I Must Be Mad

I would like to show you a quote from the very same person who is typing out this blog tonight. Me. 17th January 2011, from the blog post entitled, 'That As They Say, Is That':

"I won't see them again, in a work capacity, and I will try and avoid going there at any time of day, ever again. I have mostly bad memories from the place, if I'm to be honest with you."

This, of course, is about the fabled and well documented days I spent at BP, spending most of my nights grappling desperately with the huge shortcomings of my colleague. A lot of angry words were written about him in this blog, and despite claiming I would never even set foot in there again, even as a customer, tonight, I find myself with the real possibility of going back as an employee. The day I have had today goes beyond crazy into the fields of unimaginable thoughts.

You see, my last post was spent digesting the fact I was stuck in a job even worse than BP, (if that is at all possible), for the meer fact it was hugely embarrassing. Last night, I spent the WHOLE night laying there thinking of what would be the best option. When I say, "whole night", I don't mean a few hours.. I mean from 11pm to the crack of dawn, just lying there, thinking. I already knew I was going to call in ill, as the headache I had was mountaneous, but I spent most of last night trying to develop a fool-proof plan that would let me escape the damned place. I suppose I came up with a plan, but it was never going to be very pretty.

7.30am came and went, and with the stupid, derogatory manager's words of, "Ill Again?!", in my ears I settled down for a few hours kip, preparing myself to let loose the news later in the day. Thinking about it, how can I be ill AGAIN, when it's the same headache? Whatever. I don't care. I awoke at around 11am, and decided that I should get it over and done with. I rang up GoOutdoors and made up some bullshit story about how I'd found another job in the sports sector, and explained that it was, "much more my scene", blahdy-blah. I spoke to the nicer, more polite manager who sounded disappointed but understood and as I put the phone down, I was happy with how easy that seemed to be. Seeing as I was on a roll, I decided to ring up Mother Mitten at work. I was expecting an apoplectic response, but instead seemed to get a few words that screamed, "I was expecting this", but even so, she seemed to accept it without much hassle*. As I went back to sleep for a couple of hours, I was very surprised at the reaction I had received from both parties.

At about 1pm, I woke up for good and wondered what I should do. I was, again, labelled a sponger, scrounger, lazy arse moron, and for good reason. However, I had a brainwave.

I knew there were jobs going at BP. My neighbour, Luke, works there along with a few other people I knew before I even joined BP, and they had said that people were getting up and leaving quicker than you can say 'Explosion'. For some strange reason, that I will probably never be able to fathom, I found myself driving towards the place I had said I would never set foot in again. On the journey, I thought whether this was the right thing to do, and concluded that it would soften the blow of giving up once more on a safe job, and went for it.

I stepped inside and felt the familiar chill of the store famous for it's lack of heating. I went up to the counter, and started speaking to Danica, who never fails to have a smile on her face, and spoke to her for a few minutes. I found out that Bastard Chris, the store manager, had left for good, leaving Legend Alex in charge and that The Wall was off sick, "indefinitely", and that 3 people had quit in the past week. Positive. Legend Alex then popped up, and noticed me instantly, coming over to shake my hand. Alex is the nicest bloke you could ever meet. Popular, funny, an all round good egg. We had a brief chat, with me stating, "Even though it sounds crazy, I would like my old job back". The feedback was good, Alex saying he could probably do with weekend night staff and/or could even find me a few day shifts. However, we left it be and I am going to meet him tomorrow to be more detailed and see where I go.

So, although I am definitely not straight back into work, I am 99% sure I will be, even if it is back to those weekend nights that were so unfortunately eventful, "back in the day". I definitely, 100%, certainly won't have to put up with the antics of The Wall though, and I would only be working 3 shifts a week, leaving me with enough money to have enough of a social life to get by, and enough time to get a breather and keep the, "lazy bone idle" side of me happy enough.

I know what you're thinking, and yeah, I must be mad.

*Yeah, sorry Mum! You got mentioned AGAIN! ;)