My Playlist

Friday 31 October 2008

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

It’s Halloween and I had to work. Apparently at home we had no trick or treat kids round and nothing really happened at work. This morning however I believe our poltergeist returned. I was in the bath and all of a sudden the shampoo bottle fell over. I promise you I was nowhere near the bottle, the dog and cat were locked out of the bathroom and it was so cold this morning that I had the window shut. So how did it fall over? It happened again at work. There was no-one in the aisle straight in front of me and again all of a sudden one of the tool boxes fell off the shelf. Spooky huh.

Question, Is it Christmas already? Can you sense the sarcasm? Well at work it is. All the new Christmas stock is going in. We have some lights and tinsel, trees and those annoying singing Christmas characters that start off all cute, but then after listening to them all day, they piss you off. One thing IT’S ONLY OCTOBER.

In other work news. The re-vamp has finally kicked up a gear. Showrooms is split in two, with kitchens and bathrooms at opposite ends of the store. Electrical is currently in plumbing. Plumbing has shifted up. We have no building yard, so all the exterior wood has move into the store. We have no stock on about 3-4 aisles in the middle of the store. The doors have moved to gardening. Trees have been cut down. Half of the car park which is in use has been dug up. And a wall has been removed from the staff area. It’s all go, hopefully to be finished before the deadline of peak trading at Easter.

I haven’t had anymore complaints about my parking. Which is really awesome. I still don’t like parking over the back, especially after dark.

My Saturday shifts have changed as of last Saturday. I keep to the same times and I still have one person from my shift. But I have two new people on my shift. So now I go from an all female shift to a half female and half male shift. In a way it is good but I will miss the girls. Plus I am now the only returns trained operator on my shift.

On Wednesday I had to fill in a Q12 questionnaire which asks staff what they think of the company as a place to work. One of the questions refers to ’Do you have the tools and equipment to do you job?’ I said no, we still have a problem with stationary like staplers and calculators, etc. another question asked ’Do you feel your opinion counts?’ Again I said no, referring to the stationary. I ranted on and said something along the lines of well no because if my opinion counted the stationary problem would have been sorted by now. So when I arrived tonight, guess what, yep we have all new stationary. But the staplers they have given us are useless. But at least they tried. They are trying to make us happy before the official questionnaire at the end of November.

Now the Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross story of them making prank phone calls to the actor Andrew Sachs and saying things about sleeping with the actor’s grand-daughter. For fuck sake it was a prank. It was funny and it has been blown well out of proportion. It should never have got as far as Russell Brand quitting and Jonathan Ross being suspended. They are both really funny men and if anyone had a problem with it they could have changed the station. They didn’t have the final say on the broadcasting of the material, it would be down to the shows producer. So if anyone deserves the sack, it the producer. The BBC website states that the amount of complains 15 days after the event has reached 37,500. Yeah, about 95% of them were days after the event.
Most probably didn’t even hear the original broadcast. I say again. IT WAS A PRANK.

Lewis Hamilton faces the final race of the season on the top of the table. But Felipe Massa is on his home circuit. The final race is this Sunday. The Brazilians have been said to be wishing Lewis to get a puncture. But I say one thing COME ON LEWIS. If Lewis wins he will become the youngest racer to win the Formula one championship trophy.

Oh well that’s it for now. I have to get some sleep as I am on early shift tomorrow and I fell like shit, because I have a fucking cold. My nose is blocked or running, my throat is on fire and I have a chesty cough.

Tuesday 21 October 2008

A** hole

Today I am kind of pissed off. Today was my first day on BlogTV and everything was going okay for a while and then some obnoxious asshole decided to insult me. He (I’m guess it was a he) said something like don’t I have any respect for myself, I look like a pig in cow’s clothing. I thought you fucking little twat. So I replied with some line like ‘who the fuck asked you’. He just hacked me off so much. I mean, I’m fine with the way I look and I don’t care what people say about me, especially people who don’t know me. He doesn’t know if I am really self conscious about the way I look. He doesn’t know if I am diabetic. He doesn’t know if I have been through depression and am finally happy within myself and what he said would set me back. He doesn’t know if I’m suicidal. He just doesn’t know what consequence what he said would have on a person. Not to mention he didn’t have the cuts to sign in and in a way say it to my face. He had to hide behind a guest. I been at least 6 hours and I am still annoyed.

On a good note the new bath is fitted and built-in shower head. No more leaks.

Tuesday 14 October 2008

Nothing has changed

Yesterday was my first day back at work after my holiday. Now the place is meant to be being refurbished but it looks no different to when I left. Just before I left, I was told that the lighting area would be down in two weeks but it’s still there.

An update on the parking situation. We have now been told that we have to park in the top car park. With no exceptions. We get two strikes. First strike we get a yellow card and a warning. Second time and it’s a red card, you’re dismissed from the company and they escort you from the building. Of course, where do I park. Yep, at the back of the front car park. But if it comes to anything I will argue the fact that I haven’t been told officially. It was only hearsay.

Today I treated the family to a Mc Donald’s dinner. Nice of me huh. But it wasn’t exactly fast food. Firstly we went through the drive through and waited 20 minutes before getting to the window and being told that the chip and pin machine was out of order. I argued with the man, saying they could have let us know sooner and he replied with some line about them being understaffed. When it doesn’t take 2 minutes to put up a sign. The man said you will have to come in if you want to use your card, I don’t think there is much of a queue at the moment. So I drove round the corner and parked up. I went inside and had to wait a further 20 minutes to be served in there. All because a group of children from a youth Christians group, that’s about 30 or so kids were there ordering one by one. They had no idea what they wanted to order. Plus they only had two people serving. If you don’t already know, I really don’t like kids and I wonder why. Add to that they were talking at the top of there voices and the fact that I was getting more and more hacked off every minute. I finally got served and they fucked up my order. To start with they only gave me 2 cups, where I ordered 3 drinks. Then I got back to the car and found that they only gave my one portion of fries, yeah we needed 3. So we got really hacked off. We charged into the restaurant and demanded to see the manager. We explained the situation nice and calmly and we got the fries we were missing, plus compensation of a free desert for every person. So a brownie and 2 apple pies for free. So all in all, we had to wait 50 or so minutes to get FASTFOOD, when it should have only taken 10 minutes tops.

On a good note I am currently sat on my new sofas. We have been sitting on deck chairs and the floor for weeks. It is so heavenly to sit in comfort.

Sunday 12 October 2008

Dawlish Warren

This is the account of my holiday is Dawlish warren , Devon.

Day One

The day started with paying the rent and putting petrol in the car. Packing and selecting my holiday play list. Then a three hour car journey to Dawlish. About 1/3 of the way there we stopped at Bere Regis services for a toilet break. Back on the road to go around a pointless roundabout. By pointless I mean there were only two directions, straight forward or back the way we came. Half way there and it started to rain, oh and it’s true what they say about cows, they really do laid down when it’s raining. For the second scheduled stop we missed the turning, so we continued on. We arrived and had to wait in the clubhouse until 3:30pm, to get the keys. We are staying in C62. Right up a steep hill. Which equals lots of exercise for us. We got inside and were immediately met by the stench of stale smoke. We looked around and I bagged the back bedroom before the boys. It was smaller but some how I preferred it. Anyway my room has two single beds. So I’m sleeping on one and putting all my stuff on the other. It’s definitely dirtier than Challaborough Bay last year, so we will complain at the end of the holiday. We would have complained earlier but we had already un-packed. We tried the smoke alarm and guess what, it didn’t work. And just the same as Challaborough last year they forgot to give us linen. So off down to Reception we go. Back to the caravan to make the beds. Me and mum went to explore and ended up in a private caravan park. So back to the caravan we went. Where I got out the map and we found the direction that said to the beach. So off we went exploring again and came across a fish and chip shop and a small supermarket. It’s bigger than the site supermarket anyway. By then it was starting to get dark, so we walked back. We met the boys, just as they were leaving the caravan, and they complained that they were hungry. So we went down to the clubhouse, but found the prices were too high. So we took a drive to the fish and chip shop. The boys came with us and went to the supermarket to buy some ketchup. Back to the caravan to eat battered sausage and ships with a chip butty on the side. We watched Coronation Street and Eastenders. Then down to the clubhouse to watch the reps do a swing act. Now I’m not a huge fan of swing, but they weren’t that bad. We stayed until about 11pm. Then back to the van to play a few round of solitaire. Then bed. I was absolutely knackered.

Day Two

Today started with me and mum going down the supermarket we found yesterday, by car. On the way we took a detour in the opposite direction to see what we could see. We found a Texaco petrol station and a Chinese takeaway shop. So I said I would stretch to a takeaway one night. Anyway back to the supermarket, where I bought some stuff to do a bolognaise pasta for tonight. Back to the caravan for a cup of coffee. Then me and mum decided to walk the coastal walk. It was great; we walked along the seafront, along a narrow path, which was the only thing that stopped the sea sweeping us away. We got almost all the way along, before having to take a detour, because the tide was too high for us to carry on. We made it all the way to Dawlish. A quaint little town. Mainly tea-rooms, but we did find a bank for me to draw out money for free. Then we found a Woolworths where I bought a set of dominos. We also found a Co-op supermarket, where we bought some sandwiches and a drink each for lunch that we ate on the seafront. By which time we were so tired that we though about getting the train back. It would take us to Dawlish Warren (the next stop) but we would have to walk up a really steep hill and we would have to wait 40 minutes for the train to arrive. So we decided to walk. We walked part of the wall back and walked along the bit of wall we couldn’t earlier. The tide was still a little high. So when the waves crashed along the wall, we got a bit wet. But it was all good fun. Then we turned off up past the Texaco garage we found earlier, so that we could cut off the huge hill. 3 ½ hours after we set off we made it back to the caravan for a well earned sit down. I cooked tea. Then I had a shower. There is something very sexual about being in someone else’s shower. That was until I got the fright of my life when a spider decided to jump on me from above. For those of you who don’t know, I am shit scared of spiders. Later we went down to the clubhouse to watch the reps do a queen tribute act. The queen tribute was actually really good. They got the whole place going with we will rock you and it was hilarious when one of the male performers dressed as a woman for I want to break free. Quite awesome. Me and mum played a round of pool. Obviously the boys can’t because of their hands. It came down to the black ball. Mum selected a pocket but put in the wrong hole, so technically I won, but she was leading all the way through. Then back to the van for a very welcome sleep. As again I am knackered and my knee gave way on the way down to the clubhouse. The backs of my legs ache and I’ve pulled my neck. Oh and I have to do it all again tomorrow when me and mum will walk along the wall in the opposite direction.

Day Three

Today for breakfast, well nearer lunch by the time the cooker was hot enough. We had a fry-up. After which me and mum went down to the beach and walked along the wall in the opposite direction to yesterday. We didn’t walk as far as we were both hurting after yesterday. It was mainly a sand and pebbles walk. The closer we got to the end of the beach, the more we realised that there wasn’t really anything at the end. So after about an hour of walking we turned back. At end of which we had a real Cornish ice cream Mr Whippy ice cream with a flake. Then off to the supermarket again to buy tea for tonight of potatoes, beans and a pie each. I managed to get the latest issue of Kerrang and Rocksound. So that kept me busy for a while. We had a coffee back in the van. Then we walked down to Reception to get some leaflets on Exeter, where we may go tomorrow. We stayed in the caravan and watched TV for a while. Then had tea. At about 9pm, we went down to the clubhouse. Where they were playing Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. They got stuck on a question and so a member of the audience called 118118. Which is a service where you can ask them anything. If they have the answer then they will text it to you. But if they can’t find the answer they will text you a random fact and your call will be free. So we waited and just before we were about to use a lifeline. The man yells I got a text and 118118 were right. We finished the competition and won the million. Then the show started 15 minutes late. Tonight it was a cabaret act of a comedian/singer by the name of Sammy Small. He wasn’t really funny and he didn’t really sing anything I know. It was motown, I knew a few choruses but that was it. His funniest story was about his friend Barry. Let me see it I can transcribe it for you.

I’ve got this friend Barry. Who just started working at a zoo. Now to start with they put Barry in charge of the fish. It was just one fish. But what they didn’t tell Barry was that it was a Piranha. So it kept biting Barry and taking chunks out of him. So Barry battered the fish over the head until it was stone cold dead. Another keeper said, you can’t do that Barry, you’ll get into trouble. What are we going to do with a dead fish. Barry said feed it to the lions, they’ll eat anything. So they moved Barry to look after the chimps. But there was this one chimp that was just so troublesome that Barry bashed it over the head until it was stone cold dead. The other keeper said, Barry you can’t do that, what are we going to do with a dead chimp. What if the boss finds out? Barry said feed it to the lion’s, they’ll eat anything. Next they put Barry somewhere they believed to be safe. They put him with the bees. Now the bees liked Barry. So much so that they stung him head to toes. Until Barry was so sore that he took a broom, whacked them and mushed the bees on the floor. The other keeper said, now Barry that’s enough, what are we going to do with a load of dead bees. Barry said I care not, feed them to the lion’s, they’ll eat anything. So the next day a new lion comes to the zoo and he’s taking to the other lion’s and asked, how is it here. The other lion’s looked at him and said fine. The new lion then asked, so how is the food here. To which the other lion’s replied. Great, yesterday we had battered fish, chimps and mushy bees.
If said fast enough it sounds like battered fish, chips and mushy peas. A very English dish. Tomorrow the adventure continues.

Day Four

Today, the first thing I did was get dressed and go to the little site supermarket, as last night J and Dex ate all the bread, not leaving any for breakfast. I spent the morning watching TV. Then me and mum walked down to the beach to catch the train to Exeter. It’s my first time on a train in about 4-5 years. The last time I went on a train was to go to Winchester with my college law class to see a murder trial. Anyway in England at the moment, the transport authority or who ever runs the train times say that most trains should be on time. But my first time in 5 years and it’s late. It was only 5 minutes late but it was still late. We got to Exeter and looked around the shops and sites. All we bought was a packet of crisps and a double cheeseburger from McDonalds. Which was the best double cheese burger I have had for a long time. It was fresh and hot with the cheese melted just right. Anyway we bought a bottle of water and a nail vanish. Not much considering we paid £3 train fare each. But at least it gave us something to do. On the way back the train was dead on time. It arrived at the station on time. We got on the wrong carriage. It was 7-8 carriages long. We needed to be in the back 3 but we were in the front carriage. So we ran to change carriage. It separated on time and got us back on time. For tea me and mum went halves on a Chinese. Not as good as our usual but not bad. Then off to see the reps in a show. We went down early to see the guest talent competition but nobody entered. So we played Who Wants To Be A Millionaire but Mark, one of the reps lost us all but £1000 of the money because he was so sure of an answer but was wrong. Then we watched the reps do a west end show, full of songs from west end musicals like The Lion King, Cats, Fame, Flash dance and Footloose. Then sadly back to the caravan to pack. Strangely tonight I am so tired, I was struggling to keep my eyes open through the show. So an early-ish night for me. 1:30am. Ha-ha

Day Five

Today started early, we had to get up and pack the car to be out of the caravan by 10am. Why is it you always have more luggage leaving a place than you do arriving? We all piled in the car and set off on the long journey home. I was navigating again but I found it hard to stay awake. Where I was so tired we missed our turning and had to double back on ourselves. So when the boys wanted to stop at the Bere Regis services for a toilet break, I got a coffee and a glucose boost. Back on the road again. It was such a welcome site to see the M27. It took us 3 ½ hours to get home. Then the arduous task of un-packing. Off to do some food shopping to get the essentials. Home to unpack again. Then down to Nan and Granddad’s to pick up Poppy. And that’s it, back home and the holidays is over. I still have a couple of days off work. Which is bonus.

All in all it was a very relaxing and welcome break away from the city life. But I wouldn’t change the city for anything.

Monday 6 October 2008

holidays

In 12 hours, I am going on my holidays. I will be away for 5 days and don't know how I will spend 5 days without an internet connection.

I will be making notes all week and probably will write them all up and post them in one big blog.


So be prepared....