Day off
Can't even remember what I did today. Probably nothing. Cleaning and cooking.
Tuesday 20th April 2021
Day off
Today I ventured out again but just to Coles to try and get some more groceries. My only stop Coles in Chatswood Chase down the other end of Chatswood.
Two incidents happened today whilst I was shopping at this particular Coles.
Incident # 1 I parked and left my trolley full groceries as well as a steam cleaner I had just purchased from Kmart in a shopping bag in one of the aisles of Coles just for a few minutes whilst I reached up to get a grocery item off one of the shelves in that aisle. When I walked back to my shopping trolley I noticed it had disappeared. I thought where could it be? It was just here a few minutes ago. I then spot a lady with my trolley trying to return it and apologising to me over and over again explaining how she was in a hurry and didn't look and took my trolley by mistake. I have seen customers take other customers shopping trolleys by mistake but have never experienced this myself. Now I have.
Incident # 2 I take my groceries to a manned register rather then a self service check out and just as well that I did. I was almost overcharged for a pineapple. The sign said $2 each however I was charged $4 for it. I decided to not take it as I knew I had been overcharged for it but the check out operator said she would override it for me. $4 a pineapple I don't think so I told her. If I wanted a $4 pineapple I would have purchased it next door at Fruitez who were selling them for that price. Moral of the story is always check your grocery receipts before leaving the supermarket and it doesn't matter which one - not just a Woolworths!
I hate struggling with my 2 full bags of heavy groceries from one end of Chatswood uphill back to the station. I either walk really slowly or catch the bus across the road back to the station. This time I walked.
News headlines overnight the opening of the Trans Tasman travel bubble allowing Australians and New Zealanders to travel without quarantining in either country for 14 days - so dust off those passports! Only to be marred by a single case of COVID from an airline worker testing positive.
Queensland is promoting the Gabba's total renovation after announcement that it will bid to host the Olympics in 2032!
Wednesday 21st April 2021
Day off
Today I actually ventured out in the afternoon to Lane Cove Aquatic Centre. I haven't been to a pool or gym since January 2020 - that's way over a year pre COVID. I remember walking past this Aquatic Centre after I moved to Greenwich and discovering Lane Cove but never bothered to inquire about a membership or series ticket.
How I miss my annual month of intense aquatic and group gym classes or just pounding the tread mill at the local YMCA .
So today I decided to pay for a casual visit to Lan Cove Aquatic Centre which is probably equivalent to the YMCA in Vancouver except with an additional outdoor 50 m pool which I did not try on thos visit as it was a little too cold for me. I could hardly bring myself to swim in the indoor slightly heated 25 m pool as I thought that was a little cold! Preferring to stay in the kids paddle pool with it's water features and areas where the pool reached 1 m which was a little warmer. Even the showers were not that hot but a warm welcome after an hour or so swim.
The spa and sauna areas were still closed due to COVID restrictions as they were confined areas which was disappointing as I was so looking forward to sitting in the hot bubbly spa after a swim just like I am used to doing. Not today.
I lost count of how many laps of walking up and down the far lane of the 1.4 m deep 25 m pool which was reserved for no swimming just walking and gentle exercise. One lane each of the 25 m pool was reserved for slow medium and fast lap swimming. All other lanes were reserved for swimming lessons.
There was also another pool to the side of the 25 m pool which was a "earning & accessible" pool. I was curious to see how deep and warm or cold this was but it was completely closed to swimming lessons whilst I was there. This had a ramp and hoist so is probably used for those who are less mobile.
So this Aquatic Centre is quite modern with it's 4 pools - 3 indoors ( kids pool accessible & 25 m) and 1 outdoors ( 50 m).
There are change rooms with individual shower cubicles which are slightly warmer and warm open showers with 3 minute timers outside of the change rooms which parents and kids like to use. However there are no lockers or hooks to hang your towels on - you just leave your stuff on the chairs near the pools ( preferably not on the floor near the pools as it gets quite wet).
The gym is on the floor above with views of the pool areas below - this beats the YMCA's viewing areas below from their gym above! I did not visit the Lane Cove Aquatic Centre's gym on this occasion. If they have a tread mill with a tv I will probably use it in the future - I used to go to the YMCA's gym just to use the treadmill and watch tv as I didn't have one where I was staying.
After my swim it was a quick shower dry off and change of clothes. No hair dryers either. I walk home feeling a lityle tired but refreshed. Too early to tell but I am hoping the chlorinated water will help my skin and allergies as it used to when I was overseas however I did not seem to smell of chlorine so maybe this facility had a different way of treating their pool water. The YMCA uses technology based on chlorine and UV light to treat their pool water but I still smelt of chlorine every time even after a shower using heaps of soap. Here no chlorine smell and no soap used for my shower.
Photos of Lane Cover Aquatic Centre below. Tip don't go after 3 pm on weekdays if you want to avoid a plague of kids!
Short shift today - returning to work after 6 days off ( not my choice). I am on the floor today and hopefully my eyes hold out as I am not on stock today. My alkergies have I.proved significantly over the past 6 days the rashes on the trunk of my body have almost disappeared and my eyes have not puffed up or are sore watery itchy and irritated. I can now open them however the skin around them is damaged from drying out. Unfortunately the rashes onmy arms and legs are so severe they still need time to heal. My skin overall is not as dry but the damage is done. The airconditioning will probably dry it out again - even mosuturiser does not help.
Thursday 22nd April 2021
Myer 8 am - 4 pm originally stock only now changed to 10 am - 4 pm service.
Not much happened today except I served quite a few customers.
No problems no rude customers. The team leader accidently hung up on a customer in the morning but the customer rang back and I asked if she rang before and she advised that she had I apologised and had to ring her back as I had a queue of customers waiting to be served. She was OK with that and had her order of 4 MW white 30 cam cake stands ready on the back counter for to pick up and pay for by 1 pm the time as advised by her. I was with another customer and poor ticket girl who was doing a double shift of stock in the morning and service at night coped the wrong end of the stick from this customer when asked if she needed a bag and that was an extra 15 cents for it. The customer says to her "I'm not paying 15 cents for a bag!" and ended up carrying the cake stands which were all boxed. Let's hope none were broken enroute home. I asked ticket girl if she checked them all before giving them to the customer - she only checked one of them and I said that it was probably the same one I checked ( I didn't check the other ones as they came from the reserves).
The store manager came to the Homewares counter again with a jumper which had a security tag on it and was removing it. I said to him " shoplifting again?" as a joke . He was removing it for a customer as it was left on the jumper by the person who served them. He even refolded the jumper perfectly as you would if it was on display. Speaking of the store manager he was the one that told me how it was just a week before th Queen's 95th birthday and it is so sad how Prince Philip was unable to celebrate this mile stone with her before his death. If the Queens birthday is on 21st April then why do we have a public holiday on 12th June each year to offically celebrate it? Google this I did .
The only break I had today was a toilet break no other break.
The customer service manager was busy with the VM manager moving things around and was not in a happy mood. She had lunch with the team leader who was also moving things around near the electricals department.
Because there was no VM team members on today the VM team member doing stock was actually doing VM duties today - well not really she was also moving stock around and even using a pallet lifter towards the end of the day.
Poor team member from Electricals on dock and stock duties was severely reprimanded this morning as I was putting my stuff in a staff locker for leaving the door to a reserve open and walking away. "You can't leave the doir to the reserve open it has items worth $600 in it!" I later spotted him putting away toys in a concessions nothing reserve and asked why he was going it. Aparently the glasswsre/toy reserve is now the glassware and home decorator reserve and toys are now sharing a reserve with concession men's clothing. He says to me I don't know why toys have been moved to this reserve, it's not right for Myer stock to be mixed with concession stock.
Today the Maxwell & Williams rep was VMing her stock today and saw me struggling with spider wraps so she gave me a lesson on how to use them. Who invented these monstrosities? We were wondering how she could be so good at using them as she never has any stock expensive or large enough to require spider wraps. I said maybe she uses them in her other merchandising jobs.
Anyway the reason I ended up having to remove and replace so many security tags and spider wraps was because I had a customer who was looking for a hypoallergenic quilt and she wanted to see and feel different ones. In the end I passed her onto ticket girl as I was serving other customers whilst she looked for another one in the same range. When I asked ticket girl if she actually purchased any of them she advised me no because she wanted to thank about it.
Because I had not eaten all day today I could not decide what to get to eat therefore just settled on a not so appetising Chikko Roll. It will do until I got home. Dinner was a wholemeal vegemite cheese tomato lettuce turkey sandwich with some chili flakes fried shallots and ground pepper which was not that much better. I then went shopping for a few snacks for tomorrow's long day trip. Have to prepare for an early departure tomorrow.
Coles made a mistake again but this time Warringah Mall's Coles deli took a very long time just to slice 2 slices of turkey only to charge me for some type of hot salami ( Yuk ). Because I did not actually see what was inside the
Friday 23rd April 2021
Myer 8 am - 4 pm originally stock only now cancelled.
Day off - booked ticket to see 10 am session of Sculptures at Scenic World today. Used one of my Dine & Discover NSW vouchers. Full price for an adult ticket of almost $50 is a little too steep therefore a $25 discount really helps. Scenic World is only open Fridays - Mondays at the moment. Pain as I wanted to go on Tuesday 20th April 2021.
Have not decided if I am going to take the train straight to The Blue Mt and stay overnight @ The YHA or leave home at 5am just to get to the city in time to catch the hourly train to Katoomba which takes 2 hours one way.
Oh dear I just had a look on YouTube to see if anyone else had posted videos of Sculpture At Scenic World and there are a lot of videos but the average number of views for each of them is hardly 300. Must not be that interesting this year. Well just as well I am going a little later then anticipated and used my Dine & Discover NSW voucher discount voucher.
I make it to Central Station in time to board the 8.48 am intercity train waiting on platform 5 towards Katoomba.
There are quite a few people boarding this train due to arrive at Katoomba Station by 10.32 am. Then it will be straight to the main street of Katoomba outside the Carrington Hotel to catch the next bus to Scenic World. This will be a day trip only as I have to work tomorrow. My next pay will be very lean and I am hoping that I can at least pay my rent for the next 2 weeks.
Off we go. the train just departed Central a little behind schedule. This is an express service so it is meant to take less time to get to Katoomba. No I don't think so.
I have arrived in Katoomba before 11 am and on the net bus to Scenic World . I arrive around 11 am at Scenic World and there is a very long queue. I am able to skip the queue and go straight in as I have a 10 am ticket. I am lost and get on the Skyway rather then Cable car down. The weather is perfect the sun is out but it was rather cold this morning. By 12 noon it is an absolutely perfect day! Really warm as the sun is out but not hot with a nice cool breeze in the background. So glad I made the effort to travel to The Blue Mountains today.
I am well preprepared with a packed lunch a thermos of hot water which was just the right temperature to drink by noon a big puffy coat scarf and my stuffed possum.
First stop is the Skyway which does not travel all the way across but only travels to the midway point stops and turns back due to COVID restrictions still in place it is still only partially operating. The stop midway is to allow passengers to take photos. There is also a glass bottom that opens so you can see the valley floor below ( don't stand on top of it if you are scared of heights eventhough you know there is no way you could fall through it!) I like chucking my stuffed asnimals onto these glass bottoms and taking photos of them.
Next stop onto the Cableway which will take me down to the Jamison Valley below. If I had taken the Scenic Railway down instead of the Cableway, I would not have had to climb a set of steep stairs to get back to either of them as the Sculptures are around a loop with some alternative trails closed along the way so "the only way is up!" ( so to say). I have taken the Scenic Railway previously ( see older blogs) and I hate it so decided not to take it not even back up this visit.
So any artists - double what I originally read about. YouTube channels do not do this event any justice. It is better then it looks.
Artists below
In total I spent around 3 hours there include a stop for lunch, a toilet break, a return ride on the Cableway, a Skyway ride (no long queues today) and seeing the entire Sculptures trail plus other points of interest , taking loads of photos, wildlife spotting ( was it as brush turkey or lyrebird?) and finally a visit to the shop.
After exiting Scenic World it was a bus trip back into town and a quick visit to Rivers then to The Blue Mountains Cultural Centre to see Sculptures Otherwise ( it only occupied this year a third of the gallery space and I only needed 10 minutes max viewing time - taking photos before heading to the library to recharge my phone which was down to 20% ). By 4 pm it was still only 90%. I thought this would be enough to get me back to Sydney. You are required to show that you have checked in at all locations visited and at the library your check in is checked at the entrance of the library. The library staff will Chase after you if you have not checked in sucessfully. All furniture has been removed in the library and wrapped in plastic still due to COVID restrictions
One final visit to the former Target store which closed down to become a K Hub. This the first time I am seeing what is inside an actual K Hub. Well it isn't a K Mart that's for sure but.more of a no frills version like a Woolworths Express but not a supermarket for groceries. The K Hub was probably stocked 99 % of K Mart's homebrand stock and very little else. Exceptions maybe a few bottles of water near the counter. Don't expect to find any fancy chocolates or candy bars there. It was very no frills. I don't think the K Hub will be very sucessful in it's current location as why would anyone want to shop at a K Hub with no atmosphere or brand variety when just down the road there is a huge Big W with almost every thing you need right next to a large Woolworths!? There is also a decent Aldi nearby and a Coles in another building.
At 5 pm I lost track of time forgot to buy a bottle of water and briskly walk uphill to Katoomba Station to make it in time for the 5.20 pm train back to Sydney. I had about 15 minutes to spare as there was a train waiting at platform 2. It was unfortunately an all stations train not an express train back to Central.
Home before 8 pm with a train transfer at Central onto the Northshore line to St Leonard's anbd onto a 144 home.
End of a long day trip. Work tomorrow.
Saturday 24th April 2021
Day off - not anymore.
New shift added to Kronos now 10 am - 4 pm service
My blog just crashed again and I lost my entire blog for today.
Let's start again.
I signed up 1 Myer One membership today but forgot to scan the barcode for it as there are absolutely no physical membership cards available so had to do it on the ipad. So time consuming and there isn't even a Myer One sign up shortcut on the ipad you have to type it in the search field.
Had a customer that wanted to look at 4 different boxed quilts each with spider wraps on them before deciding not to purchase as my of them. They picked up the wrong boxed quilt on sale so I had to run down to the reserve to find them the correct one. It was co incidental that the same quilt I had retrieved from the reserve rejected by my customer was purchased by another customer who also picked up the same wrong sale quilt.
For me it was a rather busy day although another team member said it was really quiet for a Saturday.
I even managed to solve a tech issue a customer had were she was unable to redeem the balance on her Myer gift card . At least she persevered unlike another customer I had previously who almost threw out a gift card with a balance of $125 or so on it as she thought she had used it all up. I insisted I do a balance enquiry on it and yep it still had $125 on it and I even printed out a receipt of the balance on the gift card for her.
I don't know why Myer has decided to do this but there has been a new folder created where weekly random checks are done to record any products in Homewares or Electricals that do not have any spider wraps or security tags on them.
Something is really going on at Myer Warringah. There are certain team members and managers that are not happy - either with me I suspect being back on the floor and not on stock or are totally ignoring other team members. I don't know what's going on but it's not a good look and there certainly is a big people and culture problem. There are certainly Managers in foul moods and team members glad to see that I am back on the floor for once. There is still talk about how a union rep ( from the SDA) came to pay Myer a visit and it took them an hour for them just to see the operations manager and how tgey were suppose to be paying another visit. I have never joined a union in all my time in retail because I have not needed to as I usually lodge all my complaints to the Fair Work ( not that they are of any help) . Maybe it's time to - it's tax deductible. I do wonder how many team members are actually members of the union.
Sunday 25th April 2021
Anzac Day - "Lest We Forget"
I was up at 4 am today. I don't know when the dawn services start but watched the Sydney one on the ABC this morning as well as the Canberra and Melbourne ones that follow. So moving. I love the laying of the wreaths and the haunting hymns as well as the playing of the last post. I did not go into the city to watch the March though. Unsure if it was safe to and if there were crowd restriction numbers.
Today I had planned to venture out however I had a bit to do.
I still have not done my laundry or taken out my rubbish both can wait. I did wash my dishes vacuum and change my bed linen though.
What I did do today was make marinated duck breasts and an Anzac biscuit slice. it seems to be a trend using Anzac biscuit mixture to make other sweet treats like slices. Anzac biscuits are not the healthiest treats as they contain butter and usually a combination of golden syrup and brown sugar however they do contain coconut which I like however not in the decicated form and oats which I really love. To make my slice I added some trail mix of pepita seasame seeds cranberries almond flakes and added some naughty mini dark chocolate chips. I used maple syrup and icing sugar instead as I did not have any brown sugar or golden syrup.
It's almost 6 pm and I get a text message from the customer service manager asking me to work tomorrow from 10 am - 4 pm thinking I was on the floor. I said yes however when I checked Kronos it looks like I am on stock - if she had said it was a stock shift I would have said no because I am worried that my "pussy" eye will return. I haven't had a pussy eye since the last stock shift. I texted ticket girl and asked her if she was working and my concern. I also have a weird shift not this coming Saturday but next Saturday starting at 9.15 am (I don't think there is a pre store huddle over the weekend store opens at 9 am). I hope I'm not on stock , it could be scan count day perhaps? There goes my day off tomorrow. it's going to cost me $50+ to get to work this week. I have to get back to a job inquiry as well.
I got another response to my Gumtree advertisement which I have kept up on there since I was made redundant looking for a job updating it if my circumstances change eg if my hours at Myer have been reduced. I was planning to contact this employer tomorrow until I received the above text message to work. I contacted the employer and asked if it was ok to contact him on Wednesday. I hope this is not another scam work from home job - it did provide a link to a website which I have yet to look at.
Was reponding to ticket girl's text as she was up really late around 11 pm "gee you're up late" I said - she was not tired but had to work tomorrow - I fell asleep. End of another week.
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