|
|
|
So after I wrote that last entry back in August, it was my plan to finish writing the rest of what I wanted to say a few days later. Except that didn't happen, and suddenly five months have passed without me making any new Journal entries.
So here's the quick recap. So that Monday in August when Upper Hutt was completely covered in snow, I was spending the day at my parents house because my car was getting its WOF done at the garage just down the street from their house. Mum was home from work, as she didn't want to go to work in the snow. So me and her hung out for the day, played Mahjjong and stuff which was pretty fun. That is, after I went for a walk and took heaps of photos of the snow.
So me and Mum were sitting there playing our second or third game of Mahjjong, when my cellphone rang. I answered, and it was a British guy called David who ran the Specsavers stores in Lambton Quay and Cuba Street in Wellington. I had had a job interview with him a few weeks previously, but having not heard anything for a while, I had assumed I had not got the job. But sure enough, he was calling me that day to offer me a full time job as an Optical Assistant at the Cuba Street Specsavers store.
At this point, I had been on the benefit for about nine months, and was getting sick of the meetings and constant pressure to apply for work. I was sick of working part time at Burger King, where I had been for almost four years by that point, and I was sick of not having much hours at Farmers, and I had just finished my teaching job at Musical Stars. So an offer of a full time job, my first ever full time job, was something I was very happy about.
He wanted me to start the very next day, at 9am on the 16th of August. So I did. That first week was pretty nuts, driving in and out of Wellington with all the snow. I decided rather than paying for parking, I'd do what I'd been sometimes doing when I worked at BK, park at the carpark up by Victoria University, and walk from there. I wasn't really allowed to park there, I had a parking permit, but it had expired at the end of 2010, when I finished studying at Uni. Noone seemed to notice I shouldn't be parking there though, so I parked there every day. The walk downhill into town was fine, but the walk back up the hill to my car was a bit tiring. That first or second day when there was all the snow, I was walking up Dixon Street, this really narrow, steep street, and there were a lot of cars heading down there at 5.30, on their way home.
They had to stop at the traffic lights, and then when they started to try and move again, a car going uphill decided to stop and give way to the downhill traffic, as the street was too narrow for them to pass one another at the same time. Once the uphill car had waited, and then started trying to move again, he realised he couldn't move because of the snow. His tyres just kept spinning and making squealing noises and then slightly moving before skidding to a halt. Poor guy. I was worried he'd lose control and crash into us people walking on the footpath, so I stopped and waited, but five minutes later he was still struggling to move. I guess eventually he must have managed it.
Anyway, I've been at Specsavers for nearly five months now. It's been hard getting used to working full time. I often feel like I have no free time to get anything done, it's such a rush to fit in housework and sleeping and eating, let alone anything else. And it sometimes feels like I spend so much time at work that my life revolves around work and it's all I can think about. I dream about work every night.
But in saying that, I'm no longer on the benefit, I'm no longer at BK or Farmers or teaching, and money's not quite so tight for me anymore. Money's not so tight for Taina anymore either, because a few months ago, due to Michelle and Taina struggling to meet the mortgage payments, Kiwibank sold their house in a mortgagee sale. I think Michelle lives with her Dad now, but I'm not sure. The main thing is, no more mortgage dramas. It's not to say me and Taina are splashing the cash around now. Just that we're not as stressed out as we were
The people I work with at Specsavers are really nice. David, the boss, only comes in a couple of times a week. He insists we can only play his iPod in the store rather than any other music, which kinda sucks because his iPod is filled with depressing British music like Coldplay. But as bosses go, he seems like a nice guy.
Our other manager is Claire. I found out soon after I started working at Specsavers that Claire went to Heretaunga, she was four years younger than me, and in the form class I did Peer Support with, which was Karibo's form class. She kinda remembered me, but I only slightly remembered her. Claire's worked at Specsavers for about two years now, so she's been recently promoted to be a secondary manager for when David's not there. She's good as a manager, she makes sure the place runs properly but she's generally always nice and laidback. I don't think she really thinks of herself as being in charge, she more sees being a manager as meaning she has a few extra paperwork jobs to do. I really like Claire.
Then there's Marcus. He's been there about as long as Claire has. He's recently been given the job of instore trainer, so he helps us out with bits and pieces. Our job at Specsavers is not just a retail job. Retail is definitely a big part of it, but there's also a lot of reception work, booking Optometrist appointments and such, and organising people's Insurance or WINZ payments for glasses. And also a lot of technical medical and Optical stuff, like using the Retinal Camera to take photos of people's eyes, taking pupil distance measurements for glasses, doing repairs on glasses, teaching people how to use contact lenses for the first time, things like that. Marcus is very knowledgeable about the technical stuff. He comes across as being a little arrogant sometimes so some people find him irritating at times. But he doesn't bother me.
Victoria started at Specsavers about two months before I did. I like Victoria, she's very friendly, and she likes singing. There's also Danni, who started about a month after I did. I recognised her immediately when I first saw her. She was someone from Uni who did Theatre with me, although we were almost never in the same classes so I never got to know her that well. Danni's cool.
There's also Kate, an American girl who works part time. She can be a little arrogant too at times, but overall I really like her. And there's other part timers, like Dylan and Daniel, and our two Optometrists, David Aldridge and Jo Dunkerley.
David Aldridge is about 50 or so. He seems kinda like a Dad. Not like my Dad specifically, he just has a very Dad like quality about him, that makes him very popular with patients. He's a cool guy, I like David. Jo's a British lady, about a year older than me. I thought at first she didn't like me, but she's nice enough to me now.
So that's my new job at Specsavers. I've stopped parking at the University now, I got given a warning notice that I wasn't supposed to park there, so now I just pay to park at the parking area down the street from work. Less distance to walk, but it costs me $10 a day to park there.
So in other news, later this month, on the 27th, it will be me and Taina's 2 year anniversary. I must say the last two years really have gone quickly. Not sure what we'll do to celebrate. We'll think of something.
Other than work and various things at home, me and Taina hang out with Lisa and Nerida pretty regularly. For my birthday back in November, the four of us went into Wellington, went to a restaurant for dinner and then headed down to the waterfront to watch the fireworks that were on that night. After that we headed back to Upper Hutt and Nerida went home for the night, but Lisa stayed over at ours, we got a couple of drinks and watched movies until pretty late.
The next morning, which was the day before my actual birthday and was a Sunday, we had arranged for Leem to come over and hang out. But Lisa decided to go home in the morning so it was going to be just me, Taina and Leem. So Taina, being awesome, sent a few quick texts around, and within half an hour we had Leem, Whattie, Nerida and T (Taina's work friend) over to hang out for the afternoon. We played board games and stuff and it was really fun.
It almost reminded me of group events in the olden days back when we had quite a few of us together at once. These days it's rare for more than like four people to all be free at once, what with Whattie having a kid now, plus he's always had other mates and stuff outside the group anyway; and with Jason working a gazillion hours a week; Workman living in Wellington, plus the fact that Lisa doesn't like being around him, so we can't invite the both of them to the same place at the same time. Then Leem is often staying up in the Wairarapa, plus he works Saturday nights which is when we often plan stuff for. Andrew seems to work odd hours too; Karibo is still in Australia; Jess is still in Auckland; and Glenn, Danielle and Michelle still seem to want absolutely nothing to do with me or Taina.
But I'm not really complaining. I like hanging out with Lisa and Nerida, and we get to see the both of them quite a bit. We catch up with Jason from time to time when he's free, like at our little Christmas party the other week. We saw Whattie sometimes when he's free. T has now become a main feature of our social group, and I like hanging out with him too, he's pretty cool. Kinda reminds me of Jason in some ways. And I try to keep in contact with Leem when I can. For a while there, we were seeing quite a bit of Workman too, he started coming over every Thursday night for a little while, but then once his course finished for the year, he wasn't in Upper Hutt as often so he hasn't come over much since then.
So yeah. Our group Christmas thing was nice. Lisa and Nerida got me a purple bag. I gave Lisa a cocktail set, and Nerida a mug that looked like an icecream sundae along with sachets of different types of tea.
We had New Years at our place too, had some fireworks left over from Guy Fawkes that we let off. Almost set a bush on fire when one of the fireworks fell over, but that's half the fun of fireworks. Watched some movies, ate some food, drank some drinks, general good times.
I really do miss Danielle. For most of last year, I dreamed about her every single night, usually dreams about her being mad at me but then me managing to talk her around to semi forgiving me. Kind of like my dreams were creating different versions of the exact thing I wished could happen in real life.
The dreams lessened a bit once I'd been at Specsavers a little while. I guess my brain was so filled with stuff to do with work that I didn't have as much room in my brain left for pining after Danielle as I used to.
But I do still miss her. The thing is, you hear people talk about chemistry in terms of relationships. But I think chemistry is a big factor when it comes to friendships too. I mean, I love Lisa and Nerida and I'm so glad to have them as friends to spend time with, but I don't feel the chemistry with them that I always had with Danielle. The feeling that something just clicked. I miss feeling that. I mean, I have tons of chemistry with Taina, and I get to see him every day. But the friendship I had with Danielle was like no other friendship I had ever had, and she meant so much to me, even if I had a poor way of showing it, sleeping with Glenn behind her back while we were living together.
But I dunno if there's anything I can really do. She works at this stationery shop in Queensgate mall called Kikki K. I found out one day when I walked past and glimpsed her there. Since finding out, I mostly don't go in there when she's there, just in case it makes her uncomfortable. But this one day, just before Christmas, I was walking past, and for some reason I just made the decision to go into the shop to see what would happen.
I had no plan in mind, I hadn't thought whether I would try to talk to her or what I would say, just that I would go in and see what happened. So I walked in, all casual, and started looking around at things. She was at the counter when I walked in. After looking at a couple of things for about five to ten seconds, I glanced back at the counter and she'd gone, presumably out the back of the shop somewhere. I saw another girl start walking out there too. There was one more girl at the counter, and she was kinda watching me with an odd, almost amused look on her face. And I knew then that Danielle had gone out the back to avoid me.
Almost two years since me and Taina got together, and two and a half since me and Glenn started sleeping together. And she still can't even bear to be in the same room as me.
Oh well. What happens, happens.
Anyway, life is pretty good overall. I live in a nice flat, with a fantastic boyfriend, and I have a pretty good job. I get to learn quite a lot through my job too which makes it seem more fulfilling. I got sent on a course in Auckland back in November for a couple of days. That was fun, and I got to catch up with Jess. Looking forward to doing some courses for work actually.
weezieishness · Tue Jan 10, 2012 @ 05:18am · 0 Comments |
|
|
|
|
|