Doing a 15 hour shift after just two hours sleep is not fun in the slighest, but that’s exactly what I did on Monday as the back shift supervisor called in sick. I was supposed to finish at 4pm but got talked into staying til 10pm - my boss was there til 10pm also and the amount of work we got done in that 15 hour period was amazing. Seriously, the shop looks amazing and sparkly clean. We rock.

The downside to working so hard? Pretty much yesterday there was nothing to do. At all. We’d done all the orders that were required to be done and worked all the backstock so all we had to do was put out daily deliveries which take about 10 minutes top and daily paperwork - about an hour or so? And the rest was just milling about doing this-and-that. It was amazingly boring all day.

Today was good though - more tidying up and merchandising which I love doing with a passion, it’s the area of retail that I want to get into so I do most of it in our shop. I get really OCD-ish about it, fixing products on the shelf until they are millimetre perfect and all the labels line up…yes, I’m sad!

I’m working all day tomorrow again..and Friday…and Saturday. Half day Sunday and Monday. That means I’ll have done 57 hours in one week - result! Shame I only get paid for 39 and get the rest back in time-owed, which will come in handy on the 12th August.

Why the 12th of August? I’ve booked my theory test for my driving licence. I’m ever so slighty nervous as I keep forgetting really silly and important things - like stopping distances and the like. Eeek. Think I’ll have to read the highway code about 10 times between now and then. And remember not to forget the paper part of my licence, eh Rhys?

Motoring show Top Gear has been criticised by the BBC Trust after viewers complained about “highly irresponsible” footage.

The Polar Special featured hosts Jeremy Clarkson and James May drinking while driving as they tried to reach the Magnetic North Pole last year.

The trust said the scene “could be seen to glamorise the misuse of alcohol”.

The show’s executive producer said they were beyond the jurisdiction of drink driving laws in international waters.

‘Editorial purpose’

The trust was also told that neither presenter was shown “drunk or out of control of the vehicle”.

The BBC Trust said the scene “was not editorially justified in the context of a family show pre-watershed”.

However, it added that at present in the UK, “it is legal to drink a small amount of alcohol and still drive”.

In the same show complaints were also made about scenes showing frostbitten genitalia.

The trust said there was “a clear editorial purpose for the inclusion of an image of a frostbitten penis, which had been shown for “a medical rather than a sexual purpose”.

Source: BBC News

I’m am so amused by this story on the BBC. That episode was ages ago, and yet people are complaining now? Big deal, James and Jeremy had a wee drink while in the car in the Arctic while Jeremy was driving. It’s not like the downed a bottle of Buckfast and got behind the wheel of a car on a motorway and raced each other at 6pm. Nor did the say “Everybody should drink gin when driving, it’s the thing to do”, or glorify drink driving in any way.

Seriously, Britain. Get a grip.

How good was Top Gear tonight? First in the new series and their ‘Top Gear Top Fuel Consumption Tips’ were excellent, pretty much if you want a good mpg in a supercar, get an Audi R8. Which I actually had the pleasure of sitting in about two weeks ago. Granted it was in the Audi garage but oh my goodness the urge to hot wire it, drive through the huge glass windows and some how escape onto the M8 motorway without being caught just to say that I’d driven one, was massive. It’s the sexiest car I’ve ever, ever seen.

Anyway, aside from proving that yet again Audi cars are the best; Jeremy, James and Richard (oh wow how cute did he look tonight?) actually had a good few tips and they can all be found on the Top Gear website.

1. If you see the lights ahead are red, take your foot off the throttle immediately. If you wait and then use your brakes you are simply wasting the fuel you used to achieve a speed you didn’€™t need. Remember, a modern engine uses no fuel at all when it’€™s coasting in gear.
2. Next. Speed. Wind it down. You don’t need to do 25 mph, but instead of doing 80 on the motorway, try 75. Or if you normally do 120, try 110.
3. 56 mph, by the way, really is the optimum speed for good fuel consumption in most cars. Don’€™t try this in villages though or you will have to spend some time in a prison.
4. When leaving the lights, accelerate smartly. Not like a bat out of hell. But don’€™t dawdle. Get the car into top gear as quickly as is reasonable. Fifth gear, remember, is no good at all.
5. Don’t buy a Toyota Prius.

Fair enough, I find most of them useful because of the injection of humour that possibly only British readers will get, or indeed just Top Gear fans. Whatever, I thought I’d share anyway.

I have been doing a lot of thinking about my life recently; where I am, what I want from life etc. Up until now everything has just been this big game to me - I still feel like I’m 16 years old when the truth is that I’m 22. There are so many things that I should be able to do by now but because I don’t take life seriously I’ve never completed things that other people my age have. The only responsibility that I have is work - counting £1000s of pounds daily and opening or closing the shop. Not really impressive, is it?

Other people my age have been able to drive for 5 years, have their own cars and houses - heck some people I went to school with are now parents, married and in some cases, dead (ok, that’s not what I want from life but that’s where we all end up so I suppose it’s inevitable).

I can’t even manage 4 weeks worth of wages, you can guarantee that by week two I’m all out of money, granted half my wages go straight to my mum to pay back my debt to her but that still leaves me with £100 a week to myself, and it goes all too quickly. I might want to grow up and buy a car and have children (oh, and pay for everything else that goes with them..food, clothes,a crib, crib bedding, toys, pram, high chair) but if I can’t even manage to survive a month when all I have to pay is my bus ticket then what chance do I have?

So I’ve set myself a goal, after having a really long hard thing about this. I’ve managed to cut my smoking down to around 15 a day, but I want to get this down to 10 and then 5 and the none. The money that I save on cigarettes is going into my ISA. Well, most of it anyway. That means that when I pass my driving test, which should be within the next 6 months), I’ll have a bulk of money to either pay a deposit on a new car or buy an older one outright. Failing that, it’ll be used for a deposit on a flat. I’ve given up the thought of living with the boyfriend and I’ve worked out that in one years time I’ll have paid off all my debts so any money I have left I can spend on moving out or a car, or both.

I’m hoping to be living on my own again within 18 months - with or without the boyfriend living with me. I actually managed really well when I moved out of my mum’s house before until I lost my job but I have about 95% job security where I am at the moment and the only place I can go is up - and with that comes better wages.

My plan is that if I write about it here then I can’t give up saving and moving towards my goals - that is the idea anyway. I’m sure I’ll stick to it.

At the moment, the boy is driving (that’s a lie, his grandfather is driving) to Edinburgh to pick up the pool table I bought him for his 24th birthday. You have no idea how excited I am, I’ve wanted to buy him a pool table for so long, and in a few hours it’ll be all set up in his garage.

It took a long time to find one to buy, we ended up going with one off eBay that was slightly damaged. There’s nothing wrong with the actual playing surface, just the little window at the side where you see the potted balls is missing, which is easy to fix. We got it for 10% of the retail price, which is £3,100. There’s one other problem, the cloth is lilac but I’ve been reading up on recovering / refelting pool tables and actually it doesn’t look that hard. Plus our friend’s dad is an absolute pool shark and should be able to give us a hand doing it as he’s done it before.

At this moment the boy plus the 5 students we’ve bought it off of will be carrying the slate bed down 2 flights of stairs, don’t envy them one bit! Funnily enough they failed to mention that they lived in a flat when we bid for it.

Anyways, I’m going to read my new book that I got in the RBL last night for 50p, Number 10 by Sue Townsend. Looks excellent, so I’m going to sit for a while with a huge cup of coffee and an Easter egg (yes, we still have Easter eggs left!) reading it.

Oh, random.. The Fratelli’s new song is excellent. Just heard it on E4 music. New album soon please, boys.

With everything that’s has been happening regarding work I’ve not had a chance to jump online in a wee while. But, for once in my life I actually have things to blog about.

Last Friday the boy and I went out to play some pool in his local pub, usually where we can be found on a Friday night. There were two guys playing pool on the table next to us and we started talking to them, I knew one of them as he’s a local driving instructor and knows the boy’s mum. Anyway, they were laughing at the fact I’m useless at playing pool and decided to teach me properly. Well, I’ve never had such a laugh. They ended up moving every ball over the pockets so that no matter what the shot, I potted a ball - it was excellent!

I absent mindedly asked ‘are you this good at getting people through their driving tests?’ and ended up getting myself a driving instructer. Who, has it happens is pretty damn good!

I had my first, double, lesson with him the other day and it’s amazing, I can actually drive. We did the usual cockpit drill, starting off etc and then I got let free on dual carriageways where I was told to ‘put your foot down til you hit 70 to see what it’s like’, which was scary as hell but so good as I was really scared of going fast, and I’ve mastered hill starts and crawling up/down hills at 5mph, as well as feeling a lot better at going around roundabouts.

I’ve got an other lesson on Thursday evening and I’m really looking forward to it, should be good. Now that I’ve got a good teacher I should be through my test in no time, my confidence is soaring when I get behind the wheel these days!

I’ve had three driving lessons with a driving instructor and I seem to think that I am The Stig.

My first lesson was on Tuesday with Red Driving School. I’m intentionally not linking to their website because I wouldn’t recommend them to anyone, there was an obvious reason that there lessons were so cheap - incompetent springs to mind. The instructor didn’t even ask to see my driving license at any point during the lesson, never mind ask things like “read the license plate on X car” to check my eyesight.

Within 10 minutes of being in the car (a new Corsa, didn’t like it much) I was driving down the main road next to my house at 30 miles an hour and going around roundabouts scared for my life. Baring in mind that it was snowing heavily the night before the roads were in a horrendous state. I was petrified, making stupid mistakes like stalling at roundabouts with roadworks on them in between two double decker buses. Not good.

Needless to say, I’m not going back with Red. My mum paid for two lessons with a local driving instructor who is a lovely man, and explained everything to me properly. I’ve also been out with my mum a good few times in the local industrial estate, but for the life of me I can’t find the biting point of the clutch in her car very well, thus the reason we’ve not been out on ‘real’ roads.

Never mind, I love driving more than I ever thought I did. I just need to remember and think sooner and I’ll be fine. I keep forgetting to change down gears when getting to junctions and roundabouts and try to take corners like The Stig.

So it appears that my friends are idiotic, pathetic non-friends.

Last night we all went 10 pin bowling and had a complete blast, it was the typical story of we all go bowling and play amazingly bad in the first game (I got 90 points in 10 frames, that is cringe-worthy. Although I did manage to throw a size 8 ball at 16.2mph), get drunk and play brilliantly in the second game. About half way through the second game I gave up playing, I’d been trying to perfect spinning the ball down the lane instead of it just rolling and hurt my wrist. I ended up putting about £10 into a driving arcade game and winning 4 games of that while the boys took my go at bowling. Suited me just fine, as I don’t go in for the whole getting-so-drunk-you-can’t-stand-up thing that they were doing.

Midnight rolled around and the bowling was closing so I called the taxi company to order a cab but they didn’t have any hackney cars on, so I just ordered two cabs to take us back to the boyfriends - there were 5 of us and Scottish taxis are only licensed to carry 4 persons unless they have more than 4 seats (three in the back, one in the front). Boyfriend & I jumped in the first one while the our friends waited on the second car. Everything was going fine until they showed up at the boy’s house about 20 minutes after us - since they had to wait longer on the second car they’d been caught in the snow and were cold and moody. Understandable, but we had to take the first car since we had to let them into the house!

Throughout the night more drinking is done by them and tempers are fraying over the silliest little things. They want the windows open, I don’t since I’m sitting right under them and it’s snowing outside, so obviously it’s rather cold. Around 2.30am I start hinting to the boyfriend that I’d like to go to bed soon…I’m never nasty or evil about doing this, usually just whispering in his ear that it’s nearly bedtime and he’ll get lucky if we go soon! Anyways, one friend hears me saying this to my boyfriend and starts saying that all I ever do is try to throw them out of a house that I don’t even live in. I ignored him, but he says something rather evil and nasty to me about 10 minutes later and my boyfriend tells him not to talk to me that way. Cue shouting and fighting between the boys, and boyfriend’s mum shouting through the wall since she’s up for work in a few hours. Understandable, right?

Then at about 3am one of the boys, who I consider to be my closest friends, says something and then says “Oops, shouldn’t tell Mel that” while the boyfriend face goes sheet white. This gets my heart racing and I calmly asked “Don’t tell Mel what?” about 12 times before I’m told that a few weeks before Christmas my boyfriend was at said mate’s house and his girlfriend invited one of her friends over. The boyfriend fell asleep (he’s prone to do this on work days) and all my so-called-friends thought it would be funny to try and get this girl to try and kiss, fondle and whatever with my boyfriend stating “it’s ok, his girlfriend will never know”. I don’t think I’ve ever felt such anger towards my friends. I wasn’t angry at the boy, after all he was asleep and nothing happened, but I am furious at my friends. The reason that my boyfriend hadn’t told me was because he knew I’d fly off the handle. Which is exactly what I did. I called a taxi, gathered my things together and got ready to leave. In the end I canceled the taxi and sat downstairs crying, listening to my boyfriend and friends arguing until he threw them out his house 10 minutes later and came and hugged me for an eternity.

So now? I’m not talking to any of my friends. It appears that the boy isn’t talking to them either and I can’t believe that they would go behind my back for their amusement. Am I over-reacting? Possibly. But it’s made me realise that finally, I trust the boy 100%. And that I cannot trust my immature friends.

Damnit, why is life always so screwed up?

I don’t know if it will be picked to be published, but this is my entry for BehindEveryBlog.com, the website that focuses on the author of the blog!

1. Who was your very first crush?
   I believe that it was Henry Ramsey from Neighbours (AKA Craig McLachlan), although looking back at pictures now I have to wonder why! I liked him that much that I named my pet rabbit after him, even though she was a girl. She quickly became Henrietta though! Thankfully, my taste in men has changed a heck of a lot since I was 4 years old!
2. If you could undo one thing from the last 24 hours, what would it be and why?
   Probably going to bed before 8am this morning, as I’m now not tired even though I need to sleep for work in the morning. Unfortunately, it’s a theme that seems to occur every weekend these days…staying up all night and sleeping all day. It’s playing havoc with my body!
3. In the room you’re in right now, pick out your most treasured item (your computer, people and pets don’t count). What makes it so special?
   Since people don’t count, I guess that I can’t pick my boyfriend! My most treasured item in this room (said boyfriend’s bedroom) is either going to be my brand new digital camera - which I love with a passion and seem to be taking more and more pictures every day - or our Nintendo Wii, if only because I rock at driving games and it makes me want to pass my driving test even more than standing at a bus stop at 6am every day in the pouring rain!
4. You’re given $500 to spend for a good cause. Assuming you actually have to spend the money rather than donate it to charity, what would you buy, and what would you do with it?
   . I think I would find the lovely man who stands outside the shopping center in my town selling the Big Issue and take him on a shopping spree to buy warm, waterproof clothing and boots. And a pack of cigarettes and a nice warm cup of tea. He stands outside for around 10 hours a day, opening doors for people and trying to sell the magazine. He deserves to be warm and dry!
5. What’s a quick pick-me-up?
   A Starbucks Java Chip Frappe and a newspaper to read, lounging on the big floppy sofas at the front of the shop, watching people walking by.
6. What made you start a blog?
   I honestly cannot remember, it was that long ago. My first websites started as a base to share cartoon dolls and music lyrics (hey, I was 12 and it was 1998!). From there I progressed to writing into a LiveJournal account and then changing my websites from rubbish content sites to an actual blog. I think I just wanted to be cool!!