Torture Garden on Saturday !
Wooooo !
Should be fun, probably won’t be that busy but should still be good. Apparently the spring TGs don’t sell out the way the big ones do (NYE, Valentines, Birthday Ball) but the Ocean Rooms isn’t a huge venue anyway. We have a nice sized group going from our house and that’s what matters! I get to wear latex and drink gin, what more could a girl want on a Saturday night? ;)
There is a beeping noise coming from somewhere in the office.
I don’t know where.
It won’t stop.
But when I find whatever is making this shrill, antagonistic, sound I WILL DESTROY IT!!
I’m now a dread-head again ! :D
Rachel came over on Friday after work and the two of us and Phil had a really cool evening of chatting, dreading, gin and cider drinking and fireworks! One of the chaps from the Crescent recently lost his brother, and apparently one of his last wishes was that his ashes be launched into the ether on the back of a rocket – and so a fantastic fireworks display was put on in the Park with all residents invited if they wanted to join him.
We watched from the windows of the living room with the lights off and the cats hidden in Jordy’s room – and what a spectacular display it was. Better even than the impressive ones from Bonfire night. Totally amazing, and lots of cheering and toasting at the end. What a way to go out! It’s exactly what I would choose when the time comes.
So yeah, once again Rachel did a wicked job and I’m really pleased. It’s different to last time, but that’s cool, it’s actually what I wanted anyway. I’ll have them in for my birthday in a few weeks and for France too – and Rachel has offered to do a quick reinstall of any loose ones for free before I go which rocks.
The sun was out and shining strong on Saturday when we wandered out of the house – it was ace. We met up with my friend Ashley who was involved in something called the Brighton Hug Patrol, which meant that myself and Phil got roped into hugging passers by! Honestly, it was a lot nicer than it sounds.
But it’s not all joy in my world at the moment, sadly. Oh, if only it were. Nope, my job has been giving me cause for lost sleep over the last month or so. It never was going to be plain sailing from the start – the job itself was so far removed from what I’d done before, in as much as I’ve never worked via the medium of French. Even going back to customer service after a year and half off the phones at the bank was going to be a bit of a shock to the system. Initially there were the problems I encountered surrounding fluency, but they’ve paled into insignificance compared to the more pressing and difficult pastoral issues I’ve encountered lately.
The main problem being professionalism, the second being trust.
As much as I hate to say it, as far as day-to-day work issues were concerned, RBS were great when it came to professionalism. By this, I mean that you felt you could discuss whatever you felt you needed to with your TM, or another if yours was unavailable. Equally, whatever you did discuss with them would be held in confidence. Also, if you went to them, before your training was complete and asked for a little help because your current training had been a little haphazard and you felt that you were making mistakes that could easily be avoided – well, they took that matter seriously and didn’t make you feel stupid.
Nope. It definitely wasn’t like that in my last job.
Anyway.
It’s still a job, and given the lack of decent jobs on the market and the fact that I refuse to let it destroy me – I’m sticking it out and getting on with it. It’s a steep learning curve but not one that is beyond me.
I’ve come to realise over the last year or so that I really love certain sounds. Some sounds/frequencies are really enjoyable to hear. Equally, some are annoying to the point of actual discomfort. And I’m not talking about the obvious loud noises, it’s much more about the tone or repetition of the sound in question. For example:
Crunching on gravel = good
Chewing on pasta = bad
Crinkling paper = good
Nails on chalkboard = bad (but then I think that’s the same for most people, right?)
High speed industrial drilling = good
People sniffing = bad
People sneezing = good
As far as the good sounds are concerned I could listen to them over and over. Odd.
One of the minor issues around working in a multi-cultural environment is the different and diverse sounds I am exposed to every day. As I don’t speak much of most of the languages I hear around me, it is hard to actually reference what I hear as a language because I can’t differentiate the words – as such, what they say simply becomes sound to me. (In fairness, being exposed to Welsh at a young age (4) I more or less assumed that everyone spoke the same language the whole world over but that it just sounded different in each country). And as a general rule, most of it is really nice. I don’t speak Italian but it sounds fab. I don’t speak Spanish but I enjoy hearing the Spanish team talking. There’s always going to be an exception though, and sadly, she sits right nearby. She speaks Danish (I think) and in fairness it might be down to her personal accent/voice, but all I can hear most of the time is her saying
“yah”
“yah, yah, yah, yah”
“yah”
Which then becomes:
“Yieh”
“yiehyiehyiehyieh”
“Yiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeh”
By this point, I am looking for something to throw at her. It’s crazy perhaps, but it actually hurts my ears. It’s offensive to my sensibilities. I don’t know quite why, I try so hard for it to not be a problem, but there doesn’t seem to be anything I can do. Don’t get me wrong, I actually really like the girl, she’s friendly and chatty. It’s just that particular sound which sets my teeth right on edge. I wonder if it’s a recognised condition?
The weekend was most entertaining !
Friday night saw us having a few drinks at home and watching rubbish TV, the perfect way to end the week. Katie came round on her way to work with my dress which I had commissioned her to customise for me: The theme for the birthday events was 80’s and 90’s cartoon characters so I was going as Patty O’Green. I’d bought a basic green dress but had asked Katie to perform her magic on it, and oh my God, I was SO impressed. She had done an incredible job and at an excellent price. She ROCKS.
Saturday is breakfast day so Phil, Jordy and I had a nice lie-in and then a sumptuous breakfast of beans and free-range scrambled eggs on tasty toast. No Lurpak though ;)
Phil and I were due to be in Portsmouth by 6pm for the fancy dress birthday party, so we had a nice walk through town to his flat. We chilled out there for a while and I steamed my face with one of the lovely LUSH vit C facial tablets – I felt really revived and ready to go after that! We finished packing and set off for the train. Luckily, it was a pretty uneventful journey and Simon came to meet us at Fratton Station.
The evening shenanigans were great. The costumes were brilliant, the company was fun (I made a new friend! Yay!) and the venue was just about bearable (The Fleet pub and then Babylon 90's night). Honestly, you couldn't normally pay me enough to go make me go clubbing in Portsmouth on Guildhall Walk, and it was unbeleivably awful - it hadn't changed in the 10 years I had managed to stay away. But I think that being in a BIG group helped, and being in disguise made it that much easier to fend off the unwanted attention. But yeah, I think I'm happy to wait another 10 years at least til I go back to that part of the world! At least everyone seemed to have a great time!
Mum and Dad popped in to Brighton once we were safely back at mine, to pick up my bike for France. It was lovely to see them both, Mum even bought me some flowers! :D
The week at work is hard, and very busy, as per usual, but the lunchbreaks with Luciano make it worth it - plus, this weekend is going to be fairly epic...but more on that another time!
