on the job

i waitress for a staffing agency. this involves going to different functions in different venues, meeting different people all the time.... in short, there is huge variety. key word, different

minimum shifts of 4 hours. huge potential for mundaneness, especially if in the event of glass-polishing or waiting around with nothing do

but tonight i worked at the tate modern, and was duly reminded of why it's not really all about the money (despite my moaning and groaning and insistence otherwise). not only were we allowed to go home early, but furthermore we were permitted to go onto the über-cool carsten höller exhibit (a.k.a. "the big slides"). it has to be seen and experienced to be believed. i quote:

"The slides are impressive sculptures in their own right, and you don't have to hurtle down them to appreciate this artwork. What interests Höller, however, is both the visual spectacle of watching people sliding and the 'inner spectacle' experienced by the sliders themselves, the state of simultaneous delight and anxiety that you enter as you descend.

it was awesome, to say the least. something so simple yet so exhilarating! the clandestine nature of our exploit (in the sense that we were meant to be "working" there, yet we'd transcended the guest-employee boundaries and become art patrons, so to speak!) made it even sweeter, however subtly

it also made me take stock of some of the more unusual, cool experiences i've had over the last 1.5 years while on the job...

• meeting the british p.m. and offering him drinks (he asked for a beer... though i'm not supposed to mention any of this, so shhhh!)
  
• working at the madame tussauds wax museum and seeing matt lucas and david williams ham it up in their various little britain roles and "interacting" with the guests (e.g. think a chavvy vicky pollard going "yeah but no but yeah but...", or a falsely wheelchair-bound lou grabbing my canapé tray. hilarious!)
• cool venues i've worked at include the royal albert hall (which looks amazing inside when lit up!), kew garden (always a joy when surrounded by nature!), someone's incredibly bohemian, beautiful townhouse in primrose hill (it had to be seen to be believed), tower bridge (the offering panoramic views of the thames - lovely)
  
• running into cliff richard and cilla black, offering boy george canapés, topping up graham norton's glass with champagne, hearing bon jovi play LIVE (they are AMAZING performers) at a private concert for some corporate dinner (and seeing bon jovi snort lines backstage, but that's something i'd rather not have witnessed!)

i've also met a whole range of characters, including students on gap-years, uni students, catering managers with all sorts of personality quirks... it's taken me more than a year, but i've learnt how to strike up random conversations, how to say anything for the sake of saying something, how it's not actually such a bad thing to talk crap if it means bridging the intangible gap between strangers

so 2 more shifts this month @ my favourite venue, where i can nowadays joke freely with the managers and know my way around almost entirely. the going is tough, but some day in the future i will gaze back fondly upon these days of low-paid part-time casual work and reminisce not about how many hours of waitressing i had to endure, but about the numerous once-in-a-lifetime, once-in-a-blue-moon experiences i randomly, and fortunately, fell into

:)


.

inaction is a weapon

of mass destruction

.

i've been doing a placement this week; met this zimbabwean colleague who's here on a secondment for a few months. his sense of sheer amazement at the size of london as a city is refreshing, as is his constant wide-eyed wonder of "in which direction (north? south? east? west?) is st albans/ westminster/ the thames river/ king's cross?" from wherever we're stood

harare, the capital city of zimbabwe, has a city centre the size of a small town, you see

i've been taking london for granted. it's time to do something crazy again

basic

i am currently writing up my cv for job applications and it is not as simple as it sounds

i'm just not very happy about having to fit me and my life into 2 pages

.

i watched snakes on a plane last night and laughed so hard. it's so bad, it's good!

what women want

i want to watch devil wears prada. i've just finished my 1-month internship at a pr agency, and while i've generally been very well treated, there has been the occasional run-in with one of the bosses, with dialogue of the following kind:

boss: so why is the font still this size? did i not tell you to change the font?
me: yes
boss: so tell me, why is it still like this?
(and so on and so forth)

i just let negative comments slide over my head. the way i see it, if i haven't actually screwed up big time, what's the point of letting hoo-haa criticism and scolding ruin my day?

.

the inevitability of choice

ain't no mountain high enough

two weeks ago i was chatting to 2 colleagues whilst waitressing (job: 40th wedding anniversary) and ended up in awe of their sporting achievements

1 of them runs ultramarathons (think 200+km type of runs; forget the glamour of the london marathon) and has won world titles before the other has rowed across the atlantic. 3 times

this truly in line with the chinese saying,

yi4 shan1 hai2 bi3 yi4 shan1 gao1

or, "there will always be a taller mountain" (something like that)

12/ major whingeing ahead

gosh everyday is a still a fucking mission

hanging on by my teeth

thank goodness for mouthguards?

been turning to rugby for the necessary distraction and fortitude

but i'm just not up for tomorrow's match

and this is where obligation and responsibility step in to give me the shove

what am i doing here, listening to techno on french web radio at 1am?

.

body is increasingly inflicted by injuries, both rugby-related and otherwise

neck pain from wednesday training is still bugging me. might have to see a physio if it doesn't go away soon. hope it doesn't come to that!

i also stupidly injured my shin when i tried to climb over the bench table in the lecture theatre. knocked my shin on the edge of the table, gosh the sharp pain was pretty unbearable. i've now got an inperceptible but worryingly painful bruise - hope i haven't actually fractured or damaged anything seriously

.

work this evening was borrrring. stood behind buffet tables. zzzz. i even resorted to clearing plates, usually my pet hate (it isn't terribly fun to clear heavy white plates from tables, with food and cutlery threatening to fall off the edges), because i was worried i'd fall asleep standing

today i was so tired for no apparent reason (well maybe the late nights have something to do with it!), i slept from midday till half past 2, kept snoozing my alarm clock

.

second year. crazy.

.

the message expires tomorrow

14

smoked - my house is smoked. i turned on the oven for my sainsburys basics 88p fishermans pie, and the next thing i know, the leftover oil and debris from last sunday's bday cook-out for teh turned our previously tame and functional oven into this absolutely evil smoke-churning appliance. could literally see the smoke swirling around in the kitchen molecules, and *cough cough* felt my throat burn at one point!

i'm in my room (upstairs) now and all i can smell is smoke. urgh

will retreat to the bathroom soon

.

time really does heal old wounds

but no one ever mentions the scab that remains

and the fact that the scab, like all scabs, can be easily broken, torn out, once again. and again. and again

i should know, i've got rugby scabs all over

.

working at madame tussauds tonight, have never actually been in there so it should be interesting

and pay day is monday. whoopee

.

on two bicycles
on a hillside desolate
could nature make a man of me yet?

under this charming calm
this charming man

why ponder life's complexities
when the leather runs smooth
on the passenger seat?

i would go out tonight
but i haven't got a stitch to wear
this man said it's crucial
that someone so handsome should care

ah! i'm just a country boy
who never knew his place
he said return the ring
he knows so much about these things
he knows so much about these things

- "this charming man"_death cab for cutie

worktales

- royal courts of justice: some girl's 21st birthday
- gray's inn
- screenselect (dvd departmental store on corner of oxford st and tottenham court rd) official opening
- the london dutch celebratory dinner of the 25th (silver) anniversary of the reign of the queen of holland
.
.
.
and there's also the food. today we happily dug into leftover crême brûlée. mmmm. my colleague resisted and said something along the lines of "sugar and fat". i gave her a big grin and said, "exactly".

sure there's a lot of boring waiting around, and yes the plates may be hot and hard to carry and clear, but hey it introduces me to yet another aspect of london life and people that i otherwise wouldn't have the chance to get to know. besides meeting and chatting to students from other london unis, i've also met gap year students ("..i'm going to costa rica next month, then to thailand for a month next year.."), and other random people from random countries. had this brief but interesting conversation over staff dinner this evening with a slovakian guy. and last week this half-english half-peruvian graphic design graduate was telling me about his dream of setting up an online magazine.

all this very random chatting and brief socialising while we're waiting is not only interesting, but also pretty useful. after awhile this "plug-and-play" (i.e. start yakking to anyone) becomes pretty second nature.

have earned in excess of £240 for november. thanks to small pay rise and 1 extra long shift, i should earn slightly more than £100 next week alone.

but my real work lies in my disgustingly bright pink folder. invaluable

.

it's midnight and i just downed a mug of very milky coffee. which i should never do if i'm ever intending to sleep in the 6 hours after.

so i'm not going to zzz, it's about time i got back on track.

.

i am thankful everyday that i have you all

zilver

tired from work but haven't even begun the real work, yet.

thoughts are so consumed - so distracted, and still so overwhelmingly concentrated on the wrong

so what do i do? i distract myself with what's fun, what's entertaining, whatever takes my mind off things

yes irresponsible

so.

debris; mass fall-out

uggs ft rugby polo-t and kit jeans coat bag iron schoolbag papers

.

this evening was probably my 8th or 9th job. at the foreign office, for some kazahkstani function

like someone said, it's easy money

it's also probably the easiest thing i've got to do at present

priorities

a wake-up conversation today; gosh don't let that be me

and after some seraching i think i've finally found the anthem, i really have

.

i want to break free
i want to break free
i want to break free from your lies
you're so self-satisfied i don't need you
i've got to break free
god knows, god knows i want to break free

i've fallen in love
i've fallen in love for the first time
and this time i know it's for real
i've fallen in love, yeah
god knows, god knows i've fallen in love

it's strange but it's true
i can't get over the way you love me like you do
but i have to be sure
when i walk out that door
oh how i want to be free, baby
oh how i want to be free
oh how i want to break free

but life still goes on
i can't get used to, living without, living without
living without you by my side
i don't want to live alone, hey
god knows, got to make it on my own

so baby can't you see
i've got to break free

i've got to break free
i want to break free, yeah
i want, i want, i want, i want to break free

- "i want to break free"_queen

brut rosé

did my 3rd catering job tonight, i'm finding it easier and easier to waltz around (ok, not quite) a room (or, for this evening, a brand-new dvd megastore on oxford st) holding bottle(s) of wine/champagne and topping glasses of guests who are often at varying stages of intoxication. also it makes my job easier to engage in informal repartée with guests; e.g. tonight there were a couple of guests who were quite blatantly flirting with me (and possibly every other waitress), meaningless and harmlessly of course, but i enjoy being relationnel

before rushing off to work this evening though, i called her, rather hesitantly and reluctantly. and it turned out to be the right choice, i'm glad i did it because even though it's still a mystery, at least i can now rule out certain options and rely on one sympathetic front. and she was kind

.

have so much planned for tomorrow. a mountain of work-related admin stuff to sort out, rugby training (i am pleased with my team, we kick ass we've got some great personalities and spirit), geog essay and readings to do.. stress O_o

better than sitting in my room freaking out though! anyday

la isla bonita

i'll be working every night from today till wednesday. reading week will be spent working - either earning ££ or mugging. i will banish useless thoughts.

also, i've received an income tax form (!)... gotta start sorting out tax stuff. and making sure it doesn't appear like i work more than the stipulated hours (20) per week.

also geog essay due on friday, gotta get started on that...

i can do this and i will. aint no idiot going to bring me down ;P

time management

is not going well

am having to forgo a deloitte event later because i'm too tied up with school work and rugby. and looking for a job - which i may have found, if all goes as planned. attended a job interview just for waiting staff (like waitressing at events and functions). actually it wasn't an interview, but more like a "let me take down your details, ok just come for our training day next week". the good thing is that it sounds like work will be pretty easily available, possibility of working a few nights a week and earning £5/hr is cheering me up. i've learnt from sec sch and jc that the busier i am, the more organised i become with my time and workload

so maybe there is hope for my malfunctioning system after all.

i went to clapham junction for the interview, it was a pretty interesting place with loads of shops, had a nice time browsing through the charity ones and ended up, against my good sense, buying 2 books for the steal of £3.50

1) catherine de medici (leonie Frieda) - important dowager-ish figure in european history that caught my interest after i watched la reine margot

2) shopaholic abroad (sophie kinsella) - the sequel to the first book which i initially absolutely hated. the protagonist's urges to spend, lack of self-control and rather unintellectual self got on my nerves, then i realised that hey i liked the book after all

obviously two very different pieces of literature (history lit v chick lit. haha) but as long as they keep me occupied.

busy busy busy. have to go mop the toilet and bathroom later, i've put that off for two days

messy busy life. but hey i'd never complain about it.

london weather

is schizo. this morning there was fog, honestly you couldn't see like 500m ahead

and now it's early afternoon and the sky's blue and clear, its sunny albeit a bit chilly

it's like this whole crazy thing isn't it. i feel like i'm on a rollercoaster ride

can't be bothered to write eloquently or stylistically today, i've got too much schoolwork and rugby stuff to worry about. and that other thing too

plus we may not have enough players this year - oh no!

i have two pieces of coursework due at the end of this week

on a positive note, i am going to meet up with my bulgarian ex-colleague (let's call her pet) from the hospital later at a bar in farringdon

always feels good to catch up with people

i just wish the frog would catch up with me

rich a famous

where i work,

just found out the other day that one of the regular customers who comes every 2 days to the café who always orders a croissant with cheddar cheese and ham just happens to be

the ceo of hamley's, only the huge toy department store off oxford circus

and that chris martin apparently lives (or knows someone who lives) in an apartment right next door to the café, 'cos him and his black jeep have been spotted a number of times

.

in other news, have moved into new flat, and things mostly going well except for shower hose that doesn't work (don't ask me to explain how i bathe) and minghing carpet in bedroom etc

we've got ghanaian neighbours, they're friendly and family-ish, yesterday they had a celebration of some sort from morning to night, and ooh they've got 2 10-month old twin girls, who are sooooo cute.. got chatting to them over the fence and they invited us over to join them. they had this prawn 'keropok' thing that i just couldn't get enough of ;)

can't say the same about another neighbour, who vulgarly scolded us 2 days in a row for making noise at 2am in the morning

which we didn't!

you win some you lose some i guess

pounds

they're still renovating the maisonette, i mentally had a hissy fit when i saw the state it was in on wednesday.

paint everywhere, the fridge in the dining area (last i heard it's been moved outside into the patio - !!?), the sofas in the bedroom, not more than 1 dining chair to be seen... like wtf??

3-4 weeks ago when i first saw the place the agent said he predicted the renovations would be completed in a week.

how gullible am i to have believed that things would run along smoothly without a glitch?

this isn't super-efficient complain-about-the-slightest-problem we-can't-wait-we're-too-busy s'pore.

.

i got my first pay yesterday. £200 for a week's work. by london standards it isn't much, but gosh am i happy happy happy. feel economically efficient, unredundant and of course the elation of payday has helped me greatly in coping with the mortification of the un-ready maisonette.

.

tu es le meilleur

ciabattapaninifocaccia

my first day at work was cool, the 3 people i'm working with are really nice, i feel quite lucky in that respect. the owner (this italian-persian guy who used to be a banker and a masters in econs grad from the same uni as me, and who took over the cafe from his sister 2 months ago) kept reminding/pressurising me to take breaks and sit down and help myself to drinks and food when i needed to

so today i had like 1 wrap, 1 panini and a toastie, plus fanta, 2 bottles of mineral water and tea...yum yum yum

and his american wife is nice too. my other colleague is this 26-year-old polish girl who's super-zai at what she does because she's been working in the cafe for 2-years.. hmm she's going on holiday for 2 weeks next monday and i think we'll be a bit like fish out of water (or at least like saltwater fish in freshwater) without her!

yep my feet hurt a bit now cos i've worked for 10 hours, but i feel this incredible sense of satisfaction that only being unredundant can offer. hahaha.

after some loose calculations i figure that by earning £4.75 an hour and working up till when school starts, i can make about £1900 (in excess of S$5500)? don't mean to sound petty, but dammit i wish i'd manage to succeed in finding a job earlier.

oh well everything happens for a reason *repeat mantra, calm down, breathe in, breathe out*

.

saturday night at frog was such a blast. hel and dan are such fun to go out with - down-to-earth unassuming people. and for only the 2nd (maybe 3rd?) time in my life i actually felt nauseous. well should have known better than to begin the night with a triple whisky coke.

noticeable trend: successful nights out usually end around 5am

lights will guide you home
and ignite your bones
and i will try to fix you

- "fix you"_

mng

i've spent the last 2 hours applying to a flurry of jobs online. later i'm going to print out a copy of my cv and head to the pret a manger recruitment office at victoria.

had a great time chatting with ah-vette in my room last night, and like i said to her, every day that i don't work is 1 day's wages gone down the drain. and in london's wage terms, that's a small fortune.

life is cool at the moment

un bordel, mais encore cool.

heal's

another job interview this friday for some office work. i now understand somewhat the stress of job-hunting. so many things to do...

prospect of spending summer here is exciting. a bit sad that everyone's going home though!

running around scotland and oxford for the last 12 days affirms

i love london.