Take Me Anywhere

(Tegan and Sara)

Anywhere but here... my family are driving me crazy.

I've only been back for 3 days. I still have a whole week to go. Then I'll be home with normal people!!!

I had written another blog post. But it was one of those where I don't know what I want so I keep second guessing myself. I'll save it for when I'm more sure!

Oh and.... my sister (Fiona) and her boyfriend of 4 years (Oli) broke up last month. Shocker! For me anyway!

Get Up 'N' Go

(The Ditty Bops)

I know. I know. Sorry.
I work 14 hours a day Monday to Friday. Plus another 8+ on Saturdays.
So when I get home at around 6ish Saturday evening I'm so tired all I can do is put some laundry on, get something to eat and fall asleep way too early!
Sundays; I spend my time doing more laundry, catching up with people, and generally cleaning and tidying!

I have zero get up and go on Sundays. I just hang around doing nothing. Last Sunday was nice... finally got the chance to hang out with House and OCD French housemate. Just played on the Wii. Edited the Miis... House had made absolutely hideous ones, no one likes to play on a game only to find the little 'icon' that represents them looks like they fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down.
I kicked ass, naturally. I've played bowling on the Wii twice before... but I still beat House. By a HUGE margin! Might have something to do with the fact that if it was REAL bowling his ball would end up 4 lanes to the right... and probably woulnd't roll, it's would just smash through the floor. Occasionally he threw it with such exuberance the momentum made him do a little piroutte. And he wonders why I found it amusing!
He beat us hands down, every single time, on the Mario Double Dash thing... House was always 1st... I was normally 2nd... and OCD French housemate was normally 3rd (or last as it is better known!).

But I digress... I'm currently on a 'sales roadtrip'.
Normal working hours for me go:
8:30- Get to the office and do the admin work
9:30- Finish admin stuff and go learn/teach some stuff sales-wise.
10:30- Meetings, conferance calls, impacts, pitch practice, etc.
1:30- Hit the field and sell sell sell!
5:15- Break
5:30- Sell sell sell!
8:30- Head back to the office, paperwork
9:30- 'Bells' (standing around in a circle, with disco lights on, Bonkers on full blast, chanting 'Oggy oggy oggy, oi oi oi!' to recognize whoever did well that day)
9:45- Break down the days of anyone standing around if they're 'under' me heirarchy-wise!
10:30- Head home.

Every week or so a roadtrip gets sent out... sometimes to another office to see what it's like there... sometimes just a sales roadtrip to sell sell sell. Which is what I'm on right now.
Sale Roadtrips go like this:
9:30- Get ready to hit the field (merch, food, maps, etc)
10:30- Hit the field and sell sell sell!
4:00- Break
4:15- Sell sell sell!
8:30- Head back to wherever we're staying (currently a gorgeous 3 storey town house in Swansea)
9:00- Paperwork
9:15- Chillax!

Which is why I've got a chance to update this badger!
But now I'm cream crackered... so I'm off to bed in a minute!

Plans

(Bloc Party)

Soo.... I no longer work at The End.
I'm in S and M.
And by that I mean Sales and Marketing! Not bondage!

It's fairly ridiculous. I had the pre-interview interview on a Wednesday. Got called back in for a day-long observation/interview on the Thursday. Got the job. Had to go in for a day of training on the Friday. Then start my 6 day trial on the Monday.
And due to the Managing Director being away on a busimess trip and me being off for a few days to Bloc Party in Sheffield , my trial actually ended being more of an 8 day thing!
But I passed it with flying colours and secured the job!

I would explain about what we do but you'd be bored.
The people are amazing. Everyone is so happy and confident and positive about everything. The morning is just full of meetings, motivational speeches, sales impacts, a few games, more talks about how to do better... and everyone is always high fiving each other.
No joke. I counted how many high fives I gave out/ recieved on one day... the total: 47.
I'm not a high five kinda girl. But it's the done thing at this place. You say Hello with a high five, you say Good Bye with a high 5, you say Well Done with a high five, you say Good Luck with a high five...

And the scary thing is: I'm becoming one of them. I'm around people who don't talk about negatives, people who are always smiling and joking, chatting about positive things, talking about how to do better, wishing each other luck... but also competing with each other in the sort of way that just makes you want to do better!

There's Sports Day every Wednesday morning... where whoever is in the office by 9:30am goes to the nearest park and we play rounders, football or touch rugby. Last Wednesday I scored 5 rounders for my team... and was the last person in... so my team regarded me as the MVP for the rest fo the day, despite the fact that we actually lost at the sports!
Ogo, the managing director, was on the winning sports team, and decided to take the competition to the office. Dividing everyone who didn't turn up for the sports onto the two teams... and set us a challenge.
The winning sports team got a point for winning at rounders and football. Then she told us that whichever team dropped the first sale of the day would get the next point. And then whichever team had the best average at the end of the day would get the final point.
Photos would then be taken at the end of the day of the losing team kissing the winning teams shoes.

Guess who dropped the first sale of the day? Me! Not even half an hour after getting to the territory!
We then proceeded to kick the other teams a$$... getting the best average. But due to train delays my sector didn't get back to the office until nearly 11pm.

We work on commission at this place... so even though we don't have to work on Saturdays, some people go in to build their averages up, and obviously earn more money!
I went into work today... we start earlier on Saturdays and finish earlier. So after we finished pitching at 3:30 in Porthcawl, my sector went to the funfair, and then ate ice cream on the beach.

Probably the strangest sight ever. 4 girls, all completely different, all dressed in office clothes and one guy in a suit... on a fun fair ride... then strolling along a beach with ice creams!
I think that may have been the first time I've really 'kicked back' since I've been in Wales. I've not had the opportunity to just hang out and do something fairly pointless just for the fun of it since I moved here! I've not really had anyone to do it with either... and I really enjoyed it.
I barely stopped laughing all day.
From Maria getting George to pitch to her on the ride because he was terrified of it. Robyn turning her entire mouth bright blue with some bubblegum flavoured ice cream. Robyn smooshing the remains of said ice cream in Becca's face. Becca chasing Robyn around the car park. Becca punching George in the leg everytime she saw a yellow car until he squealed like a girl. Maria practising how to say 'cheese twist'. Jac star-jump pitching. Robyn explaining how to play Bolt on the field.

Oh, and I'm already working on being promoted. I'm going to be in the New Leaders meeting on Friday... scary. Barely even two weeks at the company, including my 8 day trial and already the managing director thinks I'm ready to move up to the next level!

Think For a Minute

(The Housemartins)

So my manager did it again.

I mentioned in the comments on my last post that I know he asked me out because the day after he asked me why I don't date, then made me have a 15 minute discussion about it! Even using the 'If me and you were going out..' example. (I won't even point out that it should be 'you and I')

His version of 'shifts' is kind of twisted too. I'm used to set hours. A sheet of paper pinned to the staff notice board a week in advance giving me dates and times for my shifts.
My new manager works completely alone, and if it gets too busy for him; he calls me up and expects me to get there ASAP.

This is bad for me for numerous reasons:
I can't make any plans for any evening because I MIGHT have to work.
I have to wait around all evening in work-suitable clothes and semi-decent make up, just in case he does call.
I have no idea how much I'll be earning each week.
I have to have my dinner really early so even if he calls earlier than normal I've had something to eat!
The list goes on...

Anyway, I got called into work at 7:30pm Sunday evening. After we'd served everyone at the bar, done some glasses, and were just stood around he turned to me and asked me what my favourite takeaway was...
Me- Erm... a specific place around here? Or just generally?
Him- Generally.
Me- I guess... pizza or chinese, then.

Long silence.

Him- When we finish tonight... do you want to go out and get something to eat?
Me- I already had dinner, thanks.
Him- Just a drink then?
Me- No, I'm fine, thankyou!
Him- Ok then. I'll just sit upstairs and get drunk by myself.

Longer silence.

Then I went to clear some tables.

Surely he should have realised after the first time that I'm not interested?!

And he's constantly trying to get me to drink while I'm working. He'd tried to make me do a Jäger-bomber on Saturday. (Small glass of RedBull, with a shot of Jägermeister floating in it... so you drink both at once) I don't really like RedBull, I only drink it when I really need the energy... and I don't need the energy at 11:30pm on a Saturday when I plan to be home and in bed in the the next hour! And I don't like Jägermeister.
He went "Come on, you work behind a bar so you need to get on the booze!".
Erm... ok. Part of my job is making sure that I'm serving alcohol to those legally allowed to buy and consume it. i.e. any one over the age of 18 that isn't already intoxicated.
Half the time it's a judgement call, and how can I make decisions like that if my judgement is impaired because I'm drinking on the job?
Alright, one wouldn't hurt. But if I drank every single alcoholic beverage the manager offered me throughout the course of a night I'd be hammered!

I need a new job.

Anyone Else But You

(The Moldy Peaches)

Ok... more updates on the Laura is awful at dating front!

So a few months when I was still working at the Manor I had a crush on one of the regular customers... he came in every Thursday with a bunch of friends. To the Thursday Manor Staff the group was known as 'the geeks' because they were such motley collection.
There was Mark, (the one I liked), he was strawberry blonde, average good looks, very lovely and always chatted to me if he was at the bar and it was quiet. All other members of staff referred to him in private as 'Laura's boyfriend'.
There was a small one, he was shortish, thinnish, wore glasses, had dark side-parted hair, slightly goofy teeth... and we all referred to him as 'the weedy one'.
There was the french guy, who was average looking, if a little *ahem* 'round'.
There was a spanish girl, who was tall and thin.
A really tall lanky guy.
A short girl. who was also kind of 'round'.
And a couple of others. But you get the picture!

Mark was always so nice, we'd chat about Shakespeare shows we'd both been to see recently, our jobs, other members of staff at the Manor... so imagine my consternation when the Weedy One asked for my number!
I know it's shallow... but he really wasn't my type! I've never been into short, thin guys. Or even those traits separately. I'm not attracted to short guys because it would mean I couldn't wear high heels when going otu with him. And I don't like thin guys because I always think I'm going to break them when I touch them!
I just told him that I'm not going to be Leicester for long, as I was moving to Cardiff soon, so I didn't really see the point in starting 'anything'. (Which was no lie!)
And yes, I did feel really bad about shooting him down like that. But what annoyed me even more: that it completely blew any chance I had with Mark.
Why would he ask for my number if he knew I was moving soon? Why would he ask for my number if he knew one of his friends had? And that I'd rejected him?!

Anyway.
So I was at work last night... another pub, just in Cardiff this time. The manager is a nice enough guy, called Tom, I'm not sure how old he is... I'd say early to mid twenties.
We were waiting for a delivery of stock before we could open the place last night. Only the delivery was over an hour late. So we killed time by playing Pool and chatting.
The delivery arrived, we put it away, opened the place, and then closed it down again a couple of hours later (after last orders, naturally!). We then sat down and had a drink and discussed when he wanted me to work, what it should be like, etc. And then started chatting about general stuff, like music.
I then realised it was 12:15am and should really be on my way home because I was tired and hungry. So I got my coat, and had just stepped out the door, when he appeared at the door to close it behind me.
I turned to say "I'll see you at 8 tomorrow then."... when he went "Are you busy tomorrow morning?"
I thought he just wanted me to come in and help him set the bar up or whatever... but I didn't really want to. So I said "Yes... I think so. I'm sure I have something planned but I can't remember what!"
To which he replied, "Oh, I was just gonna ask if you weren't busy, maybe you'd like to meet up for coffee or something."
I freaked out, and said "I don't like coffee."
He said, "Tea then!"
I replied, "I don't like tea either!"
He came back with "Juice, squash, water, whatever you want!"

So again, I just came out with "I know I have something planned for tomorrow morning though. I can't remember what I said I'd do, but I know I promised my housemate to do something with him."
He just when "Ok then, maybe some other time."
Me: "Yeah, sure! I'll see you tomorrow at 8 then! Bye!"

WTF!?!?!?!? WHY!?!?!
Was he asking me on a date? Because I really hope not. I'd never date him, for numerous reasons:
1. he's my boss, so it would be complicated.
2. he drinks way WAAY too much. (I mean seriously, I've never seen him drinking a soft drink. It's all alcohol... all the time. He ALWAYS has a drink on the go.)
3. he smokes WAAAY too much. (Again, seriously. He pops outside at least 3 times every hour to smoke!)
4. he's really not my type.

I KNOW it's really shallow... but there needs to be some sort of physical attraction.

So now I obviously don't want to go into work tonight. I'm just going to have to keep a constant supply of excuses not to see him outside of work. And I will not sit around after work to chat with him again... unless it's specifically work related.


In conclusion: it's not that I have a problem getting dates... it's that I have problem with the people offering dates!
Just ONCE I want someone I actually LIKE to ask me out!!

Where Is Home?

(Bloc Party)

When all my friends went off to uni last year, then came home at Christmas they were all calling their places at uni 'home'. And I guess if you go by the whole 'home is where the heart is' thing... and they loved uni enough then that's their home.
I have yet to feel like that about Cardiff. Don't get me wrong, I love it here. I can do pretty much anything I want. John's lovely (most of the time!). And the city is nice (well, what I've actually been able to see of it is!).
But I still feel like Leicester is 'home'.
Then again, I've only been here a week, so maybe that will change after a while!

And! I'm already really excited for Sparkly House Con 2010! I will say: I think only TBFer's are invited (though I doubt anybody else really reads this... if anyone!).
So if you are from TBF: Come! You're very welcome to attend Sparkly House Con 2010. Just register you're interest with me or John via email, facebook, PM on TBF, etc.... or even on the blog itself!
Even if the only people who came were the ones that had already registered interest, it would still be awesome!

Another Hole In The Head

(Nickelback)

I'm quite dysfunctional. Just thought you should know.

I think way too much.
I'm in my head.
All the time.

I worry too much too.

Maybe I should try to stop?

And just..... be.