So a pretty fun last couple of days really, headed out climbing with Glynn after work on Friday. Must admit though I was not really having a good day climbing, think bouldering every day (even if it’s only for 30 or 40 mins) is just too much for my arms.. and I was far too weak for the routes Glynn was putting up.

so I spent most of my time just hanging about.

Mr Squash Captain Man got back to me, so I’m on a wee summer team they have, will be starting games proper on January 17th… should be fun. No I didn’t make the team because of any skill I have!! They’ve never even played me… so it’s only ‘cos I want a game really. Still, it should be a fun lesson in humiliation.

Today though was a laugh in work, see I’ve been there a week now, but tomorrow all the others in the office will be leaving for Auckland for their Christmas party.

Leaving me alone in charge of the office.

After a week.

It’s going to be interesting….

But the fun thing was that they were making a video-skit for the Christmas party. All the different offices have to put something on. Ours was based (loosely) on the tv show “The Office”. Which I’ve never seen, though I believe it’s good!

I really must try to get my hands on a copy of it.. but things like – for example Sonya (the main receptionist / Admin / Finance / Everything person) had her feet in pink slippers up on the desk and would just say things like ‘All busy here, all busy Darling’

And then went outside to relax..with a bottle of wine – in the sun. Sorry for the bad pic.

I was the ‘token male’, even had a little sign, which I didn’t get a pic of.

Our boss – Suzanne, was totally stressed – in the skit only! – she’s great fun.. so resorted to whisky and talking to Pooh.

Hmm, well it was all very funny, but it’s possible that “You’d have to be there”… then at the end I was reading Sonya and Julie a story while they were going to bed with two lovely little pink pig teddies (there’s a fold out bed). That one I wish I’d got a picture of. We had to re-take that scene three times as we kept on cracking up. I was telling a story about a “Little pig called Arthur who’d been working hard all day”.

Yes, defiantly have to be there for that one. Hope it gets a few laughs, I’d be annoyed if it doesn’t. Oh, and I absailed off the balcony (well, was setting it up, they’d not let me go over it – well, actually I didn’t ask, but I doubt they’d have let me anyway!)

So yeah, tomorrow manning the office. Should be a barrel-o-laughs.

Well, the weekend twas fun. So Saturday didn’t get up to much, went to town to see about getting a pair of shoes (as the ones I got 2nd hand were *way* to big for me.. size 11 or something, and after the door-to-door I had a wee blister.

Found lots of shoes, but none that I liked for a price I thought was reasonable… I mean lets be honest here, I’m only going to wear the things to interviews and also just around the office (from my chair to the kitchen – roughly 10 feet every 2 hours). So in the end opted not to get new shoes… if I do go back to door-to-door then I’ll get a new pair.

I never intend on going back to door-to-door.

Didn’t get up to much on Saturday evening other than watching Lethal Weapon 4. Which I must admit had a pretty cracking cast.. well – there’s this bloke wots called Jet Li who’s a pretty awesome (in my opinion) martial artist, so that kinda made the film for me.

So yes, Sunday, very lazy start – and then off to do some Christmas shopping. I hate Christmas shopping! To be honest, though I’m pretty ok at receiving presents.. And a pretty cool start to Sunday was getting a mail from my parents – with mum saying how she was using her pasta maker to make sheets of lasagne in the deepest darkest Africa. Am planning on getting back through Uganda when I do head home, hopefully stay a few weeks..

Then it was off climbing in the port hills…

That’s a pic of me leading an 18. I got (un)reasonably pumped out very quickly (should have warmed up on something easier) and after getting through the crux quickly wussed off to the right and had a nice sit down for a while. Then eventually climbed back onto the route and completed it. But not a clean attempt. This time. Far too crimpy for me. Oh, the name of the route was Tres Estrellas De Oro, but I’ve no idea what that means… if anyone knows please tell!

Glynn was climbing like a complete daemon. Here are a couple of pics of him climbing a 21 (I’d say it was about 6b/6b+)

Didn’t stay out super late that evening.

And then today – Monday and back to work. Manic really, however some good came of it, as the others in the office are off up to Auckland from Thursday->Monday. Which means that my boss can’t head to The Return of the King on Friday at the Christchurch premier.

So she gave me her VIP pass for Fridays release here in Christchurch.



Which is great. I’m actually going to be seeing it on Thursday anyway, but figure I’ll head along on Friday too, and seeing as I’ve got two passes and Glynn is off to Oz on Friday afternoon twill be a nice way for Maeve and I to spend the evening. Though I doubt it’s a particularly VIP pass… still would be cool if anyone from the cast (at all) turned up. Never know, will defiantly bring my dig. camera and hope they let me bring it in… we’ll see.

So it’s been a pretty fun last couple of days, work is grand, fairly busy – and very interesting to get a look at behind the scenes in a recruitment company.. Think I’ve made myself a little bit useful by fixing up their computers… some of it is enough to make one cringe ;) I mean copying things by floppy disk when you have a network between the computers.

Sorry! enough, onto Mad Fun and Interesting things.

Got well pissed last night :D There – is that more like it?! Well it’s also true. Headed out with Julie, one of the 3 ladies in work (I think I’m one of the only blokes in the company!) after work for a sociable drink with Julie and her boyfriend – Matt. Who is cool. And is going to play squash next week, so I’m looking forward to that one. But ’tis funny, her parents lived in Uganda for a number of years, and her brother runs and Irish pub in Kampala… So I’m going to get the name and address of her brothers pub so that the next time mum and dad are in Kampala then can head in for one!

Very small world.

So yeah – was heading out with Matt and Julie, and Matt was determined to take me to a cheap dingy hole of a bar (after we’d enjoyed 2 for 1 offers on the strip)

Which I really enjoyed. Glasses of beer for $2, shots for $1… great place to get started.

And Karaoke. Something I’ve never done before.. Matt was well up for it, and was going to sing Daydream Believer…

So he went up to choose his song and we settled down to wait for it to come up.

Then a while later

“Could Patrick please come up to the stage”

Which was interesting to say the least. So up I went, and managed to follow the words on the screen fairly well (to be honest I only realised it was Galway Bay when I was singing the chorus!)

Then met up with Glynn and Maeve who’d finished dinner (something I’d still not had at 9) and headed out for one more.. took them to the Karaoke bar, just so that they could experience the place.

I think it’s going to be one of my favourites.

Other news.. well – our car failed it’s Warranty Of Fitness (WOF). Reasonably badly. Windscreen and brakes need fixing. I wasn’t expecting too much trouble as I’d got the name of Mr. Dodgy Mechanic. Obviously not dodgy enough. Still, best to know I guess. I imagine it will cost about 1/2 what we paid for the car to get it fixed! Still cheap though.

Other other news, my friend Jennifer got gold in her finals, though personally I think any arts student who gets gold ought to be shot just incase them Artsy Types get ideas above their station.

And finally… I think the Italians have got the right idea to Turn Off their televisions and get out and do things.

That said I’m just about to watch David Attenborough, but I make an exception for him.

Oh – and really finally… Julie hung out with Eddie Izzard for a week when one of her friends was entertaining him in Queenstown. I’m really quite jealous, and asked that if the same sort of things happens when Billy’s in town……. (won’t happen though)

Well, quite the day today really… very very interesting, so as I was saying yesterday I was hoping to get the admin job, and I did.

The sorta twist to the whole thing, is that the Admin job is in a recruitment firm. Co incidentally the same recruitment firm that placed me in the door to door sales job.. You can see where slight embarrassment might arise right?

So, I headed to drop my time-sheet into the lady (note all names are left out ;) (who really is lovely) as I said I would, could have faxed it to her, but decided to call in.

15 mins after leaving her I was in the recruitment company settling in, learning the ropes and generally making myself useful (already fixing e-mail addresses and printers on the network… techies have their uses I guess). Anyway, so at one point the lady rang up, lets call her Alice as a nicely anonymous name. So I was in there formatting CV’s to be sent to a client for acceptance, and Alice rings up.

Me: Hello, this is Patrick from blah how can I help?

Alice: Is this Patrick Davey? This is Alice (remember I left her about 3 hours earlier!)

Me: Yes

Alice: So you managed to find work then?, I’m really happy for you (she really was too, like I said, a very lovely lady)

Me: Yes, I’m just temping for a few days as things are really busy here. (Strictly this is true, I have no idea how long this will go on for, hopefully a while though)

Alice: Well that’s great, can I speak to Bob or Eve?

Me: I’m afraid they’re out at the moment can they ring you back? (not true, but Alice was ringing up a lot)

It’s all a little sad really, as Alice’s venture isn’t working out so well… so it’s a little upsetting for her. To be honest I’m actually really impressed by her, she built her current business from working out of the back of a car – into a large mechanics business, and now she’s moving again. She has bucketloads of enthusiasm, and really is lovely to everyone, but this particular voucher booklet thing she’s got going on, well, it’s going to take some work.

Anyway, rant over, to sum up, Alice at least knows I’m working in the temping agency, so that’s grand, and I’m sure things will work out for her.. eventually.

The other really really *really* annoying thing, was that I got a call about an IT contract for 2 weeks…. well at least I’m marketable. I had to turn it down :( I’d just started my job, it’s got potential for more than two weeks (though it’ll pay probably about 1/2 to 1/3 what I’d get contracting IF I GOT the interview) so I dunno, was really hard turning that down… but I think it’s the right choice.

So employed in a job that I can stick at last!! which is great.. now just need to settle in properly here and meet loadsa new people! Christchurch is just way to reserved!!

Well well well, am I a quitter?.. decide for yourself ;)

I shall be diplomatic, at least for the moment, never know who might read it … Monday we headed out selling the discount cards. The idea is simple, you’ve probably seen the things yourself, you buy the card ($30) and then you can get savings of over $300. Of course to get the savings you have to spend more.. but hey, thems the breaks.

So, we were given an area of town to target. 6 of us went out – paired up – 4 blokes from School I reckon – 6th years ish. And they were Steve, Greg, Patrick and Mike. I think. Not that it matters of course ;) And then there was Roelf and I. Roelf was quite sound, 30 ish, and Dutch. But we won’t hold that against him. I’ve met some quite nice Dutch, in fact, I think all the Dutch people I’ve ever met have been pretty sound. Even met two in Vietnam. They’re everywhere.

Anyway, off we headed downtown, armed with packs of vouchers, and a wee card saying who we were with… And I did try, I honestly did! – in my defence…

No one sold anything

The 4 lads quit after 2 hours

So I at least tried for the day… we then came back to the HQ to regroup and formulate our plans. And came up with some quite good ones, i.e. target the people in the right areas (so we were selling cards which basically discounted kids to the cinema etc. so lets go sell where the kids are..) Also we had a new card to sell, well two of them actually, one a voucher for Hair Stuff (no I don’t know what a Root Wave / Full Wave / is.. though I do now. I think. And a way cool card for beauty and health stuff, manicures, exfoliating scrubs etc. And my personal favourite a..

vibrasuan

Any ideas? No? – well basically it’s a sunbed and massage thingy rolled into one. So you lie in this thing for 10 mins and then when you come out you’re nicely massaged and tanned.

So… the next day – today – (Tuesday) we arrived at 10am and off we went after seeing a Motivational Video. Which was all about perceptions… and how basically nothing is a failure. Nothing. Unless you quit.

A failure is just a way to show you what you’re doing wrong

A failure is just a way to let you laugh at the situation

etc. etc. There were better ones, but it was quite funny.. they have all these stats – like Thomas Edison had 10,000 experiments (apparently) before he hit on the lightbulb that worked.. and what if he’d stopped at 9,999. And someone asked him when he finally got it – “But Mr. Edison, how did you keep going after failing 9,999 times” And Tommy said ” I didn’t fail 9,999 times, I just found 9,999 ways that it wouldn’t work” (resounding cheers ring out at this point).

So off we went, Roelf and I, as everyone else had quit. We were given a residential area to try, so off I went as a real door-to-door salesman. And, I have to be honest, when we still didn’t sell anything…while I did get a little disheartened, to be honest the reason to quit – well – it was partly morals. The lady that we are working for, is a really lovely person, incredibly enthusiastic, convinced that it will work (and it may), and I just hated letting her down. And the thing is, it costs her around about $300 per day to have the two of us out there.. and not bringing anything in.. well I just thought ‘is this fair?’. And the answer was no.

This is all getting very deep! :) hehehhee, so yeah, Roelf and I had a wee chat, and we called them up and they collected us, and we basically told them where we were at. And they were super nice about it, they’re sure this is going to work.. and so they’ll just work out how to make it happen. And they were right, we did come a long way in a few days, the way we were selling changed, and many other things, we gave them feedback from the customers.. it all helps.

Just didn’t sell anything!

So I went bouldering for an hour and came home.

So yeah, door to door sales, is, honestly, quite hard. Worth giving a try just so as you know you can / can’t do it.. I’m not entirely convinced that I can’t do it with a little mentoring – e.g. role playing before you went out, that sort of thing.. but to try and do it from scratch with no experience with products you’re not overly familiar with… that’s hard.

Still, defiantly worth a shot, and I’m very happy I tried, but to have made a sale, well that would have been special ;)

So back to the drawing board somewhat, am going to look into bike couriering, as that’s something I reckon I’d love. A friend of mine is currently doing that around Dublin, and has been since about March, and is loving it. So we’ll see, I’ve seen them cycling around, so the companies do exist… twould keep you fit too. But at least I know I’d prefer labouring to door to door sales, that’s something to know!