Monday 1st - Sunday 7th February 2021 - Week 45 Of Underemployment & Sudden Over Employment , Absolutely No Plans & New Edible Product Review Pear & Davidson Plum Shortbread

Monday 1st February 2021

Myer 8 am - 4 pm ( restock from reserves only) . Actually worked 9.30 am - 5.30 pm as requested by the customer service manager instead of finishing at 4 pm as originally asked to even with an injury who asked when I punched in and said I might as well stay until 5.30 pm. I ensured I had a lunch break today at around 2 pm and finished exactly at 5.30 pm today.

Not a good start to the month. I checked Kronos again this morning and my 8 am - 4 pm shift that was requested to work today by text sent to me from the customer service manager at the last minute yesterday has still not been added onto Kronos. There is something dodgey going on with this shift because if a manager requests for me to work an extra shift at the last minute they usually add it straight away to Kronos after I agree to work. The request was made yesterday by text at 11 am and I agreed to work however after checking Kronos several times yesterday and this morning it still has not appeared on Kronos. 

I don't think I will be able to go to work today anyway and hope the customer service manager can find someone else to replace me for the 8 hour shift as earlier this morning I was preparing lunch for today and a metal tray fell off the bench and landed on my right big toe at an angle. It hurt quite badly and I thought I saw my toe discolour. I hoped I would not lose my toe nail when it happened. Althought it is not as painful now it is still throbbing a bit but there is no way I can make it to work by 8 am this morning . It's already 6.30 am and I should be making my way to work in order to get there in time.  I think I will have to send a text message to the customer service manager ( it's still too early so I won't ring her). I am waiting to see how bad it is. There is a white mark on my toe nail and it does not look the same colour as my other big toe. Hoping it is not too badly injured. It does hurt  a bit.

I sent a text to the customer service manager telling her what happened and waiting to see if my toe is ok to go to work and how she may have to replace me for my shift. 

8.30 am and I am on the bus on my way to work. I can still feel my toe is a little sore and a bit darker in colour but it seems OK. What a full bus - mainly full of school kids. I put a bandaid over the toe area of my black sneakers and write a little note on it to be careful of my toe - hoping no school kid or anyone on the 144 or B line bus steps on it by losing their balance and falling on me with all their body weight ( refer previous post when one person on each bus on each side lost their balance and fell on me) 

I arrive at work just before 9.30 am and punch in. I was asked to stay now until 5.30 pm instead of 4 pm. I did so much restocking today - pillows, quilts, towels, sheets & finally glassware ( only because I was asked to abandon the sheet restock and do glassware). I even found a rogue mustard stripped tea towel in the soft reserve and bought it up and put it on the floor to sell as it was in the incorrect reserve. My toe is still a little sore but I checked it at lunch time and it was not too bad still discoloured though and there is a white mark on the toe nail where the metal roasting tray hit it.

So much drama at work today. Today I am putting stock on the floor from reserves and Wednesday I am taking stock off the floor and putting it back into reserves. All for the 9th February scan count ( it's not a scan count it's a bloody stocktake why do Myer have a stocktake sale if it's not before having a stocktake? - a scan count sale does not quite have the same ring to it!!!!!)

Well what do you know over 6 months of hard work and I finally achieved (or is that received) my first $20 Myer reward voucher on 1st February 2021! That 1 single Bodum click & collect  customer order I put through with team member "ticket girl" gave me an extra 250 points which means I now have a total of $45 worth of Myer reward vouchers to spend. Woopie do da! ( the $5 balance leftover from the first reward voucher was from the store manager, the other $20 reward was the 2nd reward voucher I received recently again from the store manager).

So the mystery of why my shift today did not show up on Kronos this morning when I checked again - the customer service manager told me that the assistant store manager had apparently allocated it incorrectly to team member "ticket girl"'s brother - not funny and will be fixed so I have been told. ( I will be keeping a close eye on this one on my next payslip!)  It shows how incompetent some managers are but I think they are more likely on some type of substance abuse - I have always been a strong believer that all managers should be drug and alcohol tested which they are not at Myer. I have experienced what it's like from  when I first started working in the retail industry over the years what it's like to work under managers who had some type of addiction - mood swings constantly, short and long term memory loss, the inability to concentrate on single tasks or keep still, usually constantly smoking as well as drinking on occasions, poor diet etc etc

Tuesday 2nd February 2021

Myer 9.30 am - 5.30 pm 

I'm on the floor today but eventhough I don't have to start until 9.30 am today when the store opens, I leave home before 8 am in order to get to work by 9 am so I have time to get to the staff entrance, punch in, put my stuff in a staff locker, put my lunch in the staff refrigerator, pick up the ipads and keys, sign them in & attend the group huddle 15 minutes before opening to pick up the day sheets as well. 

Even leaving home upto 2 hours before I start work I am still struggling to get to work on time. Today the buses were full of people and the 144 may have showed up on time but the B line did not. According to trip planner a connecting 8.27 am B line bus was suppose to turn up at Neutral Bay but drove straight past empty with a "not in service" sign on it. The next b line bus was not arriving until 8.41 am which means I will not arrive at Warringah Mall until 9.06 am which means I would need to run to the staff entrance in order to get to work on time .  To make things worse the b line bus I boarded only allowed a certain number of passengers on at each stop and only opened it's doors to passengers once passengers had alighted leaving a lot of passengers stranded to wait for the next b line bus  especially at Neutral Bay Junction ( where I managed to get on  the bus). The delay did not end there.  Traffic was at a snails pace over the Spit Bridge in both directions due to road work or accident earlier .

Arrive at Warringah Mall around 9.15 am and walk straight to the Myer staff entrance located at the back of the Mall. Made it!

I punch in at the staff entrance exit and the team member from the dock asks me how my toe was whilst I was punching in my team id # - I could not answer him as I was in the middle of punching in my number but made a boo so had to clear it and re enter it correctly before answering him. I said it was not to bad just discoloured and still sore and how I  made a mistake punching in my number and had to correct it therefore could not answer his question - adding you don"t want to punch in some random team member id # from say Chatswood for example!

Stuff in locker, lunch in the fridge, keys and ipads picked up and signed out I head straight down to the team huddle . Day sheet picked up and time to head back up to the counter. Most times huddles are a waste of time as one team member says "same shit" each time except for team member nominations. This time - as of yesterday plastic bags now charged at 15 cents if you need one. Pushing of Myer One sign ups - I wish they would stop putting pressure for people to sign up, nobody I asked wanted to sign up and I asked every single customer today who didn't have a Myer One membership if they wanted to sign up. People won't sign up if they don't live in Australia and if they have CBA rewards as that is a far more superior loyalty program - when will Myer get it? -  Compared to, Fly Buys (and other loyalty cards on the market which is highly competitive) for example, that their loyalty card is not worth even joining up for. Quite a few customers have made this comment.

I was so busy today. First thing I noticed and wrote a reminder note to do was to take down all the expired sale signs at the end of today and to remind the other team member "I want to be team leader" working with me to do so as well. ( she actually got a text message from the customer service manager to do so and print new ones to put up). She couldn't even complete this task in time or correctly even with help from another manager on duty.

I scanned as many customers as I could who either had a Myer One card with them or did a look up for their membership number as I could today. No new Myer One sign ups  Nobody wants to join and why would they. If Myer wants to grow their customer bases pushing team members to push customers to sign up to Myer One that at the moment has no affiliated partners is not the right way about it. As I have asked Myer board members ( the remaining ones) previously " So what is Myer's point of difference?" There certainly isn't a real one apart from if you download the Myer One app you can view your receipts from your purchases for upto 2 years. OK so that's handy but not for extended warranties over 2 years. 

I am finding that each time you serve a customer it is taking more time because there are so many questions you need to ask a customer. This is a list of most of them 

1. Will you be paying by cash or card today?" ( 2 registers on the end accept cash or card the other 2 are card only ) very annoying if a customer decides to pay cash after you have started a transaction and about to accept payment 

2. "Do you have a Myer One membership?" If they do have it with them then  you just scan it and hit enter if they do but not with them then you can look it up for them either by mobile and last name or email and last name or first name last name and postcode at present. This is very time consuming as a lot of the time the look up function either does not work or the system just can't find the customer's membership number no matter which look up option is used due to a few reasons incorrect spelling of name or details not updated as examples.

3. "Would you like to join the Myer One loyalty program?" Most of the time it is a straight "NO" without any reason or "Not today" because there is a queue of customers on a Saturday or the customer is in a hurry to get to their next appointment or the best reason was " No because I don't live in Australia". A lot of the time it's because customers have already accumulated so many loyalty cards they just don't want another one to clog up their wallet or phone and a few very savvy customers even calculate the benefits of joining loyalty programs and Myer One is just not worth it. 

4. After scanning all of the items the customer would like to purchase. The next question that just ca.e into effect on 1st February 2021 at Myer was to ask the customer "Do you need a bag for your purchases as they are now 15 cents a bag?" If yes then you either have to fit all the purchases into one Myer bag  or estimate and charge however many bags will be needed for the items purchased. It majes no difference which size Myer bag it is they are all 15 cents a bag. Alternatively you can ask the customer if tgey would like to purchase a reusable Myer bag for $2 and again all sizes of these bags are the same price per bag.

5. Before you even process the payment, the next question depends on whether there are any promotions on currently. Until end of April 2021 I think, the current promotion is to ask custoners who spent over $9.95 on MW products if they would like a free greetings card worth $6.95 - one per customer per transaction although Myer Warringah has truck loads of them and therefore trying to get rid of them so customers who purchase a few hundred dollars worth of MW products do get more then one frer card ( ticketed incorrectly as a gift card confusing a poor elderly women I previously served - she thought it was a Myer gift card to spend with). I haven't been telling customers about this current promotion (nor have I been telling customers about the 3 x Myer reward points if you spend on Homewsres between 2nd and 8th February I believe).

6. Where are we upto now? Question # 6 and we haven't even accepted payment from the customer yet! "Would you like to round up your purchases to the nearest dollar as a donation to the local charity?" There is usualky a clear Yes or No here however I always get the customer who wants to donate more ir questions which charity the donations go towards. ( I won't even bother with larger donations as this would be an extra few steps and questions and depending on at which stage of the transaction you are at , the POS may or may not allow this option on the POS system which is what happens with quite a few processes on the POS). 

7. Finally processing method of payments. There are 

Wednesday 3rd February 2021

Myer 8 am - 4 pm 

Was I suppose to be on scan count prep or a combination of both that & service?

Who knows.

I know I wasn't on stock as another VM team member was doing that which I said to her that's not visual merchandising which she was suppose to be doing - that's just merchandising ( putting stock out).

Still no sign of the VM team member who went to his photo shoot, I am dying to find out how it went and what it looks like. PPE is not the easiest thing to market.

Today it was all about taking stock off the floor and putting into really filthy 20 grey totes - yes the ones that were stack so high that I somehow had to get down and put into the old click & collect reserve on Monday - fill them up , label them with what's in them and put them on a cage to put back into the reserves - on my own. So bloody heavy. I asked twice for help on Monday and only got help with  totes the second time I asked. 

Today I asked again for help and the first time it took so long and my my life even harder, even worse the second time I asked the team member I asked acknowledged my request then abandoned the job so I had to ask another team member to help me. By lunch time  I was having a discussion about this and the team member from VM said some of the guys are useless - you ask them to do something and they say yes they will do it then abandon the task. The other discussion we had was how merchandising and visual merchandising takes a lot out of you. It is very physically demanding.  I have to agree after 3 days of merchandising you need 4 days to recover!

I didn't quite finish sorting and relabelling incorrectly labelled cutlery as I was only told to do this whilst I was serving a customer and towards the end of the day. Postscript : Someone else had sorted the cutlery out roughly and I completed the relabelling the following day - Who does not know the difference between an entree knife and a table knife and a Madison knife from a Cosmopolitan knife?

One Myer One sign up today and I am not even on the floor. Oh damn it I just remembered that I forgot to scan the barcode again after all the effort I went to to sign up a Chinese couple whose English was limited.  This couple was probably my 2nd ladt customer of the day and purchased a whole lot of MW white Postscript scanned the barcode the following day. Forgetting to do this does not affect the customers membership but it does affect your Myer Metrics. 

I was wondering where all my sales I did today went as I was at -$9 in sales at one stage. Someone returned something big! Does not matter as I was not suppose to be on the floor although I was told that I was suppose to be lunch cover. Whatever. I just served anyone that came up to me needing help. I don't even wear a name badge and people still approach me for assistance.

Thursday 4th February 2021

Myer 10 am - 4 pm

I was a little late this morning due to the buses not showing up but only by 5 minutes or so. I punched on using my phone rather then using the staff entrance exit time tracking machine to do so.

I texted the customer service manager as well as team member "ticket girl" however team member "ticket girl" was also late to work half an hour before therefore she could not attend the team huddle or pick up a day sheet.

Signed up another Myer One today so annoying the amount of information needed to sign a customer up. It won't let you sign up a customer without an email address now it won't let you sign them up with a dob as of today! Myer says it's for security purposes for when there is a need to ring customer service - bullshit. If I had a choice I wouldn't give Myer any of my personal details simply because I don't trust any of their technology which is so outdated and does not seem to work as well as Myer having access to all our personal devices as we are expected to use our own electronic devices for everything work related.

Another 10/10 customer service score. Nothing new except it's the first one for the Myer Winter season. So why hasn't my overall customer service score increased from 88 % which it has been sitting on for months? If you get a 7/10 (which I did get unfortunately but only once ) it goes down 10% so it does not make any sense if you get a few more 10/10 customer service scores why it does not go back up. Definitely something wrong with the metrics system used.

Loads of exchanges and returns. Even before I arrived team member "ticket girl" had lots of online returns. Some very dodgey ones - a pair if shoes a man returned which were in fact women's shoes . Another pair that I knew Myer sold in store yet it kept getting bounced between the dock for online returns to DC and homewares. These shoes when I returned them to the shoe department looked worn. Loads of random items that  returned from online sales that should have been returned to the dock to be returned to the DC were not and put back onto Myer's shelves - ie items not sold at the Myer Warringah store.

I found out one casual team member had his employment terminated

Friday 5th February 2021

Myer 9.30 am - 5.30 pm

Centrelink reporting due but not done as it no longer allows me to do it online. I have sent a second email to Salvation Army Employment Services awaiting their response as my payments have been stopped - I haven't received any payments from centrelink since 30th November 2020 therefore there are no p ayments to be stopped. My payments have stopped as I have not met my mutual obligations of applying for 4 jobs a month by a certain date - I haven't because i am working and can't look or report my job searches if I am currently working. I did report 2 job searches but did not report the other job search(s).

Final day of work before stock count next week. It's been a long week. Tomorrow I need to catch up and rest however I would like to try and find something interesting to do or somewhere interesting to go. It may just be a life admin day tomorrow.

I made sure I left home for work 2 hours before  my shift starts . Traffic over the Spit Bridge is really heavy again at 8.25 am

There is so much to write about today and so much to catch up on writing about. All about what is happening at Myer but not all good either.

I will start with arriving to work around 9 am today to allow myself time to punch in at the time clock near the staff entrance exit, put my stuff in a staff locker, put my lunch in the refridgerator in the staff kitchen sign out the ipads and keys to the cupboard and knife cabinets and make my way down to the team huddle before Myer opens at 9.30 am. I even had time to sit down and look at my emails briefly after dropping off the ipads x 3 today and keys behind the counter.

The team huddle was the same shit ( as described by team member "I want to be a team leader" with the daily pressure for every team member to sign up a customer to the Myer One loyalty program that isn't already a member. You can't force customers to sign up and it does not help putting pressure on team members to do so. You also have to call the manager in womens wear whenever you do sign a customer up to inform her - what a fucking waste of time. Do managers even try to sign up customers and set an example - no . I find this really annoying as everytime I am serving a customer I get interrupted by tge customer service manager in the middle of serving them with something petty ( the day I served the chinese couple I was interrupted and was about to sign them up to Myer One - which I did however forgot to scan the barcode to recorded that I had signed them up because of her). There was no mention what so ever of customers as of today having to provide their dob now in order to sign up to the Myer One membership however the most interesting news today at the team huddle was 7 stores were shutting down their online departments and only keeping their in store click and collect and that Myer Wartingah was one of them, leaving Macquarie and Chatswood mentioned as the next closest Myer with an online department. What does that actually mean? Well initially it means loss of jobs but team members were told there were no loss of jobs and all existing online team members were absorbed into other departments within Myer Warringah or had the option to work in the online department at other stores. Was this closure a good decision? A few of the team members I was working with today did not think so and i probably feel the same but the reasoning behind it was because Myer Warringah is a smaller store ut did not have the manpower to run an online department which is questionable as the online department has actually been doing very well and with retail as it is now ie on the decline, the majority of retail stores are trending towards and relying on more and more online sales. Another poor decision along with Myer's partnerships with Australia Post ( which did not make any difference in delivery times of online orders to customers and where I saw an increase in broken, damaged and missing online orders to customers) and Amazon (where customers could now pick up their online Amazon orders from a Myer hub hence generating more foot traffic from customers ie a one stop shop - I don't think anyone is using this service and foot traffic downstairs has not seemed to have increased since it's inception) have both been failures. 

At the end of the team huddle I grab a day sheet - why are there so many people on in the Homewares Department. There was me on from 9.30 asm - 5.30 pm, the team leader from Electricals on from 8.00 am - 5.30 pm or was that 6 pm ( later i found out it was he had to make up hours as he is a permanent employee) and first 5 hours or so another casual team member and finally the last 5 hours team member "I want to be a team leader". 

The customer service manager hands me a 2 page report of some sort. What was i suppose to do with it? I asked her if she wanted it back and she didn't so I hung onto it and put it on the back counter of homewares. I read it and saw that it was a price increase report. Did I have to do this today? I waited until later in the afternoon to do it with team member 'I want to be a team leader". I noted that the first 3 or so items on the report did not need their labels changed as I had put the stock out previously and noted that the price on the boxes of splendour glasses were actually more then the prices scanned at the POS system therefore left them as is. Just as well as it saved some relabelling time. The team leader  from Ellectricals saw them and I asked if we had to relabel the price increases immediately. We needed a scanning gun and printer therefore I asked the team leader from Electricals to grab one but told him to take a photo of the id number of scanning gun that our team leader has allocated herself as she knows it works and had written the id number of on the back of one of tge cupboard doors behind the counter. It does work as I used it yesterday to relabel cultery in correctly labelled in preparation for scan count. Unfortunately when team member " I want to be a team leader" arrived and was about to start relabelling the price increases, she destroyed the scanning gun and tried to reboot it unsucessfully 3 times before calling the electricals team leader who managed to fix it. I know how she managed to destroy the scanning gun - she kept selecting tge wrong printer label size when i had told her that the labels in the gun were not clearance or mark down labels but were standard labels. Of course the scanning gun will continue to hang because it won't recognise the label size loaded. I only realised this after the 3rd time she tried to reboot the scanning gun. As a team we managed to locate all the products on the report to be relabelled before the end of the day. There were some still in the reserved but someone else will have to locate and relabel  these on another day.

In the morning I worked with a team member who acts really ditzy - I am unsure if she actually is or if she is just putting on an act but she wasn't really smart this morning. She was given a catalogue and told to tick or cross any of the products on it to indicate if they were available in store. She had so much trouble doing this I had to help her. She could not even do the simpliest of maths and said she didn't need maths for attending the police academy - Are you sure? I kept asking her. Even team member " I want to be a team leader" was unsure if of this. You would need some sort of maths to calculate speed distance etc for example 

Another Myer One sign up today - that's one a day for 3 days in a row! ( I even kept all my receipts of sign ups so I should not be pressured into signing up Myer Ones)  I don't know why they are pushing the Myer One sign ups as one customer has already noticed that the website has a message popping up with the following

"We’re making some exciting changes to the MYER one Program and how you receive Rewards. Planned changes will come into effect from 1 October 2020. See Terms and Conditions for full details.

Dear Members, after an extensive review of the MYER one Partner Program, unfortunately the current program will no longer operate from 1 January 2021. MYER one Credits can continue to be earned with the Partners until 31 December 2020. We look forward to bringing you a new and refreshed Partner Program in the new year. We thank you for your understanding."

Ironically today, the customer srrvice manager asks me to ring her after i finish with the customer I was with looking at pillows ( yep I was again interrupted again whilst i was serving a customer - really annoying). I started to joke with the customer that it must be important if i have to call her after I finish serving her or that i'm in trouble again. The customer says to I spend more time with you then. I did actually spend quite a while with her as pillows are so difgicult to purchase - there is so much choice, there are so many brands and types and it is all very personal but more importantly you casn't actually return linen and bedding not just due to COVID but NSW Health Regulations porior to COVID.

It was past 1 pm my scheduled lunch break and I wanted to go to lunch but before I did i called the customer srrvice manager back witnessed by not just team member " I want to be a team leader" but by the Electricals team leader as well. And all i was told was to pass on the same message to everyone to sign up Myer One memberships and to ring the Womenswear manager when they have signed a customer up - that was all same shit!!!!! What a waste of my time if that's all I had to ring her back for. 

Before I went to lunch the customer service manager had spoken to the 2 VM merchandiser team members about where to put excess stock but I was not present as I was serving . However team members within the same department and across departments have their own way of communicating without the managers who are EXTREMELY bad at communications ( I'm not being a bitch about it, it's a fact and probably all team members I have spoken to think the same and from the beginning when I first started).

After lunch I spoke to the 2 VM merchandising team members about the stock situation and i knew exactly what stock I could put out immediately - I knew I needed pillows so started putting these out to fill the stands up again from the cages in the dock. Whilst I was doing this I ran to answer the phone at the Homewares counter and who do you think was ringing me? The customer service manager accusing me of not rining her back - I did and this was witnessed by not one but 2 other team members! She was explaining to me about the stock on the dock situation and I told her that I was already onto it and knew what could be put out. What a waste of my time again!

I had quite a few customers today but I'll go back to the customer I was serving and interrupted by the customer service manager to see her when i had finished with them that I mentioned previously. This interruption was for my monthly staff appraisal or one on one with her - yes that little catch up to discuss my metrics and address any issues or concerns.  I had just told team member " I want to be a team leader" how i haven't had one of these for months and suddenly I have one today. Same shit. £ need to respect my managers and not be do disrespectful - correction she needs to respect me as I am a shareholder and my investment goes towards keeping Myer operating. So much stuff she wrote on my review previously was erased. So it should be. The next point I will mention indicates how metrics are not always correct - I had a Myer one scan rate of 17% - not possible! then a closer lok at the number of transactions showed i only did 7 that day ir week - that's because it was most likely on a day i was doing stock and nit actually on the floor serving! I am signing customers up with Myer one memberships even on my days when i am not on the floor therefore why isn't this appearing on my metrics? I ask every customer about Myer One. Again you can't force customers to sign up. The other thing I still can't see on my metrics and haven't bern able to see for months is the rounding up of purchases as donations to charity. please explain - so where are the donations going ? Not to the Northern Breaches Womens shelter as advised that is for sure. I will now stop asking customers unless i see it appearing on my metrics again. I am expected to try and do 2 orders a week - since online is no longer and it is click and collect only - this will make it even less achievable! 

I like how managers do not need to achieve sales metrics thenselves. Everytime tge customer service manager is aporoached by a customer she passes tgem onto me. Today I had a man in a wheelchair that she passed onto me. I don't mind serving but I am the one she always passes her customers onto - not any of the other team members.

After work I went grocery shopping at Coles Warringah ( bumping into a few Myer team members there)  as it is a very large Coles and stocks a wider variety of things. Always looking for new products to try , I found a new product from the Coles Bakery section - pear & davidson plum filled shortbread - rating 9/10 love love love them! @ $5 a packet it was worth it - once you try one you will want another. I think these are unavailable at all Coles supermarkets around Australia - just the larger ones or ones with their own onsite instore bakeries as it is not a prepackaged mass produced commerical brand of shortbread biscuits off the shelves in one of the snack aisles. If you find them I think you will like them. They are addictive however shortbread is quite rich and the pear and davidson plum filling is quite sweet, it's a paste not a jam or jelly which is a orange yellow colour. I'm not a fan of jams except for French fig jam but did really like this fruit combination of pear and davidson plum. Apologies for the bad photo below, it comes in a rather chunky clear disposable plastic container which i threw out and replaced with a snaplock bag to take up less room in my reusable grocery bag. One final thing - some Coles bakeries are better then others - watch out for overcooked burnt or over caramelised biscuits. At Christmas they do have different flavoured shortbread biscuits which may be catamel, chocolate, strawberry or even fig filled. If the caramel filled ones are a little brown in colour rather then white or blonde in colour they are still ok and still taste good but don't purchase them if they are burnt. Look at the ingredients I think there may be some additives to them to make them look and taste as good as they are as the list of ingredients was quite long on the packet. umm yeah!?

I keep getting these phone calls which I am not answering as they seem to be scam phone calls. I looked up the number which is  local number (02) 8661 1904 and from people's comments online for this number,  the number is from HSBC but are from a call centre overseas. I did recently contact HSBC via message online within my internet banking and their response was no one from their organisation had tried to contact me so I will continue to not answer the calls. 

Saturday 6th February 2021

Day off

I did absolutely nothing today as I am so tired I slept and ate most of today.

5 full days most of them moving stock has almost killed me this week. My next shift isn't until Tuesday 12 noon - 9 pm ( scan count day!). I was told that my shift had changed to 8 am - 4 pm by the opoerations manager as he wanted the bags counted early in the morning. I checked Kronos in the afternoon again today but there was no change and I had told the Electricals team leader and team member " I want to be a team leader" how my shift was changed from 12 noon - 9 pm to 8 sm - 4 pm earlier today as advised by the customer service manager although not confirmed on Kronos at the time. I am going by Kronos therefore if it's not on Kronos I don't work. If they make a mistake like last Monday it's not my fault. I still don't know if I was paid for 8 hours on Monday - I hope I was. I need to check my payslip which I could not get into on Wednesday to check. 

I did make 2 deep pie sized custard tarts and 2 wellingtons ( one salmon & one chicken) today, watched YouTube channels and took the rubbish out. So tired I did not even wash my dishes or have a shower today.

Will try and venture out tomorrow.

Sunday 7th February 2021

Another do nothing day.

My day started with paying my bills - mobile phone , off site storage  and private medical insurance.

I had already paid my weekly rent and monthly income protection insurance previously.

I am still catching up with my blogging and today i made myself a chocken and noodle soup ( not from a can) in my slow cooker. I had it gor lunch with some leftovers for lunch next week. I plan to take this to work along with half of my custard tart I made previously and some fruit nuts and water.

I checked Kronos again and my shift for Tuesday still has not changed therefore i assume I just show up at noon for stocktake on Tuesday. I have my shifts for the following week as well and most of my shifts are stock not service. How am I expected to do any customer orders if I am not serving most of the time for the next 2 weeks?

I have been told my some team members that if you are good at your job you get rewarded with more work therefore it is better to be a lazy team member at Myer. 

Apologies to all my readers for a pretty boring week as it was all work Monday - Friday and recovery all weekend ( early starts and stock takes a lot out of my little body). Although travel to melbourne for a weekend is still not a safe option, I do have some events I would like to attend around Sydney coming up in the next few weeks therefore stay tuned as well as some more new edible product reviews.

Monday 25th - Sunday 31st January 2021 - Week 44 Of True Under Employment , Australia Day Public Holiday, Cooking Experiment On Making Reconsitituted Mash Potato From A Packet of Sour Cream & Chives Potato Chips & Make Your Mark @ Museum of Sydney

My blog crashed again so I have to start again

Monday 25th January 2021

Day off

It's so stinking hot I could not leave the apartment not even to take the rubbish out! Did not even do my laundry or venture out to go shopping. 

It's so hot even a brown cricket found itself into the apartment as refuge from the heat. He kept making his way into my bathroom which is a little cooler and wet.

Tuesday 26th January 2021

Australia Day Public Holiday - Happy Australia Day !? or is it Invasion Day? with so many protests going on around the country. What about the Republic debate as well? Is Australia becoming unAustralian?

Myer 8 am - 4 pm stock only.

Shift cancelled therefore another day off today. So stupid to roster me on to do stock only on a public holiday - what were management thinking? Were they crazy?

Did not sleep very well at all as it was so hot. My skin is itchy and basically really dry. Even sleeping with a wet towel over me is only a temporary relief - the towel is bone dry within a few hours.

Rent paid in advanced today.

I don't want to go to the beach today as the sun is really intense already outside at 9.30 am and everyone is going to be there. It is going to be at least 36 degrees Celcius in the city today and 41 degrees Celsius in the Western suburbs!

I made my way to Macquarie ice rink but did not end up going for a skate as the rink was so full by 1 pm today and my QR code  scanner was still not working so it is a shop and hopefully laundry when I return home today. Maybe tomorrow I will go for a skate but it is a cool change and chance of rain tomorrow. 

Still stinking hot at 4.30 pm and a cool change is not expected until around 10 pm tonight.

After a relatively big shop at Coles Macquarie Centre, I could not be bothered to go to Aldi on the same level but instead took my realtively full shopping trolley down a floor on the travelator to continue my shop at Woolworths. Both supermarkets are much larger then the Chatswood ones. 

The next product review I have been meaning ti try but 5 bars in a box at anything from $6 - $7 at Woolworths is a bit steep and one of the more expensive museli bars on the market behind Carmans where some boxed museli bars in their range are between $6 - $9. 

Photo attached

Rating 8.5/10 this is definitely my favourite museli bar which smells and tastes nice. The only downside is it is a little too sweet for me but the flavour combination of mango coconut & matcha is perfect. It does not contain a truck load of peanuts either substituted with coconut, puffed grains and finely crushed mixed nuts instead. Totally yummy but due to the heat I put them in the freezer so the chocolate base won't melt. Also unconvinced of the type of chocolate which looks more like milk rather then dark chocolate. Chewy type bar. A little expensive for 5 bars ratger then 6 bars per box. Smaller sized bars as well. Tasti yes but unsure about the 25% protein and probiotics. 

8.15 pm asnd it's still stinking hot. No laundry tonight.

10 pm and it is still stinking hot. My 2 blocks of  Christmas limited edition gingerbread chocolate I found on clearance for $1 a block ( bargain!) at Coles which I placed in my pantry when I arrived home today have totally melted in their packages so I ate a bit of one block and put the other block in the refridgerator but not in the freezer as it is full.

It's s hot I not only have tge ceiling fan on most of the time but have soaked my singlet entirely in cold water and wear it in bed. It's dried out completely at least twice already! 

Watching the food chanbel and hopefully will be able to fall asleep soon when the temperature drops. 

Wednesday 27th January 2021

Myer 8 am - 4 pm stock only

Shift cancelled 24th January 2021 on Kronos therefore another day off again today

After a really hot spell, 5 pm and it's finally cooling down to around 26 degrees Celsius and it's raining! Not a sprinkle but decent enough rain for cars to gutter splatter you severely whilst waiting at the bus stop. It did try to rain earlier this morning but failed - remaining just overcast most of today.

After doing absolutely nothing except take my rubbish out and laundry wash and dry as well as watch the food channel news and a lot of YouTube and eat fruit salad, I packed my lunch and prepared for work tomorrow washed my dishes  and had a shower before heading out to Chatswood to get a few things probably from Woolworths. Nope ended up going to Coles as Woolworths had run out of free 600 ml glass containers I wanted to redeem with my 21 container credits I had accumulated. Not worth it although I do need another glass container. I got my free santoku knife from Coles ages ago just from collecting knife points. Always wanted a santoku knife to add to my knife collection - now I have one!

I will then head home to sleep early as I need to leave home around 6 am tomorrow and Friday in order to get to work on time.

Thursday 28th January 2021

Day off 

Not anymore.

New shift added  Myer 8 am - 4 pm stock only today. Refer text from customer service manager and change on Kronos 24th January 2021.

Today I spent quite a bit of time with one customer who was shopping for items from a bridal registry set up at Myer. This was a lot of fun although I was suppose to be doing stock all day and not serving, these custoners a mother and daughter were the ones that came up to me to ask me to assist them. I was more then happy to ( in between being so rudely interrupted by a psycho customer who approached the mother of the customer I was serving with the bridal registry asking her if she could serve her- hello psycho customer she does not work at Myer as she is not wearing black for a start before asking who actually worked here and then excusing myself for a moment from my customer to serve this psycho customer and finally being rescued by the them Yes she was a psycho customer who was quite rude and asking about how she went to Myer yesterday and they didn't even scan the product to see of any was available and just told no there wasn"t when there was etc etc ranting and raving before I told her that if she goes to the counter her purchases will be scanned and she will get the same discount etc etc before tuning out. I had a word to the team member who put through her purchase afterwards incase she copped the same psycho behaviour). I didn't even have my name badge on because it gets caught and lost when I do stock therefore keep it in my back pocket and I let another team member in Homewares at the counter put the multiple sales through under her team number. She wanted to put it under my team number as I was the one doing all the hunting and gathering of the items for them and selecting/suggesting/locating ones available off the  bridal registry as well as ticking them off. The other team member came up to the lunch room to also have lunch after 2 pm whilst I was just having my late lunch after finishing with that customer and advised me that the customer must have spent about $500 worth of sales and thanking me for helping. My only response was that she should have good metrics now! She said that she hopes so as hers haven't been so good during the week. I also said to her who cares anymore, it does not matter to me as I am on stock this week and metrics don't count and my metrics are always 1 week behind. 

Speaking of which remember Friday Favourite and Tuesday Talent nominations. Yep that and what? Gone and I thought I was the 1st Tuesday Talent for 2021 - wrong. After 3 Tuesday Talents and 3 Friday Favourites, these have been scrapped by Management and replaced with just one nomination for each week Wednesday's Excellence in customer service team member??? - does not quite have the same ring to it - not even a proper title - again who cane up with this idea and who cares. There was no communication about it and I have had several comments about what it is suppose to be for from different team members.

Team member # 1 said that this week is the beginning of Winter hence a new year starts therefore my Tuesday Talent nomination was not actually the first one of 3 before it was scrapped for 2021, ( it was the 1st for the last quarter of 2020/2021 -  oh how North American where their financial year ends in March rather then December or June - Come on Myer you are an Australian company so this does not even make sense non financially if the comment made is even fact!)

Team member # 2 After congratulating the winning team member and asking them how they got the award which even they weren't 100 % sure about, there was a discussion about how team members used to get $20 reward vouchers for getting nominated in the past or for getting good customer feed back scores - not anymore - you get nothing so who cares about being nominated for whatever Wednesday's excellence in customer service or whatever it's called. Yep I've been at Myer 6 months now and as calculated I still have not reached my first $20 reward voucher and am still 65 points off from getting it ( I think putting me on stock and having me not serve and therefore not getting anymore customer feedback scores is a strategy of management to make it more difficult for me or other team members to receive their $20 vouchers - what a disincentive to provide good customer service or to work at Myer, anything to cut durect or indirect costs or reduce overheads and at expense of staff!) which leads onto :

Team member # 3's comnent on the posdible reason Tuesday Talent and Friday Favourite were scrapped and amalgamated to Wednesday Whatever. Management didn't want to spend the time having to interview and take photos of 2 employees each week for the nomination of the so called awards and the time to post them and practically harass all team members to like comment or vote for them. Yes harass - like I was from the beginning when I first started. I don't think team members should have to be reminded to do this over the What's app team group chat especially if you don't even know them! If I want to congratulate a team member I would prefer to do so yo them in person and the other important point is the nominations are so difficult to find on the Myer community in Myer Metrics you spend most of your breaks or days off even looking for them to like and comment! Total waste of time not from management but of team members' time.

The Salt & Pepper rep was in today doing her VM of her stock. She had already started before she spotted me and said hello. I had not seen her for a long time. She wanted to do some consolidating of displays and putting dinner sets underneath displays. I am not the one to authorise any of this and did explain to her that we have a stocktake coming up in February therefore we are trying not to cram or put stuff that won't be easily accessible for it and to speak to a manager about it. Which she apparently did locate and speak to  ie the team leader. I responded to a text that was sent over the Whats App Team Group Chat in regards to this. We all agree that the way the Salt & Pepper rep comes in to merchandise her stock just makes no sense. 

There is never any cohesiveness to it - no stories just things in multiple places. Postscript There was so much Salt & Pepper stock in cages to go on the floor or to reserves I gave up the following day as our reserve was getting full and there was no room on the floor for anymore stock - not tge way it was all displayed by tge Salt & Pepper rep anyway so I abandoned it. The cages were stacked so high and were so heavy for me I just left them. I even advised the operations manager about how much stock there was of the Salt & Pepper and how we were running out of room in the hard reserve asking if we could store it in the glassware reserve. No he did not want us to mix reserves as online team members would have trouble finding stock so I said I could remove any gadget stock from the hard reserve up onto the floor to temporarily make some room for the Salt & Pepper stock and when the other team member from VM returns next week he can move some or all of the heavy box dinner sets out of the hard reserve onto the dock ( yes the Trump wall of dinner sets is being constructed just like the great wall of Krosno glassware now defunct and at one stage there was even the temporary state border crossing closure of towels) which would definitely free up some space in the hard reserve for the excess(ive) Salt & Pepper stock. Makes sense. I just hope this message is relayed to him next week as I am not on stock next week but on the floor most of the time ( I assume) - no "x" next to my shift eventhough I am still starting at 8 am on one of the shifts - store does not open until 9.30 am now that holidays are over.

I wonder how the team member from VM did with his underwear modelling I mean construction worker/ safety equipment photo shoot for last week?

Message received on the Whats App Group Chat to check Kronos as extra shifts added. Yep sure have been - so much for working a 24 hour week for the first week of February!

I lost count of how many cages of product I put out onto the floor today but I think between 5 and 10, I did lose time about 2 hours serving tge bridal registry customer and putying on security tags on Le Cruset products which before store opening I questioned about as noone had security tagged them yet and other less expensive  products in the same cage were security tagged and ready to be put out onto the floor so I did it myself. Another team member avoided this cage because of this issue. I must have asked a few times for them to be security tagged but if nobody does it you have to do it yourself!

Today I punched out at 4.03 pm exactly. No doing unpaid overtime today!!!!

Home on the 280 bus to Chatswood and 144 bus . No stopping to shop this afternoon as I just wanted to make a creamy seafood pasta tonight. Done.

Masks are no longer mandatory in places such as shopping centres so team members and customers are starting to shop at Myer without masks on howevee 90 % of people are still wearing their masks everywhere they go. I am certainly going to continue to wear a mask everywhere except at home. A customer actually came up and asked about whether wearing a mask is still mandatory said that she felt safe with one on - I totally agree with her and masks should still be worn by everyone and everywhere at least until everyone has had a chance to be vaccinated this year or after the Winter season. Masks are still mandatory in beauty and hair salons ( goodness knows how you can get your hair cut/coloured/washed/permed or blow dried, have a facial , get an upper lip wax or have your makeup done with a mask on !), in gaming rooms ( which I commented to the customer not that we visit them very often), and most importantly on public transport ( why do I always travel on busrs with some disgusting middle aged men or women sitting near me that keep taking their masks off to continuously cough and sniffle? Yuk. I just wish people like that would keep their masks on! It happens everytime I catch tge 280 bus from Warringah Mall mall to Chatswood - a whole 1 hour one way journey. I got so concerned I took off my softshell hooded ski jacket and draped it over my head and shoulders and tried to sleep inside it to protect me even more with my mask on  of course - a practice I started back in 2019 whenever I travelled on the overnight Sydney to Melbourne train which initially I used to help me sleep (and which another passenger near me copied) and which now has a dual purpose for travel on any form of transport.

Catch up on watching YouTube and some Food Channel .

Sleep early no blogging catch up tomorrow morning early.

Still really wet all day. Temperature is around 26 degrees Celcius a big drop from the previous days.

Shorter day tomorrow therefore don't need to pack lunch.

Friday 29th January 2021

Myer 8 am - 4 pm stock only.

Checked Kronos change to shift finishing time 8 am - 2 pm only now. 

Checked Kronos again 24th January 2021. No further changes to shift

Still very wet today and temperature has dropped to 19 degrees Celcius - really it does not feel very cold!

I again lost count of how many cages of stock I put out onto the floor or took down to reserves today besides the cages and cages of  Salt & Pepper stock. How I managed to fit at least 2 cages of excess Salt & Pepper stock down in the hard reserve I don't know. I managed to get all the boxed and loose cookware onto the floor, fit all the cages of Tontine pillows into the pillow reserves. Then there was all the Decore containers which went straight to the hard reserve, the excess glassware a mix of S & P & MW into the glassware reserve ( plenty of room in there still), and finally all the pillow and matress protectors into the soft reserve.

My blog crashed again so I have to start again

I had a customer who wanted some Bodum double walled expresso cups with handle but unfortunately they were out of stock. I had just put a mixed cage of Bodum stock onto the floor but there were only the larger Bodum double walled coffee cups with handles that arrived no expresso cups and the customer did not want these. I grabed an ipad to see which other Myer store had them and a few did therefore I gave her an option of having them delivered to her home address or if it allows do a click and collect at this store. I did advise her of the risk of home deliver of glassware via Australia Post with an online order - ie breakage records in the past month and that it takes upto 2 weeks for online orders to arrive as well as no guarantee I can actually process an order until near the end of the online process. The ipad was really slow but I managed to at least start the online order and let team member "ticket girl" process it and it was sucessful as a click and collect at this store. I knew the customer really wanted it and watched on as my orders are always unsuccessfully processed. I didn't keep the order under my team member ID but gave it to team member "ticket girl" because technically I'm on stock and not on the floor this week so it won't make a difference to me but it will make other team members metrics and customer service feedback a lot better. As long as the customer is happy with the service that's all that counts to me.

I said to the other electricals team member who was also doing stock today from 8 am - 2 pm  with me how my shift was originally 8 am - 4 pm but cut to 2 pm why we both finished stock at 2 pm today. The regional manager who everyone keeps calling "Tony" - we don't even know if he is the regional manager or if his name is actually Tony but it's not the CEO Mr King from Melbourne - was on his way and just got in a taxi from the Chatswood store. All the VM staff had disappeared and could not contacted by the team leader later I found out they were all near the entrance frantically fixing up mannequins. Managers on duty were running around getting things in order and when a so called "VIP" is on their way or present there is no restocking done so merchandisers have to disappear just like homeless people being moved on during an Olympics - out of mind out of sight temporarily just until the event or visit is over.

As I probably mentioned stocktake is coming up on the Tuesday 9th February 2021. So we have our shifts already on Kronos to include this. Gee can't wait - NOT!

Anyway one of the VM team members comes up to me and advises me that the VM team have received a text message via their group chat that because they are so special they have all been included to do the stocktake/scan count - only the VM team member who advised me of this masnaged to get put of it as she doesn't work Tuesdays - Lucky her! However the other VM team member " construction worker photo shoot" , was included however he told me tge story how the first year he was asked to do a stocktake, he was buddied up with a more experienced stocktaker and they had to scan every single item and not use the multipler function, this is where he stuffed up. He only counted one of each item not every single item and therefore finished counting really quickly and told the team member he was buddied up with of this. This team member could not believe how quickly he had finished the scan count as he was only part way through his until it was realised - and the moral of the story is this vM team member was not asked back for another stocktake/scan count.

Finally, i spotted the team member from electricals who was doing stock with me today taking a full cage of glass MW salad bowls down to the hard reserve ( I hope) with him and I asked him what he was doing with them as there was none on the floor and they had to go out . They were suppose to go where the other MW glassware was with the glass jugs already there. Previously I had tried to explained to him how there was a dodgey glass display area with random pieces of Wayfarer clearance plates and finger bowls on it that should not be there at all but should be with the other ones on a table diagonally behind it full of other clearance stock. So why were these separated into 2 spots was one colour on sale and the other not? Not that anyone knew. I don't think this team member understood what or where this dodgy display table was so he shoved some of these glass MW salad bowls where he could. We needed direction from the VM team but the team leader could not locate any of them but we both agreed where the glass salad bowls had to be displayed so in the end the team leader moved the stock on the dodgy display and consolidated with it with the rest of it on the table diagonally behind anbd asked the electricals team member doing stock to retrieve and display the remainder of the MW glass salad bowls in front of the other MW glass jugs, jars and drink dispensers. Done.

I lleave a lityle after 2 pm as I had to return the pillow and matress protectors back down to their reserve and return the empty cage back to the dock as there was another truck load of stock still arriving.

End of another day. On the next disgusting 280 bus back to Chatswood. 

A quick shop at Woolworths Metro for basics before going home.

Ate a bowl of pasta I made which made me really sick probably due to gluten intolerance. I was hungry and had not eaten all day. I won't be doing that again. I'll stick to "clean foods" - hard unprocessed cheeses ( no mouldy or soft cheeses and definitely no milk cream or ice cream!) , rice,  fresh fruit veg dark chocolate museli bars ( little to no peanuts) and proteins ( no pork or beef or shellfish) etc things i know I will be able to eat without allergic reactions.

Sleep!

Saturday 30th January 2021

Day off

Still a wet day and although it has been cooler over the past few days and last night in particular where temperatures drooped as low as 19 degrees Celcius, the temperatures are forecast from today to reach the mid to high 20s. again with showers and possible thunderstorms.

Having done most of my shopping, laundry, taken the rubbish out etc. I still have a few life admin things to deal with such as post my letter of to the aged care resident I have been writing to on a volunteer basis, deal with Centrelink who keeps sending me text messages about how I haven't contacted them back and have stopped my payments - I don't even qualify to get payments from them and haven't been for a while. I actually wrote an email contacting the Salvation Army Employment Services - the Centrelink approved service provider and they advised me in a response that any messages I receive are from Centrelink bot them and to contact them directly therefore I will do so. I read that Centrelink does not usually send text messages so could it be a scam to obtain my contact details to obtain payment ? Everything I report is done online via their websites Centrelink & Jobactive nowhere else unless I write to them directly in Canberra if I have a real problem and they ring me back and the problem is resolved fairly quickly. I am no dole budger if I need social security payments I will apply for it, if not I don't. 

Although most borders are starting to open up to NSW again, you still need to quarantine for 14 days and get a nega tive COVID test within 72 hours of travelling. Unfortunately because most of my interstate trips to see do and visit interstate are weekend or day trips it means I still can't travel interstate and the train service Sydney to Melbourne both ways is still not running  terminating at Albury Wadonga on the border and I hate flying especially at the moment. All the above as well as Melbourne experiencing wild weather conditions at the moment eg rain resulting in flooding it is still fairly unsafe to travel for a while.

How I long to travel on the overnight no charging stations no power points no wifi overnight XPT which is always late fron Sydney to Melbourne just to snowshoe up and around the Sumit wild life spotting at Lake Mountain in Victoria or to stay at a dodgy sustainable the heating only turns on between 7 pm and 7 am in your room, the gas turns off at 9 pm in the kitchen type backpackers in Launceston just to hike Cradle Mountain get very up close and personal lazy pooing wombats the size of dogs in the snow in Tasmania. I miss travelling so much and have already.missed out on 2 major Winter seasons. My allergies are really bad and I am suffering so much - if you saw me you would immediately see how I am suffering - people notice not so much my face  or nose because I wear a mask everyday but my eyes ears neck and hands. This hot and humid weather with all the extreme rain is not helping at all. 

I need to go for ice skate but I have a few other things I would like to see do or visit now that school holidays are over.

It's 7.30 am ( I get up at 5 am on my days off sometimes) and although it looks like it has stopped raining is still overcast. 

First thing I do is clean my fridge out and remember that bag of potato chips I purchased previously that I mentioned that I was saving to do an experiment with well I have done it.

I was watching YouTube and one thing people are doing is getting bags of potato chips 2 brands mentioned Lays Classics and Pringles -  I chose an entirely different brand probably only asvailable in Australia. (Recap photo attached of the brand and flavour I used) and making instant mash potato from them.

So after watching their method of boiling the chips whole in a saucepan with water until the chips break down before straining off the salty oily liquid then adding cheese ( and other stuff)  then pushing it through a sieve and even drinking the strained off salty oily liquid, I came up with my own method and suggestions as follows:

1. I did not strain the boiled potatos or drink the strained salty oily water.

2. I did not add cheese to the mash potato mixture.

3. I did not use a saucepan to boil the potato chips whole.

Instead I did the following ( comment posted on YouTube) :

" I actually tried this and it may be great for a fun camping trip. However I did mine a different method. Very similar result. You get a tasty but gluey version of instant mash potato. I didn't use a saucepan to boil my chips in water and everyone uses Lays classic potato chips which  usually has stuff added to it so I found and used the most natural chive and sour cream  pack of potato chips available. Here's what I did.

1. Crushed the chips in it's foil pack as fine as possible 

2. Added enough boiling water to it to cover it in a heat proof bowl and mixed it until it forms a thick batter adding a little more boiling water to thin it out so it is able to be stirred without resistance

3. Added some thick cream,  a knob of unsalted butter, some mixed herbs finally chopped,  plenty of freshly ground pepper, a pinch of salt and some fried shallots. Stirred the now lumpy mixture together until combined 

3. Next transferred the mixture into a beaker and blended with a stick blender adding more cream or water to thin it out again. ( ps I know what people are thinking never use a stick mixer to mash your potatos they go grey and glutenous  ( starchy) but in this case it does not matter as much as the mash potato is reconstituted ) .

4. Transfered back into the heat proof bowl and stir in some more hot water a little at a time until the correct consistency.

5. Cheese addition optional but the result is it tastes like instant mash potato but very gluey in texture. Still lumpy like mash potato. I plan to spread it over a shepherds pie or something and bake it with cheese in the oven. Also you could go one step further and reconstitute the mixture into a piping bag and refry them as mash potato chips - question would this work? Maybe that could be your next food experiment making mash potato fries from mash potato made from a packet of chips. Would you still need to add a little flour and whatever other ingredients are needed to the mixture before placing the mixture in a piping bag and frying them?

I left the mixture to cool a bit and the glueyness actually disappeared and it tasted a lot better in texture. Now I am putting it in the fridge to see what happens to it. It did taste good although not good for you"

It actually is better after being refrigerated. oh wow! It actually not only tastes like homemade mash potato now but the texture has firmed up and it is really like it as well.  The glueyness has disappeared so it has a much better "mouth feel". It's even lumpy like mash potato ( I bet if I ran it through a drum sieve and warmed it up a bit it would really be like homemade mash potato!). I just spread some of it out over my roast vegetables in the oven and want to see how it browns up. I have not added any cheese still as it is already loaded with fats and kilojoules! umm I don't think it will brown up as it has gone back to sloppiness. Very interesting cooking experiment.

The result photo below

It's one of those things that taste better then it looks! Looks like a thick bowl of savoury porridge. It looks really brown because of the lack of lighting but it's actually buttery pale yellow in colour.

10 am and It's still grey outside and I'm so tired from the last 2 days of " merchandising" so today was another catch up life admin do nothing day. 

I write a long letter to Centrelink and addressed another card to the elderly resident i am writing to as my remote volunteering activity - both ready to drop in the post box tomorrow. 

I forgot to get my reconstituted mash out of tge fridge and put it in the oven to bake with my roast veg and marinated chicken. 

After trying to redeem 20 of my 21 container credits for a free 600 ml glass container twice at Woolworths Metro Chatswood and twice at Woolworths Warringah Mall which is a very large Woolworths and finding both had no 600 ml containers left - I am giving up as one of the checkout operators advised me that no Woolworths have any nationally as they are the most popular ones. There are still a few 950 ml round and 1 L rectangular ones left at Woolworths Metro Chatswood but nobody wants them and the stand is completely empty of containers at Woolworths Warringah Mall on all the days I visited it. It's the very last chance to collect container credits this week so i give up.

Sunday 31st January 2021

Day off

The day started off dry but overcast but by early afternoon started to rain again.

Ok a few things have happened today.

Firstly I received a text message from the customer service manager to work (at the last minute @ 11 am this morning) tomorrow - not stock or floor as I asked but prep work for scan count. Note it is now 4 pm and this shift still has not been added to Kronos.  If the shift does not appear on Kronos I won't work it. So I texted her and she responded with she "has been busy and it will be added." OK noted.

I am going to record this in case my employment with Myer gets terminated so I have a case against Myer. It is now almost 7 pm and the shift I have been asked to work tomorrow still has not appeared on Kronos when I checked again. All I  got was another text message  from the customer service manager (twice) that said " See you at 8 am that is again" both at 6.36 pm (exact time according to phone message record). I don't do shifts that are not on Kronos. If it does not appear tomorrow morning before 5 am  I will not be going to work. I don't want to travel all the way to work an 8 shift and not get paid for it because there is no record on Kronos of me ever working it or rostered on to work from 8 am - 4 pm on Monday 1st February 2021. Also if I get injured at work when I am not recorded as being at work that day ie not rostered on to work a shift, I am not covered under workers compensation. Very concerning especially if I am not doing stock or on the floor. Prep work could mean anything. I could be down in the any of the reserves all day on my own and a shelf falls on me and nobody would know. I'm not working for Myer for free either. A reminder I am a shareholder of Myer and Myer still owes me a return on my investment.

So i ventured out around lunch after washing my dishes and having a shower. I did try to sleep in today but still woke up at 5 am and by 6 am have had half of my breakfast folded some of my laundry before going back to sleep. Still so hot in the apartment eventhough it is cooler outside. Caught up with some YouTube watching as well.

I had planned to see 2 things in the city today but only ended up seeing one of them before they ended. I did not end up going to Walk A Mile In My Shoes @ The Australian Maritime Museum @ Darling Harbour on it's very last day today as part of the Sydney Festival as it was raining when I exited the Museum of Sydney to see Make Your Mark , Enchanted Valley , Forces Of Nature Activity Hub & Paradise on Earth. 

So what did I think of my  $15 adult admission fee to see current exhibitions and activities inside the Museum of Sydney? Amazing how art can bring people together. I loved it all. I rate my visit an 8/10. Make Your Mark actually finishes on the 7th February 2021 hence my hurry to see it before it closes. Apologies I ceased blogging because my battery was low. I have upload some videos onto YouTube of my adventures today. Sorry blog just crashed again. Let me tell you what Enchanted Valley & Make Your Mark are all about. 

Make Your Mark is a rectangular gallery floor to ceiling in white. Around the room there are boxes of coloured chalk ( wear a mask if you are allergic to dust as there is chalk dust everywhere - my left black sneaker was covered in chalk dust and it gets all over your hands hence the containers of wet wipes near the entrance/exit as well to clean up afterwards.) At either end of this gallery there are mirrors and down the centre of this gallery is a white sculpture that says "My City Is .." You are invited to draw snd write all over the walls and sculpture.  There are permanent black outlines of houses on the wall, outlines of people on the carpet which is also white and poems written around the walls. It is just an amazing art installation that invites everyone to contribute something. A great activity for both adults and kids. I did a sneaky and actually left my mark - not just in chalk but permanently in texta on the "My" part of the central sculpture ( it's so small I wonder if anyone will even spot it). I chalked a rainbow and above it a cloud around an arrow pointing to some paw prints I stamped on in texta and wrote Make Your Mark in chalk and an " I was here 31/1/2021" also in texta ( I wanted to leave a bigger more visible permanent mark but there were people around and I did not want to be too obvious doing it - I'm not very good at doing a Banksy). Everything  people wrote or drew in coloured chalk was visible on all the walls and My City Is.. from a drawing of a Santa in red white and black doing a dab, to save the koalas, rainbows, self portraits, to well... anything goes. I did not see any profanities either. Photos below.

"MY"

"CITY"

"IS .." 

Whoever drew this, it is not just a reminder of 2020 but I recommend you wear one in this gallery as there is an awful lot of coloured chalk dust around which can't be good for you and my black leather sneakers were covered in it from just leaning against the central sculpture.

"JUST BEAUTIFUL!"

Onto Paradise On Earth & the Enchanted Valley - .  This is a great gallery for parents to sit down and let their kids run around in. I have uploaded a video of this gallery  onto my YouTube channel. As you walk into this gallery the walls come to life with colourful projections of flora and fauna. Watch and listen to the weather changes from thunder and lightning storms as it rains and the animals hide and seek shelter to when the sun comes out and as it drys up the twittering of birds and cockatoos flying across the walls of the gallery. The gallery is complete with a lit up fake river that runs under a bridge. Kids love crawling through the tunnel under the bridge and hiding in the cubby area behind the bridge whilst parents sit around looking on. For the parents the series of digital artworks  "Paradise on Earth is a celebration of the career and legacy of Marion Mahony Griffin that will enchant visitors of all ages " and it sure does!

Finally I visited the Forces of Nature Activity Hub. That was a bit of fun folding colourful printed paper pick a number game to reveal a message underneath and colouring in bats and gum leaves before hanging them on wooden trees - a bit like making and hanging home made paper Christmas decorations. Great view towards Circular Quay from this hub.

If you are interested in Australian history this little museum is a great place to visit - it has a bit of everything - colonial architecture, the Harbour Bridge, the Opera House, Aboriginal artifacts and history kids activities, Captain Cook, archaeology and what lies beneath the museum, trading of goods, tall ships, the first government house etc.  I have written about this museum a while back when I was unimpressed by their customer service - it still isn't the best but it is government run if not in full at least partially.

After my visit to the museum of Sydney, I was hungry so made my way to Town Hall on the light rail L2 line. Alighting at Town hall it was a quick shop at Woolworths for toilet paper and a lunch stop at the Little Fish Shoppe ( refer previous blogs) for a piece of crumbed fish and some calamari rings - although it is my favourite fish and chip shop, the calamari rings were very soft but the crumbed fish was just dry and overcooked. My first bite into it i thought it was an overcooked chicken schnitzel as it didn't taste like fish or have the texture of fish at all. Yep it did taste like chicken! 

Back on the train to Chatswood  to try again to redeem my container points for a free 600 ml glass container from Woolworths. Still no luck at all. I give up after 3 attempts at Woolworths Metro 1 attempt at Woolworths Town  Hall and 2 attempts at Woolworths Warringah Mall. I can get 2 free ones at Myer with my $45 reward vouchers and select the size and brand I want which are much better quality then the Woolworths ones.

More shopping and a bus home.

Took the rubbish out . Watched tv had a cup of tea and lots of fruit, prepared for work tomorrow and bed.