In reverse order, that means starting with today! work shit! Today I attempted to book some holiday, I went to the catering manager and said that I wanted to book some holiday, and that I wanted two weeks off from the 20th February. But instead of saying “I’ll see what I can do” or something similar, she started on a rant (in the middle of the store) saying that; and I quote “you don’t demand, you ask, you don’t decide when you take time off, I do” – (I think the power has gone to her head) I didn’t demand that time off, I was asking if I could have that time off, OK I could have worded it better, but she made a big deal out of nothing. I felt like saying “I tell you what; don’t bother giving me any holiday, you’ll have my resignation on your desk in the morning instead” – of course I never said that, self restraint was fully in force for today, just as well I hadn’t had a drink or two beforehand as my thoughts tend to come out of my mouth in that sort of situation! I ended up getting one week I wanted; the 19th until the 27th, but couldn’t have the other week because David has booked that week off. I later spoke to David and he said that he wasn’t off that week; he was off the week starting 6th of March, just shows that management doesn’t have a fucking clue about what’s going on! Anyway, I am taking my second week off at the end of March, the final week that I can take off before it rolls over until the new financial year. I don’t mind having two separate holidays, probably better, will keep me fresher, I just didn’t like the way that the catering manager spoke to me, I am not a fucking child, so don’t fucking speak to me in that manner. But the whole system is pathetic, when I am on early shift, I have to find a supervisor, (which isn’t as simple as you’d believe as they always manage to disappear at 4pm) and ask if I can go, and even have to ask to go to the toilet, which I don’t do, I am 29 years old, I don’t need permission to take a fucking piss!!! Work on Saturday and Sunday was pretty uneventful, I would even go as far as saying it was easy!
Saturday night at the Phoenix was good all round, it sounded good; the bands were good, the bands being The Devilriders, Divider, and Redemption Unnamed. For the first time in ages I have actually enjoyed a gig without drinking (OK, I had one pint, but that was bought for me, so it doesn’t count) The gig was very loud, but it sounded good, so I can live with it! My previous well publicised issues with the Guitarist and Bassist of Redemption Unnamed have been sorted, Alex (guitar) can have the level he wants, and Rich (bassist) can have the level he wanted. Alex has installed some sort of diffuser in front on the cones inside his Marshall 4×12, which makes the sound coming from his cab less directional, so it doesn’t interfere with the vocal mic so much as before, so everyone is happy. I have always liked the sound of Alex’s guitar and Rich’s bass, but a small stage area means that it couldn’t be used at the level required to make it sound good, and me and Alex locked horns several times over his volume. The only slight glitch on the night was when a second subgroup died on the desk, so some quick channel assign switching was required, seems that no-one else noticed the momentary vocal drop out! So the moral of the story, don’t buy a Behringer sound desk, at least not the Eurodesk range, used two of them and both have problems, and the one I am using now is less than 6 months old, shows how bad the build quality is!
Saturday morning however wasn’t so good; woke up at 5am, with a serious headache, and couldn’t get back to sleep because every time I laid my head on the pillow, the pain would get much worse. And to top that off about 8am, I suddenly felt sick, not even enough time to get to the bathroom; luckily I had an empty kebab container from the night before; which ironically got refilled with the original kebab that came in it. Strangely enough it didn’t taste so good on the way back up, of course I still had the headache so couldn’t sleep. I ended up falling asleep sitting up for an hour, which made me feel a little better, but then it was time to go to work, so I dragged myself out of bed, got dressed and made the slow walk to work via the Spar shop on North Hill to pick up some Anadin Extra, fucking £3.35 for 16 tablets; were they always that expensive? Anyway, got to work, popped some pills, and proceeded to start work, felt better after an hour, that’s the end of that story, but I don’t know why I felt that bad as I took it easy the night before, only spent £22 all night including the kebab and taxi home, I can only guess that either someone spiked my drink or it was a dodgy pint or kebab. Either way I am going to lay off the kebabs for a while, as I always feel like hell in the morning, alcohol and kebabs is not a good combination!
Plymouth Argyle lost their away game at Turf Moor against Burnley, but I am pretending this little hitch didn’t happen, so I am not going to talk about it! next!