It was my day off yesterday, so me and Tom decided that we wanted to play Final Fantasy 7 with some snacks and a blanket (on projector, with BIG GOOD BOOM sound). So! We went into town to buy a PS1 memory card. Nothing special you might think. I mean.. Bristol is a big city with LOADS of game stores. How hard can it be to find a little memory card?

Game didn’t have it.

E play didn’t have it.

Second Game didn’t have it.

Gamestation didn’t have it.

Virgin Megastore didn’t have it.

Argos didn’t have it.

… Argh! After some frustrating moments, we actually thought of a trading game store named VEX or something. A second hand store. THEY had it. GAH :D Took the entire day to find one, but finally we got home (after having lunch with Tom’s brother Alex at a japanese noodle place, with FANTASTIC FOOD. I MUST take friends there someday! W00000000000000000t!!! Hrm.) and sat down to game. Wonderful wonderful evening.

Thanks to my brothers for helping me get my PS2 games. Rawr. Still have all the Metal Gear Solid ones to play from start to finish.

Will just quickly say what happened on Friday. geez! Everything went kaboom, basically.

First, Greg had to go home because he had burned his hand pretty bad (very badly), leaving me and Marina with a busy day to handle on our own. Then, the washing machine broke. Not like… Oh it doesn’t work. It started POURING out water all over the floor! So the counter area began getting *flooded!*. My supervisor was running with buckets and paper O_O No more washingmachine that day.
The coffee machine sprayed coffee everywhere. Me and Marina had to duck. The steamer stopped working leaving us with cold cappuccinos. I noticed that the Champagne bottle in the fridge was leaking and mentioned this to Marina who took it out to test if it was true. She turned it upside down in the sink and went: “Yes. It really IS leaking–” when BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM! Champagne EVERYWHERE. At this point, I was taking cover behind the counter, laughing so hard I got cramps :D

We got lots of tips.. For effort I guess.

At the end of the day, we closed down and began walking home. You have to go through the restaurant to get to our locker, so we walked through the seemingly empty and deserted place. I yelled to Marina: “Thanks for today Marina!” And laughed. We were both just so tired. Suddenly a member of staff comes up to me and frowns: “We have GUESTS in here.” Upon which I just go: O_O …. Sheeeeiiiit.

The dinner manager came over to me in the staff area and said that we sounded like dutch fishes :P But he did so while smiling, so I hope it was alright. I was apologising like heeell.

Also forgot to mention that I worked the entire day with periodpains :P

Yay!

Got my payslip today. Seems they’ve only paid me for this month. Have to talk to them tomorrow about that. To hell with me working for free for a month ;D

Also recieved my rota for the week. My supervisor has given me a tad fewer hours. This surprises me. I talked to him and told him I wanted to go over to partime in the future. He’s listening! :O

Making an RPG adventure to the World of Darkness setting. My love for churches forces me to use the Redcliffe Church in the plot. Mmmm. It’s just a little adventure since I don’t have much time with anything else.

And doing the usual RP in World of Warcraft. Yarr! Nice days off.

Today I experienced complete calmness for a moment. When you know that everything is alright and good and well. A tight hug from Tom is worth more than chocolate. And that’s a lot.

Today was surprisingly calm. Me happy. Me very happy. Also got to work with my new supervisor, who’s really friendly and talkative. You know how many hours he works per week? On average?

70-80 hours.

I told him to get his bed to the bar, because he practically LIVES there. He just laughed :P Short note on something that surprised me today. A receptionist had been looking for me the night before during the staff party (which I slept through at home in my bed). I didn’t know she even wanted to talk to me :O Others also said they had missed me. Aww.

By the way. One of the girls who work in the bar apparently got *attacked* a few days ago when she was on her way to the Hotel. At 9am in the morning. It was (as she described) a big, mad indian with a turban who jumped her. He grabbed her from the side, but she managed to fight back and he had to let go. O_O He was later seen grabbing another girl and *kissing* her, before being caught by the police. Apparently he had escaped from a mental hospital. Holy smokes.

Got home to a clean and wonderful room today. Tom made me lasagna and I had a nice sitdown by my computer. All in all, it has been a relaxing day which I really felt like I needed.

Kabyym. That should explain why I couldn’t write anything this past week even if I really wanted to :P

I think it is becoming a ritual for me to do something very bad to my keyboards.

Saturday.

I think my day was portrayed very well by the time I got out of my door. First a little bit of rain. I thought: “This ain’t bad. I don’t need an umbrella.” So I started walking. And it began pouring down on me. It didn’t stop. I became completely and utterly drenched in cold rain-water. Woopie-doo. By the time I reached the Hotel, I looked like sad shivering hobo with a grey, damp cloak.

So, I was at work, looking like shit. The first hours were just like the light drizzle that I had experienced while walking to the Hotel. “Not too bad.”

Then it exploded. And God unleashed all the gits he possibly could find in Bristol. He even transformed people I knew into gits. Then. To add to this hell on earth. He let out the over-caring managers and the old grumpy, posh ladies. Then, God leaned back and observed chaos unfold itself.

The terrace restaurant was insane in the morning, so I offered to help out. I dunno why I did this really. I felt like sticking my head down in a toilet and flush until I drowned, but I still somehow, by reflex, told the manager of the restaurant that I could help if they needed me. So that was about 2 hours of pure insanity. At that time, You don’t think. You just *do* and your body will remind you afterwards. The restaurant is what I call physical work. It leads to pure physical exhaustion. This, I can take.

The hungry people left the restaurant and I went back to the Lounge… Which to my horror was packed with more hungry people. It was about this time that God unleashed his mad gribbly gits at me. I was running around, fetching orders, making coffees, bringing sandwiches, licking butts, smiling widely and apologising every 5 minutes… On top of this all, staff members constantly asked me how I was feeling, which was very kind of them, but it reminded me of the day before. And besides, how did they all know? There were people who had not even been at work at Friday who knew about the incident. Surely there was a rumour going around the hotel by now. I sighed.

Afternoon consisted of old regular ladies coming in and demanding everything to be special for them. In the midst of chaos. I was sent off to warm up some pastries in the kitchen. When I got to the microwave, one of the chef’s (the one who’s always grumpy) turned to me and went: “Oi. The hell are you up to? Where’s your coat?”. When you enter the kitchen, you should wear a white coat. Even though almost noone does this (and the microwave is not even close to the food that is being made). At that moment, I was just very very very very tired and annoyed. I never show this normally, but I just told him I was using the microwave and gave him a look. He shut up. Maybe I am imagining things when I think he actually went silent upon seeing my stare, but it felt like it. It was enough for me to be pushed around by guests up front. I didn’t want to be pushed around in the staff area as well (even though what he said was perfectly valid at the time).

All in all, it was a rushy day. I even saw Greg stressed and cursing for the first time. Normally he is a very wellmannered and gentle person. Oh dear what pressure can do to a man.

Our new supervisor came and introduced himself. I will talk with him on Monday.

Sunday.

Early morning. Kind of quiet. This was the day when I was completely and utterly alone in the Lounge.

Morning ’til lunchtime. Mad. Insane. I had to get help from the Restaurant since I couldn’t possibly serve so many people at once.

Afternoon. Quiets down.

Later Afternoon, just before I am about to close. People start pouring in and requesting Afternoon teas. I have to of course stay and serve them.

I finally get home, where I am now. I have a long shower and get mucho love from Tom. Tomorrow is the day when I will have a morning shift with my new supervisor. I will tell him that we need staff and that I want to switch over to part time. blahghhgg.. Brain dead! :O

It was Friday. It would be a day I think will be remembered by both me and my work mates for quite some time. Maybe it will even be joked about in the future, who knows. Humans are strange beings.

My other colleague is on holiday. She has been away for almost two weeks now (Yes. Even as I write this, she is gone). So for that time, we were only two people in the Lounge, having to do all the hard work. As my former manager said (before we switched management, in the middle of this chaotic week), “This will be a… stressful time.” And I dare to say that he was NOT exaggerating ONE bit when he said that. In fact, we should have rephrased it to: “This will be a fuckoff mindblowingly crap-monkey-ballish time of pure hell where you wish you were never BORN.” More fitting in my opinion. *nods*

Everyday was more stressful than normal and it didn’t help to know that during this time, my trusted manager Rajiv (who is the first human manager I’ve had) was being removed for someone else. Neither did it help to see on the rota that I was working 10 days in a row without a single day off. It felt like doing four peoples jobs at the same time at an insane speed. For everyday that passed during this week, I was getting more and more exhausted. Mostly physically. I found myself having actual troubles getting out of bed in the mornings or having the energy to shower when I got home. Since I started so early, I never had breakfast and I didn’t have time to eat when I arrived at the Hotel. So when I actually thought about it, I was working for 6 hours with an empty stomach. After those 6 hours, I would get my lunchbreak. Which always is heavensent.

Each day got worse. I was going to the bathroom more often, just so I had an excuse to sit down(!). I never did anything productive when I got home. I mostly tried my best to stay awake. Phil, Chris and Nev had told me during our roleplaying session (that I couldn’t attend for long due to my work next day), that I should *never* sleep or nap during the day. It will fuck me up royally. So I slapped myself into staying awake when I got home. A battle of epic proportions. Jennie’s mind versus Jennie’s body.

On top of all this, I was feeling ill. The spring fever thing. Lots of people reported sick, but the illness hadn’t really got a firm grip on me. It was merely lingering around my being, reminding me of its presence from time to time by giving me headaches, making me sneeze or feel feverish. In the middle of the week, I was getting headrushes and leaned against the cubboard in the lounge to support myself. Greg saw this and asked me if I was alright. Afterwards, I went to the current manager that was about and told him I was feeling a tad ill. A chef who saw me later made fun of me for this. I didn’t find it particularly funny at the time.

This was the buildup to Friday. What we basically had for the bitter desert we will name “Friday” was a Jennie, stirred with some exhaustion, mixed with a bit of spring fever, added with two more peoples work, a touch of heavy cold rainfall and topped off with an innocent phonecall (Just for that little extra “bite!”). This produced the disasterous dish called Friday.

I got up that morning, feeling like compressed dog poo. My phone was ringing. It was my parents. Nice to have a chat with them as always. But what I heard in the end wasn’t too pleasant. Some news about my grandmother and grandfather. Things I will not openly write about in an online blog. I was expecting parts of it, while other parts were completely new. This made the reason for my trip home much clearer. My parents and I exchanged byebye’s and I went to work. I believe it was raining. I can’t remember that well. But I do know that I was dragging myself to the Hotel, deep in thought about many things. Upon entering the Hotel I felt very strange. My throat was clogged up and I kept on coughing, so I went to the bathroom, where I, to my own surprise, just collapsed and cried for 20 minutes.

I thought to myself that this was a tad wrong. I had been physically exhausted the entire week, but now I got this mental smack as well and apparently I just couldn’t handle it. So I let it all out on the bathroom floor. Finally I was able to collect myself enough to get up, straighten out my uniform and walk over to my former manager in the staff area. I knew exactly what I was going to say. I was going to explain that I needed to go home because I was feeling ill and just couldn’t work properly. I had everything planned in my mind. Every single word. But when I got there, saw my manager stand and talk to one of the big bosses of the entire place, I could just utter: “Rajiv.”

He looked at me and wondered if everything was okay.

I started crying in front of him. No. I am not joking. I couldn’t hold the crap back. So there I was standing, in the staff area, sniffling and crying like a baby before my manager and the hotel boss. They quickly led me into the office where I got some water to drink and time to explain just what the heck was going on. While Rajiv was fetching water, I managed to tell the boss that I had heard some news from Sweden and I was just very tired etc. I was sent home. But I needed to pick my things up first, so I was forced to walk through the busy staff area where also Chris happened to be working at. I was not openly crying, but still had a bright red face and swollen eyes.

Chris asked me what was wrong when I picked up my things. He was probably startled when a wreck of a girl hugged him and cried on his shoulder, but he took it pretty well and led me out and made sure I got home safely.

At home, Tom faced the same wreck my poor manager and friend had been forced to see. It is amazing what a simple long hug can do.

Later on, when I had calmed down and was lying in bed *resting*, I was hiding my face in my hands, moaning about how embarrassing everything was. HOW could I even let myself do such a thing in front of my boss and my work mates. The day after would be so awkward…

One thing is for sure. I needed that day off. I don’t think I have ever experienced such extreme feelings of exhaustion before in my entire life. When you just want to cry because you’re so TIRED.

Believe it or not, good readers out there. Friday was not an utterly bad and horrible day. Of course I don’t want it to happen again, but that day opened up my eyes and made me realise what I need to do to improve in several ways. First of all, I will switch over to part-time when Marina gets back. That is step one I don’t want to lose this job. I really don’t. It’s the best job I’ve ever had, but I’ve just gotten too much of it in a short period of time. Just like you can actually eat too much chocolate. It’s hard, but if you really put in an effort, it is possible (I’ve managed to!).

Now. I will sleep. And I will tell you about Hell 2.0 tomorrow.

Huh? What’s all this then?

Well. To put it simple. My other blog was unstable and finally blew up (kind of). You can still read it if you wish. I will post a link to the right. But I just can’t be bothered to try to repair it all the time, or rather, pester my poor Swedish friend Jamtis who always has to do the repairing bit (sorry!).

So! Instead we now have this fresh, new, clean and STABLE blog which hopefully will NOT randomly delete files and stop working. *eyes new blog*

Well then. Maybe I should tell you people about my week. Be prepared to offer me some cheese with my whine.

Cheerio!