steph

i know i have recently been complaining quite a bit about my current job. but now it's time to evaluate my other job, the one in the bar. sunday i spent the best part of an hour sorting straws. yes, this is not a joke. someone had the glorious idea to put all the straws the right way up and the wrong way into their containers. now that's a biiiig problem. i know know it sounds ridiculous. but you try serving hundreds of poeple in the automated sort of way that your used to and then suddenly something (something quite easily avoidable) is changed. it throws the whole routine. it's quite amazing actually to see how used we get to certain 'ways of doing things'. so, cos friday and saturday night everybody was really irritated by the whole straw issue i thought it might be a good idea to just take the time and put the damn things back in place. not that i had anything else to do. so, there's me spending quite some time putting things right, i go on my break, come back, and the same idiot filled the containers up again, with the straws...you guessed, the wrong way. i mean, honestly...little things that make life that little bit more annoying.

oh, nd there are things that make life quite a lot more annoying. saturday night one member of our staff apparently had a smoke in the staff toilets, which is not allowed, especially not when you are on shift. not that i really care whether anybody is having a fag, but unfortunately that cigarette led to an evacuation of the building, cos the fire alarm went off. obviously nobody volunteered to stand up for it and now there's gonna be some investigation and we are going to loose our staff room. great.

and else...the damn thing is still working, my wrist is still blue-purple-ish and my day-job is still boring the life out of me. so, all well.

money in the bank. i like it. my first pay day. and god, did i earn it. not because it's so difficult, no, but because of the boredom.

and because i have to listen to people who have so incorporated the job in themselves that they sound like robots and, no matter what question you are asking, only ever answer with the same sentence. may it fit or not.

i think i might be adopting the same strategy. a lot less hassle. i always felt pity for people who had to constantly repeat themselves. liek the lady in the elevator telling you which floor you are on and that the doors are about to open. well, eventually i found out that it was a recorded message of course. but somehow the magic was lost. you know when you are a child and everything is a bit mysterious and magical? i thought for a long time that they always had live bands playing on the radio for example and it wasnt quite the same when i found out that it's all just electronic. oh well. the good old days.

one note on my wrist. it's rather colourful and only hurts a bit. but it's not a style i'd like to hang on to

yes, finally it's here. damn thing no. 2. and it seems to work...so far. so i am currently busy (again) installing and initialising all the items i need. hopefully not wasting my time. fingers crossed that i dont have to live through another ordeal of couriers and 'help desks'. live generally is picking up. this is the second day i actually made it through the evening without falling asleep before bedtime. and i did go out, too - juggling. and i hurt my wrist, s

i think i am getting old, or dizzy, or both. maybe it's just my level of concentration or the total lack of brain usage in my job, but i keep forgetting things, mislaying them etc. nothing major, but quite annoying. i hope it stops soon.

also i am constantly tired, but that might have something to do with getting up at the break of dawn, clearly not my time of day. hmmm.

i went to a wedding on saturday. and it was probably the best thing to do in ages. i had a really good time, dancing most of the night (yet again noticing that i might be getting on a bit....half an hour of bopping about never used to be a problem, now i actually have to sit down to catch my breath. total fitness alarm. well, lack of it). didnt find the love of my life though, as predicted by my housemates. what was the percentage again of people that meet their future spouse at a wedding? but i had a good time anyway, totally dressed up in an audrey hepburn sort of style. not that i look anything like audrey hepburn (far from it), but i had the hat, the gloves (which too be fair i wasnt wearing most of the night) and the bling.

always interesting to watch people at weddings, their dress sense, dance style, the jokes they tell. hm, well, well.

oh, by the way, 'the damn thing' has finally been picked up. first i thought someone stole it, because it wasnt lying on the shelf in the corridor anymore, but the note suggested that the clever people from the well-known courier company just tried their luck to pick it up again without me arranging a date or time (haha, as if that's possible, tut tut tut). impressive. now i only have to wait another 74 days before a new damn thing arrives.

right, better be off now to busy myself with yet another tax return, after struggling through one yesterday. they really dont make it very easy to pay taxes in this country. oh well, what an exciting life i have...and what an exciting post this has been, sorry bout that, but my brain is mash.

Friday morning. what better morning of the week. only one hard-working day to go, the weekend soothingly enticing us with honey-soaked pleasures into temptation.

it's nearly midnight. and what a day i had.

work...the usual. it's getting a bit tedius now, just ever so slightly...four weeks to go. i was only saved from total boredom by a meeting, which wasnt very exciting either, but...hm, different.

then from one job straight to the next. yay. walking there i nearly got totally lost right next to the city centre (well, i've only been living there for a year) arranging a gig for tomorrow. more work. at work (the bar) more boredom and finally my 'dinner break', which i used to get the car (at the other end of town), go home, get changed, get pissed off (more about that in a bit), get even more pissed off (yes, yes) and then have a bit of a cry. but i managed to do a good deed as well (at least one a day - karma you know), i lend some money to one of my collegues, cos he forgot his wallet. and all that within an hour.

now the pissed off bit. i got home, expecting a well-known courier company to have picked up 'the damn thing' (formely known as 'my new shiny laptop'). there was a note. from a different courier. curious. saying they couldnt deliver something. deliver? hm. i phoned the first well-known courier.
she: 'yeah, sorry, we were there, nobody was there though, arrange a new time.'
me: 'could you pick it up tomorrow (saturday)?'
she (now getting impatient): 'no, we only pick up mondays to fridays, 9-5. i told you that before'
me (now getting pissed off): 'i know you said that, but i am working mondays till fridays, 8-4 as i told you before. soo....'
she: 'when do you want it picking up then?'
me: ???

at that point i realised that i am not going to win this. the global courier that can deliver anywhere in the world before 9am is incapable of arranging a suitable picking-up time out of normal office-hours. well, i gave her the opportunity to come after 4.30 (hurrying home from work), but she said that she couldnt commit to a specific time!! i thought she must have been joking. 9-5. she didnt.

looks like i am going to have to resolve this problem by carrying the damn thing in its highly unsuitable handle-less box to work (incl. the 15 minute walk), leave it with the porter (if that's possible) and hope that somehow the courier manages to fulfil the task. on a good note. a new, hopefully functioning version of the damn thing has already been dispatched. maybe i end up with two...looking back i think the whole thing would have been easier, cheaper and quicker to just fly to bloody ireland and exchange the damn thing directly at the source. well, i still might have to do that, cos nothing actually has been resolved after spending every evening of this week trying to do just that.

turns out this whole affair is quite a learning experiene though. now, this is an honest question, because i really dont know the answer: how do people with a full-time nine-to-five job do anything? couriers, post, bank, council offices, town centres etc etc. they all have the same opening hours. you need to take a day off to send a bloody letter. does everybody just wait for the limited services on saturday? honestly, how do they do it? i've only been doing this for two weeks now and i feel like i dont have a life anymore (well, to be fair i have another job as well, and the odd gig, but still). this is crazy. everything is global, 24-hour access to everything, everywhere. the possibilities limitless. but in fact nothing really works.

now, you think that my day has already been full of crazy excitement, but hey, at this point it's only 8pm. after the phone call with the ever-so-helpful lady at the well-known courier, not !, i was just looking forward to a simple meal. like toast. so i go in the kitchen, get the butter, get the bread, put the bread into the toaster... _not_ put the bread into the frigging toaster, cos the frigging toaster has disappeared. well, not evaporated or something, but it was on the kitchen table with the cable wrapped all-around, and looking very much out of use. no toast for me then.

so, into the car, back into town, fighting for a parking space, running into a well-known chain of sandwich stores, order, open my bag....no wallet. haha, funny, no really. no wallet. apologising, starving, hurrying back to work, telling my collegue (the one i lent the money to earlier on) about the wallet thing, he laughing his head off, giving me back the money (having been reunited with his wallet by then), me running back out again to grab something to eat, stuffing it down (and i mean stuffing) and back behind the bar. where, you might guess, it was beyond boring.

so, now i am finally at home, in my bed, trying to figure out what the note about an attempted delivery could be (obviously i cant phone them to find out, cos they are only open 9-5) and thinking about karma. what goes round comes round. global.

today after work i went into to town to put some money into the bank (this is totally irrelevant to the story, but nicely setting the scene). i was stopped by some guys with a camera who were making a short film about a local theatre and asked me to imitate the way local people say eeeee (yeah it's very special and probably really useful to promote a theatre). i agreed, always willing to help people. i'm wearing glasses. all the time. i asked whether i should take them off, thinking about how the reflection might be disturbing for the camera. reply: depends on how vain you are? excuse me. i happen to like my glasses. surely they can be annoying at times (especially in the rain), but generally i think they are quite flashy. but he seemed to imply that glasses are an evil necessity for people who can't wear contacts or something. how rude. glasses can be really cool (with exceptions of course). and i'm not just saying that cos i have to wear them and am too wimpy for lenses. i was really surprised by his remark. like it's a fault to wear glasses. oh poor you, having to wear those damn things, only one step up from braces. i really thought times had changed...oh well.

ah, and since i haven't had a rant at computers for a few days here we go...

as you might be aware...i ordered a new laptop. it arrived yesterday. all new and shiny, superfast and devoid of shit, innocent and filled with new exciting (even though often pointless) features. i played around with it for a while, as you do, and then i tried to install a brand new game i just ordered as well to go with the shiny new supertechnology. 'you've inserted a blank dvd, what would you like to do with it?' eh??? blank?? no no, game on it. me wanting to play now. try again. 'you've inserted a blank dvd, what would you like to do with it?' so i tried a different dvd, a movie this time. same result. rather doubtful that the new game and the movie i had previously watched on numerous occassions would both be blank i inserted the installer/ back up cd that came with the laptop. and...same result. so, me goes off to t'internet to find some solution for my problem. after half an hour of scanning the apple homepage didnt lead to any results i decided to phone their technical support. well, i intended to anyway. the best part of twenty minutes later i finally found a phone number, so that i could speak to a real person, well after waiting another 10 minutes in their phone queue that is, which by the way sounded like a hurricane passing through (but then the helpline people sit in ireland and there's some water in between us and them and heavy gusts...hm.) anyway. a person finally. robert. very nice guy, really helpful. made me do all sort of things. 'now hold down apple (pussyfoot for non-apple users) and control, p and r at the same time and with the other hand (?!? out of my three available) start the computer.' nothing worked though. i was nearly crying at that point, being angry, frustrated and exhausted at the same time, only to be confronted with the news that the bloody damn f*%&ing thing needs to be replaced. he just managed to give me my 'case-number' before i ran out of credit on my mobile phone. great.

so, after i phoned them up again today (having a rather less helpful guy on the phone, who was more interested in how fast the thing was and how light and whether its really cool, than dealing with supplying me with one that actually works). hopefully its getting picked up within the next few days so that they can send me a new one. so, in maybe a weeks time i am going to have the pleasure of being all excited about it again.

another note...at work they still havent managed to supply us with all the necessary programmes, log-ins etc. quite comical. 'next time you're on the phone to someone with 'x' problem, you have to do 'y' for him, oh, hang on, you cant, cos you havent got access to that system yet.' haha.

full of good hopes i went into work this morning. but as you can probably judge from the heading, its not going too well.

dragging myself out of bed went better than expected, iw as on time, ready to go, only to find out that we cant access the computers yet, cos we havent got log-ons. well, big problem, just get the log-ons and we rock. ah, but that would be too easy. no no no, cos the woman with the log-ons isnt in till 9am (this being about 8 o'clock). great. so more sitting around (writing this...hey, this is what i get paid for).

then my supervisor 'had a word with me'. i havent even started to work here and she is already telling me off?? turns out the woman i was working with friday is not the nicest after all. not going into any detail here (confidentiality. again!), but i am not very happy with her, think she is totally out of order and should apologise to me, cos i wasnt doing anything wrong. but then with her being (very) german that probably is very unlikely to happen.

so, i'm off to a good start here. weehee! well, better get back in there to see whether anything has happened while i was having a bit of a rant.

probably more to come later on.

grrrrrrr

i have finally survived a week's training and am now fully prepared to get down to business. loaded with useful information i cant wait to get to the phone.

friday afternoon i had the first flavour of my upcoming job when making my first calls. the first few were easy, nothing too scary, but then...

...as i already mentioned i cant go into a lot of detail here due to security, confidentiality and the threat of probably being sacked before i even start. so let me just give you the general impression. the guy i had on the phone was having a 20 minute rant about his issues with the company, relating to a conflict occuring way back in the prehistoric age, over 15 years ago now. well, looks like he just had to let it all out. this freaked me out just a little bit, but i was assured that calls like this only happen once in about a thousand. since i'm probably only making about that many anyway i luckily got that out of the way first. phew.

oh, another interesting part of my training: i won a bottle of wine by winning a quiz / test, showcasing all my accumulated knowledge of the past week. in moments like these i know what i went to university for. it was all worth it.

better be going to bed now. early, early, way too early start.

today was the first day in my new job. quite exciting, nervracking and interesting.

first thing i found out - we are going to be in training for the whole week.
one week to teach you all there is to know about calling business customers, using their systems and reaching targets. not bad.

now, here's what i got paid for today:

- getting to know my fellow team members. always handy, especially when you probably never meet them again because you're too busy phoning people you probably never will meet.

- taking part in a quiz, trying to de-code the encrypted clues to reveal names of popular high street shops (example: third & first...? got it yet? c&a, doh! another one. excellent medicine...? superdrug! house foundation...? homebase! you get the idea)

- paying attention to a powerpoint presentation about the history of the particular company and the brand

- enjoying a guided tour of the facilities

- watching a movie about their call centre facilities in india (and worrying that we would have to take part in similar training schemes. TALK, what does that stand for, GOEJMCK, GESLÜ$=WG, RJWOMBF or GRWOötöre?? any idea? well, i'll tell you by the end of the week.)

- having a right rant about or own call centre experiences

- being let into the secret of the super-exclusive, invite only credit card that basically comes with...oh, i remember, i just signed a confidentiality agreement, so, sorry. no can-do.

as you can see i had a highly entertaining day. but the highlight was of a somewhat smaller, more intimate nature. obviously we were supplied with paper and pens so that we could jot down all important memorable information. said pens were of the fluffy pink kind. one of them was an easter egg, which rattled quite irritatingly whilst writing, others were little dolls propped on top of them with flowing pink woollen hair, which i braided while we were waiting for the screen to be set up. now, that's what i call fun. oh no, i forgot, it's work...

to be fair though. the facilities are good, the staff rooms amazing, everybody seems really nice and the job, once we actually get to do something, is probably alright as well. so all in all it looks like i've picked a good job to pay for my shiny new laptop (which should already be on its way).

i just had a look out of the window. and i saw three kids kicking a bin. by chance (or force) the bin cover opened at the side, so that they could get to the actual bit. after a few more kicks they half dragged the bin out of its cover and left it lying on the floor. then they went away. when some passers by asked them to put the bin back into place, it looked liked they were shouting abuse back at them. walking down the pathway they kicked another bin, then threw little stones into bushes and later on some other rubbish at passing cars.

now. i asked myself...why?!

the oldest of the kids was maybe twelve, the youngest seven or eight (he being the one shouting abuse).

they were in a park.

they had a football with them.

surely there are more exciting things to do then kicking a bin.

i know this sounds daft, but when i was a child...well, i did find myself something better to do and certainly never had the urge to 'play with bins'. i was amazed at the aggressiveness of those children. why didnt they just play football or climb a damn tree (ah, wait, that's not possible anymore, cos the council is cutting off the lowest branches so that nobody can climb trees anymore to avoid no-win-no-fee claims from idiots that fell off).

sometimes i wonder...

oh, and another curiosity. coming back from work some guy started talking to me about the weather (while i was walking). he kept on walking next to me and i kept thinking, shit, do i know him from somewhere. he acts as if he knows me. then he asked where the best shops were (this being 20 minutes before they close and him already carrying a shopping bag). i pointed out various shopping malls and the high street and continued to walk. so did he. it was so weird. at some point we passed the entrance to one of the shopping centres and i told him that would be the best place to go, also cos it supplied some cover from the rain. finally he went in there and stopped walking next to me. no idea what he really wanted, cos i dont think he was all that interested in shopping. freak(y).

i got the job

not that i am all that enthusiastic about the job, but the fact i have one is just such a relief.

i'm gonna order my new laptop right now

i just had my first telephone interview. oh, how exciting. i was being super professional sitting on my bed (still in bed), unshowered with a sarong wrapped around me. how bizarre. she seemed impressed, i just hope that i really do get the job now, being absolutely skint (pleite) and in want of a shiny new laptop. but if i get it i will be starting on monday, phoning up companies to inquire about how they get on with their new credit card system. monday to friday 8am-4pm. and guess what i'll be doing at the weekends...working in the bar. oh joy. well, as long as i am getting paid...

on the housefront everything is still good. i am still indulging in my new room and (this might come as a surprise to some people) it is still tidy!

also good news is that from today onwards my re-directing mail service thingy should be in operation so that i actually get post delivered to my house. wow, the advancements of modern civilisation.

finally finally finally

i am in my new house. and its great. the room is enormous. so much space. i have even unpacked all of my stuff and everything has its proper place (for the first time ever).

we just had the internet put in, its not working in my room yet though, so i'm currently sitting on the landing next to the only working access point. oh well.

being in my new home also means...i have escaped!! i am out of the horrible space that thought itself fit for living in. yippiiiieeeeh.

i am so happy with my new room. its light, i got space and it is full of nice furniture. i already treated myself to a few bits and pieces. photos may follow soon.

anyway. i just downloaded 700 emails, which i couldnt pick up within the last week and need to attend to loads of useful important messages (business opportunities in ghana, new watches, drugs, certain body part enlargements and maybe event reat myself to a new degree...)