Threelight Redux   New Beginning

I suppose it’s all psychological.

Ever since I turned 40, my body has turned on me. For the first 40 years, I’ve had minor ailments where I got time off school to recover, or in one instance, went to the doctor about a cold during a school holiday, and ended up being under the surgeons knife the next week for something unrelated to what i went to the doctors for (it’s a long story, believe me. Happened in another world).

I don’t know whether I’ve mentioned here that I’m being treated for stress with my GP. I’ve been on tablets for the past 15 months, and show no sign of getting off them. I seem to have suffered a bit more stress than usual over the past 3 months, so it may be that I’m on them for a little while longer yet. I’ll have to wait and see when I go to the doctor in a couple of weeks time.

But then there’s other things that are happening, like an obsession with my weight. It doesn’t help that on the male side of the family, there is this “fat gene” that is making itself known: most of us have a paunch, beer belly, big belly, call it what you will. I seem to always have had it; I have always battled with my weight. Now it’s esacting it’s revenge.

So, I’m planning to join a gym, but just not yet.The company I work for is re-negotiating their gym membership arrangements, so I”ll have to wait and see what happens there. But I am defintely joining a gym. I can’t run for toffee, so that’s out, but at least it’s a start.

Please, if there’s no post regarding a gym by the beginning of July, let me know, won’t you?

Well, it’s been three weeks since I last posted here. Not that I had nothing to post about.

Interestingly, it was a holiday of firsts.The first time I’ve  gone with my parents to a hard rock gig with my parents (yes you read that correctly.) and also eating real paella cooked by a Spanish chef.

First, the rock gig. It was toward the end of the holiday and we had been drinking earlier in the day with a couple of friends, and because they had been there before, we were invited to  an Irish pub called The Landsdown about a couple of miles from the apartment. We went to see a band called The Monos (musicfunds, it is the same place where Radiohead’s manager was watching a band play, and he ended up signing The Voodoo’s)?

It was quite good music, especially in the second half, when they managed to get their sound all sorted out. They played rock like All Right Now, a couple by Snow Patrol, a few fromtheir upcoming album too. But the one thing I couldn’t really escape from: the fact that the vocalist is trying way too hard to sound like Bono, even though it wasn’t supposed to be a tribute act. His own style just wasn’t coming through. Apart from that, it was quite a good night. Put it this way: they wen on stage at 11:30 and we didn’t get to bed until 3am.

Then, the paella. All I can say to that is “om nom nom nom” Very nice meal it was too, especially the shellfish, where you get, quite literally, a taste of the sea. Excellent stuff.

And then, back to reality with a bump the next day after my holidays. Back to the torture that I call work.

What have I done wrong in a previous life to deserve this??

I’ve been working my way through my Apple I-Pad, seeing what makes it tick, and I’m impressed with it. It’s doing most of of the things I wanted it to do.

One of the newer things I’ve noticed is that I can use it from a mobile hotspot from my phone. It was something that Sam, the incredibly friendly sales assistant mentioned for a minute when going through her patter about what it can do. I at first thought that because i don’t have the 3G version it wouldn’t work. So about half an hour ago, I put it to the test.

It worked!!!!

So, I think I’m going to have fun with this piece of technology I’ve bought for myself. So much so, that I’m planning to give it a name, rather than just I-Pad.

I must be crazy.

Well, I finally did it. After a few weeks of procrastination, I finally got one.

Dear Reader, I am writing this particular post on my brand spanking new iPad 3!

I was thinking about it, and then was waiting until the new one came out, not realising that they would announce  the release only a few weeks before it actually came out. So, a week after it’s official release, here I am.

And I am quite impressed with what I’m seeing so far. It’s taken me a long time to join the Apple family proper (I’ve had an iPod Classic for the past 5 or 6 years or so, but I’m not really counting that).

And all because boot a very good bonus this month at work – a long service award as well as a good monthly bonus too. Put them two together and I can well afford this purchase. As it was explained to me, I have been suffering and gone thorough all sorts of hell at work, and also health wise too, so I may as well treat myself and join the 21st Century.

Oh, before I go, I’m not a lovesick puppy when I say I want to thank Sam at the Apple store in the Trafford Centre, who went throughthings with me, made sure all my questions were answered, and basically being an all-round good, bubbly girl who likes her job. Being  involved with the Great British public myself in the work I do, the job ain’t easy if the person dealing with you doesn’t open up a little bit.  Thanks  Sam!,

Find it here: Table Table, Cheadle Royal, Cheadle, SK8 3FE

On Saturday evening, I had the opportunity to go out with my Mum and Dad, sort of as a farewell dinner, while they go to Spain for 6 weeks. Rather than go to a carvery which is what we always do, we went to a restaurant called “Table Table”, which I now know is part of the Whitbread Chain. They, at one stage, had owned the Beefeater Restaurants, and the 2 could not be anymore different.

This was a bit more expensive than Beefeater, but the quality of the food was superb. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a more tastier meal than in there, and for the price paid (for the 3 of us it came to £45, which considering what some restaurants charge, isn’t bad. That also includes 2 glasses of the house wine. I decided to go with a normal run-of-the-mill Tango).

Our “waitress for the evening” was Jasmin, who atually engaged in conversation with us, and had a laugh and a joke, which you don’t hear much of these days.

For starters I had the Sticky Chicken Goujons, which were superb. I could have eaten a full plate of those and I would have been content. There was a bit of caramel glaze, which I swear tasted like barbeque sauce, and also a salad. I completely devoured that starter, and very nice it was too. Everything absolutely gone.

I’d decided to go with the chicken theme and had the Bacon and Cheese Topped Chicken Breast. Now normally, I like my bacon and cheese on a burger, but decided to have something different. Chicken with a topping of bacon and cheese, served with chips and salad. Drool, drool. Even this tasted good. Then again, I was a bit hungry, having not had anything really substantial to eat since 10am that day. So,I ate all of that too. Very nice.

Jasmin came up to our table to persuade us to have a sweet. I wanted the ice cream, but decided against it. I was just about full.

A fine evening, with fine food, and Jasmin, the fine waitress got a good tip too.

Threelight’s Verdict: 9/10

Very nice food. A place to go back to.

[There. My first restaurant "review" out of the way. Expect more of these. I'd declided on this the next day, whilst waiting to do work when I was at, er, work, at an ungodly hour on Sunday.]

Once in a while you get excellent customer service from a complany that sometimes isn’t that good at customer service. As there is nowhere on the site where I can actually congratulate anybody, I may as well use this space to.

I’d been having trouble with my HTC Wildfire’s camera. It was as though the camera shutter wasn’t releasing properly, and when I pressed the camera app icon, all I got was a blank screen. I gave the Customer Services a call on Saturday, went through the procedure, and eventually they said that it would have to go in for repair. All the neccessary bits and pieces would come through the post by the beginning of the week. Nothing came through on Monday, which i clealy put down to the slow snail mail service of the Post Office (even 1st Class post takes time these days,)

I received everything on Tuesday and sent it off that same day.

On Wednesday I received an e-mail saying that they had received the phone and were looking at it.

On Thursday I received another message saying that they had a look at the phone, and could not fix it, and they would send me a newer, refurbished one.

This morning, I received the phone.

So 72 hours after sending y phone off to be repaired I have a proper phone.

Well done, Virgin Media. Excellent service.

I’ve finished a run of shifts than ran 4 days on, 1 day off, and 4 days on, so I’ve had enough of work, and am looking forward to a couple of days off this weekend. A few of the days were okay, some of them just plain boring and others quite interesting for being a bit different.

In general, today fell into the last category.

I’m the type of person that doesn’t generally oversleep. I always wake up before my alarm. This morning, that didn’t happen. I normally wake up at 6:45 if I’m on and 8:30 shift, and leave at 7:30 because of the Manchester rush-hour (if you can call it that).That means I get to work in plenty of time, arriving at work at, say, 8:00. If I left any later than 7:40, I would likely be late for my shift, and that would be bad.

So today, I woke up at 7:20. I didn’t hear my alarm. I slept through it. That’s the only explanation I can think of. So I had 15 minutes to get dressed, prepare my lunch for the day, take my tablet, and then away. I wake up early mainly so that I can have some breakfast. I didn’ have that luxury this morning, so I got away at 7:40. The traffic was slightly heavier than normal, but not much. I got in at 8am. A normal time.

There’s only a few days I know of where I’ve actually had a Snickers bar for breakfast.

Then the day carried on. It was a normal day up to about 2pm, and then it changed. I was called on to solve a few problems that people were having. I like doing that. It’s the one thing I miss from my last job, and I still enjoy it.

But I have to rewind to when I was on my way to work, listening to the radio. Even though I had had no breakfast, and was thinking I would be a bit late, I was singing along to the good ‘ol rock classic, “Every Rose Has It’s Thorn” by Poison, I’m sure a few other drivers were looking at me and wondering what the hell I was doing, but I didn’t care.

What a good way to get to work….

So, click the link, dig the long hair (the beginning looks a bit suspect though; looks like the lead singer’s had Botox at some stage.) Time for the power ballad!!

I’m really surprised I haven’t posted anything like this before, but here you go.

I’ve had a strange relationship with football all my life. At first, and for most of my childhood, football was always second. It was always rugby (union, of course). Of course, I’d follow the results from where I lived in South Africa, as did most of my friends at school, but rugby was the thing. When I was in primary school, I was the scorer for the home matches. I enjoyed doing that. When I was in high school, we’d have to give up most of our Saturdays in winter months to attend the home games, and see the school get comfortably thrashed, or for it to be a low scoring game and a bit boring. Rugby was still the game.

But then again, even with the political situation in South Africa, they still used to show a few live games. Mainly it was the FA Cup matches, including the final, but that was about it. Maybe highlights of league matches about once a month (I think. ‘Twas a long time ago now).

But still, I wasn’t really a fan of football, as much as what some people are.

Of course when I came back to the UK about 23 years ago, the first sport that hits you is the football. I needn’t go into that. It took me a few years to get into the habit of following matches, or even following results. When it really kicked in, was when I realised that Euro ’96 was being played, so decided to follow it then. The morning before, I was listening to Chris Evans on Radio 1 doing his bit and laughing along with it. After England won their match (I think it was the famous “Gazza with water bottle match”), Chris Evans carried it on, cracking the same jokes, making a right nuisance of himself. I stopped listening to Chris Evans from then on, and I still don’t like him, not even in his television appearances neither.

I used to watch England play in their internationals though. Did for years, until they started playing crap, and watched less and less. Now I don’t care, along with the rest of the country.

Around about the year 2000, I became more interested in football, paying attention to more and more results.

And then, suddenly around about that time, I started supporting Manchester City. Why? I can’t really say, because I don’t know. All I knew (at the time anyway, and note what I say here, knew), was that I didn’t like the money-grabbing people on the other side of town. (You know, the ones who play in Trafford and where a red home-strip). At that time it wasn’t all about the money, and I didn’t really like that side of things, but it would seem that Newton Heath Manchester United were way ahead of the rest of the field in that respect.

And I continued supporting them, despite the fact that a few other people, like the Gallagher brothers, supported them too. I watched the matches and gradually took an interest. And it’s continuing.

As I’ve said before, I’m not a “fanatical fan”, but I follow the matches. And now, with Manchester City’s run of luck continuing, it’s a good time to be a City supporter. I’ve never been to a City match before, and neither do I want to. I’d be too busy applauding the opposing team if they score a good goal, which I understand by the “rules of the terrace” is not the done thing.I don’t get angry or depressed when City lose. I’ve got loads more other things to worry about. I don’t call the football team “we” as most people do, (as in “we played well”). I’ve never quite understood that.

A few weeks ago, someone asked me whether I was a City supporter because I was “jumping on the bandwagon” of City’s success. That is defintely not the case. I’m just glad of their success. I don’t particularly care whether they win or lose, but I support them. I enjoy watching them play, and that’s the most important thing.

.

I think I’ve said on this blog or on my previous one that I work in a service-oriented job. I suppose you can call it a front office job, and what most people would call a call centre.

I have seen call centres described as “sweatshops of the electronic age”.  Looking at why that is, it’s obviously mainly because everything you do is scrutinised, and every minute of your shift is recorded, mostly electronically. Some people don’t like that, but others like me just get on with it. I’d reached the stage a year ago, where I thought that rather than fight it, and cause me loads more worry, I accept it and do the work. I suppose you can call it similar to a “Keep Calm and Carry On” type attitude (I know it’s sad, but I even have a “Keep Calm And Carry On” t-shirt, which, incidentally, I’ve never worn to work yet).

There are times where I wonder why the hell I’m doing the job. In fact, after a particularly shitty 2010, I ended up going to my  doctor about it, and being diagnosed with stress. As I was in a job that was creating the stress in the first place, I took the tablets that were prescribed to me, and had a fantastic year, like a light-switch had gone off. So much so, I was beginning to be one of the best people in my team in terms of performance, and getting consistently above the average in the many stats that my job corrolates every second of every hour of every day.

As a result, I’ve even acquired new skills, taking on a bit more work. Don’t get me wrong, I like doing the work. The job is fine.

It’s the customers I don’t like.

A minority of The Great British Public are a fickle bunch. They want their service yesterday, they want everything handed to them on a plate, even when they are not entitiled to it. Whilst most of them are not like that per se (80%), the remaining (20%) are awkward.I can write a book about what they say to me, and what they expect us to do. It doesn’t help that the area I work in is even more stats driven after a change of ownership of the company, and all of us working my the department being told to do the work, otherwise our jobs are on the line. They will go down the disciplinary route whenever they see fit to., if they feel you are not pulling your weight. Luckily I’m nowhere near there, but the threat was made to all of us, all the same.

By the end of a number of shifts, I came away feeling like I had done in 2010: run down, tired, stressed, cheated, and wondering why the hell I’m doing the job. I’d started the job because I came straight from a job I loved doing, and one I had to leave because of re-location elsewhere in the country (which happened to me once before: exactly the same circumstances. Talk about lightning striking twice.). It’s in the same company after all, so I had that to be thankful for.

I’d discussed leaving the job when the option to take the redundancy money was there, but decided to stick with it. After all it happened at a time when the economy was at it’s worst (beginning of 2009), and thought, well, a job is better than no job at all, especially what was facing me if I didn’t choose that route. I’m still on the tablets, and I know they’re helping me out, but last night I was in the same mood I was in for most of 2010: moody, snappy, not a happy person.

I hope it doesn’t happen again. The shifts I work are all over the place, and I’m not sure whether that’s half the problem…but as I said before, I’m lucky I’m (still) working.

As a postscript, I did say to my line manager that I’m on tablets for stress at work, and all I was told was to “leave the stress at the door when I come in”.

Eh?

Did they not understand what I was telling them? Obviously not.

I keep on coming back to this page. I’ve seen the original in the Louvre (small, a bit disappointing, to tell you the truth), but this which appears to be a copy, and which is in the process of being authenticated, may be the work of one of Leonardo’s pupils.

What this show, I think, is that the smile wasn’t enigmatic, that it was the way that the model, Lisa Giaconda, looked. The oiginal i the Louvre has been varnished, but this one appears to be fresh.

Okay, art criticism over.