Wedding waistcoat number 2

In the last week before coming home for Christmas I put together the bones of my red trousers, a red felt waistcoat that I never got around to finishing, a skirt for my sister, a wedding album and a waistcoat for a wedding. I had planned to complete them all while I was home with the help of my sisters sewing machine but it turned out to be the crappiest sewing machine I've ever seen so the skirt went out the window and everything else I had to finish by hand.

Most of the front of a waistcoat is done by hand anyway so no problem there but the back is all done by machine because when you sew it all up you're sewing together 5 or 6 layers which if done by hand is well, difficult. I did it all anyway by Thursday evening but wasnt really happy with how it turned out. It just wasnt very smooth, there was some flap on the back that appeared out of nowhere and it was way too tight. After wearing that monkey waistcoat in the summer I wasnt sure if I was going to wear another small one. I said I'd get up Friday morning at 7 anyway, do the buttons and buttonholes and see what I think then.

I went out that night with a couple lads from school for a few pints and the first thing one of them tells me on hearing about my waistcoat predicament is that his mam has a sewing machine. Feck I could have used that earlier, would have saved me 10 hours hand stitching everything. We went out anyway and I didnt get to bed til after 2 but I did manage to get up for 7. Last time I made a buttonhole it took me 45 minutes and with the wedding at 1.30 it was looking like I was going to be pretty tight for time. I decided not to use gimp to save time and somehow they ended up only taking me about 25 minutes each. I'd never sewn a button in before but luckily they only took a few minutes each. They weren't the highest quality buttonholes I'd ever sewn but at least they all looked the same.

It was just after 11am and I was a couple hours ahead of schedule so started thinking about using my mates mams sewing machine. He didnt answer my text due to being asleep so I called down to his house hoping someone was there. Luckily he was just getting up so I got to work. First though I had to unpick all my stitches which took almost an hour cause I made them real tight thinking that they might unravel. By the time I got through all that it was 12.30, the wedding was in an hour and my waistcoat was in 3 separate pieces. Despite being made a few centuries ago the sewing machine worked smoothly enough thankfully.

Now with zig-zag technology!

By 12.48 I was finished, pulled it outside out, saw that it looked alright and got out of there. Got a lift home, had a shower, got dressed, pressed the waistcoat but didnt put it on cause it wasnt finished yet, got a needle and thread, and jumped in the car down to the church. Arrived with ten minutes to spare so got to work removing all the basting thread and sewing down the straps.

I still had more to do but decided I should probably pay attention to the wedding so left it til the afters. All I had to do now was sew up the gaping holes in one side that you leave so you can turn the waistcoat inside out so I figured that wouldnt take me too long. I will get to wear it today after all.

After all that messing, the lack of sleep, and some mulled wine in a comfy couch in front of an open fire I started feeling well sleepy. When I was finally finished I put it on and it got worse cause it was just that little bit tight which meant I had to breathe really shallow (shallowly?) or risk losing a button. Well its official, shallow breathing makes me feel sleepy cause sure enough my head started nodding around wildly and I couldnt keep my eyes open. I may have had a little sleep and then we went for loads of pints and a big dinner which didnt help at all. But I looked good and thats all that matters. Didnt think to take any photos at the time of course so here's one from later:

Look at my fucking red tousers

is the name of a blog full of chaps in red trousers. With the 12 pubs of Christmas coming up soon I started to make myself a felt pair. Following the shorts we had started on a full length pair of trousers and they were looking like they would fit me nicely enough so I just used the same pattern. Felt is a bit of a bitch to work with cause its so thick and stretchy and bouncy but to my surprise I lashed through them in about two days. I cut a few corners, didnt bother with much lining and used a much quicker and easier hook and bar though, but still they fit pretty nicely and are unbelievably comfy. Only thing was though under far away inspection they looked just like the bottom half of the cheapo santa onesies my friends wore

Who wears short trousers?

This year we have moved on to making trousers which is handy cause I wear trousers but I dont really wear waistcoats very often. First pair I made I kind of rushed through just to see how the process works and they weren't anything special.

All the action was just in the top part though so we really only made a very nice pair of tailor made shorts.

The second pair we completed properly, adding lots of lining on the inside, belt loops, and a hook and bar to fasten them.

which makes them an even nicer pair of short shorts, but still just as useless as the first pair

Wednesday we are in tailoring from 10am to 8.30pm which can get very tiring. One day we were making our shorts and I was talking to a guy in my class who's lead singer in a band that are meant to be one to watch for 2013. He says he does day dream throughout the class about his band and how if they all lived closer together they could really become something great but then he comes back to reality and there he is stitching a little curtain onto a tiny pair of shorts which just isn't that exciting.

Inspire me!

Second year got off to a slow start for most people in the class I think due to a long break in the summer to get out of the swing of things, as well as the fact that pattern cutting was the same old shite as last year, there was 25 in the class instead of the 8 or 9 we normally had to share with (if I was paying for this course I would be pissed) and seeing 60 new piranhas in the fish tank starting in first year waiting in the wings to take what few jobs there are out there.

I was just getting back into it again around Halloween when we were landed with this whopper written project to do in a couple of weeks. It was like 7,000 words, pretty much a thesis, on the fashion industry. I really didn't see the point wasting any time on it so it became a copy and paste thesis completed in 7 hours the weekend before. There was a couple of interesting parts to it though including finding out who exactly Alexander McQueen is (don't tell anyone I said that) and learning a bit about Coco Chanel. I hoped placing some of her inspirational quotes around my room would help kick start my year.

And then there's me

Annual Ghetto Basketball Competition

I just watched the film Hoop Dreams there recently for the first time and it made me seriously nostalgic about my basketballing glory days, mainly during school when basketball was everything for a few years. Playing in college for DCU was great craic but not exactly vintage basketball so I jumped at the chance to play with my new college in the annual ghetto ball tournament and hopefully add some silverware to my modest collection. All the dodgiest colleges from the worst parts of East London would be there so when I left for college that day I made sure to have my baggiest jeans on.

My hopes for glory were soon dashed though when most of our players didn’t show up. Waiting for the bus I found this Eastern European guy who can play a bit but his abilities are fairly limited, an Indian guy who can’t play to save his life, and two guys who were competing in this Ironman tournament in the same gym but could help build up the numbers on the basketball team if needed. One was a white guy who came to basketball once and it must have been the first time he ever touched a ball, the other was this 50 cent looking beast who had never played in his life either. He saw 3 of his class mates walking by and got them to join the team. They agreed to play only cause it meant they could skip class. They were 3 rude boys and going by how useless our Indian guy was I didn’t hold out much hope for them. We did have one good player who was due to meet us there but I wasn’t so sure. He was a point guard and you could tell he used to be good back in the day from the few times he was bothered taking it to the basket. This wasn’t exactly what hoop dreams were made of so I was not a happy man getting on the bus.

My attitude soon changed though when we went around the corner and picked up a team from another college NewVic. Yeah our college is so poor we have to share the bus.

(HOOP DREAMS)

First thing I noticed was two high towers, one of them was their coach but the other looked like he could take on our whole team by himself. They had a full squad too and even a few good looking girls for support. They certainly put our smokey and the bandits team to shame but at the same time picked up my spirits. I was looking forward to the tournament now even if we were going to get destroyed by teams like these. It only got better when we got to Hackney sports centre and there was a load of massive black guys dunking all over the place. I don’t think I’ve ever been dunked on before, this is going to be great.

(HOOP DREAMS)

Their coach told me that all the best teams were in his side of the tournament though so we won’t get too much of a beating in the first few games.

This fat old white guy called everyone together and gave a big speech about the tournament then. 12 minute running clock for games is seriously short, that changes things, definitely no time for passing to my dud team mates now. He made a big point of saying for everyone to behave themselves as it’s a public place and we’re representing ourselves. He really made it sound like some fights were bound to kick off which was slightly worrying.

(HOOP DREAMS)

He was like the organiser in that 2 on 2 tournament in white men cant jump “now lets get the hell out of here.”

Luckily our point guard showed up so if he did an alright job bringing up the ball we might be ok. We got the gear on, he took my number 7 but I was glad to see we were back in DCU colours. If we have the DCU spirit with us we are capable of anyt....well, they’re nice colours. The shorts are savage though, yoink! Was not glad to see however that 50 cent and the Indian guy didn’t understand the need to wear different numbers in team sport. I told them but 50 wasn’t going to be the one who changes and the Indian guy wasn’t going to be the one who understood what I was saying.

(HOOP DREAMS)

Two feckin dopes: 66.

Game 1 vs Greenwich

Point guard, Eastern European guy, 2 rude boys and I made up the starting 5. I think me and point guard were both thinking that Indian guy and the white Ironman wouldn’t be getting a game unless we were destroying a team or getting destroyed.  I had already decided to myself that with a 12 minute running clock I wouldn’t have time to pass to anyone and would just have to do everything myself with a bit of help carrying the ball from point guard.

And I was out of the blocks like an animal: got 3 quick baskets from under the boards catching my own rebounds a few times cause I was a bit rusty. Despite the non-stop calls from my dud team mates to pass the ball I held firm, didn’t pass, and assured them they were crap so I can’t pass to them.

(HOOP DREAMS) 

Tell you what though, with 6 points in the first minute the MVP award could be on the cards. They got a basket back, 6-2, shit this is tight, can’t give anything more away.

Then two things happened that changed the game: I got tired and I started passing. For the next 11 minutes we matched each other blow for blow, carry for carry, turnover for turnover, air ball for air ball. Eastern European guy was like a headless chicken and the 3 rude boys we rotated were all absolute shite despite all their talk on the bus about knowing how to play. The match ended 6-2. Officially the lowest scoring game I have ever been involved in, in fact the lowest I have ever witnessed or even heard of.

(HOOP DREAMS)

Bloody hell this is embarrassing. Over on the other court one of the games ended 27-17. The other scores were similar. NewVic weren’t even a patch on Barking or Hackney-last year’s winners. I was hoping we wouldn’t get to the semis now cause either of them would humiliate us. But in the changing room it was a different story: point guard was singing our praises – “to me that game shows that we can play, we only let in one basket which shows we can defend, we scored three times as much as they did which shows we have a lot of ability in the front court. One game down and on that evidence I think we have a good chance to win the title.” Almost everyone agreed.

Game 2 vs B6

Neither of us had a change so it was blue against blue. I think this might have contributed a bit to my joke team mates producing 3 back courts in the match.

(HOOP DREAMS)

I can’t remember the last time I was involved in a game with a single back court call let alone 3. There was one time in a school game (36 minutes) but the ref waved it away cause our court was so small, but 3 in 12 minutes was some achievement, I couldn’t even get mad at them anymore, you just had to laugh. 50 cent came on in this game and had some hustle but it wasn’t enough to prevent us getting a 10-3 beating. I had knackered myself out in the first minute of the first game and was not bouncing back, mainly I just couldn't keep up with Eastern European guy and stop him from running, dribbling, shooting, passing to the shit rude boys, anything, “just stand still and give me the God damn ball!”

Game 3 vs Tower Hamlets

In the last two games I had to tell players on each team where to stand for free throws, inbounds etc (HOOP DREAMS) but the start of the third game was my favourite example of most players not having a breeze what they were doing. I was in the front court for the jump ball, our Eastern European guy won the jump, tipped it to me, I caught it on the turn towards the basket and then everyone else either went the other way or stood still while I strolled to the basket for an uncontested lay-up. Everyone was so confused and this made the ref hesitate thinking it might of been an own-basket but he carried on after a shake of the head.

(HOOP DREAMS) 

Shortly after this the Eastern European guy inbounded the ball to the Indian guy who in his keenness to get on the court was standing up instead of sitting on the bench. Yes he passed it from out of bounds to out of bounds futher down the court. But Indian guy was delighted to get a touch and looked very excited about what was going to happen next until the ref came over and took the ball off him and told him to sit down.

(HOOP DREAMS)

This team had an absolute beast of an Eastern European looking guy who we watched dunking on someones head in their first game but they left him on the bench for the first while cause they obviously didn’t see us as a threat. And they were right. The rest of his team were shit but we were even worse and by the time he got on it was already sewn up.

Game 4 vs Waltham Forest College

and the fair shoulders were flying around from Waltham Forest College.

(HOOP DREAMS) 

They were absolute dog shit but anytime you got near the key you had a couple of them hurry over and usher you out of play with their shoulders. The ref shirked the responsibility and didn't give a single foul all game so I hung back and contributed absolutely nothing. I wasn't needed anyway cause we had our super sub running the show. We finally gave the Indian guy a run out with 5 minutes to go cause we were so fed up with the rude boys being so useless. In training we only ever played 3 on 3 half court and he didn’t know what to do but once let to run free on the full court he was in his element: chasing down every ball, marking every single player, getting in their face and not giving them a second. Once he got the ball now he didn’t know what to do but on defence he was fantastic. If only we had him on earlier I never would have wasted any energy on D and we would be guaranteed a semi final spot by now. But alas we didn’t have much attacking options and the game ended 6-6 culminating in a potentially dramatic free throw shoot out.

(HOOP DREAMS)

I made the executive decision that I would be our first taker. I missed badly. Their guy swished it. What a sweet sound to crush our hopes of getting to the semi final.

(HOOP DREAMS)

On the bus home point guard went on this brilliant rant to the girl from the sports department about how we could have won it if our coach showed up and if we had one extra player (Speedy Jeff) who has been putting in a couple of good performances in training. I secretly filmed the whole thing but my finger was over the mike so you cant hear anything.

(HOOP DREAMS)

What a pity, it was fucking hilarious. He was also chatting a lot to coach High tower: they knew each other and each others brothers and friends from playing ball over the years and while we were rolling through Hackney we got stuck in traffic cause of road works up ahead. The sun was beaming in the window and High tower started reminiscing about this outdoor court that we could see out the window on the left hand side. Apparently back in the day Kevin Garnett came down to that court and started street balling with the locals. 200 people gathered around to watch. I could picture point guard there taking him to school, turning down offers to join the summer pro league cause that shit might fuck up his game. Garnett was MVP that year. I couldn’t help but dream about next year. If I get fit and we get all the boys back together, if point guard steps up and rolls back the years, if Indian guy learns to speak, if Speedy Jeff runs the break like we know he can, if we get a less annoying Eastern European guy, if 50 cent threatens some of the best players, if the rude boys stay at home - we could mount a serious challenge for the title. In 2013 there is going to be a new name on the festival of sport trophy.

HOOP DREAMS!

How to make a waistcoat step by step book on video

I was planning on putting up pictures of the book on made on making my waistcoat but couldnt be arsed so just made a silent video instead. Half way through my housemate comes in and says fuckin hell cause its lovely outside and I'm sitting in. Apart from that nothing else happens.

Wrecked

That tiredness I was talking about towards the end of last term was evident when I got my folders back this week. I was so knackered I couldnt even concentrate long enough to write a single word when I was writing my headings and went dyslexic for the day. All my pieces were on A3 card that took time I didnt have to cut out so when I made a mistake I just had to work around it. It started to get pretty frustrating.

Example of well written heading:

Not too well centred, S is a bit crazy:

Here I forgot that I had the zip sample on the other side and this was meant to be the sample with the vent, so I pointed an arrow to where the zip sample is:

Curved dart:

The R was an I and the A was an R:

E was an A and the K was a H

Waistcoat 2

Then I had 5 days to make another waistcoat to wear to a wedding. But this time I had to use my own measurements and make my own pattern.

You take some of these measurements:

And use these instructions:

Put it all together and it should fit like a glove.

I bought some fabric from Hardwick Textiles at Upton Park station. Pretty cheap and no bartering so less chance of getting massively ripped off.

Only problem was I was completely drained from the last couple of weeks of college and Brian was over for a couple of days so I had to go out Friday night and Saturday day. So then I had 3 and a half days to make something that took me 5 weeks the last time. I literally raced through it. Anytime I cut something I wasnt supposed to cut or stitched something badly or the sewing machine was too tight I just had to move on and forget about it.

Definitely had no time for buttonholes on this one but it turned out I wouldn't need any because the waistcoat turned out a little bit on the small side. I think this is the first time anything has ever been too small for me so I kind of felt like Aladdin or even Pinocchio when I first tried it on. But I don't know, when I put on my slacks and a crisp new shirt and I was out in the Portuguese sun it did look kind of cool. I prefer to think I pulled off the (slightly creased) Han Solo look quite well.

It's the thought that counts

As well as being up against it trying to finish the waistcoat I decided to cheap out and make a wedding gift. I had a bit of practice binding books, making 4 so far so a wedding photo album wouldnt be beyond my capabilities. I was just going to bind it the same as the last ones but then I realised if you put photos in there afterwards then it would bulk out on one side. So I had to make the spine of the book twice as thick as where it opens. Took a bit of researching in shops and a while on the drawing board at home before the penny dropped on this one but I got there in the end.

Watched a few more youtube videos on book binding and I was close to binding the book in leather (I even bought some leather on brick lane but it was a bit smelly) but stuck with card and loosely followed a video by some guy who had this genius idea of having a little sunken rectangle in the front so the lovely couple could put a photo in there. I used this Indian cotton paper to put the photos on and then had some Japanese fancy version of wax paper to protect each photo. Add some ribbon, bind it with thread in a rush and it all comes together to make a very old rustic (but still classy) looking photo album. Only have a photo of the front but rest assured its pretty good on the inside (there's meant to be big bucks in bespoke wedding gifts so I cant give away all my secrets.)

With all the figuring out how to make the photo album and then making it, finishing my waistcoat, packing (which I always leave to the very last second), going to the excel centre for a training day only to get the day wrong, going to my hairdresser only to find it closed down, and relying on a bus to get to the airport, I got to thinking for the first time ever that I might have left it a bit late to catch my flight. Turns out I left it a little late, but if the bus had of turned up on time or even half an hour late I would have made it. So the wedding album turned out to be quite the expensive gift after all, and a standard flight to Faro turned into this:

Waistcoat 1





Took about 5 weeks of college to finish and I still didn't have enough time to put on buttons but I was pretty happy with it. We also had to do a step by step process of how to make it, I made mine into a book which I will post soon.

Putting everything together over the last two weeks of college was a bit of an ordeal and I didnt get much sleep at all over the last week. This led to a new form of tiredness where I didnt look tired or feel sleepy but instead I was real cranky, stabbed myself with the needle a lot more than usual, and just could not for the life of me concentrate on a conversation for more than a few words. Even the most basic of conversations I had to ask people to repeat what they said a few times before I could line up some sort of answer closely related to what they were talking about. I usually settled for "I don't know" and tried to focus on making my four hands go back to just being two so I could continue stitching. One time I was writing down the mobile number of the teacher from the fashion department and I thought "this is taking forever" and continued on another line cause I thought it was going on too long to possibly fit on one line.

Draping vs Drawing

Was doing a draping course for the last two Tuesday and Thursday nights before the end of college.It was kind of a bad idea cause I had shit loads of other work that I could have been doing and also it turns out I'm not really that into designing dresses. Every class was just me desperately trying to make a piece of cloth look like a dress while trying to block out the sound of the 15 old Indian women who I shared the class with. This was their time of the week away from their families and what they saw as their time to fit in all the gossip of the last few days. They just spent the whole time yapping a million miles an hour. Then the teacher would ask them to quiet down and the lead yapper would say "ok sorry sorry sorry, we be quiet now," then 5 seconds later they'd just yap away again.

So to calm myself down I just spent the whole class drawing dresses instead, which was way more enjoyable and eventually gave me a good idea for the cover of my garment construction folder, which I spent one of the classes making. It's a step-by-step process of all the techniques used to make a dress.

da da da da da da da, da da da da da,...

Worked my last shift from 2-12 with so few fellow staff it wasnt even funny anymore. I was on hot food and dominated compared to this dope who was on it the day before. Everything went pretty smoothly and in the end I worked a couple more shifts than I was supposed to. I managed not to lose the head at any of the staffing people, got into a load of boxing and came away looking like one of the more reliable workers. There was one last hurdle though: post olympic work drinks Sunday night. I feared that someone would get drunk and have a go at someone from staffing but everyone got on pretty well. Then we left and went around to this hotel.

Apparently people werent getting in cause they didnt have some pass or other so there was about 20 of us outside wondering what to do. They had a big airport security operation to get in to the grounds and had this fence about 12 foot high running along the perimeter. Some of our work mates were on the other side of the fence though wondering why we werent getting in. I decided to make a break for it and with two of my team leads holding a foot each I got a boost onto the fence. In no time I was sitting on the top and then with everyone cheering  and chariots of fire playing in my head I jumped down onto the other side to join those who had gotten in. My celebrations were short lived though as about 8 security guys in green started running towards me. They took me up to security and a guy in a white shirt informed me that the police were on the way and I was to be arrested. Oh right. Ten nervous minutes later someone told me I was free to go. Well thats a relief, being arrested would have looked pretty bad in front of all the managers. Roll on the paralympics.

A Close Shave

Went to bed late and then surprisingly got a call at 7.20am to get to work asap for a shift. Had hopes of getting in to see the two Irish lads but it was just too busy. They panicked and cut way too many staff so now there isnt enough of us. Ended up doing a 13 hour shift with little sleep, tired, groggy and unshaven.

One of the staffing girls came down and told me to shave cause someone had made a surprise visit. They had everything I need in staffing so no need to worry. Actually what they had was some cheapo shaving cream and a two-blade disposable piece of shit razor. What about after shave? Oh you can have my hand cream. Great. Wheres the toilets up here? Just use the public ones downstairs. This was a low point - being told I need to shave for the first time in my life and then having to do so in a busy public toilet without my nivea after shave balm. Just cut myself the twice and thought it would be funny if I went back up with little squares of toilet paper on my face but I didnt go through with it.

Later in work I was sitting at the coke stand looking aimlessly through my phone. I had just read a mail from staffing saying I made the cut for the paralympics team a couple of minutes earlier and was browsing through facebook now. Then I looked up and the fairly strict floor manager was a couple of feet away from me. Not too far behind her was the guy who's in charge of all the staff at excel. He's the one person who you should try to impress if you can. They were both looking at me wondering what I was doing when there was tables to be cleared and two managers watching on. I said to her I was falling asleep which is slightly better than being on your phone but not all that great of a response. She said tidy up the tables and then head off. That was close. It would have been fairly ironic if I got fired seconds after reading a job offer but instead it gave me a side story to tie in with my close shave blog post. And I got to go home.

A bit of history

Had been feeling pretty anxious all day about getting into work when I'm not working but I decided to just go for it. You usually sign in at a desk just before security and they give you a pass for the day, but as I still had a pass from yesterday I was hoping the person on the desk wouldnt see me or recognise me and I could go straight in. Once inside I'd had to go by the stairs that leads to the staff area and hopefully not be seen here either.

Who the hell is he?

 Stay cool, just walk by the desk

Luckily I'd never seen the guy on the desk in my life, he must be new cause its always the same couple of girls there. Got all the way to the boxing arena without hassle too. Then I went up the stairs to hopefully get a seat where I usually sit just above where the boxers enter the arena. The volunteer at the top of the stairs stopped me though and said they were told to stop us getting in today and "you're not allowed take peoples spare seats." What does that even mean? If they're spare then they aren't peoples'. I could see behind her the place where I first sat was full up for the first time ever too. I ran around that way anyway to chance it but there was sercurity everywhere who I thought might chuck me out if I tried getting in in front of them. Got a bit frantic and ran around the far side, tried another stairs and got in while a volunteer was distracted. Sat down just as another volunteer who wasnt working sat beside me. She was just saying how lucky we were to get a seat when some girl cried "you're in my seats" so I got up and legged it. Found another seat only to have some oul lads move me off to the row behind where luckily I got to stay for the whole fight.

The fight was just as nerve wracking as trying to get in so I was close to getting emotional towards the end. Then she ran around with the flag on her back, then chariots of fire was playing, and then the national anthem was being sung while the flag was raised, our little flag above all the others at the olympics, and it was all getting a bit too much. I had been moaning about my job to a guy beside me who had sneaked in just like me and he said "ah yeah but look where you are like." He was right. I'd just watched the best bit of sport of my life, and had also seen two of our other medal winners in our most successful olympics in my lifetime. I could probably forgive the job for messing us around so much now, even though they wouldnt forgive me if they knew what I was up to.

I left the excel centre by the far exit, walked all the way around to the entrance again and saw a girl from staffing on the desk and pretended I just arrived to hand in my time card cause I was unlikely to be getting anymore shifts. Just in case anyone spotted me. Turms out she was actually really nice and took my number and said she'd call me first if anyone calls in sick. Yeah right.

Making the most of the situation

Wednesday got put on the 6am shift, good chance of being finished around 2 for the fight so took it. Arrived before 6 and had to wait half and hour for staffing to come down and let us in - total joke situation. Sent on lunch with 5 others before 1 and then told we were all finished for the day and to go home.

Over lunch we traded stories about how much everyone is getting messed about. They're chopping and changing everyone, cutting shifts left right and centre and just making a meal out of the whole situation. One girl was talking about her and two others who got sent from the bar below the boxing to the bar at the fencing. Then 3 others got sent the opposite way so you had 6 people who previously were efficient but now dont know what they are doing. My favourite person to hear stories about though is a guy who worked in my bar who was referred to as "the guy who hates all the customers." Unfortunately I never got to work with him cause he was at the opposite end but he used to come up to the guy on coffee and say "some cunt wants a coffee" or "this bitch is moaning cause her sleeve is wet."

Went to the fight. Epic atmosphere but not the greatest fight cause the other girl was no match for her. Some entrance though.

They have a new disaster system in place where to get a shift for the following day you now have to ring between 6 and 7pm. Miraculously I got through at 6.07pm only to be told that all the shifts are gone. Not sure how I am going to get in to the final now tomorrow. But of all the luck they forgot to take my day pass off me for the first time since I started so I'm in with a chance.

Chasing Katie

Have been telling my team lead to make sure to send me for lunch at 2.23pm on Monday so I can get to see Katie's fight. I brought my phone in and hid it in top of the fridge so I'm all set. The table tennis area is getting a bit boring so when my team lead asked if anyone wants to go down to the waterfront bar to help set up for an hour I said I'd go. She needed two people. Genius, I told her to get this little hot half Chinese girl I was talking to earlier but for some reason she chose this big moan bag black girl and fuck did she moan the whole time I was with her. "Why do we gave to go, there's no point in going now, why is it so far, let's go back, I don't like it here I prefer our bar, when are we going back???" Shut the fuck up, why couldn't you be the little half Chinese girl.

The bar we went to was underneath the boxing arena but no one knows its there cause they can't advertise it. So me and moan bag had to go up to the entrance for the boxing, in full view of the main bar and shout out that "there is another bar, just around to the left of the arena, about half way down, you should see a sign for the toilets, go down the stairs and to the right, there's no queues there."
"But there's a bar right fuckin there like."

It was getting close to the fight now and it was unlikely that I'd be sent back to table tennis, grab my phone potentially in front of all sorts of managers, and be allowed go on lunch. So I spent the next while not telling people where the bar is but scoping out a good place to sit. Got an alright seat in the end, not as close as I would have liked though.

What a fight though and what an unbelievable atmosphere. I'm ashamed to admit I had barely heard of her before a few days ago but she's my new hero. A lot of the fights I've seen so far haven't been the best and all the other sports here suck but this made the Olympics so far for me. I saw john Joe on Sunday and I'll try get in to the fight Tuesday but the mission now is to pick up shifts when Katie is fighting, not looking good though, Tuesday is meant to be my last shift, its going to take some luck to make the cut for Wednesday.

Depression era: survival of the shittest

Last few days have been a joke. First day didn't get to start til 11, second day was the same story but they let me in at half ten. Third day still the same uncertainty about whether or not I'll have a job but they are getting quicker and I got in for ten. Then that night while trying to clock out they said there's a new list on the wall (6 pages long) and if you're on it then you're not working anymore. I wasn't on it. Hope. Buuuuuuuttt....I wasn't on a list of people who are working tomorrow either. So I'm not working tomorrow. But I can ring in at 7 in the morning and ask about whether or not I can work and they might let me in.

It's like America in the depression era going down to the docklands everyday looking for work, only in this case my team lead and floor manager were clocking out at the same time and telling them to switch me with one of the duds, and also I received a schedule months ago with my hours saying that I was working tomorrow.

They must think the Beijing Olympic employment laws set the standard. It's bad enough doing 12 hour shifts on your feet all day with a 20 minute break where you have to walk for 10 minutes to get there and back, and then being told one of the duds who does fuck all work and goes home early everyday will be working in your place. Seriously so many of the staff are pure shit: one night I was on wash up and I had 4 (yes 4!) people drying and they couldn't keep up with me. But for some reason they won't ask the floor managers for a list of staff to keep and staff to drop, instead they pick people at random and at random I seem to be getting picked 4 days in a row.

After three 12 hour days (and don't give me this Brian Smyth shit about getting a sense of achievement doing 12 hour days, these are proper on your feet shifts carrying boxes and shit) the last thing I wanted to do was wake up at 7, but I rang up and they said I'm not on the cut list so I can come in. Awesome, Katie Taylor is on later.

If you're going to be sneaky be sneaky first

Got in for ten only to be told we were supposedly sent a text to not come in today. What a joke, I was employee of the day the day before (although in fairness it was more cause I just kept bugging my team leads to make me employee of the day so I could get a badge. I got a fridge magnet, what a rip.) Shifts are getting majorly cut down now. It was me, Dave from stillorgan and two other guys. Dave is only here to work at the Olympics so he used that story and they eventually folded and said they would start us at 11 after they'd sent 4 people home.

Word had gotten round about some people going to watch the boxing when they should be working so the 4 people we replaced figured if they were getting sent home early they might as well check it out. Only problem was HR were expecting them up to sign out. They won't be working anymore, which solves a bit of the staffing issues. There's a lesson here: if you're going to be sneaky, be sneaky first.

Money man

The lads started calling me the money man after a keg party we had in the states when I was in charge of selling red cups for a fiver. Today I ran a similar enterprise.

Hours have been getting cut down majorly lately finishing at 5 and then 3 yesterday so when I was on wash up with another guy and over heard the floor manager talking of sending one of us home I needed somewhere to hide. Apparently the cadbury kiosk was the place to go if you wanted to be forgotten about so I switched with someone when they were going on break.

The cadbury kiosk was where I thought I was going to be for the whole two weeks and I was a bit pissed about not being put there before now but its probably the worst job. It's just you on your own selling the odd ice cream, no one to talk to, no idea of the time. I guess its pretty similar to being put in isolation in jail. I said to one of the girls on her way to the kitchen that its like being in solitary confinement. "What" she said. "Solitary confinement" I repeated. "That's a big word, I must write that down" I must write that down I thought.

Then there was a rush. A massive rush. Every day consists of a bunch of rushes which are followed by 20 people standing around chatting for an hour. Then another rush. This was a big one though and I suddenly had a queue all the way to the opposite wall. There are only 3 different ice-creams though and they all cost 3 pound so I was moving fast enough. But then the cash register ran out of paper and wouldn't open. Luckily the next few customers had change so I could keep the show on the road. There I was at the greatest show on earth in the greatest city on earth and I had the technical capabilities of a 5 year old at a lemonade stand, but with less change. My manager came after a while and got me to start keeping a record of what I was selling and left a 500 pound bag of change. Add that to the 300 quid I'd accumulated, apply less accurate record keeping and a less honest person would be having a field day.

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