Africa - The South of

So after a hard day moving dog beds around my store and finally fitting out 14 of the 16 remaining back stock beds onto some racking I returned home thinking my day had actually been rather productive and ... for a good 99% of my working day ... I had a good laugh! I do thoroughly enjoy my weekend team and managers team of dreams we have going on! We do what we do, and we do it well! Dare I say I am almost at the point where I love my store AND my stock! Shocking. Me and my co-worker actually had to remove ourselves from the 'we have finished our shift and are standing outside gossiping' situation earlier due to our over excitement of which brands make which dog food. For those who are wondering ... example 1 ... nestle = bakers. fact.

Back to the point.

I was sat on my bed happily enjoying the sun beating through my attic window and warming my room, preparing myself to read approximately 300 pages of marketing (Smith et al) in preparation for my final week of marketing discussion posts ... when my phone rang.  It was a number that I didn't know, but it wasn't with-held, so .... out of character .... I answered it.  

As it happens it was a guy who interviewed me to go on a volunteering project to South Africa.  I got the gig! So in a mere 5 months time I will be shipped off to Ladysmith to work with the community on a variety of cultural heritage projects, as well as teaching in some of their schools. I am VERY excited! I will be there a month. And get to travel afterwards. I get to see wiiiiild animals! RAAAWR! I don't actually know any other details yet but I will keep you posted. 

In the mean time.

Up top is  pic of where i will be going... 

Goodbye facebook .. you have treated me well.

There is a fine line between stalking and just taking a slight interest in some person (Who you have probably not seen since school) life.  Facebook takes this to a new level, allowing people to judge you for many years after your last conversation.  All facebook users are guilty of this pleasure we call facebook stalking, and it is used as a procrastinator for many students across the world.  With deadlines only a few weeks away for major pieces of life altering work, it amazes me how many people still sit on facebook for hours on end, checking out people they don't really care about, but they care about more than doing actual work.  I am one that is very guilty of this, and therefore, I have deleted (or deactivated) my facebook account.  I am 24 hours in and it is going ok, I have found YouTube to be quite a healthy distraction from any work I do actually need to do, as well as Twitter, which is an up and coming favourite distraction website of mine!  After all .. facebook is now turning into twitter .. so what is the difference anyway! Now instead of stalking my friends from years past, I can stalk celebrities. Good plan.

On a side note, I am going to see Lily Allen tonight, and I am also wondering where my Jason Mraz tickets are, surely they should be delivered by now. 

I am also on the final (2 week) countdown until Easter! Horrah! I cannot wait to sit in my bedroom and gaze out at the sun wishing I could be out there but instead I am inside writing and editing.  Thank god this is my last year in education, the thing I am looking forward to right now, is the ability to come home from a days work and relax, not have to think I need to read two chapters of Smith et al (2007) before tomorrow! Happy Days! Bring on the summer!

Times a Ticking

When I arrived at work today I was a calm collected and normal human being.

When I left work today I was a person of mad panic and the ability to self destruct at any moment.

I realised, halfway through my shift, the extent of the amount of work I actually have left to do in the following 6 weeks.  And no, I am not talking about cute little rabbit and other small animal related work.

In the next few weeks, I am going to be bogged down under a pile of dissertation papers, writing and re-writing my work, to get it condensed into a short 12,000 word piece of something that is worth marking.  I thought I was going along well with it, until I realised that the big chunk of it in the middle I have yet to start, and that I should really get started on that! Shit a brick ... it takes it out of you.  And I also need to re-post on the marketing discussion boards.  God bless my university and its thinking that posting on internet discussion sites is a valid 50% of a final year piece of work. Bull shit.  If I come out with a good grade I will jump off a roof in shock.  At the moment I am on a 71.5% for my course which leaves me with a first class honours degree ... which is not what I am going to come out with at the end of the year after the shambles of this semesters classes.

Anyway that is enough ranting and raving from me .... I am going to be productive and go and watch dancing on ice!!  

The return of the MJ!!

After careful planning (and a lot of luck) ... this morning ... I managed ... to get ... MJ TICKETS ... for the 10th July 2009!!! That's right folks ... the most anticipated tour EVER is hitting London's O2 arena, and as a loyal and worthy customer of o2 for many a year now I have 4 brand spanking tickets!

This is not all without cost though ... obv the tickets cost a fair wack (Thank you dads credit card!) and my contract is not exactly free ... but at this moment in time I want to kiss the lady who convinced me that cancelling my o2 contract would be the most ridiculous thing I would ever do.  She was right.  If I had done that ... and then MJ announced this tour ... I would have cried! She even gave me £150 credit to help pay my bills ... and £14.50 off my tariff every month. What a nice lady she is. If I could remember her name I would write to o2 and tell them of my saviour who is disguised as a member of their call team.

The only (and I mean ONLY) downside to this entire situation is that o2 priority only let you buy 4 tickets for each number, and as I am the only member of my family on o2 (Fantastic with my unlimited o2 - o2 calls i might add) I had the sole responsibility of getting the tickets.  Which I did. Except we needed 5. Which i did not get.  THEREFORE after getting up at 6am today ... I now also have to get up at 6am on Friday (The night after my housemates birthday party so it will probably be just as easy for me to stay awake!) and try and acquire more tickets.  Lovely. I blame my parental units for this early wake up call as they will be sunning themselves in the Caribbean .. and therefore cannot make the call/stalk internet websites themselves.  How inconsiderate of them.

My music tour o9 as it is now known starts in a few weeks with Lily Allen at the Leeds o2 academy (Yes apparently I am obsessed with o2 venues!) and then in a mere one month I will be hitting the Manchester academy to see Jason Mraz which I am EXTREMELY excited about! I love his music and I cant wait! Even though I have to drive there and back and then hit work the next day at 7:30 .... it's totally worth it! You should check out his website .. its rather humorous if you set it to voice .. funny guy!

After that its the Leeds Universities Summer Ball in which we get the delights of Katy Perry, Reverend and the Makers and Pendulum.  This is our last ball as students ... so its going to be a messy one! 

Then its on to Glastonbury for 5 days of fun (after the previous 5 days are spent in Sweden on a football tour!) Acts include Blur, Lily Allen, Dizzee Rascal, DJ Yoda plus loads more to be confirmed! 

And following that (with my graduation in between) is MJ! 

Its going to be a busy summer.

Do I know this?

So .. while doing my reading for marketing week 7 ... i came across this..

There is something I don't know

that I am supposed to know.

I don't know what it is I don't know, 

and yet am supposed to know;

and I feel I look stupid

if I seem both not to know it

and not to know what it is I don't know.

Therefore I pretend to know it.

This is nerve racking

since I don't know what I must pretend to know.

Therefore I pretend to know everything.

I feel you know what I am supposed to know

but you can't tell me what it is

because you don't know that I don't know what it is.

You may know what I don't know, but not

that I don't know it,

and I can't tell you. So you will have to tell me everything.

(R D Laing's Knots)

In a nutshell .... that is the basis of my entire academic life!