I had a rather lazy Sunday just staying in and trying to clean up my room and have to admit that I did not get very far before I gave up and decided to play games on the computer. I did go online once I got up my mothers house but ran out of time so did not get a chance to post anything.

My attempt to become a little less reliant on the car has been a little more successful this week as both yesterday and Monday I actually walked into work and last night when I was walking home I realised how wonderful nature can be, I think it was looking up at night sky and the realisation that the nights were starting to get lighter and soon it would be summer. That is one thing that you can’t really notice or think about while driving!

Well the manager was back after having a week off on Monday and already there have been minor ‘irritations’ caused by her. I think the thing I find most irritating about her is that she will never tell you anything straight and as I have said before seems to have some perverse pleasure in playing members of staff off against each other. In fact I will briefly mention what she has done and in brackets and bold what I think she was getting at - Over the last two days she has spoken to me about what time she would have to leave home to get into work half an hour before the shop opens. (Head office expects managers to be in work 30mins before the shop opens and remaining staff 15 minutes before hand to have a sales meeting - unpaid) Spoke to me about how good it would be to have two days off during the week and that she would love to be able to do this! (The company wants to cut over time and wants staff to change contract, in fact because of my demotion I may get switched to this new contract by default and against my wishes! The manager may have been told by the area manager that either one of the two staff “loosing” there positions must go onto this new contract) She also decided to interfere with “My Department” I don’t really know why I call it that as it has never been “MINE” but I will rant more about this in the coming weeks.

I may have already mentioned that the bedroom department is closing down and I had the option of transferring over to the new company which will be moving in or staying where I am but going back to sales assistant and after what seemed like only a short time to decide I made the decision to stay where I was, will this be a decision I live to regret?

With my lack of posting I have completely forgotten to mention that Becky has handed her notice in at work, don’t really know how I feel about this as I have not really spoken to her much in the last year as I am normally upstairs but out of everyone she is the one who has been with the company the longest and I worked with her at the old shop before it closed down. It is because she is going that I was offered the full time job. I really will have to make a start on writing up about my working years for life history section of this site!!

The UK is expecting a cold spell any day now and I know that parts of the country have already been hard hit but it is very doubtful that we will have any sort of heavy snowfall in Carmarthen as we as so close to the coast but I went out today and bought myself a new halogen heater for my room for those cold nights!
A big thanks to Bron for leaving a comment.

Song: Somebody To Love By Boogie Pimps

2 Sins


Friday, January 23, 2004

Well the car went in yesterday for the new spark plugs and already I can hear the difference with the engine and more importantly it did not cost as much as I thought it was. I knew I should have stuck with this particular garage as I used to take my old cars there, one thing I do know is that in future that will be my first port of call when I need work done on the car.

There were only the three of us in work yesterday and at times it was hard to get to every customer but the good news was that the area manager finally gave me some clear instructions as to what prices I can sell the shop floor beds off and when they need to be gone by.

I also managed to get the holiday booking form sent off so fingers crossed that we get our first choice date and location, we will only have to work out the details such as who will drive later to the date.

I saw this on a livejournal account and it looked interesting, apparently the idea is to highlight all the films which you have seen on the below list.

1. X-Men
2. The Craft
3. X2
4. Swimfan
5. Fellowship of the Ring
6. Finding Nemo
7. Peter Pan
8. Home Alone
9. Aladdian
10. The Ring
11. 10 Things I Hate About You
12. Not Another Teen Movie
13. Spiceworld
14. 8 Mile
15. Bambi
16. Pirates of the Caribbean
17. Edward Scissorhands
18. Stepmom
19. My Best Friends Wedding
20. 101 Dalmations
21. Scream
22. Scream 2
23. Scream 3
24. Big Daddy
25. Billy Madison
26. Chamber of Secrets
27. Sorcerer's Stone
28. Heartbreakers
29. Dumb & Dumber
30. Cruel Intentions
31. Scary Movie
32. Look Who's Talking
33. Blade
34. Blade II
35. O
36. Titanic
37. Carrie
38. Carrie 2: The Rage
39. Daddy Day Care
40. Legally Blonde
41. Austin Powers
42. Storm of the Century
43. Oliver and Company
44. Two Towers
45. Return of the King
46. Mighty Ducks
47. Fast and the Furious
48. 2 Fast 2 Furious
49. Walk To Remember
50. TripleX
51. Beauty and the Beast
52. I Know What You Did Last Summer
53. I Still Know What You Did Last Summer
54. Sound of Music
55. Mary Poppins
56. Tuck Everlasting
57. The Patriot
58. The Wizard of Oz
59. Teaching Ms. Tingle
60. Crossroads
61. Now and Then
62. Pearl Harbor
63. Just Married
64. Cast Away
65. Radio Flyer
66. Final Destination
67. Lady and the Tramp
68. Shallow Hal
69. 40 Days and 40 Nights
70. Bring It On
71. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
72. The Outsiders
73. The Matrix
74. Perfect Storm
75. Jurassic Park
76. Never Been Kissed
77. Clueless
78. Bruce Almighty
79. Crazy/Beautiful
80. Remember the Titans
81. Girl, Interrupted
82. SWAT
83. Sixth Sense
84. PhoneBooth
85. The Lion King
86. Urban Legends
87. Nightflier
88. Lion King 2
89. Little Mermaid
90. American Pie
91. Center Stage
92. Scooby Doo
93. Bedazzled
94. Mrs. Doubtfire
95. Save the Last Dance
96. My Girl
97. American Beauty
98. Romeo & Juliet
99. Lost World
100. Casper

1 Sins


Wednesday, January 21, 2004

I have been using my first ever PC today, I say using but it is so old that all I have really been doing is looking over all my old files which are still hidden away on the hard drive. It is funny to read over things I wrote about five years ago plus a lot of the work I did at school is still buried there, this was of course in the days before I had an internet connection - in fact this computer does not even have a modem as I first joined the internet back in September 1999 when I got my second computer which was a lot more advanced that the previous one!

Little did I realise back then that I would have my own website and have had the opportunity to make new and exciting friends from other parts of the world. Of course in the since my online life began my internet habits have changed. When I was first online I would spend my evenings dishing out advice at the Yahoo chat rooms or inviting people to join my "pen pal club" also at Yahoo and when I come to think of it I really don't know when these things no longer seemed to interest me, maybe it was when my nights online were spent talking to the various friends I had made online that left me little time to worry about dishing out advice to strangers. A few months ago I revisited Yahoo chat and what I found disappointed me or was it I had just grown out of that particular scene. One thing I do know and that is since my first days online I seem to have become more wrapped up in my own little section of the net and don't interact with people in the same way.

Well I really don't know why I ventured down memory lane, maybe the fact that I was typing this out on my old computer affected my mind!!

My mother got back from Ireland this morning and I heard all about her visit to see the SS Dunbrody which sounded like a very good visit and something that would definitely interest me, I really should try to visit Ireland this year it is not as if it is hundreds of miles away?

Very much doubt I will get another chance to post anything as I am back at my place tonight and tomorrow morning I will be leaving early to drop the car off so very unlikely I will be able to post again until at least Sunday.

No Sins


Wednesday, January 21, 2004

I have been at my mothers since Monday night looking after the kids as my parents decided to go away for the day and decided to visit Ireland so I was here last night and again tonight until the early hours when they are expected home.
The computer here is so slow it makes going on the internet a real pain but I have managed to talk to a few people and update the member list for the C.S.I. - Crime Scene Investigators fanlisting and have also been working on . Have to admit that I have neglected it for a little while as I cannot enter the site as the library computers block it, and also many of the people I email to trade with never reply.

Work has been pretty good this week, which may have something to do with the fact that the manager is on holiday - nothing against her but as I have said in the past she does have a tendency to play members of staff off against each other. I do wonder if I have made the right choice in staying and not going to work for the new bed concession as I was talking to someone today who told me that I am likely to be on one of the new style contracts where I would get two days off during the week and have to work every Sunday without getting any over time, which would be slightly annoying but my choice has been made now and I will live with it.

The deadline I set myself for getting the booking form off for the holiday was Monday and that has already past without the form being completed as I am still waiting to find out final numbers and confirm that the dates selected are suitable to everyone. I do feel like not bothering with it.

I did end up taking my car to work on Monday as I had to take it in to a garage to have some work done on it as I drove to work on Sunday with a flat tyre, I did wonder why the car was pulling to one side and once I got to work I inflated the tyre and it seemed to be okay for the rest of the day, so I assumed it was a slow puncture. Turned out to be a leak on the seal but while it was there I also got them to change the oil and filter and will drop it off on Thursday to get the spark plugs changed (something I could do myself but with this car I would have to remove the to many bits to get at the plugs)

No Sins


Tuesday, January 20, 2004

Well been a few days since I last posted again, no real excuse just lack of time! The area manager came down on Friday the reason for his visit was to confirm details of the closing down of the linen department and also the bedroom department. Yes I know I work in the bedroom department but have known since last October that they were planning on removing the linen department and getting a new company in to rent the space currently used by the bedroom department. I had been told that I would have a job with the new company that will also be selling beds.

Of course on Friday the area manager asked me if I would want to remain working with Harveys, which would mean a reduction in pay or move over to Sleepmasters the concession which will be selling beds in the store? I will not go into great detail here about my reasons but I have weighed up all my options and have decided to remain working with Harveys and have my pay reduced to that of a sales assistant.
People who know me know that I care very little for money; as long as I have enough for what I want to do I am happy. So next few weeks I will have to sell off all the beds, something made harder by the fact that we are not telling people we are closing the bed department!

I managed to change the calendar on Wednesday and have not had the time to enter all the dates for friends birthdays yet but will get around to doing this as it is all part of my long term goal to make updating this site as easy as possible and more importantly something I can do from the local library (as I cannot use FTP there). Talking of the library I got it wrong last week when I thought they were closing one of the bridges in Carmarthen, it is actually this week that it is closing and I am toying with the idea of walking in to work - number of reasons for this the main one is I want to become less dependant on the car, if my pay is going down I want to look at cutting costs.

No Sins


Thursday, January 15, 2004

Yes, been working on the site and must have deleted a little more than I attended to, will not get a chance to repair the damage until Sunday...
1 Sins


Wednesday, January 14, 2004

Spent a little time online yesterday sorting some things out and finally got around to setting up a Pay Pal account, not that I really expect people to leave me donations but it could come in handy in the future. I have had an Amazon Wish list for some time now and have never really thought about linking it but it feels like a half finished job so expect a permanent link soon.

My visit to the dentist went well yesterday with the same comments and the same treatment; basically the dentist told me that there was an improvement in my gum condition, and gave my teeth a clean and polish.
One thing I really want to know the answer to is why does it seem that dental assistants and secretaries are all attractive women or is it just the case at my dentists - I recognised one of the dental assistants in the other room as someone I had noticed around town and when she worked in one of the shops.

Talking of shops Liz (the manager) at work called me yesterday and made a mountain out of a molehill. I know that at times customers can call the shop and be a little irate and I also know that Liz can add a different tint on to a story. Basically a customer called the shop wanting to know what was happening about a problem with there bed. I knew about the problem on Friday and informed the customer that I would not be able to contact the suppliers until Monday and I forgot to phone the customer back on Monday, which is why she apparently went nuts. The suppliers know about the problem and I was going to be calling them when I got back into work tomorrow. No doubt I will return to sarcastic comments from the manager. Maybe if they had other members of staff working in the bedroom department this would not have happened!

Went to the pub quiz last night to find that it has still not started back after Christmas and judging by the number of people in the pub I would be very surprised if it ever restarts. It does seem a lot of effort to go there every Tuesday as I can get so much more done when I stay home.

Today is going to be more of a lazy day as I did the looking around town yesterday and only need to quickly pop to the supermarket to get some things for my sandwiches. As we were paid early than usual before Christmas things are starting to get a little tight, I know I still have money in the bank but already the credit cards bills have started to arrive so it is very likely that some of these bills will need to wait until the end of the month and payday. I really will need to look at tightening my finances this year, of course my finances were not helped by the fact that I went for half a year without getting the correct amount of pay so I think I will need to remove at least one of my credit cards so that I don’t use it for a month or two and also make sure that I limit the amount I use the remaining ones - so no new DVD’s for a few weeks!

I did get some work done on the car yesterday little things that I had been meaning to do for a while now like treating the rust which has started to appear above the back wheel arches and in a couple of weeks I will get the oil and air filter changed along with the spark plugs in time for the MOT.

No Sins


Tuesday, January 13, 2004

I get an extra day off work this week to make up for all the extra hours we did over the festive period, the manager, assistant manager and linen supervisor all had there extra day last week. Not that I will get up to a great deal today as I had a dentist appointment first thing this morning and hopefully this afternoon I will get the time and the weather to do some work on the car.

Christmas is barely over and already the shops have started to sell Easter eggs, okay maybe not the large ones yet but some shops have not even waited until the “sales” goods have been sold before they rearrange the store to get there Easter displays up. Easter is not until the middle of April so why they need to start selling eggs this early really surprises me of course in a few weeks time these displays will be condensed a little to make way for all the chocolates and gifts they will want to promote for Valentines Day - a day that single people look forward with dread.

Got some of the holiday bits sorted out on Sunday, well we decided on possible dates that would not clash with anyone and them looked at holiday parks, I know I was a little unhappy about going to the same area at first but at least we would know what to expect and this time I will look at ways of diffusing potential problems before they arise, and even if it is supposed to be a time for a group of friends who don’t normally get the chance to meet up I think it is important that we all have the opportunity to do what each of us wants without the other having to tag along being bored senseless.

Some of you may notice some strange things on the site, there is nothing to worry about I am just adding some new things to hopefully make my life a little easier such as PHPCurrently which I am currently working on as well as other things to boost the contents section as well as padding out some of the other sections. I have said before that I would rather quality than quantity and hopefully I will achieve this. 2004 is the year that I get this site finished!

Found this test online so thought it would be interesting to see what Classic Movie I am?

What Classic Movie Are You?

2004 seems to be shaping up into the year I travel. I know it has barely started but already I have looked at the costs of going to Australia and have been looking at the costs of going to the USA for a weekend. The weekend in the USA is looking a more realistic travel destination for this year. Not that the new stricter rules about people entering the States make thing any easier!

Last night and this morning was spent cleaning my room, it all started a few nights ago when I could not find a computer game which I fancied playing and I still can’t find it but I can at least see the carpet now and will once more have to buy another storage unit for both my DVD’s and CD’s as current capacity has been reached. I will have to experiment with moving things about in order to see if I can gain any additional space but that can wait for the time being.

The next couple of weeks will see one of the Bridges in Carmarthen being closed in order for them to work on it, which is bad news for me, as I will have to take an alternative route to get into work - of course I could just walk to work for the next few weeks which would of course mean I lose out on internet access at the library?

1 Sins


Wednesday, January 07, 2004

Well my first day off work since Boxing day and I decided to switch the alarm clock off and try to catch up on a little sleep, it did not help that I was up until after two this morning watching a film! Went into town just after eleven, I say went into town what I really mean is I went outside as I live in the centre of town and took a look at the Sales and what a disappointment. I really should know working in retail myself that there is no such thing as a genuine sale as every thing has a break-even price and retailers tend to keep there products above this point, not to say that by shopping around you can’t get the same product cheaper.

I will use the next few days to sort out my room I have been pondering the idea of moving the bed into a different position and rearranging my things as they say a change is as good as a rest. Talking of rests I have collected all of the vouchers I need from the newspaper for my £9.50 holiday, I say £9.50 but the cost tends to double when you add in all the costs for linen and entertainment passes. The booking form needs to be sent off by the end of this month so I will have to sort out with the rest of the group (really should come up with some cool name for us like the Scobbies or something similar) to sort out days and possible places to go. Last year we went to New Quay in Cornwall and it was an overall successful weekend and maybe it is because of this that a part of me that wants to return to that area yet at the same time I feel the need to broaden my horizons and visit another part of the UK.

While messing about on the computers I was looking at the cost of flights to Australia and thought they were pretty reasonable it is the accommodation prices which always seem to knock the price up, so imagine my surprise when I get a price of £638.80 and when I check again it has jumped to £4,589.80 yet on another site it remains the same - strange

Oh well don’t think I will get to travel that far this year but it is something to save for.

No Sins


Sunday, January 04, 2004

Finally getting back to normal at work, or as normal as it ever is and it will be interesting to see how they manage with Sundays now that Kelly has gone it leaves a short fall with staff. There is always the hope that Becky the part timer will work every other Sunday but I don’t think she is going to like this.

Last night I was watching “Holiday Showdown” basically they take two families and they each spend a week experiencing the other family’s type of holiday. Of course to make for good viewing they make sure that the two families are as different as possible and this ultimately leads to friction. The easiest way to achieve this is to pick families from different “classes” or socio-economic groups and last night they had one family who I would class as lower class and the other family as upper class (keeping it simple). First week was spent on a package holiday in a 2 star apartment in Minorca, a holiday that the lower class family have to save all year for and the second week was spent in a luxury apartment in Jamaica with its own cook. To watch this was funny but I thought very cruel!

Review Of 2003
January
The year got off to a good start as late in 2002 I was given back my full time job at work and came into the New Year with a renewed outlook on life, not that I had a great deal of time to think about such things as we were so busy in work at first with the sale and then with the stock take. The shop was also going to be having a refit with a new dedicated bedroom department and I can remember the area manager asking if anyone wanted to apply for the position of running that department, the store manager told me that if I wanted the job I would have to go away for a week on a course and depending how I got on would depend on if I got the job, so I was a little nervous about all of this but.
Last January was also the last event that the Action Group organised with the pantomime, I had been hoping to get more events organised during the year but the meetings were put on hold until a decision was made about permission to build a community hall in the local park.
I also said goodbye to my ill-fated GK-Quiz, which was my attempt to get more interactive contents added to the site.

February
This was the month that the shop was closing for three weeks to have a major refit and at the start of the month looked like it was going to turn in to one hectic month as I had already been given information that I would be going to Strood but had still not been told if I was going to be getting the job of bedroom manager. There were all sorts of rumour flying around the shop and I was actually told that Christine had gotten the job that did make me wonder why I had to go on the course. I did however go on the course and was lucky to get a room to myself as a few people had dropped out and there were only eight of us staying at the hotel with a few others who were local travelling each day. I would like to think that I made friends with the others, especially the ones staying at the hotel but I do regret that I did not maintain contact with them.

It was at the start of February that the C.S.I. Fanlisting which I run was recognised as being official by the Fanlistings

I also decided to organise a weekend away with some of my friends, it was always something that we had planned to do after we got out of school before we all went our separate ways but back them we had planned to go abroad for a week and nothing ever materialised so this time it was a weekend in New Quay which was planned after I saw an offer they had in a daily newspaper. Valentines Day came and went and there was no “special person” in my life to send me a card or for me to send a card to but I am used to that now and can only hope that chances soon.
My computer also started playing up and finally broke down almost 12 months to the day when I had bought it so I was not happy when I was told that it was not covered by a guarantee and I would have to foot the bill myself, the shop could not even tell me what was wrong or how much it would cost to fix.

March
Arriving back from the course after passing with 100 percent I was pretty happy after we had been told that anyone getting under 70 percent would not be allowed to work in the bedroom department. The new area manager finally told me that I was the bedroom manager, which really made my day, and things were looking up. A new member of staff was also employed to help me and I will admit that my insecurity about doing the job got me thinking that the new employee (Kelly) who was female and more outgoing than myself would take my job off me within a few weeks - how wrong could I have been! Within two weeks of starting she had already taken her first day off sick and this is what I had to say about it “Kelly (the new member of staff) had phoned in sick. She had been complaining most of last week about not feeling too well, my gut instinct however has been telling me that maybe she had something planned and needed the day off and did not feel that she could ask” Regular visitors to my site over the past year will know the trouble we had with Kelly and I am sure she will come up again in this review.

I was told that my power unit had blown and that had caused some of the other components to get fried and many of them would need to be replaced. I decided to have the work carried out rather than buy a new base unit but I did ask them to upgrade the CPU.

April
I went out car shopping and got myself a Ford Escort after being off the road since 1998 when my last car got written off in an accident. I also got my computer back after having it repaired and it is only when you don’t have something that you realise how much of your life is taken up with it
The weekend down in New Quay was a little fraught and maybe that was because it was just the three of us and as we all have different ideas of what fun is that friction quickly developed between David and myself as we both have strong personalities. I did spend a bit of time thinking how we manage to be friends as we are nothing alike but then again if we were things would be a little boring! (Would I go again, of course I would)

    ...continue...
No Sins


Friday, January 02, 2004

Managed to get out of work early today, so enough time to get to the library and online, I will be glad to see Monday as everything will start getting back to normal - well my working hours will at any rate. I will however have some sorting out to do ensuring that beds which have been ordered turn up and the ones in the store are packed and sent out before the audit and stock take at the end of the month. Thanks to everyone who wished me a Happy New Year.
No Sins


Thursday, January 01, 2004

Well it is goodbye to 2003 and hello to 2004 and I hope that this year will be a lot more organised that the last. Over Christmas I started to clean out my address book on the computer and a big thank you to everyone who responded I have already decided that there is no point in being over sentimental about certain things and even through I may want to keep email addresses of people I spoke to when I first came online that I have not spoken to for years and having so many addresses to send emails to I always tend to not email anyone!

I have been so tired as it has been non-stop at work since Boxing Day, with early starts and late finishes. Work has been exhausting with us working longer hours than normal to capitalise on the “Sales” Saturday was quiet customer wise I was kept busy however wrapping beds which had been sold the day before - I would rather have not done this as I had not sold the bed, one of my pet hates is another member of staff selling a bed and telling the customer they can collect it and leaving it up to me to pack up! Sunday was busier and I actually got to sell some things. I spent last night in as I was to tired to venture out which was really stupid as I can’t expect to meet new people if I never go out. My computer base unit has been brought back to where I live (have to admit that this is not a home, merely somewhere that I sleep) and have to admit that I was a little disappointed that I did not get the chance to speak to everyone I wanted to but then again it was Christmas and that is a time for being with your family and not stuck in front on a computer screen.

Channel 4 have been showing the 100 greatest musicals over Christmas and I was a little disappointed that Grease was voted the greatest ever musical, okay it is good and in fact it was one of the DVD’s I recently ordered on Amazon but I don’t think I would call it the “Greatest”

No Sins