The Bar.

Wow.

I am feeling absolutely drained.

My freshly cleaned black shirt now covered in all sorts of marks and spillages.

My apron cleared of my things and thrown on my table.

My shoes, shoes I used for sixth form college, for job interviews, for nights out, for parties, shoes, that have lasted about 3 years of constant abuse in some of the dirtiest clubs Liverpool has to offer.. now at the end of their tether and coming away from the soles.

Almost like me and my soul almost being ripped out after this weekend!

Friday I decided I wanted to step up from glass washing and collecting, and so asked a supervisor about Bar Backing experience.. since it was a friday and the opening of the Olympics, the bar was relatively quiet and they said I could try it out and get some basics..

I didnt realise the work that went into it... glass collecting is great, run around the club enjoy the atmosphere, if you have time chat to some customers and have a laugh.. being on the glass wash machines similar but you can have a laugh with bar staff... bar backing.. you are a slave.

Constant trips up and down the stairs to the cellar for spirits, crates of bottles, ice for the wells behind the bar, making sure the crates of juices are full underneath each of the bar tenders stations whilst keeping an eye on the levels of all the spirits in their stations and checking what needs refilling, but at the same time making sure every bottle is in the right order.. keeping the back of the bar presentable, clean and tidy...

It's a LOT more than just taking glasses of tables, wiping them down and putting them in a machine!

I worked 9 PM till bar close on Friday night and ended up at home for 5.30 am on Saturday morning and felt destroyed but with happy with a good £10 in tips and a £5 bar tab for making the strangest noise, my signature freaky laugh, in the bar staffs Funday Friday competitions.

This is the first weekend I have been given both Friday and Saturday shifts so I had to work again the next day, honestly felt like I wasn't going to make it through the night.

I turned up last night for the second shift and had a breath of relief when I was on the rota for glass collecting.. half an hour in.. one of the supervisors strolls over and tells me he wants me bar backing again tonight.. the busiest night of the week.. im his new protege and he wants me to work my arse off. At this point I thought. "I am not making it through the night."

But the idea of getting to know the bar and getting some experience involving where things go and how much of certain stock gets used in comparison to others is a very useful thing. Bar Backing is also the next step up from glass collection so being able to get experience in it in only my 4th weekend in the job must be decent.

The only problem was the fact that we were understaffed and had only one person collecting the bars glasses, washing them and then also putting them back into the bar.. a job normally done by at least two people. So I had to alternate between backing and floor work.

I began and started by running a load of popular stock from the cellar to the bar.. I say running.. I should say walking.. the previous night started to hit me as I attempted to use the stairs..

The night seemed to go pretty well.. until we were told that only one person was on the main bar for both collection and washing glasses and had been for an hour so the floor was a STATE.. so now I had to somehow back the bar I was on and clean the floor for two bars... bar backing on hold... to say the main bar was a state was an understatement... it was horrific.. glasses, pitchers, shots trays, were all piled high on all the tables..

The final part of the night that the bar was open I was devoted to floor work and glass collection.. when we closed I was thrown back to bar backing and had to restock every fridge on the bar, this includes all the beers, the ciders, the red bulls, every flavour of our own vodka shots, the bottles of water, the wine, the champagne... then after the bar staff had cleaned their stations.. I had to refill all the bottled spirits both behind the bar and also in all the stations, my bar having three stations with the same spirits in each one, mainly vodkas.

This took a lot longer than I expected but probably was due to me now knowing exactly what I was doing and asking everyone who was already busy for help... but it got done in the end..

Then I ended up helping the downstairs bar restock. which has completely different stations with them being based around rum cocktails instead of vodka... so again I had no idea what was going on.. but that also got done.. we went upstairs .. counted tips.. ended up with a nice £14 and a new flat cap I found cleaning bits of the bar up... 

9.30 AM in need of a good sleep.

Overall .. a decent night!

What a year. part 3

Since the excitement of Malia and returning home.

I got my exam results and wiped the floor with them. I needed 40% to pass and ended up with 88% average!!

Finally on the path I wanted.

Reality decided to pop up and say hello.
The reality of being nearly £500 overdrawn has pushed me to getting a job!

Since I left W H Smith to go to university I attempted to get a job with the University to motivate me during the term but due to being in college every day of the week I physically couldn't work any shifts that were offered.. luckily the job was flexible and it wasn't too important that I actually worked for them.. I had one shift at the end of term showing primary school children around campus and sitting in a mock lecture to give them a taster of the university life.. something to be considered important in the younger stages of a child's education now.. so that they can aim to go to university.. even if they come from underprivileged backgrounds.. hopefully I will get some shifts next year with them as I should have a more flexible timetable!

BUT ANYWAY.

I applied for a ton of jobs online and on the off chance found a facebook group for Revolution Vodka Bar hiring staff.. I was a little sceptical of a facebook group as I have friends that have applied through the official website recruitment process..

But .. I decided to go with a few friends also trying to get a job. I dressed smart in a shirt, black jeans, shoes and took a cv..

I walked in.. got interviewed and asked to attend a trial shift on the saturday! With being in university so locally job was perfect for me and it must have been good for the bar too.. my friends weren't as lucky as they are in university in Derby, Nottingham and Leeds.

I turned up on the Saturday, was handed my Revolution shirt and started glass collecting and glass washing.

I was working form 8 pm till the bar closed, followed by cleaning of the bar. I ended up getting home at 7 am but the shift went surprisingly quick and I was on the rota for the next week!

Since then I have had a total of 3 shifts and have one tonight and one tomorrow night!
Every single shift I've had so far has seemed faster than any 4 hour shift I ever had W H Smith and its easy to see how Revolution has been voted as one of the top 100 companies to work for.

The staff are all utter legends which makes everything all the more enjoyable.

What a year. Part 2 - Malia

WHAT A YEAR.

continued....

so back home fresh from my first year in Uni.

 Moving back home felt horrible. It felt as if I was losing my independence and freedom.. I wasnt really losing anything.. it just feels like it after living away from home.. Its hard to cope with living in a corridor of 20 people the same age as you, located in a building of 250 population ... located on a campus of 1500 people.. 5 minutes away from an equally large campus.. 3000 students. Young people. Such a close knit community people with the same interests. To party like crazy. To get a degree, although most took the .. oh its only first year it doesn't count for anything as long as you pass route.. and just partied 24/7.

But to return home to your parents home.. your old home.. something you feel strange saying.. but over the year, at some point that I cant even recall.. that shoebox of a room crammed full of my stuff.. became home.

Having it taken away from you is a pretty emotional time, with being local to Uni I was one of the last to leave, having to carry all my hall mates belongings to their parents cars and wave them goodbye till next year, it isnt easy. 

I left a few days before we officially had to because I had to pack for the next adventure.

MALIA.

We'd booked Malia month in advance and originally 6 were supposed to go. Due to money issues and people dropping out, only 5 went.

Kayne, Sean, Daniel, Tom and I, all being friends from secondary school and sixth form. With having Uni and being apart from them for a year or two for some.. nobody knew what to expect of the group that had been thrown together from our phonebooks and phonebooks of friends. What we got was an unreal holiday that blew away Sunny Beach 2011. something that smashed any expectation I'd had previous to going.

Drinks the night before the flight in our local Wetherspoons with all the people supposed to come and those that dropped out.

June 12th 

I woke up the day of the flight panicking as I was late getting up and ready.. and still had to run for a haircut, the place I usually go to had an hour long queue.. I had to be at my friends in less time than that..

I found a place called.. The Turkish Barber.. that had opened that day and was empty.. darted in not caring if the place would destroy my mop and jumped in the chair.. I ran to my mums, dived in the shower, got my bag, finished packing and hopped in the car.

We all turned up at our friends house at 2 pm. For some reason the holiday still hadn't hit me, I wasn't feeling excited like I am for any other trip.. we had a brief check of each others suitcases and found Seans mum had packed bacon.. surely meat wouldnt travel well..

BAM !!  University skills come in handy. 

Microwave bacon. DONT KNOCK IT TILL YOU'VE TRIED IT. trust me. its the tastiest crispiest way i've ever had bacon.. if you love bacon cremated to the point you can snap it.. this is for you. nice little pre flight snack for everyone anyway. 

Toms dad skidded up outside the house and we all threw the cases into the car and blasted it to Manchester airport. We got on our plane ... and still.. nothing.. no holiday excitement.. what the hell was wrong with me I have no idea :| it was like finding out father christmas isn't real.. it just wasnt there. 

On the flight into Heraklion, Crete we bought headsets and ended up finding an in flight channel that blasted Disney songs at us.. 5 lads listening to Disney songs.. flying to Malia.. cool kids.. honest. 

We landed in malia and got on the coach.. just us. just 5 of us. we started to panic and think we'd made a horrific mistake coming in June.. 12 lads from Manchester get on.. no girls.. uh oh.. Malia's going to be a sausage fest. gradually more people got on and a couple of girls did.. as soon as they did.. every single lad starts their own chant.. my personal favourite... "SMOKE MEEEEE" from one of the mancs.. that just started it off.. probably the funniest lads we met all holiday. 

We were first off the coach.. being dropped off at McDonalds, we walked up the strip with a hail from everyone of "WELCOME TO MALIA". We already loved it. We ended up dropping our suitcases off at the hotel, we stayed in the Vagelis hotel and were greeted into our corridor of 4 rooms by the first sighting of a Malia victim. We had two rooms .. one double and the other was for 4 people, Dan and Tom went togther in one room and Sean Kayne and I shared the other room.

Absolute state.. the rep put her to bed and we went out for a our first night on the strip. We had a walk down to see what was on offer, harassed by every club rep under the sun.

Found a bar that gave us two triple measure of any drink and a bottle of champagne for 5 Euros each.. straight in.. after we finished we left and staright away bumped into all the Manc lads from the coach. instantly went into Apollo bar and got a ton of shots drinks. ended up in Candy afterwards, probably Malias biggest club, another ton of drinks and we were all wasted... went into Zig Zag to end the night as it was open late and then ended up at the hotel. An insane first night.

Candyyyy.

Ended up in the swimming pool the next day and had a little walk round the strip in the daytime to check out the shops and get some supplies.. had dinner in a restaurant next to the hotel, I ended up getting the Greek dish Moussaka which was pretty decent.

That night we invited everyone in the hotel to our rooms for a massive pre drink session and some games.. I found 1.5 litres of Tequila for 15 Euros which was cheaper than practically anything else for the sheer amount I got.

Tequila, Beer, Melon Schnapps and a box of noodles kayne somehow managed to fit in his suitcase!? We ended up with sooo many people in our hotel room, there was a load of Irish girls upstairs and all their friends they had met in the same corridor... there was Dee and Sherry next door to us, and then another group from downstairs, all crammed into the double room we had.

just a few of the people mad enough to cram into the room.

So many crazy crazy things happened in the first week, on our third night we travelled miles to a hotel for an after party only to meet a psycho from London who chased out the hotel.. and then proceeded to try and impress some girls by skidding a quadbike.. a skid that turned into a barrel roll.. smashing the quad.. landing on him and probably causing some considerable damage.. funnily enough his flight was at 11am in the morning.. this occuring around 5am

Kayne strolled in one day and woke us up.. "lads.. ive been robbed"... wow.. we have photos with him at 3 am.. he woke us up at 11am.. so somewhere in between he had managed to go missing.. somehow end up in a hotel that wasnt ours.. in a hotel room nobody had checked into, with a £300 watch missing and 50 euros gone from his pocket.. he tried asking the lady at reception to help and she then proceeded to "phone" club 18 - 30 and get someone to come get him.. shortly followed by a call to the police as my friend couldn't pay for the room he'd slept in for the night.. we asked our rep if anyone had phoned 18 - 30 which they hadn't as he would have been informed first.. so either the police were coming for him.. or some dodgy mafia member haha. scary stuff.

We managed to lose Sean one night.. now.. normally if someone wasnt there in the morning we wouldnt be too bothered, but because its Sean.. we panicked, the last place we had seen him was with the Manchester lads.. all we knew of them was their hotel name.. so we walked across Malia to get there.. and had no luck at all.. found him in a restaurant down the strip with two girls that had stayed to look for him.. turns out he was in someones room upstairs all night.. derp

I ended up in a Rock bar called Angels after a shocking performance by Skepta in Candy Club. Such a brilliant place, I ended up having a night repping for them and attempting to stay in Malia for longer.. not realistic this year .. but highly likely for next year! I ended up in a bar the other side of Malia afterwards with a guy called george teaching me how to light black Sambucca in my mouth..

Me, Lizzie and Manos - Legends.

We had a night that lads dressed up as girls and girls dressed as lads... dont know what we were thinking.. but it was hilarious and I ended up wasted. wasted being a huge understatement.

Think the girls got off rather easy looking back at it.. probably one of the funniest nights we had out there. Another victim was discovered.

and another..

This guy went to Malia the year before.. and had stayed in the room next to ours.. he got soo drunk he thought that this was still his room.. we found him lying like this in the morning.. woke him up.. gave him some water and let him get himself together and let the pain from his face go away haha.

we found him in our hotel bar the next night back on it. what a guy.

Near the end of the first week I was persuaded into getting a piercing.. my first ever piercing.. something I'd kind of always wanted to do.. So anyway, we went into Malia Ink and I ended up walking out 10 minutes later with my Septum pierced..

luckily not very visible.. didnt want something crazy and massive on show.. got a small bar in my nose.

At the end of the first week as everyone we knew was packing and leaving.. I stood on something.. which hurt but I just shook off as nothing.. went for a meal and said bye to people.. then passed out in my bed.. I woke up halfway through the night in pain and noticed red lines running across my foot from where I had stood on something.. I decided to see a doctor..

So the next day I got all my insurance details and headed to the medical centre..

it was 80 euros JUST TO SEE A DOCTOR .. excess on top of my insurance..

wow..

I knew I would need treatment and ended up paying 94 Euros up front to the centre.. I was told I had Lymphangitis at the time I had no idea what this was.. so I ended up having an xray .. and a blood test.

mates having a whale of a time whilst im giving blood..

got to keep the xray.. best holiday souvenir ever. I went and got a full english while my blood was tested.. went back and had my foot cut open.. a piece of glass taken out.. and my foot bandaged..

Turns out I had stood on glass and got BLOOD POISONING.

Not something I wanted.. entire second week of holiday on antibiotics. NIGHTMARE. at least I could sunbathe and enjoy the beach .. and eventually swim

The end of the first week meant only one thing. Another mad hotel room party to meet all the newcomers! We had another mad night with everyone crammed into our room and met Sophie, Mel, Nayde and Sarah

they were our second week legends :) we spent practically the entire week with both day and night.. I say night.. they ended up getting dragged into bars for free drinks and getting us landed with decent drink deals in return for them getting on all the bars haaa luckily nobody got robbed or went missing in the second week..

I stayed in a few nights due to not being able to drink but the whole week just built up and led up to one thing.

Thats right A HUGE FOOD FIGHT!!.... of pasta wheatabix egg tomato mushroom and ended with tom getting a mouthful of flour and throwing up in a sink.. that wasn't really what everything led up to.. I just didnt know where to include it.. everything actually led up to..


The final night. 

I drank on the last night of the holiday having just finished the antibiotics for my blood poisoning. 

We started with a fishbowl full of every spirit and mixer we had left over which included..

Sambucca, Tequila, Melon Schnapps, Vodka, Gin, Whisky and we took it to the bar.. 

We couldnt finish it alone so invited a group of girls over who poured their vodka cranberry in.. and then left without drinking any.. so we ended up all plastered. we ended up in so many clubs and bars.

candy was packed out and we ended up staying until we got kicked out! we had lost a fair few people as the night went on so decided to go to the beach to see if we could find people, we ended up finding Sophie and Mel at the beach. Soon after Sean Sophie and I ended up in the sea.. fully clothed loving life until about 7 am.

Our final vicitm. passed out on an ice cream freezer. legendary

Malia beach at stupid o'clock in the morning.

 Walking back to the hotel from the beach we met Emily. yes. thats a henna tattoo on her head. she was absolutely crazy and kept asking people if they liked her tattoo.. "Like my tattoo!? I got Emily tattoo'd on my head".. people would look at her and be a bit edgy and go.. "ermm.. you do know it says.. C.." and she would bark back at them . "E M I L Y. yes I told them to do it".. just to see their faces.. actually hilarious..

Leaving Malia was horrible.

We spent the whole day in double room which we paid to keep till later on as our coach to the airport was 11pm.. I woke up at 11.30 am and we had to be out of the room by 12.. nightmare.. threw everything in my bag and threw it in the double room.

We got on our flight a little earlier as everyone checked in and we got home about 8 am. Such an amazing holiday.

Lara the parrot from Yiasou bar, Whilst everyone watched the Euros footy matches I spent my time trying and eventually succeeding at getting this parrot on my arm.

What a year. part 1.

This is the first post i've put up in a long long time.

Me on the left taken in Malia with the lads in June. a crazy, crazy holiday that was 1000 times more mental than Sunny Beach Bulgaria last year!

Since the last post so many things have happened theres nowhere near enough room in a single post.

I went from digital to retro and took most of my blogging from public to private in the form of Moleskine journals, something I seem to manage to keep up rather than just attempting to poke at like this online blogging.. even though I spend most of my awake time in front of a computer screen! 

The second term of University was insane. Only followed by a crazy few weeks with my friends from home at easter and then that followed by my final term in my first year of University!

I am now £500 overdrawn in the bank, but in return had the best time of my life with enough memories to fill a library. The end of first year means saying goodbye to Carnatic Halls in Liverpool. The place i've grown to call my home over the year. With this means saying goodbye to everyone I have lived with too for a while.

C corridor 2011/2012 Carnatic Halls. I love you guys so much.

Student fest Liverpool. Such an insane night out in town.

Partying with some halls friends.

Student organised casino. The same night one of my close friends became a father to a little girl Ellie.

The night The Magnet had 80p drinks, 80p... we were slaughtered.

St Patricks Day looking like fools. That was just an extremely brief summary of the 2nd term at Uni, words cant even describe how amazing its been. Coming home and being with friends for easter and hearing all their experiences and having more crazy parties was just as amazing.

Outside one of Liverpools cathedrals.

visiting Alton Towers with the guys and girls back home. Managed to cram so much into so little time over easter with everyone. was great to see everyone again, being able to catch up and share experiences is something unique.

The opening of Central Perk Cafe in Liverpool.

managed another Alton Towers trip with uni a few weeks later!

more new friends and an underground rave in Liverpool's Shipping Forecast. Still one of my favourite places in Liverpool!

BBQ'ing with a friend from home who's in the same uni as me living just down the road from where I was :)

Just us being ninja turtles for a fancy dress birthday party :)

quite a few people showed up!

Loving the sun shine last few weeks of Uni.. had SOOO many BBQ's and drank so much beer it was crazy! around exam time too! scary stuff

Bennies Birthday! Big meal down at the albert docks with a ton of people, you can just see the Liver building poking up in the background.

With Ellen at the Smirnoff Party in Medication

see you next year guys, I'm going to miss you :) x

The second term of University begins!

Happy New Years everyone, hope you all had a great holiday time and that 2012 is treating you well!

I am back at university after a month break for Christmas which was... to say the least ... crazy.

The run up to the holidays was none stop parties and nights out with either the rowing team, my university halls or friends from college! madness.

This is one of the tame nights out for one of the girls in our corridors birthday.
We went to Cafe Rouge in Liverpool One, great place!

It was amazing to see all my friends back at home, share and listen to each others stories from their universities across the country. Its surprising how much you can do in three months and how many people you can meet. Our first night back we got rather drunk..

Christmas day consisted of the standard dinner and family gathering which was nice as I also hadn't seen them in three months properly. After dinner I called my friends and we went to the local pub. We swiftly left as there was a huge bar fight.. glasses being smashed.. girls on top of each other on the floor.. guys swinging wildly at each other.. so the police charged in and we made our escape and went home!

We had no plans for new years until the day before new years eve, so it was pretty spontaneous.. but we all ended up going to a friends house party.. a house party than has many bad pictures and should not have been posted on facebook... all in all it was a brilliant night and the best way to start 2012, made even better by the fact it was spent with my closest friends.

The holidays swiftly came to an end and we all made our way back to our respective universities. It felt so strange to be going back into University halls.. spending a month living with family and quiet was nice. Coming back to a corridor of 20 people the same age as you in a building with 230 others of the same age is a little different! It took a day or two but I managed to settle in a lot quicker than I thought I would.

This was the start of exams.

Everybody came back and decided to get stuck into some revision. It was quite quiet for the first week due to peoples panic at the fact they had a month to revise and had done none.

Exams finish on the 27th for the entire university although most, like myself, are already finished. My last exam was monday and so I have been out every night. Monday night we went to The Blue Angel or as students call it... The Raz

The Raz as a place is, im going to be honest... terrible.. Its old .. its smelly.. its overcrowded. It costs £1.50 to get in and then for a pint of beer.. 90 pence.. It is crazy cheap! You go downstairs to where the DJ is set up and you feel like you have walked into a bat cave.. the horrible sweaty smell hits you and if you come late enough the floor will be covered in what has got to be known as "Raz Juice"... this disgusting juice will ruin any item of clothing/ pair of shoes as anything it touches just turns brown. Once it fills up the Raz is fantastic, you cant beat the student atmosphere thats created down there. If you are a student in Liverpool on a monday night.. the raz is the only place to be!

image taken from http://www.webley.demon.co.uk/beatles/

Last night three of us went to Medication. Now.. Medication is probably the biggest and best student night in the whole of Liverpool.
It costs £6 for entry but it is worth every penny.
The place is HUGE. there is about 3000 students in there and its the best place to meet people, drinks are cheap and the atmosphere in the place is unreal. There is 3 main rooms in the place, The house/electro room, Chart room and R&B room.
http://www.medication.co.uk/
just take a look at some of the pictures on the website and you will instantly see how good the place is!
Probably the best night out I have had since being back in Liverpool!

That leads me to today! Hungover, blogging, chatting to people across the world on skype and waiting to go get dinner!