All change again!

Last Friday, at 3pm, was my 3 month review at work. It was going to be held with my Team Leader, Kate, my Line Manager Anna, and the Head of IT, David. However, over the course of the last two weeks I've pretty much made up my mind about whether or not I'd made the right move from restuarants into The PizzaBase (Head Office!)

Pro's;

Mainly it's been to have weekends off, which this summer was an absolute Godsend!

There have been some great nights out (mainly starting in Comptons!), theatre trips to Blue Man Group and Wicked!. There've been Gay Days out and all the Prides (most notably Brighton!) I've enjoyed Sunday mornings at Columbia Road Flower Market, hustling through the crowds to find fabulous plants at wonderful prices! Sunday afternoons have been lunches at "The Pub On The Park" round at the back of my flat on London Fields or mad sunday afternoons at the Vauxhall Tavern. I've really had time to spend with my friends, in fact most of the above has involved G & V, and that's been really special. In fact it really has been a great summer overall.

I've also learned alot, and raised my profile within the company which are both good things. Also, I'd like to think that it show's I'm willing to try new things and develop myself.

Cons;

This boils down to two main issues; one being the twat that is my TeamLeader (see Mike's comments here as a brief example). I haven't bitched about her anywhere near as much as I could have done over the last few months, but I like to keep happy things in my head and regurgitating her demeaning attitude here would serve no purpose to you or I. So I have refrained. But, anyone who, at the age of 28, has just been sent on her first Leadership course and came back with wonderful news that she should ask more questions of her team (she had learnt the '5 Bums on a goalpost' thing), really shouldn't be in charge of someone thats been teaching that bloody course for the last 10 years.

The other issue is the commute. I really can't bear the thought of hour and three-quarter journeys, each way, now its colder and darker. I should be out in the restuarants more by now like they orignally promised, but there's no sign of me being put out in the field yet. I feel they mis-promised me here.

So I stopped the review by saying "Well, I don't want to waste everyones time when I know you're busy, so I may as well just tell you I want to go back to restuarants. Thanks for the opportunity, but I don't think it's really for me"

And by ten past 3 my CV had been e-mailed with an interest to the current vacancy at our Hampstead branch!

Two things worry me here now; that I may come across as 'flakey' ("Tried it, didn't like it. Can I change again please?"), and that I may not see so much of my mates again now. I really hope not.

Have you got your costume ready yet?

If you've got a nephew and a dog handy, here's a suggestion for you...

If you have a dog but no nephew at your disposal...

If you haven't got either, but a butt to be proud of...

If you've got none of these, then feel free to mail me for suggestions!

But whatever you do.....

DON'T GO AS ELPHABA!!!

.... it's just too obvious!

Hallowe'ens coming Part 4

This is one of my favourite hallowe'en virals ever!
Part 3
Part 2

We're going to a dance!

I was blessed to have 4 fabulous grandparents. I was even more blessed that I still had them all when I reached my 30's, that's an unusual feat I'm sure.

I learnt many things from all of them which pop into my head every now and then when I least expect them.

Yesterday at work, something went wrong. It's not important what exactly but it was a basic communication problem.

It was what most people would call Chinese Whispers, and the task I carried out was nothing like the one my Supervisor had originally asked someone else to ask me to do. Naturally, I looked the fool, even though it was her lack of team management skills that caused it.

The phrase "Send three and fourpence, we're going to a dance" popped into my head and I was reminded of one of my Grandads favourite stories. This is it, roughly...

During the height of trench warfare in the First Great War, the Major General received a message one night in HQ sent from the men at the frontline. It had come via couriers, spies, air and sea.

“Send 3 and 4 pence, we’re going to a dance” he was told

(“3 and 4 pence” being old English money – 3 shillings and 4 pence)

The Major general could not believe his own ears!

“Send 3 and 4 pence we’re going to a dance??!! What the bloody hell are they thinking?”

He sent the response;

"I don't know what the devil you're playing at, but there will be no dancing while there's a war on!"

Sadly the men were due to go 'over the top' the next day, and without the reinforcements they wanted, they perished in battle.

Hence the original message…

“SEND REINFORCEMENTS, WE’RE GOING TO ADVANCE”

My pirate name is:

Mad Sam Bonney

Every pirate is a little bit crazy. You, though, are more than just a little bit. You can be a little bit unpredictable, but a pirate's life is far from full of certainties, so that fits in pretty well. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

Before I started getting engrossed in the McCartney case, I was writing about stuff with Jay, and I mentioned in that post "The rent money he gave me came in handy too of course! Since I've moved here I've realised I've over-committed myself financially and things have been tight. I hate being short of cash, it means you can't do the things you're mates are doing, and I worry myself sick when the direct debits start to bounce."

So, this weekend gone I made a decision; I'm taking on a flatmate! So I took some pics of the flat and registered my place on the OUTLET site.

That was Sunday and I've had 6 applicants already so it looks like I'm gonna have a busy week interviewing! (",)

McCartney vs McCartney... another bit

Further to yesterday's post, I found this site yesterday that gives a brilliantly funny account pretty much everything thats happened to date...

McCartney vs, McCartney

It's all getting very underhanded here, with more mud thrown than we've seen anywhere since Dynasty!! The former 'model' has been throwing about a few sequins of her own!

We've had leaked court papers, that then turned out to have 5 pages missing (the five pages that could've made her look bad apparently!), then it turned out they were not the papers after all but only the first draft.... that only Heathers camp would have seen. But she tried to blame the leak on him anyway, saying he was doing it for sympathy.

Newsflash!!....

He doesn't need stunts to get sympathy Heather... we can see what you're like!!

Over the weekend we had allegations from her that he had hit Linda, his ex-wife, too. This was probably the nasiest piece of manipulation I've ever seen.

Linda McCartney was a strong minded, independant business woman who believed in human and animal rights. Could it honestly be imagined that she'd have stuck with Paul if he was a wife beater?

Besides that.... to drag a dead womans name into the ring and rubbish that marriage, not only to the world, but to Linda's own children is both diabolical and sickening!!

Then today it turns out she's been handed a tape of a private conversation between Sir Paul and his daughter Stella; (by a 3rd party obviously... bugging is illegal in this country!).

She has proved over and over again that she's a liar, from the denial of her porn work (pictured, but cropped for the sake of stopping mass nausea) to the fabrication that she used to live rough, it's all been crap. If what she's saying has any modicum of truth whatsoever then how can she expect to be believed? If she'd ever heard of 'The Boy That Cried Wolf' I'm sure she'd know better!

All Change At Hotel Hackney!

After dinner at Claridges, things got back on an even keel with Jay. He even moved out of the place he was still sharing with his ex (why didn't I spot these alarm bells?!) He moved in and we had a few great weeks, I loved having him here.

The rent money he gave me came in handy too of course! Since I've moved here I've realised I've over-committed myself financially and things have been tight. I hate being short of cash, it means you can't do the things you're mates are doing, and I worry myself sick when the direct debits start to bounce.

Anyway, we decided things were happening too quickly, so he moved in with a girlfriend. Then I started seeing him less and less. We argued a few times on the phone. A couple of weeks ago he announced that he may be off to San Francisco for a couple of weeks. Apparently his ex had bought the tickets when they were stll together, but he probably wouldn't. After all, he said, it may be awkward.

Now, SF is my favourite city in the world (as you'd know if you've seen any of my comments on Joe.My.God), and I couldn't quite get over the feeling of jealousy that he would be there and I would be here, commuting to Uxbridge on the Ghetto Express daily. (thats the Silverlink North London Line if any of you know it!)

Well, the next day I called and got no reply,nor the day after. I realised he'd gone. There had been no 'Goodbye'.

I knew the tickets he had were due to get him back to the UK on the 10th. I left it until the 12th to call. Again no reply.

Monday 16th; I had an e-mail at work. Sorry he hadn't been in touch, his phone was broken and he's waiting for a replacement. He'd had an 'OK' time, but nothing special. He'd like to meet up sometime. I said I was free most evenings this week. He was busy though, lots to catch up on since he's had two weeks off!

To my mind, if you care about someone at all, and you're aware they may be hurt by your actions, YOU BLOODY MAKE TIME!!

So, if he doesn't give a fuck, then frankly my dear, neither do I!

So now it's back to stage one, and another guy to add to the Roll Of (dis)Honour!

Halloween's coming! pt 3

Hows this one for a fancy dress outfit?

George.... again!

I've written before about George Michael, I'm a big fan of his, so here goes another post about his latest behaviour....

He's hit the headlines again today by smoking pot on during a tv interview backstage at a concert in Madrid... where the drug is legal.

Inhaling deeply, he said: "This is the only drug I've ever thought worth taking but you have to wait. It never occurred to me to take even this until I was about 22 or 23.

"This stuff keeps me sane and happy. I could write without it...if I were sane and happy. I'd say it's a great drug - but obviously it's not very healthy. You can't afford to smoke it if you've got anything to do. Anything at all would be foolish." (like driving a car George?)

Denying he was out of control after twice being caught slumped at the wheel of his car, he told interviewer Melvyn Bragg: "I'm enjoying my life." Good on ya George, enjoy yourself!!

Lady Mucca Strikes Again!

More alarming revelations from Heather McCartney Mills. Apparently, the ex-Beatle is a wife beating, alcoholic, drug addict who forced her to cook for him despite a broken pelvis, to crawl on the floor to the toilet, and denied her the right to breast feed her baby, declaring "Those are my breasts" (they'd look pretty funny on you Paul!)

Now, forgive me for being cynical but I can't quite believe these divorce files were "leaked" to the Daily Mail. Infact, by all accounts, they were faxed. So surely they must be pretty easy to trace?

I must admit I've never liked the woman. Accounts from her ex-husbands brand her as a compulsive liar, and a social, as well as financial, gold digger. She seems to be pretty good at staging things too; the headlines yesterday coincided with an appearance on BBC television where she disclosed that she had been counselling victims of the July 7 London bombings. What a lovely woman she must be! (groan)

"I always do it quietly,"she said, "because I want to keep them out of the press."

So why are you doing it on BBC1 then Heather? A big publicity stunt perhaps?

If it was, then it certainly wasn't staged by PR heavyweight Max Clifford who said, "I would not represent Heather Mills for all the tea in China, and that is the nicest way I can sum up my feelings for her."

The daft thing is that she may actually have shot herself in the foot here. Princess Diana, who was represented by the same divorce lawyer, was awarded £17m purely because she agreed to a confidentiality clause.

If Heather's going to push for the reported £200m she wants (does she really think she's worth 12 Diana's?!) then she has already lost the chance to get it on the grounds of agreeing to a simliar clause... what else is there for her to disclose? If this really is the truth that is.

Which I doubt. She seems, to me, to be a scheming, devious, money grabbing woman, who has a very high, false, sense of self importance!

Read the 'leaked' claims here

Halloween's coming! pt 2

The first of a series of silly pics leading up to the night itself....

Halloween's coming!

It's not unusual at this time of year to see greetings card shops and fancy dress shops getting their windows dressed with Halloween paraphernalia; hats, wigs, masks etc

However, on my lunch break today I walked past a local jewellers, quite a classy one at that, and they had a full on Halloween display; cut out pumpkins dangling from the top, plastic bats, crepe paper witches and all!

Now call me old fashioned, but when I think of October 31st the idea of buying a new gold necklace for my Mum, or purchasing a new Tag watch for me are probably the last things on my mind.

Misplaced marketing methinks.

Frankie Goes To Dynasty

This is tv gold! Pure camp, mixing Alexis' and Krytsal's bitchfits to the tune of 'Two Tribes' by Frankie. I love it! The sequin throwing was comedy you just can't buy!

A Foggy Day in London Town

I woke up this morning in a hotel just off Tottenham Court Road (don't ask... all you need to know is that it was fun!), and have only just got home. A couple of things have happened though on the way home that I just wanted to note;

I walked round from the hotel onto the main road to catch a bus back home and was struck (not literally) by how foggy it was this morning! I haven't seen London so foggy in years. As I turned the corner I saw this view of the Post Office Tower (right). I could only see the top, poking through the fog, almost like it wasn't attached to anything. The picture beneath is from their site, showing it in all its (unfogged) glory.

The Tower was built between 1961 and 1964, and at 580ft was for many years the tallest building in Britain. At the very top was a revolving restaurant. The 'Top of the Tower', as it was called, was leased to Butlins, could seat 120 diners on the 11 feet wide revolving section which formed part of the 34th floor. A complete revolution took 22 minutes. We went there once as a family in the 70's and I remember coming back from the bathroom and not being able to find my parents because the table had moved! Sadly, my sister lost her ring or bracelet or something in the bathroom. She cried for hours!

Apparently, the 'Top of the Tower' revolving restaurant was nicknamed the 'revolting restaurant' by staff who had to make do with their own 'canteen' which served a different class of cuisine. This I can totally believe, having worked at Butlins myself so I know what their staff canteens are like! It was closed in 1980 after Butlins didn't renew their lease.

(I found this catalogue actually online of the Butlins hotel that I used to work at. It's from '86, two years before I worked there... it's SO dated now!!)

From Tottenham Court Road I caught the bus to Islington, where I was going to change lines to go on to Hackney, but by now I'd started getting hungry so decided to buy a newpaper and stop in at one of my favourite places to eat, The S & M Cafe.

It's not, as the name might suggest, the kind of place where you'll get whipped if you don't eat your greens, but actually a kitsch little 50's style cafe that mainly serves sausages and mash ("The Worlds no1 Comfort Food!" according to their logo), although this morning I opted for kippers and poached eggs. The food was as excellent as ever, the waitress was a sweet friendly young woman (with a badge reading "Come sad... leave happy!" Ooer!) and the soundtrack went from the theme tune to Rainbow through to Tears for Fears' 'Mad World' and Paul Wellers' 'You Do Something To Me'.

The decor here is a little camp but it feels authentic, with lovely little touches such as these toilet signs;

... although I don't think any of the girls that I know would like to depicted as a mound of mashed potatoes! I stayed there for just over an hour and it was lovely just to sit, eat and pause from modern hectic London life for a while.

Now, as I said, I had my copy of The Times with me, so I endeavoured to get stuck into the Su Doku. There's a 'Killer' Su Doku printed every day as well as the two normal ones which I really enjoy trying to beat!

In 'Killer' you don't start with any numbers already in the grid (like the regular Su Doku's). The clue is that the numbers you put into each of the odd shaped “inner boxes” (marked by dotted lines) must add up to the small number written in the top corner of that inner box. All the normal Su Doku rules apply, and additionally you can't duplicate a number within an inner box. Throughout the week the puzzles get harder, starting with 'Gentle' on a Monday and working up to 'Deadly' on Friday.

Now, I've become really quite addicted to these, as sad as that is, and Mondays and Tuesday I can do really quickly. Wednesdays I have to think about but Thursdays are still a struggle.

A Friday one I had yet to finish... until TODAY! And within the target time of 55 minutes too! How chuffed am!? Well.... my lovely waitress was impressed anyway!

Moonpig gets hitched!

I have a friend called 'Moonpig'. Well, she's not really called that obviously, but there are a few of us who still use that nickname. I don't even remember how it started. She's really called Kim.

I first got to know her probably about 10 years ago, when she turned up where I used to work, 'The American Bar & Restaurant', as a Trainee Waitress. I was training her class. She was loud, fun & intelligent, and we got on like a house on fire. In fact, it was one of my favourite ever classes to train. I went on to train her as a Supervisor too.

Another of her nicknames was 'The Littlest Hobo', she always seemed to have loads of carrier bags! Once, she came round for the evening, just to hang out, and was still on the sofa four days later!

Many things have happened over the last 10 years in both our lives. She's travelled lots, mainly to Australia and Thailand. I was diagnosed +ve. Diana died. We cried at both. We've both moved houses umpteen times. I had my heart attack. She met a guy in Oz. He came back with her for a while. She went back there to see him.... they realised they were serious.

It was three years ago that they first met. A few weeks back, I was honoured to be asked out on their combined Stag/Hen night; a lovely meal in a great Tapas restaurant (I sat with the girls!), followed by drinks at the Met Bar and on to ChinaWhites for late dancing. I spent lots of time getting to know her chap, he's a really great guy!

The wedding had actually already happened in Australia, but another one was planned to take place in Spain where Kim's Mum lives. This was to make it legal here too. I was invited but funds prohibited me from going out there, so this night out was it for me; after their Spanish wedding they would honeymoon and then move into the house they've bought in Canberra.

I had a great time in ChinaWhites! Kim used to work there, as did some of the other girls that were with us, so there were lots of comp'd drinks coming our way! The owner even sent over a magnum of Laurent Perrier for us! I spent most of the evening chatting and dancing with the girls, all of whom were lovely people, and a few numbers got swapped.

Maybe it was the champagne, maybe it was the fact the my little Moonpig was now a very beautiful grown-up married woman, maybe it was the fact she was going to Oz for good... but it was a very emotional goodbye when it was time for me to go home, and the tears flowed.

Which just leaves one thing to say; I wish you both much love & happiness in your new lives together.

I love you Moony!

Gotchya!

"I'm just popping out for a cigarette," I say.

"You need to give up!" says the guy from work I hardly ever speak to.

"I also need to win the Lottery, but it's not likely is it."

There are times when you just can't think of a response, you stumble, and then later you find yourself thinking, "I wish I'd said that!". This time I nailed it.

Go Paul!

(and btw... yes I know I need to quit the cigs, but it wasn't his place to tell me)

Celebdaq

I've had a few questions lately about Celebdaq, as listed in my hobbies section. "What is it?", "Where can I get some?" (?), so I thought I'd give a brief synopsis as an introduction.

CELEBDAQ is a celebrity stock exchange game. Instead of shares in companies you buy shares in celebrities and get dividend payouts depending on how many column inches they generate each week. You start with £10,000 (virtual) and trade either daily or weekly.

Check it out here!
If it looks good to you, you can always join my mini-league! (",) It's based on Tales Of The City characters!

My Day At Work

Oh George, George, George...

It seems things just go from bad to worse for George Michael. Having had great reviews for the start of his first tour for 15 years, he's spotted driving erratically by a woman who calls the police.

By the time they arive, he's slumped at the wheel (again!?!) at traffic lights in North London. He is taken to the police car on a trolley, because he's so stoned and taken to hospital then on to a police station. He's realeased without charges... again!

Today he says (and I paraphrase), 'There was a spliff in the car, but I don't have a drug problem'

Please George, don't waste your talent or your life. I don't care how much dope you wanna puff, but don't do it in public... and don't keep falling asleep at the wheel! It may not just be your life you waste!