A Curious Girl: Mixed platter

Both yesterday and today I have turned on the television, meaning to watch Blackadder Goes Forth on DVD, and found myself watching a random documentary. I love documentaries. Once for Sociology in year 9 (13-14 years old) we had to record our television viewing for a week, and mine was low compared to everyone else, plus it had a startlingly high amount of documentaries. Nicola C who sat next to me, looked at me hastily drawing up my television watching table as I'd forgotten to bring the original in, and remarked, "No one will ever believe that."

The one I watched yesterday was called Dying to be Apart, and was about these Iranian conjoined twins - Ladan and Laleh - who'd been conjoined for nearly thirty years when they finally had the separation operation, but they died during the operation. It was so strange to see a glimpse of these women's lives... it must have been so frustrating for them.

Today I tuned into the slightly less harrowing world of Jamie's Kitchen. Yes, Jamie Oliver, Mr. Pukka himself, training 15 students to become chefs. As someone who is, in some respects, inside the industry, it was quite fascinating to watch him at work in the kitchen. Amazing, he effs and blinds like a pro. Not one for hiding his feelings, is our Jamie. I analysed, I really don't think I'd like to work in his restaurant (well, I work on a deli in a café, but I still get the joys of the kitchen (!) even more so than a waiter or waitress would. How do you spell waiter?). Jamie upbraided one of his students for not controlling her temper, but honestly. I think the moral of the story is, if you have a temper, make sure you're in charge...

Deep down though - even though his ability to express his annoyance does rather scare me, me being someone who is apt to repress the anger and maintain diplomacy (a good customer serving skill, at least. If another customer puts their shopping on the ledge on top of the cold counter instead of on the counter by the till where it belongs, I shall scream)... Even though his extraversion would set me on edge, I was impressed. Behind the effing and yelling is a man with a passion. You could tell that he cares so much for his students. Despite all his anxieties, he wasn't going to back down with the charity either.

We had a staff meeting on Sunday. It wasn't as good as the old job in that we didn't get to eat free food. But on the other hand

-we didn't have to watch any daft videos telling us to spread the word about the latest product

-we didn't have to do any daft tests with stupid almost totally unrelated questions like, "Which King could turn things into gold by touching them?"

-we didn't have to think up daft slogans for the latest products. One such slogan someone thought up for a pizza in the old job was 'Sixteen inches of pure pleasure'.

-we didn't have to remember daft acronyms, like 'Cleaniness, Reliability, Accuracy, Punctuality' (not an actual acronym).

-we weren't told how to act in a way to get the servers tips. In fact, Scott broached the 'controversial' subject of deli staff getting some of the tips! Apparently, the servers give one percent of their tips for bar staff and kitchen staff. Poor them, how do they cope?

-we didn't have to do this daft activity for two and a half hours.

The minus side was that I had to get the train in and back. After the meeting, I went to see Matthew and James (Dr. Who) up north (of the Watford gap). Feels like I spent all Sunday on the train. South Eastern trains really are dire. Connex really need to get their act together. They really do have the grottiest and most unpleasant trains, with bad lighting, no drinks or food, and absolutely awful disabled access. Sorry, just had to get that off my chest :)

At Matthew's, we ate Chinese and talked about things that scare us. Not many things actually scare me in that heart-pounding, nerve-wracking, nail-biting sort of fear that lots of people have. The only thing that really freaked me was when James mentioned seeing strange faces at the window, and this freaked me so much I checked both windows just to make sure no one was there.

I came back quite early on the Monday, as I got into London, I felt quite fed up and generally sick of trains. Then I looked at the underground map, and decided I'd go to Covent Garden! So I did, had a posh lunch (ish) and visited the National Gallery (yes, I know the National Gallery isn't in Covent Garden). I had to have a look at Holbein's The Ambassadors. It's such a strange painting.

Covent Garden has always struck me as a bit of a disappointment though. From the way people raved about the wonderful Covent Garden, I always imagined it as a huge garden full of musicians. I was rather disappointed to discover that it's actually just a set of shops with a few musicians occasionally, and no actual garden. I wondered if the second visit would open my eyes to the Covent Garden people rave about, but sadly not. The market was nice, though.

Thanks Mortiana for your lovely guestbook signing. Much wisdom, good advice!

Random word for today: upbraid

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