Unlike most young professionals, I don't often get the opportunity to travel around. Even when I do, I get to go to places like Reading or Basingstoke.
Today I got an all expenses trip to Milton Keynes with my colleagues.
It didn't start well when my colleague lost one of her pearl earrings on the train to Vauxhall.
Then we got to Euston and found the first train to Milton Keynes. All my other colleagues got onto the platform but I had a different type of ticket which did not allow me onto Virgin Trains so I had to call everyone back to find another train operated by a different company. The glares I got from the Virgin Trains staff and some of the other passengers were pretty impresive!
Eventually we got to Milton Keynes where we due to visit the home of one of the residents and paint their living room. I will call him Mr A for the purposes of this anecdote. When we arrived, Mr A's massive dog emerged to great us. I'm not a big dog person so Mr A spent a lot of time trying to reassure me that the dog wouldn't bite my hand off. He even tried to make me feed it dog biscuits which added to my discomfort. Then he gave us the grand tour, featuring his avery full of budgies.
More challenges came when we found that Mr A had not really prepared for our visit. The room was full of furniture and ornament. In addition the room had very textured wallpaper which immediately posed a problem. Were we going to paint over the wallpaper? Would Mr A want he wallpaper to be stripped? Then when the paint did arrive, it was the wrong colours and the wrong brand. No amount of persuasion could make Mr A change his mind and allow his room to be redecorated. After a few frantic telephone calls to the head office, it was decided that there was no option but to cancel the redecoration of Mr A's room. Having spent a few hours at his house, it was a little embarrassing to leave the living room in exactly the same state it was when we arrived.
Unfortunately the problems did not end there. We then had to find a taxi back to the station and in the process found ourselves between a bleak college campus, a school and the housing estate we had just visited. The taxi coming to collect us got lost trying to find us. Then on the train home we sat with a tattoo artist and started chatting. He told us about all the bizarre tattoos he'd been asked to do and even offered to give my colleague a free Winnie the Pooh tattoo if she was ever in Northampton. It certainly made the journey home more entertaining!
Most work trips I have been on previously have not had any notable moments. In fact, the most exciting thing to happen normally is trying not to fall asleep in a meeting. I think it was one of those days where the sequence of events just got more and more bizarre. I plan to be a lot more cautious when I am asked to attend work trips in future, there are too many opportunities for stange things to happen.
Friday, 6 August 2010
Sunday, 1 August 2010
Recognition
There are many things a student is prepared to do to make some money over the long summers. I was no exception to this and during my student years, took many odd jobs in order to make ends meet.
One year, I found myself working for an event staff agency. I generally found myself at racecourses, particularly Ascot. I would get up at some unusually early hour, arrive at the racecourse and be allocated with a work area and uniform. Most normal people with some degree of hand eye coordination would find themselves waiting in a box or silver service where the tips were known to be generous. Unfortunately, my tendency to be clumbsy around crockery ruled me out of such glamorous roles.
Generally I ended up behind a bar or working in a food outlet of some form. I even ended up serving curry to the British Ambassador to Malawi and celebrity impressionist Rory Bremner.
On one occasion, I found myself working in a cafe dining room in an exclusive members area of the race course. I was even more pleased as I landed the easiest job in the place as the main cashier. All I did after we set up was take orders and take money. Compared to some of my previous eperiences of taking abuse in busy bars, it was a dream job.
One day I was absent mindedly staring out of the window taking a quick break from clearing tables. As I was looking outside I saw an elderly lady in the paddock below the restaurant. I thought it was quite odd as she was being followed by quite a large group of people. Every so often she would stop to talk to somebody in the group who would take a small bow before responding. I found this all rather puzzling - who was this lady and why were all the other people acting like she was so important?
As I was contemplating this, one of my colleagues joined me and let out a startled cry. Turns out the elderly lady in the paddock was the Queen. Meaning I had spent quite a while staring at somebody I see on my money and my stamps on a daily basis without a hint of recognition.
Unfortunately, this is not the only time I have failed to recognise somebody famous. However, not recognising the Queen is slightly worse than not recognising a Z list celebrity. My only excuse is that I wasn't expecting to see her on that day so the old lady I saw didn't look any more special than most of the customers I had served earlier in the week.
One year, I found myself working for an event staff agency. I generally found myself at racecourses, particularly Ascot. I would get up at some unusually early hour, arrive at the racecourse and be allocated with a work area and uniform. Most normal people with some degree of hand eye coordination would find themselves waiting in a box or silver service where the tips were known to be generous. Unfortunately, my tendency to be clumbsy around crockery ruled me out of such glamorous roles.
Generally I ended up behind a bar or working in a food outlet of some form. I even ended up serving curry to the British Ambassador to Malawi and celebrity impressionist Rory Bremner.
On one occasion, I found myself working in a cafe dining room in an exclusive members area of the race course. I was even more pleased as I landed the easiest job in the place as the main cashier. All I did after we set up was take orders and take money. Compared to some of my previous eperiences of taking abuse in busy bars, it was a dream job.
One day I was absent mindedly staring out of the window taking a quick break from clearing tables. As I was looking outside I saw an elderly lady in the paddock below the restaurant. I thought it was quite odd as she was being followed by quite a large group of people. Every so often she would stop to talk to somebody in the group who would take a small bow before responding. I found this all rather puzzling - who was this lady and why were all the other people acting like she was so important?
As I was contemplating this, one of my colleagues joined me and let out a startled cry. Turns out the elderly lady in the paddock was the Queen. Meaning I had spent quite a while staring at somebody I see on my money and my stamps on a daily basis without a hint of recognition.
Unfortunately, this is not the only time I have failed to recognise somebody famous. However, not recognising the Queen is slightly worse than not recognising a Z list celebrity. My only excuse is that I wasn't expecting to see her on that day so the old lady I saw didn't look any more special than most of the customers I had served earlier in the week.
Wednesday, 28 July 2010
Me - nil, Brighton - 3
A birthday trip to the beach in Brighton turned a little bit chaotic.
Obvious course of action when you visit the seaside is to get fish and chips. We got our food and decided to wander down to the beach to consume it. Unfortunately I didn't really think to close the box my food was in. Consequently, I got dive bombed by a seagull which stole my fish and caused me to drop a lot of chips. Dropping the chips then caused the whole flock of seagulls to head in my direction. It was rather traumatic. Luckily I managed to save enough of my chips and my friends kindly donated me some fish from their (untouchd by seagulls) meals.
Later on we decided to go for a swim. As the beach at Brighton is covered by pebbles, I wore my spare flip flops to get to the sea. Sadly, luck wasn't on my side. As I got into the sea, there was a particularly strong wave which stole one of my flip flops. In an attempt to retrieve it, another wave stole the other flip flops. Then I got hit by a succession of waves which took me to a slightly different bit of sea and caused me to lose track of my flip flops. When I had to get out of the sea I had to half crawl, half stagger back up the beach as the pebbles were particularly uncomfortable to walk on.
There are probably two morals to this story. The first being, don't walk into the sea wearing flip flops. The second being, always cover up food at the beach just in case you get dive bombed by a cheeky seagull.
The possible culprit (not the random people lying on the beach)...
Obvious course of action when you visit the seaside is to get fish and chips. We got our food and decided to wander down to the beach to consume it. Unfortunately I didn't really think to close the box my food was in. Consequently, I got dive bombed by a seagull which stole my fish and caused me to drop a lot of chips. Dropping the chips then caused the whole flock of seagulls to head in my direction. It was rather traumatic. Luckily I managed to save enough of my chips and my friends kindly donated me some fish from their (untouchd by seagulls) meals.
Later on we decided to go for a swim. As the beach at Brighton is covered by pebbles, I wore my spare flip flops to get to the sea. Sadly, luck wasn't on my side. As I got into the sea, there was a particularly strong wave which stole one of my flip flops. In an attempt to retrieve it, another wave stole the other flip flops. Then I got hit by a succession of waves which took me to a slightly different bit of sea and caused me to lose track of my flip flops. When I had to get out of the sea I had to half crawl, half stagger back up the beach as the pebbles were particularly uncomfortable to walk on.
There are probably two morals to this story. The first being, don't walk into the sea wearing flip flops. The second being, always cover up food at the beach just in case you get dive bombed by a cheeky seagull.
The possible culprit (not the random people lying on the beach)...
Saturday, 3 June 2006
finalities
Anyway, I have less than a week til I go back to England. How do I feel? To be honest, part of me is bloody scared but another part of me is sort of looking forward to it. On one hand, nothing will have changed and I'll be back at my parent's house going crazy. On the other hand, I see many of my friends for the first time in 10 or so months if not longer (in some cases over a year). Mixed feelings really. I want to come back and visit my friends here but money means that may not happen for a while and I'm worried they will forget all about me!! Did I mention that because of my own disorganisation, my journey is taking four more hours than it should? Yes, I have to fly BACK to Phoenix to get my flight to London. Essentially, I am flying west to go east. Yep, stupid but not much you can do when you plan things a week in advance of leaving Flagstaff!
Since being in Washington DC, I have done a lot of sleeping and gone to a few museums to be a geek. I am staying at a friend's really nice hotel type apartment so I haven't spent as much as feared. I think I may be going to Baltimore tomorrow then on sunday somewhere else. New York is looking unlikely sadly due to finances and the sheer time it takes to get there would make it not that worthwile for a day trip. On the upside, NYC will always be there and flights these days aren't that expensive.
Strangely enough, I am going to miss the US, especially Flagstaff and NAU. Despite the ups and downs of the year, I had an amazing time and really caught the travelling bug. I want to go so many places now but as ever, money will probably make some of that simply not possible. I need a job dammit!!
Since being in Washington DC, I have done a lot of sleeping and gone to a few museums to be a geek. I am staying at a friend's really nice hotel type apartment so I haven't spent as much as feared. I think I may be going to Baltimore tomorrow then on sunday somewhere else. New York is looking unlikely sadly due to finances and the sheer time it takes to get there would make it not that worthwile for a day trip. On the upside, NYC will always be there and flights these days aren't that expensive.
Strangely enough, I am going to miss the US, especially Flagstaff and NAU. Despite the ups and downs of the year, I had an amazing time and really caught the travelling bug. I want to go so many places now but as ever, money will probably make some of that simply not possible. I need a job dammit!!
Friday, 12 May 2006
Mexico
I am still alive. Hooray! In Acapulco at the moment which is really cool. Spent a few days in Oaxaca before this and got to Acapulco at stupid o´clock in the morning today. Spent a lot of the day at the beach attempting to get a tan and generally chilling out. It´s really hot and humid here. Prices are a bit higher than they were in Oaxaca but still, everything is far cheaper than the US.
Been staying in hostels and travelling on buses to get around Mexico. The current hostel is actually really nice and lets us have free internet access - bonus! You meet a lot of random types along the way though. In the hostel in Oaxaca, I ended up sharing a room with six other people - was a bit interesting. Here we have a room to ourselves (luck of the draw) which is cool.
Been staying in hostels and travelling on buses to get around Mexico. The current hostel is actually really nice and lets us have free internet access - bonus! You meet a lot of random types along the way though. In the hostel in Oaxaca, I ended up sharing a room with six other people - was a bit interesting. Here we have a room to ourselves (luck of the draw) which is cool.
Monday, 8 May 2006
leaving
On friday I leave Flagstaff, who knows if I will come back. I am going to Mexico for a fortnight with four friends, we're planning to spend a week in Acapulco then a week somewhere else that I can't pronounce. After Mexico, I am going to DC for ten days, during that time I am thinking of taking a day trip to New York (on my own though) just cos I'd really like to see it while I'm here. I then fly back to Phoenix to get my flight back to London (yeah, complicated way to do it).
It's weird that things are coming to an end here. I have a small problem with my dissertation, in that I have a bad feeling that I will get bored rigid by it. If I'm gonna muck up my degree, at least let me enjoy the dissertation and have the huge disappointment rather than let me be bored rigid and still have the huge disappointment. The end of term has stressed me out, I'm not in the best of moods. I'll update soon.
It's weird that things are coming to an end here. I have a small problem with my dissertation, in that I have a bad feeling that I will get bored rigid by it. If I'm gonna muck up my degree, at least let me enjoy the dissertation and have the huge disappointment rather than let me be bored rigid and still have the huge disappointment. The end of term has stressed me out, I'm not in the best of moods. I'll update soon.
Tuesday, 18 April 2006
Vegas and more
I went to Las Vegas last week. Maybe it was because I'm under 21 and can't drink legally but it wasn't quite up to the hype. I liked it, definately an interesting place and all the tacky hotels amazed me. There's something about seeing people glued to slot machines day and night that is a bit depressing though. Stayed on the 27th floor of Circus Circus so had a pretty good view of the neon. Spent most of the time exploring the strip of Las Vegas with my sister. It was definately good to get away from Flagstaff for a few days.
I also went up to the Grand Canyon (again - 4th visit!) with my parents and sister. It's still there, still a hole in the ground and has lost most of it's novelty value for me now. We did go on a helicopter ride over the canyon which was really cool! It looks really amazing from the sky. Though did have to wear huge earphones and I got a bit motion sick cos the helicopter went up and down really fast. Bid the 'rents and Megan goodbye yesterday cos they went off to Tucson to see some family friends today.
I'm so in up the creek without a paddle at the moment.... Why? I have a load of crap to sort out with very little time in which to do it in, here is the list:
1. I have 3 and a half weeks in which to sort out where to go after NAU finishes.
2. I have done absolutely NOTHING related to my dissertation.
3. I have to figure out how to get rid of all the junk I have acquired over the last few months that won't fit into my suitcase.
4. I have to figure out a job for the summer.
Ok, listing it makes it seem a bit better. Yay! Maybe my list isn't so bad although that is a lot to do all the same.
Other things I have learnt this week:
1. 9 shots of tequila with no chaser is a really really bad idea, especially when you haven't drunk anything alcoholic for ages (I STILL can't remember some stuff from that night).
2. I am actually starting to feel ready for the return to England.
3. That my friends from the UK do remember my existance (yay) - thanks for the postcards, emails etc that you've all sent over this year.
I also went up to the Grand Canyon (again - 4th visit!) with my parents and sister. It's still there, still a hole in the ground and has lost most of it's novelty value for me now. We did go on a helicopter ride over the canyon which was really cool! It looks really amazing from the sky. Though did have to wear huge earphones and I got a bit motion sick cos the helicopter went up and down really fast. Bid the 'rents and Megan goodbye yesterday cos they went off to Tucson to see some family friends today.
I'm so in up the creek without a paddle at the moment.... Why? I have a load of crap to sort out with very little time in which to do it in, here is the list:
1. I have 3 and a half weeks in which to sort out where to go after NAU finishes.
2. I have done absolutely NOTHING related to my dissertation.
3. I have to figure out how to get rid of all the junk I have acquired over the last few months that won't fit into my suitcase.
4. I have to figure out a job for the summer.
Ok, listing it makes it seem a bit better. Yay! Maybe my list isn't so bad although that is a lot to do all the same.
Other things I have learnt this week:
1. 9 shots of tequila with no chaser is a really really bad idea, especially when you haven't drunk anything alcoholic for ages (I STILL can't remember some stuff from that night).
2. I am actually starting to feel ready for the return to England.
3. That my friends from the UK do remember my existance (yay) - thanks for the postcards, emails etc that you've all sent over this year.
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