Christmas and Life Lately

This is going to be a long post so bear with me...

So things lately have been pretty busy. At the beginning of December I got a Christmas job at my local 99p Store, I'm still there so hopefully it's becoming permanent so I can drop the school cleaning. The hours are better, therefore equaling more money. The main downside is my boss. I just don't like him. He's been having a tough time lately in his personal life but that's no excuse for being a patronising git. Today for example I was expected to do about 7 jobs at once: put out 3 boxes of umbrellas, rearrange the batteries (didn't finish), put out filter tips (didn't even start), put up a stand for EE sim cards, move the anti-freeze, restock the deicer on the tills and serve customers in between. Phew. At least it wasn't as manic as it has been. December 22nd, 23rd and 24th I work 8am to 5pm (5:30pm for the close on the 24th) and it was so busy, especially Christmas Eve! I was absolutely knackered every day, starting to fall asleep on the sofa at 9pm. Insane. I have never done days that long in my life. The only thing that may come close is college on a late finish day when I've missed the bus but even then, over an hour each side is the bus journey which is just relaxing and reading, maybe having a light doze.

Mum's not been doing great. She's being made redundant in February when the Co-op where she works is closing down. They've been bought by Aldi but for anyone thinking she can just get a job there, wrong. They aren't planning on opening until November. Apparently if they re-open within 6 months then they have to take on the previous staff. The manager hasn't told the staff but a lot of customers are saying that they're taking over the Costcutter at the top of the hill, but then again the customers knew the shop was closing months before they told the staff. Yeah, slightly crap.

We've been having a bit of a nightmare with the Christmas decorations this year. It's always a nightmare thanks to Artex ceilings but this year more than usual. We've tried double-sided carpet tape, blu-tack (in white), the normal double sided sticky pads (must have been a bad patch), pins and wire holding tacks.

These things.

Nothing has worked and they keep falling down. There wasn't time this year but we're going to try and find some white duct tape for next year. I was going to take pictures of everything but none stayed up long enough so here's some photos from Christmas 2012:

The living room ceiling. Pretty much the same this year.

The TV in the living room, has changed for this year.

The cupboard by my desk - just visible cat treats - has changed slightly this year.

The hallway, pretty much the same this year. Excuse my reflection in my ratty old nightie.

The door phone with my owl picture. Pretty similar I think.

The cat picture, also pretty similar I think.

Our Merry Christmas sign, again pretty similar.

The reason I'm saying things are similar is because those cards stuck round things aren't necessarily in the same place each year.

Our Christmas tree this year :)

My presents this year, not shown are a bar of chocolate and some money from my aunt. The money we used for Polar Bear King, Transformers: Age of Extinction and Divergent. Polar Bear King we started watching, realised it was cheesy crap - the transformation sequence was a guy in a very bad costume - and returned it the next day. The bottom three and the book: The Shining, Two Bits and Pepper (horse film) and Gnomeo and Juliet were all from a charity shop. Harry Potter I already have but I think my copy is knackered since it didn't play properly on two different DVD players and was starting to go funny on the third when it finished. The owl hook is a set of three, two that colour, two with the foot colour as the main one. That, the two eyeliners and two of the nail varnishes were from Avon. The third one was a Glamour magazine freebie that mum decided to wrap up after accidentally duplicating the magazine.

My snowman cake that mum bought at the Co-op :D it was supposed to be for both of us but mum found the icing a bit sickly whereas I love icing! 

Scottie dog tin of shortbread from Sainsbury's! It says Scottie but I say it looks more like a Westie to me. The tin says the shortbread are Scottie shaped too but we haven't opened them yet.