it would take years to become even vaguely integrated into Iceland society in any meaningful way. You'd just be a tourist for the first five years.

I'd hazard that trying really hard to learn Icelandic (perhaps at the week-end) despite 'no adult learning classes for immigrants at all' (poor her) might well have gained more respect. :hoff:
 
After visiting Iceland and liking it a lot, I read a book a few years ago by a university lecturer from the south of England who moved to Reykjavik to work at the uni there thinking it would be a Nordic paradise. She hated it - the people kept themselves to themselves so it was virtually impossible to make friends, the language is very difficult to learn (she claimed there were no adult learning classes for immigrants at all), there was nothing to do at the weekend and the cost of living was crazy.
Jules Verne defended Icelandic culture (Hans the guide, extinct volcano) in Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1864). Reykjavik had a library and although it only contained half a dozen books, all were always loaned out.
 
You see this in the UK - people move to the country expecting a 'village community' and discover folk living there are like folk everywhere and many like to keep themselves to themselves - I and Mrs Coal are such and our new neighbours are baffled we are indifferent to becoming their instant friends.

It takes years to build ties into a community like that, and one doesn't do it by pushing in and setting about 'building a community', there already is one, you're just not part of it yet. I expect that it would take years to become even vaguely integrated into Iceland society in any meaningful way. You'd just be a tourist for the first five years.

I'd hazard that trying really hard to learn Icelandic (perhaps at the week-end) despite 'no adult learning classes for immigrants at all' (poor her) might well have gained more respect. :hoff:
I don’t disagree with you and I’m not trying to defend her (I must admit I didn’t have a great deal of sympathy for her when I read her story), just pointing out that sometimes things that seem idyllic can be rather trying or even downright unpleasant. A lot of people look at these things through rose tinted glasses. The practical experience of living as an immigrant in a new country, especially one which is culturally and linguistically miles apart from the one you grew up in, is always very different from the expectation.

The book is ‘Names For The Sea’ by Sarah Moss, if anyone is interested in reading it
 
I don’t disagree with you and I’m not trying to defend her (I must admit I didn’t have a great deal of sympathy for her when I read her story), just pointing out that sometimes things that seem idyllic can be rather trying or even downright unpleasant. A lot of people look at these things through rose tinted glasses. The practical experience of living as an immigrant in a new country, especially one which is culturally and linguistically miles apart from the one you grew up in, is always very different from the expectation.

The book is ‘Names For The Sea’ by Sarah Moss, if anyone is interested in reading it
I think you're right, the expectation and reality are often far apart and some folk struggle with it - there is a mind-set that expects 'everything we had in civilised uptown but with nicer views' and it's seldom like that :)

I know of people who moved to France and had bad experiences trying to fit in and came home, but a pal of mine did wonderfully well, but he/they fitted in, helped his neighbours out, got socialised as a newt if required, and learned the language. When in Rome etc.
 
You see this in the UK - people move to the country expecting a 'village community' and discover folk living there are like folk everywhere and many like to keep themselves to themselves - I and Mrs Coal are such and our new neighbours are baffled we are indifferent to becoming their instant friends.

It takes years to build ties into a community like that, and one doesn't do it by pushing in and setting about 'building a community', there already is one, you're just not part of it yet. I expect that it would take years to become even vaguely integrated into Iceland society in any meaningful way. You'd just be a tourist for the first five years.

I'd hazard that trying really hard to learn Icelandic (perhaps at the week-end) despite 'no adult learning classes for immigrants at all' (poor her) might well have gained more respect. :hoff:
I used to deliberately take a job as a barman anytime I moved to a new area where I didn't know anyone. You get to meet a large part of the community pretty quickly when you're getting people drunk so they adopt you and you're getting paid to do it plus network at the same time. Someone in my home town tells people I'm the only barman who never barred him so he likes me for that reason. The truth is I was too busy laughing at his antics .. plus he's a bit of nutter.
 
You see this in the UK - people move to the country expecting a 'village community' and discover folk living there are like folk everywhere and many like to keep themselves to themselves - I and Mrs Coal are such and our new neighbours are baffled we are indifferent to becoming their instant friends.

It takes years to build ties into a community like that, and one doesn't do it by pushing in and setting about 'building a community', there already is one, you're just not part of it yet. I expect that it would take years to become even vaguely integrated into Iceland society in any meaningful way. You'd just be a tourist for the first five years.

I'd hazard that trying really hard to learn Icelandic (perhaps at the week-end) despite 'no adult learning classes for immigrants at all' (poor her) might well have gained more respect. :hoff:
Sorry not sorry.... you come across as , well , not very nice here and it's annoyed me

You sound like one of those God Awful " born n bred" in the village types who won't accept anyone fully unless born there. It's like when I moved from one village to another at the opposite end of Halifax, was treat pretty shitty TBH until I'd lived there 8years.... And even THEN you will always be an outsider. And that's from one village in the same town to another , hardly an ' outside culture'. ......Pretty sad really.

I hate the village mentality in this country. And I feel sorry for your neighbours who are trying to fit and get snubbed. Glad I live in a more diverse part of town now. Don't miss petty village types at all.

" Are you local ?"
 
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Sorry not sorry.... you come across as , well , not very nice here and it's annoyed me

You sound like one of those God Awful " born n bred" in the village types who won't accept anyone fully unless born there. It's like when I moved from one village to another at the opposite end of Halifax, was treat pretty shitty TBH until I'd lived there 8years.... And even THEN you will always be an outsider. And that's from one village in the same town to another , hardly an ' outside culture'. ......Pretty sad really.

I hate the village mentality in this country. And I feel sorry for your neighbours who are trying to fit and get snubbed. Glad I live in a more diverse part of town now. Don't miss petty village types at all.

" Are you local ?"

Could be worse; in Cromer they set muntjacs on newcomers.
 
You sound like those " born n bred" in the village types who won't accept anyone fully unless born there. It's like when I moved from one village to another at the opposite end of Halifax, was treat pretty shitty TBH until I'd lived there 8years.... And even THEN you will always be an outsider. And that's from one village in the same town to another , hardly an ' outside culture'. ......Pretty sad really.

I hate the village mentality in this country. And I feel sorry for your neighbours who are trying to fit and get snubbed. Glad I live in a more diverse part of town now.
You're not correct in our instance. We moved here 25 years ago, because it was near my wife's family (I was away a lot and it was sensible to be located near her folks if she need support). For the record, the local people when we moved here couldn't have been more friendly - admittedly the cricket team welcomed useful left-handed opening batsman, but this said, we never got any sense we were not welcome, but our neighbours even then (all moved on now) kept themselves to themselves, save for when anyone needed help.

We don't 'not accept' new residents any more than anyone else who' been here years, but the new mover's expectation is often that 'we're all now friends' on arrival, and it's just not like that. One of the local newbies, moved in, threw a massive birthday party for a landmark age, invited the whole hamlet, got a marquee and a band in...I'm fairly sure literally no-one in the hamlet went, to his utter amazement. That's just normal people's reaction to socialising with people they don't know - they don't generally do it that much :)

It's not a snub, people assume they're being snubbed because that's easier to accept than indifference to them*, at least until people know them better and that takes time. If they don't like that people choose how, when and who they socialise with, well, that's on them. When in Rome etc.

* People tend to assume there's something wrong with a person if they are not friendly with them. Sometimes though it's just that the first person is a dickhead.
 
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