Oooh so full i can hardly move...
Saturday, 19 April 2008
Friday, 18 April 2008
Going away!
WoooooOOOoooo today's my last day at work until the 29th!!!
Going away to Turkey for an ANZAC Day tour. Nobody here (apart from the Aussies/Kiwis) understands or appreciates what ANZAC Day is about so when I tell them I'm going over to Turkey for it they sort of just look at me with a blank expression.
Oh well-I'm excited and looking forward to it nonetheless!
London tomorrow afternoon for a stopover and staying the night, then Istanbul the day after that. I have no idea what to expect, really...been trying to learn some basic words of Turkish but it's pretty hard! I think I know just the bare minimum in German for when we stop in Frankfurt...but we'll soon see. It's so sad, the German phrase I remember that stands out the most is 'dein mutti ist ein dopplebett'. It's nonsense, I know, and as such is completely useless to me. Unless I want to make a bunch of German people laugh at me, and possibly beat me up.
Will be taking stacks of pictures and sending postcards (if I get the chance) so keep an eye out!!!
Had better get back to work now (at least the boss isn't in today).
Hope everyone has a meaningful ANZAC Day on the 25th.
Happy Birthday Shane for the 26th! Or is it the 24th? I can't remember :-P
xxx leash
Going away to Turkey for an ANZAC Day tour. Nobody here (apart from the Aussies/Kiwis) understands or appreciates what ANZAC Day is about so when I tell them I'm going over to Turkey for it they sort of just look at me with a blank expression.
Oh well-I'm excited and looking forward to it nonetheless!
London tomorrow afternoon for a stopover and staying the night, then Istanbul the day after that. I have no idea what to expect, really...been trying to learn some basic words of Turkish but it's pretty hard! I think I know just the bare minimum in German for when we stop in Frankfurt...but we'll soon see. It's so sad, the German phrase I remember that stands out the most is 'dein mutti ist ein dopplebett'. It's nonsense, I know, and as such is completely useless to me. Unless I want to make a bunch of German people laugh at me, and possibly beat me up.
Will be taking stacks of pictures and sending postcards (if I get the chance) so keep an eye out!!!
Had better get back to work now (at least the boss isn't in today).
Hope everyone has a meaningful ANZAC Day on the 25th.
Happy Birthday Shane for the 26th! Or is it the 24th? I can't remember :-P
xxx leash
Wednesday, 9 April 2008
low points
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.
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.
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
