WordPress Pumpkin, originally uploaded by Eric M Martin.
Smiley pumpkin, originally uploaded by Mini Pixel
Originally uploaded by Kristofor808
Since I’ve not got any skills whatsoever in carving pumpkins, I thought I’d just post about the best ones that I’ve found on various blogs that I visit
The WordPress one wins by far, though.
I went out for coffee the other night with a girl I used to work with, N. We met at 6.30pm, I got home at 10.15pm. As somebody who doesn’t go out with girls at all, I loved it all. It was great having somebody to gossip with, somebody to tell The Biggest Secret In My Life Right Now © and generally just be me for the night.
You see, at work I put on this act. For a start I’m Melissa in work. Hate that name, but they’ve started calling me it in the shop (probably because, you know, it’s my name) so I suppose it’s there to stick. I’m cool and confident (around 90% of the time), know what I’m talking about and put up this amazingly large wall around myself. In the space of a month I’ve gone from working with mates who I talked about nearly everything with to, well, not talking about anything other than date checks, orders or how short the tills were the day before. It’s getting to me quite a bit. Even if my previous workplace I had a wall up around me, but two people got the key to the gate and were the only people in the entire world that I spoke to about certain things. That’s quite a bit sad really.
At home? Yep another act, if only because me and my mother don’t really see eye to eye on anything. I barely see her, and if I do you can bet she’s drinking and I can’t stand people who drink. So I lock myself away in my bedroom, listen to music, read, browse the ‘net and generally act like a 15 year old.
So that leaves time with my boyfriend. I’m mostly ‘me’ with him but again, there’s things I don’t feel comfortable talking to him about, especially work because he’s just not interested in my job. I don’t blame him, as soon as he starts talking about his job I switch off too.
I don’t have any female mates. I get on better with boys, or so I thought. It was such a relief talking about stuff that’s going on in my life just now with somebody who’s sort of in the same boat. And hearing everything that’s going on in her life made me realise a lot. It’s crazy, meeting up for one cup of coffee has made me come to such a serious decision in my life.
If I haven’t been offered a managerial position within the company that I currently work for, and am training to do, before my 23rd birthday I’ll be looking for something else
I turn 23 in April. That’s 6 months; more than enough time for me to prove that my 18months of training has paid off and I have the skills to run my own store. Yes, I’m young. But so are a few managers in the company. I know that I can do this, it’s what I’ve always wanted to do. The company obviously think that I can do it, or I wouldn’t be on this course.
Finally I have a week off of work when the boyfriend is off too, we’ve been trying to arrange the same week off together for what seems like months and finally we’ve got it. Not that it’s going to be a week off for me though - I’ve got a meeting at the office on Wednesday for my MTP and tomorrow night I’m going out for coffee with a girl I used to work with for a gossip session. He’s at the dentist today and will currently be knocked for six with whatever drugs they’ve pumped him full of this time, as he’s the world’s biggest scaredy cat when it comes to the dentist and goes to a specialist who gives him drugs before doing any work, so I’m not seeing him until later on. Oh and I’ve got a million and one things to do tomorrow during the day including posting the things that I’ve sold on eBay, buying something pink to wear for the meeting on Wednesday as they’re having a Breast Cancer dress-in-pink day and try not to spend money on clothes that I don’t need.
I was planning on going somewhere this week as well, we’ve been checking out last minute breaks for the past few weeks, just looking for a couple of days away somewhere. I wanted to go back to Blackpool because it’s my favourite place in the UK outside Glasgow, because of the Pleasure Beach and the tacky shops and the trams. I’m a geek, I love getting the tram in Blackpool. It’s not because I’m some anorak or anything, it’s just because I go everywhere by bus and the trams are different to what I’m used to! The chips are amazing too, and nothing beats Blackpool Rock!
We were also looking at Cardiff, but that’s just because I am a geek and want to stand in the same place John Barrowman and David Tennant have in Cardiff Bay…
As it turns out, we’re going nowhere. There’s no point going away for a couple of days when we can just stay in the house which we’ll have to ourself. Sorted. I’ll just drag him into Glasgow for a change of scenery when shopping…
So much for me trying to make money this month, I’ve ended up paying out more than I have - typically. Although I’ve not bought myself anything other than new hair combs and hair extensions. But they’re for a party and I needed them (honestly.. it’s for Halloween).
I have raked in quite a bit of money but I’ve been buying Christmas presents already. I was planning on using my staff vouchers (money back when you spend a certain amount) in the shop to buy alcohol for some presents but they’re stopping them so I’ll need to use them before Christmas and I’ll end up buying cigarettes and boring things like bread and milk… darn, I’ve got quite a lot of the vouchers saved up as well.
I’m enjoying working in my new shop, but I miss my boys. It’s nowhere near as bad as I thought it’d be but I messed up a bit yesterday - my own fault for being so dizzy sometimes. I lost £100 from the money I was banking because I was paying for change at the same time as putting it together and looked absolutly everywhere - including the bin! Turns out it was in the safe the whole time, which I was sure I’d checked. Stressed me out, but it only happened because I was so tired.
cupcake 004, originally uploaded by Melissa Gray.
My new hoodie, how cute is it? Seriously lovin’ it.
Need I say more? I need this bag.
So, I haven’t been blogging with an update on my £10 a day challenge but I have been doing it each and every day.
Here’s my totals so far, maybe not what I was looking for but it’s a good attempt for my first time.
£25 voucher to spend in work for winning Store Of The Quarter.
£20 in Payu2Blog payments
£24 in PayPerPost payments
$15 in PayPerPost referal payments (not approved yet)
$32.49 from Amazon’s mTurk
£4.30 from onepoll.com
£47.50 from Quidco (won’t count until it’s physically in my account though)
£1.26 from interest payments in my savings account.
So, it’s not £10 a day. But it is extra money that will come in incredibly handy in the run up to Christmas. Plus it’s not taken me that much effort or time to rack up these payments at all, I’ve actually spent less time online in the past few weeks than usual due to starting my new job and being tired from all the hard work!
So, are any of you taking part in this? Where do you make extra money from online?
So I survived my mammoth 15 hour shift on Sunday pretty well actually. I didn’t feel tired until I stepped out the shop and started walking down to catch my bus home and I only drank one cup of coffee all day and, surprisingly, only one can of RockStar Juiced the entire day. That’s pretty impressive because I’m addicted to that stuff, usually drinking 2 cans on a 10 hour shift when it’s on offer. Actually, there’s always an energy drink on offer, wither it’s Relentless, Rockstar or Spar Blue Bear, so I go through the stuff like there’s no tomorrow. And I wonder why I have problems staying awake if I haven’t had any?
The only problem that I had on Sunday was when I counted the safe just before closing time it was £10 short, which means it’s probably in one of the tills for the day and I screwed up giving out change. Ick, I hate when that happens. It’s so silly too, but sometimes it happens when I’m rushing about.
Yesterday I went shopping with my mother and bought the cutest hoodie imaginable. It’s by SoulCal and it’s green with lots of cupcakes on it and it’s just so my style. The best part was that it only cost me £5. I also got a pair of Crafted slouch jeans for £10 and a hoodie for my brother’s birthday. I could have spent so much more but I was on my best behaviour because I was with my mum. When we were in the ‘posh’ part of the shopping centre it was all I could do not to buy the boyfriend a Patek Philippe watch for his Christmas, or a Julian McDonald handbag for myself, but then I remembered that I’ve got no money this month so it’ll have to be put off til I next get paid and I seriously start my Christmas shopping.
Today I’m going to go for a sunbed (shh! I know it’s bad for you) and finish off all my coursework so that I’m ahead of myself a bit when I’m next at the office.
I can’t believe it’s my day off and I don’t know what to do with myself. I am supposed to be off tomorrow as well but I’m going in in the morning to do a quick stock take and then jump along to my old shop to pick up my wage slip, so it’s not really a day off. Can’t believe that I’ve been there less than a week and I’m already going in on my days off. I’m working the weekend and not looking forward to it one bit as weekends are supposed to be my time with the boyfriend.
The worst part of being off is the fact that there’s no milk in the house, and I’ve run out of cigarettes, and the weather’s horrendous so I can’t bring myself to walk up to the shops to buy them. It’s times like now that I wish that I could drive legally and had a car! I’m going to look into sitting my Theory test again next month when I get paid (I get paid tomorrow but have too much going out this month to even consider it) and then going for having my full license by New Year, just in time for finishing my MTP so that if I do get offered a mangeress’ job in a shop I can’t knock it back because I can’t get to it. Personally I can’t wait to get my own shop, because at the moment I’m hating doing everything somebody else’s way. There’s so much I want to change in my new shop but don’t feel I can do it - in my old shop I just would have done it because me and the manager got on so well and he knew I wouldn’t do anything stupid.
I’m still feeling really annoyed at moving, but I’m putting on this brave face and getting on with it. I can see myself putting in for a transfer just after New Year if I haven’t already been offered a manager’s job because it’s doing my head in a bit. Yes, it’s great experience and most of the staff are nice but it’s just not… well, my old shop with my mates and me knowing everything inside out! Can you tell I hate change?
I checked out my credit report online last week and it showed that I have an outstanding debt of £22. I couldn’t for the life of me work out where that was (as I’ve paid off all of my debts aside from around £1500 I owe my mum) but this morning I got a letter from Nationwide telling me that I hadn’t used my account in a while and there was an unathorised overdraft of £22 on it. I must have forgotten to cancel a direct debit when I switched accounts and it’s went into an overdraft. Oops. I’ll pay it off tomorrow and close my joint account, using the current account to pay my PayPal money into I think, just to keep them happy that there’s money going into it.
*sigh* I suppose I should get up and get ready to go to the shops, because I’m dying for a cigarette and coffee.
So, as it turns out my new shop isn’t half as bad as I thought it was going to be, and the staff seem alright too. Obviously I’m still settling into my new job but it’s been a good week, if not a hell of a lot busier than I’m used to and I miss the boys so much! It’s weird not seeing them everyday. Really weird.
(Un)luckily for me it has been decided that the main area that is going to be concentrated on within this shop for the next couple of months is the newspapers and magazines and that I’m going to be the one doing so. I don’t mind dealing with them and the new procedures are exactly what’s needed so I can’t wait to get right into it and prove that I can turn the sales and waste around. They’re a big problem in most of the stores, so I’m led to believe, so it’s great being involved in something that obviously can bring in more money to my store - and hopefully others that are having the same problems. Plus it means I can do things my way, to a degree, and have something to concentrate on in the store.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s lots wrong with the store and the problems are being ironed out one by one and it’s taking time. My new manager is an excellent one, and has been with the company for a long while so I’m really looking forward to learning everything that I can from him. But, I do miss my boys, I can’t see me being the same with my new work mates.
The hard work that I’ve put in already is having a fantastic effect on my health - I’m down to smoking between 5 and 10 cigarettes a day because I only smoke about 2 cigarettes when I’m at work due to not having cigarette breaks and, weirdly enough, being in an environment where food is being cooked (the shop has a hot food to go takeaway) is the best appetite suppressant in the world. After smelling the bacon and sausages being cooked in the morning is actually putting me off of eating until I get home and have a big, healthy dinner. And promptly fall asleep at 8pm, waking up at 5am the next day!
I’ve also sort of picked up another job on top of my ‘real’ job - making money online. Regular visitors of this blog will be aware that I’m trying to net myself an extra £10 a day throughout October by any means possible online and I’m doing not too bad so far. I’ve raked in $32.49 through Amazon’s MTurk, £47.50 through Quidco (although I won’t count this until the money’s actually in my account) and so far I’m at £30 from paid blogging and I’ve still to list items on eBay - and I have loads for stuff to list! I’ve also come across some great websites listing freebies that I can get my hands on too - hey, anything you can get for free is ok in my book.
One such website, absurdly cool freebie finder, gathers freebies from other websites and lists them each day and offers users the chance to rate and comment about the freebies on offer - and it’s awesome. Today I’ve bagged myself 2 cosmetic samples and some ice cube trays (right ok, I don’t need ice cube trays but they’re always handy to have in the kitchen for impromptu parties). The design of the site isn’t perhaps the best in the world, nor is it the worst, but I get my updates through my RSS reader so the design doesn’t bother me - plus all the offers are separated into the countries that they apply to.
They also have this nifty feature that weeds out the scams so there’s very little chance of you not getting your freebie through the post. It’s such a fantastic little website to follow because you never know what you might get for free one day and there’s a better chance of you finding out about it through this site than if you’re only a member of one freebie website.
Today was my last day in the shop with my boys (other supervisor and manager), although I do have two more shifts left before I start in my new shop on Monday. Today should have been fun, one last day to have a laugh and whatever. So what did I do? Was in a bad mood all day, snapped at them for winding me up and felt really bad when I left.
It’s just so frustrating. It hit me about 9am that this was my last proper shift in the shop and that only added to my bad mood. I love working with those two and I had to go and act all immature about everything all day and turned into being really cheeky. I’m quite sarcastic and cheeky most of the time but I took it way too far today - when the boss asked me to do something I told him to piss off, I wasn’t doing it. Mainly because I was in the middle of doing something else and he could quite easily have done what he was asking me, but also because I felt he was only asking me because he knew how much it would annoy me. It’s not like him, either.
I’m by far going to miss working with him the most because we do have such a laugh in the shop while we’re working and get along brilliantly (so much so that some people have hinted that there’s more to our relationship than manager/supervisor); not to mention that he’s pretty easy on the eye! That’s not to say I won’t miss everybody else, because I will.
My rota for the new shop is probably one of the best I could have hoped for;
Sunday - 6.45am - 5pm
Monday - 6.45am - 5pm
Tuesday - Off
Wednesday - Off
Thursday - 6.45am - 5pm
Friday - 6.45am - 5pm
Saturday - Off
Sunday - Off
Monday - 6.45am - 5pm
Tuesday - 6.45am - 5pm
Wednesday - 6.45am - 5pm
Thursday - Off
Friday - Off
Saturday - 6.45am - 5pm
It’s a two week rota, thank goodness. I couldn’t deal with working a three week rota because I’d hate to have to work 2 weekends on 3 as that’s the only time that I ever see the boyfriend.
I’m still dreading the move, and don’t want Monday to come around. I hope the boys understand why I was in a mood today…
