Ham topped with stuffing topped with turkey. Yum!
Thursday, 3 April 2008
Tuesday, 1 April 2008
Happy Days!
Got a few things that have been going on here it's been pretty funny. I'll be short and sweet about it though.
-Went to see and Irish Dancing show last night. It was AWESOME! They were jumping about all over the place and kicking and stomping and tap-a tap-a tap-a-ing. Want to go learn it even more now than before! We saw the boss there but we just ignored him then he was saying hello to us and making jokes and stuff. I think he went there by himself?
-One of the girls ducked outside during her shift to have a smoke and took the phone with her and by accident pressed the wrong buttons or something so it dialled the boss and meanwhile she was swearing about him and making fun of him and imitating him-and he heard the whole thing, apparently. She was shitting herself-it's not a good position to be in. He called her back and went nuts at her and since then he's forgotten about it/ignoring it. Water under the bridge. But still-it meant for a tense night because we thought he'd be mega pissed off at the world after it. I guess he just doesn't care what people think about him/say about him.
-There was this girl who was coming over on the London Invader package, where we organise her transfers across to Dublin from London and back etc etc and send her alllll her tickets and itinerary and stuff. Anyway, she calls us the day before she's supposed to be here and says there have been train delays/trackworks and she is running late, and she said something about compensation but I wasn't prepared to talk about that over the phone when she's in transit at 11pm so I said we'd talk when she got in the next morning. Anyway, she gets in the next morning all agitated (to be expected, because she'd just spent 20 hours getting from London to Dublin) and says she wants a full refund for her transfers across to Holyhead because she missed the pre-arranged coach for her from London. Ummm...what? You didn't read the train trackworks notices properly and want us to give you a refund? No way jose. But before you go 'poor girl blah blah blah just give her the refund she didn't know any better', wait-there's more!
She goes along with 50 odd other travellers on her tour bus and they all load their luggage on and everything...then halfway to Galway (about a 2hr ride) she stands up and announces to the bus 'I DON'T HAVE ANY LUGGAGE! I left my luggage back in Dublin!!!' The driver was definately not about to turn the whole bus around just to get her stuff. She was about to pack it in and get herself back to London (how, I have no idea) but one of the girls here convinced her to stay and just get the necessities from Penneys (like Big W) so she can still enjoy the tour. It's only a 2 night tour anyway. This girl then insists that the (male) driver goes into Penney's with her to buy her stuff because she didn't want to go by herself. He had to get the female driver of another bus to talk to her because he just couldn't do it and a) keep a straight face, and b) get frustrated with her.
Seriously...she got here at 5.30am on the morning of the tour. WHY was her stuff in a room anyway? She saw the 50 or so other tour passengers on her tour bring their stuff with them to the buses, load it on the buses, then get on the bus. Was she not suspicious when she was the only person with no luggage? She tried to tell us that we never told her that the tour was leaving Dublin. It's called a 3 Day South tour, not a 3 Day Dublin tour. Of course she expects 'a full refund' (my favourite saying now) but there is no way we can refund for ignorance. Really.
-I think I offended one of the bosses yesterday unintentionally. I was reading the replies to customer comments on our hostel booking site and saw one that I thought was quite rude and thought it was one of the girls who wrote it (because it was directed to the customers I remember one of the girls dealing with) so I was reading it out loud and voicing my disbelief that somebody would put that online as the view of the hostel. Anyway, it turns out it was one of the bosses who wrote it. FAUX PAS, LISHA!!! I had no way of knowing it was him though-no idea he even wrote comments on there and he didn't sign it from himself. There was spelling mistakes and everything in there. The big boss was about to say something to me the other day about some 'interesting comments' on the hostel booking site but then he left it alone. Maybe it was that? But yeah...what a strange position to be in. I think the comment was a bit rude, personally. Oh well.
---------
I'm sure there has been more going on but I've only put down the interesting stuff. Well, interesting to me, at least.
Gotta go-getting a phone call from Darren.
stay classy xxx
lisha
-Went to see and Irish Dancing show last night. It was AWESOME! They were jumping about all over the place and kicking and stomping and tap-a tap-a tap-a-ing. Want to go learn it even more now than before! We saw the boss there but we just ignored him then he was saying hello to us and making jokes and stuff. I think he went there by himself?
-One of the girls ducked outside during her shift to have a smoke and took the phone with her and by accident pressed the wrong buttons or something so it dialled the boss and meanwhile she was swearing about him and making fun of him and imitating him-and he heard the whole thing, apparently. She was shitting herself-it's not a good position to be in. He called her back and went nuts at her and since then he's forgotten about it/ignoring it. Water under the bridge. But still-it meant for a tense night because we thought he'd be mega pissed off at the world after it. I guess he just doesn't care what people think about him/say about him.
-There was this girl who was coming over on the London Invader package, where we organise her transfers across to Dublin from London and back etc etc and send her alllll her tickets and itinerary and stuff. Anyway, she calls us the day before she's supposed to be here and says there have been train delays/trackworks and she is running late, and she said something about compensation but I wasn't prepared to talk about that over the phone when she's in transit at 11pm so I said we'd talk when she got in the next morning. Anyway, she gets in the next morning all agitated (to be expected, because she'd just spent 20 hours getting from London to Dublin) and says she wants a full refund for her transfers across to Holyhead because she missed the pre-arranged coach for her from London. Ummm...what? You didn't read the train trackworks notices properly and want us to give you a refund? No way jose. But before you go 'poor girl blah blah blah just give her the refund she didn't know any better', wait-there's more!
She goes along with 50 odd other travellers on her tour bus and they all load their luggage on and everything...then halfway to Galway (about a 2hr ride) she stands up and announces to the bus 'I DON'T HAVE ANY LUGGAGE! I left my luggage back in Dublin!!!' The driver was definately not about to turn the whole bus around just to get her stuff. She was about to pack it in and get herself back to London (how, I have no idea) but one of the girls here convinced her to stay and just get the necessities from Penneys (like Big W) so she can still enjoy the tour. It's only a 2 night tour anyway. This girl then insists that the (male) driver goes into Penney's with her to buy her stuff because she didn't want to go by herself. He had to get the female driver of another bus to talk to her because he just couldn't do it and a) keep a straight face, and b) get frustrated with her.
Seriously...she got here at 5.30am on the morning of the tour. WHY was her stuff in a room anyway? She saw the 50 or so other tour passengers on her tour bring their stuff with them to the buses, load it on the buses, then get on the bus. Was she not suspicious when she was the only person with no luggage? She tried to tell us that we never told her that the tour was leaving Dublin. It's called a 3 Day South tour, not a 3 Day Dublin tour. Of course she expects 'a full refund' (my favourite saying now) but there is no way we can refund for ignorance. Really.
-I think I offended one of the bosses yesterday unintentionally. I was reading the replies to customer comments on our hostel booking site and saw one that I thought was quite rude and thought it was one of the girls who wrote it (because it was directed to the customers I remember one of the girls dealing with) so I was reading it out loud and voicing my disbelief that somebody would put that online as the view of the hostel. Anyway, it turns out it was one of the bosses who wrote it. FAUX PAS, LISHA!!! I had no way of knowing it was him though-no idea he even wrote comments on there and he didn't sign it from himself. There was spelling mistakes and everything in there. The big boss was about to say something to me the other day about some 'interesting comments' on the hostel booking site but then he left it alone. Maybe it was that? But yeah...what a strange position to be in. I think the comment was a bit rude, personally. Oh well.
---------
I'm sure there has been more going on but I've only put down the interesting stuff. Well, interesting to me, at least.
Gotta go-getting a phone call from Darren.
stay classy xxx
lisha
Tuesday, 25 March 2008
St Pat's Pics!
We just had a rotten weekend for easter, unfortunately.
Lots and lots and lots of complaints.
And today the emails have started coming in.
Check some of this out:
"A letter of complaint was left at Paddy's Palace in Dublin to be passed on to you.
I have typed this letter and attached it to make sure it is not lost.
I would like some form of response to this by Thursday morning or I will be contacting the Advertising Standards Authority of both Ireland and the UK."
Yeah...we shredded that letter. I mean, we filed it...in the shredder.
"The service provided by your organization was not up to the expectations that you had advertised. In addition, Paddywagon did not fulfill what was promised to us as part of the tour. Your company has left me with the impression that it is disorganized, had little care for customer satisfaction, and quite possibly fraudulent. "
She's right about the disorganised part. I definately picked the wrong time to start working here. Of course the girl who made all this mess in the first place had buggered off for the weekend, leaving us to deal with it all.
The bottom line is, I don't care about these idiots. People who expect the world to be delivered to them on a silver platter will complain about anything they can. We were overbooked in our hostel up in Derry so some people got a free upgrade to a Bed and Breakfast and they even managed to find a way to complain about that!
You get what you pay for, and when you are tight and pay next to nothing for a trip then don't be surprised when it's not that good.
Meanwhile, we've been having phone calls and emails from people who just want to tell us how GREAT their tour was and how much fun they had and how they will be recommending us to everyone. So in the end one bus load of people is nothing to us. I love it when they say they will tell their friends not to go through us. Like 10 people makes a difference when we advertise everywhere and are on the 'top picks' on the Hostelworld Tour site and stuff like that. We're the biggest tour company in Ireland. Our main competitor (won't even speak their names) doesn't even HAVE a website!!! Plus their tours don't include accommodation or entry fees or anything like that. Lame!!! It's us or nothing, baby! Ok now I'm sounding cocky. I'm just so annoyed at all the stupid people and things I've had to deal with lately.
A million and one emails that come through the 'contact me' part of our website, asking information that is on the website right there in front of their faces! It's ridiculous how ignorant and blinkered some people are.
Anyway-enough vitriol.
Have some more pics!
We went into the pub and got a good view for the parade:
It was massive-crowds and performers and everything!
These guys had a good view too:
So did these ones!
Some of my friends from the hostel:
They had crossing points to duck across when the parade wasn't on. I got a cheeky photo looking down towards the advancing parade.
Us in the hostel before we left. I put up decorations, you can see some of them in the pic!
One of the girls here, Lucinda, commented on how I must have been 'a busy child' or something like that because I've been doing a lot of handy work around here lately. Like today I was changing old busted light bulbs, fixing the batteries in the safes, I bought a matt for the bathroom floor so we don't freeze our feet in the mornings (our room has it's own bathroom-score!) and today we cleaned out the staff fridge. The other day I fixed the door downstairs so it doesn't SLAM whenever people shut it-it really annoys the hell out of everyone upstairs when it's constantly slamming.
Next I'm going to buy some little colourful flowers to put in the flowerpots out the front door. They are just pots of dirt and clover at the moment. While shamrock is an Irish symbol it's not as nice as a flower in a hanging flower basket. I'm getting around to laminating and sticking up maps and themed-posters around the bare walls here too. Oh-I also made a 'closed' sign so when we are sitting behind the desk after work (using the computers or just chatting) people know not to bother us. Seriously, if I'm going to be living and working somewhere-I want it to be the best it can be and have character! It doesn't help that one of the girls here keeps throwing stuff out-she's worse than mum!!! I'm constantly 'losing' things because she takes them from where I've left them and moves them somewhere else. EXCUSE ME but it's not her stuff so she shouldn't be touching it!!! It's the spoken/written/well known hostel rule, you know!
I had to drive out to the airport today to pick up the Boss. He and his were coming back from a week long holiday in the Canary Islands. As you do. After waiting for an HOUR his flight finally came out. I knew it was their flight because everyone coming out was ridiculously brown and bronzed looking. Not the Boss. He's beeing checking his emails and calling the office non-stop on his whole holiday. I googled the Canary Islands and I found out that they are named after dogs, not birds and that the location 'Tenerife' that I've seen on posters in the windows of so many travel agents down here is there too. I had to pick him up because a) us girls here are more like personal assistants than receptionists and b) he parked his car in the short term parking for the whole week and didn't want to pay the fees so I had to do the trick of driving the shitbox car in, getting a ticket, giving the ticket to the Boss to drive his car out with, then pretending I lost my ticket to get a new one so I can drive out. They only charged me €7.50 for my lost ticket!!! Bargain!!! You can't even get one hours parking in Sydney Airport for that much-let alone a lost ticket!
Going up to Belfast tomorrow. I haven't been there for a while and Darren was so sweet he sent down an easter egg with one of our bus drivers who was passing through on her way down :-P I'll try and drag him out to Derry or somewhere-just to get away from the hostel. As relaxed and laid-back as Belfast Palace is, it's still his work and I'd hate to be stuck around my work all the time. I've been going a little stir-crazy in here for being stuck here more than a week straight. Usually I go up North once a week just to get away from the madness here. Might think about hiring a car but I don't think I'll be allowed one-need to find out off the other Aussies here how they go about hiring cars (they do it often) and how much it costs them.
Could have gone to Blarney Castle tomorrow and kissed the Blarney stone (the new driver for that tour is really nice) but I'll save that for another day when Darren can come too or when there are more people going. Lucinda has the day off and we would have done that but it can wait.
Oops-just getting a phone call from Darren.
Will write later!!!
xxx lisha
slan go foill!
Sunday, 16 March 2008
St Pat's MADNESSSSSS
Wow what a coupla days! (Coupla is actually a gaelic word but it means 'a few' or 'a little').
St Pat's Madness is upon us. Don't know where to start right now, but basically we've had 200 backpackers check in, about 30 we had to turn away because their bookings weren't valid. We've got a new building and it has NO water connected/working in it...
I've decorated the office in St Pat's garb. It's fantastic and tacky-I love it. Sparkly shamrock banners and decorations and cut-outs of dancing leprechauns everywhere. Will take a photo to show you guys soon. We're also wearing our bright green shirts and we've added on big goofy hats (ohhhh I miss my wacky hat from Niagara) and temporary tattoos and badges/etc. We look like pillocks....right gits.
It is so lonely without all the long termers and all the backpackers/tour guests are out during the day so we have no distractions or anything. Quite different to what it's been like lately. I'm getting put more and more in charge of stuff, usually the shitty jobs, and while responsibility isn't a bad thing it's just stressful when the boss is expecting so much.
I got paid a sweet €450 last week-awesome! I'm working today which I thought would get me Tuesday off but it means they want me to take tomorrow (St Pat's Day proper) off. I would have preferred to work tomorrow and just slip out to see the parade because it's double time tomorrow and it won't be too busy. Also I need to go to the Visa office on a weekday-and really wanted it to be Tuesday. Oh well.
Darren has booked the Gallipoli tour for April. We got flights from Belfast to London for £8 each-taxes included!!! How can I never find cheap flights like that for myself?!? Anyway, I've already asked the boss if it's busy over ANZAC weekend here and he said it's not. So next step is to ask for the time off. I'll say if they give me the time off then I'll work there for sure until at least July, but if they don't want me to come back after then pffft no skin off my nose.
I had to sleep on the couch in the common room last night because we had more people than there were beds (including staff) and at first the staff were going to have to sleep on mattresses up in the attic of the new building, but then almost all the mattresses got taken away to give to the backpackers and that so we had nothing. Since I was working early today I just slept on the couch. It wasn't too bad, but it was weird waking up and having all these people around me. Finally got to break out the sleeping bag though!!!
OH! Another thing, it's so random but I met up last night with a friend from back in Sydney, Tubby. I know him through my friend Darren (the one I know from uni) and have known him for like, 3 or 4 years now. He's a top bloke and it's such a coincidence that he's here at the same time that I am (kind of, he's working in England at the moment actually) but it's so weird to be so far from home and be sitting around with friends from home like it was no big deal :-P I suppose I don't feel like it's that weird cos I have lots of Aussie friends here now and it just feels like he's another one of the gang. Nevermind the fact that we're almost 17000km from home. But yeah, the first friend from home I've met while I've been abroad (apart from Michael, cos that was pre-planned)! Would have met Melly in New York but the timings didn't match up :'(
So, because I spent the night on the couch and today is Sunday it's also 'Wear Your Pajamas To Work Day'. In my world it is, at least. At least the weather has cleared up-it was raining (quite hard, too) for, no exaggeration, ALL day yesterday. These poor bastards come in off the street sopping wet and think they have bookings but they had been cancelled long ago to make way for our tour groups and they never checked their emails or called to confirm their accommodation. Oh well. It sucks but that's what our job has been there's not much else I can do about it. We have a few cheeky spare dorm beds and the boss is making us sell them for €50 each, minimum 2 night stay. What a rip off. Nobody is buying them...if they were like €35 or 40 then *maybe* but not at €100 for the two nights.
But yeah, it's actually been a busy day-and it's been sweet because there has hardly been any people coming in through the doors and bothering us :-P We have to do the grocery shopping for breakfast stuff (free breakfast at this place) and I swear we're going to go through at least 20L of milk, 10 loaves of bread, cornflakes and weetbix galore...it's taking 3 people with two big bags each to go and bring it all back.
*edit*
OK sorry I got distracted had to run before. Turns out it took 4 regular carry bags and TWO GARBAGE BAGS to bring back all the groceries. Argh! Who knew bread could weigh so much?!?
Anyway, St Pats is over and it wasn't the horrible nightmare I thought it would be. The parade was cool-we watched it from the second story of a nearby pub, and it was a strange experience being semi-drunk at 3 in the afternoon and have it be not out of the ordinary...
Have discovered the joys of the 'baby guinness' shot. Kahlua and baileys goodness. Here is me with one:
It wasn't that bad, I promise!
On another note-looking at recent photos I've realised just how FAT I've gotten. It's disgusting. No more chocolate for breakfast...more exercising I suppose. I want to join a sports team or something here-gyms just don't inspire me anymore. Plus it's a good way to make new friends. But yes. I'm a fatty now and it's gross I hate it. I've been way too careless with what I've been eating and now that I'm sitting on my arse all day in the office it's not conducive to a healthy body. At least when I was backpacking around I was doing stacks of walking-I even lost a bit of weight for a while. But yes...fatty fat fat fat.
Speaking of food, Berny cooked a proper lamb roast and all that tonight for dinner. It was delicious and it's really cool sitting around a table with like, 7 other people and eating a proper meal. He does it once a month or thereabouts I think.
At the hostel, the staff have moved into the basement now. What once was the lesbian jungle is now the lesbian basement (long story-I wouldn't worry). I'm interested to see how it goes because some people really hate it and some people really love it down there. I'm sad I didn't get a photo of the old room before all our stuff got moved out though. I'm sure it won't be long til we make our room 'our own' but I'm worried that it's attached to another room and just anyone can go in there so it's not as secure as the old room (even though people would constantly leave that door open...).
I had better go and digest this roast-until I upload my photos from Pat's Day there isn't much more for me to say just now!
Easter is the next hairy time we have to deal with then hopefully after that it will be smooth(ish) sailing all the way to Summer. A new girl started today and she is really cool and I think we work well together so that's a bonus. After the last new staff member I really wanted somebody to come in who I got along with and who didn't irritate me every second of the day.
Slán go fóill! (Goodbye in gaelic)
xxx lisha
St Pat's Madness is upon us. Don't know where to start right now, but basically we've had 200 backpackers check in, about 30 we had to turn away because their bookings weren't valid. We've got a new building and it has NO water connected/working in it...
I've decorated the office in St Pat's garb. It's fantastic and tacky-I love it. Sparkly shamrock banners and decorations and cut-outs of dancing leprechauns everywhere. Will take a photo to show you guys soon. We're also wearing our bright green shirts and we've added on big goofy hats (ohhhh I miss my wacky hat from Niagara) and temporary tattoos and badges/etc. We look like pillocks....right gits.
It is so lonely without all the long termers and all the backpackers/tour guests are out during the day so we have no distractions or anything. Quite different to what it's been like lately. I'm getting put more and more in charge of stuff, usually the shitty jobs, and while responsibility isn't a bad thing it's just stressful when the boss is expecting so much.
I got paid a sweet €450 last week-awesome! I'm working today which I thought would get me Tuesday off but it means they want me to take tomorrow (St Pat's Day proper) off. I would have preferred to work tomorrow and just slip out to see the parade because it's double time tomorrow and it won't be too busy. Also I need to go to the Visa office on a weekday-and really wanted it to be Tuesday. Oh well.
Darren has booked the Gallipoli tour for April. We got flights from Belfast to London for £8 each-taxes included!!! How can I never find cheap flights like that for myself?!? Anyway, I've already asked the boss if it's busy over ANZAC weekend here and he said it's not. So next step is to ask for the time off. I'll say if they give me the time off then I'll work there for sure until at least July, but if they don't want me to come back after then pffft no skin off my nose.
I had to sleep on the couch in the common room last night because we had more people than there were beds (including staff) and at first the staff were going to have to sleep on mattresses up in the attic of the new building, but then almost all the mattresses got taken away to give to the backpackers and that so we had nothing. Since I was working early today I just slept on the couch. It wasn't too bad, but it was weird waking up and having all these people around me. Finally got to break out the sleeping bag though!!!
OH! Another thing, it's so random but I met up last night with a friend from back in Sydney, Tubby. I know him through my friend Darren (the one I know from uni) and have known him for like, 3 or 4 years now. He's a top bloke and it's such a coincidence that he's here at the same time that I am (kind of, he's working in England at the moment actually) but it's so weird to be so far from home and be sitting around with friends from home like it was no big deal :-P I suppose I don't feel like it's that weird cos I have lots of Aussie friends here now and it just feels like he's another one of the gang. Nevermind the fact that we're almost 17000km from home. But yeah, the first friend from home I've met while I've been abroad (apart from Michael, cos that was pre-planned)! Would have met Melly in New York but the timings didn't match up :'(
So, because I spent the night on the couch and today is Sunday it's also 'Wear Your Pajamas To Work Day'. In my world it is, at least. At least the weather has cleared up-it was raining (quite hard, too) for, no exaggeration, ALL day yesterday. These poor bastards come in off the street sopping wet and think they have bookings but they had been cancelled long ago to make way for our tour groups and they never checked their emails or called to confirm their accommodation. Oh well. It sucks but that's what our job has been there's not much else I can do about it. We have a few cheeky spare dorm beds and the boss is making us sell them for €50 each, minimum 2 night stay. What a rip off. Nobody is buying them...if they were like €35 or 40 then *maybe* but not at €100 for the two nights.
But yeah, it's actually been a busy day-and it's been sweet because there has hardly been any people coming in through the doors and bothering us :-P We have to do the grocery shopping for breakfast stuff (free breakfast at this place) and I swear we're going to go through at least 20L of milk, 10 loaves of bread, cornflakes and weetbix galore...it's taking 3 people with two big bags each to go and bring it all back.
*edit*
OK sorry I got distracted had to run before. Turns out it took 4 regular carry bags and TWO GARBAGE BAGS to bring back all the groceries. Argh! Who knew bread could weigh so much?!?
Anyway, St Pats is over and it wasn't the horrible nightmare I thought it would be. The parade was cool-we watched it from the second story of a nearby pub, and it was a strange experience being semi-drunk at 3 in the afternoon and have it be not out of the ordinary...
Have discovered the joys of the 'baby guinness' shot. Kahlua and baileys goodness. Here is me with one:
It wasn't that bad, I promise!
On another note-looking at recent photos I've realised just how FAT I've gotten. It's disgusting. No more chocolate for breakfast...more exercising I suppose. I want to join a sports team or something here-gyms just don't inspire me anymore. Plus it's a good way to make new friends. But yes. I'm a fatty now and it's gross I hate it. I've been way too careless with what I've been eating and now that I'm sitting on my arse all day in the office it's not conducive to a healthy body. At least when I was backpacking around I was doing stacks of walking-I even lost a bit of weight for a while. But yes...fatty fat fat fat.
Speaking of food, Berny cooked a proper lamb roast and all that tonight for dinner. It was delicious and it's really cool sitting around a table with like, 7 other people and eating a proper meal. He does it once a month or thereabouts I think.
At the hostel, the staff have moved into the basement now. What once was the lesbian jungle is now the lesbian basement (long story-I wouldn't worry). I'm interested to see how it goes because some people really hate it and some people really love it down there. I'm sad I didn't get a photo of the old room before all our stuff got moved out though. I'm sure it won't be long til we make our room 'our own' but I'm worried that it's attached to another room and just anyone can go in there so it's not as secure as the old room (even though people would constantly leave that door open...).
I had better go and digest this roast-until I upload my photos from Pat's Day there isn't much more for me to say just now!
Easter is the next hairy time we have to deal with then hopefully after that it will be smooth(ish) sailing all the way to Summer. A new girl started today and she is really cool and I think we work well together so that's a bonus. After the last new staff member I really wanted somebody to come in who I got along with and who didn't irritate me every second of the day.
Slán go fóill! (Goodbye in gaelic)
xxx lisha
Tuesday, 4 March 2008
Way to go post eiranne...
Look how mangled my parcel came over! Luckily the latest parcel to arrive came in a better shape...
Saturday, 1 March 2008
You want to know what I did today?!?!
Argh let me be as concise as possible. A lot happened today!
First off, I get to bed around 3.30am, due to waiting up for Darren to finish his night porter shift and just hanging around talking to a couple (ok, the only two) long termers at the Belfast hostel. There were a group of noisy and obnoxious english kiddies (ok, young adults) who came back late, stole a duvet from another room, bought in people who weren't paying to stay there (major no way!) and then one of them said he had £70 missing from the £100 or so she had in her wallet. Instead of us saying 'Too bad you forfeit any right to complain about stolen stuff when you bring in outsiders into the hostel' we just had to take it (even though she probably just got tanked and spent it without realising) and then she called the police-what's more, the police actually showed up! They basically laughed at her and went on their way. They have better things to do on a Friday night at 2am.
I was supposed to get up at 6am to get on the 7am bus back to Dublin to make it there by 9.30am/10am when my shift was starting. Mind you it wasn't my shift to begin with, I was just covering it for someone else...
Anyway since I left my irish phone back in Dublin I only had my aussie phone which is still on australia time. I got the hour right, just not the am/pm so as such I didn't wake up til 7am. Got the 8am bus and slept all the way to what I presume was the border when a couple of Gardai (ROI police officers) got on and asked to see everyone's identification. The Garda who looked at mine asked how long I was going to stay and I didn't really have a good answer for that so I started to explain that it was a new passport so that's why I didn't have a stamp. He was like 'new passport-good on you' and went on his way. I think I managed to get out something like I was staying for three weeks. He didn't care anyway.
Got to Dublin about 20 min late for my shift but nobody there cared. Hardly any tours go out on a Saturday so there was little to do. I did do some admin stuff and make some new templates and stuff so that kept me busy. When I first walked in though it was nuts-the lights were all down and there were towels all over the reception desk. Wet towels. And chinese food containers catching drips. I thought it had just rained hard down here and that made the leak, because it was raining so much up in Belfast. But no, it turns out there was a fire alarm and that tripped off the hot water system and something happened to make the water pipe burst. Up on the 3rd floor. It saturated through four floors...I'm so glad I was away when it went down!!!
I fielded lots of stupid questions today and sold lots of tours. Not a bad day so far. Getting to be around 2pm though things start going pear shaped. First off, we need to buy replacement duvets and duvet covers and pillows. I haven't been up to my room yet so I go up there to get my phone and find my bed is not the way I left it and a strange girl is sitting on it. What the hell?!?! Turns out, because I'm not 'paying' for my bed it becomes fair game when I'm gone. So I turn around, partially disgusted, and go back down to Guinneys to buy this bedding and stuff. It's weird, on Talbot St there are like 4 Guinneys in a space of about 100m. I asked the guy in the shop why this is and he sort of smiled and said 'Cos the owners have lots of money'. Fair enough? I get back and the girl has gone and I get my bed back in shape. They had taken my pillow...like, the one that I bought with my own money. So I got another one of those. I need to find a way to distinguish my pillow from the others (they are all from the same shop so it's difficult). I tried writing on the tag-no good. I tried putting my own pillowcase on it-also no good. Short of writing on the actual pillow or embroidering my name across it in big black stitches, I have no idea how to stop the cleaners taking my pillow and mistaking it for one of the house pillows. Any ideas?
A tour bus pulled in so a whole stack of travellers got off it and generally made my life difficult. I was supposed to finish at 6pm but with all their questions and running around fixing the water pumps and stuff like that, I was still working at 8pm! One of the long termers here (there's like, 12 of them) came in with a bunch of pink and white roses in a vase and put them down in front of me. They were for me!! So nice! It was so cool to come back and everyone was like 'Welcome back!'. It's good to go back to where your friends are. That was one good point. Another was eating ice cream for lunch. What a fatty.
Around 7pm it turns out that there is no water in either of the buildings. Like, none. Pipes are dry. AAAAAARGH. A fully booked hostel of travellers who are tired and just want a shower-not good! So I called the plumber and he came out and it turns out it was an electrical job (the pump fuse was gone) not an actual water thing. Too bad our two trained/registered electrician long term guys are away for the day. So I've been running around making sure the pumps are working. Which they are, it's just taking ages for the big tanks to get full up. I won't get into the details of it but the system is a bit backwards. It doesn't help that everyone keeps turning the taps on and stuff-drains it all out. Then they wonder why the water isn't coming yet.
It's about 9pm and I finally get out to Supavalu to get some dish detergent for the hostel and some cleaning products for me. Like washing detergent, fabric softener, stain remover. That sort of stuff. Anyway I get back and the kitchen is absolutely packed. Full of these damn frenchies that have been here all week. They are going tomorrow and I can honestly say it will make me so happy to see the back of them. They were taking up all the space, had dirty plates and cooking stuff EVERYWHERE and they were singing these stupid french songs really loudly and the kids were yelling and generally being obnoxious pricks. I managed to slap together a casserole or stew or something with my steak and kidney and some veges. It's not so bad, actually. Not as good as mum makes them but I didn't have any worstershire sauce or stock. Just had to use gravy and tomato sauce. So yeah it had steak, kidney, chopped up sausages, broccoli, peas, pumpkin, mushrooms, onions and eggplant in it. I made a stack of it semi by accident though so I need containers to store it in so I can have some tomorrow. Some stupid frenchie was trying to get the hotplates to work and was being impatient and turning all the dials-not waiting to see if they actually heated up. Anyway, after she heated her thing for like 2 min she left and I kept cooking. I could feel some heat coming from somewhere and it wasn't for a while that I realised it was the grill-the dumb bird had turned the grill on to full and the door was closed! Far out I'm lucky it didn't smoke the whole place out. So so angry.
So much happened today to stress me out-maybe after coming from a few days off it felt worse but everything was left up to me. I'm lucky Nelly was on the hostel side but she only knows the hostel side so the plumbing stuff and the hoo-ha with the drivers and tour stuff is all lost to her. I'm going to have to tell people tomorrow morning that their tour has been cancelled and I really don't want to but I don't have a choice. One of the drivers had the shits because the room he is supposed to be staying in got water damaged so the carpet is a little wet. So he kicked up a big stink and I left it to the security guy and Nelly to take care of it-my head was ready to explode. He's staying out in a hotel near the airport he's so stubborn. I know that if the boss were here though he'd stay in the room, it's just because it's us on today and he is trying to take advantage of us. I'm really scared about the boss coming in tomorrow because he is going to cut sick on everything. The hoovers are all broken so we haven't been able to hoover behind the desks like he prefers it to be and I KNOW there will be stuff he will be angry with me about. Not sure what yet, probably that stupid thing with the envelope his wife wanted couriered out to her. We'll see. Gotta just let it all run off my back like water off a duck's.
I also have this stupid sore throat and cough...I really hope it's not bronchitis or something coming on. I have Tuesday and Wednesday off though so I might try and get out to Galway. Hopefully Darren has those days off too and he can come as well.
Oh BUGGER there are more issues with the bed sheets (sheets that we write the bed allocation on, not bed linen) on the hostel side. This afternoon there were major problems because the new girl has been fucking about (sorry mum) and messed up the bed sheets and it's been like musical rooms with these poor travellers. Tomorrow there will probably be problems and I'm not looking forward to it but as long as I take care with what I'm doing and my tills balance at the end of the night I will be happy. Or at least as happy as I can be with the boss on my back. Fingers crossed it won't be as bad as I'm expecting.
But enough of that. I'm off for a pint!
xxx lisha
First off, I get to bed around 3.30am, due to waiting up for Darren to finish his night porter shift and just hanging around talking to a couple (ok, the only two) long termers at the Belfast hostel. There were a group of noisy and obnoxious english kiddies (ok, young adults) who came back late, stole a duvet from another room, bought in people who weren't paying to stay there (major no way!) and then one of them said he had £70 missing from the £100 or so she had in her wallet. Instead of us saying 'Too bad you forfeit any right to complain about stolen stuff when you bring in outsiders into the hostel' we just had to take it (even though she probably just got tanked and spent it without realising) and then she called the police-what's more, the police actually showed up! They basically laughed at her and went on their way. They have better things to do on a Friday night at 2am.
I was supposed to get up at 6am to get on the 7am bus back to Dublin to make it there by 9.30am/10am when my shift was starting. Mind you it wasn't my shift to begin with, I was just covering it for someone else...
Anyway since I left my irish phone back in Dublin I only had my aussie phone which is still on australia time. I got the hour right, just not the am/pm so as such I didn't wake up til 7am. Got the 8am bus and slept all the way to what I presume was the border when a couple of Gardai (ROI police officers) got on and asked to see everyone's identification. The Garda who looked at mine asked how long I was going to stay and I didn't really have a good answer for that so I started to explain that it was a new passport so that's why I didn't have a stamp. He was like 'new passport-good on you' and went on his way. I think I managed to get out something like I was staying for three weeks. He didn't care anyway.
Got to Dublin about 20 min late for my shift but nobody there cared. Hardly any tours go out on a Saturday so there was little to do. I did do some admin stuff and make some new templates and stuff so that kept me busy. When I first walked in though it was nuts-the lights were all down and there were towels all over the reception desk. Wet towels. And chinese food containers catching drips. I thought it had just rained hard down here and that made the leak, because it was raining so much up in Belfast. But no, it turns out there was a fire alarm and that tripped off the hot water system and something happened to make the water pipe burst. Up on the 3rd floor. It saturated through four floors...I'm so glad I was away when it went down!!!
I fielded lots of stupid questions today and sold lots of tours. Not a bad day so far. Getting to be around 2pm though things start going pear shaped. First off, we need to buy replacement duvets and duvet covers and pillows. I haven't been up to my room yet so I go up there to get my phone and find my bed is not the way I left it and a strange girl is sitting on it. What the hell?!?! Turns out, because I'm not 'paying' for my bed it becomes fair game when I'm gone. So I turn around, partially disgusted, and go back down to Guinneys to buy this bedding and stuff. It's weird, on Talbot St there are like 4 Guinneys in a space of about 100m. I asked the guy in the shop why this is and he sort of smiled and said 'Cos the owners have lots of money'. Fair enough? I get back and the girl has gone and I get my bed back in shape. They had taken my pillow...like, the one that I bought with my own money. So I got another one of those. I need to find a way to distinguish my pillow from the others (they are all from the same shop so it's difficult). I tried writing on the tag-no good. I tried putting my own pillowcase on it-also no good. Short of writing on the actual pillow or embroidering my name across it in big black stitches, I have no idea how to stop the cleaners taking my pillow and mistaking it for one of the house pillows. Any ideas?
A tour bus pulled in so a whole stack of travellers got off it and generally made my life difficult. I was supposed to finish at 6pm but with all their questions and running around fixing the water pumps and stuff like that, I was still working at 8pm! One of the long termers here (there's like, 12 of them) came in with a bunch of pink and white roses in a vase and put them down in front of me. They were for me!! So nice! It was so cool to come back and everyone was like 'Welcome back!'. It's good to go back to where your friends are. That was one good point. Another was eating ice cream for lunch. What a fatty.
Around 7pm it turns out that there is no water in either of the buildings. Like, none. Pipes are dry. AAAAAARGH. A fully booked hostel of travellers who are tired and just want a shower-not good! So I called the plumber and he came out and it turns out it was an electrical job (the pump fuse was gone) not an actual water thing. Too bad our two trained/registered electrician long term guys are away for the day. So I've been running around making sure the pumps are working. Which they are, it's just taking ages for the big tanks to get full up. I won't get into the details of it but the system is a bit backwards. It doesn't help that everyone keeps turning the taps on and stuff-drains it all out. Then they wonder why the water isn't coming yet.
It's about 9pm and I finally get out to Supavalu to get some dish detergent for the hostel and some cleaning products for me. Like washing detergent, fabric softener, stain remover. That sort of stuff. Anyway I get back and the kitchen is absolutely packed. Full of these damn frenchies that have been here all week. They are going tomorrow and I can honestly say it will make me so happy to see the back of them. They were taking up all the space, had dirty plates and cooking stuff EVERYWHERE and they were singing these stupid french songs really loudly and the kids were yelling and generally being obnoxious pricks. I managed to slap together a casserole or stew or something with my steak and kidney and some veges. It's not so bad, actually. Not as good as mum makes them but I didn't have any worstershire sauce or stock. Just had to use gravy and tomato sauce. So yeah it had steak, kidney, chopped up sausages, broccoli, peas, pumpkin, mushrooms, onions and eggplant in it. I made a stack of it semi by accident though so I need containers to store it in so I can have some tomorrow. Some stupid frenchie was trying to get the hotplates to work and was being impatient and turning all the dials-not waiting to see if they actually heated up. Anyway, after she heated her thing for like 2 min she left and I kept cooking. I could feel some heat coming from somewhere and it wasn't for a while that I realised it was the grill-the dumb bird had turned the grill on to full and the door was closed! Far out I'm lucky it didn't smoke the whole place out. So so angry.
So much happened today to stress me out-maybe after coming from a few days off it felt worse but everything was left up to me. I'm lucky Nelly was on the hostel side but she only knows the hostel side so the plumbing stuff and the hoo-ha with the drivers and tour stuff is all lost to her. I'm going to have to tell people tomorrow morning that their tour has been cancelled and I really don't want to but I don't have a choice. One of the drivers had the shits because the room he is supposed to be staying in got water damaged so the carpet is a little wet. So he kicked up a big stink and I left it to the security guy and Nelly to take care of it-my head was ready to explode. He's staying out in a hotel near the airport he's so stubborn. I know that if the boss were here though he'd stay in the room, it's just because it's us on today and he is trying to take advantage of us. I'm really scared about the boss coming in tomorrow because he is going to cut sick on everything. The hoovers are all broken so we haven't been able to hoover behind the desks like he prefers it to be and I KNOW there will be stuff he will be angry with me about. Not sure what yet, probably that stupid thing with the envelope his wife wanted couriered out to her. We'll see. Gotta just let it all run off my back like water off a duck's.
I also have this stupid sore throat and cough...I really hope it's not bronchitis or something coming on. I have Tuesday and Wednesday off though so I might try and get out to Galway. Hopefully Darren has those days off too and he can come as well.
Oh BUGGER there are more issues with the bed sheets (sheets that we write the bed allocation on, not bed linen) on the hostel side. This afternoon there were major problems because the new girl has been fucking about (sorry mum) and messed up the bed sheets and it's been like musical rooms with these poor travellers. Tomorrow there will probably be problems and I'm not looking forward to it but as long as I take care with what I'm doing and my tills balance at the end of the night I will be happy. Or at least as happy as I can be with the boss on my back. Fingers crossed it won't be as bad as I'm expecting.
But enough of that. I'm off for a pint!
xxx lisha
Friday, 29 February 2008
Belfast (again)!
Yay Belfast!
I like it up here. It's rainy and blowing an absolute gale but it's mostly how I remember it. Went on a Black Taxi tour of the city today, it was really interesting. The driver knew alot about the political history of Belfast and we actually got to drive through the openings in the peace wall from the Catholic to the Protestant side. Last time I was up around that area the damn gates were closed. When we were stopped at a set of lights the driver goes 'You see that wee dog down thar?' and we look at this little dog sniffing around on the pavement...'that's a protestant dog'. We are intrigued as to how he knows this. 'Aye, and he's come across to the catholic side just to take a shit'. Never let the truth get in the way of a good story!
In other news, I'm not dead from the chicken sandwich. Score 1 for Lisha, 0 for 3 day old meat sandwiches of questionable origin.
I'm sure I had some more interesting stuff to write up on here but it's out of my brain at the moment. It's almost 3am here-waiting for Darren to finish doing his night porter business here at the hostel. It's good to see all the people here again :-) I reckon I'd like to run a hostel myself one day. There is a job going right now for somebody to run the Annascaul hostel (same company/owner as Belfast and Dublin) but you have to be able to run the pub and the food part of the pub and stuff like that too. It doesn't get real busy but it only pays €250 a week. Plus I'd get too lonely down there by myself. If only a certain trained chef/hostel employee I know would work down there too...
Speaking of which, yesterday was the 29th of Feb. Happy once in four years day! Up here it's a big thing that on Feb 29th it's the 'womens day' to propose to their boyfriends. No, I didn't propose to anybody. The Daily Sport (don't know how they get away with calling it that...it's just all boobs) had a double page spread of 'How to stop your girlfriend from popping the question to you today'. Apparently back in the day when Queen Mary was in charge of things it was law that on the 29th of Feb it was illegal for a guy to reject a proposal and if he did he got fined. But then again I read that in the Sport too so it's probably bullshit.
That's about all from me for now-just dropping in to leave a quick word. Back to the grind tomorrow in Dublin (10am start OHHHHHHHH DAMMIT) and then the boss gets back on Monday. He's going to come down on us hard when he comes back I just know it. I'm already getting my pay docked by €46 this week because that's how much my till was short on my last shift. Fair enough but it's not like I took the money so it's slack that it's out of my own money. It encourages good book-keeping I suppose. It's not fair though when you are called to do something else and there is nothing stopping somebody from going behind the counter and taking it though. What is really retarded though is that if the till is *over* for the shift, then that same amount also gets taken from our pay!!! It's much easier to spirit away money or explain it away than it is to find lost money. So yeah, apart from that my shifts have been coming up with even tills. Expect a very narky and frustrated entry on Monday, that's all I can say.
I like it up here. It's rainy and blowing an absolute gale but it's mostly how I remember it. Went on a Black Taxi tour of the city today, it was really interesting. The driver knew alot about the political history of Belfast and we actually got to drive through the openings in the peace wall from the Catholic to the Protestant side. Last time I was up around that area the damn gates were closed. When we were stopped at a set of lights the driver goes 'You see that wee dog down thar?' and we look at this little dog sniffing around on the pavement...'that's a protestant dog'. We are intrigued as to how he knows this. 'Aye, and he's come across to the catholic side just to take a shit'. Never let the truth get in the way of a good story!
In other news, I'm not dead from the chicken sandwich. Score 1 for Lisha, 0 for 3 day old meat sandwiches of questionable origin.
I'm sure I had some more interesting stuff to write up on here but it's out of my brain at the moment. It's almost 3am here-waiting for Darren to finish doing his night porter business here at the hostel. It's good to see all the people here again :-) I reckon I'd like to run a hostel myself one day. There is a job going right now for somebody to run the Annascaul hostel (same company/owner as Belfast and Dublin) but you have to be able to run the pub and the food part of the pub and stuff like that too. It doesn't get real busy but it only pays €250 a week. Plus I'd get too lonely down there by myself. If only a certain trained chef/hostel employee I know would work down there too...
Speaking of which, yesterday was the 29th of Feb. Happy once in four years day! Up here it's a big thing that on Feb 29th it's the 'womens day' to propose to their boyfriends. No, I didn't propose to anybody. The Daily Sport (don't know how they get away with calling it that...it's just all boobs) had a double page spread of 'How to stop your girlfriend from popping the question to you today'. Apparently back in the day when Queen Mary was in charge of things it was law that on the 29th of Feb it was illegal for a guy to reject a proposal and if he did he got fined. But then again I read that in the Sport too so it's probably bullshit.
That's about all from me for now-just dropping in to leave a quick word. Back to the grind tomorrow in Dublin (10am start OHHHHHHHH DAMMIT) and then the boss gets back on Monday. He's going to come down on us hard when he comes back I just know it. I'm already getting my pay docked by €46 this week because that's how much my till was short on my last shift. Fair enough but it's not like I took the money so it's slack that it's out of my own money. It encourages good book-keeping I suppose. It's not fair though when you are called to do something else and there is nothing stopping somebody from going behind the counter and taking it though. What is really retarded though is that if the till is *over* for the shift, then that same amount also gets taken from our pay!!! It's much easier to spirit away money or explain it away than it is to find lost money. So yeah, apart from that my shifts have been coming up with even tills. Expect a very narky and frustrated entry on Monday, that's all I can say.
Thursday, 28 February 2008
Wednesday, 27 February 2008
ohhhh that sandwich was a bad idea....
Ok this is #98 of 'stupid things I've done since I left for my trip'...but there has been this chicken focaccia that's been hanging around since the 24th. It's, what, the 27th today? Anyway I got sick of seeing it there and it looked pretty good so I nuked it and ate it. Well, most of it. I am pretty sure I'm going to get food poisoning. Right when I'm supposed to get on the bus to Belfast tomorrow arvo.
So yeah...we'll see how that goes.
Last night a bunch of us went to see U23D at the movies. FREAKIN' AWESOME!!! It was a bit disappointing that we didn't get the retro green/red glasses but even with our boring glasses the effect was still the same. All concerts should be filmed like that! Hell, all movies should be made in 3D! The effect was so real, it was almost like being there. Minus the sweaty bodies, burst eardrums/hoarse throat and sore calf muscles from jumping about.
Apart from that it's just been same ol' same ol'. Working and alternating between going out and staying in. Lots of people are leaving which is sad-even more are leaving soon too :-( I've moved into the 'Lesbian Jungle' which is the name of the all-girl staff quarters. Long story but the name is not born from any real experience or encounter. As far as I know.
Ohhh my tummy....
So yeah...we'll see how that goes.
Last night a bunch of us went to see U23D at the movies. FREAKIN' AWESOME!!! It was a bit disappointing that we didn't get the retro green/red glasses but even with our boring glasses the effect was still the same. All concerts should be filmed like that! Hell, all movies should be made in 3D! The effect was so real, it was almost like being there. Minus the sweaty bodies, burst eardrums/hoarse throat and sore calf muscles from jumping about.
Apart from that it's just been same ol' same ol'. Working and alternating between going out and staying in. Lots of people are leaving which is sad-even more are leaving soon too :-( I've moved into the 'Lesbian Jungle' which is the name of the all-girl staff quarters. Long story but the name is not born from any real experience or encounter. As far as I know.
Ohhh my tummy....
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