I suppose it had to happen sooner or later. Feeling a bit low and wondering just how long I want to stay here-or overseas, even.
Just a cumulation of shitty things happening in the last 48 hours that are getting to me.
The other day I realised one of my bags was stolen. It's annoying and makes you hate scumbag theives but the fact that it was an innocuous looking calico bag with a few of my other ones (untouched) and contained my snow boots and a whole stack of momentos/presents to take home that really angered me. I'm still hoping that it's just misplaced but I know deep down in my heart that I'll never see it (or it's contents) again.
Katie from work quit today. A close friend (and former boyfriend) of hers back in Australia has just been diagnosed with HIV. She is understandably distressed and I don't blame her at all for not wanting to waste her time working in a crappy job when she has much bigger things to worry about. She's waiting for her nursing registration to come through, too...so it's not like she was going to be here for a long time. This is a blow to the company, and me, because not only was she a decent worker but she was also a really fun person who I enjoyed working with.
I forgot it was my day off today and turned up to work to hear that Katie wasn't coming in (good thing I came in to work then) and later on that day she called to say she wasn't coming back ever.
Peta at work today had a horrible day full of arrogant backpackers who really tested her limits. I suppose her limits have been worn down a bit lately because she's going to give her notice tomorrow. What little patience we have had lately has been worn down by this bunch of Uruguayan (spelling?) blokes who have been doing nothing but making a mess, hanging about on the couches (theres like 8 of them), being rude to us and making way too much noise when we are trying to work. Seriously, I don't know why there are here for the week or why they don't have anywhere else to go but they shouldn't hang around here making so much noise and not cleaning up after themselves. Go out and see the city, get a job, do whatever just do it AWAY from here! They have really been wearing our patience down.
I'm also getting worried about my VISA situation. I will need to go on Friday before my hostel shift at night and get something sorted. Worst case scenario is that I get in trouble for not having a stamp but I'm sure my last stamp gave me until the end of April! Don't know if I should apply for a UK or Irish visa...or if I should just keep jetting off every 2 or 3 months and getting a new stamp. Don't think they'll let me do that though. I wanted to go back to Alaska for summer and work there, too. It's worrying about working illegally and then worrying about how we are going to get enough staff to even run this place that is doing my head in. I know it's not my problem but like everything around here, it's not my problem but I am the one who has to deal with the consequences. I might ask for a raise. Don't want to speak too soon but I think I'm back in the good books with the boss. Would rather be in no books because they expect more of you and get really disappointed in you when you make a mistake. On the flipside I really don't want to be in the bad books either.
Oh well. Who knows how long I'll be hanging around here. If my pay goes up to €425 (like it is supposed to) then I will stick around but it's getting to be not worth it for €350 a week. I've saved almost €1000 but that's taken over a month!
Ryanair keeps having £10 sales, so I did end up booking the Cheese Rolling festival.
Lucinda really wants to go to Oktoberfest (I want to go too!) and she wants someone to go with, but it's the 19th to the 24th of September and honestly can't say where in the world I'll be by then. If I'm still going to be here/in Europe then it would be worth it but who knows...I could be home by then or I could be back in the US.
Need to call my airline and see if I can still use my return flight home, even though it was supposed to be in February...
Too much to think about just now. I think I'm getting grey hairs from the stress. This job is retarded for €350 a week. And when there is so much negativity and complaining by dickhead backpackers going on around you it really breaks your spirit.
And to think I was doing do well up til now.
Wednesday, 9 April 2008
Monday, 7 April 2008
MONEY
I kind of hate the Euro currency...not just because it's stronger than the Aussie dollar but also because it looks like Monopoly money. And it's made out of paper.
But given all that, it looks pretty cool all together:
I've seen all of them bar the €500 note. I have almost €1000 in savings in the safe here (all in 50s) so I'm thinking about going into the bank and getting it changed to a €500 and two €200 notes...
The denominations I am more familiar with are the coins:
Ireland's Euro coins have the picture of the harp on the back of them, like so:
Each EU nation has it's own picture on the back of their coins. It's funny because we are used to a 'heads' and a 'tails' side on our coins, but because they don't have a unified head of state they don't really have any heads on their coins. Some countries love their royalty so much they will still put their heads on their coins, e.g. Belgium, Luxemburg, Monaco, Netherlands, Spain, and the Vatican.
Here is a sweet site where you can see pretty much all of them and what image they have on the 'reverse' side of their coins.
http://www.eurocoins.co.uk/images1euros.html
For some reason you can buy a British Euro (MADNESS), but I don't know why you'd waste your money on it because it's not legal tender.
On another note, I am about to book a day tour and flights to Gloucestershire to go to the CHEESE-ROLLING FESTIVAL!!!
Cheese Rolling tour
Official Cheese Rolling Website
Seriously.
£45 for the tour, and then €45 for the return flights to London/Dublin.
Just imagine, this could be ME chasing an 8lb cheese down the hill!
HAPPY DAYS!!!
Gotta get back to work-break time is over.
xxx leash
But given all that, it looks pretty cool all together:
I've seen all of them bar the €500 note. I have almost €1000 in savings in the safe here (all in 50s) so I'm thinking about going into the bank and getting it changed to a €500 and two €200 notes...
The denominations I am more familiar with are the coins:
Ireland's Euro coins have the picture of the harp on the back of them, like so:
Each EU nation has it's own picture on the back of their coins. It's funny because we are used to a 'heads' and a 'tails' side on our coins, but because they don't have a unified head of state they don't really have any heads on their coins. Some countries love their royalty so much they will still put their heads on their coins, e.g. Belgium, Luxemburg, Monaco, Netherlands, Spain, and the Vatican.
Here is a sweet site where you can see pretty much all of them and what image they have on the 'reverse' side of their coins.
http://www.eurocoins.co.uk/images1euros.html
For some reason you can buy a British Euro (MADNESS), but I don't know why you'd waste your money on it because it's not legal tender.
On another note, I am about to book a day tour and flights to Gloucestershire to go to the CHEESE-ROLLING FESTIVAL!!!
Cheese Rolling tour
Official Cheese Rolling Website
Seriously.
£45 for the tour, and then €45 for the return flights to London/Dublin.
Just imagine, this could be ME chasing an 8lb cheese down the hill!
HAPPY DAYS!!!
Gotta get back to work-break time is over.
xxx leash
Sunday, 6 April 2008
Snow!
More pics coming soon :-)
*edit* ok here are some pics:
Preserved meatstuffs at the Derry Guildhall open air market.
These flowers are everywhere...but I can't find them in Dublin otherwise I'd put them into all the hanging pots/windowboxes here!
Looking out over the Bogside district of Derry from the city walls.
Story is, these walls have been around since the 1600's and enclose the middle of the city and are about 1.5km around. Up to 8m tall in some places, they are really solid and have cannons and watchtowers around on them. Pretty cool. When all the Northern Ireland tension stuff started (even way back in the day) Catholics weren't allowed within the walls-into the inner city part. The part that I'm looking out onto, the Bogside, is called that because Derry used to be an 'island' ie surrounded by a river that went all around it but over the years it dried out and turned into marsh/bog and then eventually into land that was suitable to build on. The government/city/Queen/whoever controls that sort of stuff made sure that only the poorest people (ie Catholics in those days) lived in the crappy Bogside area and this is where the Bloody Sunday Massacre happened. We went into the Bloody Sunday museum and the man working there on that day was the brother of one of the 13 shot dead by paramilitary soldiers on Bloody Sunday. It was so moving-handwritten letters/accounts of people seeing their children getting shot and then going to help them, 'his eyes were wide open but I knew he was dead'. Horrible, horrible stuff. Pictures of 10yr kids in gasmasks throwing petrol bombs...videos of the march with the soldiers all lined up with their riot gear and hoards of people hurling stones and throwing stuff at them. It was pretty disturbing. Makes you wonder if the UK will ever give up Northern Ireland or if people will still fight to get their freedom and independance from the UK...
I already had a picture of the Free Derry sign but I like this one better because you can see the mural in the background.
Ok that's about all for now. Gotta really get up off my bumbum and post some postcards and parcels back home but the first day off isn't until Wednesday. Not long now til we go to Turkey!!! Getting excited. I think we are stopping over in Frankfurt for a night on the way back-it's near impossible to get cheap flights out of Istanbul. Would have gotten the train to Athens (about 20hrs) and then flown back from Athens but it would have cost an extra £200! That's almost as much as the whole tour through Turkey cost! So yeah, have to save it for another time I suppose.
Back to work for me-for a Sunday morning we are quite busy...
Hope everyone is doing well back home or wherever they are in the world, if anybody wants to come over to go to the Tomato throwing festival, or the running of the bulls in Pamplona, or my birthday in August, or to Oktoberfest (in late September) let me know and I'll come too!
xxx lisha
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...
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