I'M BACK BITCHEZ!!!!! XD
Okay, thank God I don't ACTUALLY talk like that...
Hey guys :) It's been a while. I don't know how many people actually check out this place anymore, but welcome if you do. I believe my blog has been linked in a few places now in relation to the EVE Nottingham meet that is in TWO WEEKS (So excited!! XD) so who knows, maybe I have new readers! Yay!
Anyways, fan girl enthusiasm over. Let's get down to some actual stuff. :) I'm not quite sure what exactly what I was gonna talk about except letting you know I'm still alive.
As I've been still alive, I've been watching the Alliance Tournament. Now, not being able to log into EVE at the moment has started making me go just a tiny little batshit crazy about the game, and the AT has provided me with a wonderful outlet in the art of blowing up spaceships. Sad I can't blow things up myself, but there you go. Need to buy myself a new computer. But yes. My dear alliance unfortunately got beat last weekend by the incredibly lucky PL who somehow has got through the last three rounds... okay only the first two were on luck. But its been great watching and learning and seeing how all these things go.
This is the first AT I've ever watched since playing the game, as before, I wasn't in any sort of alliance that participated, so to be honest, I didn't really give a shit. But now, my beloved Shadow Cartel is kicking ass (or trying to), and I can't help but feel proud at the moments that are great, and sad at the moments that are not so great. Hellz, in that match against PL (go check it out if you haven't seen it- it was soooooo close!) I stopped breathing at one point and was watching through my fingers! Tense! Also... I might have squeaked a couple of times on comms in panic, but that can be ignored. >.> hehe
Apart from dear alliance, I've also been cheering on Feign Disorder aka 7-2. My dear friends from Molden Heath have been doing alright in their first AT, although today unfortunately was not their lucky day, and they are now in the losers bracket. But good on em! :D They had a couple of entertaining matches so ride on 7-2! I don't care if you rejected me :P You be good people. ^.^ (Plus, if you hadn't of rejected me I wouldn't have got into SC and that would be a very, very sad thing- cept to the people who would love me NOT being in alliance... paq. trouser... maybe a few others. :P)
I am grateful to Bagger (the most awesome CEO evar!) and Till, and the bunch of other people who have let me stay in this wonderful group so long. I feel incredible loyalty and thankfulness to you all, and hope that one day I can repay the trust and amusement and effort that you've given to me. Particularly you Bagger. I don't know if you accept hugs, but if you do, you might just get one at Nottingham meet just for being awesome and letting me hang around. heh.
Admittedly, I have been hanging around in various comms a lot more, but again, boredom is a bitch combined with the non-ability to log in. I never expected EVE withdrawals to be a thing, but apparently they are. I'm starting to live and breath meta-gaming. It's a legit problem. I think I need a proper hobby.
Speaking of hobbies, I'm going to go off on a completely irrelated tangent and tell you about loom bands. They're a strange little thing that was designed for kids- yeah okay, some kids toys are great right... lego... kinnex.... etc. But they're basically rubber bands that you make into awesome patterns and bracelets and pendants and teddy bears and clothes and all sorts of little nifty things. I've become far too addicted to them, see?
Anyways, another tangent, and a slightly longer one :P
For those who don't know, though I think you all do, I moved to England July 14th. I've been here ever since. Hopefully, I'll get a job soon and I can stay a bit longer. It's been an interesting month and a half already though. STORY TIME!
So, I got sent over here with an agency called The London Pub Company, which sets up live-in work for people from all over the world in the UK (they have pubs everywhere in the UK- supposedly), and they actually did find me a placement (as they should have for the money we stupidly paid them). It was at a place called The Running Horses, in a little cute village, quintessentially British called Mickleham. It even had a cute little church opposite it.
The job was minimum wage sure, but the area was nice (and rich!), and the manager seemed friendly enough. I had a wonderful friend that helped me move down there, and we had a great time road tripping it from Stoke (where I had been staying with my grandparents) down to good old Surrey. We debated dropping in to see W0wbagger at work, and then thought he wouldn't appreciate that, so we went on to the pub and all was well. Pulled up next to the most gorgeous pub in the cutest town and things couldn't possibly be too bad could they?
We met the manager- who seemed a bit... vague, but I brushed this off as a busy day or something. Until he showed me to my room. It hadn't been cleaned. He'd known I would be arriving that day for the last 5, and yet he hadn't had time to find someone to change the sheets on the bed, aquire pillows, clean up the dirty plates and cutlery that was lying there, nor had cleaned, dusted or so much as seemed to care about the room at all. Manager left us to it and me and my dear friend started cleaning up, discovering along the way that 1) there was no powerpoints in the room, 2) there was a dog that lived next door and had free reign of the hall, 3) the closet door was falling off and 4) the window wouldn't stay open without the use of two large sticks that had been provided for such an event.
It looked a bit better after the cleanup, so on to buying the things in town that we needed. As there was no kitchen facilities for live-in staff (cept a microwave.... >.>) we went into town and brought me a toaster, along with some basics, bread, milk, cereal, etc. We also brought some pillows, of which had not been able to find any in the room or even in the cupboards for the guest rooms of the hotel. We also brought an iron, because white work shirts and black pants need to be taken care of, and they don't look good all wrinkled. And there seemed to be none there to use. After settling in and begging my friend not to leave me here (he had to leave, but it was a worth a try), I had a bite to eat then wandered downstairs in boredom, deciding why not set off on the right foot and lend a hand somewhere?
Of course, being asked to polish wine glasses, I get a tad too enthusiastic with one and the flute shatters in my hand, cutting my finger. Great omen that. What could go wrong? It didn't take me long to realise if there was a first aid kit in the building, no one knew where it was, let alone where some 'plasters' would be (I confused everyone by asking for bandaids, until I realised that's very Australian of me, and changed my word use). I would find out the next day that while there was a first aid box... there was nothing in it. Pity that.
Next day, and I'm stuffed straight into the scrum. No matter that no paperwork or official 'you're employed now' stuff had taken place, I was being put to work!
Now... the thing about this pub, that some people love and some people (Mostly the front-of-house staff) hate is the fact that... well.... let me just show you and maybe you'll understand....
Bowties. Nowhere in my job description did it say that I was expected to wear a bowtie, and in hindsight, had I known ANYTHING important about this job, I wouldn't have accepted it. Also, when I took those photos, I'll have to note, I felt no inclination to smile for the photo, as I had just spent 40 pounds on the shirt, as M&S was the only shop in the town nearby- Dorking. FYI: 40 pounds equates to about $80).
(Side note: that desk with the towel on it was my 'ironing board', and to get power, I ended up letting the wall meet a screwdriver, and made a convenient hole in the wall that allowed me to feed the powercord for an extension lead (which of course I had to buy myself >.>) from the powerpoint in the hallway.)
Needless to say, I lasted a week. One week + 1 day. I fell in love with the locals (lovely people who were always willing to lend a hand, or an ear, or some advice) and the area (absolutely gorgeous, and I'm dissapointed I wasn't able to stay), but I knew if I stayed longer I would go insane slowly but surely- my poor friend had his phone going off all the time with my needy 'GOD I CANT DO THIS' over and over again, with some complaint about something. Patient guy that one. <3 He knows who he is. <3
Said friend also picked me up to take me home, back to my grandparents, and back to Stoke exactly 10 days after I had arrived. What a gem <3
In hindsight, and after being paid for my week of work, maybe I could have stuck it out a bit more, but to be honest, I could feel my mind already slipping away, so methinks I got out just in time.
EDIT: I have since found out that two of the chefs have left, and 5 of the staff have given notice that they're leaving to go to uni/college/school next month. I DEFINATELY got out just in time.
Anyways, that behind me, and back home and happy with my family, bowtie unhappy turns into this: my usual happy bouncy self :) (Along with stylish new coat- cause I came to England with no waterproof coats... lol).
This trip has made me learn A LOT about life and myself and people, and I copy here a facebook status I made at the start of the week- a moral booster of sorts at a moment I was feeling very, VERY dejected.
COPY FROM FACEBOOK:
I was talking to my dear Daddy after having some misgivings, and he said among lots of fatherly wisdom (if he doesn't mind me sharing a few of his words): 'We can bring you home but I think for the moment this experience will be priceless'.
It made me really think for a second, and I've decided that each week, I'm gonna share 5 things that I've learnt about life/myself/thoughts Probably more for my sake than yours, but why not I'm gonna do more than 5, to make up for the month I've been away now.
So... Things I've learnt about life/myself/others
1. I really, really REALLY need to work on my budgeting/money management skills.
2. Eating out one night each week, while amazingly awesome, does not help ones waistline.
3. I do not miss my university course/life/teachers at all. Not even slightly. While much more difficult to manage and rather inconvenient at times, I much prefer a tad more independence- and not being told what I HAVE to write is doing wonders for my creativeness. (I'm working on a short novel )
4. This sort of leads on from the last one- I like independence. While I've enjoyed a very sheltered, supported life with my parents, I can't do that for the rest of my life, and there's something refreshing and terrifying about being able to make my own decisions and not have to ask permission for everything. I like it.
5. On the other hand, I miss living at home and not having to make as many decisions! XD
6. I love, love, love, LOVE my family. Both my immediate and extended. It's that old 'you don't know what you got till its gone'. I miss my daddy and mummy and sister and brother more than I can explain, but at the same time...
7. Social media is totally underrated. The internet is a wonderful tool that I've only just realized is extremely useful in communicating. I mean, I always knew it, but its really sunk in now you know?
8. Mobile phone companies can suck it. (Pardon my rudeness lol). They charge way too much to stuff around with phones way too much to do something that is not really very good in the end anyways.
9. I really love pork scratchings. I just don't like the ones that still have hair on them. Ick. lol
10. Don't underestimate the usefulness of ones internet/online friends. Most, if not all from Britain from that awesome world of EVE Online have been incredibly helpful. And of course, don't trust them straight away all that stuff, and still be careful, but don't underestimate their awesomeness
11. Stand up for what you believe in, and understand that you don't have to settle for less. This one seems a little odd, but after the very crappy job I was given, and the need to get out of their, don't feel guilted into staying somewhere that makes you deeply unhappy. Just don't. Don't compromise on your standards.
12. Gratitude gratitude gratitude. I've had so much given to me in my life, and I'm grateful for every tiny bit of it. I just wish I'd been more thankful in moments where I could have shown it.
13. Hugs are totally underrated.
14. Surrey is an absolutely stunning area of England, and I will miss it for sure.
15. Honeybees are to be loved, hornets are to die horrible horrible deaths.
16. Driving in a pain in the ass and public transport in England is pretty damn convenient.
17. Home Bargains is the best shop in the history of ever.
18. It's okay to cry. Just use those tears to make yourself stronger, not weaker. Feel what you need to feel, then move on. This is still my greatest struggle, and always will be, but I'll get there.
So... I've probably forgotten a bunch, and its quite a varied mix, but there we are. heh. ^.^ Have fun with those.
A short and sweet list... sort of... but its all true, and its all stuff that I have learned from branching out into the big, bad world by myself for the first time. Some days I wonder, 'why the fuck did I move to the other side of the world to try this?' But I know, one day, I'm sure I'm going to look back on this and realise, it was totally worth it, whether I get a job or not.
To those who are my age, who haven't quite had the confidence to move out of their comfort zones yet- do it. It's highly scary, and hard and somewhat intimidating, and yes, you WILL make mistakes. But honestly, its worth every other moment of positiveness. Already I feel I am a stronger, more independant person, even when every other day I have a brief moment of sadness that my family is on the other side of the world (FYI: Homesickness is a bitch). For those of you who have done this before, and warned me it was going to be hard, you were right. This is hard. lol.
And for all you British friends.... anyone have any jobs available around Stoke on Trent? I'll work for minimum wage? XD haha.
Back to EVE for the closing moment, as I'm sure most of you were hoping happened a lot sooner, but to all the UK members out there.... get your ass to Nottingham on the 13th of September. :P I wanna meet as many of you nerds as I can while I'm here, and as I have booked my hotel already, I will most definately be making my presence known on the Friday (the 12th). If anyone else plans on going early, let me know and lets catch up! (Though I am intending to visit Nottingham Castle on arrival :P)
Let's bring the awesome weekend on! :D
Cheers guys! :) And hopefully I can talk your ear off more often now :P
P.S. If anyone actually just read all that..... you're a champion and deserve a medal. XD
(A picture my mum sent me at a time I was feeling particularly down, and is now my wallpaper)
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