June

Hello (:

It's been a long time, eh? This new job lark has really been doing me in.

So, June! I started my new job on the 1st. I've never had a full time office job before so the past month has been a lot of getting to grips with things and adjusting to getting up really early and having a lot less time to be sat around the house. I can't say it's been the most thrilling time of my life, but there has been some really good weekends.

I had to work on the first Saturday I started. It was a bit of a kick, but I needed the Saturday I was originally scheduled for swapping as that was the weekend me and those two in the photo above were going to Thorpe Park.

Best. Weekend. Ever.

I'm sure I've said those words X amount of times about X amount of weekends (Download Fest '13, anyone?) but it really kept me going when work got tougher. All expectations were lived up to.

We booked Thorpe Park back in January and planned it around my friend's 24th birthday. We managed to get a seriously good deal, it was around £200 for four people to stay in the Shark Hotel with two days entry to Thorpe Park. The weekend we'd chosen fell on an event as well, so we got free tickets to the Ministry of Sound party that was taking place on the Saturday night.

We arrived on the Saturday and headed straight to the theme park and managed to get around it all two or three times. I think we went on The Swarm the most over the whole weekend. If you do go to Thorpe Park, definitely get yourself onto the backwards seats on it, it's probably one of the best rollercoasters I've ever been on. We were all quite surprised with the layout of the park, we're all so used to walking miles around Alton Towers so we were quite pleased to find out Thorpe Park is much more compact. Combine that with the fact it was fairly quiet, meaning less time queuing proved for a successful day.

The Shark Hotel is really interesting as well. It's just off to the side of the theme park and it's really small, we had a room for four with one double bed and a set of bunk beds. Our fourth person dropped out at the last minute though, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise as the room was a little claustrophobic at times. Especially when we were all trying to get ready for the event! The event wasn't for me at all. I'm not into Ministry of Sound, the music and the atmosphere of it really isn't my thing. Because we'd not brought our bags into the hotel when we checked in (we left site for a Nandos) we ended up being subjected to really invasive checks where security went through all our things and I almost had my backcomb brush taken off me because they thought it could be used as a weapon!

The Ministry of Sound event was for want of a better word, pants. It's not my thing at all and security was really tight and there were rumours flying round that people were taking drugs in the toilets and all sorts. No. Just, no. So, we bought a double vodka Slush Puppy each for £8 and went on The Swarm in the dark (rides were open till 11) then called it a night around half 12.

On the Sunday, we had breakfast in the bar (seriously SO good!) I stuck to mini croissants and jam and chocolate spread, but those two went all out and had full English. We then went round the park again, and went on everything for the last time, as well as The Swarm a good four times! It was a really good weekend and I can't recommend Thorpe Park enough, we're already looking at going back next year.

Other than Thorpe Park, not much else has happened this month! We had a night out for my friend's 24th birthday, ate a lot of pizza, I went to Sheffield Hallam's open day and scared myself silly and still haven't made any concrete decisions about the future. If anything that open day has created more problems in my head. Then, last week myself and my mum went on a little coach trip across to Skegness. I haven't been since I was about sixteen so it was a nice little nostalgia trip including chips and donuts.

The only other big news I've got from June (although not really because we booked it yesterday) is that me and my best pal are going on holiday to Las Vegas in August 2016! We booked it on a bit of a whim last night, having spoken about it for a good year now. We're staying at The Flamingo hotel and I couldn't be more excited to get there.

I hope June's treated you well. I feel like summer's properly started this week with all the unbearable humidity and plenty of sunshine! Hopefully it won't be so long until the next post.

Starting Over

Hello (:

This post was originally going to be a bit of an advice piece, but where I'm alright at giving advice, I'm really bad at taking my own. If someone else was to say the things I wanted to say, I'd listen and take it on board, but if it's me, my brain rejects it. So, this post might be lightly peppered with pieces of advice, but it's not a 'do and don't' list.

I started a new job last week and I found the whole ordeal to be a lot less stressful than anticipated. I haven't started a job for a good three years, I had been stuck in my previous employment for that long I thought I'd never leave. I disliked it from the very beginning and despite applying for endless jobs and having strings of interviews I never got anywhere.

I never got anywhere for various reasons.

In some interviews, I was super nervous. I remember having an interview for a local newspaper not long after finishing my NCTJ and totally effing it up because I was too nervy. It was also quite awkward because there were three men interviewing me and I never knew who to look at when I answered their questions.

In others I found they weren't as good as advertised. Casual work, evenings, weekends only, to be fully flexible, zero hour contracts or just simply not enough hours to match or better what I was already contracted to.

Last Monday, I didn't feel like I'd won the lottery. I didn't feel happy or relived to finally be in a full time job. I came home and cried in the kitchen because I didn't like it. The work was dull and wasn't what I expected. The people were clique-y and one girl even tried to get me into trouble. No one had shown me around and I had to find out where the toilets were myself. I didn't know how to print things or where on earth I could find some new staples. I cried because I missed the familiar and my friends.

The week started off pretty hellish. I cried on Tuesday morning before I had to set off and then I had to do my make up on the bus. I hated this job and I missed my friends. I'm quite a quiet person when I don't feel comfortable around people and felt incredibly patronised when one of the girls told me I had to 'talk to people to pass the time on or you're just sat there doing work'.

So, I spent my lunch times and evenings texting my pals. Because, what better way to get through it and push away the loneliness than speaking to all your favourite people?

I find it very difficult to speak to people if I've got no common ground with them. I hate it when rooms are so quiet everyone can listen in to your conversation. I open up a lot more when I feel properly comfortable around others. So, no, I'm not going to be sitting at my desk mouthing off just yet, because I know that's the wrong way to go about things. I've spoken to people about cheese and people's hand writing and how annoying it is that people always think they're right. But, I don't feel like we're friends yet.

My best pal made a very good point the weekend before I started. She told me everyone there has been in the same position as me at some point. And I'd never thought of it that way before. Since speaking to the person who's been training me, I've found out most people on my team have only been there a couple of months maximum. It's made me feel a lot less alone in this, in the sense that we're all learning, we're just all at different stages.

It's been a horrible week, I'm not going to lie, but it's over with now and we're onto the next week. It can only get easier and better from this point on.

At least I've found out which cupboard the staples are kept in.

Have you started somewhere new recently? How have you handled it?

May

Hi, hello (:

I'm getting dead good at this blogging more often lark, aren't I? NOT! I don't even really have much of an excuse as to why it's been so inconsistent again. After I posted my Fine Hair Saviours post, I had a big list of make up and beauty bits and bobs to review and chat about, but I never really got round to it.

May started off quite badly. I wasn't having a good time at work and I had to drop out of going to see Twin Atlantic with my sister because of it. I was really unhappy and not in a good place. I had a job interview for a call centre and even though it wasn't what I wanted to do for work, I wanted a way out of retail. I didn't get the job.

Fast forward to a week later and I had another interview and was offered the job an hour later. I'd be mental not to take a full time admin role over my part time retail job. So I took it and waited for my offer letter to arrive in the post so I could hand in my notice. It had been squared at interview that I wouldn't be starting until the 1st June, due to having too many other things going on in the last week of May.

I can honestly say, I've worked at Primark for nearly three years and it's been some of the worst times of my life so far. It's been nothing but constant bitching, pressure, upset and anger. From word 'go', I hated it. I've talked about leaving for such a long time, that the longer it went on, the less I thought it would ever happen. After handing my notice in on the Monday, I was in such a daze for the whole week. I wasn't upset to leave the place, but I was upset to leave my friends behind. As much as I've loathed the job from the start, I can't deny I've made some incredible friends and met some interesting people along the way.

So, that right there is my excuse for not blogging. I was in such a daze after finding out I'd gotten the job, then handing my notice in, it was a couple of weeks of feeling like I was in some sort of dream world. I kept thinking I'd wake up and it'd all have been a dream.

My last day was really surreal. Because I never thought I'd get to leave, it felt very weird. I used to do the last shift of the day so when we go to the shop floor at six, the day shift staff start to leave. Saying bye to them was really weird, then the daytime manager coming to wish me luck was also a bit dream like. My friends from other departments popped down to see me, but I was kept separated from my friends on my department. Which, I wasn't best pleased about. That was until we all got called to the loading bay. Our manager and supervisor were acting really shifty and I just assumed we were about to be told off for something, but no. One of my best pals pulled a Build-A-Bear box from behind the boxes of stock and inside was a pink unicorn they'd all clubbed together to get for me.

I don't think I've done a happy squeal like that for a while, to be honest.

All in all, after that it was a pretty decent last day. I managed to speak to most people and got to say bye to my friends (not that I won't ever see them again, because I will) but it was just nice to feel appreciated and made me feel all fuzzy. Like sometimes I feel like so happy that my chest might burst and that's how I felt on my last day.

I had last week off completely and I'm quite glad I did. I'd booked two days off from Primark anyway, and we got bank holidays off by default.

On bank holiday Monday my sister and I made the journey down to Wolverhampton to Slam Dunk Festival. I've never been to Slam Dunk before and I can safely say, I'll be going again, albeit to Leeds. It was such a good day, despite the extreme queuing and our hotel being super unorganised. Unfortunately, we missed Set It Off due to the queue to get into the venue itself taking round about an hour. However, after that, we managed to see everyone we wanted to, highlights include You Me At Six playing songs from Take Off Your Colours. I've not heard some of those songs live for years, so it was something really special! Lower Than Atlantis were also really good, and I'll never tire of seeing Neck Deep live.

On Wednesday, myself and my gig buddy went over to Manchester to see Foo Fighters. I've loved Foo Fighters since I was about 14/15. I remember really loving Best Of You when it first came out and I've been hooked ever since. Unfortunately, I've never had the chance to go and see them. I stupidly passed up the chance in 2007 and then I've either not had the money to head to festivals or not had anyone to go with to the stadium shows. My sister saw them at Leeds in 2012 and so she was up for seeing them again. Fun fact: I'm the only one in my immediate family who hadn't seen them live till this year.

It was everything I hoped it'd be. They opened with Everlong, which is my favourite song of all time ever, so I was sold from the start.

Thursday was my mum's birthday, so we made a quick trip back to Sheffield for food and cocktails. We went to Smoke Barbecue, and the best bit was the dessert! I had smores and it was incredible.

My last week of freedom was topped off with seeing Heaven's Basement at Corporation. It was really good and the best way to end the week.

I want to say blogging will become less sporadic, but it probably won't. I need to settle into this job and get my hours sorted, it's going to be a shock to the system to have to be up early, but it'll be also nice not to have to wait for buses till gone 11pm. I'm hoping I can get one or two blog posts a week up, I've got plenty of ideas it's just finding the time and motivation to get things really going. May's been a bloody mental month, what started out really not great has ended in an absolute whirlwind.

I'm super nervous for starting tomorrow, but I'll try and report back next week.