Oh it's so 'lovely' to be back at work...
Well... you know you're back at work when, by half five, you're falling asleep when guarding a fish tank. >_< Goddammit... I wish it wasn't so stressful. Meh, shouldn't I be glad to be back? You'd think so, wouldn't you? After all, I was gone nearly two weeks. I miss NOT being there now. Seeing my friends again was great, especially since I got two hugs after being there five minutes. *smiles*
Anyway... let's see if I can work through the events in order. If not, screw it, whatever, right? It's under a cut cuz it's so LONG... O_O
Anyway... first of all, Lauren wasn't in today. Apparently her voice is gone, which I found funny, cuz Lauren is a loud person. So it's just me, Ryan and Ali until twelve when Maria is supposed be in. (She did turn up, just so you know)
We have to man the touchpool all day. Sigh. Thank you Tony.
They want to catch a regal tang (Dory) out of one tank, and we've tried this many times before, and the buggers must KNOW we're after them, because they all vanish when we get there with coaxing food and nets. So that went down the pan.
I had the walkie talkie to contact Lou most of the day. Mwahaha, the power... if the damn things would work without having to be turned on and off every hour or so to make sure you can use them properly. So I was getting messages from Lou all day, which mostly consisted (when she wasn't using it seriously) of, "YUMMY!" a la Ace Ventura. Strange girl. o_O
Had my lunch about 12:45 with Lou after the ray feed. Now, get this, every time I do one of these, I. Get. Wet. No matter what. It's usually right after I warn everyone about the splash factor of the animals as well. But this time, I thought, 'Aha, I'll outsmart the buggers. I'll stand up on the steps here, above the water.' Did it work? Hell no. One of the animals went postal, and thrashed everywhere, so I just closed my eyes, sighed, and... got wet. -_- Le sigh... whatever. Why do I even bother trying to get away? Heh.
We had to get a turbot out of the ray tank as well as a tub gurnard. We got the gurnard first, which Martin actually flipped up out of the water when catching at first - he was in the tank - before he got it. We take it round to its right tank (it had got through a gap between the tanks) and dumped it in. We go back for the turbot which he has caught when we arrive. That bastard was heavy. He had a big sore near his head. Ouch. Handed him over to Martin and Lou, before I tried to get a photo of the sucker for head office - don't know why they needed one, but whatever - but the thing is a piece of crap. Digital camera... more like medieval wetstone for all it's worth. We gave up on that.
I was rota-d (wtf sp?) down to do the shark feed talk at two, but when I was walking around at about half one, I see Kim from the photo section walking around, looking as though she's searching for someone. So I turn to her (radio still in hand) and give her an inquiring gaze. She shows me a family photo, and tells me she's looking for a little girl, about six years old, with down's syndrome. She said she'd been round twice looking for her already, and one of her guardians (not sure what else to call him, considering he wasn't the father) was there too. So I lend a hand, contacting Lou and telling her to keep out an eye. I go through the entire centre, force my way through the tunnel to look, and take a look in the toilets as well. Nothing there. I go past the ball pit, and Gilly is in there looking, and she turns to me, and says, "No, nothin'."
Lou is with me by this point, and we take the initiative to go out the side doors, onto the patio and beyond. She went right towards the beach, and I took a left towards the seafront and where people walk. I asked a few people at the benches, look all over the place as far as I can see, and even go along the front of the building. Nothing whatsoever.
We head back in, to find that Tamsin and Hayley (on-site managers for the day) have now been called onto the scene. Luckily we have a photo of the child for reference and can therefore tell others what to watch out for. Tamsin sends Lou and I out again, and we go. Lou went towards the Marina Centre down the right of the seafront, and again, I went left towards the Pleasure Beach. I'm going along, telling loads of people what she looks like, popping into the Winter Gardens amusements, asking around, and nobody's seen anything. I mean, how do you not notice a kid like this?
I manage to get all the way down to the bungee thing that launches you up about thirty feet into the air, and ask someone in there. Nothing there either. I don't have my radio by this point, cuz I gave it to Suzie on front desk in case they found her and could tell Lou or whatever. When I'd gotten that far, I figured I should be heading back (not terrible weather to search in anyway - sunny).
I was worried, so I could only imagine what the family (let alone the kid's MOTHER) was like. I worked my way down the back of the way I had already come, looking along the beach, but unable to see anything. I get all the way back, and we all met up in front of the main entrance again. Tamsin is in alert mode, cuz this kid went missing from inside her centre, so... uh oh for her, basically. She sends us out in pairs this time. Gilly and I are sent to the left to work back along the prom. Two heads are better than one, etc.
It was as we had passed the back of the centre that we saw a family coming around from the back of the old pier, and one woman had a child in her arms. I see the turqouise shirt, and the blonde hair.
"I hope this is the right child, or I've just run off with someone's daughter," she said to me, and I get a good look at the kid.
"It's her," I sigh, relieved, and me and Gilly are grinning with happiness at having 'found' her. I say 'found', cuz she was found for us. The woman handed her over to Gilly, and the kid (Joanne) gave her a kiss on the cheek, which was quite sweet. The woman had promised little Joanne a strawberry ice cream, so she gave the kid a £1 for one. Apparently, it was how they had persuaded her to go with them to find her mum.
Grinning like idiots and telling Joanne how worried her mum had been, we get around the front of the building again, victorious, and I'm not sure if we were strutting or not, but we had to have been. Heh. Certainly felt good to find the kid. We yell out to Tamsin who's standing outside, and Ali points down to us, and she turns, and we call, "Got her!" Tamsin's face lit up, let me tell you. It was a good feeling.
Ali goes off to find Lou and Nicola (who'd gone right again) that the kid had been found, whilst Tamsin goes in to tell Joanne's family. Her aunt (I think it was her aunt) was already outside, along with what I presumed was two cousins. They looked pleased to see her alive and well. Around this area, kids are picked up so easily. These guys were LUCKY. Joanne's mum and sister come up... these two are a mess, in tears and overwhelmed with joy and relief to see her unharmed. Her mum just grabs her, and can't let go. Joanne obviously doesn't understand, but just seemed happy to be hugging her mum, bless her.
Because it's obviously a bit daunting to be watched by all those people, I - on Tamsin's advice - take them into the education room for a quiet moment, whilst the managers ring the police to give them the all-clear. I ask them if they want any drinks, and ended up getting the mum a bottle of chilled water from the restaurant. She looked like she needed it. We left them to it after that.
Now obviously, by this time, I'd missed my display... oops. Who cares? That kid was more important dammit, and no one really cares how long the sharks are/will get when they can see... hurrah, hurrah, chunks of dead fish falling/eaten by them. So that wasn't done. Whatever.
We got new bigbelly seahorses today. Now, I wonder how long THESE will last.
Oops, missed something out. Earlier sometime - it might have even been after the Joanne palava, who knows? - I was called to Venom, where we keep our sea snakes. Little did I know at the time that an Ents (Entertainment Team member) person has to evacuate the entire zone whilst we feed the sea snakes! o_O Makes sense I suppose. It could be dangerous. So I march in there.
"Excuse me, everyone, can I please have your attention? *everyone looks at me* We are about to feed our sea snakes, but due to strict regulation, I am going to have to politely ask that everyone leaves the area, due to the task being potentially hazardous. This shouldn't take more than a few minutes, but if everyone could clear back out near the frog display, that would be great. Thank you." I actually felt mean, but it was cool to boss them around. Heh.
There I am standing at the entrace to the main Venom area, keeping people out and talking to a family about them, when I hear Martin yell, "We've got a shed!" Ooh, excitement! And that skin was cool too. Complete, and banded and everything. Very cool. That makes two sheddings now, apparently, and if they shed whole skins, they are healthy, so that's some good news.
I go for my tea break, and get a glass of chilled water from the office dispenser, along with a photocopy of my rota to stare at during my sit down, as per usual. Of course, I get two minutes in - not even THAT - before my radio alarms. I say into it (to Lou), "You did that on purpose," thinking she's pranking me, cuz I told her I was going on a break. Turns out she wants my help to try and catch this tang again. Argh... okay, "I'll just drink my water, and then I'll be right there."
Down I go... can we find the buggers? No. Martin is in the column tank next door, draining and getting all the clownfish out, etc. Ryan is reaching up over the tank (awkward bugger that must be a bitch to get into/out of) to get the net each time, and there's this annoying family who are all in the way. Keep telling them to get back, but it takes them ages to actually bloody get the message.
Tony arrives, and like the cheeky sod he quite often ISN'T, tells us that we needn't be doing both tanks at the same time. -_- Whatever, Tony. Bye bye. So we leave the nets in the tank for the fish to 'get used' to, and I wander off.
Not long after that, about twenty to four, we have a fucking flood... I'm fed up with those. It was - surprise, surprise - around the ray tank, and Maria came up to me to tell me. Guh... quite a lot of water. So we march off to food prep (food preparation area) and grab some brooms and mops. I tell Ryan to kick open the touchpool fire escape doors in order to sweep it out if need be. I don't know who designed this aquarium, but get this... the drains are the highest point in the floors! >_< So there I am, sweeping this crap all towards the train, with this ANNOYING brat of a child who keeps walking through it. It's not amazingly deep, but it's a good inch or two deep. I'd already yelled up to everyone on the 'promenade' around the tank, "Excuse me, guys, but we have a flood in this area. Instead of coming down these stairs here as usual, you may want to double back, and come through these doors here. It is quite deep, and it IS salt water and WILL damage your shoes." Heh, got some people's attention with that one. So most people do the sensible thing as we clear.
Lou comes along eventually, to find Ryan, Maria (Maz) and I clearing it up with mops and brooms. She lends a hand. Ryan goes off - at my advice - to check the opposite side, and starts mopping up a slight puddle there too. Martin arrives after a while, and helps out.
Takes us a good half an hour to do this, and Ali - bless her - volunteers to do my four o'clock shark talk. She's a star *grins*. I was exhausted after doing that. Martin somehow shattered the face of his watch, bless 'im. He wasn't thrilled. Apparently he'd only just spent £4 to get a new pin 'for the bastard'. Poor Martin ^_^
After that, I actually go for a tea break, and just about collapse into my chair after downing a cup of cold water. MY head thunks down in my arms, and I swear I almost actually fell asleep O_O But after a moment or two of that, I turn to look at our notice board, considering I'd been off a while, and might have missed something. There's a new 'read and sign' form. So I read it... and here's the list of names:
Simon
Daz
Ali
Ryan
Mat (whoops, guys, two T's there!)
Maria
Lauren
... Okay, so do I not bloody EXIST now, guys?! Ugh... offended lil' me. -_- Maz came up after that, cuz she was only down to work 'til four, and I tear this thing off the board and say, "I've worked here more than a year, and they forget me. Charming."
Thunk. Head goes down again. I'm getting a headache by this point too. So after a minute, my head comes back up, I grab a pen (don't know what the hell it was doing in the condiment tub, but whatever) and write my name REALLY big down the bottom, and sign in before tacking it back up.
After my break was over, I go back down, and run into Tony. "Do I not exist now?" I asked. "That new form you put up about new procedures... you left me off."
"Oh, did I?!"
"Yeah... I'm offended." (Lighthearted, granted, but... *frowns*)
"Oops... sorry!"
"You should be."
"Guilt trip me, why don't you?" Tony laughed.
As he was walking on, obviously busy, I called after him, "Damn straight!"
About half four, where I'm just about falling asleep, and things are getting tedious, I'm walking by touchpool, and Ryan has just been relieved by a not-so-happy looking Ali.
"I asked him to stay here for an extra ten minutes so I could have a tea break, but he said no," she tells me, pouting. Heh, bless 'er.
So I march off after Ryan, and find him by the column tank, where Lou and Martin are getting to work on getting the moray eels out. Now, one in four bites from these guys gets gangrenous, so we have to be very careful. Martin passed one over to Ryan (6'5, this guy) and he grabs the stick, and puts it in the bongo (VERY big bucket). I sent Ryan off to cover touchpool for a while. Martin snags the second one, whilst Tony has another go at these regal tangs. Lou and I are standing waiting to get this eel, and when Martin offers it over, Lou reached up, and I yell - not amazingly panicked, but warningly - and this eel has got his gaping head hanging over, as if to say, "HELLO, LOUISE!" We back off, going, "Whoa!" or whatever. Martin can't do bugger all, cuz he's IN the tank, after all. So Tony lunges in, and catches the bugger with his own net, and drops him in the bongo, going, "HAH!" Heh... quite funny.
About five o'clock, Ali and I go to empty the sodding touchpool. Our daily rotas run out at five, and we'd all run out of patience after the hectic day. So we get the crabs out, and actually stand talking to Tony for a little while whilst we can't get through the shark area due to Ryan's talk. He SEES these crabs in the bucket, and is talking to us. He seemed a little stressed, but not too bad.
When the area cleared, we get through, and head to quarantine to replace these crabs. Tony comes along, and... GAH... we have to put stuff back IN, cuz, "There's still loads of people coming in; we're still open; we need the touchpool open." Fuck do we. If there ain't a starfish in there, people don't CARE! Whatever... we take a crab back. We agree to do another fifteen minutes each until six. Bleeeeh.
Tony actually pokes his head around when Ali and I are standing there, to CHECK we're there! Cheeky bugger! >_<
"There's two of you... again... why?" Okay, someone needs to chill here, he sounded annoyed, and this guy (cute as he is, whatever) is NOT our line manager. Despite being displays supervisor, he can't really moan like this, especially since Ali is his new girlfriend. Nerve, if you ask me.
So I just look at him almost reproachfully up that ramp, sigh, and then walk away, and he has the NERVE to carry on. Out of patience with him getting pissy, I yell out around the corner (area is clear of patrons, btw, all safe), "ALL RIGHT! I'm GOING!" and march off. Grrr...
Not long after that, it's my turn on there, and I have my head down on my arms guarding a SINGLE crab, with NO ONE in the centre. Bloody pointless... *grumble grumble* I'm just about falling asleep there, and I look up groggily to see Ali and Ryan comin' towards me. Turns out they've conferred, and they say to me, "Go home."
"Wha...?"
"You're falling asleep at the TOUCHPOOL. We're fine to stay, and Ryan wants to wait for Suzie anyway. Go home. It's fine."
"O-okay." That said, I go upstairs, check it with Tamsin, and I'm OUTTA THERE. Ugh... that felt good. But congratulations Tony, you managed to piss off most everyone today, and you weren't even there for more than three hours. Heh... mission accomplished, and in record time.
Ugh, not much to say, other than it took me AN HOUR to type this up, I had a lovely pork salad dinner with chocolate mousse for dessert, followed by a wonderful nap, and here I sit, listening to my awesome new cd, having vented, and about to write the collaberation after checking all other sites.
This is Clez, signing off. *salutes*
Anyway... let's see if I can work through the events in order. If not, screw it, whatever, right? It's under a cut cuz it's so LONG... O_O
Anyway... first of all, Lauren wasn't in today. Apparently her voice is gone, which I found funny, cuz Lauren is a loud person. So it's just me, Ryan and Ali until twelve when Maria is supposed be in. (She did turn up, just so you know)
We have to man the touchpool all day. Sigh. Thank you Tony.
They want to catch a regal tang (Dory) out of one tank, and we've tried this many times before, and the buggers must KNOW we're after them, because they all vanish when we get there with coaxing food and nets. So that went down the pan.
I had the walkie talkie to contact Lou most of the day. Mwahaha, the power... if the damn things would work without having to be turned on and off every hour or so to make sure you can use them properly. So I was getting messages from Lou all day, which mostly consisted (when she wasn't using it seriously) of, "YUMMY!" a la Ace Ventura. Strange girl. o_O
Had my lunch about 12:45 with Lou after the ray feed. Now, get this, every time I do one of these, I. Get. Wet. No matter what. It's usually right after I warn everyone about the splash factor of the animals as well. But this time, I thought, 'Aha, I'll outsmart the buggers. I'll stand up on the steps here, above the water.' Did it work? Hell no. One of the animals went postal, and thrashed everywhere, so I just closed my eyes, sighed, and... got wet. -_- Le sigh... whatever. Why do I even bother trying to get away? Heh.
We had to get a turbot out of the ray tank as well as a tub gurnard. We got the gurnard first, which Martin actually flipped up out of the water when catching at first - he was in the tank - before he got it. We take it round to its right tank (it had got through a gap between the tanks) and dumped it in. We go back for the turbot which he has caught when we arrive. That bastard was heavy. He had a big sore near his head. Ouch. Handed him over to Martin and Lou, before I tried to get a photo of the sucker for head office - don't know why they needed one, but whatever - but the thing is a piece of crap. Digital camera... more like medieval wetstone for all it's worth. We gave up on that.
I was rota-d (wtf sp?) down to do the shark feed talk at two, but when I was walking around at about half one, I see Kim from the photo section walking around, looking as though she's searching for someone. So I turn to her (radio still in hand) and give her an inquiring gaze. She shows me a family photo, and tells me she's looking for a little girl, about six years old, with down's syndrome. She said she'd been round twice looking for her already, and one of her guardians (not sure what else to call him, considering he wasn't the father) was there too. So I lend a hand, contacting Lou and telling her to keep out an eye. I go through the entire centre, force my way through the tunnel to look, and take a look in the toilets as well. Nothing there. I go past the ball pit, and Gilly is in there looking, and she turns to me, and says, "No, nothin'."
Lou is with me by this point, and we take the initiative to go out the side doors, onto the patio and beyond. She went right towards the beach, and I took a left towards the seafront and where people walk. I asked a few people at the benches, look all over the place as far as I can see, and even go along the front of the building. Nothing whatsoever.
We head back in, to find that Tamsin and Hayley (on-site managers for the day) have now been called onto the scene. Luckily we have a photo of the child for reference and can therefore tell others what to watch out for. Tamsin sends Lou and I out again, and we go. Lou went towards the Marina Centre down the right of the seafront, and again, I went left towards the Pleasure Beach. I'm going along, telling loads of people what she looks like, popping into the Winter Gardens amusements, asking around, and nobody's seen anything. I mean, how do you not notice a kid like this?
I manage to get all the way down to the bungee thing that launches you up about thirty feet into the air, and ask someone in there. Nothing there either. I don't have my radio by this point, cuz I gave it to Suzie on front desk in case they found her and could tell Lou or whatever. When I'd gotten that far, I figured I should be heading back (not terrible weather to search in anyway - sunny).
I was worried, so I could only imagine what the family (let alone the kid's MOTHER) was like. I worked my way down the back of the way I had already come, looking along the beach, but unable to see anything. I get all the way back, and we all met up in front of the main entrance again. Tamsin is in alert mode, cuz this kid went missing from inside her centre, so... uh oh for her, basically. She sends us out in pairs this time. Gilly and I are sent to the left to work back along the prom. Two heads are better than one, etc.
It was as we had passed the back of the centre that we saw a family coming around from the back of the old pier, and one woman had a child in her arms. I see the turqouise shirt, and the blonde hair.
"I hope this is the right child, or I've just run off with someone's daughter," she said to me, and I get a good look at the kid.
"It's her," I sigh, relieved, and me and Gilly are grinning with happiness at having 'found' her. I say 'found', cuz she was found for us. The woman handed her over to Gilly, and the kid (Joanne) gave her a kiss on the cheek, which was quite sweet. The woman had promised little Joanne a strawberry ice cream, so she gave the kid a £1 for one. Apparently, it was how they had persuaded her to go with them to find her mum.
Grinning like idiots and telling Joanne how worried her mum had been, we get around the front of the building again, victorious, and I'm not sure if we were strutting or not, but we had to have been. Heh. Certainly felt good to find the kid. We yell out to Tamsin who's standing outside, and Ali points down to us, and she turns, and we call, "Got her!" Tamsin's face lit up, let me tell you. It was a good feeling.
Ali goes off to find Lou and Nicola (who'd gone right again) that the kid had been found, whilst Tamsin goes in to tell Joanne's family. Her aunt (I think it was her aunt) was already outside, along with what I presumed was two cousins. They looked pleased to see her alive and well. Around this area, kids are picked up so easily. These guys were LUCKY. Joanne's mum and sister come up... these two are a mess, in tears and overwhelmed with joy and relief to see her unharmed. Her mum just grabs her, and can't let go. Joanne obviously doesn't understand, but just seemed happy to be hugging her mum, bless her.
Because it's obviously a bit daunting to be watched by all those people, I - on Tamsin's advice - take them into the education room for a quiet moment, whilst the managers ring the police to give them the all-clear. I ask them if they want any drinks, and ended up getting the mum a bottle of chilled water from the restaurant. She looked like she needed it. We left them to it after that.
Now obviously, by this time, I'd missed my display... oops. Who cares? That kid was more important dammit, and no one really cares how long the sharks are/will get when they can see... hurrah, hurrah, chunks of dead fish falling/eaten by them. So that wasn't done. Whatever.
We got new bigbelly seahorses today. Now, I wonder how long THESE will last.
Oops, missed something out. Earlier sometime - it might have even been after the Joanne palava, who knows? - I was called to Venom, where we keep our sea snakes. Little did I know at the time that an Ents (Entertainment Team member) person has to evacuate the entire zone whilst we feed the sea snakes! o_O Makes sense I suppose. It could be dangerous. So I march in there.
"Excuse me, everyone, can I please have your attention? *everyone looks at me* We are about to feed our sea snakes, but due to strict regulation, I am going to have to politely ask that everyone leaves the area, due to the task being potentially hazardous. This shouldn't take more than a few minutes, but if everyone could clear back out near the frog display, that would be great. Thank you." I actually felt mean, but it was cool to boss them around. Heh.
There I am standing at the entrace to the main Venom area, keeping people out and talking to a family about them, when I hear Martin yell, "We've got a shed!" Ooh, excitement! And that skin was cool too. Complete, and banded and everything. Very cool. That makes two sheddings now, apparently, and if they shed whole skins, they are healthy, so that's some good news.
I go for my tea break, and get a glass of chilled water from the office dispenser, along with a photocopy of my rota to stare at during my sit down, as per usual. Of course, I get two minutes in - not even THAT - before my radio alarms. I say into it (to Lou), "You did that on purpose," thinking she's pranking me, cuz I told her I was going on a break. Turns out she wants my help to try and catch this tang again. Argh... okay, "I'll just drink my water, and then I'll be right there."
Down I go... can we find the buggers? No. Martin is in the column tank next door, draining and getting all the clownfish out, etc. Ryan is reaching up over the tank (awkward bugger that must be a bitch to get into/out of) to get the net each time, and there's this annoying family who are all in the way. Keep telling them to get back, but it takes them ages to actually bloody get the message.
Tony arrives, and like the cheeky sod he quite often ISN'T, tells us that we needn't be doing both tanks at the same time. -_- Whatever, Tony. Bye bye. So we leave the nets in the tank for the fish to 'get used' to, and I wander off.
Not long after that, about twenty to four, we have a fucking flood... I'm fed up with those. It was - surprise, surprise - around the ray tank, and Maria came up to me to tell me. Guh... quite a lot of water. So we march off to food prep (food preparation area) and grab some brooms and mops. I tell Ryan to kick open the touchpool fire escape doors in order to sweep it out if need be. I don't know who designed this aquarium, but get this... the drains are the highest point in the floors! >_< So there I am, sweeping this crap all towards the train, with this ANNOYING brat of a child who keeps walking through it. It's not amazingly deep, but it's a good inch or two deep. I'd already yelled up to everyone on the 'promenade' around the tank, "Excuse me, guys, but we have a flood in this area. Instead of coming down these stairs here as usual, you may want to double back, and come through these doors here. It is quite deep, and it IS salt water and WILL damage your shoes." Heh, got some people's attention with that one. So most people do the sensible thing as we clear.
Lou comes along eventually, to find Ryan, Maria (Maz) and I clearing it up with mops and brooms. She lends a hand. Ryan goes off - at my advice - to check the opposite side, and starts mopping up a slight puddle there too. Martin arrives after a while, and helps out.
Takes us a good half an hour to do this, and Ali - bless her - volunteers to do my four o'clock shark talk. She's a star *grins*. I was exhausted after doing that. Martin somehow shattered the face of his watch, bless 'im. He wasn't thrilled. Apparently he'd only just spent £4 to get a new pin 'for the bastard'. Poor Martin ^_^
After that, I actually go for a tea break, and just about collapse into my chair after downing a cup of cold water. MY head thunks down in my arms, and I swear I almost actually fell asleep O_O But after a moment or two of that, I turn to look at our notice board, considering I'd been off a while, and might have missed something. There's a new 'read and sign' form. So I read it... and here's the list of names:
Simon
Daz
Ali
Ryan
Mat (whoops, guys, two T's there!)
Maria
Lauren
... Okay, so do I not bloody EXIST now, guys?! Ugh... offended lil' me. -_- Maz came up after that, cuz she was only down to work 'til four, and I tear this thing off the board and say, "I've worked here more than a year, and they forget me. Charming."
Thunk. Head goes down again. I'm getting a headache by this point too. So after a minute, my head comes back up, I grab a pen (don't know what the hell it was doing in the condiment tub, but whatever) and write my name REALLY big down the bottom, and sign in before tacking it back up.
After my break was over, I go back down, and run into Tony. "Do I not exist now?" I asked. "That new form you put up about new procedures... you left me off."
"Oh, did I?!"
"Yeah... I'm offended." (Lighthearted, granted, but... *frowns*)
"Oops... sorry!"
"You should be."
"Guilt trip me, why don't you?" Tony laughed.
As he was walking on, obviously busy, I called after him, "Damn straight!"
About half four, where I'm just about falling asleep, and things are getting tedious, I'm walking by touchpool, and Ryan has just been relieved by a not-so-happy looking Ali.
"I asked him to stay here for an extra ten minutes so I could have a tea break, but he said no," she tells me, pouting. Heh, bless 'er.
So I march off after Ryan, and find him by the column tank, where Lou and Martin are getting to work on getting the moray eels out. Now, one in four bites from these guys gets gangrenous, so we have to be very careful. Martin passed one over to Ryan (6'5, this guy) and he grabs the stick, and puts it in the bongo (VERY big bucket). I sent Ryan off to cover touchpool for a while. Martin snags the second one, whilst Tony has another go at these regal tangs. Lou and I are standing waiting to get this eel, and when Martin offers it over, Lou reached up, and I yell - not amazingly panicked, but warningly - and this eel has got his gaping head hanging over, as if to say, "HELLO, LOUISE!" We back off, going, "Whoa!" or whatever. Martin can't do bugger all, cuz he's IN the tank, after all. So Tony lunges in, and catches the bugger with his own net, and drops him in the bongo, going, "HAH!" Heh... quite funny.
About five o'clock, Ali and I go to empty the sodding touchpool. Our daily rotas run out at five, and we'd all run out of patience after the hectic day. So we get the crabs out, and actually stand talking to Tony for a little while whilst we can't get through the shark area due to Ryan's talk. He SEES these crabs in the bucket, and is talking to us. He seemed a little stressed, but not too bad.
When the area cleared, we get through, and head to quarantine to replace these crabs. Tony comes along, and... GAH... we have to put stuff back IN, cuz, "There's still loads of people coming in; we're still open; we need the touchpool open." Fuck do we. If there ain't a starfish in there, people don't CARE! Whatever... we take a crab back. We agree to do another fifteen minutes each until six. Bleeeeh.
Tony actually pokes his head around when Ali and I are standing there, to CHECK we're there! Cheeky bugger! >_<
"There's two of you... again... why?" Okay, someone needs to chill here, he sounded annoyed, and this guy (cute as he is, whatever) is NOT our line manager. Despite being displays supervisor, he can't really moan like this, especially since Ali is his new girlfriend. Nerve, if you ask me.
So I just look at him almost reproachfully up that ramp, sigh, and then walk away, and he has the NERVE to carry on. Out of patience with him getting pissy, I yell out around the corner (area is clear of patrons, btw, all safe), "ALL RIGHT! I'm GOING!" and march off. Grrr...
Not long after that, it's my turn on there, and I have my head down on my arms guarding a SINGLE crab, with NO ONE in the centre. Bloody pointless... *grumble grumble* I'm just about falling asleep there, and I look up groggily to see Ali and Ryan comin' towards me. Turns out they've conferred, and they say to me, "Go home."
"Wha...?"
"You're falling asleep at the TOUCHPOOL. We're fine to stay, and Ryan wants to wait for Suzie anyway. Go home. It's fine."
"O-okay." That said, I go upstairs, check it with Tamsin, and I'm OUTTA THERE. Ugh... that felt good. But congratulations Tony, you managed to piss off most everyone today, and you weren't even there for more than three hours. Heh... mission accomplished, and in record time.
Ugh, not much to say, other than it took me AN HOUR to type this up, I had a lovely pork salad dinner with chocolate mousse for dessert, followed by a wonderful nap, and here I sit, listening to my awesome new cd, having vented, and about to write the collaberation after checking all other sites.
This is Clez, signing off. *salutes*