Getting a job - Aramark Catering

After returning from a busy summer of going all over the place, next step was to get a job.

I applied to a ton of jobs all at once, and the work experience I had from the Olympics really helped! I had a phone call from Aramark Catering, who cater at Worcester University, inviting me to join them on a paid trial week of work.

This news was amazing - although catering wasn't my ideal job, I had experience in it from the Olympics, the pay was pretty good, and the hours were very full. 

I was working in the Pear Tree cafe in the Student Union part of the university, with Tash, Alex and Carla. I worked with Jade in the evenings, who is one of the loveliest people ever. We did Starbucks coffee, so I learnt how to make all the drinks! It took a while, but I got the hang of it eventually! My favourite bit was putting on whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles :) We also did food, so chips, burgers, panini's, sandwiches etc. Over the two weeks I was there I learnt how to cook most things, and also did cleaning up, temperature checks on the fridges and freezers, and obviously the till.

The seating area in the Pear Tree Cafe

The job was okay, not my ideal thing as working with food really puts you off eating, and it's just not my favourite thing to do. Most of the students could be quite rude, too, and we had hardly any stock so I was constantly apologising for advertising things on our menu that we didn't actually have.

The big problem for me was being messed around with my shifts. The rota went up a week in advance but changed all the time. I was asked to stay late on my first Tuesday to serve wine and.. what are those things called? That posh people have, served on pieces of slate, with teeny portions of fancy food on little crackers or whatever? Does it begin with C? That's going to drive me crazy.. Anyway, those. We had so much wine left over it was unreal - Alex downed about eleven glasses and got pretty tipsy pretty fast. I was asked to work till 7, which I said I could do, but no later, as I had Fusion (my youth group I help at) at 7.30pm. However, they kept me there until well after 9! I was so angry. My shifts were constantly messed around, at one point my hours for Sunday changed four times in one week. Nobody asked me if it was ok, I just got in, and on the rota someone had scribbled out my old hours and put in something new! I'd be at home with a morning off and get a text asking me to come in asap to work. You really had to learn to say no - something I'm not too good at in the world of work. I've been learning more and more though that if you don't people really do just walk all over you, you're like the easy option to come to and get to do whatever you want. On one Saturday, I arrived at work after checking the rota the day before, and had been scribbled out as being 'Off'. Nobody bothered to let me know! I couldn't stand not knowing when I'd be working, so I really don't think it was for me.

Homesense Worcester!

BUT..... God is good! With perfect timing, I had a phone call from Homesense, where I had also sent an application in. They asked me to interview on the Monday (my very first day at Aramark) which I did, and I got a call about a week later asking me to work for them on a 12 hour contract!

At the time, I was in such a dilemma as to what to do. I'll draw you up the reasons for staying at Aramark/accepting the Homesense offer:

Aramark

Pro's

Lots of hours = money 

Good pay

Con's

Never know shifts

Working with food - not ideal

Not even on a contract - no security

Homesense

Pro's

Job/environment I could enjoy

Proper contract, more reliable company

Con's

Only 12 hour contract

In the end, I phoned Homesense back and told it to them straight. I said that I had another job offer which had good pay and lots of hours but I really would prefer to work for Homesense. Sindy who I spoke to (now one of my lovely managers!) told me the pay would be around £6.20, and I would have more hours than 12, although most likely not near full-time. I accepted the job. I think a lot of people thought I made the wrong decision - even I wondered if I'd done the right thing! I'd given up all these hours for a job where I might only get 12! Now, however, I cannot thank the past me enough! I definitely made the right decision!

You see, just when you're worrying about if you've done the right thing, you can get a sign. For me, the sign was in the lack of pay from the 70 hours work I did for Aramark. Four months on, and I'm still owed over £350. Ask God for a sign, and he'll give you one!

(If you're wondering about the money issue, I'm still in the process of getting it sorted. I have been assured that I will be paid - although I've been told that about three times now! All I can say is that I am so glad that I took the job rather than someone with a rent to pay, family to support etc - they'd be in a right pickle now.)

PS - I remembered the word for the fancy food beginning with C! Canapes!

Soul Survivor!

Big Top!

Soul Survivor was FANTASTIC! (as usual) I went as a youth leader this time, and the experience was different to when I have been before. It was my fourth year there, and I really couldn't imagine my summer's without it now.

Ellie and I

 For those who don't know, Soul Survivor is essentially a HUGE Christian youth festival on the Bath & West County Showground, in Somerset. There are three main weeks, A, B and C, and then Momentum follows, which is the same kind of thing, but aimed at '20-somethings' rather than teenagers. I've only ever been to Week C, which is usually the biggest event, with just under 10,000 people there. You camp, shower in porta-cabin things, and everyone stinks the entire week. Washing is overrated. 

Dreggs with Leanne, Dave and Ellie

There are two main meetings, one in the morning at 11-1ish, and then an evening one from 7-9. In reality, you never know when the meetings are going to finish - it totally depends on what God is doing. The main meetings are held in the Big Top - the biggest marquee in Europe! The stage is in the centre, with four huge screens so everyone can see, and the sound system is absolutely deafening! There is live worship for around an hour, then a talk from someone, and time to wait on the Holy Spirit. For your first time there, and especially if you're not used to seeing the Holy Spirit work, it can be pretty intense. This was a real experience for me - the first year I went I remember my youth leaders making sure I was okay, and this year I was asking the youth! It's awesome to chat with them about why people can cry/laugh/scream, especially when I was asking all the same questions they were a few years back! Praying for people is one of my absolute favourite things about Soul Survivor. There's no exclusiveness, everyone is encouraged to get up and have a go. Seeing some of the youth grow so much that by the end of the week they were praying for each other was just... wow. I was tearing up! 

Ellie and her noodles!

There are also seminars throughout the day, at 9.30am, 2.30pm, and 4pm. There are tons going on all at the same time, so buying a programme helps you stay organised! You can pick what and if you go to them, and they are on all sorts of different things! This year I went to:

• Soul Man meets Soul Sista: Sex
• Jesus loves 'The Hunger Games'?
• What on earth is the Church for?
• Britain's got Spirit
• U-Turn: The Great Adventure

There are so so many different ones to choose from though, like the whole Old Testament in one hour, why does God cause suffering, starting uni etc. 

Me on night duty at approx. 3am. I don't know what they were doing with that pan, but it drove me crazy!

The worship at Soul Survivor is always fantastic. Nothing beats being in a huge tent with thousands of other young Christians worshipping God! Plus Rend Collective Experiment were there this year, and I fell in love with them.

We all stayed in the Big Top to watch the Olympic Closing Ceremony and that was a pretty surreal experience, too! When the national anthem came on, everyone stood up and sung it - however many thousand of us there were watching! I had watched the opening ceremony of the Olympics at the actual Olympics, and watched the closing ceremony with thousands of others at Soul Survivor - now that's not something everyone can say they've done!

The other thing about Soul Survivor is the venues. They have the Tool Shed - with computers, phone charging capabilities, stuff to buy, and loads of stands with people to talk about Gap Years, mission work, CU's etc. There's a sports venue, Lift - the skate park and free running centre, Blueprint - the club venue, Gigs (no prizes for guessing what happens there every night), as well as a few Cafe's - my favourite is Dreggs, where there's Jenga, card games, and crazy challenges like drinking pints of milk.. I don't know, it's just brilliant. The venues all stay open till around midnight, and then you head back to your camp and drink hot chocolate, staying up for another few hours. 

Where's Wally? dress-up theme

I had such an amazing week, and like I said, not just experiencing God for myself. What was possibly even more of an 'experience' for me was seeing the beautiful youth encounter Him! Some of them changed so much over the week, for some it was just crazy seeing Jesus in them so strongly! I also gained a new respect for my youth leaders - near the end of the Big Top meetings during worship/Holy Spirit time, they'd all head back to camp to get lunch or go to bed, and I was left in charge of thirty teenagers. Obviously they were all just happy to worship etc, but when stuff was happening, my eyes were all over the place! I'd go over to pray for one guy on his knees, and then someone would start crying, so I'd go to grab some tissues for them, then you'd have someone fall over.. I gave up on worshipping myself and had to just focus on them. This, though, was somehow more meaningful - seeing God working in them. Like I said, wow.

The other things that happened at Soul Survivor was... A Level Results!! The Tool Shed opened early for people to log on to check their results, so I headed down and checked.. 3 A's and a B! I was a bit gutted about the B in Politics, as I was only 1% off an A, but I felt incredibly selfish thinking like this when I know some people would have killed for my results. It all depends on your expectations of yourself, though, and I knew I was capable of getting an A in Politics! I was so so so thrilled with my three other A's though! And even better, when I phoned Joe, he'd got AAAB too! 

If you've read to the end of this post and you aren't a Christian, or even if you aren't a Happy-Clappy church kind of Christian, I guess you might be thinking Whaaaaat is she going on about? I get that! I used to be just like that! So if you do wanna ask anything, go for it! We all know it sounds pretty weird, but once you encounter God in that way... you never look back :)

Summer Bits and Pieces

Lots of things I've stuck together in this post - all happened over the (very busy) summer.

First, I went to see Lights! Joe got tickets to go to Birmingham, and asked me. I had never heard of her, and when thinking of most of Joe's music, I was pretty sure I was not going to like her. The song everyone seems to like most is Toes (which is good) but I prefer Banner, and also Lions. When you first listen, you're like OH WHAT IS THIS IT'S NOT GOOD AT ALL. But then slowly you become addicted. Seriously. Tried and tested, with a 100% success rate in both people I forced to listen. Anyway, I only started listening approx. two days before the gig, so knew not many words, but it was awesome! Tiny little gig, with a few crazies shouting "WE LOVE YOU LIGHTS!" Man.

Chloe and Ali Harris had an amazing birthday party that I went to with a few other friends. It was at the River School, and it was so lovely.

Me, Becca, and Chloe at the party

The next big thing to happen was 'Dom's Fortnight'. For those who have never witnessed a 'Dom's House', you're seriously missing out. When Dom's parents go away, he has a free house, resulting in an awesome night in with drinks, cards, and films. This time, however, they were going away for a whole FORTNIGHT. Yes, this meant Dom's Fortnight. I was at the Olympics working for the first week, but stayed over a couple of times in the second, when I was back. Connor outdid everyone though - he packed a suitcase, stayed for the first week, went back home to work at the weekend, then re-packed and returned for the second week. Now that's commitment.

After Soul Survivor (coming in the next post), I went to visit Joe for the weekend in Cheltenham, where he was doing work experience. It was really lovely, we shopped around, went to Starbucks, and he cooked sausage, mash and beans, which is obviously on the top 10 best meals list.

The meal in question - accompanied with Rose, for class.

Next was George's surprise 18th birthday party. George generally doesn't like surprises, so we were all curious to see how it would go down, but he seemed to have a great time!

Lydia's party was amazing. She had a party in a castle. Yes, an ACTUAL CASTLE. Everyone looked gorgeous - incredibly dressed up. Emma and I got slightly lost on the way, and had to stop at a pub for directions, but the party was worth the drive up and down the same bit of road. Four times. 

Ali & Chloe at the Castle Partay

Possibly the best part was the bear. Yeah, you heard me. A huge, fake bear, taller than the tallest person I know, was guarding the stairs. I wanted to hug that bear so bad. And by the end of the night (and after a couple of glasses of wine) I was living the dream - I got my bear hug.

Josh and I travelled down to visit my Grandparents, in Farnham. It was our first big train journey alone, and although by this point of the summer I was pretty used to lugging suitcases around by myself and getting myself from point A to point B by train, it was still strange to be responsible for Josh! It was so much fun, and we went on a proper adventure to find Old Man's Hill, a place we'd discovered before. It became clear that it was like Narnia at the back of the wardrobe, though, where you could only find it on certain days. We gave up, but had an awesome day out trekking through the countryside anyway. Some of the roads there are not fun, though, where there are no paths, and cars come hurtling round tight corners, only spotting you at the last minute. I thought I was going to get us killed.

Scott had a bbq for his 18th (he's the youngest of us, a 31st of August kid) at his house. It was brilliant to see everyone again, and Scott's family are hilarious. There's this cat that doesn't leave their garden alone, and his mum gets frustrated and sprays the little mist thing from the iron at it. It'll come back straight away; it's like a never-ending battle where neither of them will give in.

Head Bands game

I took Josh to the Thinktank in Birmingham - it was so awesome! My favourite part was the brain, an actual human brain that had been donated to the Science Museum. They had displayed the letter from the man who donated it, and somehow that was what made it more real - that this was an actual person. It was fascinating - Josh got fed up with how long I stayed and just stared at it. It's just amazing, how a small, squishy pinky-grey blob holds all your memories, your favourite colour, if you are a morning person or not. Just... wow.

Square wheels and round wheels..

Pulleys and weights

Solar panel, wind turbine, rowing pedals and wind-up generator

They also had an outdoor garden, which was so cool! It was all to do with energy, and there was loads of stuff you could actually try out.

Finally, we went out for a meal altogether, to the classic Monsoon. It was lovely, and I can't remember why we went, unless it was just a leaving thing, but it was on my list of things to talk about, and now I have.

Apologies if you've actually read the whole of this post - it's been very bitty, but I had to put in all the little bits and bobs that happened over the summer somewhere, and now they're done and out of the way! 

Next post: Soul Survivor! (Much more exciting :D )