Work Worries

All my interviews are over now (I withdrew from Thursday’s interview since I’ve now been offered the promotion post and between Thursday’s and the promotion job I’d rather take the promotion job).  Today’s interview was okay in that I wasn’t under any sort of pressure having been offered a post already yesterday so I was really just being myself and the interviewers were in fact, very nice.  I’m not sure how I did though, as in, I think I probably did quite well but if they don’t offer me the job it just means that another interviewee was better than me on the day or that they don’t think I’ll fit that well into their team.  As far as I am concerned though, I did myself justice and I am already happy with that.  I’m not going to think badly of myself if I don’t get the job, let me put it that way.

But you know what?

You’d think that now I have been offered a new post my work worries would have abated somewhat.  Well not really.  I think my control freak manager might be sabotaging me because she still wants me under her wing so she can order me about.  It’s like I can’t get rid of her; she’s like a piece of dog shit that you step on and even with intense scrubbing you can’t completely get rid of the traces of crap that’s wormed its way deep into the grooves of your soles.

So help me pray again everybody that I manage to somehow negotiate my way out of having her as a manager again and strike a deal where I can leave her, my current work and team behind for good.  Not that I don’t like my team even with their many many weird quirks (good and not so good) but I’m sick to death of them and I just really need a change.

I honestly really cannot deal with that egotistical power crazed bitch any longer.  If I have to endure another one of her childish moods and listen to another one of her terrible attempts at manipulating us I might snap and really tell her the truth about herself.  She ranks up there as one of the most vain and unprofessional people I’ve had the misfortune of working with.

So please, pray for me that I manage to make my escape okay?  Thanks!!! =)

Friday…… I need Friday…..

The end is in sight.  The end to this week that is.  Thank goodness.

Unfortunately, the path to the end of my troubles at work is still unclear.  I suppose my challenge is to mow down and destroy all the overgrowth and obstacles in my way to unveil the pass that will bring me  to a better place.  How long that will take me I don’t know.  But it’s not like I’m not trying my damnedest.

The weather forecast is really depressing!  If you don’t believe me, go to the BBC website and search for the weather for the next four days for “London”.  See?  （；_・）

On a happy note, when I got home today after a nightmare journey during which GM and I even had to traverse uncharted waters and TAKE THE BUS, I found a postcard in amongst the pile of bills and junk mail.  A postcard for me! \(*O*)/  It was from my Japanese friend Emi.  Remember her?  She sent me a talking Doraemon toy to my hotel when I last went to Osaka.  We used to email but for the last couple of years we’ve been sending each other postcards instead.  Not often, but at least a couple of times per year to show we still care =)  She sends me a pretty Japanese one every summer and I try to send her one now and then when I’m abroad.  Last time I sent her a postcard was from Perth – I think I sent her one with a pic of Matilda Bay which she said was really pretty!

It’s my friends and family who keep me sane really, otherwise I might go bloody loony.  My happy things today were having lunch with an ex-colleague, Michael, who bought me lunch and let me rant, receiving an email from GM just saying “Hi” and wishing me a nice day, finding Emi’s surprise postcard at my front door, reading Ah Ma’s mail and reading Di’s new blog entry.  All little things but so essential for my soul’s wellbeing.  ＼（＾ ＾）／  Fuck the Rottweiler (my new nickname for the bitch at work)!  She can’t touch me when I have my friends and family looking after me!  Hahaha.

Hysterical?  Perhaps… ―(T_T)  Haih………..

Food Diary

Lunch – One skinny grande latte and one roast chicken and salad sandwich from Starbucks.  Plus loads of bitching hahaha.

Snack – One banana

Dinner – Two boiled eggs with grilled chicken slices, ham, coriander and sweet basil leaves

Snack – One bowl ice-cream

Snack – Another gazillion Ferrero Rochers!  But I’ve finished the box now and I will not be buying anymore so after today there will be no more Ferrero Rocher binges!

Drinks – Peppermint tea, English tea, water

Not So Much a Blip…

… as a catastrophe.

You might have noticed that I didn’t post an entry last night.  Why?  Because I went to bed extremely early.  At around 9pm to be exact.  Why?  Because my stomach was hurting really badly and I was really bloated as well, which added to the pain.  Why?  Well…….

Last night I had a blip of such mammoth standards that I think it’s safe to call it a catastrophe health kick-wise.

I got home from work and felt this urge to stuff my face and binge eat till I couldn’t cram another morsel down my throat.  This might have to do with the thought of my monster manager returning to work today after a week and a half of leaving us in almost peace.  It might have to do with the dread of hearing her strident voice stirring up the latest drama the minute I stepped foot into work in the morning.  Or it might have to do with the already constant barrage of emails from her picking fault in everything and undermining practically all that we’ve done.  The afternoon BEFORE she was due back.  I’m just saying it might be all that.  Who knows.

So I got home and cooked GM and I a lovely thai green curry using ingredients leftover from Sunday’s dinner party.  I’ve found this out the hard way: using less ingredients is sometimes more in cooking, as in, using too many ingredients or using too much of one ingredient just because you have it doesn’t necessarily add to the taste of a dish.  In fact it might detract from it.  Which is why on Sunday I only used half of every ingredient in my curry and it turned out lovely.  As did last night’s.

Now if I had only stopped at rice with green curry I would still have been on the health kick path.  Unfortunately I went bonkers and ate almost a whole layer of Ferrero Rochers afterwards.  I suspect that’s what gave me the terrible tummyache.

It was a good lesson learnt though.  Never again will I stuff myself to tummyaching point.  It’s just not worth it.

Yesterday’s Food Diary

Lunch- Chicken tikka slices with salad, cucumber, pineapple chunks, coriander and sweet basil leaves.  A wedge of lemon on the side for dressing.

Snacks – One banana, three satsumas

Dinner – Rice with big bowl thai green curry.  Delicious.

Snack – A gazillion Ferrero Rochers

Drinks – Peppermint tea, English tea, water

So was today as bad as I thought it’d be?  Well yes and no.  Yes in the way that the first thing my mate on reception said to me as I walked into the building was, “She’s in! And she’s upset nearly everyone already!”  Not exactly very uplifting nor reassuring.  And she was in.  And yes, she was already barking down the phone at people and creating drama and trouble where they weren’t needed.

On the other hand, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be because she left me alone most of the day.  And when she did speak to me she was alright.  If she bitched she was bitching about someone else, not I.

Actually, she doesn’t really bitch at me, ever.  But does that mean I shouldn’t dislike her and her atrocious management style and way of working?  She’s not directly nasty to me but she has no cause to.  That doesn’t mean I agree with the terrible way she treats people in general, badgering and bullying to get her own way.   And I absolutely resent the way she puts everyone on edge so we’re walking on eggshells most of the time.  We’re grown adults, we should be bloody civilised.  Please don’t make us feel like we’re 12 and in the school playground again where children don’t know any better and are cruel to each other for sport and we have to fight to not be picked on.

One of my colleagues is apparently off sick from work for the next two weeks with stress and depression.  Are we surprised?

If you think I hate my job you’re both right and wrong.  I like my job.  But I hate my job because I hate my manager.

Food Diary

Lunch – Salade de Merguez.  This is the hot salad with merguez sausages that I had last Friday.  I went to the same restaurant again, but with different people.

Snack – One banana

Dinner – Two boiled eggs and 3 slices of ham with coriander and sweet basil leaves.  One bowl of muesli.

Dessert – Two Ferrero Rochers.  Improvement right?!

Drinks – Peppermint tea, English tea and water

The Narky Ninja Strikes Again!

It took me ages to draw this

Remember my alter ego, the Narky Ninja?  She only manifests herself during times of extreme annoyance when nothing except a bit of nark would do to right the wrongs.

She’s back!!!

I’m sure all of you remember vividly the trouble I had with Singapore Airlines and their severely delayed flight back around Christmas time.  I said I would write to complain, and I did – six whole pages of it.  Some of you have read this letter, some haven’t but suffice to say that it was lengthy.  And vexed.

It took me nearly two weeks to compose because it was exhausting and traumatic just recalling the stress I had to live through during that ordeal but I told myself that I owed it to myself to let Singapore Airlines know just how much grief they caused me.  Indeed if I hadn’t complained I believe I would have regretted it and would always feel like I had done myself a great disservice and injustice.  Not to mention letting down everyone else who was involved – Ah Ma for all the stress and trouble she went through, Jo and Di for their anxiety and concern, GM for all that he did to help me and the huge amount of secret stressing he must have done and Heri for her worry and the macarons she missed.

I sent my letter to the CEO by registered post.  Today I got a reply.

They are refunding me the total cost of my airfare which is around £900.  TOO RIGHT!  They also want me to submit a breakdown of my out of pocket expenses for their consideration and believe you me, I will be doing this as soon as I get a good amount of time on my hands.

And the moral of the story is: never evoke the wrath of the Narky Ninja!

GM’s first attempt at using the drawing tablet

Invasion of Space

Some people can be really shameless.  Inconsiderate, rude and shameless.

Tonight GM and I met some friends for dinner.  There was a carpark near the restaurant we were going to which had a flat fee of £1 after 6.30pm and that’s really good by London standards so we opted to park there.  When we got into the carpark we realised that a fair amount of people also thought it was a good deal as the carpark seemed to be relatively full.  That wasn’t a problem though, we just went higher up the parking complex thinking that there would be a space somewhere soon.

So on we drove.

On the 6th floor we saw a group of people walking presumably towards their car so I asked GM whether he wanted to wait for them to leave and park in their space and he said maybe not because they looked like they might take a while getting into their car.  So we went one level up, still no spaces.  But by the time those people had already gotten into their car and looked like they were ready to go, so GM decided to go back down and grab their space after all.  It just so happened that their space was right in front of the way down so we stopped on the decline and waited.

Whilst we were waiting however, a red car drove up from the 5th floor and they had to wait on the incline for the car leaving to get out of their way before they could drive on.  I thought out loud, “They’re not going to park in the space are they?” but GM caught the driver’s eye and motioned that he was waiting so we thought all was well.  The previously parked car left and we waited for the red car to drive past and go on its merry way before we parked.  However, before our very eyes, that red car very slowly rolled into our space.  The space that we had so obviously been waiting for!

I was outraged!  But evidently not as much as GM.  Those of you who know him will know that he is mostly calm and non-confrontational.  But he was livid.  He actually sounded his horn and he never does that, ever.  Then he rolled down his window and just sat there in the car with a grim look on his face.  So the red car obviously knew something was wrong and the driver wound down his window and kind of half-hearted stuck his head out.

GM shouted, “I was waiting for that space!” and the driver of the red car had the cheek to say, “Can’t you just go take those spaces further on?” (There were NO spaces further on so he was blatantly talking shit).  GM replied, “No, YOU go.  I was waiting for that space!”  The driver of the red car tried his luck again and said, “But….. can’t you just go further on and take those spaces?”

Now, if it was me, by this time I’d be royally pissed off but I’d have given it up as a lost cause, flipped the red car’s driver the birdie and driven off, shouting profanities. Not GM.  He just sat there and repeated, “No!!  YOU go and take those spaces!  I have been sitting here waiting for that space!”  Amazing.  Even more amazingly, guess what the driver of the red car said?  He had a kind of fed-up with the whole situation look on his face and said kind of hopefully, “Can’t you just go down and take those spaces?”  To which GM just sat there and shouted, “NO!  YOU GO!  I even showed you that I was waiting!!!”

In the end, the driver of the red car finally gave in, pulled out and left, with him and his passengers (he had three) giving us the daggers on the way out.  Well yeah, we’re soooooooooooooo scared.  We’re sooooooooo concerned.  I think not.  Bloody rude bastard.

Some people are just ridiculous!  I’d be ashamed to steal someone’s parking space because it’d show me up as an ill-mannered asshole, but obviously some people are okay with that.

But GM.  I’ve hardly ever seen him so angry ever.  I was quite shocked; he can be pretty scary!