Be Excellent To Each Other

Possibly the 23rd defo off Christmas Eve though. I’ve a few odd days on the run up too.

10ish or fewer days left for the year then.

We’re hopefully going to go out or just rest at home on my birthday. Off out on the 23rd to pick up a special parcel, too. Hopefully a half day for Russell on the 24th.

Got no time off at all this Christmas. Even on call for the bank holidays. Well drew the short straw.

That really sucks, Mark. I hope that the days you are on call are absolutely silent.

Cheers! It's okay though, get a decent wedge and the bank holidays back as days off in lieu so not all bad.

Well, they sent the refund. Was for some boys pyjamas we definitely picked up, so

Mark Sibly, the creator of Blitz Basic, has died

Oh boooo

Rioter who featured in viral bricking video jailed.. Double whammy becomes triple whammy.

A man who featured in a viral video of him being hit in the crotch and head by bricks during the Southport riot has been jailed.

Brian Spencer was first hit in the head by a brick thrown by a fellow rioter as he goaded a line of riot police on 30 July.

As he held his head, he was then hit by a second brick directly in the crotch, causing him to stagger in the street.

The 40-year-old, of Lytham Road, Southport, pleaded guilty at Liverpool Crown to violent disorder and was jailed for two years and six months.

Happy Kov Day!

Cheers xx

After a 350mile trip yesterday, I seriously hope to make it on to at least one of those super smug dashcam videos

Went to see Darwin’s school play today. Boy oh boy.

I mean, going on school play standards it was by far the worst play that I’ve ever seen. It wasn’t the kids’ fault. It was badly cast and badly directed, but the worst thing was that it’s a play with 30 roles and three acts, and instead of either choosing a better play or making the less strong performers chorus roles what they did was cast each role randomly, three times. So The first act was done by class A, the second by class B, and the third by Class C.

But there were no costumes. You were just told to send your kid in ‘1920s style’ clothes, so you had absolutely no idea who was playing what role and what role was saying which lines.

It was a whodunnit mystery. I still have no idea who dun it.

It's a Post-Modern masterpiece! Challenging the audience's deep-held assumptions about character and plot, and redefining the very concept of narrative theatre itself!

Also, the Butler did it.

I honestly couldn’t even tell you if there was a butler. There was something about Agatha Christie, Charlie Chaplin and the Prince Of Wales, and I only know that because they held up their photographs.

It sounds amazing, actually.

Sounds like a live action adventure -mode Guess Who.

Haha, yes, both those things, in its own way.

Happy Russ day!

Thank you!

You’d have to be quite desperate to think “that creepy fucker is who I’d like as the father to my child”

I’m sure he puts on his best version of himself when starting to make arrangements. But yeah, what a creepy weirdo. Making a public warning about him seems appropriate. And hopefully if there are any future court cases this can be cited as a way of barring contact.

My local barber, Paul the Barber, is retiring. He's been cutting my hair, on and off, for over 40 years!

That's a shame mad skills to be be able to cut hair on and off.

You live near Lark Lane? Or does my old Paul the Barber have a doppelganger?

Started my new job today. Considering it's a short day, it was an incredibly long day.

I’d better be quick!

How was it though, Mimi? Hope it went well.

It was ok. Food went impeccably, and was so well received. Not sure of my colleagues though. I’m solo in the kitchen, but a lot of people felt the need to basically pop by my kitchen and show me that they were top dog. Staff didn’t hold back from talking about me from just outside the kitchen, but literally shouting to make sure I heard.

It’s a small team. I’m one of six people, but very much been given the new girl treatment on the first day.

I was told by the owner ahead of time to just shut the door, and block it out, as this seems to be standard behaviour, but since viewing the kitchen they’ve had building work done that’s borked the door, so it’s stuck completely open

Just phone Russell from the kitchen and talk very loudly about what a bunch of dicks the other staff are…

Hopefully they will be more sensible tomorrow

It’s ok. The owner is getting the door fixed and told me to just put the radio on. The first thing I’m going to spend my money on is a Spotify subscription. If anyone wants to give me a hard time they are going to have to deal with Cat Stevens and Simon and Garfunkel.

None of that is acceptable. Get that shit shut down right away with you, them, and the owner in the room.

You guys have all met me, yes?

I’m the same person who had to stop playing Mafia at the cottage because I couldn’t speak up for myself even in a game. I’ve not changed. If anything, I’ve grown less confident.

But the owner did check in with me, and asked me if exactly that had happen, because they knew it would. It seems to be how these other people are. And I was pretty-warned of that, as were Russell and Darwin when they came to view the place with me, but I’d been told I could shut the door and just have the space to myself.

I think people were coming into that space and purely because they wanted to show dominance, but hopefully they’ll get bored of that, or that door will get fixed soon, or both.

Absolutely not..that sort of behaviour has no place in a workplace, and if the boss is letting it happen then they're complicit.

Walk away with no notice.

The owner isn't a friend.

I don’t think I can walk away after one day, because I’ve not really given anything a chance. The thing is, I can walk away at any point, so I might as well see how it goes. Maybe people will ease up after a few days once they see I’m not a threat.

And maybe they won’t. I don’t like it, because I don’t like nastiness in general, but they haven’t upset me. I just know to step away from it and find my own space.

I see it as any workplace with numerous departments. There’s always some jerk department. As long as I run mine well and with integrity, I need only have minimal interaction with the others. And my department (being just me) is pretty much ok.

I’ve got my meditations loaded up on my phone, treated myself to a month of Spotify premium and made a playlist, and will see what tomorrow brings.

I totally understand why you wouldn’t want conflict in a new job. I’m very much the same.

MaliA is right that the manager should be putting a stop to any bad behaviour rather than saying to ignore it. That could just be a quiet word to them though.

How did today go, @mimi?

A bit better thank you Lovely.

The day itself was really busy because I really pushed myself as to how much I could accomplish in the time, plus there was someone giving a tour, etc.

I felt a bit more comfortable today. Who I felt was the nucleus of things in the first day was in the sister business today, and generally everyone else seemed to be a little less aggro.

The manager (not the owner, but the manager, who was herself being problematic on the first day) came over and said that she’s organised to move a lot of the staff items from a holding cupboard in the kitchen to clear it out for my own space. That was good, I thought, and I got a notice to say that the door is being fixed.

I know that the most vocal person will be back in tomorrow, so I’m going to see how that goes. I’ve written a slightly easier menu for tomorrow so I’m not under too much pressure.

Thanks for asking Mali, that means a lot to me x

I’m sure it’ll be easier as the days go on. The ones there already probably feel like the power dynamics have changed with you starting. If any of them continue to be arsey with you in the kitchen just start sharpening the biggest knife to hand in complete silence while staring right between their eyes.

I think that’s a lot to do with it. The business has been going for about 18 months, but the parent business is 30+ years old.

From what the owner said to be the staff of the ‘old’ business don’t want anything to do with the new business as they are worried that attention is being diverted to the shiny new premises, etc.

On the flip side the staff of the new business feel looked down on by the old business, maybe?

So with that already in play, the new business has gone under sone huge changes. It was established for a year, when they essentially decided to expand the building to, in the near future, move the old business into the new premises, to share the now bigger space, but the new staff will be moved to the top floor and the older business will be re-established on the ground floor, in essence kicking the new business out of that spot.

People haven’t taken well to the potential change, and there has been a lot of discontent, and in the middle of it I walk in and suddenly have a whole kitchen to myself. Staff had, whilst it was being prepared, been kind of using it as a break room, and as far as I’ve been told it was where they’d go to let of steam (or ‘bitch’ about things, as it was described).

In the midst of all this, I’m there, representing change, I’m sure. On top of this I just happen to know the three top staff of the sister business, so…

But really, I’m no threat. I think they want me to know they are in charge, but, and I mean this in the nicest possible way, I don’t care about their jobs. It’s far removed from what I’m doing, and as far as I’m concerned I’m about as risky to them as a burger van outside White Hart Lane impacts the job prospects of Jermaine Defoe (I know that analogy is about 20 years out of date, but I haven’t watched football in that long).

Hopefully they settle down. I've got a thing where I will not tolerate any sort of bullying at work. You work for years, so life is too long to be bullied.

I made that rule for myself when I was 18 and I've had a few examples where people have tried it on with me and I've gone against all my pacifist instincts and stood up for myself. It always works if you can just muster up the confidence to defend yourself and if it didn't, I'd rather be fired than work somewhere with tension.

Anyway, what sort of stuff is on the menu, Mimz?

Tomorrow is Katsu curry and onigiri for snackums.

Yeah, I’ve definitely identified a bully. There’s one woman who works for the sister business and she was in my kitchen for 2 minutes today, and I’d rather work the entire shift again than have to go through that two minutes.

The thing is, she stood talking to another member of staffabout me, whilst in my smallish kitchen. She was no more than 1.5m from me. I let it happen for a while before turning a round and saying that it was a needlessly nasty thing to do, at which point she walked off, but I am going to speak to the owner about it.

The owner did warn me of one person specifically, and when I said that actually it was this other person that had been less than nice she was surprised. But yeah, I thought she was the bad apple on day one but today absolutely confirmed it for me.

Good for you, Mimz.

Honestly, I don't know why people need to be like that at work. Like we've all got to get up and give 8-ish hours of ourselves to work when we'd all rather be doing anything else. So just be nice and it all go easier for everyone. But no, there always has to be an office bastard. Every single time.

The good thing is that their lives invariably suck because that's the energy they bring to every encounter and, usually, they tend to skip from job to job.

Well done for standing your ground. Hopefully she's a typical bully and will see her arse.