marciadanielle

I have literally sat here doing NOTHING (except playing games - I am officially sick of Bloons) for the past hour and a half. While I do appreciate getting paid to do nothing, I am BORED. And this is POINTLESS. Send us home (paid of course!) if we're not going to do anything.

Also, I can access Dreamwidth, but not Livejournal (it's blocked, along with many other sites). I find it weird that Dreamwidth isn't blocked, but maybe it's too new??

And final point, I'm not going to get the highest mark in this class. I can tell. Not that I'm not smart (and lots of others are dumb), but I've messed up on our first quiz and didn't get 100%, and I know a bunch of other people did, since they all cheat and tell each other the answers. Which bothers me. Do your own fucking work!!

And I shall log out for now...hope everyone is well!

I realized I didn't post about work in the previous post. So, a work update!

So I had a "one-on one" with a manager on Saturday. Which kind of annoyed me, because I had it with the weekend manager who I only work with every other weekend, as opposed to a manager I see every day. I feel the weekend manager doesn't know me as well as the others do. Whatever, obviously it went fine. What's funny is the only thing they told me to work on was to interact more with the customers. Ha! They're preaching to the choir here. Building rapport was what I got told to do time and time again at Air Miles. Which I never did. Because I absolutely HATE idle chit chat with strangers. It makes me feel really uncomfortable. I know it doesn't make much sense, but I can't help it. I've never been one to have random conversations. I wish I could, but I can't. Anyways, they also wanted to know where I saw my future and if it was with Madame Tussauds. Well, I lied and said I would love to stay with MT if the right opportunity came along (ie. in the office). Oh, I did also mention the whole visa thing, and he said he would check if MT would sponsor someone for a permanent visa. It doesn't really matter, since I want to go home and not live in London for the rest of my life. But, I don't want them to know that right now.

Now, I could rant about how dumb and stupid some people are (read: TOURISTS) but I can't be bothered. But suffice to say, I deal with the dumbest people on a daily basis. It's annoying.

The end.

Thanks to scattydove, I am currently sitting very contently in front of the tv watching the Australian Open. Well, it's a replay of Federer's earlier match, so I already know he wins! But it's still fun to watch! Man I love tennis! Watch the Opens always reminds me just how much I love it. I think I really need to make an effort to play more. Perhaps not this summer, but next summer, when I'm home, I should join a club or something. We (we being my family) used to belong to a tennis club, but the last few years we were members, we didn't play much, and the courts were booked every evening with round robins and lessons, there was no free time for us to play! I play in Hilton Head every year, but once or twice a year is not enough! Plus, I always play with my dad and he always beats me!

Oops, Jonathan Ross is about to start and I want to watch! I'll go back to the tennis after! I think it's good Jonathan Ross came back. Sure he screwed up, but I'm glad he was able to accept his suspension and (perhaps) learned from his gaffe. Not like Russell Brand who quit and stamped his feet like a baby. Or so I think anyways. I've never liked Russell Brand anyways. Okay, Tom Cruise is hot! If only he wasn't a psycho...

I've had a really good day today! I was smiling all the way home (not really smiling, because then people would think I'm crazy, but smiling on the inside! You might say there was a bounce to my step!) I love being in a good mood. It feels SO good! And it hasn't ended yet either, so yay! Good mood! Work was good. This morning was some bitching about a manager who came to work in a bad mood (although she was fine by the end of the day) and was bitching at everyone. So we bitched about her! All the while May and I were getting cases of drinks to fill up the drinks cooler by the cash in the gift shop. We sell Vitamin Water (which is overpriced flavour water with added vitamins) and she started pronouncing it vitt-a-mins, as opposed to vite-a-mins, and well you probably had to be there, but we both found in very funny and started giggling! May has a very posh accent, I love it! She's also super nice. In the afternoon we were in wax hands together and at one point it wasn't busy so we decided to have a competition who could make a better wax hand on themselves. After a couple of false starts, it was decided hers was better. My excuse is she's been doing it longer and has had way more practice than me! Then after I was in the gift shop (we rotate positions every day which is good because it breaks up the monotony!) with Emma who I haven't really talked to a lot before. I think she's kind of shy and quiet, and I'm shy, so it takes a while to open up to others. But we started talking more today. Just inane chitchat, but it's better than no chitchat! She wants to a buy a new computer so we were talking about that, and her new flat which she is buying. Which I am so jealous about! Although it's only a part-buy and her parents are helping out a lot. She's only 21, so although it's not her money that's buying her a flat, I'm still jealous that she's going to own her own place! I want to buy my own flat! But in Toronto, not London. So really, I want a condo, not a flat!! ;) Oh, and at the end of my shift, Emma was talking to Lucy (my manager - the one who was a bitch in the morning) about wanting a Yorkie Raisin and Biscuit bar (blech, I hate raisins in chocolate!) and Lucy broke one and gave it to her. And since I was standing right there, she asked if I wanted one, so I took a regular Yorkie bar (plain chocolate). So yay! Free chocolate!!

On my way home, Toronto was featured in London Lite (a free evening paper) as the travel destination! I was flipping through it, waiting for the sports pages (and the tennis news!) and the TTC (a streetcar) is in a picture! The article is lauding Toronto as the new New York and a good place for a glamorous weekend trip. They didn't talk about anything really new to me. A restaurant I never heard of (apparently it's pretty new), one I have heard of (Sassafraz) clothing stores (Over the Rainbow, Holt's), the St. Lawrence Market, the Distillery District, etc.

I came home and was skyping with my mother and we were talking about our nice dinner we're going to when they come (only two and a half weeks now!) And originally we were going to Ebury Wine Bar because we've been before (once back in 1995 - we were going to see Starlight Express at the Apollo Victoria and it was nearby, so we walked in and liked it, and then I also went with my mother in 2000 when we were in London - they serve bread with roasted garlic and it is to die for!! Yum! It's the best part of the meal! The rest of the food was good, not the best I've had, but good all the same) and liked it. But then my mom was talking about going to a fancy place for lunch. She found a list of fancy restaurants doing set lunches for £15-20 and upwards. She wanted to go to Maze Grill (which is part of the Gordon Ramsay restaurants!) and I was looking at the menu, and the dinner a la carte menu isn't too expensive (in comparison to the Ebury Wine Bar - although the wine is significantly more) and I suggested we go there for dinner instead. It's something new and it's Gordon Ramsay!!! How fun! So I made a reservation online and we're going!! Yay! Hopefully it's good. I'm sure it will be though. They have steak with all kind of sauces, so how could it be bad??

Tomorrow I'm going to Borough Market with Jen (who I used to work at Chapters with - she's in London at school, and we're FINALLY getting together!) so that should be fun. Neither of us have been before, but it's a food market, filled with yumminess!!

I hope everyone else is doing well, and is happy!!

Woo hoo! ITV2 shows American Idol!! I won't have to miss it! And it's on only two days later than it is in Canada/USA. So, as long as my mother keeps her mouth shut, I won't know who made it to the finals/who got kicked off. It starts Thursday!!

I'm currently watching an abbreviated Golden Globes on Sky1. The Golden Globes are my favourite awards show. Love them! So I'm glad to see a small part of them. I'm missing all the shticks that the presenters do, but I get to see the outfits and acceptance speeches. Alright, well it's over now. Why is there a +1 (also known as time shifting by one hour) of every station BUT Sky??? Grrr. I missed the beginning, but I guess it's so sad too bad for me.

So, I had my first real shift today. It was alright. People are relatively nice. People actually say hi when you pass them in the hall (which I find SO weird since this is LONDON. But it is a nice change!) However, one thing, and maybe I just need to get over it. I started at 8:30am. I got there around 8:20am, found Jason (who was a guy in my induction who's working in retail with me) who got there the same time. We went to security and they said they would call someone. We waited. Then we waited some more. After about 15 minutes some guy comes down and leads us upstairs to the canteen. We wait for another 10 minutes or so, and then the trainer (her name is Ann) comes and finds us. We get started, get uniforms, etc. We learn how to use the tills and spend the rest of the day there. Ann is okay as a trainer, kind of flakey, and rambly and could be better. But she's nice and friendly. The thing that bothered me (muchly, because I can't seem to let it go) was she said since we technically didn't start until 9am, we would stay until 5:40pm (shifts are 8 hours 40 minutes). Which was SO NOT FAIR! It's not my fault they were disorganized and left us waiting. Why should I suffer for their disorganization??? I tried to say this and still be off at 5:10pm, but she disagreed with me. And wouldn't budge. I dropped it, but continued to fume silently. I guess I could have pursued it further, but I decided since it was my first shift, new job, I'd just let it go. But it still bothers me. That's like telling someone who was at work that since their computer went down for half an hour and they couldn't do work (even though it was no fault of their own) they would have to stay an extra half hour to make it up. I just need to let it go through, right??

So I was thinking this morning that I kind of want to go home. Is that bad?? I was thinking maybe I should just go home in April. I'm not doing what I thought I'd be doing (ie. an office job). I'm working a crap job here, so I feel I might as well work at a crap job at home and not have to pay £500/month in rent. That maybe I'm just not cut out for international living. I've been here for three months (well, almost) and by the time April comes, it will have been 5 and a half months of me living here. Is that enough time do you think?? I don't know. I just miss home A LOT. I miss my family, I miss my friends. I'm missing seeing my nephew grow up, and I'm sad I'm not able to hold him and cuddle with him. I'm going to miss his first birthday!! Maybe I should stick it out and go home in August, in time for Hilton Head! That's the wrong way to think about it, I know. But I could totally go to Hilton Head! I might have to share a room with my sister. But that would be fine. And I would have to drive with my parents. But I figure I could handle that! Anyways...I'll stop rambling/fantasizing.

Alright, time to go do something else.

I don't think I ever posted here but I got the job at Madame Tussauds! I start on Friday. I'm pretty excited about it. I'm also excited about having some money again! Well, I will once I get my first paycheque anyways.

So this week has been pretty uneventful. My friend Rachel lost her full time job at B (which is a make-up store owned by Lush). Sorry scattydove, no more discounts at Lush! Which sucks for her. But I dunno, I don't feel super bad for her. This is going to sound completely horrible but I kind of even feel..well not happy that she lost her job...but kind of not unhappy...does that make sense? I know. I'm a horrible horrible person. But she makes me angry when I see her! I always feel second fiddle to her and like I'm her sloppy seconds. And it annoys me. So I feel maybe it's kind of karma something. I don't know. But mostly I do feel bad for her. The excuse she got from B was that they were only keeping people who wanted to stay for the indefinite future with the company. Because her visa only allows her to stay and work until April, she was one of the people they let go. They fired a whole bunch of people, not just her. They hired waaay too many people over Christmas and they never defined how long they were hiring them for, and now they're firing left, right, and centre. They need to learn the words Christmas temp. She still has her job at the theatre, but it's only about 20 hours per week and it's minimum wage. And she lives in Covent Garden and pays mucho rent. However, she comes from a wealthy family and she has lots of money. So maybe that stems the not unhappiness for me. But, it will be hard for her to find a new job. Not only is her visa only good until April, hardly any stores are going to be hiring now. The Christmas rush is over, the credit crunch thing is still on, and any people stores would want to hire, they'll just keep on their Christmas help. So she's going to need to lie lie lie about her visa status, say she can get it extended or something and hand out tons and tons of cvs. Madame Tussauds is still hiring for my position, so I told her to apply there.

In other news, I booked the car rental and hotel gift cards for my trip to Benidorm with my parents! My mother booked the flights yesterday, as well as the easybus to the airport. And then she re-booked the hotel, because it went down in price! So we're all set! We're going Feb 19-22. Hopefully it will be unseasonably warm and I can wear sandals!! Either way, I've never been to Spain, so I'm excited to see what it's like! The food, the drinks, the shopping! Plus I'll be with my parents so it won't cost too much! And I get to stay in a hotel (albeit in the same room as my parents) which is a plus for me since I'm so used to hostels! I love hotels. Although, my parents are staying at the Grosvenor House while in London and that's a JW Marriott 5 star plus hotel on Park Lane (my mother got an awesome travel agents rate) so I know nothing will compare to that. But hopefully our Best Western in Benidorm will be nice, it gets good reviews on tripadvisor.

Also, I think I'm going to go Edinburgh!! Which means another country can be crossed off my list! Scotland!! I need to find out my work schedule and find a time when I can go, but hopefully it will work out. I want to try haggis!

Okay, I have more to say...but I'm tired, it's late and I need to go to bed! Hope everyone is well!

Sometimes I really hate being in the UK. Well, not hate, but I feel disgruntled. It's mainly when I'm trying to watch some Canadian content and either Youtube, or ctv.ca, or cbc.ca tell me the video I'm trying to watch is not available in my region. Grrr! But I want to catch up on Rick Mercer and So You Think You Can Dance Canada! Thank goodness most of Youtube is not region-censored.

And I've come to the conclusion that British people (at least those in London, I'm hoping in other areas people aren't like this) are very very rude. No one is helpful, polite, or respectful as my fellow Canadians are. If you're in Canada and you see someone coming through a door with a pile of stuff, you will either go hold the door open for them, or at the very least GET OUT OF THE FUCKING WAY. In London? Not so much. At work, I was trying to bring out some shopping carts from the back to the front of the store. Many customers continued to stand in my way and did not move an inch until I said excuse me out loud. Even though they clearly saw me coming. One woman saw me coming and purposefully got in my way. Wtf?? Even work colleagues don't bother to help. They don't hold doors open, they barely move out of the way, they don't bother to assist with anything. It's driving me INSANE. It's common courtesy people! If someone is about to drop a box or something, and you're walking next to them, and you work with said person, pick up the goddamn box! It's not rocket science, it's called being polite and respectful.

And to continue on with my rant. Want to know how much my work sucks?? Cause it truly does. Yesterday I was 5 minutes late for work. I'm never late, I pride myself on not being late, but shit happens and I was late yesterday. Mainly because there were long queues at the bank and in England they don't allow you to deposit money any other way except through a teller (which is foreign to me, because in Canada you can do it through a cashpoint). So I was rushing up the stairs when my manager is walking down them. He looks at me. Looks at his watch. Looks at me again, raises his eyebrows, makes a look of discontent and continues on. He doesn't bother asking me why I'm late or whatever. Which really pissed me off. Fucking ask me, I could have been stuck in traffic for all he knows. Argh. And then around 6:30pm I tell Jose (one of my colleagues who I directly work with) I'm not feeling well and I want to go home. He tells me I need to speak to Pat, who's the manager on duty, fair enough. I go to the information desk, Pat's not there, but Diana (who's a supervisor) is. I ask her where Pat is, apparently she's in a meeting. I tell her I'm not well and want to go home. She says she can't send me home, because she's not a manager. She tells me that Andrew (my manager, the one who raised his eyebrows at me) is still there and I should go talk to him. So I go find him, he tells me he can't help me because he's going home and I have to find Pat. For fucks sake! He's such an asshole. So I go back down, find Diana, tell her, at this point this guy Adnan (who I work with in ops - he's an asshole too) is there too. Their solution, since they can't send me home? Go to the canteen and sit there until Pat's meeting is finished. Wtf? Suppose I was really ill (I wasn't, I was just fed up with working there), all I wanted to do was go home. So I go sit up in the canteen for 20 minutes. Diana comes up, says Pat is back on the floor and I can go home. So I go home. I also called in sick today. I really really can't stand this job. It's time to actively start searching for a new job. Starting now. I need to go get dressed and then hit every single Starbucks near me. I feel working for a Starbucks will be a hell of a lot better than working for M&S.

Okay, so it was like 20 questions to call sick into work. Omg, I just hate this place more and more. I don't understand how people stay there for so long. Maybe they're not used to anything better?? Maybe retail in the UK is always worse than retail is in Canada. Or maybe I've just been lucky. But I don't think so. I really think it's the UK.

So, my last day of work was on Tuesday. Yay! Good riddance Air Miles!! It wasn't really sad. Maybe a bit, because I won't see most of those people again. But I'm SO glad to not be there now and to have FREEDOM!! Sure, it's a novelty now, and I'm sure in September I'll be super bored. But it's great right now.

On Saturday I leave for Hilton Head for a week. I'm looking forward to it. Good meals out, sitting on the beach, reading a ton of books, and good old American shopping! My grandmother gave me some money to spend on myself for this trip, which was super nice and totally unexpected, but great all the same. So, it means I'm going to try and find Wii Fit and buy it, and maybe do a bit of clothes shopping too.

My sister was over yesterday and started talking about a potential trip to Chicago because her husband might be going there for some training from work. It would be a week and her and my nephew would probably go too. I invited myself along too! I've always wanted to go to Chicago, and I could use my air miles for the plane ticket. I'd have to get my own hotel room, but I think it would be fun. I dunno about spending all that money though. And nothing is set in stone, but it would be great if I could swing it.

I'm also thinking of buying a laptop before I leave for London. I'll need a computer there, and it's not practical to bring my desktop, so I need to find a laptop. I was thinking of getting a Macbook, but I'm not 100% sure. They're definitely more than a laptop, but not much more, and they would come with everything in it. And if I buy it before September 15th, I can get a free iPod touch....not that I need that, but if it's free, why not?! So, I wanted to use some savings bonds to buy my laptop, but argh! I just looked them up online and I can't cash them in until November, which will be impossible, since I already plan to be in London at that time. Stupid me when I was 16 and purchasing these bonds and I stupidly chose ones that could only be cashed once a year (probably because it was higher interest). Grrrr....from doing some research, I can see if I can cash them in before the annual date, but you have to have a specific reason, like buying a house, for education, or to prevent bankruptcy. I wonder if moving out of the country and needing to buy a laptop counts?! I wish the annual date was October 1st and not November. I'm still going to go into a bank and ask though....maybe the banker person won't notice the date or something and give me my money anyways!

So, my plan for today was to do some laundry and go grocery shopping. I have yet to do either. And it's already 5:30pm...oh well. I still need to go laundry though....I can go grocery shopping tomorrow. I just need to make sure I'm productive tomorrow morning!

I've had a pretty boring long weekend (today is a holiday - which means, yay! Short work for me!) It started off well enough, but then I did nothing exciting Saturday or Sunday. And today, so far I've done nothing, but I do have plans ot go run some errands in a bit. I want to go buy some things. I want the new Alanis Morrissette cd, I want the season 5 dvd of Las Vegas, and I need to go buy some things for my swap package, because I have yet to do that. But I figure if I get everything ready today and tomorrow, I'm fine for time.

Anyways, Friday night was really good. Our old next door neighbours (the Dooleys) were here for a visit so we all went out for dinner to this really good Italian place near my sisters. I had so much fun. The daughter, Sarah, and I used ot be best friends growing up. And we see them every once in awhile (they live in Altanta now but they're from here and all their family is still here, so they come up periodically). Every time I see them though we have the best time, like we've been close friends this whole time even though we barely talk anymore. I laughed so hard I cried, on numerous occasions. I have two three hour layovers in Atlanta on my flight to Hilton Head in a few weeks (one each way). I met them at the airport last year during a layover, so I hope to see them again (there's Sarah, and her older brother Brian). It's always fun to catch up. One of these days I should make a trip to Atlanta. We used to go a lot when I was younger (and we were closer to them - plus my dad used to be able to do a lot of business in Atlanta) and they had just moved there (they moved in the summer of 1993), but the last time I was there was in 1997. So I should probably plan a short trip there at some point. Anyways, it was a good night!

I still don't know if I'm quitting my job or not next week. I asked for a leave of absence to go away on vacation to Hilton Head. My supervisor was really nice and receptive about it. But it's not up to her. She asked her manager and he's supposed to ask someone else (I guess in hr) and then they'll get back to me. She wasn't working on Friday, so I think I'll find out tomorrow. In a way I kind of want to quit...but I guess it's easier if I don't. I don't like my job, but it is a job, and I've been there for over two and a half years already, so maybe I should stick it out. But I've been entertaining the idea of moving to London again. Although since the last time I've looked at doing SWAP, the price has gone waaaaay up. It used to be about $350, it's now $750. But I looked into getting the visa by myself and it seems like a big hassle....so it's probably better if I go through them, plus then when I get there I would have access to the BUNAC resources. I'm just worried that I wouldn't be able to find a good enough job. I don't have a university education and I feel that would hinder me. I dunno...sure I could work retail or food-related, but i don't think that would pay enough money. And the main thing is, I don't know if I'm brave enough to love halfway around the world by myself and start over with no support, no friends, no nothing. So I'm all conflicted.

Alright, time to go spend some money!

Yeah, so apparently I decided to fool around with my photobucket account (this was a few weeks ago when I was uploading pictures) and moved a whole bunch of pictures around. Meanwhile, forgetting and not realizing that my mood theme is on there, and moving those pictures around would cause the mood theme to no longer work. Then for the past few days when I've been looking at my livejournal, I can't figure out why my mood theme no longer works. Why am I getting random photobucket messages and not my pretty London pictures?? Yeah, well I've figured it out now and moved all the pictures back to their previous links, so all is better now! But I still feel like a moron....

I haven't updated in a while....well except to say I was drunk, but I don't think that counts...so it's time for a random update.

Let's talk about my weekend so far. So Friday night I got to go to the Blue Jay game. It was the home opener and my cousins were singing the national anthem with their choir, so they asked me if I could take them. Heck yes! I'm not a huge baseball fan, but I like the Blue Jays (go Jays!!) and I love going to their games and being part of the action. So I met them downtown and found out we were in a box. Which might sound like fun, but it wasn't as much fun as if we were in regular seats. Mainly because I hadn't eaten, I had come straight from work, and I (stupidly) didn't stop for any food because I thought I could get something at the Skydome Rogers Centre. But there was no food in this box. There was some chips and dip which I had a bit of, but that's not dinner. I really wanted a hot dog and ice cream (they have twist cones at the Dome! Yum!)....but when you're in a box there's nowhere to go to buy food. So that kind of sucked. Plus because we in a box with kids and teenagers and their parents who most weren't into or watching the game, people weren't cheering, and I love cheering, especaially at Blue Jay games, so I didn't get to scream either. But the game was good. And we won!!! Yay! Playing the Red Sox too, which is good on two levels. One they're the World Series champs, so tehcnically they're supposed to be the better team, and two they're in the same division, so it's important we can win against them so we can win the division and go to the playoffs this year! Oh, and I got a towel, a Blue Jay towel, and I love free stuff, so that's fun!

Today I had to go to work, which kind of sucked...actually it really sucked, and I got out late too. But it wasn't that big of a deal because I had no where to go except home, but it was busy all day which sucks. However I now get a day off (as tomorrow, oh wait, it's midnight, so as today is Sunday) and then Monday is a short shift, I'm off early, so that will be good.

I watch Star Trek Nemesis tonight, it was on tv. I've seen it before, a few times, and I own it...but I love seeing things over and over again. It was really good! And I tears totally started running down my face when Data died, actually I started tearing up when he tried to go in Picard's place, and then how he went anyways, and sacrificed himself for Picard. I'm such a wuss. But I'll always love Star Trek: TNG, it will hold a special place in my heart always!! Lol! But it's true, because I always watched with my dad, he started me on it, so it's something we liked together, just the two if us, my mother does not enjoy it when we still watch the reuns when they're on!

Okay, well I think it's time for bed...I'm getting sleepy! Later gators!