gym membership! (2005-02-07 - 9:47 p.m.)

I don't have time to post from work anymore. Can you tell the difference? Yeah, this "actually having some responsibility" business is a bit of a departure. However, I'm learning fast and I can foresee the day when I will actually get all my work done WITHIN the 7.5 hours and have time to screw around on the internet again.

So I've been at the hotel for a week now. It's a little bizarre, because I keep swinging back and forth between thinking, "This is so much better, now I can plan things for months in advance" and thinking, "That's it, I'm quitting." However, most of the things that cause me to think the latter show some signs of being remedied, so I think I will stick it out (no surprise there, somehow I seem to have become incredibly tenacious in the last year) and see how it goes. Story of my life, really.

The main problem is severe understaffing, which means my boss Alex works nearly 7 days a week covering 10-15 or so hours of reception as well as doing his (full-time) job and training me. He was off for a well-deserved rest for most of today, meaning that I was the only one in the office and spent the day answering the phone and guessing at the answers to the questions people kept asking me.

So... if they actually hire some people and I can get Alex alone and not exhausted for once to ask some questions, it might be okay. As I say, I will bide my time and see if it gets better or worse. I have to say I love working with Alex, though. He's a good manager and respects me (always a good way to earn my loyalty) and has a very similar sense of humour to mine.

I'm fed up with the general manager, though. What a toad. I finally almost had everything sorted with ten minutes left to work today, and he dumped a pile of photocopying on my desk that he "didn't think I'd mind doing". GRRRRRR.

Anyway, on to the good - no, GREAT! - news. Turns out the hotel has a deal with the fitness centre at the Carleton Hotel down the road. I called in to check it out, and it turns out that the corporate rate for employees is �15 A MONTH! I am incredibly pleased. In comparison, it cost �15 for a one-week trial membership at Esporta! Previous to this, the cheapest rate I found was �35 a month (and I'd have to lie about being a student). Most were around �45 to �50 a month. And this is a NICE gym. Not huge, standard cardio and resistance equipment, two squash courts, a tiny pool, a sauna, steam room, and Jacuzzi. (This last I am very excited about). Also they have some classes, albeit not an enormous selection, and a built-in beauty studio thing. Joining fee is usually �100, but it's on special at �35 at the moment, and they gave me a "membership pack" consisting of a gym bag, towel, water bottle, lock, coin holder and a bunch of coupons for the hotel. There's also a coupon for the tanning bed, leaving me torn. I have difficulty resisting anything free, but a free chance to douse myself with carcinogenic UV rays? Hmmmm. Still, might try it out of curiousity (for a very short period) and hope my skin doesn't hate me too much.

In other news, had a pretty entertaining weekend. Went out with Pia, Shannon and Ailbhe on Friday for a bit of a pub crawl. We checked out all the places where indie boys (okay, indie girls too) might hang out. Found a likely spot called the City Cafe, and I will definitely be going back there. Have a bit of a soft spot for the indie crowd despite their tendencies towards pretension.

Saturday I worked at the golf course, and it was horrible. I think I'm done with that place. I really don't get along with Drew the owner too well. He was angry at something that had nothing to do with me, and spent the whole afternoon slamming things around. Not pleasant.

However, that night was the Carleton Cricket Club Ceilidh. (Pleasant alliteration!) Brad the Aussie plays cricket and so Shan and I went with him and two Aussie friends. It was a great time. For one thing, cricket players in kilts! I danced almost all the dances (despite the lack of males willing to dance - we traded off doing the guys' part) and actually seem to have remembered some of them from last time. It was such great fun and the endorphins were flowing. (So was the wine. Australians...) They also served food, which I didn't expect. It was stovies, which was a sort of potato, sausage and beef stew (very Scottish indeed: meat and carbs). The veggie option was curry, which was delicious. Shannon and I ate as much as possible. Honestly, though, it didn't even start to match the amount of energy we used capering around the dance floor. SO MUCH FUN. One of Brad's friends, Bella, just moved to Edinburgh. We will probably keep in touch with her.

The evening ended, as always, at Dropkick Murphy's. A good time was had by all, even though the Aussies ditched out early. They were trying to demonstrate some scientific method by which you can down an alcopop in about thirty seconds, and I think they did a little more demonstrating than was really good for them.

Sunday was spent recovering, because I could barely walk since my calves were so tight from all that hopping at the ceilidh. The "Haremaster" exercise that Chris used to make us do at soccer was nothing compared to this! Maybe I don't need that gym membership after all...

backwards ~ onwards

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Missed anything?
moved! - 2008-05-12
Sunday = time to ramble on - 2008-05-11
apparently I'm doing monthly updates these days. Sorry. - 2008-05-04
watershed - 2008-04-06
end of trip - 2008-03-31

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