What a well-earned break!

Had two weeks in a row ram-packed with overtime and now I'm finally back to normal hours!

YAAAAAY!

The weather is beautiful! I'm planning on lieing in the garden all day tomorrow, reading 'The End of Mr Y' and getting a sunburnt face.

:D

Also...

Check out the new Gok Wan's from work and red lippy. I don't know about the lippy all that much but I love the good ol' Gok's. He's getting one thing right at least.

Major update...

I don't wanna start doing that thing where I start telling my life story again every time I don't write on my blog for long periods of time. But there are a couple of things that have changed in the last month or so...

I am now a resident of Manchester.

I have a routine, FINALLY.

I passed my probation at work.

:D

But worry that I'm getting a little bit of an attitude that I always bitch about with other people and that I always never wanted to have. So I need to pull my socks up a bit.

I've started doing some serious planning on a comedy TV series for the BBC/Channel 4.

And one of my older brothers is getting married.

XD

Started crying when I found out.

LOOOOVE.

Photos of my beautiful house and sexy Gok Wan specs from work to follow.

I'm ashamed...

Absolutely gutted. I know that I hadn't written anything in my blog for a while but for TWO WHOLE MONTHS?!

I'm a little bit disappointed with myself. In my defence, I am out of the house for twelve hours a day five days a week - travelling to and from work on trains and buses, blah blah blah... And one of the last things I wanna do is set up my laptop downstairs so that I can get the internet on it (our home computer is overrun with viruses and we don't have wireless, unfortunately...)

:(

Of course, that doesn't excuse anything.

SPECSAVERS

Life at Specsavers is going well. I think I know enough now to feel comfortable in doing any task that anyone's asking for me to do for them. People are starting to trust me with doing different jobs around the store. But I still haven't finished my three month probation though. Everyone tells me that I've got nothing to worry about but I can't help it. It'll be the biggest weight off my shoulders ever.

I've read one of the shittest books in the whole world. 'No Time for Goodbye' by Linwood Barclay. I bought it because it was a murder mystery and I never read them. And this book made me realise that I never read them for a bloody good reason!

I've put down a deposit for a house to rent in Didsbury in Greater Manchester and will be moving in on Tuesday. Ecstatic. I feel like I've been waiting for this day all my life. Can't wait to have my own little personal space again where I can start writing properly, hopefully.

And I've also walked in on my younger brother snogging his chavvy girlfriend on the settee on Valentine's Day Evening over a bottle of wine, some beers and a toffee cheesecake.

The bleeding romantic.

Not a lot has happened really. I've just been working my arse off at work and not been very social at all. But as soon as I get my arse to Manchester, that's going to change.

List of things to do on arrival in Didsbury:-

--- Get fit and healthy (I'm actually craving healthy food and reeeeeally wanna join dance classes and the gym),

--- Pass my probation period at work,

--- Start writing properly again,

--- Start planning a holiday (preferrably to New York or Las Vegas or any other phenomenal city in the US)

--- Generally be a happier human being and a general breeze of fresh air for everyone around me.

I haven't been the happiest bunny of late but that's all soon to change.

To be continued...

P.S. I need another hair cut.

XD

It's been a while...

Commuting to and from Manchester most days is starting to take it's tole on me...

AND IT'S ONLY WEEK TWO!

Absolutely gutted. I'm up at 7am most mornings to fight over the shower with my brother and then run down to catch the bus, a human invention that I'm fast growing to despise. Then on the train, which I don't really mind. 8 and a half hours of work in the day and then back on up to Piccadilly station, on a train, on a bus and walk home. By this time, I'm lucky if I get home for 8pm... where I'm usually too shattered to do much else then to strip off, put some PJs on, take a load off, watch some telly, climb into bed and sleep before doing it all again the next morning.

But I'm glad that I'm finally doing something. It's annoying that the world's suddenly started to go all 'The Day After Tomorrow' on us and fuck up my day. No doubt, my constant fear of falling over in public will materialise some point soon... despite the fact that I'm remaining constantly vigilant.

I'm making 'friends' at work. Not enough to be invited round for dinner or anything yet but it's a start. I've called a chavvy colleague a 'dog', to which his response was, "You know, it normally takes people about a month to come out of their shell but you don't really give a shit, do you?"

:)

Soooo many people have got my name wrong and said, 'Laura' or 'Lorna' or 'Lauren'. But I don't mind. It's an odd name, I know. At least people remember me now for a being a nerd with a weird name. The fact that I actually have a friendly personality - even in the intimidating environment that Specsavers was, on the first couple of days - is just an added bonus.

An even better first impression I think so was for the lovely ladies in the office, where I was invited up for measurements for the new uniform. So you can imagine, standing in a room crowded with other people taking measurements, was not the best of times to find out that your bum is a good inch bigger than your boobs...

Not the biggest revelation for a woman ever, but the fact that my tits are the size of small countries anyway, it's slightly alarming.

:/

Nevertheless, roll on the upcoming weeks.

Objective of the week: Make more friends.

"So it begins..."

No, this is not an ode to 'Lord of the Rings'. But a celebration of the moment I commenced work at Specsavers in the Arndale in Manchester. 

Well, it all began on Tuesday to be exact. But as I'm staying over at a friend's this week to ease settling into work a little better, I haven't been able to get my arse to a laptop long enough to chill and write this blog. However, here we are now.

I'm not going to lie to you... It was soooooo freakin' daunting the first day. With 75 members of staff within the store...

OH-EM-GEE

I walked into the staff meeting as shy as God knows what! I stole away with a cookie for breakfast (complimentary, of course) as I didn't want to look like a greedy bastard on my first day...

You go, cute little hamster.

So aye, played Pictionary/Charades in the morning to celebrate what sounds like a pretty phenomenal Awards Ceremony on Saturday... Absolutely GUTTED I missed out on it. Rumours clarify that it was all very sex, drugs and rock and roll which I can't wait to get involved with. 

:)

And then I got started. I'm on the Pretests Department, who get people ready for the Optometrist. AND YOU KNOW WHAT'S REALLY COOL!?! I actually get to use some of the machines and take pictures of the back of people's eyes! 

Like this!

Weeeeeeeird!

And thenwe send them off the the Optometrist to do the rest. 

It's a really cool environment to work in. Already, after my third day, I feel ecstatic that I'm there! Maybe it's only the fact that I've been unemployed for moooooooooonths, I don't know. But I know that I'm very very thankful that I went onto the Arndale website and checked for this job in the first place. 

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

Am shattered though, like. I'm not used to being on my feet 10 hours a day! Maye have to indulge myself in a footspa when I get my arse down to Manchester finally. 

Workin' 9 till 5... 

;)

What to do!

I go months and months without a job and then when I do get a job, I get another phonecall for another interview!

Specsavers got back in touch with me and asked if it would be OK for me to start on Tuesday 7th December instead of the Tuesday coming as the other new-starters can't start until then.

THEN I got a phonecall from a lady from this Bridalwear place in the Arndale too and asked me for an interview Tuesday coming...

I need to start working ASAP and am gutted that Specsavers have put me back another week. But don't know whether to go for this interview with the Bridalwear store to weigh up my chances.

:/

What's a girl to do?

EMPLOYMENT! THE RIGHT KIND!

After five months of searching, five months of penniless hours, five months of feeling like the biggest waste of space in the ENTIRE WORLD...

I HAVE A FULL-TIME, PERMANENT JOB AT SPECSAVERS, BABYYYYYY!

Absolutely ecstatic!

Can't wait to move down there!

Yaaaaaaaaaay!