Fun and Games in Diary

Lots of stuff to talk about here.

Roller Derby (This is a long paragraph)
I’ve played my first public roller derby games! The first one was a mixed team in a game called a Cherry Popper. This is where they gather together people from all over the country who have just passed their Minimum Skills testing and put us all together to play a game. My team lost 298-152, which is a HUGE difference. I felt as if the girls who came from the other teams had been trained how to skate, but hardly any of them knew the rules, skills and tactics of actual roller derby. They were getting penalties all over the place because they didn’t know what they were doing, I was shouting at them on track to do things or letting them know what was happening and they were ignoring me (it’s important to listen to your team mates on track so you can work together as a team, I wasn’t just shouting to be mean!). They were asking me LOADS of questions which I thought were really basic and wondering why their training team hadn’t taught them any of this. My team has loads of classroom sessions to go over rules and tactics and then we practice them in training. Maybe other teams don’t train in this way, it was very strange.

Here are a few photos of my doing my thang. I’m in the purple helmet (of course) and stripy socks.

Everybody fall over!

Hitting the jammer to stop her getting past.

Our very first WHR B-team public game was much better. We had been practicing tactics and techniques and working as a team and we really came together, I’m so proud of everyone. Hey, so we lost 141-167 but we were leading most of the way through and only lost at the end because everyone got tired and started making mistakes. The team we were playing have already played a whole season together, whereas this was our first game together and we’ve had six weeks to prepare. So our coaches are actually really happy with the way we played. Although, because we need to work on fitness, she’s promised us lots more burpees in training. Everyone hates burpees!

Sadly, one of my teamies broke her leg in the last 10 minutes of the last training sessions before the game. I still can’t believe it now, all she did was fall over! Four other people also fell over at the same time and they all got up right away, but she’s been in hospital for a week so far and has just had surgery. She snapped both the bones in her leg clean through and needs pins and plates to hold them back in place. How can so much damage be caused just from one fall? We’re all so gutted for her, it’s going to be months before she’s back on skate, if at all, and she was so excited to be playing her first game that she’s been building up to for 18 months :o(

Back to the game, there aren’t so many photos of my from this one, probably because my other team mates looked more dynamic as I’m less experienced than them, lol. But the photos we did get, from a photographer called China Blade, are fantastic.

On the start line (I’m towards the right, purple helmet and denim shorts)

This is the only profile photo of me in existence that I don’t hate, and that’s a big thing, I’ve always hated my profile.

Check out Jael’s mermaid leggings!

A happy team, post-game.

I’m so excited to finally be on the team on representing my Wolfies. We can only get better from here :-D

Work Stuff
We have this thing at work called Simply Thanks. If someone does something nice or helpful, you send them a Thank You card. Everyone who has received a card has their name put into a hat at the end of the month and one name is pulled out to win a £10 shopping voucher. Well this month I not only got a card, but I won! I’m so excited :o)

Also at work, we have a new contract coming in. Apparently the customers can be quite demanding, so my manager has decided to give this contract to me. Because…she says I’m the best at keeping calm on the phone and turning a bad situation into a good one. Well blow me down, I never ever thought of myself this way. I remember when I first started working in customer service, I used to end up crying when people shouted at me. But after years of this, I’ve developed a thick skin and learnt not to take it personally. I know they’re not shouting at me specifically, they’re just frustrated. So I can now keep calm, but then have a bit of a rant when I put the phone down, lol. But because I’m apparently good at this, I’ve now been given the difficult customers to deal with…gee, thanks!

However, on the other end of the spectrum…One of Jay’s friends is getting married next year and apparently his fiancée is scared of me! She thinks I’m fierce! This seems to have stemmed from one night when we all went out for a meal and got terrible service, so I complained and got us a 10% discount, and this has made her scared of me! Sheesh, British people are too polite and happy to accept bad service without complaining about it, but I complain and now I’m fierce and scary. I’ve had people think I’m rude and aloof, but never scary! I did wonder why I hadn’t seen her for about two years…I’ve told Jay to get her on a night out and she can see that I’m actually made of rainbows and sparkles.

Pet Sitting stuff
I’m feeding a cat at the moment, her owner is on holiday for three weeks so I’m going into her house twice a day to look after her. On Wednesday I walked into the house and wondered what the horrible smell was. Went into the kitchen and saw diarrhoea all around the litter trays, on the floor and sprayed up the back door. That was bad enough but then I looked down and I was standing in a pile of lumpy vomit, which is a horrible nightmare for an emetophobe like me. I shouted, Sammie ran away. I spent the next 20 minutes trying to clear it up with almost a whole roll of kitchen roll, and I kept having to stop because I was retching too much and couldn’t see because my eyes were watering. All the while, Sammie was meowing and weaving about, getting in my way and standing in it all. So I didn’t give her any wet food in case it happened again, just dry biscuits and plenty of water. But I went in later and someone else had been in (no idea who) and given her half a pack of wet food. Whoever it was must not have known she was ill, saw she had no wet food and felt sorry for her. I went in this morning and she had been ill again! I don’t know what to do, if she’s going to keep being ill I’ll have to let her owner know that I need to take her to the vet. She seems fine in herself, still meowing and jumping around, but she keeps being sick every time I give her wet food. Maybe she’s just stressed with her owner being away for so long? But it isn’t very nice for me to clean up when I have this huge aversion to vomit…

And last night I went to pick up Roxy for her daily walk and her owners weren’t in again. At one point, this was happening at least once a week. I kept asking them to let me know if they weren’t going to be in so I didn’t waste my time going to their house and waiting about, and they eventually started sending me a text if they weren’t going to be in, and I started texting them every day to remind them of the time.

But last night they just weren’t in, didn’t answer my calls or texts. So this morning I snapped I sent them a long text, but now I’m wondering if I shouldn’t speak to my customers like this…

“Please let me know if you’re not going to be in when we’ve arranged an appointment. I feel I should let you know that my other customers pay for missed appointments, as it’s standard in the service industry. I sometimes have to turn down or rearrange other customers or personal plans so I can come and walk Roxy. I don’t want to charge you for missed appointments as I understand that things sometimes happen beyond your control and you need to go out, but I would just like to be informed if you need to cancel. I enjoy walking Roxy but feel a bit frustrated when I’m waiting at your house and no one is in. Please let me know if you want me to come today, it will be about 4pm and I hope everything is ok.”

Is it ok to talk to my customer like this, or did I cross the line?

Jay
I don’t know if I said that Jay has a new job after he was made redundant? He’s been there about a month now but he isn’t enjoying it. He has had no guidance or help and is always left on his own. Which he normally likes, but not when you’re starting a new job. He doesn’t hear from his boss for ages and then he comes back and asks for loads of changes to the work he’s done, when he could have just asked for it to be done that way before he even started doing it. He has an interview for another job on October 5th, I don’t think he’s going to stay in this job for long.

Now he’s got his redundancy money though, he’s also learning to drive! He’s had three lessons so far and is looking at cars as well, how exciting, hopefully soon I won’t be the only driver in the household!

Been so busy lately, I’m giving myself the weekend off. I was going to play roller derby, but I can’t remember the last time I didn’t set an alarm to wake myself up (I’ve been getting up for work at 4:30am this week), so tomorrow I’m going to wake up naturally and chill. Then my roller derby team are having a pub quiz in the evening, I love pub quizzes! :o)

I think I’m up to date now but have probably missed something.

Last updated September 25, 2015