As you most probably know from previous years i'm not really a christmas kind of guy, hate christmas pudding, hate the cold, christmas decorations are a pain in the ass just for 4 weeks, and i guess soon santa claus will be banned for political correctness after all he is a strange old man creeping around a childs bedroom while hes asleep, you know it will happen one day.
Toys R Us is in full swing but god its torture listening to christmas songs all through the night for 9 hours, i've heard this year 4 versions of "santa claus is coming to town", 3 versions of "Santa claus is coming to town" and 2 versions of "these are a few of my favourite things" is this song a christmas song? and thats in just 1 night thats without all the other crap christmas songs, now i do like 2 songs from christmas though these are Greg Lake's "I believe in father christmas" and Chris de Burgh's "A spaceman came travelling" they aren't your usually christmas type jingle bell sounding tripe LOL.
Since i've been working nights i've seen kids dragging their parents around the store demanding they want this and that and the parents grabbing the toy quickly before the child can throw themselves on the floor kicking and screaming and thats just the emo stroppy teenagers. Then once the said item is placed in the trolley they are followed by the words "now you don't have this till christmas day as santa has to bring it" WHAT? so their paying cash for it at the till in front of the child and the child is expected to believe that santa still exsists, so has santa now been employed by parcelforce just to deliver the presents. I can't believe he's not a real person, i'm shocked.
Also its getting towards the christmas party period where lots of guys will be getting the Hi Karate and Brut splashed on trying to look macho with just a shirt on in minus degree temps (and trousers and shoes of course) with mistletoe strapped to their head, while the ladies walk the streets with wine bottles drinking out of them like the local wino, dresses 2 sizes to small that doesn't do much for their Michelin tyre man figures with silly head wear such as antlers or flashing santa hats, yes very funny indeed. Only the other night as i walked to work i saw 3 guys and 4 girls walking to the main bar street in Swansea, it had been raining 5 mins before i saw them and as i passed them 3 of the girls were barefoot with their shoes in hand walking on rain soaked pavements, classy. Now i know that the street cleaners in Swansea do an excellent job but this street is known for people drinking outside so spilt drinks, broken bottles and glasses, drunk people being sick, guys using it as a public toilet and thats without the dogs using it (i mean the 4 legged kind), so my question is why do women buy shoes that they can only wear to stand still in? its always a good look for women, bottle in one hand, shoes in other and eye make-up running where they have had a row with a friend, don't you just love christmas.
So its time for a little nap now if i can as i've got a long night ahead of playing with toys, seen some really good ones which are quite fun so my nights are very entertaining, not much work getting done but very entertaining never the less LOL.
This is a true account of my highs and lows on the beautiful island of zakynthos all with a funny edge, lifes to short.
Friday, 19 November 2010
Monday, 8 November 2010
Season 2010 review (at last)
Just a quick non review related sentence, if anyone goes to Toys R Us and sees a Sony Ericcson W910i phone with a set of headphones and a Guns N Roses logo as its main screen or has already got it you git, its mine ya bugger give it back! Such a pain.
So lets see if i can remember the season, these days i'm lucky if i can remember yesterday. Well, i started the season thinking that this season i better set myself up for a struggle, UK economy was rubbish (still is) Greek economy was worse than UK (still is). The first thing i noticed was the price of things in the local supermarkets, most people used to go abroad to buy cheap booze and cigs to take back with them but you can buy your booze at stupid prices now in the UK, so items that were alot of supermarkets bloodlines like booze weren't being touched which through the season would hit the traders hard.
The resort when i turned up looked alot better than most seasons it was quite clean and looked quite fresh. My bar on the other hand looked like it had been hit by every natural disaster known to man along with a few stray cats strutting around like they owned the place. With a swift kick up the ass of the cats and a bit of Mary Poppins clean up magic the bar was ready to open.
May i was expecting to be very quiet but from the first day i had hit double my daily target which was a good feeling but i take a day at a time and never take anything for granted any day can be a fluke or lucky. May continued in this fashion which gave me a good set up for the season but then the tax hit from 19% to 21% but didn't change my prices.
The season just kept getting stronger and stronger through june then another tax hit 21% to 23% still kept my prices the same due to the UK economy and wanting to give my customers value for money which i think is what kept the bar full most nights due to getting a very large measure of real spirit for very little money also a pint bottle beer for less than a pint in the UK. Its was great to see so many regular customers back and also at least 50% of my trade was new customers which is the way you want your business to be, if you just rely on regulars all the time at some point your business will fade away. The internet did help with trade but no more than other years about 20% were from different websites that had read good things about the bar and the other 30% were from word of mouth within the resort and walk by trade. Out of all those customers i only had one couple who never came back for a second visit but then again they were very rude to me when i was only being polite to them so it was no great loss. Thats the best thing about running the bar alone, i meet ever single person that comes in to my bar so i can then see who returns and who doesn't, its a great feeling to see people return.
Through the season i changed my menu 3 times as i kept on coming up with new cocktails, next year i'm sorry to say the smoothie cocktails will not be available as it was just to much of a pain in the ass to make LOL especially when most nights it was manic in the bar then an order comes in for 4 different smoothies aaargggh! A plus point out of this came the confectionary cocktails i developed and new for next season i have the Banoffee pie cocktail. The cocktails i devised were the best sellers all season and it was a close call between Oceanic cocktail and the Fry's Turkish Delight cocktail to which was most popular. I know a few people have e-mailed me for recipes and i will get round to replying very shortly.
Before i knew it my season was coming to an end but with a bang and phut as everything started to go wrong, computer blew, amplifier blew, tree lights blew, bar flooded, high winds and heavy rain hit bar trade badly when i was still making double target in beginning of Oct but i still carried on, the bar would have only closed if it had collapsed as my regular customers no matter what the weather still came in for drinks even if it meant catching a taxi.
It was very sad to see so many businesses close during the season and even more i would think won't be open next season, no matter who the people are or where they're from you wouldn't wish for their business to close and if anyone is happy about the fact that a business closes down or wants a business to close down then those people should be ashamed of themselves as one day it may happen to them.
So thats about it for this topic all i can say is it was my best season out of my 4 on the island so far wiith Oceanic and have another 2 seasons left on my lease which i will complete no matter how good or bad the next 2 seasons are.
I am also looking forward to getting back to start the refurb but in saying that the people i went to see about quotes for a new roof didn't get back to me after 3 weeks and still haven't so god knows how long it would take for them to build it haha.
So all thats left to say is "Roll on 2011".
Don't forget i still update through the winter but usually fortnightly as all i do is play with toys LOL.
I have got some pics to post that i've taken through the season so that will be in the next topic.
So lets see if i can remember the season, these days i'm lucky if i can remember yesterday. Well, i started the season thinking that this season i better set myself up for a struggle, UK economy was rubbish (still is) Greek economy was worse than UK (still is). The first thing i noticed was the price of things in the local supermarkets, most people used to go abroad to buy cheap booze and cigs to take back with them but you can buy your booze at stupid prices now in the UK, so items that were alot of supermarkets bloodlines like booze weren't being touched which through the season would hit the traders hard.
The resort when i turned up looked alot better than most seasons it was quite clean and looked quite fresh. My bar on the other hand looked like it had been hit by every natural disaster known to man along with a few stray cats strutting around like they owned the place. With a swift kick up the ass of the cats and a bit of Mary Poppins clean up magic the bar was ready to open.
May i was expecting to be very quiet but from the first day i had hit double my daily target which was a good feeling but i take a day at a time and never take anything for granted any day can be a fluke or lucky. May continued in this fashion which gave me a good set up for the season but then the tax hit from 19% to 21% but didn't change my prices.
The season just kept getting stronger and stronger through june then another tax hit 21% to 23% still kept my prices the same due to the UK economy and wanting to give my customers value for money which i think is what kept the bar full most nights due to getting a very large measure of real spirit for very little money also a pint bottle beer for less than a pint in the UK. Its was great to see so many regular customers back and also at least 50% of my trade was new customers which is the way you want your business to be, if you just rely on regulars all the time at some point your business will fade away. The internet did help with trade but no more than other years about 20% were from different websites that had read good things about the bar and the other 30% were from word of mouth within the resort and walk by trade. Out of all those customers i only had one couple who never came back for a second visit but then again they were very rude to me when i was only being polite to them so it was no great loss. Thats the best thing about running the bar alone, i meet ever single person that comes in to my bar so i can then see who returns and who doesn't, its a great feeling to see people return.
Through the season i changed my menu 3 times as i kept on coming up with new cocktails, next year i'm sorry to say the smoothie cocktails will not be available as it was just to much of a pain in the ass to make LOL especially when most nights it was manic in the bar then an order comes in for 4 different smoothies aaargggh! A plus point out of this came the confectionary cocktails i developed and new for next season i have the Banoffee pie cocktail. The cocktails i devised were the best sellers all season and it was a close call between Oceanic cocktail and the Fry's Turkish Delight cocktail to which was most popular. I know a few people have e-mailed me for recipes and i will get round to replying very shortly.
Before i knew it my season was coming to an end but with a bang and phut as everything started to go wrong, computer blew, amplifier blew, tree lights blew, bar flooded, high winds and heavy rain hit bar trade badly when i was still making double target in beginning of Oct but i still carried on, the bar would have only closed if it had collapsed as my regular customers no matter what the weather still came in for drinks even if it meant catching a taxi.
It was very sad to see so many businesses close during the season and even more i would think won't be open next season, no matter who the people are or where they're from you wouldn't wish for their business to close and if anyone is happy about the fact that a business closes down or wants a business to close down then those people should be ashamed of themselves as one day it may happen to them.
So thats about it for this topic all i can say is it was my best season out of my 4 on the island so far wiith Oceanic and have another 2 seasons left on my lease which i will complete no matter how good or bad the next 2 seasons are.
I am also looking forward to getting back to start the refurb but in saying that the people i went to see about quotes for a new roof didn't get back to me after 3 weeks and still haven't so god knows how long it would take for them to build it haha.
So all thats left to say is "Roll on 2011".
Don't forget i still update through the winter but usually fortnightly as all i do is play with toys LOL.
I have got some pics to post that i've taken through the season so that will be in the next topic.
Thursday, 4 November 2010
Observations i've made lately! (God here he goes again)
So i've been in the UK for a week and made some realisations ad observations. Oh and before you say anything my seasons review will be the next topic i post.
So since i've been without my laptop which was end of Sept beginning of Oct i think i can honestly say if it wasn't for Tripadvisor, my e-mail, using it to download music/play music and watch programmes i've missed i don't really need one which then brought me on to writing, do kids still use pens in school and do they know how to spell properly? No one wants to have anything hand written anymore its all via e-mail or text, then there is the spelling L8tr=Later (wow one letter less thats much quicker) Ur=Your (ur is what i used to say when impersonating a thick person) *$=Starbucks(yeah like i'm gonna figure that out)Srsly=Seriously(that just looks like someone hitting any keys), now i do use LOL=Lots of laughs but no wonder the kids are looking more like Kevin & Perry's everyday they don't need brains anymore as its all done for them with preemtive text and spell checker.
This then brought me on to my childhood and teenage years, i'd never pick up my landline phone and tell my mates "i've just farted loud" but with facebook people seem to let their friends know the slightest movement they make sometimes even their bowel movement haha. When i was a kid I used to write to friends i'd met on holiday with a pen & paper, remember those days, they used to be called "penpals". Me and my friends used to meet and cycle 12 miles to Barry Island ( yes Gavin and Stacey fame) now kids don't even leave their bedrooms to talk and meet with mates as they can use cams and socializing networks, as technology increases socializing decreases. As you can see i've been doing alot of thinking lately about "now and then".
So its back to Toys R Us as i've seen some amazingly bad things, two things really made me laugh. I think i saw a Cheryl Cole board game and i think it went like this, you start off as a chav, get found on a crap TV show with a girl band, mime most of your concert, marry a half decent footballer, get him to cheat on you just before you go solo, get sympathy from the public so your sales rocket, judge on a crap TV show and mime on it when the crap wannabes have to sing live, game over.
Also saw a book and i read autobigraphies "Justin Bieber: First step 2 forever, My story", Brilliant! It goes something like this, mum and dad do the birds and the bees, i was an embryo, i crawled, i walked, i went to school, i got spotted, i was hyped up, i'm just growing soft facial hair, the end! I look forward to the follow up, my voice breaks, i do drugs, found with a lady of the night, make best friends with Macaulay Culkin and Britney Spears, the End! haha.
Oh also noticed another thing, i've not seen sun since i've got back LOL.
So since i've been without my laptop which was end of Sept beginning of Oct i think i can honestly say if it wasn't for Tripadvisor, my e-mail, using it to download music/play music and watch programmes i've missed i don't really need one which then brought me on to writing, do kids still use pens in school and do they know how to spell properly? No one wants to have anything hand written anymore its all via e-mail or text, then there is the spelling L8tr=Later (wow one letter less thats much quicker) Ur=Your (ur is what i used to say when impersonating a thick person) *$=Starbucks(yeah like i'm gonna figure that out)Srsly=Seriously(that just looks like someone hitting any keys), now i do use LOL=Lots of laughs but no wonder the kids are looking more like Kevin & Perry's everyday they don't need brains anymore as its all done for them with preemtive text and spell checker.
This then brought me on to my childhood and teenage years, i'd never pick up my landline phone and tell my mates "i've just farted loud" but with facebook people seem to let their friends know the slightest movement they make sometimes even their bowel movement haha. When i was a kid I used to write to friends i'd met on holiday with a pen & paper, remember those days, they used to be called "penpals". Me and my friends used to meet and cycle 12 miles to Barry Island ( yes Gavin and Stacey fame) now kids don't even leave their bedrooms to talk and meet with mates as they can use cams and socializing networks, as technology increases socializing decreases. As you can see i've been doing alot of thinking lately about "now and then".
So its back to Toys R Us as i've seen some amazingly bad things, two things really made me laugh. I think i saw a Cheryl Cole board game and i think it went like this, you start off as a chav, get found on a crap TV show with a girl band, mime most of your concert, marry a half decent footballer, get him to cheat on you just before you go solo, get sympathy from the public so your sales rocket, judge on a crap TV show and mime on it when the crap wannabes have to sing live, game over.
Also saw a book and i read autobigraphies "Justin Bieber: First step 2 forever, My story", Brilliant! It goes something like this, mum and dad do the birds and the bees, i was an embryo, i crawled, i walked, i went to school, i got spotted, i was hyped up, i'm just growing soft facial hair, the end! I look forward to the follow up, my voice breaks, i do drugs, found with a lady of the night, make best friends with Macaulay Culkin and Britney Spears, the End! haha.
Oh also noticed another thing, i've not seen sun since i've got back LOL.
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