Thursday 24h July 2003, 8:55am

Week 22, Day 121

Ok, so it's been like over a month since I last wrote. I do have many excuses for my delay but I won't list them. To put things into perspective, even my travel journal isn't up to date and I'm doing this before that, so at least I've got my priorities straight!

In the last month I have...

Moved house
Am in Chapel Allerton, about a 15min bus trip from Leeds City Centre. I love it here because it's so close, reasonably quiet and the house is great. It's got a nice big kitchen so I've had lots of fun cooking- what else would you expect from me?

Turned 23
For some reason this is the first year that I have instantly been able to remember my age when asked without thinking. Normally there's a six month period where I still think of myself a year younger, and have to correct myself when people ask. Received a few cards from people I didn't expect - Dave's mother, Si & Caroline. Dave took me for dinner to Hansa's, a vegetarian Indian restaurant before we headed off to The Wardrobe to have a boogie on their swing/jive night. We were joined by Henry and Amit and I had a few cocktails. On the present front I got Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix and a combined hand held blender/mixer from Dave, some funds from my parents which I put to good use already, a lovely top from Sophie & Carmella, a Lord of the Rings guide book to New Zealand from Damian and the complete set of Bluetones guitar books from me! I was also lucky enough to have Happy Birthday sung to me over the phone by Nikki and Jules, and received some lovely texts/emails from several people, all of which I'm grateful for!

Caved again
Not such a big caving trip this time. Just Dave, Sam and I. We visited the caves you're supposed to go to as a beginner but it was still fun abseiling down to one of the caves and learning about that.

Fixed the car
After a few trips to the mechanic, we not only spent money on fixing the alternator, starter motor, re-earthing and changing battery, but we realised that the only thing that was different in the car from when it was handed over was the radio (Dave's dad put in a new one before he gave it to us), so when we unplugged it, we found that all our problems too disappeared. Phew!

Read lots
After stumbling across the name of the more recent addition to Orson Scott Card's Ender series (well the Shadow saga of the series), I ordered it in right away. However, I had bought the first book, Ender's Game second hand for Dave because I knew he'd like it, and so thought I'd re-read all six previous books to remind myself of the story. I am up to the sixth one so once I finish that, I can finally read the one I haven't read yet. Am also currently reading Harry Potter with Dave but we're only like a third of the way through.

Got a job
After several interviews, trial shift and what not, I got accepted at Nando's to be Assistant Restaurant Manager! I was stoked because the process had dragged on for over a month and I really needed to get back into work. I was also keen on the training they'd supply me, but was pleasantly surprised when they decided to pay me £1k more a year than I expected. And they sent me down to London so...

Visited Dave's parents
We took a day trip to see his parents just before I started work so we could pick up more of his stuff - and there's a lot of it we left behind too!

Visted London
I only needed to be in London for a day for my Nando's induction day, but as I had time, they said it was ok for me to go earlier to visit friends. So I did. Ended up walking around London and feeling like a tourist again which was kind of nice. Saw a few of the main attractions but enjoyed visiting the Saatchi Gallery and Dali exhibition the most. Oh, and seeing The Complete Works of William Shakespere (Abridged) which was hilarious. I wrote so many postcards so I hope all that received them enjoyed :)

Started work
The day after getting back from London was my first shift. They weren't sure what to do with me as I had already done my induction and they thought they'd have to run through that with me so I got put on the grills straight away. Abbas was my 'buddy' (an instore trainer that a trainee gets assigned to) and I learned quite quickly why he's was given the job to train me - that guy knows it all! He's very efficient and in a way, works a lot like me, so I fit right in. It was weird being the only girl on the grill (very blokely area of the job) but I wear my burn marks with pride! And can cook chicken, chicken & vegie burgers, chicken livers, chicken wings and chips to a tea :) After two weeks on the grill though, I have now been let out into the public and am front of house - so I'm welcoming customers at the door, doing cashier and waitressing and I feel more in my element there with the whole customer service thing. Being part of a team also means I'm making some work friends, but will not name them as there are not only too many, but I fear one day they'll read this and tell me off for something ;) I am looking forward to transfering to Castleford - I am one of the team that will be helping setting up that new restaurant, along with one of the other trainee assistant managers, Les, and our manager Andy.

Got drunk with my managers
After my first shift I went for drinks with Andy, Gordon (Manager of Leeds restaruant), Garry (MD for the area) and Hailey (she's my Front of House Buddy). As I hadn't eaten, I realised that at 9:30pm when I left and was sitting on the bus, that I was horribly drunk and hardly remember the trip home. I said hello to Dave and Henry who was visiting (helping Dave with car problems actually) and then passed out in bed. Needless to say I felt ill the next day and could only keep bread in my stomach!!

Booked my flight home
Those in Oz will be happy (or unhappy as it may be) to hear I will be returning for a short period from the 12th - 21st November. I am looking to buy a round trip from Sydney back to Manchester, so no doubt I'll be able to visit again soon and maybe for longer, we'll see.

Got drunk with my managers Part 2
Just two days ago, Les and another trainee manager, Phil (he's staying in Leeds though) started their training at Leeds so Andy thought it a good time for he, Les and I to drink to the new team. Andy, Gordon, Garry, Hailey and I were there again, along with Jackie (another manager), Louise (supervisor), Jaime (a fellow Aussie who is living in Newcastle and setting up a Nando's there, so she's getting help from Gordon here in Leeds) and Dave came along too. Started off with a drink at work straight after our shift, headed to the Radisson for another drink, then to Tiger Tiger for lots of wine (this is where I decided to lay off the wine as I had flashbacks of the last episode and my stomach felt ill from not eating and drinking too much) which is where most people started their journey to drunkedness... and then ended up at Park which was Dave and my last stop, but the others kept on going. Apparantley, Andy turned up for his 9am-5pm shift at 3:30pm! haha! Poor Les was in such a state that his already irritated girlfriend had to pick him up from the train station in Leeds (they live in Castleford) because he couldn't even read the screens to work out when and where to catch his train. As I stopped drinking after a while, Dave had my share of drinks, and was somewhat plastered himself. A successful drinking evening was had by all.

And that brings me to where I'm at now. And hopefully I can at least up date my blog weekly with relatively interesing details! Until then, ciao ciao!!

x
Vanessa

PS: Should there be any spelling errors in this rant, you'll have to grin and bear them because after such a long absence from typing, I'm too lazy to re-read and correct.