Ho Ho Ho

Whoo wee. It's been a while. Lordy. Oh well. Tis the season of neglected blogs I suppose. Well, Merry Festivus and Happy whatever to you all. I'm smack dab in the middle of the gift giving season, meaning that my hours at work are long, unproductive and good fun. There's a certain level of stress that makes everyone extra chummy at work, since we all know we're in the same barrel, so to speak, and I find it enjoyable. I find it even more enjoyable now that I have a set of managers keys and I can DO WHATEVER I WANT! No, not really. But at least I can process refunds and open the till without having to seek parental permission. I like that.

I'm not sure yet as to my future at the store - hard to say if they will get the permission to carry on any of the Christmas temps like last year. Who knows. If not, I'll have to plan accordingly. For now I'm trying to enjoy my time here with the wonderful people I work with. I'd really like to stay. Really really really. But we'll see. If I don't, I don't. And I'll survive. Without breaking into song. I will survive... oh as long as I know... Okay. Stopping now.

We had our Christmas party on Wednesday, and it was lots and lots of fun. I drank and was merry, and while some of our less-shameful colleagues did some rather shameful acts with each other, I'm pleased to announce that I took part in none of this, and instead went to a rather quiet afterparty with my 3 managers and Kevin, our loss prevention man, while the others carried onto a club.

And, although I'm not going to name any shameful names/deeds, I'd like to introduce you to some of the lovely people I work with:

On the left there is me (obviously), my lovely supervisor Tissa (who is moving to Serbia next year!) and Patrick, our in-house games and tech man. On the right is one of the other temps, Sam, who was a smidgen drunk, and Libby, the gal that counts all the money and keeps the safe... well... safe.

Joining Libby and Tissa on the left there is Mark, a full-timer with a permanent job. Bah. On the right is our store manager, Lindsey, and the aforementioned Loss Prevention man, Kevin.

Now that we've moved outside the bar so everyone can smoke, here's our back of store, all-around protection man Ronnie and one of the gals that works in the back, Joan. On the right is my new assistant manager Otto and the previously mentioned drunk, Sam.

I missed a couple people in those photos, mainly Dave and some of the other Christmas temps, but that's okay. I've got other, drunk, blurry pictures of them for another day.

That's that for now I think. I have tomorrow and Wednesday off, and I'm not sure yet what to do with them. The weather outside is frightful (but the fire is so delightful...), although not nearly as frightful as it is back home, so I might stay indoors and bake cookies. Who knows. Either way, hopefully I'll get out and take some more pictures soon. My poor camera is feeling rather neglected I think.

Plus, I need to finish of my Secret Santa gift for the house. Man alive Christmas is next FRIDAY!

WHAT HAPPENED TO DECEMBER? What will I do when I no longer get to wake up to chocolate and exciting facts about the Stig? My life will no longer be complete...

'Tis the season!

Some Thoughts

Today was my first day back at work, and I'm very pleased to report that it was AWESOME! Very nice to be back with friends doing a job that's fun and easy.

I was a bit bummed to learn that my manager, Mat, had left Wandsworth for another store, but the new manager, Lindsey, is really great and I'm looking forward to working with her. She's really good at giving feedback, which is something Mat never did, which can be hard.

I'm up late waiting for my pumpkin pie to cook. I made a batch of little pumpkin pies beforehand, and they turned out pretty good, so I'm hoping the same rings true of the full-sized one. The only downside is that I don't have a blender, so the pie itself is a bit... clumpy. Not the best texture, but a nice flavour.

In my spare time I've been messing around with Photoshop - a program I'm slowly learning how to use. I edited and made that picture above, and most of you will recognize it from my Facebook/Twitter accounts. But for those of you who don't have either, I though I'd share. Plus, people seem to whine that *I* don't feature enough on my blog. There's no one around to take my picture!

I'll post more pictures of my attempt at making pumpkin pie when the final pie comes out of the oven and I taste it. No point bragging at my mad pie-making skills if it turns out like the chocolate pie I made in HomeEc in Jr. High. Because that was just chocolate soup in a pastry bowl...

Days Off

Today and tomorrow are my scheduled days off, and HMV called this morning to ask if I wanted to come in and take a shift today and tomorrow. Yikes! I guess that's what I get for hoping for overtime! After some major thinking about, I decided to take a shift today, but not tomorrow. I will work 12-7 today, and will head into London tomorrow for some touristing.

I will do some laundry and shower before I go, and will clean a bit when I get home today. It would be nice to have both days off, and I could've said no to both, it wouldn't of been a big deal, but again, I have to remember that the point of this 6-week spell is to work, not to have days off.

I need to keep one day off a week though, just for my sanity. Hah.

So I'll be at work today, and hopefully will be in London taking photos tomorrow!

Family Guy

I sold a copy of Family Guy: Season 7 to a priest (father?.... I don't know what I should call him - but he wore a collar thingy) today. I found it midly amusing. Yes, I know that there is nothing wrong with it, but I still find the image of a priest going home on a Sunday night and laughing at the silly antics of Family Guy.

Employment

So... this afternoon I had a job interview... and this evening, I have a job!

I am now a full-time employee of HMV Britain. Yay?

I am pleased that I am employed now, and I think it will be fun working at HMV, although I think giving up my unemployed, slacker lifestyle will be hard.

It will be nice to see some deposits into my bank account rather than withdrawls. My first day of work is tomorrow - I start 10:30 a.m. - I'm not sure how long I'll be there, so I'll keep you posted on my first day of work.

I'd best get to sleep, now, mustn't be tired!