I am so darn annoyed right now. Like I said in the last aside that I posted, I’ve spent the entire day typing up the last module of my management training program which is due in tomorrow. I knew that I was either there tomorrow or next Wednesday, but wasn’t too sure.

The reason I found out that it was tomorrow? My ex boss text me this morning to tell me. Apparently there was an email sent to our stores informing us that we were to attend head office tomorrow and take everything with us as it’s to be handed into the operations director at the end of the meeting.

Question is, why didn’t somebody from my store phone me to let me know that I’d to take all my folders with me? Is it that darn hard to pick up the phone and let me know? I know that I’m not liked that much in this shop (mainly due to the fact I work damn bloody hard and show them up) but trying to sabotage my career by not passing on important information? That’s pissed me off.

So now, I’m going into the shop tomorrow morning. Just show up at 7am in order to print a few things off that can only be accessed and printed via the POS systems back computer and to make a point of asking why on earth nobody called me.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d have realised that I was there tomorrow by reading the timetable that’s in my folder. But I wouldn’t have known that it had to be 100% completed in order to be handed in and checked to allow us to pass the course.

Thankfully I’m just tying up loose ends now and just need to collect some evidence in the morning. And print about 200+ pages using the shop’s computer… hopefully we’ve got loads of paper in the shop or I’m in big trouble!

At long last, after ten years of ohhing and ahhing about what I want to do with my life I’ve actually realised what I was born to do.

In those ten years I’ve tried my hand at a few jobs, a few college course and 8 Standard Grades which have little relevance to my vocational calling. The good news is that I’m already on the ladder to my chosen career; and nearly finished a course in it. Of course - retail management.

Yes, I know I’ve been training to be a manager for over a year with this course that I’m on through work but I only applied for it in the first place because I wanted to learn more about the job I was already (and still am) doing and didn’t for one second think that it would end up in becoming a store manager myself in the near future. It was also something else to stick on my CV when the time came to move on as I’d done in every single job I’ve had before now. I always grabbed something from the company I was working for to boost my qualifications, experience.. whatever.

But now there’s an actual chance that I could end up as a store manager. It’s a slim one, but it’s there all the same. So now I’m applying myself even more to prove I’m the obvious choice for the vacancy which will be coming up in the not too distant future. This situation is a far cry from the problems I was having a few weeks ago which nearly resulted in me handing my notice in!

Point of the story is I’ve spent the last 4 hours reading online versions of trade magazines (some of which I already read in the shop) and realising that retail makes me quite excited. And that it’s an area where I can continue to learn things each and every day. We have problems in the shop with making money due to a Tesco opening up down the street and the local high school being rebuilt miles away from the shop so they’ve (I need to get used to saying we since it’s my shop now) lost all the customers from there. So I’ve been racking my brains coming up with ideas and it’s amazing - I’m finally comfortable with what I’m doing and confident about my job and my skills.

Not bad for a decade of wondering ‘what will I be when I’m older?’ and it certainly beats what I wanted to be when I was at school - a receptionist!

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.

I’ve just logged into WordPress for the first time in quite a while to be confronted by over 100 spam comments. That has never, ever happened to me before - I’m lucky if I get one comment at all. It also takes away from my theory that installing plugins like Askimet and SpamKarma actually increase your likely hood of getting more spam. I don’t have any spam busting plugins on this blog at all, as I was fed up ‘marking comments as spam’ on the previous installation of WordPress here.

So, looks like I’m going to have to find a good spam fighting plugin that does exactly what it says on the tin - other than the two big names in WordPress plugins. Any recommendations?

Last night I spent around 6 hours writing up answers for my Management Training Program, and tonight I’m supposed to be typing it all up, but I’ve not started yet. Considering I’m up at 5am (it’s currently 9.30pm) I need to get a move on. I’m taking my laptop with me to Head Office tomorrow to sit in the office and type my little heart out so I don’t need to finish tonight but I have so much work to do. It completely and utterly serves me right, I’ve had two months to finish these two modules and yet I’ve left it until the last week as per usual. I think this one has taken me so long because it’s the most boring thing about running a shop - Newspaper & Magazines. I deal with our supplier in work a lot and they’re incompetent idiots, which makes me resent doing anything to do with them. Funny considering they’ve got the monopoly in paper distribution in the UK they can’t seem to get the basics right.

The good news is that the course must be finished for January 2009 as this is when the awards ceremony is. I think I’ll need to be on holiday that week, I don’t much fancy that and having my picture in the quarterly magazine sent to all staff members. Eh, no. I don’t do photographs.

I suppose I should get on with it really, although with my will power at the moment I’ll have to unplug the cable for the router and get my brother to hide it as I’ve got so much catching up to do online too.

Guess who forgot to take her site of maintenance mode?

I was all in a tizzy yesterday, my MTP coursework is due in tomorrow and I was still no where finished it yesterday even although I’ve had three months to complete it. So obviously, uploading a new theme was a better priority.

Anyways, course work is now finished (all 10,000 words of it) and I know there’s a few loose ends needing tied up but I don’t want to see that folder until at least…tomorrow when I’m up at head office.

I’d ordered Avon stuff through their website on Friday night / Saturday morning and I thought it would have arrived by now. I got loads of stuff in their special offers section, mostly moisturisers and night creams, along with some bath creme. I can’t wait to try the Avon Invisible Light Illuminating Make Up Base, because I’d like my skin to look all perfect without having to wear foundation. We’ll see if it lives up to my expectations for glowing, soft focus, English rose skin.

I was originally looking for some sort of spot cream as well but couldn’t find anything that fitted the bill. For some unknown reason for the past month or so my skin’s been acting up and going all gross - dry and oilly! It’s a nightmare, especially as I don’t feel comfortable in makeup. I constantly think I’ve got it all wrong, or have a line running the length of my chin where I’ve not rubbed it in properly even if I know I have. Anyway, the boy’s in work take the piss out of me when I where makeup since they’re not used to seeing me in it! I’ll just have to keep a look out for natural acne treatment ideas, since I’m not a fan of chemicals on my face (uh, yes..I know I’ve contradicted myself here but moisturiser is badly required when you live in Scotland, the lack of sunshine and constant horrid weather makes my skin really dry).

If you have any recommendation, please let me know. I’m feed up looking like a teenager again.