Blog a Day 239of365: A movie that is a guilty pleasure

I need an OneADay idea. This week has felt like a challenge in many ways. One of these reasons is when it comes to knowing what to write about.

My brain is a fuzzy mess. It’s leaping from one idea to another and doesn’t seem to have the vaguest clue what’s for the best. Too much has happened I think. My brain can’t cope with just how much has changed in a mere few days. A lot of soul searching is required I think.

For now though, ‘A movie that is a guilty pleasure’. I don’t have much guilt when it comes to the films I enjoy admittedly. If I like it, I like it. I’m not going to feel ashamed of it!

I think rather than one specific film, it’s more that I have an actor that is a guilty pleasure….oh but wait that means I just ramble about Bradley Cooper again and I’ve already done that.

In which case my guilty pleasure is the humble zombie movie. I’ll watch mostly anything with zombies in it. I was like this before the rest of the world decided that zombies had to be a part of absolutely everything so ha! I’m an innovator…probably. Many, many zombie films are pretty atrocious. I forgive them though. Except The Crazies, not true zombies, but that ending was terrible.

The original Dawn of The Dead is my favourite. And from a different perspective, Shaun of the Dead is one of my all time favourite films. In fact I think I might go watch it now. You never know. It might put my problems into perspective.

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Blog a Day 238of365: Drama Queenness

Sorry readers for being distinctly whiney and emo-teen-bloggerish this week. I didn’t intend to. I knew it’d be a long week but I didn’t quite appreciate just what other crap could go wrong in the meantime!

I also feel rather guilty/drama queenish when I rant and rave about things on Twitter but then don’t actually explain what the problem is. There are a few problems actually, some bigger than others. They’re all things I’d rather get straight in my head first though. One problem in particular I might not even voice to anyone. I used to be a relatively open person but in recent years, I’ve become much more private. It’s that fear of being judged or completely misunderstood I think. Sometimes it’s difficult to write down exactly how you feel in a way that means anyone – other than you – actually gets it!

Most of all, it feels like a terribly uncertain time. In every way possible. Rather annoying really. The fighter and optimist in me knows everything will work out in the end. The apprehensive part of me just wants everything to stay the same. The wimp in me just wants to walk away from a lot of things. It’s an interesting battle in my head.

Fortunately I had a good evening. Not obviously an evening that fixes everything. The problems aren’t that simple. But it was an evening that reminded me that I can still have fun. I spent the evening playing We Sing Encore with some friends. It was excellent fun even if I can’t really sing very well!

I’ve got no idea what tomorrow will bring but for now I suspect I should just put it all out of my mind for the night.

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Blog a Day 237of365: A day off

Today is my day off. Days off from the day job are usually not a big deal for me as frequently I only work 3-4 days a week at most. This week though, what with the ‘hell’ week, it feels slightly more important.

I did have a surprise day off Monday of course but it felt less exciting. Mostly because I spent most of it on edge worried that work would ask me to come in.

Today though, today will definitely be a day off. My boss knows that Wednesdays are important to my sanity.

So what will today consist of?

Admittedly the morning consisted of a different form of work: Msc based work. Never mind though.

I’m also waiting for my shiny new iPhone 4 to arrive which according to DHL is on a van somewhere in the area. Hopefully it won’t suffer the same fate as Ian Dransfield’s new TV.

Also waiting for the Virgin Media engineer to come round and hopefully fix the V+ box which has been buggered since the weekend. Luckily there wasn’t too much on TV to miss anyhow (excluding Dexter) but it’s still a nuisance to say the least.

Then once all that’s out of the way, I’m off to the cinema. To see The A Team. Again. Yeah I know. My Mum wants to see it again though plus I want to go to the cinema today and there’s not much else I fancy seeing. Scott Pilgrim is out today but I’d rather wait till there’s less of a rush and it’s quieter.

After that, I’m buying us an Indian takeaway. It’s a big treat as it’s quite expensive but it seems deserved during a week like this! Might even finally get a chance to watch Shutter Island after owning it for a month or so.

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Blog a Day 236of365: A change as good as a rest?

Lots of ranting is tempting. It really, really is.

I’d best not though. At least not for now. I’m tired for one thing, it can’t be sensible to rant while tired.

As you might have noticed, this is a very late entry. It still counts of course, I haven’t been to bed yet. However blogging after 12am isn’t my usual habit!

It was a long shift at work and I’ve been trying to unwind since. It hasn’t really helped. Fortunately I’ve got a day off tomorrow so sleep isn’t quite as vital as it could have been. My brain’s still racing as it was just me and one other workmate manning the shop last night and it was very, very hectic!

I survived of course. Somehow. No work again until Thursday and it’s a much shorter shift then thankfully! I won’t mention the weekend as that’s mental.

It was however very nice that my efforts were recognised by a phone call to see how things were going from my manager. Unexpected but much appreciated. Amazing what a difference to your morale something like that can do.

Pity I suspect a lot of big changes are coming very soon which I’m not looking forward to in any way.

Why does everything have to change eh? While some change can be good, sometimes I’d really like for things to stay the same.

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Blog a Day 235of365: Phone shop experiences

I had a surprise day off today. Not a total surprise admittedly but I only found out about it last night. Basically a workmate thought she was working tonight anyway so she offered to do my shift. Throw in the realisation from my manager that he’d only given me one day off and my workmate three days, and the balance was restored with both of us having two days off. So today I attempted to relax. It didn’t quite happen but I did have a nice time shopping.

I went mobile phone shopping. My contract’s nearing renewal time and I’ve had the same phone (iPhone first generation) for over two years now. It’s a brilliant phone but it’s starting to show signs of age by not being as fast as I’d like and lacking a few handy features like 3G. Thanks to working so much this week and last week, I can actually afford to upgrade to an iPhone 4.

I knew exactly what tariff I wanted and I didn’t really expect anywhere to actually have any stock but I figured it’d be nice to get my hands briefly on a display model at least. Plus you never know, somewhere might have stock of the 16gb variety.

Nowhere did unfortunately. I tried both the local O2 store and 2 Carphone Warehouses. I also briefly wandered into a Vodafone store when I was after trying an iPhone out.

I was amazed to not be accosted once. You’d think that’d be a good thing. It often is but not today as I actually wanted assistance!

I used to work in a mobile phone shop (technically two, but the second one I left after two days) so I know the drill. I know they’re all on commission and encouraged to push as much as possible. To be fair to them, they have to most of the time to achieve their targets. I know all the tricks too, the persuasive phrases, making sure you give the phone to the customer carefully so they sub consciously appreciate the value of the item. The main phone shop I worked for was still mostly about customer service but there’s no denying that when someone walked in and said ‘I want a new contract’, me and my co-workers couldn’t help but mentally rub our hands in glee at the prospect of an easy sale. I’d certainly ensure they left with a decent phone and tariff at least.

Anyway….I’m amazed if any of the phone salesmen I dealt with today make much money!

I had to approach one of the O2 salesmen rather than be greeted by him. I explained that my contract was nearly up and I was considering getting a new iPhone. I asked if I could see one for myself. He wandered off to get one then plonked it in my hands as if it was a worthless trinket then said nothing. My Mum ended up pressing him for information regarding the improved camera while I messed around with it. Very brief reply from him which didn’t really tell me much at all. I then enquired whether they had in stock. Abrupt no, only the 32gb ones. Again I asked when they’d have stock, some time in the next few days, then left with a business card from him.

I had no intention of returning. He wasn’t personable in any way, nor knowledgeable and mostly just made me feel a bit like I was in his way because I wanted to look at a phone!

One Carphone Warehouse was far too busy so I didn’t hang around, a similar tale with Vodafone.

The second Carphone Warehouse, I probably had a biased experience. I knew one of the guys who worked there – used to work with him a few years ago. So I went in and asked if he was in today. I think I unnerved the bloke as he was rather nervous from then onwards! Not sure admittedly if my mate is now in management or not as I haven’t seen him in a while, so that might not have helped. The salesman I did deal with was the best of the lot. Friendly but again, not as excitable as I expected. If I didn’t mind waiting a week, I’d go back there.

I do mind though so I went home and ordered it online from O2 direct. Much simpler!

The main thing that surprised me was that neither salesman asked me what tariff I was interested in, how much I wanted to spend, whether I was interested in a different phone. No questions whatsoever really. They didn’t even inject their personality into things which seemed odd to me!

Still, new phone soon. Yay! Should break up the monotony of this week a tad.

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