Just one more day left.

Glad this week has been passing quite quickly. I have been trying to find the perfect time to wake up in order for me to get dressed and ready to go. I am sure I will iron out the wrinkles of timing soon enough. Todays work went by quickly. Putting out stock on the floors before being called to tills. Folding shirts and then being called to tills, rinse and repeat.

After work I popped over to the store near my work and got a cold can of A&W rootbeer to enjoy while I waited for the train. It was so nice and refreshing.

Can it be the weekend yet please?

We got a bleeder!

Well workday started as everyday has this week. Wake up, dress, eat, get on train, walk to Primark, stairs. I've been sneaking the elevator a little bit when I can.  Everyone seems to do it.

I started on the floor like I had everyday so far. Attempting to put out new stock and answer questions from customers. The layout of the department seems to change every night so its a bit of a struggle to remember where some items are in just my corner. The place is so big. Every floor has its own staff, managers and supervisors. Then the floor is split into sections and they have their own supervisors. My supervisor is really nice but then again everyone has been really nice and helpful to me.

I got put on tills for an hour or so and I managed to get myself a nice paper cut. I think it was from a tag or the cardboard packaging but I ended up  gushing blood everywhere. Apologising profusely to the customer I was currently serving. They were more than patient as I finally got a plaster on my finger to stop the blood and was able to keep going. I finished up and got kicked off my till and sent back onto the floor after 1 pm. 2 hours left to go I learned how to fold the stupid folded shirts. They are difficult to fold and then difficult to stack and then the customers just make a mess of the pile you just folded. I tried to do as best as I could as fast as I could because I know that we are supposed to do them within a certain time frame.

New vocab:
plasters = bandaids
vest = tank top

I met a really nice guy that was in shopping. He asked if I worked there which may not be so obvious as I do not have a name badge yet. He asked about the floral crowns and then asked me where I was from and shook my hand after we exchanged names. He was very nice. Hope he found ones he was looking for.

Two more days and then its the weekend!

Another day, another dollar...I mean pound.

Tuesday at work was just as fast as Monday. Even faster I would say.  I started on the floor, folding shorts and more shorts and more shorts. Trying to help as much as I could with putting out stock. Customers questions were still as confusing as anything. I got pulled off the floor and put onto tills for about half an hour before going back to the floor.   I got put back onto tills shortly after so out of my four hour shift I think about three of the hours were spent just on tills.  The time goes really fast when you're constantly serving people. The only think about tills I don't like is bagging hangers cause they can get really annoying going in sometimes. Also don't like mucking about with the paper bags before packing the things. Hoping I will get better and faster at packing. Hate making people wait but they always say it's fine and they don't mind.

After work I headed over to St. John's to get a bite to eat for dinner and ended up talking to this nice Welsh man for a little bit. He told me he was heading to Vancouver in September and I told him about a few things.  It was nice to have a conversation just from sitting next to someone. I told him about my wish to climb Mount Snowdon and he talked about ways to get there. Might plan myself a weekend trip soon to Wales and climb me a mountain.

Everyone hates Mondays!

Woke up and had a quick shower before getting the train into town for work. It is really nice heading into town in the sunshine and walking through the centre.

Arriving at work, I climbed up the stairs, put my things away before heading down the stairs to start my four hour shift. I started on the floor for the first time, folding shirts and organising tables. It was a pretty chaotic task as it was busy with people everywhere as it always is in Primark. I struggled a little with people asking me where the "the hot pants, the jeggings, the shorts, the orange vests are..." Also trying to figure out which floor had which things, like maternity is first floor, long sleeved shirts are first floor and so much more to remember.  I got to go on tills twice which was nice. I really like doing tills as you don't have to deal with the chaos of the shop floor.

I do not have anything in Canada to compare Primark to. It's just always so packed in there. Like you can barely walk across the store as people are just heading in every direction.

Happy to say the four hours went by fast and I was soon leaving the store in the sunshine. I stopped at the store near my work and picked up two cans of A&W rootbeer. Can't wait to enjoy it.

I got to the train station and accidentally got on a train heading to Warrington before realising that it was not the right one and getting off in time to switch to the correct one heading to Manchester Oxford Road. Lucky I was paying some attention. The reason I got confused was because the trains were stacked one after the other and the only one with its doors open was the one heading to Warrington.

Getting home I enjoyed a tasty vegetarian pizza for dinner. I tried to find something to watch on Netflix which involved starting and stopping several shows.

Hope tomorrow goes just as fast as today did. <3

Sunday, Sunday!

Today was so nice and sunny out. I walked over to the Tesco to pick up some milk and bread. It's so handy to have the small Tesco on Rose Lane. It's only about a five minute walk. The large Allerton Road Tesco Superstore is about 15-20 minute walk depending on how I'm feeling. It has a larger selection but on Sundays is only open 11-4. I didn't feel like walking all the way there and then back so only went into the small Tesco. Was happy to find Boylan's Rootbeer in the small Tesco. It costs £1.70 but it's a treat cause I miss rootbeer so much. I found a place in town that sells A&W rootbeer. It's close to work so I think I will have to go in and pick some up.

I called dad which was good. I am going to need to top up my phone card so that the balance does not expire on it. Must remember to do that.

I hope my second day of work goes well tomorrow.

Cadiz Day 3: The Beach

Churros for breakfast, yes please! We learned to emphasize the rolling of our r's for churros as one place we went had me repeat it a few times before being all 'Oh yes churrrrrrrrrrrrros.' My bad. I enjoyed my churrrrrrrros happily in the morning sunshine.  Most everyone else got toast with a tomato salsa though Chico I believe managed to get some ham on his.

We headed for the beach after filling our bellies, walking along the beach was perfect. The water was lovely. Finally finding a spot in the sand to rest our things Lori and I headed to try and find drinks and possibly more towels. We found drinks in a small shop and brought them back to the group. I could not resist the water and hurried in as soon as I had the chance.  The water was a bit chilly at first but once you got in it was wonderful The water was quite salty so you could float around quite easily in the surf.

This trip down to Cadiz with Jess and her family was truly amazing so far. No problems. No planning. No worries. Just peace and relaxation. A true holiday.

Oh hey dar

Sorry the posts have been sporadic lately. Some in Spain, some in Liverpool. I am still trying to catch up on my Spain trip from May as well as adventures to Blackpool and out and about in Liverpool.  I'm trying to post more often about my daily life. I will try to do a post about my adventures at work each day and what is going on with me.

Bonus of two selfies for your patience.

Off to see the Giants

After a lovely sleep in, I woke up and did some laundry. Enjoyed a bit of tea and breakfast before heading over to Jamie's house.  I met her charming roommate. After a short visit we headed out to walk into town which we did at a leisurely pace.  Reaching town we had a bite to eat before heading over to see the Giants. We found the Grandma Giant sleeping in front of St George's Hall and Xolo and the Little Girl Giant sleeping by the Queensway Tunnels.

First day of Work

I had my first full day of work on Friday. My schedule for work will be Monday to Friday 11am till 3 pm but since I needed to be till trained I would be working an additional four hours on my first day.  I caught the train into town at 8:06 am to be able to be there for a little before 9 am.

I went to the HR office as instructed and one of the ladies led me down by elevator and introduced me to my supervisor. She was super nice and trained me on the tills. She did a really good job as I did not feel confused about it at all. Of course there is a learning curve and remembering everything is a bit hard when you get so much information.

I stood back and watched one of the lovely ladies serve customers for a while before switching to another lady. I hung some shirts for a little while before observing some more.  After a while they got me started on my own till serving customers with the help of another woman bagging the items for me. I got the hang of doing the process and was able to go solo on the tills for about four or so hours. I lost track of time with the fast pace of serving and the amount of customers that were in the store. Before I knew it it was 6:30 pm and time to go home.

I am super happy with my first day. All my coworkers were super nice and very helpful if I had any questions. The supervisors were very quick to help in situations where I needed a hand. The customers were great too. Everyone was in a good mood despite the heat and how busy it was because of the Giants Spectacular happening in town.

After work I headed towards the train station stopping in the Lobster Pot to get some fish for dinner. By fish I mean like fish and chips kind of fish. Heading up to the train I never had a thought about how much of a nightmare getting home would be. Reaching the train station I came across a massive queue winding outside the station and down the stairs. It was crazy.

I thought the queue was just to the side doors but I was wrong it passed the side entrance before winding around the car park where they had signs splitting you off into the direction you were heading. I found Mossley Hill and slid into the queue. I knew the train was going in ten minutes so was getting quite nervous. They called for the train on the loud speaker but my line did not budge. The next train was in an hour and I did not know if I would even move in an hour. The guy behind me was also going to Mossley Hill but he seemed a lot less stressed than me. 

Giving up on being polite, I managed to work my way out of the barriers and slid between three queues and ran past all the police lined up outside them. Giving them wild crazed looks I told them "I'm going to Mossley Hill" as I ran past them. I said it to whoever I had the chance to before running unstopped into the train station and hurried onto the train. I made it with a few minutes to spare squeezing onto the door. I happily stood sweating with the rest of them for the two stops it takes to get to Mossley Hill. I was so relieved to catch the train home and not be stuck in that queue going nowhere. 

Could not have been happier to see this sign as I got off the train and headed home just as it started to rain. I enjoyed the Smarties I had picked up at work after finally relaxing at home. My feet hurt after a long day on them and I was looking forward to Saturday for a sleep in and the Giants.

Cadiz Day 2: Camera Obscura

After enjoying a spot of lunch after we left the museum we headed through Cadiz' winding streets and found the camera obscura in Torre Tavira.  We paid the €6.00 and climbed up the tower, admiring thae art work and information about the towers that popped up through the roof line of Cadiz. Upon reaching the top of the tower we were blown away by the view of the city. If you are ever in Cadiz,I highly recommend checking out the Torre Tavira for its view alone. After enjoying the view and the beautiful weather we headed down the stairs and were entertained by the guide who showed up the camera obscura. 

A camera obscura is an optical device that projects an image of the surrounding area onto a large screen. The guide was able to move the mirrors projecting the image to give us a 360 degree tour of the city. Moving the large bowl she was projecting onto she was able to zoom in and out on certain areas. As it is a projection you can see little people walking around in real time. I had never seen one before but the largest one in the world is in Aberystwyth, Wales so I might have to catch a train there and check it out.

I got a job!

After ages of searching and applying, I have finally landed myself a job. I am now a retail assistant at the Primark Liverpool store which is massive five floors of busy busy retail. I had my interview on Wednesday the 16th and learned that same morning that I had landed the job. It was a great feeling to know that day as when I had asked the interviewer about the time it took to get a response she said it was usually two weeks and you would get an email if you were unsuccessful. I only had to wait five minutes. Now, a week later I've had my induction which took place from 9am to 2 pm. It was mostly sitting around filling out paper work and listening to the stores history and its practices. We got a store tour and man I am going to need to do a lot of stair exercises to deal with the amount of stairs that are in that place.  Tomorrow I go in and work from 9 am to 6:30 pm training. Not looking forward to catching the train at 8:06 am but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

After 129 days of being funemployed since leaving Canada. I have a job. 

Also sorry for the lack of blog posts. I'll try to post more regularly with in the now updates. Right now working through beautiful Spain photos.

Cadiz Day 2: Cadiz Museum

Our next day in Cadiz, we woke up and headed for the Museum of Cadiz. The museum costs €1.50 I believe to enter based on what I read on the website but we were allowed in for free. I am not sure if they just thought we were from another EU country but they did not check our passports or anything. 

The museum was very interesting, showing all the archaeological finds that have happened in the areas surrounding Cadiz. 

Cadiz Day 1

Waking up without a worry of having to do anything was quite nice. We rose from our slumbers and were greeted by the wonderful sunshine of Cadiz. Enjoying coffee and chocolate croissants from the bakery down the street. The croissants were so fresh biting into them with all the warm chocolate, so good. 

The reason we were in Spain was for Jess' stepmom Cindy's 50th birthday party. One way to celebrate. Though I myself turned 18 and 19 in the UK and now that I am living in Liverpool it looks like I will turn 25 and 26 here as well. Wow, when did I get so old? Take me back to 18!!

So our companions in Spain were Jess' dad Steve, Cindy, Cindy's sister Lori and her husband Chris. Lori and Chris we called the Chicos for the duration of the trip. Everyone was super nice to me and it was nice to be around more people. 

We walked do to the waters edge, exploring a beautiful park and I collected lots of beach glass that I hoarded back to Liverpool.

Barcelona to Cadiz

Waking up early, we caught the metro in Barcelona for the last time. Heading across the city to the train station where we would depart for our day long adventure across Spain. We we're catching the 9:04 am train all the way to Sevilla where we would switch and get on another train. Eventually finding ourselves in Cadiz at 10:23 pm. Yes. We were looking at around 13 hours on trains. Lucky us. 

I had no idea what our train would be like so we had packed some tissues which is always recommended when travelling. You never know when there will be no toilet paper or you spill chocolate on yourself. Better safe then sorry. We also brought along baby wipes just in case the situation was less than sanitary. 

I was happy to find out that our train from Barcelona to Sevilla was going to the probably the most comfortable journeys I have ever taken. We found our seats and double checked they were ours before sitting down. We had more leg room then a plane. The train was quite empty so it was nice and quiet. The seats moved and slid into recliners. It was amazing.

Barcelona's Estadio de Fran train station.

Our ride below. It was a very long train and we had to walk quite a bit along it in order to find our seats.

Jess and I were both determined to make this the best train ride of our lives. We slept, talked, enjoyed writing funny stories about really weird princesses and babies. We enjoyed the candy we had purchased in Barcelona. I crammed by box as full as I could when we had purchased them. It was quite dense and full of deliciousness.

We were quite wrong about the bathroom situation as well. There was a toilet at the front and rear of each compartment and it was clean and had lots of toilet paper. Lucky us.

Finally reaching Sevilla, we got off the train and headed through the station attempting to find which train was ours. Jess attempted to get any sort of wifi in order to contact her dad but had no luck. We finally managed to find which platform our train was on and hurried over to it. Finding our seats we slid into them and sat back for the last leg of our journey.  It was about an hour or so from Sevilla to Cadiz and we attempted to plot our route to where we were staying.

Arriving in the dark is something I don't like doing but we both hustled along through Cadiz and we looked around in attempt to find where we were and where we had to go. Passing a Burger King our stomachs reminded us of how hungry we were but seeing the line going out the door we hurried on past it. Taking the wrong street, we ended up a bit father from the hotel and had to re-route ourselves. Finally finding the correct street we found the address but nothing seemed right. There was nothing indicating that this was even a hotel. We stressed, trying to get on email to find which buzzer might be Jess' dads but email was not working. We confirmed with a woman on the street that was indeed the right building. We yelled "Steve!" up at the building at around midnight. Jess finally resorted to pressing all the buzzers. Luckily we got the right one and Chico answered. Soon Jess' dad appeared and unlocked the door for us. Leading us up into the apartment.

We did not stick around long though, our stomachs drove us out of the apartment and we wandered around for a little bit before finding a pizza place down a random street. Boy, was that pizza good. The place is called Ristorante Pizzeria Osare and is located on Calle Rosario 27. One of the best pizzas I have ever had. Might have been because I was starving but Jess and I devoured it.

After filling our bellies, we headed back to the apartment to get some rest. After such a long journey, it was nice to be in the same spot for a while.

Last night in Barcelona

With our last night in Barcelona apon us, we headed to check out the magical fountain at Montjuïc . The fountain show happens Thursday to Sunday from March 31 to October 30. With directions from google in hand we wandered or way through the streets towards Montjuïc. Exploring more of Barcelona's streets and coming across some interesting architecture. 

We walked around the fountain, having arrived early so we could get good seats to watch it. The surrounding area that had been quite empty started to fill as more and more people came to watch the show.  The show runs from 9 pm to 11 pm with a show every half an hour. The fountain show is free so I suggest checking it out if you are in the city on those days. I really enjoyed it. A lot of people were sitting on portions of the fountains that run up by the stairs across from the main fountain and got a little wet when the spray got larger. Depending on the weather and how high the sun is, I suggest going a bit later when it is darker to see the fountains better. We went for the first show and as you can see by the photos it was still very light out. It did get dark quite fast though.

Churros!

Churros, oh delicious churros. They are like a fried magical doughnut. Churros con chocolate! Even better.    I honestly can't remember the name of the cafe that we decided to duck into and see if they had churros. They had a Catalan menu. They had churros. Also had some stone walls and they said the place was quite old.

The churros we got were very tasty but the chocolate was very dark. I like milk chocolate a lot but we managed to finish our churros without much trouble.   This was the start of trend in my trip to Spain with Jess. Asking if every single place had churros. It's a valid question.

Beach day in Barcelona!

We woke up to a beautiful day in Barcelona. The sun was out. The cloudless blue sky stared down at us. Finally, it was time to hit the beach. We walked from our little apartment and walked through the streets. Stopping in shops to enjoy some shopping and were not disappointed. 

We walked along the waterfront, heading along Barceloneta where we would find some sand and surf. Finding the beach was easy and we found a lovely spot in the sun to set down our towels. Lounging in the sand we enjoyed the rays amidst the constant call of "Massage!...Sangria!....Mojito!...Agua!... Cola!" It was a bit annoying as these people wandered around you as you tried to enjoy some peace and quiet.

We did not end up swimming as our section of beach was quite full of waves which would have made it a bit difficult. Shall try not to regret too much not finding a calmer section. The fact I was not wearing my bathing suit also affected this decision. 

Can we get doughnuts now?

Barcelona is full of amazing things. You turn around a corner and discover something new. That is one of the reasons I suggest you explore the city as well as you can so that you can find some hidden gems and make amazing memories. We found Chok the Chocolate Kitchen, when we were in no mood to eat sweets. This was terrible and I am sure I could have stuffed about ten of the doughnuts down my throat out of sheer will power but we decided we would come back. 

Thank god we did as the doughnut I enjoyed was amazing. I was very surprised at my restraint in not ordering every doughnut they had in the store. They also had an amazing selection of truffles, dried fruit dipped in chocolate, kronuts, everything!

So again, check out Chok at Calle del Carme 3, you will not regret it! Enjoy the pictures and if you need more help deciding you need to go, click on the link above to their website and look at more photos of the beautiful treats.

A tasty breakfast

I really enjoy finding nice little restaurants and cafes when you're travelling. As well as when you're at home. I hope to find more in Liverpool that I can enjoy. We found this at Caravelle at Pintor Fortuny, 31, El Raval, 08001. They had a really nice bright and open space. I can't even recall what I ordered for breakfast but it was delicious. They had a really cute menu that looked like lined school paper that had been typed on by a type writer. It was very cool.   If you are ever in Barcelona and need a place to grab breakfast or lunch check this place out. You won't be disappointed.