Change in circumstances
Was I enjoying the pub... I'm glad that I did it. It was an interesting experience and it felt good getting to know the names and drinks of all the regulars and chatting with them. It was interesting to be leant to the Talbot too and experience an entirely different setup, clientelle, environment etc... I don't think I posted about it much. They bring in a bunch of girls from the other pubs on a Friday night and we run the bar while Aidan and his wife Mary go and get drunk elsewhere. At the end of the night, after we've thrown everyone out, we get to drink whatever's been bought for us. Then, last time, Aidan staggered in with Mary and started opening wine for us. Got so pissed on White Zinfandel (a rose from California) which is sweet and beautiful. About 1.30am he decides to open up the carvery and go in search of his spitted Portugese pig. We end up with all this food on the tables and everyone drunkenly trying to make sandwiches and eat until the table was much barer. I managed to stagger home, not really staggering of course, and singing quietly to myself. I tiptoed in and managed to do all the alarm stuff properly. It was a really good night until the room started spinning, I ende up throwing up in the rubbish bin and generally wishing I was dead. Down I had to go the next morning to help open up. I felt awful and swore to myself that I would never drink again. I worked perfectly all day and actually didn't feel too bad. The boss shut the bar late and so offered me a drink because he couldn't be bothered paying me for my last half hour. Well, the Bailey's looked attractive and really it's not the alcohol...it's the quantity.
So yeah there was some good times. But it was also boring, onerous, entirely unstimulating and by the end of ten hour shifts I could barely walkup the three flights of stairs some nights and my feet were kind of getting screwed. It's kind of funny... in various emails between me and Nick I'd been saying that I wished I could just fast forward through the next two months and get on with the travelling. Of course the point of those two months was that I'd be spending less than half my wages and would have all this sterling at the end.
So anyway, I come home from my break and Terry & his wife suddenly accuse me of taking money from the till. The till was down and an anonymous customer had seen me take a piece of paper from near the till and then maybe put it in my pocket. Except that I don't have pockets for one thing. So obviously if I was going to steal from them, in plain view of all the customers I would reach into the till and extract £13.90 (who the hell steals an amount like that) and put a note and some change in my knickers. I mean I'd jingle for crying out loud! If the customer even exists all I can think of is that they saw me take the white paper receipt I'd placed on top of the closed till earlier, stop to read it again before dropping it in the bin, check the customers had indeed left and then drop it into the bin under the bar. I mean for f*k's sake I was moving around multi-million dollar funds at the bank why the hell would I want to steal from their shitty little pub. Not to mention the fact that what idiot would take money from the till knowing it would be noticed within hours? If you were going to steal you'd overcharge and keep the change or simply not ring up the purchase and palm the money or something... If the money's actually missing I think he's dropped one of the eftpos receipts or his wife took it that morning when she was in the till when she normally isn't. I thought she was taking money to pick up stuff for the pub kitchens but possibly not.
Actually the pub hasn't been doing well lately and apparently they're wages are directly proportional to a percentage of their profits. I think they just trumped up an excuse so that they could have a reason to let me go. That and Joanne was rather an emotional cow and inclined towards being a bitch, damn but she could be nasty, I think she resented being stuck upstairs on childcare duty while other women got to run her pub for her with her husband.
So, suddenly no job and nowhere to live and absolutely furious that they were just really nasty and refused to investigate properly or listen to anything I had to say. Joanne simply told me that it didn't matter if I was innocent or not because I'd still say the same thing. The whole situation is just so trumped up and ludicrous.
I enquired at a few agencies and where I have to pay for the police ceck that's £50 per agency. Then there's no guarantee of work and I'm competing with thousands, some of whom actually have relevant work experience here. It's easy to forget that London's population is around 9 million or so at last count. It's a hell of a lot compared to Auckland! (and our outlying regions like lovely Pukekohe). I really wanted to be a medical guinea pig (ignore the recent stories in the tabloids) but you have to have been healthily registered with a UK GPor three months to be eligible. There's a job with Greenpeace - same thing I did back home for a few summers, those annoying people with clipboards on the street - for travelling campaigners; going out in a small team and driving someplace new each week. Also, one of the big hostels here is hiring. It's a week or so wait for intitial contact back.
So, I'm off on tour to Ireland for two weeks. I've always wanted to go and now I am :) It was pretty lonely at the pub too with noone to talk to or hang out with so it'll be good being with a bunch of other travellers. I'd forgotten that I'd won this trip to Scotland because the dates didn't work originally. But now they do so I'm booking in a week round Scotland for after. That takes me to the end of April and then I'm planning to start working my way south. I don't know what my internet access is going to be like but email me and I'll have lots of warm fuzzies waiting for me :)
I thought I should get the rest of the London photos up before I left :) So I'll post those up before I head to the hostel [who had no record of my internet booking and deposit when I arrived this morning!! I'd printed off the receipt though so despite being booked out they put me in a little 4 bed dorm that was still available for the same price :) ]
So yeah there was some good times. But it was also boring, onerous, entirely unstimulating and by the end of ten hour shifts I could barely walkup the three flights of stairs some nights and my feet were kind of getting screwed. It's kind of funny... in various emails between me and Nick I'd been saying that I wished I could just fast forward through the next two months and get on with the travelling. Of course the point of those two months was that I'd be spending less than half my wages and would have all this sterling at the end.
So anyway, I come home from my break and Terry & his wife suddenly accuse me of taking money from the till. The till was down and an anonymous customer had seen me take a piece of paper from near the till and then maybe put it in my pocket. Except that I don't have pockets for one thing. So obviously if I was going to steal from them, in plain view of all the customers I would reach into the till and extract £13.90 (who the hell steals an amount like that) and put a note and some change in my knickers. I mean I'd jingle for crying out loud! If the customer even exists all I can think of is that they saw me take the white paper receipt I'd placed on top of the closed till earlier, stop to read it again before dropping it in the bin, check the customers had indeed left and then drop it into the bin under the bar. I mean for f*k's sake I was moving around multi-million dollar funds at the bank why the hell would I want to steal from their shitty little pub. Not to mention the fact that what idiot would take money from the till knowing it would be noticed within hours? If you were going to steal you'd overcharge and keep the change or simply not ring up the purchase and palm the money or something... If the money's actually missing I think he's dropped one of the eftpos receipts or his wife took it that morning when she was in the till when she normally isn't. I thought she was taking money to pick up stuff for the pub kitchens but possibly not.
Actually the pub hasn't been doing well lately and apparently they're wages are directly proportional to a percentage of their profits. I think they just trumped up an excuse so that they could have a reason to let me go. That and Joanne was rather an emotional cow and inclined towards being a bitch, damn but she could be nasty, I think she resented being stuck upstairs on childcare duty while other women got to run her pub for her with her husband.
So, suddenly no job and nowhere to live and absolutely furious that they were just really nasty and refused to investigate properly or listen to anything I had to say. Joanne simply told me that it didn't matter if I was innocent or not because I'd still say the same thing. The whole situation is just so trumped up and ludicrous.
I enquired at a few agencies and where I have to pay for the police ceck that's £50 per agency. Then there's no guarantee of work and I'm competing with thousands, some of whom actually have relevant work experience here. It's easy to forget that London's population is around 9 million or so at last count. It's a hell of a lot compared to Auckland! (and our outlying regions like lovely Pukekohe). I really wanted to be a medical guinea pig (ignore the recent stories in the tabloids) but you have to have been healthily registered with a UK GPor three months to be eligible. There's a job with Greenpeace - same thing I did back home for a few summers, those annoying people with clipboards on the street - for travelling campaigners; going out in a small team and driving someplace new each week. Also, one of the big hostels here is hiring. It's a week or so wait for intitial contact back.
So, I'm off on tour to Ireland for two weeks. I've always wanted to go and now I am :) It was pretty lonely at the pub too with noone to talk to or hang out with so it'll be good being with a bunch of other travellers. I'd forgotten that I'd won this trip to Scotland because the dates didn't work originally. But now they do so I'm booking in a week round Scotland for after. That takes me to the end of April and then I'm planning to start working my way south. I don't know what my internet access is going to be like but email me and I'll have lots of warm fuzzies waiting for me :)
I thought I should get the rest of the London photos up before I left :) So I'll post those up before I head to the hostel [who had no record of my internet booking and deposit when I arrived this morning!! I'd printed off the receipt though so despite being booked out they put me in a little 4 bed dorm that was still available for the same price :) ]
posted by Nixie! at 7:45 am
1 Comments:
Good morning from belgium :o)
Post a Comment
<< Home