I'd apologise for being away for so long but...I hate it when other people do it on their sites, so I won't do it on mine. If you don't like it, suck it up. 
- My sister turned 18 on October 11th. For this special birthday, I got her a Zebra-print mobile phone^ and a Jack Skellington head knocker^.
- I also got a new mobile phone for me; I was on the lookout for a new one, since my old one was getting - well - old. I saw the LG KS360^ and fell in love. It's got a QWERTY keypad, which is better for texting on. Since it's on Orange (it was only available on Orange at the time) and my old SIM card is a Vodafone one, I had to get an Orange SIM card; I got the Dolphin Pay As You Go package, which means I get 300 free texts a month when I top up £10. (600 free when I top up £20!) My new phone is called Little Pilot.
- Myke bugged me and bugged me and bugged me and I finally gave in: I started watching Farscape^. And I love it. My favourite character is Pilot, he's so cool!
- My O'Neill coat is old (it's about three, maybe four years old). It's a ski jacket but no longer keeps me warm, so I was in the market for a nice new, WARM coat. I looked around and I ended up with this coat.^ I paid £50 for it at the time and that might seem a lot but my O'Neill coat? Cost over £100, so it's not that much in comparison.
Also bought myself a new umbrella (my last one snapped in half and almost took my eye out) and a new handbag.
- Those new shoes I talked about in my last entry? The pair from the cheap shoe shop decided to die on me last week - the chunky sole detached itself from the top of the shoe, so I once again had to buy myself a new pair. I ended up - again - with two new pairs of shoes and guess what? THEY HAVE HEELS. And I haven't broken my neck yet! Okay, so they're only like, an inch high but still - I'm wearing HEELS again! Hopefully, these will at least last me through the winter. I'm sick of buying shoes.
- I'm almost done with my Christmas shopping - I still have to get my dad a present, Myke his main present, Tay's present and three of my grandparents a present each but other than that, I've bought all the presents! I even bought presents for the "in-laws" and for my dad's new girlfriend and her kids. I also bought wrapping paper earlier, so out of The Extra Christmas Crap, I just need to get Christmas cards! How are you doing with your Christmas shopping?
I'm now starting to bore myself, which means that you must be very bored. So I'll bugger off for now and ramble some more soon!
I had a mission today: to get some new tops suitable for both work and the winter weather and to replace my old work shoes, since they decided to die recently.
I quizzed some of the girls at work about what was available. I was told that knitwear was starting to arrive and there were actually sleeved tops too!
I went in today with high hopes and came home disappointed.
It was really busy in town and I hate crowds and queues. A lot of the clothes I could kind of see myself wearing were not currently available in my size (sold out) or, upon trying them on, I realised that they don't actually suit me.
Most of the shoes had insanely high heels (I can't wear a heel at all - my ankles freak out and I end up on the floor), were made for people with stick-thin legs or had foam-like soles (which wear out within a couple of months).
The tops I wanted to buy were supposed to be mainly for work but also something I could wear if I wanted to leave the house for any other reason. I'm a conservative dresser by nature; I don't do sleeveless, low-cut, above-the-tummy tops anyway, so this should have been an easy task.
Most of the knitwear available was white or nearly white. I'm not a size zero and I have curves; I cannot get away with wearing white or near-white clothes.
I did find a few tops I liked in Primark but the queues put me off; that store is a very large one and the customers were queuing from one end of the store to the other and the cashiers are so bloody slow!
I sulked off to Peacocks and found three tops I liked, two of which were knitted and all three were cowl or roll necks.
My previous pair of work shoes were a pair of fake-Uggs I bought from Primark for £6 about a year ago. They were really comfortable, warm and could be worn both over my trousers and under them. Although it would be nearly impossible to replace these shoes, I was willing to try.
And try I did. I must have gone into all of the shoe and clothing shops in the city centre, instantly "feeling up" the soles and dismissing the soft soled ones (if they're foam or soft soled, don't buy them because you'll wear a hole through them within a couple of months).
I finally ended up with two pairs, both black, both suitable to wear to work.
The first pair are high ones, with a little stripe of fake-fur around the top and along the sides. They have a chunky sole, so they should last me a while. I got them in a cheap shoe shop known as The Shoe Zone. Cheap my arse; they cost £15...but they have a rubber sole, so they're forgiven. At least I got £s;5 off, I guess. =\
The other pair are like a black version of my sand-coloured Benetton Uggs; medium height, pretty plain to look at and rubber soled. I bought them from Next and got them for a third of the original price, so I'm pretty proud of myself. And. I love them to bits! I wanted to wear them home and I want to wear them now!
As a cashier, I was subjected to germs by Mr and Mrs Average Joe every day.
People would cough and sneeze all over me (and the other cashiers) and most wouldn't even apologise for it. Towards the end, I was getting so annoyed about it, I'd tell the customers to excuse themselves when they sneeze or cough, put their hand up because it's disgusting not to and that - hey! - I don't want your germs, thanks!
Most of them would look annoyed that I was pointing out how rude they were being but some of them would look ashamed and apologise.
I don't think any of them complained about me though.
A receptionist is subjected to these germs in the same way but not only by the customers, people they work with will cough and sneeze all over them. They'll cough or sneeze into their hands, handle a piece of paper and then give it to the receptionist. Some of them won't do it intentionally but that's not the point.
This country has the attitude that, unless you're on your deathbed, you're to come to work when you're ill.
This completely ignores the fact that, what's a cold to one person, could potentially be life-threatening to another. And also, I don't want your germs, thanks.
While I was on holiday, one of my co-workers developed a particularly nasty cold. They continued going to work and, by the time I got back, two other people in the office had developed the cold.
Since I've been back, those two people are starting to feel (and sound) better but my supervisor got struck down by it last week.
I started displaying symptoms on Thursday and I've got a wheezey, tickley cough that's bad enough to stop me from breathing temporarily and makes me dizzy from lack of oxygen.
Had the co-worker, who brought the illness back with them from their holiday, taken three days off as sick, everyone else wouldn't have developed the nasty cold and be suffering. And I'd be able to breathe without coughing.
Oh yeah, and other people wouldn't have to had to take days off sick instead.
