Working Girl

Yes! That's right! I scored a job! Since it has been a little while since I have blogged I will fill you in on last week before I update you on what has happened lately.

Early in the week I had emailed a recruitment agency focusing on getting Aussies and Kiwis employment in the UK. So after emailing them on Sunday, getting a call from them on Monday, interview on Tuesday - I was working on Wednesday!

I picked up some temporary shifts at Topshop - Oxford Circus. For those of you who haven't crossed the threshold of this particular store (read: heaven for shopoholics) it is a three story high shop in central London that sells clothes, shoes, accessories. Think of it as a really really really really big Sportsgirl (but better). It has a petite section for tiny girls, tall section for tall girls, vintage section, general area full of beautiful clothes, whole denim department, massive shoe department, make up, accessories, hair and beauty salon and coffee shop. That's just for the girls - there is a whole level of that for the boys as well.

On previous trips to London me and my sister have spent hours upon hours in this shop. Trawling the clothes and spending the majority of our Pounds on clothes and bags etc etc. Needless to say I thought I had landed that awesome job I was telling you about although temporary I was excited to get out of the house and start earning the quids. Well I was sooooooooooooo wrong. I was aware that I would basically just be helping move stock around and unpacking boxes but I was still looking forward to it. I wasn't aware that I would be doing this two floors below street level in a basement level that had no ventilation and was actually 30 degrees. I spent the first two days of my time at Topshop in what I called the dungeon receiving the deliveries (4000 pieces of clothes three times a day) which mean unbagging the clothes and unziptying the hangers. We then had to put them all away in the specific departments. Once that was done we had to do standards which basically meant the clothes had to go in size order, make sure the hangers had finger spacing (if there was room) and were arranged by sleeve/pant length, material type etc etc. It was so mind numbing and very tedious.

After spending the first two days in storage room hell I was promoted to helping in the sort rooms over the next couple of days. These rooms are next to the fitting rooms and it is our job to 'block' all the clothes together. For example: find all the dresses with the same style and transfer them onto a rail that will eventually be cleared onto the shop floor. As you can imagine this was as mind numbing and tedious as the storage room but the benefit was that we were above ground in the air conditioning. I also got the chance to properly talk to some more of the temps who were all Aussies who had just moved to the UK. The worst part about these shifts was that they were 3pm until midnight. So after the shop closed it was our job to clear all the stock out onto the floor. As a temp who has only been there for a few days and with the gazillion different styles of clothes let me tell you this wasn't an easy feat. I'm pretty sure I would have walked a few kilometres during these shifts.

The other fabulous job I got to do was tidy the sale rack.

Which. Was. The. Worst. Job. Ever.

Coat hangers and clothes all over the floor which means hours retrieving them, hanging them up and then watching them fall as people rummaged through the racks. It was hours of people asking me for directions and sizes and price checks - as a temp I had NO idea and I think I repeated the phrase 'I'm sorry, I am just temping, go to the info desk' about a zillion times. One lady even came up to me four times and asked me the same question. GRRRR. I also got shoved out of the way and my fingers caught in hangers all day because I swear girls are crazy around 'Sale' signs - its ok honey, you will get that shirt, by the way its ugly that's why its on this rack but you go for it.

Not sure if you have noticed from the tone of this blog but I didn't like working there very much. To be honest Topshop has gone from being one of my favourite shops to being my worst nightmare. I suppose I shouldn't whinge (maybe its because I'm surrounded by POMS?) because it was a job! Which means incoming moola and something to kill the time. I also met a few great people who I can hopefully catch up with soon and even though it was crappy work - I am still working in London which pretty much beats working at home. Lets just say I now know that I have reached the limit of my time working in retail shops!

It wasn't an all bad week though! After an early shift (7.30-4.30 - yuck! I haven't been awake that early since Topdeck!) I caught up with a friend from Busabout and we grabbed a few drinks and a nice dinner around the area. It was so good to see her again as we hadn't seen each other since Spain and there was a lot to catch up and gossip about. She is also seeking a job and after swapping horror stories about recruitment agencies and talking about how lame unemployment is, I felt a lot better that I wasn't the only one in that situation.

Since I was working the midnight shifts over the weekend I basically had no social life which was good because I was earning money and saving money as I had no chance to go out and spend it. I still managed to have a lunch date with a friend and a quick browse around the shops so it wasn't a completely wasted weekend.

But I have to tell you the complete highlight of my week was early Sunday morning (around 3am) I woke up to the sound of the plaster falling off my living room ceiling. Yep - there is a giant hole in the room of my house where you can see the wooden beams from the floor above. This hole is also dripping water from the bathroom. The best part was that my landlord (who lives next door) wasn't home so I left for work on Sunday not knowing what to expect when I came home. After working 40 hours at Topshop I came home from a 10 hour day with a bottle of wine and chocolate because I figure if there was a mess at least food and alcohol will brighten my mood. Thankfully when I got home one of the boys had cleaned up the mess so I didn't need to stress about that however my landlord was still not home. Since I couldn't do much about the situation I cracked open the wine and chocolate and relaxed.

I'm not sure if it was the work itself or since it was the first time I had worked in four months but I was exhausted! I know backpacking can be tiring but I would much prefer to recover sitting on a beach somewhere or checking out a rad view rather then holed up in my room while it rains outside. Still... even after a pretty average week I am still loving my life in London. If a crappy job and a leaking roof can't get me down I think I will be loving my life here for a long time.