If you've got time, stay and listen to my story...

You'd think I'd have figured it out by now, right? My colleagues + The Pub = Torture For Sammi.

We finished work at two this afternoon, and everyone made their way down to the Eli Jenkins in Cardiff Bay. This means the boys were on the pints from about two thirty, till we headed to the cinema at about quarter to five, with no food to soak up the alcohol. Then, as we had Gallery tickets, they were back on the booze while scarfing down the complementary nachos and popcorn as we waited for the movie.

Now, my colleagues are loud and rambunctious at the best of times, but we got a new Senior this week who seems to like to yell randomly, in various weird voices. This was even worse at the pub, and at one point yelled "You what!" so loudly the general noise level dropped by quite a few decibels as others wondered what the hell was going on with that crowd by the window... *sigh*

I have to sit next to the guy at work for the next god-knows-how-long, as well.

Of the three girls on the team attending the film, only Kath bothered to drink anything but she was still pretty sober. Jo and I stuck to cola the whole time, alternating between amusement and despair at our colleagues' behavior

Once we were seated, the boys continued to talk loudly and mess around through the trailers, causing some of the other patrons to turn and glare - thank god it was only the trailers. They were quieter during the film itself, but quickly got bored and ended up having a food fight with the popcorn and M&Ms... I managed to not notice this myself, though I was glad to note they'd moved away after about an hour, but Jo was concerned we'd be asked to leave. Once the film ended, we had to leave our row from the other direction, 'cause of the sea of popcorn on the floor; as a former employee of that cinema, I was kinda pissed off about that.

After the film, they headed into another bar to wait for Ceri and Suzi; Suzi can't stand Indiana Jones, and insisted on seeing 'Sex & The City' instead. Ceri went with her to keep her company, though I gather from our former supervisor, who also came along, she wasn't enjoying herself when she popped out halfway for extra snacks. I decided I'd had enough of watching them get further into their cups, and made my farewells; I needed to go unwind and eat something, so I grabbed a sandwich from Subway and sat on a bench on the quay to watch the water for a bit.

While I would like to spend more time in the company of adults, it is becoming clear that my work colleagues are not people I enjoy socialising with. I need to figure out how to refuse any future events without sounding like a miserable cow who's forgotten how to let her hair down.

With regards to the film...I thought it was okay. Not very credible, and the bombshell about the kid played by Shia Le Beouf was way too predictable, but still. Though was the poor quality of the woman's Ukrainian accent deliberate? She went very Queens English in places, especially when saying 'Doctor Jones'.

I'm now relaxing and watching another couple of episodes of Murdoch Mysteries before bed. We're off to Brecon tomorrow morning, so I have to be up fairly early.

It was SGM time at work again today...*yawns* Though at least this time my lot didn't have to make the coach journey to Swansea, since they split both groups in half, for 'equality' or some such nonsense.

Started work an hour later than normal, since the SGM wasn't scheduled to end till an hour after my shift ends. Didn't really get lunch either, as I spent it in the Spar cornershop on St Johns St (that used to be an Orange store), grabbing a drink and some chocolate to keep me awake. When I got down to St Davids Hall, where the SGM was being held due to the need for lots and lots of seats, the queue was right the way back to the doors of the St David's Centre. Thankfully I was able to find some of my team, so I planted myself alongside them in the line so I could sit with them.

In any other senario, that would have been incredibly rude! *grins*

Getting into the building was a nightmare, of dangerous proportions. Imagine, if you will, a small ballpark's worth of people filing into a building and up sets of escalators and stairs, pausing halfway up. By the time we got to the top of the final escalator, to the cloakroom level, we were having to push people out of our way in order to get off the damn thing! The floorspace was almost completely packed with people, and there were stationary queues up the stairs too. Why, I do not know, since St Davids Hall has several levels. Once they finally started letting us into the auditorium, me and my lot had to walk right even more stairs to the very top level anyway. *shakes head in bemusement*

So the SGM started about twenty minutes late, which did not bode well for me since I was going to have to run out to fetch Rowan as it was. The CEO's first words were "Well, it's great to see so many people here. Now, do you think we could all file back outside again and see if we can do it in under fifteen minutes this time?" *chuckles*

Obviously, I can't really describe what was discussed - even if I could remember half of it! - but it was a mix of facts and figures that don't mean that much to me (though we are apparently doing very well in the overall market) and outlines of the new changes they're implementing this year. Apparently they've decided they're going to phase out the distinctive brands within the company - at least amoungst the workforce, the general public won't notice any difference - and we're all going to be either Sales, Customer Service or Renewals. This means we're going to have to learn the various differences between each 'brand', in order to deal with the extra calls and emails from customers other than the ones we were originally employed to deal with. In a way it makes sense, when you consider how often one brand's staff can be sitting twiddling its thumbs while another is completely overloaded. It's just...y'know. Change. Me no likey *sigh*

The highlight is, of course, the little 'movie' that gets produced to show at the end of the meeting. It's done by various staff within the parent company, and features anyone from the CEO himself (he and the other top management are so up for it, each and every year) down to the regular workers like myself. My team got included this year, on a piece about the jigsaw puzzle peices the CEO gives each new employee (We're all 'part of the puzzle'...) - I'd made a point of running out the door on time that day! I'm even less photogenic these days than I was back when I was a media student and being in front of the camera was almost commonplace.

I really wish I could share the film with you guys, though most of the jokes and references would go completely over your heads as they're fairly unique to our workplace. There was a very amusing handful of sketches though, based around the classic 'Carry On...' movies (If you don't know the reference then you really need to educate yourself, posthaste!) The series was loaded with sexual innuendo while cleverly appearing to be totally innocent. Example from the SGM; a well-endowed woman is walking through the office, and a man says to her "Nice jugs!" He, of course, is refering to the coffee carafes she has in each hand! Right? ;-) Even my uncle-in-law - who works in the maintenance department - got involved, asking his co-worker if she had room for his tool in her box, to which she replied that it might be a bit of a tight fit! She, of course, was refering to his electric drill, which might not fit inside her toolkit box. *grins*

I'm still working on recreating the videos I helped make for the brand-specific SGM a few years back. They were a lot of fun too.

Unfortunately, because we ran late starting, we also ran late finishing too :-( So I had to dash out as the credits were rolling on the film, in order to avoid getting stuck trying to leave the building, and head for the bus as fast as I could. On the way to the bus-stop I called the school and spoke to Rowan's teacher (it was well weird, getting transfered directly to her. Didn't help that I was cold-transfered, so neither of us knew who was on the line at first...) to let her know I'd be late. She was lovely about it though, and got him helping her with some end-of-the-day errands *grins* Though we did have a minor panic when he decided to hide away in the roleplay corner and we hadn't a clue where he was - the little rascal! *chuckles*

No work tomorrow, thank goodness, though I do have a few errands to run - rent, etc. Then I need to work on getting Rowan's room straightened up. Wasn't in the headspace last weekend, and he's not sleeping too well 'cause of the state its in *rolls eyes* Told him a million times to clean it up... Not going to get the chance to do any housework on Sunday, as he has a birthday party to attend. Gotta get the present for that tomorrow too....

Well, my chocolate loaves and Ceri's individual chocolate orange cakes have been sampled and everyone's raving about what a cool competition this is.

I didn't really need to make three loaves, as it turns out, as two just about stretched to everyone. Though I had to yell at Bernie to stop being so stingy with his portions! *grins*

I followed the advice I was given and carried them in covered in tin foil, with the buttercream icing in a tub ready to spread on the top. Once iced, I then sprinkled on some silver balls as decoration - having completely forgotten the reference to them early in David Tennant's first season of Who *chuckles* So when I remembered just now, I was silently geeking out.

Just gotta wait and see how things progress from here. They're discussing how to put up a scoreboard, as we've no wallboards free just now.

...since I should be getting on with my work. I'm behind yet again.

It was an inspired decision to get my personal email forwarded to my work account - I've been meaning to do it for weeks, and then Thunderbird had difficulty reaching the server one night, so I had to log into the webmail. Et voila!

Coming into work this morning to comments, and getting some more this afternoon, has helped brighten my day *hugs you all* I'll try to remember to respond tonight, when I get online to revise with Jenny some more.

Pamela and Carol; I'd be happy to check out those recipies - diolch yn fawr, fy ffrindiau! And Laylee; I'll check yours out as soon as I'm home and can access LJ properly - thank you so much too!

I forsee much baking in my future this weekend *grins*

This is looking to be a very unproductive day, today. I'm really tired, 'cause I was up till 2am talking to a very, very dear friend on AIM (absolutely zero regrets there), and I'm distracted as all get-out 'cause my colleague Suzi is supposed to be bringing in Izabella (daughter number five) to see us this afternoon. The last time she had a baby, a couple of years ago, I got to give her her bottle while Suzi caught up with the others - it was heaven!

I love spending time with little babies, and neither of my youngest neices are that small anymore. Plus they don't see me enough to be all that friendly with me. My sister-in-law's due any day, but I doubt I'll see much of that one either.

Meh, I figure I can allow myself a bad-productivity day today. I worked my tush off through the summer holidays, even staying on to get my scores up.

I 'keep forgetting' to turn my phone off when I'm at work, especially with Rowan at that sports camp where they may need to get hold of me in the course of the day.

Just at the end of my lunchbreak, my phone starts vibrating in my pocket so I check who's calling me and it's a Cardiff number I don't recognise. There's no way I can answer the phone while sat at my desk, and I wouldn't get to the foyer in time to answer before it gets to voicemail, so I let it ring off. There's a message left for me, and I don't have any calltime so I can't listen to it, so I asked permission to call back from my desk (having to admit that I'd 'forgotten' to turn my phone off).

Naturally my boss says yes, since it could be about Rowan, but the number's engaged. This often happens within businesses and organisations, so you can't call them directly back, so I had to ask if I could nip to Boots to get some calltime.

So, after waiting in the middle of the lunchtime queue, I call my voicemail and it's only one of the other mums from Rowan's school! *headsdesk* All she wanted was to see if we'd be interested in seeing The Gruffalo's Child at the New Theatre, as she's organising yet another of her a group trips.

She normally texts us all about these things. *scowls*

Not happy.

The Dave & Justin Challenge strikes again! This time: six hotdogs! With no drinks to help wash it down.

Justin managed to win, by a dog and a half, but it was a struggle. We were sure he was going to lose it after the first three. And Dave gave an almighty belch halfway! *laughs*

....I was tensing up in sympathy just watching them, so I now have a bit of a headache.

I think I need a tag specifically for those two....

They've done another desk move at work, so I came into work today to find my stuff moved to Suzi's old desk.

In fairness, they didn't just dump everything down; things were organised fairly well, taking into consideration how I kept my old desk arranged. But I still had to move a few things around, as well as tack up my pictures, plus I had to re-establish all my settings again; email signatures, printers.... *sigh*

I now have a headache from the massive, ancient monitor I now have to use too. Why they haven't scrapped them all I don't know.

Some days it's worth coming into work...

/cryptic