Temping and things

Sorry for the long break between posts. Unfortunately the break was not because I was off doing fabulous things that would make you insanely jealous to hear about. Quite the opposite actually. I've been working and meeting creepy people.

First the job; it's good. Very very very slack. Cleary since it's 2.30 in the afternoon and I'm blogging. I had some mindless admin work to do yesterday and this morning but since about 11:30 I've had nothing to do but answer the phone. 'Pretend you're busy Delly!' you may think BUT in my turnover notes from the girl I'm covering, she noted that the internet is available to me if I have any downtime. She also said to bring in a book. I thought the book might look kind of bad, though I always have one with me, so I'm doing the internet thing instead.

It's an office of nine people, five of whom are on vacation. I am temping for one of those five (the office assistant). I've so far met three of the ones actually working this week and one of the ones supposed to be on vacation. The company is a brand of Bars across England. Pretty posh bars, more what we would refer to as 'lounges' back home. The people so far have all been very nice, fun, young, trendy, you know the sort I mean. It would probably be a good place to work on a permanent basis but they're not looking for anyone. They've got a marketing team of two people and they seem quite good (too bad for me, hehe). This temp position has opened my eyes to the fact that it would be AWESOME to do marketing/brand management/PR/advertising for a brand of bars or restaurants. I've always contemplated a hotel chain or airline or clothing line, but bars and restaurants, hello! What do I love? Food, drinks, clothes and sleep! Bars and restaurants cover 2 out of 4 of those things (ie.food and drinks). This place is full of alcohol, red bull and juice. Way more alcohol even than my previous workplace when it's well stocked. And such variety! Perfect for me. I'm going to look into it. I also love music and movies, but I think that might be aiming a bit too high right now, maybe down the road in my career.

So that covers one of the things that's kept me away from the blog. The other thing that's kept me away was meeting creepy people. This isn't an activity I set out to do (but that would be an interesting mission, probably easy too) but rather something that happened by chance. On Monday I went with a friend of mine to a shoot she was doing. She is an amateur model and was approached by an amateur photographer to get together for a free shoot for both of their portfolios. She's done a number of these sessions and has gotten some really great portfolio items out of it. And it was in my area so I said I would come with her. So we're walking down Portobello Road following the vague directions of the photographer woman when we see this hippy-looking grey haired woman in a baggy blue dress approaching us. 'Hi there!' she shouts out. I nearly grabbed my friend and took off, but then she called my friend's name and I realized she was the photographer. I pushed away my natural tendency to judge a book by its cover and tried to be openminded.

My friend introduced me to the woman and she said 'oh, it's so smart of you to bring a chaperone! You never know with all these guys out there just waiting to get their hands on a pretty young thing like you'. AAHH!!!! This is what I thought. Is that not the strangest thing to say?? Especially because my friend did not introduce me as her chaperone, just a friend that was coming to watch. I started wondering if maybe this woman was dying to get her hands on a pretty young thing like my friend. She then started asking me all about myself and when I said I was from Canada she exclaimed 'A canuck, eh?!' I was instantly annoyed. Don't know why really, all I know was that cemented the fact that I did not like this woman. Maybe that's unfair, but LIFE is unfair people. She also asked me if I modeled, I laughed and said no and then she kept looking at me just a second too long. You know what I mean? Not in a lesbian way or anything, just uncomfortable extended eye contact. Well, uncomfortable for me, at least. As we get to the door of the flat we're shooting in, she tells us that there are three other men that will be shooting my friend as well and they're 'really sweet, nothing to worry about' (another reference to us being raped and/or taken advantage of). I was ready to turn around and head back to the tubes but my friend kept walking so I couldn't leave her.

We got into the flat and it there were not lights on. It wasn't pitch black or anything but the only light was from one small window. Again, I was ready to leave. You're probably thinking this was dangerous, but it wasn't. I should note that I have excellent instincts and I am an extremely cautious person but I didn't really think we were in danger. If my instincts had been flashing, I would have insisted we not even go in, but it wasn't my danger instincts flashing, it was more my 'waste of time ahead' instincts. Anyways, my friend got ready and the 'shoot' began. While she was getting ready, Creepy Lady tried to trap me into conversation with her again, little did she know that I am amazing at one word responses and bringing a conversation to a dead end if I want. Hehe, she figured out pretty quick and then just left me alone. This has no real relevance, but she had terrible teeth (they were grey) and she kept invading my personal bubble by standing way too close to me when talking. I noticed she did that to everyone.

Back to the 'shoot'. These people were beyond amateur. They gave my friend no direction whatsoever, had no concepts or anything except the fact that they were trying to teach themselves how to work with bad lighting (hence the near darkness). They had a lighting kit which they did not know how to use and a black velvet curtain set up. The shots were not good for the most part. Though a few good ones slipped through by fluke. There was no real thought to compostion or even head room! My 'waste of time' instinct was correct, as usual. The 'shoot' went on for about an hour or so and then we bounced out of there.

I walked home and Creepy Lady and one of the men were going in the same direction as me. Creepy Lady saw me looking at my little map and kept trying to give me WRONG directions. Not on purpose, I'm sure, but everything she told me was wrong and even I knew that and I have no sense of direction.

Got home safe and tired as did my friend. What a waste of a perfectly good Monday evening. Ah well.

Sidenote: had KFC here for the first time after the club on Saturday. Had a craving for fried chicken and it was delicious! Much smaller menu here than at home but I found what I needed. And they're open very late here, it was about 2:30 am when my cab driver stopped there for me. Now I've made myself hungry...