#i got a pretty hectic arvo

[blauesonnenblume]

ces 2 messages me font trop rire parce que vraiment incompréhensibles et australiens apparemment

[socknerd]

First night shift at new job tomorrow night! And both the people I'll be on with are easy to work with, which is nice. Today was hectic, and there were a couple of times where I was like :( at coworker stuff - like, I can only do one thing at a time, I'm still fairly new and not as experienced and still trying to learn some of the everyday shit, and my brain was pretty scattered this morning for whatever reason. Like, the vast majority of the people in lab (as in in the actual lab and not the entire workplace) are usually easy to get along with, but yeah, occasionally, there'll be something (though my brain probably makes it out to be a bigger deal than it actually is).

But yeah JESUS today was hectic; thank fuck it's the weekend where only certain samples get reported, or it'd be a fucking fight to get shit done on time even with a full team on. Idk how but shed was just churning out sample after sample after sample.

Also thank fuck the new operations manager only works normal business hours. She's been going on about a shitton of stuff "needing" to be done, and I'm sitting there going "you got a plan for being able to implement all that with how overworked and understaffed we are currently, and a bunch of machines that need replacing, and people needing to learn these other new ones, and with me and 2 other newbies still needing training etc in some things?" Fucking managers, office workers, etc, they never actually know about the practicalities of what they're trying to do.

Like, the lab was apparently designed by an ACCOUNTANT. You can sure tell it wasn't by someone who knows anything about a lab. It's surprising enough that they put the furnaces in their own room and not just out with other shit 💀💀💀

Anyway, pretty keen for night shift this week, despite my dread about how it'll affect my sleep. Also, more money, lol (tho only a 25% loading? I'd have expected more tbh, esp as arvo is 20%). Should (fingers crossed) be less hectic than morning or arvo shifts. And if it is, should hopefully be able to get a bit more training and training-adjacent stuff done. Also, I've been averaging like 6 8hr mostly-hectic work days per week and that's been draining as FUCK and I have so much other shit to do, so it'd be nice to have a week of chill.

[euroexploro-blog]

Intro

I'm Rosie travelling around UK and Europe with boyfriend George in our Vanny (Vauxhall Combo Van). We arrived in London on April 6th (after around 24 hours flying from NZ). We stayed a week in a hostel in Shoreditch, found Vanny and set off on the road. We went straight up to Bakewell to see a friend and her friends, and stayed three (very cold + uncomfortable) nights in the back of Vanny. Then we were off to Wigan and stayed a (very comfortable) night with George's third cousin and a bottle of Emperial Moët. He was incredibly generous and helped us with supplies for a bed base to start the van kit-out. We then headed to Windermere in the Lake District and stayed a night roadside, waking to find three horses staring at us over the fence. We then made our way back to London and we're lucky enough to stay with George's uncle for about a week as we got Vanny ready to hit Europe. We booked in our ferry tickets and hit the road towards Harwich, having a stopover in Chelmsford where we found a carpark to stay the night. We had two nights in Harwich parked outside The Castle pub and on May 3rd we made the crossing to Hoek Van Holland. I had been getting progressively more unwell and by the time we landed in Netherlands I was not in good shape- resulting in a spew on the motorway (spewbag had holes in it 😓) and an emergency stop. We got to Amstelveen in Amsterdam where we camped in a camping ground for the following week as I got better then worse then better, all the while trying to do and see as much as we could. My highlights for Amsterdam were very predictably #1 keukenhof gardens. Sososo worthwhile and we were lucky to be in the right season. #2 I loved walking along and sitting beside the canals further out of the central city. #3 can't get enough of the parks and green areas on the train trip to the city from our campground. We had lots of bunnies hopping around our campground and it was surrounded by park/forest that was well used by horses and was so fun to see. #4 I'm inspired to ride a bike everywhere I go when I get back to Christchurch. (If only we had as safe and efficient bike routes..) I recovered and was keen to keep moving so we left the Netherlands and moved south to warmer weather which we immediately noticed when we hit Antwerp in Belgium. We were only there one night but I really loved it there. Hectic when we found ourselves central city at 5.30pm but once we got organised and did grocery shopping we were set. We ended up in the docklands area and stopped by a small marina next to a building site where apartments were going up. We set ourselves up and had a delicious meal on our cooker, having finally found the right gas cylinder to fit. We watched a very pretty sunset and moved to a carpark George had spotted earlier, where other campers were parked and people were picnicking on the grass bank looking as the sun went down. We went for a wander and it was a nice feeling in the air, lots of people around enjoying the springtime. It looked as though a festival was getting setup close by. The next morning we walked through the cafes and trendy bars, found a bunch of bedding had been chucked out for the rubbish collectors and so claimed a foam mattress that we dragged back to the van and cut down to size. We didn't really see a lot of Antwerp really but I would definitely recommend the docklands as a highlight to adventure around. Next we were off to Valenciennes in the north of France. It was a nice little town where we stayed two nights, first in a suburban residential carpark and second at the end of a dead-end street in a new subdivision(we never actually got out of the van at this spot-just climbed through the back and slept then climbed back through and set off). We were off again and headed to Epernay, home of Champagne and the beginning of our baguette buying. We stayed at the campground there for three nights and could walk into the town centre pretty easily. First night we arrived we walked into town bought a bottle of bubbles and went home to make dinner. The next couple of days consisted of wandering + baguettes + picnicking + bubbling. Highlights consist of all of the above plus #1 watching sunset over the vines from up in the hills-where you can see other little villages dotted about. Also #2 good place to picnic (although moderately busy) is the tourist info centre gardens. #3 flower market looked cool but we were sort of late and they were starting packing up. And since last Tuesday we've been camping in Paris at Noisy-Le-Grand, a train ride from the centre of the city. The drive from Epernay to Paris was really pretty, ambling through little villages and stopping for fruit and bread as we see places that appeal. We found a pretty place to make lunch, next to a paddock full of about 6 horses (including an adorable little baby horse). Since setting up in Paris we've seen as much as we can see in terms of touristing. Highlights at this stage #1 loved walking through to the middle of L'Arc de Triomphe. The walk underground was cool, the archway was humongous and it was fun being surrounded by the loopy traffic but not being involved (saw a confrontation between cyclist and bus driver mid roundabout which was hectic). #2 I can't get enough of the walk along the river Marne by our campsite. Such a nice way to start and end the day to/from the busy city. #3 Eiffel Tower is real cool, I just wish George hadn't pointed out the number of rats about. #4 nice + free view over Paris from Sacre Coeur. Was really good in the warm late arvo with a cold beer from a hawker we managed to barter with. Today's goal is to get up the Eiffel Tower but unsure yet how much standing in a line we will tolerate(missed out on prebooking tickets). Overall I couldn't be more pleased with our trip and our means of travel so far. Vanny is perfect, she's little but she's comfy. We've got a good setup to be able to slide out half the bed to have couch + bench surface to cook on and slide it back in for our bed at night + our recycled mattress is much more versatile than the air bed we were using previously (now used as picnic blanket when required).