Monday 29 March 2010

Kevlars Monday Moan!

Now 99% of the time i'm a happy chappy and not much gets to me, i guess i'm the modern day saying "do i look bovvered" and the answer is "NO" but one or two things have bugged me since my last post so here goes.

1/ The stupid Trolley Dolly's and Gangway Guys who think their job deserves a wage increase due to it being so difficult to walk, talk and push a trolley at the same time. God help them if they ever changed their job to a Nurse, Fireman, Police Officer or Soldier. I'm sure plenty of people who are unemployed would take their jobs for just the basic wage without the perks just to put food on their families plates.

2/ Corporate Companies that brainwash their employees to sell from a scripted sales pitch in robotic style that some bigwig in an office has said "i've got a great idea" then all his kiss ass underlings agree "thats amazing" just so they can keep their jobs and company Mercedez. Let people sell with their personalities and be natural not false and slimey.

3/ Who put the "Bop" in the Bop Shu Bop Shu Bop who put the "Ram" in the Ram-a-lam-a-ding-dong

4/ Why on Masterchef hasn't anyone prepared "Baked beans on Toast with a fried egg side and to follow Banana with Custard" now that is my food heaven.

5/ We're in to Spring and all i've seen since the clocks went forward is 24 hour heavy rain with some places even having snow, i actually said to a customer at the store " you can tell summer is coming, the weathers getting worse". And what a load of rubbish about this summer is going to be, as The Sun would put it "Phew, what a scorcher" didn't they say that last year when it was the wettest summer ever recorded? How can the met office predict so far in advance when they can just about get a week in advance right.

6/ On saturday 90% of people i served in the store said "Do i get any discount of that?" and thats even on something that was £39.99. Now if they were buying a few things that totaled up to say over £500+ then i can see why they'd ask but when an item is priced up at £199 obviously that is the price, we ain't in a Moroccan Bazaar or Tunisian Marketplace where we Haggle over the price of a Gourd or a false beard for the wife so she can go the daily stoning. I commented to one customer "When you get to the checkout at Tesco do you ask for discount on the total of your basket?" the customer replied "No, never", i rest my case.

Well thats all my Monday moans, as you can see they're nothing major but little things irritate me sometimes and thats a winters build up, so as you can see really nothing much bothers me.

If anyone disagrees with my moans please leave your comments on my blog, oops, i forgot you can't, oh well never mind haha.

Zante, i'm almost home.

Saturday 20 March 2010

Hello, at last!

Sorry for the delay in posting but went to Manchester, straight from there went in to my medical study and straight after that back to work so its been manic, so where do i start.

So 2 weeks ago went on the 3rd part of the Oceanic tour, this time to sunny Manchester. Well thats not exactly true. As we set off on the Friday it was a lovely sunny midday with clear blue sky, we decided to take the route that Eddie Izzard took when he ran the welsh leg of his amazing marathon run so we didn't hit any motorway until we got to Chester and as soon as we hit the M53 i turned to Helen and said "You can tell we're in England, the skies went grey and the landscape is as flat as an ironing board".

We got to our hotel friday evening and it was great, when i say great the bar was good but the hotel wasn't as good as the last few Inn Keepers lodges we've stayed at, the stairway up to the first floor smelt like it had been damp since the dawn of man, the room looked like it was a converted from a broom cupboard, to help us sleep we had loud hmm of the kitchens extractor fans and to top it all off i don't think the cleaner knew how to use a Vaccum cleaner but on a plus point the free biscuits in the room taste sooooo good! No time to chill out as we we're changed out to the 40th birthday party of our very very good friend Steve of Steve and Joanne and what a great night it was met up with some good friends Sam & Caz, Jeanette & Nigel, Emma & Karl and Shirley and Andy. Steve at his house had said he had set me up to sing so i took it as a joke, nope, no joke he had but to calm my nerves Helen sang first and i have to say it was 100% better than her car singing LOL. I sang The Darkness "I believe in a thing called love" and The Killers "Mr. Brightside", i apologies to any fans of those bands who were at the party. The time flew and before we knew it the party was over, BUGGER! Time for bed said Zebadee!
(PICTURES TO BE POSTED)

Saturday, Day 2 and it was off to Bolton City Centre and the Trafford Centre for some retail therapy, good job for my credit card Helen had a hang over. Bolton City Centre i really liked especially the indoor market, the fish stalls amazed me and have now made me start eating more fish also i saw a live crab who was in shock but mouth was still moving, a bit like me when i have to buy a round of drinks. For me the Trafford Centre was nothing special, a shopping centre is a shopping centre only this one was more expensive. The best thing about it though and i mean it was amazing was its food hall that is like the Titanic, no i don't mean sunk and full of fish i mean it was set up like a cruise liner with a pool, WOW amazing! The highlight of the whole day was they had my favourite shop there "Krispy Kreme Doughnuts" mmmmmmmmmmm, sugaralicious! (Can you see a them that runs through my posts, FOOD!) At the Centre we met Jane & Elise for a coffee and Helen had a good old natter while i'll popped off to be an easter bunny and get Elise an easter egg, what a big softy i am. Lovely to meet them both but time was getting on and we had to go shopping for some snacks and get ready for the evening. In the evening met up with Joanne & Steve, Caz & Sam and Jeanette & Nigel for few drinks, had a fun night even though a few people were nursing bad heads, i wonder why? Again before we knew it time had caught up with us and we were the last people left in the bar, it was great to see them all for 2 nights had a really good laugh.
(PICTURES TO BE POSTED)

Sunday, Day 3 and its off to Bury and Bolton. First to Bury, only the shopping centre was open market was closed as it was Sunday, didn't pick up any black pudding, that was it for Bury, not much going on there, Sorry. So we then traveled to Bolton to the Reebok Centre where we met Diane & Mary, twin sisters and good friends of Helens and what good friends they are, lovely ladies with a Peter Kay accent. Decided to take a look at where Bolton play and have to say its a great stadium and it was nice to be there when it was empty, stadiums have a really good spiritual feeling when empty, difficult to explain but its a strange and nice feeling. Time for food so we popped to see Jane & Elise again along with Janes husband Andrew, now i'm not in to road bikes but Andrew has a bike that blew me away, it was the best looking bike (other than an Orange County Chopper or Harley Davidson) i had ever seen and if i had it i wouldn't take it out of the garage. After a quick cuppa with them we went on to an Italian restaurant called "La Roma" in Stoneclough where the food and decor was MAGNIFICO! Back to the hotel to collapse with a full belly and to chill out after our busy weekend. When Bagpuss goes to sleep, so does Kevlar.
(PICTURES TO BE POSTED)

Monday, Day 4 and time to go home, it was a briliant weekend, we visited great places, had great weather but most of all met people who are genuinely good honest people who are friendly and funny. On the way home we visited Bethlehem, now you thought it was in Nazareth but in fact its in Wales, so Jesus was born in Wales, thats why Wales is known as "GODS COUNTRY" and after driving through Wales without using a single motorway i can see why its called that, Beautiful and proud to be Welsh.

I have to sum up my weekend now as this post is going on and on, so as Tony the Tiger would say "It was GGGRRRREAT!".

Next post will be the "Oceanic Awards" sorry about the delay once again.

Thursday 11 March 2010

I'm free!

Well as you may have guessed my results come back 100% so i am on the study. So the first part was only 2 days and then in 2 weeks time its another 8 days, I have to say that the food is still just as good here. I had pork chops on day one with homemade apple pie and custard then yesterday we had a choice of fish cakes or roast beef, i went for the healthy option of fish cakes with jam sponge and custard for afters as eating and laying down all day can pile on the pounds like Eamon Holmes at a cake tasting. Along with the evening meal we had breakfast in bed (first time ever), a ham salad baguette, crisps and fruit at lunchtime with a pie for supper. Can't forget to mention the great staff that work here, always happy and i really don't know how they can walk in to a ward with 6 guys on it that have been farting and sweating all night without throwing up, i admire your stomachs of steel ladies haha.

It was a sunny day when i arrived and a beautiful sunny day as i leave so it always makes the day so much better for my long train journey home.

Yesterday i had 8 needles within 12 hours and 16 samples of blood taken and with every needle there is a complete body check, blood pressure, ECG, temperature, so it was a manic day yesterday but today before i leave just one needle and a body check then back to Currys tomorrow, so time to get my salesman head on, God i sound like Wurzel Gummage "Cup a tea and a slice oh cake Aunt Sally" LOL.

Tuesday 9 March 2010

Time for a quicky, ooo eeer!

Well after a really great weekend in Manchester, Stockport, Bolton and Bury its now time for my medical study. I am writing this from my bed in my 3rd home Simbec Research Centre but this time they have 8 people on the study but only 6 will go through as 2 are reserves, BUGGER! Once they have done the pre-trial tests today the 6 with the best results will go on to finish the test. On Sunday i had a throat virus so this may affect my blood samples which could lead to being a reserve so i will know by late tonight or early in the morning. On a positive note i get 3 meals today, i get to lay in bed all day, watch sky tv and also get paid for it, WOOHOO!

So i will update later about the 3rd part of the Oceanic tour and don't forget this Sunday its the "Oceanics" the last of the high profile awards after the Oscars, so i will say tatty bye for now.