Bee happy

My dad used to keep bees. I have some good stories about those days. lol. Not typing them out on my phone though.

Off this afternoon to a bee meeting on spring management. Package bees coming this Friday!! :D

My dad was a beekeeper too!

He used to be one of the people who'd be called in to deal with rogue hives in the wrong place. Had to give that part of it up after a bad incident where he was stung by several hundred bees whilst dealing with a wild colony.

I used to love going to his little hives at the allotment. And eating fresh honeycomb mmmmm. Still remember the smell of the smoker he used to put the bees to sleep

Excellent! My nucs are coming in May. It was pretty calm and relaxed in the yard. I guess beekeepers self-select for zen state. It was neat checking the hives for vigor. All these hives were doing well but one so one of the guys marked the weak queen and moved them into a nuc box in preparation for re-queening.

I got an honorary mention at the Work's Oscars at our AGM tonight.
The Del Boy Best Sales Technique award.
I was slightly perturbed, because I sell via passion, care and customer service, as opposed to lying about hooky goods. But apparently it was meant as a genuine "Sand to the Arabs" compliment.

I has mad sales skillz it seems!

I was only runner up though. The prize went to a chap who works on fruit & veg.
Who used to be a market trader...

lovely jubbly!



I'm happy 'cause I'm meeting Sundae for lunch in a couple of days :)

If I had more cash for multiple train journeys (and didn't have a bunch of seriously overdue marking to finish!) I'd meet up Tuesday and Wednesday, but at least we get to spend an hour or so on Wednesday just shootin the breeze and catching up.

WTG Sundae! And have a lovely time without me at lunch! ;)


Sent by thought transference

Saw the first Swallow of the year this afternoon so that made me happy.

I was mowing the lawn at the time, which made me decidedly unhappy, but you can't have everything.

Carr, really?
Re swallow not lawn.
Gosh. I wouldn't have looked for them this early, but I suppose it is nearly half-past April.

Dani, NO. We will be meeting as a part of my reconnaissance, and discussing only things to aid my move. Because this might be my only chance to visit before committing myself to a huge life change.

Oh yeh, and probably laughing til we hurt about stupidy things.

So don't worry Limes. You have little to envy.
Still If'n you could make it to Bradford we'd love to welcome you!
I'm actually staying in a TRIPLE room alone on Monday and Tuesday night, as it's the same price as a double and there were no singles. So you and Dave could both come and frolic.

Okay, nix on the frolic part, the third bed is a bunk above the double.

Yes, I always look forward to the middle two weeks of April and the return of the House Martins and Swallows.
The trouble is that so very often there is a brief sighting of a solitary bird, of either species, and then no more for another two or three weeks.
As we know 'One Swallow doesn't make a summer'.

Are you two on your period or something then?

I was scrollin up, looking to see if Sundae had her jubblies out again.

:mad:

They do appear to have 'synced up', don't they?

The preceding are the mandatory terrible replies which mark the low brow humor of the Americas.

But I'm australian! Haha

:) Hence the lesson.

Well we all did start out as convicts.

I have a job and I have a flat.

Lots of stresses and stresses and stresses to come.
But I have a job and I have a flat in Otley, Leeds.

Everything else can follow.

yay! well done :)

Bravo!

Nice!

Well done, Sundae:thumb:

Best wishes for the future.

That's outstanding news. Good job!

Awesome! It'll all fall into place now.

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!!

What's the job?

Well, fuck me that was fast!

Well done you! Details ?

Excellent!!

Details when possible please. :-)

I've been offered a position with the supermarket I currently work with (sorry, trying not to be searchable) in Otley, Leeds, West Yorkshire.
I do not know my hours, I do not know my shifts.
I do know that - as in Aylesbury - they always want people to pick up extra work within and without their own departments. I discussed this at interview.

I cancelled a viewing at a flat in Otley to attend an interview at Morrison's in Bradford.
They were offering FULL time (30 hours) and housing in Bradford itself is cheaper by about £50 per month.
But as it turns out the location is high on a hill outside of the city, so travel costs would still apply. And it was for a job which is on a tangent from the position I currently hold. A job is a job as I said before, but this one did slightly give me The Fear.

So last night 23.55 when I opened my door, ready to set my alarm for 05.00 this morning OMG, I quickly logged on to find an invitation for a second interview in Otley.

When I came home from probably the worst shift on Bakery I've ever had (major tiredy and cracking my head so hard on an open oven door that I've given myself a proper Easter egg) I started to compose an email to accept an interview but ask for some clemency. Got a call as I was almost ready to send saying, "Hi, no don't worry about the second interview, you had glowing reviews from your branch and we want to employ you. As long as you can attend an Orientation Session."

Hell, yes.
Count the bells I have on.

So I called up private landlord man and arranged to take the local flat sight-unseen.
We dickered and agreed I would get him a payment of rent and deposit (thanks Dad) but my official tenancy wouldn't start until 01/05. Couldn't get him to budge further. Other people might have done, but as Dani knows I was dog-sick about my credit rating, and this place is 0.2 miles from my new place of work. So set-up shifts, close-downs, extra hours... all are welcome.

No pets of course.
I mean of course.
Who would, ever?

Part-furnished.
It's going to mean I have to work hard, but nowhere near as close to breaking point as staying here, where I would have to work harder and longer to live in a shared house. And without the Dizcat.

In hindsight I think I need a new thread for this.

Thank you for letting me spew details in the Happy Thread.
I'll trick out a Yorkshire thread soon.

This so totally belongs in the happy thread.

I'm so happy for you Sundae. 0.2 miles? That's the second time you have had a commute that can't be beat. I mean, seriously. That's almost next door. Way to go!

Yeah Sundae, good for you!!!

Wow! Well done! I've got the housewarming present picked out for you already!


Sent by thought transference

You go girl. ;)

I just measured on Google maps, and my bank of neighborhood mailboxes is farther than .2 miles away.

I've had four compliments in the last few days about my work on bakery.
Once for my paperwork, which I accept 100% because it is always 100% spot on, but it's good to have that recognised.

Then from a colleague who suggested I'd shot myself in the foot by being too good, despite my genuine protestations that I really wasn't.
Backed up by another colleague who came up to us during the conversation, who agreed I did the most thorough job - checking previous weeks sales, baking to that need, continuing to bake when necessary and cleaning as I went. They glossed over the wide-eyed psychotic aspect of me trying to get everything done at once.

And finally our sorta counter Manager (manager in all but pay) who may have been buttering me up, as I worked bakery Thursday, Friday, Monday and she wants me to do it again tomorrow. Given that Thursday is officially my bakery shift, and she has me starting at 06.00 on Friday (guess which counter that means?!) that's over a week on a job everyone knows i hate, so she really did need to soft-soap me. "But Cherry, I've seen you grow so much in confidence in the last few months. I couldn't trust anyone else to do the same job you do. I tell [manager] that our wastage is down because of you."

Hmmm.

I am willing to accept that perhaps I'm not as much of a disaster area as I previously thought when working that counter. The word I keep hearing is "thorough". And I will wear that happily. I'm as fast as I can be, although a time & motion study would reel in despair. And other people are faster and more efficient. But my benchmark is that I keep the customers happy and, like on Deli, my colleagues love it when they know their handover is from me.

Yeah, bigging myself up here.
But bakery has felt like a bridge too far for me, so positive feedback is really special.
Even if I have to start from scratch again when I move.

Look for sheer panic comments about working in Cafe from the middle of May :rolleyes:

Sometimes it takes someone elses eyes to see we're hitting it out of the park when we think we're just muddling along. Congrats!

WHS ^ :D


Sent by thought transference

Way to go Sundae!!

Got my new hours through.
Monday 07.00 - 15.00
Wednesday 09.00 - 18.00
Friday 09.00 - 18.00

So, long hours (in supermarket terms), but plenty of opportunity for overtime on my days off even if I keep the weekends free. And 23 contracted hours, which is good in terms of security.

I'm used to longer shifts and more time on my feet more now than ever because I've done so much overtime in the last six weeks. Including this, my last week. On my last day I'm working eight hours, much of which will be covering more than one counter, alone. In a way I'm going out with a bang, but I'll be whimpering.

My colleague today was trying to horse-trade her Friday hours, saying we would be overstaffed. Ah the pleasures of being 18 and living at home... I said to her, "Surely it's better to come in and get the money for a less stressful shift?"
But of course she has revision. Ah the pain of being 18. It's a Friday, I bet she won't be revising ;)

Awesome :)

I managed to rearrange my dental appointment (deep sedation, so takes half a day to recover after) so will be available to help out on the 7th :)

Oh wow, cool potatoes!
Best person to liaise with is Limey, as although I'm working on sorting out my mobile phone debacle, I can't make any promises.

It makes me happy to think I'll have my two girls with me anyway.
You should sleep over too! The sofa looks big enough for me (because I'll never sleep that night), and it's a double bed...

I get that it might not be possible.
Mr Limey can be relied upon to get his own dinner and not pee on the rug (I know, I've met him) but Carrot is more hairy and without opposable thumbs.

Tbh my skin has been hovering at the edge of a nasty flareup for a couple of weeks, so Oilatum emollient soak every night and own bed is a must right now.

But I'll be there for a chunk of the day and early evening :)

I get you, chick.
I really hope the threatened flare up doesn't come. But you know your body well, so I guess it will. Sadness.

Can I just ask, how lucky can one girl get?
So many Dwellars have helped me so much along my journey in life. Many with words and kindness, some with money as well, and others with actual, practical help (as well as the rest).

This does not exclude anyone who has helped me, but in the interest of brevity please consider yourself loved and thanked. This is just for the people able to help me move.

Carruthers for being a very new friend, offering lifts, help with carrying shopping, tea and sympathy and a laptop to supplement my iPad.

Limey for being a proper practical Rosie the Riveter type who refuses to let me fall into hysterics, and instead offers suggestions and kindness (probably because I am too far away to administer a good slap to). Always, always looks after me like I am a tiny kitten who's been smashed about by, while still treating me as an intelligent adult. Oh and lends me Mr Limey, who is a very decent man.

And my original saviour Dana, who rescued me in Leicester, let me show her London, suggested the first panto GTG (without which I wouldn't even have met Limey!) and made Bradford less scary. And makes me laugh, always.

And Tony, and the Academy, and FSM and and and...

On a completely different level, Gerry Adams (advocate of terrorism and murder) has been arrested and questioned for murder.

Ha
Ha
Ha

Good.
Even if it is "proved" he is innocent of this particular murder I am still pleased he's been degraded and inconvenienced. He's not been orphaned, made a widower or blown into pieces after all.

Shame on those who shook his hand, the blood will not come off.

Give it a day or two and he'll 'walk'.

What worries me is all the others who were released from prison under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement getting up to their old tricks.
Some will be too old to present much of a threat but others won't, and it won't take much to spark it off again.

Finished work today.
My usual pattern of working hard right up until the second I was due to leave.
I thought I might actually get away with it this time, and do what everyone else seems to do - use their last day like a lap of victory, hugging and saying goodbye and all that.
No. I had to cover on Meat & Fish.

Ah well, the customers got good service, which is after all what I'm paid for.

Anyway, got a voucher (bless Lauren for that, I told her I needed the money more than wine, flowers etc) a card and some chocs. Gave chocs to Mum. She was really pleased.

Going to miss the people. And my regulars. And not being thought posh because of my accent.

Both the Beccas were there to see me off.
Both said lovely things. Becca W thinks I'm terribly erudite, which is terribly seductive as im as erudite as I am posh.

New start, new life, new location, new new new.
OMG

O.M.G.

It's gonna be a crazy ride, hang on!

You can do it! And I'm glad all these posts have been in the "happy" thread instead of "apprehensive" or the like. You have a good outlook, and I believe that always gets us 99% of the way to a good outcome.

Bravo!

You're off on new adventures.

You've seen me driving, haven't you ;)


Sent by thought transference

You say that like it's a bad thing. :haha:

You go, girl! :cheerldr:

Making me happy: a friend just made me listen to Wait Wait Don't Tell Me on NPR. Damn funny. Paula Poundstone is the awesome.

Polo shirts start Monday. No ties. Woot.

Is that a seasonal thing, or permanent?

Home girl is moving out at the end of the month and I'm moving in. kids go to true 50-50.

The monthly nut will jump from 6 bills to 11, but I will figure out how to swing it.

great news indeed~!~~~~!~!!~

Excellent! You put your blood sweat and tears into those walls. You deserve it.

Great news. :)