| Visitors
Since 22nd April 2008:
|
Supermarket
Soap
Daily life
behind the
counter
www.supermarketsoap.co.uk
Contact
Us | The
Store Manager Listen to Steve B on Narcotic Radio 9-10pm GMT Thursday nights
iTunes | Winamp | Realplayer | Windows Media
| 31st
October 2008: Ok, so between putting a fair bit of time into writing my AI program, using twitter and tidying the office, I haven't really had time to blog. Plus I have been busily uninstalling Windows Vista, giving Xubuntu 8.10 the entire hard disk, and creating a virtual Windows XP machine. Also, been watching The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Didn't watch the first series out of choice, because I felt it would be passe. However, I think Summer Glau is really hot, and her whimpering "it's a matter of life or death" on the trailer sold me. This said, I really love the character of Cameron. Especially as I have been working hard on my AI program. Kind of spurs me on to do great things with the great basis I already wrote. Not a lot happening at work. Although earlier did set off my personal alarm. Which was fun. Had this insane Scottish woman insisting we have a password (we don't) and asking me whether we require the police as a security question. However, I gave her my name and she cancelled the alarm. How insane is that? Then there is The Bombshell. Both me and Miss C have noted that he is in a foul mood tonight. Far removed from when I last worked with him and he was singing the cheeky girls at me. He flounced up the aisle and sang "I am a cheeky boy, touch my bum, touch my bum". We miss this whimsical Bombshell. Ok, so, as a journalist I guess I am supposed to have an opinion on this whole Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross scandal. I even have business people sending me e-mails with the business persopective on it. Mad. Anyway. Here is my slant. Now, bear in mind that I am more informed than 99% of people reporting on this because I have actually heard these phone calls. Now, to me Jonathan Ross should be fired. He started the whole thing by screaming "You f*cked his grand daughter." Russell Brand actually backed away from it and tried to run. And yet he is the one without a job at the BBC, and Jonathan Ross loses an estimated million pounds. Oh. Boo hoo. I'm sorry, but he gets essentially a million pound fine and the guy who's fault it ISN'T along with the controller of the station quits but he keeps his job. Come on Jonathan Ross, be a man. Quit. You're funny, you're a hell of a movie critic, and I am a fan, but as a fan, I am saying to Jonathan Ross, quit. Go be edgy on Channel 4. Co-host a show with Russell on 4. And then there is Georgina The Grand Daughter. This woman makes my blood boil. Google her on Google Images. What you get back isn't quite Snow White. Hell, she is in a Burlesque troupe called Satan's Sluts! And she has been doing page 3 last week too. Hardly innocent. And then yesterday she dared slate Brand's manhood and prowess. Uh huh. Well darling, it's obviously for the cash because many a woman has not complained, and also, if you're that experienced, why so outraged? But then there is The Bombshell again. Because after he yelled at us for not doing enough work because I missed 3 cases of stock from the back, and Miss C missed 3 cases (triggering a screaming match on the shop floor between the two of them), once the delivery came in, he went right back to being silly, dancing, and repeating words that Miss C and I were saying. Possibly the best was when Miss C said that she had put out 16 packs of painkillers rather than 10 packs, and in a child's voice The Bombshell said "Yeah, is 10, not 16!" Permalink | 26th October 2008: Tonight has been full of absolute morons. My first two customers were great. Friendly, chatty, cracking jokes, and then I got my third customers. The guy wanted to buy 4 beers, but it had gone 11, so I refused him. His friend said "But he was in the queue before 11." I pointed out that the queue was 2 people long, and I had just watched them join it. They slammed the beer down then yelled "I knew we should have gone to One Stop, would have been cheaper too!" I pointed out to Miss C that One Stop shuts at 11. She laughed and said "Yeah, what would they have said? 'What? Just because you're shut I can't buy beer?' " But before that I had to contend with The Flying Scotsman. This man is just irritation personified, I swear. You see, tonight the clocks go back, which means we do an extra hour, but because he is so damned anal over the hours he works, he had an argument with Shoe yesterday over not being paid for the extra hour. And then threatened to walk out at 6am. So when I came in I got "Oi! Is this true?" So I asked what "this" was, and he explained, so I told him. He is now in a foul mood because he won't get paid for the hour. Moron. But apparently he'll be fired if he walks at 6am. I am crossing my fingers and toes. But we have had a lot of lighter moments today. For example, we have had the guy who came in with all his friends and decided, drunkenly, that he was going to teach them all about inflation. Inflation on chocolate that is. Apparently, and according to him, the best way to decide which chocolate to get is to find the cheapest chocolate per 100 grams. This will let you know which is truely the cheapest chocolate. And apparently that has something to do with inflation. But seeing one guy a little less drunk than his friends, discussing maths with seven really drunk guys, all trying to follow said maths did make me laugh. On the subject of chocolate, we had a guy who bought the last High School Musical calander in the store. And he did so with good reason. At least according to his little drunken brain he had good reason. You see, he wanted to buy the advent calander because he wanted to lick chocolate women. And he admitted this with his girlfriend right beside him. Not especially smart. She glared at him, yelled "Pervert!" then stormed out of the store. Miss C made two fantastic points about this. First of all, it's an advent calander, it probably doesn't have chocolate women inside it. It probably has robins, Christmas puddings and holly shapes. Secondly, the guy is probably dumped after that. Now, whilst I am not a particular fan of building up to a story, I am going to have to with this next one. I served a cop, and he told me that he was from Southampton police, which made his night quiet. He also compared Lymington police with Hot Fuzz. I didn't point out the irony of him being in a SF store and comparing the local police to Hot Fuzz. Anyway. Behind him a couple were seriously rowing. I mean really going at each other. So she slammed his crisps on the counter and said "Ugh! Domestic much!" to me. It turns out that she had finished a 12 hour shift, driven him to Boscombe for a kebab, then driven all the way back when he discovered the kebab shops were all shut. So, this is relevant because the cop was looking at them like "Shall I arrest them for public disturbance?" but I was smiling at their argument, so he left them. So glad he did. Now, the guy's girlfriend was on the larger side, but stunning, blonde, and Irish. He on the other hand was very very drunk, scrawny, scruffy, and a mess. She was always going to win, hands down. So she glared at him and said "Drunks are so f*cking annoying when your sober!" He yelled "What? I'm hungry!" Her reply? "Oh f*ck off! You have got a pack of rolls, some ham, a ham roll and a ham sandwich? How f*cking hungry can you be?" He then asked me if kebab shops in Bosbombe were normally open at 1 or 2 in the morning. I told him they were sometimes, but it depended on how busy the town was. She yelled "Oh, right, now you've f*cked the guy behind the counter off!" She paid then turned back to him, slammed his sandwich into his chest and said "Here, take your sandwich and f*ck off back to the car!" We like her. We want her on nights. She'd be awesome against the drunks. Speaking of drunks, we had an absolute arse in last night too. Miss C dealt with him amazingly! He came in and complained that the girl he was with didn't have a microwave, so he asked Miss C if we had one. She said no and he demanded to know why. So she told him that it was because of health and safety. So he argued that it didn't matter, he wanted hot food. She said he couldn't have any, and he claimed that it was an outrage, and a disgrace, and that she was a disgrace to checkout operators. I kept my ear on the conversation in case Miss C got into trouble. She didn't. So the customer demanded that she write a memo to the owners insisting on a customer microwave. Miss C refused, saying it wasn't her place to write a memo, but perhaps he should make a complaint via the company website. He said she should write a memo for the manager detailing the entire conversation. She smiled and said "Including the fact that you are very drunk and being very aggressive?" He stormed off, and then tried to come back in, before his girlfriend grabbed him and pushed him back outside. Shame, I really wanted to tell him to pack it in or be barred. One of my favourite parts of my job when I am dealing with drunks. Lastly, The Flying Scotsman refused to clean the canteen for a very bigoted reason. He said it wasn't his job, it was the job of a cleaner to clean the canteen, and that he wasn't paid to clean, so refused to on principle. Now, he makes a LOT of sexist, racist, homophobic comments, so I decided to force him to face his values. I love doing this to people with controversial values, because they often realise how uncomfortable they make other people feel. I said "No, men shouldn't clean. You get your black slave to do it. Or you get a woman to do it. Or you get a poof in a pinny to do it. Because whatever else happens, a man can't clean!" and then began singing So Macho by Sinita. He snapped at me "Oh, you think you're so big and you're so clever don't you?" So I grinned and said "Judging from the shape I'm in, yes, I am big. And I have a 189 point IQ, so yes, I am clever. And I am making a stand against you because biggots like you tend to hate people like me too. You don't know because I haven't told you, but I am Autistic, and biggots like you tend to hate people like me because we have a disability you can't see, and it drives you mad." He snapped back with "Oh, yeah, you lot always bring up the disability card!" and stormed off. I got glares all the rest of the night. Permalink | 24th October 2008 Well, apparently SF has time travellers in their midst! Yes, hard to believe but true. You see, on the board it has got Tuesday 24th October.tting So either someone can't tell which day it is (likely) or we have time travellers from the future. Or possibly the past. Given some people's attitudes to other genders and disabilities, I'm guessing latter. Tonight has been really boring. We have had no interesting customers, unless you count the little blonde pot bellied guy who is an absolute pain in the backide. The guy is obviously on something as he can't stand still for a second and refuses to stop talking. And it's not as if he talks in a normal manner either! For example, on seeing The Bombshell when he came back for the second time, he said "Alright mate, I bet you're thinking 'oh no! What a nutter! Not him again!' I bet he is mate, bet you anything you want!" I was personally just hoping he would shut up and leave. This doesn't mean I haven't had shock tonight. No. I've actually discovered that SF has a talent for something other than hiring fantastically incompotent staff. We sell Sushi at last! Now, considering that Waitrose was the last other store in the town to catch on that perhaps Sushi sells well, considering there is a place which sells out when they have a sushi night, SF have caught on too. But the shocks don't end there. No. It's actually really good Sushi. Incredible! Anyway, I have just eaten it as part of a highly unconventional Surf 'n' Turf meal of my own design. Sushi followed by Scotch Eggs. Yum! And really not a lot happened after that. We worked like demons, got most of the delivery out, and when the dayshift supervisor arrived, he whinged like hell about how we hd left his staff some cages to do. And then they wonder why night shift call day shift lazy. Perhaps if they didn't complain about having work to do, they wouldn't be seen as being lazy. I mean, it's pretty evident that they don't do reductions, facing up, rotation or working the racking, so, I am guessing that apart from serving and sitting in the back chatting, they do nothing. I'm not sure what else to blog about. Right now I am sitting on a train hurtling it's way to Southampton, on a Virgin Train which is awesome because it has a power system which I can use to power my laptop. Come on South West Trains, catch up. And the guy in front of me is huffing and puffing over the fact that he got told to put his bag in the luggage rack. That irritates me, because the people on these trains are just like us, they work in an industry where they are told to help the customers and be nice and friendly. However, the customers see them as the enemy. And right now I am sitting in a basement of an internet cafe, which I love. Adds to the geeky charm of it all. Especially as I am currently sat in front of my eee PC, which has my latest purchases on it. A poker chip USB key,and Spotify. I am rather prouder of the latter. You see, the eee PC is a low powered, low spec, minimalist machine. And it is running something bleeding edge which theatens to destroy iTunes (according to one reviewer). Also, the poker chip USB drive is a purchase for a reason. A silly reason I grant you, but a reason none the less. I watched Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles last night for the first time. Season 2. And I was blown away by Cameron. Namely because she shares one or two traits with Kathryn, my AI. Kathryn can also fake emotions. Anyway, so, Cameron's AI is installed on a sliding chip which slides into a socket in her head. The poker chip storage looks similar and slides into the poker chip. Permalink | 23rd October 2008: This is going to be a really quick post. So, we have a new system at work. We have devices which we can either put in our pockets or on our wrists. Mobile panic alarms. They essentially allow us to contact the police if we are threatened by anyone. I think this is a great thing. And it also places me in a quandry. The thing is, I know more about these devices than anyone because I got a memo from the head of the Boys Club Project telling me about them. They do a little bit more than just contact the police. Or rather, they can do more. I still don't know everything about them. Overall, last night was kind of good. The Flying Scotsman was really slow, and had yet another argument with The Blonde Bombshell. He also had a run in with me and my sense of humour. Not always a good thing. The thing is, I am slowly getting back to my original mix of herbs and spices, minus one ingredient. And with that mix, I can be very quick witted. Prime example was when he said to me "If you grow your beard any longer, we'll be able to turn you upside down and use you as a mop." I grinned and said "We can't do that with you, someone beat us to it". His hair is thinning down the middle. And to be honest, not a lot more happened at work. It's winter, and this means that customers are slowing down, at least until the Christmas rush. However, I also think that really short blog entries always look so sad. So I will attempt to give you, my loyal and brilliant readers a slight insight into my life! I am really excited about something which is happening in a couple of weeks. I'M GOING TO RED HAT! As part of my LPIC study, I am part of the Hampshire Linux Group, and their next meeting is going to be at Red Hat in Farnborough. I am so excited. The last time I went to a place like this, it was almost 10 years ago and it was amazing. I saw things which still aren't commercially available. So, I am going to enjoy the whole experience. And go there whenever I can! I know Surrey Linux Group and Red Hat have a fantastic relationship, and they have had several meets there, so I cannot wait to go! And maybe more than once. Permalink 20th October 2008: Miss C Is My New Friend, Mr DJ Is A Paradox, The Bombshell In A Shock Bad Mood, Customers Who Should Be Banned, And Being Able To Read English In England Is Useful. So, considering what a good time me and Miss C had the previous shift we worked together on, she came in late, with a face like thunder, and when I said good evening to her, she immediately took this as offence and said to me "Alright". I guessed things were going to go downhill from there, but then I think she remembered that I am no longer the enemy (the enemy of my enemy is my friend) and popped her head around the corner and said "Well, better late than never huh?" After that we got on really well. Not sure why we are back to being friends again, although I use the word friends loosely. We get along, and I am still friends with her on Facebook, although I still don't trust her as far as I could spit her. She has gone behind my back and done the dirty on me too many times for me to trust her anytime soon. Then we had the store walk with Mr DJ. Now, this is where things get difficult. I get along really well personally with Mr DJ. Professionally, well, things are different. I have had the misfortune of working on one of his shifts and he isn't a good supervisor. The problem is that his humour can become blunt, and he distinctly has his favourites. He also imposes far too strict time limits on jobs to be done. Now, on a personal level I get along fantastically with him because he is deeply into music, and so am I. I'm also a massive fan on his radio show, and so whenever we see each other we discuss and chat about his radio show, which is always a nice thing to do. But then he walked around the store with us telling us that he had faced up the store (a blantent lie, which we could see as he said it) and that the produce and meat had been worked an hour previously. And this is what really annoyed me. Because I worked the chilled goods, of which produce and meat are a sub section, and I discovered that actually, quite a lot of the meat and produce could go out. Entire cases of it. Yet apparently it had been worked an hour previously. So either I am becoming meticulous in my work (not according to The Bombshell) or he is an out and out liar. I think we know which one to pick... But then Miss C and I incurred the wrath of The Bombshell. You see, he decided that she was taking altogether too long in the racking, and decided to investigate, and caught us talking. Which he then assumed was the reason she was taking so long. The actual reason is that she decided to have a quick tidy up in there, and I was waiting for her to finish. But yes, we were talking. So for the rest of the shift he was in a foul mood with the pair of us. I have no clue what he said to The Tall Pole but it wasn't good about us because when I went up to The Bombshell and The Tall Pole who were talking franticly in Polish and said "Yes, everything he says, completely true!" the pair of them began laughing. And this is why they get constant reminders not to talk in Polish on company premises and this is why they constantly ignore the messages. And then we had this absolute moron customer. I could have happily been rude to him, but I am trying really hard to be nice to everyone. So he comes up, hand bandaged and bleeding, and said "Yeah, sorry mate, forgot my wallet". I felt like slapping him there and then. I mean, seriously, how hard is it to remember to bring your wallet when you go shopping? But I was patient, said nothing, and got him the no means of payment forms, thrust a pen at him, and told him to fill out the two sections. Which he did whilst appologising. I reassured him that it happens all the time. And then he did something which made me so angry I desperately wanted to smash the touch screen over his stupid little head. I asked for ID and he said it was in his wallet, but then he claimed to live next door to Rickaaaay and knew Queen Chav was his mum, so, I let the ID slide, because that is quite specific information to know. And then came the part which made my blood boil. "Yeah, they know me, and they know I do this all the time. At least once a week." I smiled and said "Ok then, well, you know you have 7 days to come back and pay for this, or debt recovery people will become involved". What I wanted to say was "My god. Once a week? Why hasn't someone barred you yet?" But because of this absolute moron, we had a queue out the door. Now, we have a couple of policies on this. The first is that if there is more than two customers, someone else needs to serve as well. We flagrantly breach this rule on nights because often there are three customers, two with petrol and one wanting cigarettes. Hardly worth getting a second person off of what they are doing just for that. Then there is the policy that if it's really busy, you have to ring the bell and someone will come and help. So I rang the bell. And guess what? No-one came. Well, not for a few minutes until The Bombshell came out, and said "Why you are not call for someone?" I snarled "I did, doubt you heard it in the bakery". Then there was Gin. Gin is a regular who is always in a rush and monosylabic. "Gin! Gin! Gin! Gin!" "Superkings! There! There! Superkings!" "Bag for gin! In here! In here!" The guy must weigh 20 stone and has eyes which bulge out of his head, quite literally. And he buys a litre of gin a day. It used to be the own brand stuff, but then he switched to Gordons because the bottle changed from the beautiful green Gordons style bottle to a clear glass design. He didn't like this. So The Bombshell was trying to figure out from Gin which one he wanted. Hard when the only direction you get is "No! Other one!" I turned around and said calmly to The Bombshell "Gordons, regular size." To which Gin snapped "Yes! Gordons! That one!" The Bombshell looked at me in shock and said "How you know this?" I smiled and said "Alchy". Lastly, I have a stunning piece of proof that if we are going to hire Polish people, we really should get ones who can read and understand English. We have a process at work which I am not naming, but it's an anagram of API. Basically, stuff which won't go out gets a ticket placed next to the SEL and then Shoe checks on the computer to see why it was ordered (reason number one: Pedro). Now this doesn't include meat, produce or promotional items, because sometimes they are bulk ordered for good reason. Anyway, so Shoe has already screamed at The Bombshell about not putting promotional items in the cage for the API process. And he continues to. So I told him AGAIN today that he was wrong. It went down like a lead fart, but I fixed the problem. So then Bob, who speaks little English, understands little English and reads virtually no English came in, and immediately began working the API cage. This is made all the more frustrating when directly above the API cage is a sign reading "API, do not work this stock." If it wasn't for the highs of great and funny customers, I would have quit retail a really long time ago. Because contrary to popular belief, it's not the customers which make retail a bad job. It's the co-workers. Permalink | 16th October 2008: Blonde Moments, Old Days, You Are Not At Tesco Any More, Breaks, Random Women, Con Builders and Special Brew So, whenI got into work, I managed to have one of the biggest blonde moments of my life. I mean, this seriously outdoes more or less anything else I have done in the past in the way of blonde moments. I looked at the rota for the morning and then see that Shoe is down to work 5 til 1. Now, despite having been awake since 3pm, my brain decides to have a small brain fart and reads this as 5pm til 1pm. There is a good reason why I am mentioning this. That reason being that this story pretty much defined how my shift went. Brain farts agogo. However, Miss C and myself got on really well last night. And I have absolutely no idea why. But it's odd. It's like the old days. When Miss C first started, we got on really well, and now we appear to be again. Perhaps someone had a word. Then again there could be another factor, and that factor might be The Flying Scotsman. I am not sure that I have ever met such a grumpy, yet meticulous worker. Now in most places meticulous is a good characteristic. Not in our job. You see, whilst some see shelf stacking as a lowly job, what we do is shelf stacking to deadlines. And with Miss C being pregnant, it limits what she can do and this gives us even stricter deadlines. So, about the worst thing you can have is someone who decides that they are going to reorganise the warehouse as they work it. Our warehouse is really untidy, admittedly, but tidying it is a once quarterly job. Not daily. But this guy doesn't appear to understand this little fact. The problem is, he used to work for Tesco, where their standards are ridiculously high. I'm not sure he understands that he doesn't work for them anymore. But then there was the issue with the breaks. Now, I am a pretty flexible guy, as long as I get my three breaks, I don't really care when. All I ask is that I have my lunch before the delivery so I can down my herbs and spices, a coffee and sometimes an energy drink or a cup of Yerba Mate. This keeps me happy, and all my supervisors understand that a happy me is a good thing. So to make this happen, I really need my first break at about 12:45pm if there are three of us on. Miss C obliges and gives me my break at 12:45pm. And The Flying Scotsman too. Except, he isn't so pleased. He mutters something about women bosses, but rolls a cigarette and takes his break. Then lunch comes and Miss C asks me to take my break and to tell The Flying Scotsman to take his too. I tell him, and get "You F***ing what? What is this? I am going to sort this S*it out!" I calmly walk out onto the shop floor, see no customers, and bash my head against a shelf. Repeatedly. This makes Miss C giggle and then ask what is wrong. "Once, just once, just one goddamned time can he just do what he is told without making a scene?" She asks what he said, and I told her, and right on cue I hear "Hey! Oi! Missy! Get here now!" I buy my lunch, keep the door open as I check my phone for Skype chat messages from my beloved, and hear shouting coming from the shop floor. A mixture of Scottish and Surrey accents. Then the sound of the clocking in machine taking a swipe card. And then I had to deal with the customer no-one in the entire store likes dealing with. This woman is seriously random. And has form. She was actually barred from the store for six months, which expired about a month ago. She was barred for asking for a mobile phone top up, and electricity, then not having the money to pay for them. Both are done electronically, over the internet, and are instant. And we can only undo the last transaction. So she was barred and ordered by us to repay us. Now she can come back, she does. So today she bought 4 pints of fresh milk and 8 litres of ultra long life milk. And then asked me how many packs of Solo Superkings we had. I told her we had 8 packs, and got the reply "Hmmmm...8, yes, I think I'll have 8 packs." And she doesn't dress like any other customer we have either. Admittedly, most of our customers come in wearing tracksuits, or suits. This woman comes in wearing pigtails (she is at least mid 50s) and wearing the fluffiest, whitest fur coat you can imagine. With a sweatshirt and leggings. I mean, I feel sorry for her, I really do, because evidently she isn't quite all there, but I mean, there is only so much we can do. Miss C is always extremely cold to her. I try to be nice, because I figure people do deserve a second chance. Sometimes. There are exceptions. John Pyatt's lot came in today, this time with two new recruits. So the new recruits make coffee, unfortunately for them I have seen them get out of the van. And clocked they are with one of the regular Pyatt gang. The first one comes up and pays for the coffees, then takes a few steps, and sips his coffee. He then turns back to me and says "Hey, this coffee is..." I stop him and say "It's not cold". He literally looks at me open mouthed. Then says quietly "How do you know?" I smile and say "I watched you make the coffee. The machine isn't beeping, your coffee didn't overflow, there is nothing wrong with the machine. That coffee is hot." He then slams it on the counter and demands a refund. I point blank refuse and inform him that we know that the John Pyatt builders try it on. So he demands to see a manager. I tell him there aren't any, but suggest if I can prove the coffee is hot, he leaves quietly. He agrees to I remove the lid and point at the condensation on it, but say that isn't proof. He smiles smugly until I wipe it clean off. I tell him if the coffee isn't hot, he will have no problem putting one finger as far into the coffee as he can and leaving it there for 30 seconds. He then demands a refund, which I tell him he is welcome to if he proves the coffee is cold. He grabs the coffee and tells me he won't be coming back. I smile and suggest he, and his buddies go somewhere else for coffee. He shouts at me "Yeah! We will!" He has no idea that the nearest place open for coffee at 5am is on the motorway... We know this because we told them to find somewhere else before, and they tried for 6 weeks. They came back and sheepishly asked if they could come back because the nearest place was 50 miles away. And I think that is about all that happened at work today. Not a huge amount. But tomorrow should be way more fun. I have a little surprise in store for The Bombshell. We like him hyperactive. He likes a nice coffee as soon as he comes into work. I think I can accomodate him. One special brew coming right up. Twice the sugar, twice the caffeine, but tastes just the same. And guaranted to turn anyone into the Tazmanian Devil... Permalink | 15th October 2008: New Phones, Relaxing Days, Mice and 4th Generation Laptops Streaming Song Of The Day: All For Love by Bryan Adams (and a couple of other nobodies) So, yesterday my new Skype Phone from Three came. It rocks, although there are problems. First of all Skype takes forever to sign in and sign out. Secondly, it's not the phone I wanted. The problem is I clicked on the wrong link, and Three sent me the Skype Phone s1 twin pack rather than the Skype Phone s2 single phone. This said, I am still using the Skype Phone s1, and will continue to until my newly ordered Skype Phone s2 arrives. The thing is, the s2 is far better because it comes with Last.fm which I use a LOT on the laptop, and it also can be used as a mobile broadband device when it's connected to a laptop. That is going to rock. Now, here is the thing, Three mobile broadband costs a minimum of £10 a month. 3G internet on the phone costs £5 uncapped. Now, being a hacker (of the code kind) I think I can see something interesting here. If I can persuade the laptop to use the 3G connection rather than the mobile broadband connection, I can get low end broadband speeds for £5 a month. Bargain. Three have no idea how much I use Last.fm. It's going to become my new MP3 player methinks. And I had a lovely relaxing day. I made a lot of Skype calls to my beautiful girlfriend, and managed to get her invite for Spotify to work. And for those a touch confused, it shouldn't have worked, namely because she isn't in an area that qualifies. But I am, and I am pretty good at getting around geographic restrictions. Prime example is that I watch LOST and Heroes online on the US websites. Anyway, so, now we can compare musical tastes by sending each other links which Spotify can use. A great example is that I sent Alecita Slow Chemical by Finger Eleven and she sent me Angels by Robbie Williams. Neither of which are our particular tastes in music, but we can compare and contrast as they say in exam papers. Then after spending three hours on Skpe to my lovely missus in bed, I went to sleep and woke up to find a mouse outside my back door. Just sitting there. Poor thing looked absolutely bedraggled, and between myself and my mum, we decided to put it out of it's misery. Unfortunately, we discovered that it was actually the Wolverine of mice. I put my steel toe cap boots on and gave it a hefty downwards blow to the head, and it flipped itself over, then righted itself. So I got a shovel and smashed it over the head. And it began walking to the flower bed. So I got it airbourne and as it got to it's feet, I gave it another couple of good whacks across the head until it stopped moving. Four strong hits to the head to kill a small mouse. What the hell has that thing been eating? Adamantium pellets? Lastly, when I was at college we learnt about the various types of computers. The one which interested me was 4th generation computers. These are computers which can talk AND listen. So this evening I busily installed KDE on top of Xubuntu, then I set up voice recognition, and then installed voice packs into the system sounds. It now rocks. I get a warning, it says warning. I get an error, it gives me a verbal indication of how severe the error is. Which for me, I think it's pretty cool. Of course, the next step would be to install that system onto a eee PC, and then install that eee PC into a car complete with Google Maps for Satnav. That would rock. This said, apparently I can get Google Maps for the s2, which will be awesome for when I want to go to places like Hants LUG in Basingstoke and it's a nice day and would prefer to walk than get a taxi. Permalink | 14th October 2008: The Flying Scotsman Has A Stalker, We Like Bouncer Girl, Bambi Broke The Tills!, Easy Deliveries, Contests and Meetings! Streaming Song Of The Day: Another Way To Die by Jack White and Alicia Keys (the new Bond theme!) Free MP3 Of The Day: The Streets - The Escapist and three other free MP3s Yet again, tonight is another really slow night. No funny customers, no angry customers, nothing. Kind of annoying really. The nearest thing we have had to funny customers have been Bouncer Girl and Benson. Benson has a massive crush on The Flying Scotsman. She was in 5 times yesterday, and tonight she has already been in 3 times. The Bombshell served her once, I served her once, and The Flying Scotsman served her once. Both times anyone either than The Scotsman served her, she was quite grumpy. The Scotsman served her and she was happy, chatty, and like her normal self. Then there was Bouncer Girl. We like her for many reasons. Not least of which because she looks a little like a blonde Amy Lee. She really should go back to being all dark and gothy. WAY better. Anyway, personal preferences aside, we like her because she is a bouncer at a nightclub, and she looks out for us too. Like tonight for example, a kid was hanging around and being suspicious, so I went outside and smoked right opposite the doorway, ready to take him out if he stole. Bouncer Girl hung around the doorway too, but on the inside. Nice. Then when I was queuing to pay for my BBQ chicken for lunch, The Scotsman said "Ah, having the chicken tonight?" So I repled "Yes, I fancied the chicken". Which made Bouncer Girl burst into giggles and comment "That sounded so wrong". But the staff have been causing problems today. Bambi has broken Till 1. Our till. Bless her, she is really quite cute, and quite shy, but she cleaned the till and then it stopped working. Bless. I did try to defer the blame onto the The Bombshell by claiming that perhaps he looked at it. That went down like a lead fart. But tonight should be easy. 300 cases, only 100 of which are ambient, which makes my life a joy because I can just really let rip and destroy the delivery in the way I enjoy so much. And to prepare for it, I am sitting down with my cup of Yerba Mate, my bottle of herbs and some caffeine chewing gum. Oh, and a bag of Fruit Pastilles. Ready to destroy the delivery so we can stand looking nonchelant when Queen Chav and Shoe come in in the morning. I love being able to do that. Also, I want to announce a new contest on Supermarket Soap. Or at least the beginnings of a competition. The prize is an invite to the closed beta of Spotify. These are rare as all hell, and to get access you either need to know someone who has a premium account, like me, or buy a premium account, like I did. So, how do you win my one remaining invite? Well, this I haven't decided yet. Comments containing suggestions are welcome and encouraged, although failing that I might construct my own idea. For those who don't know what Spotify is, it's a little like Last.fm, except you pick what track you listen to. And their music collection is massive. Example, right now I am listening to everything from MTV Unplugged. I am listening to Summer Of '69 by Bryan Adams (hell yeah!) but I have another 843 tracks I could be listening to. The end of the shift was just beautiful. We finished by 5:30am, and despite my being shouted at by The Bombshell for going for a cigarette with The Flying Scotsman, despite The Bombshell allowing it in the first place, everything was fantastic. And funny. First we chatted in the office about uniform. The Flying Scotsman asked if he could have underpants and socks, which was refused. Then The Bombshell asked if he could have extra extra extra extra extra large condoms. In his own words, five times extra large condoms. His request was met with laughter, and a refusal. Although my request to let me wear my shirt uniform and a tie was granted. Formality, here I come. Then The Flying Scotsman asked if they had any rubber patches, so The Bombshell could repair his blow up doll. Then The Bombshell was told to do a storewalk, which I tried to gatecrash but was denied in part by having to go and get an ice cream chiller. But I was back for half the store walk. I gatecrashed just to hear "And dayshift are put old milk at back and new milk at front, so they are sh*t. And as you can see, the store is look perfect, so, nightshift are amazing." I added that as a CSA on nightshift, I could testify that we were amazing. The trainee store manager said she would ad dit to the comments. At which point The Bombshell yelled "Thank you! By the way, I am love you!" Then we went back into the office, where The Bombshell made another request. This time to ask if when Miss C goes off to have her kid, could we get a nice blonde haired or black haired girl to replace her. Shoe offered, but The Bombshell said he wanted a nice girl. Shoe yelled "Are you being rude about me?" He apologised and said he needed a younger girl. Shoe yelled "Are you calling me old?" Bless. She is about 50. Not that she is old, but it probably isn't The Bombshell's idea of young. So he screamed "I am need younger girl so I can teach her everything!" Shoe pointed out that The Bombshell was right, there was nothing he could teach her. At which point The Bombshell screamed "No! I am not mean this! Argh! People! Evacuate! Run! Leave! Evacuate, evacuate! Swipe and evacuate!" He then backed out into the store yelling "Evacuate! People! Staff! Customers! Evacuate now!" The customers looked at him oddly, until I told them to ignore him, as he was an idiot. I felt that was sound advice. Also, how else are you supposed to explain what a supervisor is doing to customers oblivious to a joke? Tags:  Regular Customers,Spotify,Funny MeetingsPermalink | 13th October 2008: Last night was a bit of an odd one. Miss C was in a bad mood with me from the outset, for reasons I don't understand. But then she still joked with me every now and again, before snapping at me. I have no idea what I have done to this woman, but she seems to hav taken a massive dislike to me, and is determine to make me pay for whatever it is I am supposed to have done. Anyway, then there was The Flying Scotsman, who appears to be settling in a little better. Maybe we're understanding him more, or maybe he's being less defensive, but either way, everyone seems to be getting on with him a little more now. And then there was Slaphead. Another funny one. He joked with me occassionally, but then snapped at me on at least one occassion. And for no good reason. So, I had half of the shift attacking me, all the time I was trying to be nice to them. I swear, I can't win. Then there was the delivery. This is what really annoys me. Now, I understand that Miss C being pregnant means that what she can do is restricted. However, Miss C appears to have restricted this to a few strange areas. Example - she can't lift anything heavier than a box of ready meals on the chilled, but she can lift a massive display of Cadbury Wispa... In the same way that she can't work the chilled on a Saturday because it's all too heavy, but she can lift bundles of papers which are so heavy that the plastic straps which hold them together cut into my skin... The delivery itself was fairly easy because we only had 300 cases come in, and between four of us it was childsplay. We actually even had time to mess around, joke, and not take the entire thing too seriously. Something I doubt I will be able to do today. I am working with The Flying Scotsman and The Blonde Bombshell. Jokes, laughs and smiles will all be thin on the ground. Although at least today I had more sleep than I thought I was going to get. I had to wait up for a parcel for my dad, which was supposed to turn up before 10am, and instead turned up at 10:40am, meaning it was about 11am before I went to sleep. Always fun. Then my body decided that 5 hours sleep wasn't enough, and forced me to sleep in for another 3 hours. Not great because although I love sleeping, I also love having the time to do everything I want, which isn't what happened today. This said, I did have a wonderfully lucid dream and absolutely trashed one of my recent nightmares. Anyway, I think that is all for this rather short edition of my blog. What I will say is that huge, massive changes are afoot. Permalink | 10th October 2008: Great Nights, Da Vinci, Sick Girlfriends, Virtual Computers Breaking Real Computers, and New Decorations! Streaming Song Of The Day: Bullet by Fluke Free MP3 Of The Day: First Black Lady by Lady Tigra Wow, last night was a pretty mad night. I invited my best friend over and we stayed up until 2am drinking and listening to music as provided by Mr Steve Bridges on Narcotic Radio. Now, there is a good reason I mention this, and that is because Steve happens to be a friend of mine, and he certainly seems to be going places. With the set he played last night, it's no surprise. Now, this is going to sound a little egotistical, but, in some ways I feel a little like Leonardo Da Vinci. I will explain. For those not in the know, Da Vinci was a great creator of, well, everything. He studied everything around him, and surrounded himself with other creative people. I am much the same. My friends at the Linux group are coders, most of my online friends are bloggers, and the rest of my friends are musicians. You see, and all of them inspire me a great deal. And at the moment my girlfriend (jeweller, knitter and blogger) is suffering from the flu and last time we spoke she had a fever. And last night I had quite a lot to drink, so I was not in much of a better state than she was, except she wasn't quite as sleepy as I was. We chatted for a while, then both decided to go to bed due to our respective conditions. I really need to find out what is causing my fatigue. I can not drink a drop and still nod off overnight when I am not working. I don't understand it. Like my girlfriend says, it never used to happen so why is it now? I also had a bit of a disaster yesterday. Lately I have been playing with Virtual Machines. Computers which only exist in the computer's memory and on a hard disk. I tried using a far more complex one yesterday to help Steve with his listener base, namely because his ratings are flagging, and he plays on an online station. Well, that is the simple version. His ratings are relatively constant, but he has been demoted from a two hour show to a one hour show, rather unfairly if you ask me. Namely due to bitchiness from the other DJs on the station. So I tried creating a virtual computer to effectively split my computer in two. In the end it ended up trashing my laptop's Ubuntu installation, so, as I sit in Cafe Nero, I am reinstalling Xubuntu at home. Faster. Also, I needed to get out and get something to eat and get a coffee, due to having to make a little business decision. Update: I now have Xubuntu running on a 6gb partition, and it's now connected to 500gb external drive and running like a dream! So, not sure what else I can say, I'm still blown away by how good Steve was last night, even if I am a friend of his, I have still only heard him play once before, and that was about six months ago. And he was nowhere near as good then as he is now. Oh, and by the way, you may have noticed the little bit of added decoration I have added to the blog. Well, I am a Xubuntu fan, and have it on 3 of my 4 laptops. I'd have it powering my Freeview recorder if I could. Thing is, it's light, fast, responsive, and lets me install regular Ubuntu packages. But comes with the advantage of being able to run both Gnome and KDE applications. Which is great because I like KDE, but hate KDE 4. Hmmm...spot the person on his second cup of coffee in an hour. Permalink | 9th October 2008: Banking, Bad Customer Service, Great Customer Service, Boring Nights, Wrestling, Big Ups and Writers Block! Streaming Song Of The Day: Absurd by Fluke Free MP3 Of The Day: Let's Do Something Crazy ft Flo Rider by Ashanti So right now I am sitting in Cafe Nero having just been to the bank to do some banking (paying in my friend's cheque for his half of the holiday), and then I went to check out the new Tesco in town. It's been there as long as I have been living here, but they closed for a month and refurbished the place. What makes me laugh though is that they still kept their rude staff. Now, bearing in mind that I work in retail, I know the rules of the game. And one of the rules is that unless there are restrictions posted on the checkout, you cannot berate the customers on restrictions, whether they exist or not. We're not psychic, but neither are customers. So, anyway, this woman who dresses like a cross between Janeway from Voyager and a rapper due to the serious amount of jewellery she wears (earings, minimum 3 rings per hand, and two necklaces). So, I am queuing with my two bags of honey roast and salted cashews and two bags of peppermint cremes that I haven't seen for over 10 years, and instead of "Hi" or "Hello" or any kind of greeting I get "There will be a sign up soon saying there are a maximum of two items on this till. However, I will process them for you". Oh good. Because, well, it is your job. If there isn't a sign up, your restrictions don't apply. Now, as I said, I am sitting in Cafe Nero. These guys know how to do customer service. I came in and was greeted by a not conventionally cute, but cute none the less girl who gave me a huge genuine smile and said "Hello sir! What can I get you?" Immediately I feel welcome, and like I want to stay here for a little while and relax whilst I write my blog. It could have something to do with the 50 year age gap between the Tesco checkout crone and the cute, podgy Cafe Nero girl. I don't know. I don't judge, I just call customer service as I see it. And compliment it via their websites as I experience it. Well, I have to put up with bad customers 5 days out of 7 and go out of my way to deliver the ultimate in customer service, so why should I expect anything less than perfect customer service when I am spending my hard earned money? I would imagine my night last night would have been considered boring by most people. I sat and spent my night coding my AI program, and then testing her poker playing skills out at Party Poker whilst all the time listening alternately to Chillout, Heavy Metal and Electronica. My tastes vary wildly. And then when I decided that my AI program had been beaten quite enough by the advanced bots on the training table at Party Poker, I rewrote my old blog. And then had it critisised by my ever loving girlfriend! Apparently the font is too small. Methinks it may be time to fire up the external 22" monitor when doing web design. I should actually tidy that entire table, because it is absolutely caked in mess. Magazines, letters, books, non functional equipment, vital equipment. And bank cards. And right now I am somewhat at a loss what to write. You see, this is why generally I don't blog on my days off. Because often my days off are filled with programming or playing on the Wii. Or as last night as well, watching classic WWF matches on Google Videos. I still say that The Undertaker vs The Giant Gonzales matches were awesome. Namely the Wrestlemania and Summerslam matches. And now I am proving myself to be quite, quite sad. However, I don't care. My view is that wrestling is soap opera for men. Instead of Pat Butcher gossiping to Dot Cotton at the launderette, HHH has a tables ladders and chairs match against Edge. The comparison works quite beautifully I find. So, tonight is another night off, and I suspect I will be found in our garden with the laptop and an extension cord with my best friend, a very large bottle of whisky, several bottles of coke, and music provided by my friend Steve Bridges on Narcotic Radio. Please give this guy some love, his show has been slashed from 2 hours to one hour due to bitchiness from the other DJs, and to be honest, the guy rocks. Right, methinks it is time to leave the coffee shop, mull over whiskies and steaks in Waitrose, and then go play some Smackdown vs Raw 2008 on the Wii. Permalink | 8th October 2008: Streaming Song Of The Day: Paralyser by Finger Eleven Free MP3 Of The Day: Global Harmony by Tiesto Tonight has been another really dull night. The Flying Scot has been his usual slow self. Slaphead has been amusing me all night with his bottomless pessimism, and right now I am sitting in the canteen, listening to my soup worryingly crackle in the microwave. I am sure that is not right. I suppose I should talk about The Flying Scot. I mean, he is getting to the middle of his second week on night shift, and to be honest, he just isn't fitting in nor is he quick. Even Miss C is quicker than him. And that is saying something. All I can really say is that in the time it took him to work half a cage, I worked two. And despite the fact I was trying to be quick, I mean, come on. Nobody should really be half my speed. Then there is his attitude problem. He told Queen Chav he was leaving at 6:58am because he hadn't had his last break. Charming. He also called me a mug for staying behind. Also he insulted my religion, he told me that religion was a good thing, but I was stupid for not working a shift that we'd get paid £150 for because religion doesn't pay the bills. I smiled and said "That's ok, because we're here for a finite time, and where you go after that, money won't help you." And now he just got his third strike. First strike was calling me stupid. That normally counts as the first, second and third strike, but he didn't know, so I let him off. The second strike was when he ranted at me tonight and called me a sh1t stirrer. And now he has just interupted my break and ranted at me because he got 5 bags of sugar out which I didn't. Wow. What a hero. Unfortunately, he will now have to go down because I am sick and tired of working with people who want to take swipes at me over and over again. Miss C got around me with Animal Crossing and faux niceness. The Bombshell used faux niceness too. I won't be fooled again. Not too long ago Pedro told me he wanted the old school TSM back. Fine. He has it. I am guessing he forgot old school TSM took out the people he didn't like... So, a short post today, but I may post again a little later. I am planing a trip out to town, so I may blog from there too. Permalink Tags: Microwave Soup,| 7th October 2008:Boring Nights, New Diets, Crisis, Role Of A Supervisor Is To Ask Staff What To Do, Calling Support Staff Names Is NOT Helpful, Calling Engineers Names Is NOT Helpful and The Bombshell Blows Up. Streaming Song Of The Day: When I Grow Up by Garbage (Would have loved to have seen The Pussycat Dolls cover this, shame they didn't...) Free MP3 Of The Day: Journey Riddem by Jah Cure Tonight has been a really dull night. Literally very little has happened. And tonight I am working with The Bombshell and The Flying Scot. The latter is the nickname for the new boy because he is so damned slow. Once again it has taken him three hours to work the chiller. Now, I know this may sound a little unfair because, well, he is new. But the thing is, he was given three weeks training on how to work everything and where everything is, so, I can't really defend the fact that he is slow. However, you can have a bit of a joke with him. Like earlier when I called him a grumping F'ing Bstard, which he took with fantastic humour and said "Yeah, everyone F'ing calls me that. I take it as a compliment now." Tonight also marks the start of my new extreme diet. Well, somewhat extreme. You see, I have decided that 99% of what I eat is rubbish. So I am now drinking a large cup of delicious chicken and sweetcorn soup. And for desert I have a pack of Snack A Jacks which are little caramel flavoured rice crackers and are delicious too. I was somewhat tempted to buy some bread to eat with my soup, but then I know that bread is really bad for you. So, that idea got thrown out. And right now, as I type, there is a small crisis going on. The chillers keep tripping out. Not a good place to be in, I know, I've been there and got it in the neck from various levels of management for the way I dealt with it. As such, I am not giving The Bombshell much in the way of advice on how he deals with it. Apparently my strategy sucks, so, I feel my advice would not be constructive right now. So I sit and blog instead. The Flying Scot is just wandering around aimlessly. But the situation escalated out of all control and I had to stop blogging. It really annoys me that every time there is a crisis, a problem, an issue, or anything else, the supervisors come to me for advice or come to me to sort it out. Technically, I am their staff, they tell me what to do and I do it. They are supposed to be the fountains of all knowledge. But no. I'm the one who always has to save their behinds. Last night was no different. I told The Bombshell to call support, get an engineer sent, then wait. So he did. Or at least he tried to. First he ran around screaming that nobody had left him the phone numbers for if there is an emergency. So I showed him where it was, and he calmed down for about 10 seconds, before screaming that the number went to an answerphone. I told him that it didn't. He screamed that it did because it did the last time he called them. I explained that the number went to an answerphone and you had to choose options. Then went back to my lunch. Which was accompanied by screams from the office of The Bombshell yelling at support. Ten minutes later I was on the shop floor, having finished my lunch, and heard "Yeah? I call! I call to tell you my F'ing freezers is dead! Why are you not understand this you stupid F'ing b*tch?" Ten seconds later he came out and thrust the phone at me. "This b*tch, she is say she not talk to me no more. She say she must talk to you!" My call took 5 minutes, and an engineer arrived within an hour. Apparently The Bombshell hadn't understood the question of "Is your store on the mainland or the isle of wight?" and having been asked repeatedly, and not understanding repeatedly, had taken this as a sign of hostility, called the operator a "stupid F'ing b*tch" and been promptly told to find someone civil to talk to her. Apparently upsetting one person was not enough for The Bombshell though. The engineer came, very red eyed, to the store, tried to fix the problem, and hit more problems when he couldn't remove the plastic divides. So The Bombshell tried using brute force, and failed. The poor engineer told me that he had also tried and failed, and that the person who had designed the shelving was a moron. At which point, The Bombshell figured that the engineer must have been referring to him, and pointed at several metal panels all over the floor and said "Yeah? I am moron? I am not d*ckhead who leaves store in F'ing mess when he is do work." And then he went out to the Polish delivery driver, yelled at him in Polish, using every Polish swear word I know, leaving the poor driver coming up to me and saying in highly impressive English "Doesn't he understand I cannot take any empties today?" I explained that he didn't, and not to take the abuse personally, it was just the way The Bombshell is. He laughed and said "Every day the same eh?" However, I did get a really nice thing at the end of the shift. First up, The Bombshell asked what was left to do, and I told him, then he slapped me on the back and said "Very nice work!" So I put a few more cases of stock out, and then turned and said to him "The next time Pedro tells you I am lazy, or I don't work hard, you remember this day, and you tell him everything I did, ok?" The Bombshell smiled and said "Yes, I know you are work very hard, thank you for all your work tonight, I appriciate it". I took two steps back then said "Who are you, and what have you done with the real Bombshell?" He frowned and said he didn't know what I meant. I explained and then got "I tell you, you do very good work, why are you not understand this? Fcuk, I am have a very hard night tonight, I am not need this!" And promptly stormed off. I grinned at The Flying Scot and told him that I was happy not to have my last break, it was worth it just to see The Bombshell finally blow. Permalink Tags: Boredom,Extreme Diet,Crisis,Supervisors| 6th October 2008: Tests, MASK, Dropping Like Flies, Evie, Fire Alarm Arguments and Management Boxing Streaming Song Of The Day: Free MP3 Of The Day: So, last night I was greeted with the news that we had to complete two tests. One on lifting and handling, and one on Age Related Training. Now the Lifting And Handling training tests are really easy. My mother and sister both worked for care homes for a long time, so I know all about lifting and handling. Didn't stop me taking notes. Not that I needed them more than once, and even that was a quick glance. I passed the Lifting And Handling Training with ease. Unlike The Bombshell who failed twice and then told me that he didn't need to take it, and it wasn't important. Then there was the Age Related Training. It's always been a strong point for me, so I decided to take the tailored training. Took about 10 minutes and gave me a little refresher course. Then I had the test, which I got 90% in. Which is a pass mark. Now, we sell DVDs at work. Some of them are new, some of them are older, and some of them are just classics. We also sell a lot of kids DVDs. And these includes a few, occasionally, 80s kids DVDs. And last night I happened upon a MASK DVD. For those who don't know what MASK is, first of all, shame on you, and second of all, it's about a group of good guys who use masks with incredible powers to defeat bad guys who also have similar masks. They also drive armored cars which make KITT from Knight Rider look like a Skoda. But the biggest kicker was that the DVD was £3.99 and included 5 episodes. Absolute bargain. Lately, Pedro has been bragging about how he is retaining staff and how no-one wants to leave. The thing is, this is all a rouse. So far we have had five new starters, of which, one was fired for never actually turning up after her first week, and apparently the other one has been fired for reasons as yet unknown. That or she quit. But either way, Pedro's staff retention isn't quite as great as he would like. Always makes me smile when Pedro brags about something and it doesn't quite happen as he would like. This said, we have a surprise return member of staff. Evie is back. It seems she's only back for a couple of days a week, which is a shame for me, as she's always a pleasant distraction for me, but anyway, I can't wait to have the last hours of my shifts spent watching her dashing around, trying to get everything done as quickly as possible. This said, it's surprising that she was allowed back, considering that she did actually poison a customer with her cooking once before. Then again, I think they are so desperate for bakery staff that they were willing to take on just about anyone. Then there was the argument between Queen Chav and The Bombshell. You see, lately, the fire alarms have been going off in the mornings. No-one is quite sure why, well, I think I know why, but the way SF are treating me, I'm not exactly willing to share that information. Anyway, because we have had so many drills, whether they have been planned or not, I have got my fire routine down pat. I evacuate the store of customers and staff, and I then close off the forecourt. Quite selfless of me I think! Anyway, so I was busy doing that, and Miss C was busy serving people petrol. And The Bombshell was taking cardboard cages across the forecourt. Two really dumb things to be doing when we're not sure if it's a fire or a drill. So, Miss C got a tiny telling off for it, because she's pregnant and therefore not allowed to be reprimanded. However, The Bombshell isn't pregnant. So, Queen Chav asked him what he was doing, and he told her. She yelled that there was a fire, and he just waved his hand and said "Whatever, I don't have time". This conversation carried on like this for a few minutes, until she said "TSM is the only one doing what he is supposed to be doing! Where are you supposed to be?" He said he didn't know, so she yelled about the assembly point, which he claimed ignorance over, and then she yelled "Well, maybe you'd prefer to be burned to a crisp!" But that wasn't an end to their argument! Oh no. That just lead to what was the inaugral round of Management Boxing. You see, The Bombshell doesn't like the fact that he has to actually hand his shifts over to the supervisor taking over from him. Then there was an argument between Queen Chav and The Bombshell over him wanting to leave because it was past 7 and the dayshift supervisor wasn't there. So when the supervisor did turn up, he spoke to him in Polish for a few minutes, then went to leave. Except Queen Chav saw him and asked if he had done a handover. He said that he had, and she said she hadn't seen him doing a store walk. So they had another screaming match, this time on the shop floor. And then the best thing happened. She punched him. I am not kidding. She punched him. A manager punched a supervisor. Ding ding, let's have more Management Boxing please! Permalink | |
Technorati
Profile Minutes Of Child Education Donated Since 06/10/08: 2250 Find out more here Archives April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008 August 2008 September 2008 October 2008 Blogroll V And A In Milan Simple Man, Simple Thoughts The Purple Blug Erin O'Connor's Blog (love this) Paul Smith's Blog Abigail's Teen Diary Trump University Blog White Knight's Blog Not Always Right View blog top tags You Can Also Check My Twitter! - Updated all the time! |