Ignored futility fills the air
(This post turned out to be far longer than I expected.)
It's like I have a social life or something. Actually, that's starting to get old as I really do seem to have acquired a social life or something. So this has been a horrible week at work. Horrible for everyone; I probably got off quite lightly. Sunday was fine - a reasonably busy Gallery shift but no problems. Monday's Ben and Jerry's shift went quite slow but it was unreasonably tiring, hence I skipped the housewarming party monday night. Tuesday and wednesday are where it gets bad. Incredibly busy shifts on box office with everyone complaining because once again lots of other people want to see the same film as them, and they didn't take this into account. Both shifts were followed by the happy, but I'll talk about those in a second.
Also, on wednesday, a girl got out her phone and called her mother to complain about me because I charged her a full adult price (she looked like she was 16 or 17, children are 14 and below). Maybe she was that young and she just looked old but a) she was being a total bitch and b) while routing around for something to prove her age she pulled a credit card out of her wallet. Fuck that; when I was fourteen my pocket money did not stretch to needing an instant access account to store it all in. Get over it, ho, you're using buy-one-get-one-free tickets anyway.
But wednesday night was good. It was a dude from Odeon's leaving thing slash birthday thing and guys I have not been that drunk in a long time. When the pub closed we headed back to Jodie's and it must have been a little after four that we left there. Andy was falling all over the place walking home and though to me it seemed I was much more stable than him, I probably was too. We were the guys you don't want to see walking towards you at half four.
I didn't try to sleep. Experience has taught me the best thing to do is to lie there awake drinking water until you feel more sober, then you can sleep. So I did that but it can't have worked too well as I was still drunk when I woke up three hours later. And thus began thursday's horrible shift.
Thursday's horrible shift would have been a nice shift if I wasn't hungover and needing sleep. It was my second Gallery open and I didn't really know what I was doing, so when the first six guests turned up five minutes after I got there it wasn't fun. Actually, that couple were really nice and didn't mind waiting downstairs in the bar until I was ready for them. It was the next lot, two guys, who complained. Their film started at 16:45, Alberto was supposed to turn up at 16:30 but he was late so eventually I had to let everyone up and finish the close with them there. I'd told the people in the bar I'd come down and collect them but I couldn't leave Gallery unattended so I just phoned the bar and asked them to tell the guests the gallery was open. These guys weren't happy about that. But, you know, screw them. The rest of the shift went fine. My first Gallery close... well, it happened. Nothing went wrong but after an eight hour shift I just wanted sleep.
Had to wait forty minutes for the minibus, and though it's only a twenty minute walk home to hell with that it was raining. With my hated mp3 player (have I complained about my mp3 player on here yet? I hate it.) I zoned out and ignored everyone in the team room until it was time to go. Which wasn't the best of plans in hindsight, as they were people who'd been at the thing on wednesday night and who I might be seeing tonight.
Today was a very slow delivery shift. Now, this was only my second one and this one was pretty dull, but I like the delivery shift. You're not in uniform, you're off screen* for most of it and hey, more door codes. I thought I was working at the cinema because I wanted a job with no responsibility, but turns out some is good. Also, the more areas I'm trained on - the more varied my work is - the longer it'll stay enjoyable. When I start feeling like I don't want to be working there any longer, if I haven't yet decided what I want to do with my life, I'll ask to be put on the marketing team. That'll give me another couple of months at least. Maybe by then another projection job will have opened up.
Anyway, enough about work, lets talk about awesome things instead like.. cinema?
After my shift on tuesday I went to a preview screening of Hellboy II: The Golden Army. The first Hellboy film is good and fun and fine and whatever but it's nothing special. This is. Between Hellboy and Hellboy II, director Guillermo Del Toro made Pan's Labyrinth, won all sorts of awards and recieved much praise. The studios apparently approve of this as with Hellboy II Del Toro has been allowed to let his creativity flourish and the result is a joy to behold. I mean for serious, I was desperate for the toilet throughout the whole last hour of the film but I didn't go because every scene was so great you didn't want to miss it.
The only bad thing I can say about this film is that you kind of have to have seen Hellboy first, just to be familiar with the characters and the setting, but even that isn't exactly terrible.
Hellboy 2 can proudly stand next to Iron Man and The Dark Knight as examples of what comic book adaptations should be like.
But enough about work and films, lets talk about awesome things instead like... big screens?
Tonight I'm heading back down to the Odeon (do I never leave that accurséd place?) for a games night. We have the Xbox 360 version of Soul Calibur IV and we're going to play it on the big screen. I'm thinking Epic. I'm thinking fucking awesome. I'm thinking that maybe if not enough people turn up or it turns out to be crap or something, I know people going to Rawkus and that's just across the river. I'm thinking that I've got Saturday to recover so whatever happens, I'm damn well going to have a good night tonight.
And one last thing: clearer plans will emerge closer to the event, but on Saturday August 23rd, I'll be celebrating my birthday and this will certainly involve Meltdown at the Waterfront. Please join me.
*more Odeon lingo for you. On Screen is anywhere guests can go. Off-screen, they can't.
It's like I have a social life or something. Actually, that's starting to get old as I really do seem to have acquired a social life or something. So this has been a horrible week at work. Horrible for everyone; I probably got off quite lightly. Sunday was fine - a reasonably busy Gallery shift but no problems. Monday's Ben and Jerry's shift went quite slow but it was unreasonably tiring, hence I skipped the housewarming party monday night. Tuesday and wednesday are where it gets bad. Incredibly busy shifts on box office with everyone complaining because once again lots of other people want to see the same film as them, and they didn't take this into account. Both shifts were followed by the happy, but I'll talk about those in a second.
Also, on wednesday, a girl got out her phone and called her mother to complain about me because I charged her a full adult price (she looked like she was 16 or 17, children are 14 and below). Maybe she was that young and she just looked old but a) she was being a total bitch and b) while routing around for something to prove her age she pulled a credit card out of her wallet. Fuck that; when I was fourteen my pocket money did not stretch to needing an instant access account to store it all in. Get over it, ho, you're using buy-one-get-one-free tickets anyway.
But wednesday night was good. It was a dude from Odeon's leaving thing slash birthday thing and guys I have not been that drunk in a long time. When the pub closed we headed back to Jodie's and it must have been a little after four that we left there. Andy was falling all over the place walking home and though to me it seemed I was much more stable than him, I probably was too. We were the guys you don't want to see walking towards you at half four.
I didn't try to sleep. Experience has taught me the best thing to do is to lie there awake drinking water until you feel more sober, then you can sleep. So I did that but it can't have worked too well as I was still drunk when I woke up three hours later. And thus began thursday's horrible shift.
Thursday's horrible shift would have been a nice shift if I wasn't hungover and needing sleep. It was my second Gallery open and I didn't really know what I was doing, so when the first six guests turned up five minutes after I got there it wasn't fun. Actually, that couple were really nice and didn't mind waiting downstairs in the bar until I was ready for them. It was the next lot, two guys, who complained. Their film started at 16:45, Alberto was supposed to turn up at 16:30 but he was late so eventually I had to let everyone up and finish the close with them there. I'd told the people in the bar I'd come down and collect them but I couldn't leave Gallery unattended so I just phoned the bar and asked them to tell the guests the gallery was open. These guys weren't happy about that. But, you know, screw them. The rest of the shift went fine. My first Gallery close... well, it happened. Nothing went wrong but after an eight hour shift I just wanted sleep.
Had to wait forty minutes for the minibus, and though it's only a twenty minute walk home to hell with that it was raining. With my hated mp3 player (have I complained about my mp3 player on here yet? I hate it.) I zoned out and ignored everyone in the team room until it was time to go. Which wasn't the best of plans in hindsight, as they were people who'd been at the thing on wednesday night and who I might be seeing tonight.
Today was a very slow delivery shift. Now, this was only my second one and this one was pretty dull, but I like the delivery shift. You're not in uniform, you're off screen* for most of it and hey, more door codes. I thought I was working at the cinema because I wanted a job with no responsibility, but turns out some is good. Also, the more areas I'm trained on - the more varied my work is - the longer it'll stay enjoyable. When I start feeling like I don't want to be working there any longer, if I haven't yet decided what I want to do with my life, I'll ask to be put on the marketing team. That'll give me another couple of months at least. Maybe by then another projection job will have opened up.
Anyway, enough about work, lets talk about awesome things instead like.. cinema?
After my shift on tuesday I went to a preview screening of Hellboy II: The Golden Army. The first Hellboy film is good and fun and fine and whatever but it's nothing special. This is. Between Hellboy and Hellboy II, director Guillermo Del Toro made Pan's Labyrinth, won all sorts of awards and recieved much praise. The studios apparently approve of this as with Hellboy II Del Toro has been allowed to let his creativity flourish and the result is a joy to behold. I mean for serious, I was desperate for the toilet throughout the whole last hour of the film but I didn't go because every scene was so great you didn't want to miss it.
The only bad thing I can say about this film is that you kind of have to have seen Hellboy first, just to be familiar with the characters and the setting, but even that isn't exactly terrible.
Hellboy 2 can proudly stand next to Iron Man and The Dark Knight as examples of what comic book adaptations should be like.
But enough about work and films, lets talk about awesome things instead like... big screens?
Tonight I'm heading back down to the Odeon (do I never leave that accurséd place?) for a games night. We have the Xbox 360 version of Soul Calibur IV and we're going to play it on the big screen. I'm thinking Epic. I'm thinking fucking awesome. I'm thinking that maybe if not enough people turn up or it turns out to be crap or something, I know people going to Rawkus and that's just across the river. I'm thinking that I've got Saturday to recover so whatever happens, I'm damn well going to have a good night tonight.
And one last thing: clearer plans will emerge closer to the event, but on Saturday August 23rd, I'll be celebrating my birthday and this will certainly involve Meltdown at the Waterfront. Please join me.
*more Odeon lingo for you. On Screen is anywhere guests can go. Off-screen, they can't.