Bruce Tomorrow!

Looking forward to Bruce Springsteen tomorrow. In fact, that has basically been my entire day, knowing that within 24 hours I will have my mind blown by The Boss. Literally cannot wait to go now, especially since he is playing at the Olympic Stadium, a venue I have yet to experience.

Fiverr

Just about to pootle off to bed when my first ever response to Fiverr.com came through! Fiverr is basically a website where you put your skills up for sale online and a person will pay you a fiver for that service. I have offered my natural British voice for narration and voice-over purposes last week, and I've just gotten a gig to to a British version of this chaps video 

Exciting times are ahead indeed!

'Hungerford'

Mark, Dan and myself have all gotten involved in a small web series production called 'Hungerford.' Mark is assistant producer, Dan is going to be a bit actor and I will be an unpaid runner. A majority of today was spent in my dining room, reading through the entire script and noting down any potential bits and bobs like props and costumes that we would need for the days of filming. It's looking like a fun little indie sci-fi project, think Blair Witch meets Shaun of the Dead and you'll be in the right ball-park; as a result, we are thrilled to be a part of it.

CineClub success

Work was so dead it wasn't funny. We almost didn't get a single food order, even on slow days we get one or two, but we got one, and only one, because our boss politely asked a customer if they could possibly make sure that today wasn't a total waste of time. I was then invited to a very pleasant evening to see the local CineClub entries from across all the schools in the local area, our own club from St Barts included. And what do you know? We won both the peoples choice category and the judges award! Very pleasing outcome considering how Cafe Studios got their first big break in the very same way many years ago.

Premature daytime goal

Finished series one of Friends this morning. Very eager to start the next one actually, just gotta wait until the person who loaded me this DVD comes back from holiday now! But watching the final episode was like, my only goal of the day and I finished that before I even got out of bed so I have been pretty bored!

Did get a chance to help in the charity gaming session of friend of mine set up though. Despite a handful of technical difficulties we finally sorted everything out and helped raise money for a good cause by having a bit of fun ourselves.

On a more random note, I think I will try to wear waistcoats more often now, try to introduce them into my casual look. Sounds good in my head but I will have to try it out myself now. 

Sunday, Bloody (Boring) Sunday

Once again, today was a little bit generic with very little to discuss. No funny customer stories, no amusing accidents and not a whole lot to do since we were rather dead. Big surprise when I got home however as I found out that the postponed date of me doing some evening gaming for charity turns out to be tomorrow! I'll let you all know how that goes.

Pair of Persnickety customers

A pair of work days gone by and they have been quite exhausting. 2 little incidents were rather irksome however and really dampened the experience of my day. The first of which being someone ordering fish fingers with mash potato along with a tuna mayo salad, get this, to go. How the hell they wanted us to successfully bag up mash potato and tuna mayonnaise I'll never know, but we did get around it since we had some spare tupperware lying around. I made a real effort too, I even rolled up a disposable set of cutlery with a napkin so they could take it away and eat it where-ever. I am dead chuffed with myself and I am practically beaming when I delivered it to them. But they ate it while they were still sat at their table. They were in no rush to get anywhere, didn't even stand up. Cheeky rude words.

Secondly we had a lady ordering a gluten free pizza and pasta today, something we rarely have to prepare. The gluten free pizzas we make ourselves from scratch with a pre-made base but we add the tomato and cheese afterwards. Problem is, we were out of the gluten free tomato sauce and were running a bit late with the order anyway. Terrified we would cause a violent allergic reaction within the child who wanted the food I asked the parent if we could substitute it with anything else. Turns out she just wanted to try what gluten free stuff was like. Just no.

The Summer cold is upon me

Right on cue, the cold arrives. Runny nose all day, went through an entire travel packet of tissues and then some. Soar throat hasn't come along just yet, but me singing the high notes of 'In the Jungle' probably didn't help too much. My head feels bigger than the moon and I have a comparable complexion. All I really want to do is cuddle up into a ball in bed and recharge my batteries. This will probably be harder than necessary though since its been so very warm these past few days. Wish me luck. 

Time to try out the new mugs

Paul Simon's Graceland seemed like the perfect album to listen to on my way to the kitchen stuff shop. It has that whole optimistic and exotic sound that perfectly summed up my mood this morning on the hottest day of the year so far. Sun was shining, clouds were scarce and there was a bunch of white stuff floating around that made everything look like a blossomy snow globe.

I was pretty excited to be finally getting those latte glasses I mentioned last week. The whole way to the shop I was thinking about the mocha I would make and how professional and delicious it would look in one of those glasses.

Unpacked them at home and switched on the coffee machine, went to the coffee pot and a little bit miffed to discover we were out of our best ground stuff. Not to worry though, as Dad picked up some Hungarian stuff a little while back and it was just sitting in the corner begging to be used. For anyone who has never drunk Hungarian coffee, don't drink Hungarian coffee. It tasted like tar that had been watered down with school lunch gravy.

Not all was lost though, I still needed to make up the hot chocolate using the same powder that Mark called 'The best hot chocolate ever' a few weeks back. This being cocoa however I needed to manually sweeten the mixture to taste. But I have done this before so I confidently grabbed the sugar bowl to pour some in as I can just about gauge 2 teaspoons worth. I give the bowl a little shake when suddenly POOF!

Just gonna add a little sugar... crap.

'Ah perfect, the only thing I want with my tar-gravy is some over-sweet chocolate.' I thought to myself but I did give it the benefit of the doubt and see it through by frothing the mixture and subsequently burning my fingers on the steam wand. What I got was a little something like this:

Pretty as a picture

 Pity that it tasted awful, it looked so pro in that glass. But, like any spiritual Dr Frankenstein, I knew my duty to the world and purged of my creation's existence down the drain for the good of humanity. Disgruntled I moped by the kitchen table for 30 minutes longer than I am willing to admit while noticing a tickle in my throat and a more-than-usual blocked up nose. Here comes a Summer cold for me!

Photoshop 101

For the first time in a long ol' while, Mark came into school with me again. He got a chance to teach a teacher how to effectively use photoshop while I took frivolous mental notes. Mark is always making fun of me for not knowing how to use that particular piece of software, but now at least I think I've grabbed the basics. Funny how close we are to the end of our tour of duty at the school as teaching assistants. Still got that mug they gave us as a Christmas present. That's one of the best mugs I've ever had... 

A Double Life

Today I lived a double life. In fact, scrap that, might have even been a triple life. First off we have my daily, everyday life. The kind that I blog about while you folks (and admittedly myself) pretend to be interested in. Secondly, my make-believe one with the animal villagers of Animal Crossing. The kind where I write letters to that parrot in a knight's helmet, or agree to meet up with a pink hamster at her house, then completely blow her off because I secretly believe she ran through my flower patch. I figure that we all need a little escapism sometimes. I get mine from the films I watch and the games I play, and after a few days of solid work in a cafe I thought I should treat myself. Also, anything to get over the fact that my trip to Thorpe Park tomorrow had to be cancelled. Someone got food poisoning and is generally feeling a bit 'vomity' so roller coasters probably aren't what the doctor ordered.

A friend at work lent me the first series of Friends. Now, this is a show that I casually blew off for ages. Turn on channel 4 in the daytime, chances are you will be hit in the face with a re-run of one of the countless episodes. Having never actually sat down and watched an episode I thought that I should give it a fair shot. 6 Episodes later and I am rather addicted to their on-screen company. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is my third life now. Spending time with my six Manhattan buddies.     

Nugget nightmare

Fun old one at work today. After the first lot of party food we sent out we had another party really soon after it, I casually went to go and check if we had enough chicken nuggets for the next one as all party children get a serving of nuggets and chips. Not one single bag of them were in the freezer.

I was pooping myself over what my boos would say since there was only 40 minutes til the food was due out. He drew £50 from the register, looked me dead in the eye and asked 'how fast can you run to Sainsbury's?'

Never in my whole life had I run so fast. But it was so incredible since it was in the rain so it looked like I was in some romantic 80's film that took itself too seriously. I didn't care if anyone looked at me funny, in my mind I WAS Patrick Swayze.

The whole trip took me a record breaking 10 minutes. So I'm stood there soaked, panting and carrying far too many nuggets, then a co-worker with a pleased look on his face tells me that he persuaded the parents of the party to have fish fingers instead. Relieved I went to the freezer to dish out the right number of fish fingers.

My worst nightmare comes true - not enough fish fingers either!

Fortunately it was one of those situations that worked itself out really nicely and all party were pleased. We located some 'back-up' fish fingers to use and all was well. Knackered now though and I really just wanna go to sleep. I got up stupidly early this morning for no reason whatsoever and couldn't get back to sleep.

Animal Crossing Xmas!

Louis' Christmas present finally arrived today! Animal Crossing New Leaf has been on for pretty much the last few hours and Louis has used the 3DS for twice as long as he ever has today. As soon as I finish writing this I can finally get a turn for myself!

There really is very little to do during work days like today. Singing to the pop music on local radio was a good way to pass the time. Shame our radio station only plays the most inoffensive music known to man, picking all the obvious tracks from the 60's. Very bland and quite bad, especially when you work quite a lot because you end up hearing the same tracks over and over.  

The Winter is coming

Another long ol' day at work. Spent most of the day fretting about how much stock we had left. Since our kitchen manager has been on holiday and the 2nd in command has broken her foot, we have been left to fend for ourselves. We don't know if we are going to make it through the weekend basically. I feel like a squirrel who has forgotten to get enough nuts for the winter - I just keep telling everyone 'Brace yourselves, the winter is coming.'

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to keep hitting refresh on Netflix until Bottle Rocket decides to load!

Kitchen Gadgets are awesome

Opted to go shopping with Mum today, something I rarely do but today I had no real plans so I thought 'What the hell?'

Together we discovered that I have a mad interest in kitchen gadgets and drinks glasses. But seriously, how can you not get excited over a rolling cookie-cutter or a latex egg poacher? So many  kitchen possibilities lie in wait, ready to be explored by me, if only I had the necessary funds to buy everything in the shop! I walked out with some highball whiskey glasses and some bangin' oven mits; I have half a mind to go back and get some latte/hot chocolate glasses!

The rest of my day was spent reading The Kite Runner which I am so incredibly into that I am actually rushing this blog just so I can finish the last few pages. I also cooked an omelet under the grill - old family trick from a co-worker apparently? Worked for me though, cheese, egg and meat truly are a sacred combination. 

Nintendon't

Lot of excitement from me today for Nintendo's big E3 announcements. First thing I did this morning was check out when it was happening and it said 3pm. This would have been great minus the fact I had to pop into school at exactly that time. I also needed a shave and a shower since I looked like I had been living under a bridge. After I wash my hair I like to use the hair drier to spice it up a little, but today I did that for FAR too long and ended up making it stand on end in a super fluffy manner. Walking to school I was rather self conscious - worst part was, I didn't even need to be at school that afternoon as it turned out. Went home and watched Nintendo's thing and I am still making up my mind whether it was good, or just ok. 

Beginning of E3

Free day all to myself! First one of these I've had all week. I had nothing to do, and all the time in the world to do it. So I occupied myself by watching Liar Liar, a Jim Carrey film from the 90's. And while he completely over-acts the entire time, you gotta admire his energy. So far this evening I have rather unshamefully jumped on the 'lets make fun of Microsoft and EA' band-wagon as they have released absolutely nothing of interest at the time of writing. It's all just formulaic sequels to well established franchises that are well past their prime. Give us some original IP's! Something that will rock the boat and make us excited to play games again after the naff reveal of their new hardware.  

Great Grumpyness?

Woke up on the wrong side of the bed. No idea why, but the whole world looked grey, cold and nasty to me and that made me a bit grumpy. So while I was shopping in Sainsbury's I thought I could do with a bit of cheering up so I browsed the DVD aisle. My eyes lit up after finding the low-low price of 2 of my favourite films: The Wrestler and Singin' in the Rain. Super pleased with that purchase I was blessed with a lovely day at work, not too many customers and just a lot of nice things going on - especially when it came to all the food going out of date. Made myself a banging sandwich with all that extra food, a little bit of pasta sauce, extra cheese and a little ham; tasted like Subway. Then Dan and company came round for a very nice evening of video games. So what started as a really naff day became a very pleasant way to end a week.

Happy Birthday Daniel!

A big Happy Birthday goes to Daniel today, we haven't done anything elaborate or special today, but as soon as his exams are over we are sure to do something cool. Just had a really nice day today, staff were a playful mood today so we played 'The Peg Game.' Where you have to attach a clothes peg to someone without them noticing it. Perhaps we shall get up to something equally rambunctious at Dan's party? 

Painful cleaning

My boss ended up training himself on making cappuccinos - he proceeded to make 9 of them and handed each one to me. With no customers around thanks to the weather, I thought 'Hey, free coffee!' Full fat milk, felt very heavy afterwards, so very, very heavy.

We also did another one of our deep cleans which took up most of the evening. I only sustained 2 injuries this time! A friction burn going down a newly polished slide and a badly bruised knee thanks to some slippy floor. Quit pleased however that it wasn't anything serious.

Cat Wash

A single fun thing happened to me today. Every now and then at work the staff are asked to dress up as the big cat mascot we have. As many of you well know that I also get a chance to wear this outfit and dance and jump around in it. Problem is, is that it has gotten pretty stinky over the past few months. Not to mention, the once sunshine yellow of his fur has dulled into a more 'stale mustard tone.'

Another thing I sometimes get to do at work is visit the laundrette for some tea-towel washing. It's a job that I'm not overly fond of because I have to deal with the 50-something, passive-aggressive, elitist staff members there AND it takes a fair bit of time, so without a book to read you're gonna get pretty bored.

Combine these two things and you get 'Theo's Amazingly Epic Journey to the Laundrette to wash the Cat Outfit!' (I'm trying to get movie rights, but they said the title was a bit ostentatious - which in itself is an ostentatious was of saying 'over the top.')

So I bounded down to the laundrette with the mascot suit and presented it to the lady there who didn't see a whole lot of humour to the situation and clinically advised me on how to wash it while making a habit of keeping an eye on my every move and taking joy in ever aspect of the suit washing I got wrong. I felt like turning round and saying 'Well I'm sorry that I've never washed a giant cat suit before.' But I kept that to myself, I might end up agitating her and she may do something nasty to me - I did see a rather ominous pair of handprints that seemed to be coming from the inside of one of the tumble driers. Maybe that's how the laundry ladies get their kicks?  

Nail gun fun?

The fence for the chickens is now all sorted. Today I got to use some pretty cool power tools like a buzz saw and a nail gun. The guy I was working with recalled a fun afternoon using the gas powered nail gun to knock down birds and get into fights with other construction workers - I realized that this is probably the reason why road constructions work takes so long.

Minecraft IRL

Builders like to make an early start. I discovered this (amongst several other things today) the hard way. I was due to help out with the building of our new chicken fence, our old one was a wire mess that had deteriorated over time. So today we have been digging holes, mixing cement and banging in poles for a brand new wire fence. The digging of the holes however was our biggest challenge considering the roughness of our soil. To make matters worse, we soon hit stones, roots and even a layer of clay. It was like a really strenuous version of Minecraft - I just about avoided developing blisters. We are finishing off the job tomorrow and it should look grand when it's done!

Mum also inherited one of the most curiously awful cakes we have even seen. Its a coffee cake, with a jam filing. What god has kept asunder, let no man put together; coffee and fruit just don't go!

Belgian night out?

Got in a little late last night as I was busy being 'host-ly.' A job that basically involves taking Belgians out into the streets of Newbury to get a little bit merry with beers. Met up with some old friends along the way though and even got into an hour long conversation about the Nintendo 64. Paid the price this morning though. While I was not hung-over in the slightest I was just exhausted from last night's festivities which made work drag a little bit in places. Especially the evening party I was cooking for, halfway through doing their order I got a phone call that seriously increased the number of kids who needed feeding. This trick repeated a few times. Nightmare.