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.
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
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.
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