Santa Clause came to my town...

Mr Santa and I had agreed that we wouldn't see each other on Christmas Day...

But when I opened my eyes in the morning, there he was, with a big bag of presents!

I must have been an extremely good girl this year, because Mr Santa really spoiled me...

I opened the first present thinking it was a wee bottle of perfume or something... But but but!

It was a PINK iPod Nano! Awesome!

The second thing was a pretty big box so I had no idea what it was...

And it was a PINK mini fridge!

I didn't think it could get any better... heehee... But!

As I opened the last pressie, all everyone could hear me shout was, 'No way! Get out of here! Wow!'

A PINK PSP!!!

Woo!

After all the excitement had passed, I felt a bit bad about calling him a bad boyfriend (yes, my boyfriend is Santa... I'm allowed to be gullible if I want...) the night before and hanging up on him... oops...

Packed lunch

Back when I was a hobo, I had all the time in the world so every so often, I would give Mr Vince packed lunches made with lurve...

I would make things like caesar salad, king prawn and mayo with rocket sandwiches, sushi and pasta with portabello mushrooms in a creamy sauce put into a microwavable container so that he could reheat it at work. And I'd pack him goodies like crisps and chocolate too...

Mr Vince used to love boasting to his colleagues about his fantastic girlfriend (that's me, by the way... heehee...) who made him homemade lunches. In fact, I believe there were times that his lunches weren't made by me, but he would still pretend that they were, just so he could be the centre of envy... whatever.

Oh, and of course, there was that time, I delivered some freshly made sushi to him and we sat in George Square to eat it. He'd look over at all the other people eating their lunches there and say things like, 'What's that guy eating? Sainsbury's sandwiches? Tsk! I have fresh sushi! What's she having? A crappy salad from M&S? Ha! I have fresh sushi!' That boy's a bit strange...

Now that I'm working, I also make myself packed lunches to save some money. Homemade sandwiches are so much cheaper and yummier than those bought from Greggs. Or I would wake up a little bit earlier and make some pasta to take to work. Fresh spaghetti only takes 3 minutes to cook, then toss it in some pesto, and hey presto! Lunch!

Over the next week, since it's the days leading up to Christmas Day, I'm working 9am til 8pm, Monday to Saturday (rather than the usual lazy 5-hour days, 4 days a week). So instead of bringing in food each day, I went and bought some goodies to fill up the fridge at work so that I can just make lunch during my lunch break (I always seem to have too much time during my break anyway, and also this way, I can get an extra 10 minutes or so in bed... mmm...).

I bought myself some seeded rolls, sundried tomato and feta pita bread, sliced chicken and stuffing, some ready-cooked and flaked salmon, Normandy brie, caramelised red onion chutney, a packet of salad, cherry tomatoes, cartons of wild mushroom soup and spinach and nutmeg soup... oh, and I bought potatoes and made some potato salad and popped it into a tub.

I'm looking forward to some yummy and cheap lunches this week...

Ok, maybe not really cheap by the looks of what I bought... I guess I could have spent way less than I did and just had cheese sandwiches every day but where's the enjoyment in that? My tastebuds have standards! But hey, I reckon I'm still saving... I think... la de da...

Cheating scumbag

A jewellery shop is a rather romantic place to work in. I get couples coming in, all rosy-cheeked and smiley, cuddling and kissing, to pick out their wedding rings, or maybe the guy just wants to give his girlfriend/wife a little treat. They are very cute to watch, and it just makes me feel all warm and slushy inside (unless I'm in a bad mood that day, in which case, I get very jealous and hate them).

Then there are the guys who come in on their own to find the perfect present for their other half. They usually make me bring out every item from the window because they can't decide what will make her eyes light up as soon as she opens the box (I try to refrain from telling them that a big diamond would have that effect... not only would her eyes be lit up, they will also be blinded...).

And then there's this type of guy...

I sold a lovely little diamond pendant with matching earrings to this guy, and as I was putting it into the box for him, I made a bit of conversation with him and asked if he had much more Christmas shopping to do...

Him: Well, I just need to get my girlfriend's present.
Me: Oh... is this diamond set not for your girlfriend?
Him: Ha! No, she is not that easily pleased.
Me: Oh... so who's this set for then?
Him: My wife.
Me: Oh... um... la de da... (*thinks to myself, 'You horrible, lying, cheating bastard. I hope they both have the sense to dump you before Christmas and you have to eat one of those individual microwave meals on Christmas Day all on your own. Git.' I still had a lovely, friendly smile on my face while I thought all of this, of course... I'm very professional...)

Bad food blogger

I will never make a good food blogger. I'm just not devoted enough. I ate out twice in the past week and neither of those times did I take photos... bleh... ah well, I'll see how well I can do with merely descriptions...

Saturday, I had my work night out at Moldo's in the Merchant City. It was very yummy. For starters, I had grilled asparagus and roasted vine-ripened tomatoes with balsamic syrup and shavings of parmesan. Then tortelloni filled with basil, pinenuts and olive oil in a tomato sauce for mains. And for dessert... muahahaha... hot chocolate fudge cake with vanilla ice cream... it was heavenly... mmm... so good... and all paid for by the company! Woo! Free tasty food!

Tonight, I went out with Mr Vince. On a proper date... wow... it's been ages since we've actually been on a real DATE! Just the two of us! It was very nice. We laughed and chatted and held hands. It was all very cute. Ok, enough slush. Hmm... maybe just one little bit more slush... I love Mr Vince. Ok, that's it.

We went to Paperino's and instead of the normal one starter, main and dessert each, we were very Chinese and ordered four starters, one main and one side to share. And to all arrive at the one time. Mr Vince is the type who picks up a menu and wants to order EVERYTHING. The waitress said to us, 'You're not going to be able to move after this!' What she didn't know was that he actually wanted to get another main course but I reminded him that we always end up wasting way too much food!

Crammed onto the little table were mozzarella sticks deep fried in breadcumbs, stuffed mushrooms deep fried in breadcrumbs, zucchini in beer batter, prawn Marie Rose with fresh strawberries, foccacia with garlic, olive oil and green peppercorns, and spaghetti with tiger prawns and cherry tomatoes... mmm... and to give our stomachs that final stuffing, tiramisu... I can't move now... but it was all worth it... mmm...

A not-so-lucky dip

You know the deal - during the Christmas period, lots of shops have little Christmas trees, boxes wrapped up in shiny paper and lots of ribbon, and of course, Christmas music!

But to make the atmosphere even more festive at my work, we have this lucky dip thingy. So, if you get a really good sale, or manage to persuade the customer to buy the earrings that match the pendant she was looking at, then you can get something from the lucky dip.

Also, at the beginning of the day, Mr Manager might pick out a really ugly necklace from the window and say to us, 'Whoever sells this today can go into the lucky dip!'

Oh, and to make things a little more exciting, throughout the day, Mr Manager might say to us, 'OK, whoever manages to go out there and get a customer who's looking at the window to come inside and buy something can go into the lucky dip!'

So when Mr Manager said to us, 'Whoever gets the next sale, I don't care what it is, can get something from the lucky dip!', I got very excited and pounced on the first customer that came into the shop! And I did make the sale! Sold a wee pendant for £125 (the guy said it was a stocking filler for his girlfriend! You should have seen my face...)...

So into the lucky dip I went! BUT! Well, you see, there are all these envelopes that we pick from, and there are bits of paper inside with things like 'Happy Meal' (wanna take a wild guess at what that is? Yes, McDonald's...) and 'Present' (there's a bag of little presents in the office). But there are also two bad ones: 'Clean the staff room' (which Mr Assistant Manager got... heehee...) and 'Clean the toilet'! So, of course, I got the dirty job of cleaning the toilet... grrr...

Oh, how I whined...

Me: Mr Manager, that's just not fair!
Mr Manager: Well, how much was your sale?
Me: £125!
Mr Manager: Ah well, that's all it's worth - cleaning the toilet!'
Me: Noooo! Hmph! Fine! I'm not selling anymore things today! Hmph!

But Mrs Supervisor said that all I needed to do was squirt bleach down the toilet and flush... so that wasn't so bad... phew...

So far, still so good...

I'm still really liking the job at Jewellers X. Woo! It's really such a nice job - showing jewellery to customers, persuading them to buy, suggesting matching items, trying things on for them so they can see the item on someone else (which means I need to constantly shape and paint my nails so that they are boooootiful and immaculate... well, I don't want a customer to get put off by my usual chipped and icky nails when I try on rings for them...), and being santa's little helper, ie. gift-wrapping (I go totally overboard with the ribbons. I love it!).

And of course, when there are no customers around, I measure the ring sizes of my fingers, try on pretty and expensive things (I also sometimes try on the most ugly and horrendous things just for a laugh) and sit down on a comfy chair facing the entrance so I can people-watch.

I get quite a buzz from selling things. On Saturday, I had my best day so far, and sold £1,100 of stuff! Woo! And I only sold three things... heehee... very cool. One of the things I sold was an £800 diamond bracelet, resulting in lots of praise from my manager. Not because it was particularly expensive really (there are £10K diamonds for goodness sake... *faints* But I am not allowed to sell the big diamonds yet because I know next to nothing about them. All I'd be able to do is say 'Ooooh, look at how it sparkles...') but because the customer had originally come in to look at a £150 bracelet and I managed to persuade her to buy a far more expensive one. Muahahaha... I am so evil.