Party time and coming home. in Hello.

Today has been an unseasonably warm day. The car said it was 20°C! So we decided to go to St Bees, a beautiful little seaside town south of here. I’ve always put off going there because I don’t really know the area, and I’m not a fan of driving places I don’t know too well. But I was getting fed up of going to the same two seaside towns when the weather was nice. I decided I wasn’t going to use the SatNav, because I knew it would take me through Whitehaven, which is all one way and traffic lights. As it happens, I did make a wrong turn, but in a serendipitous turn of events (for the kids at least!) it meant that we found a Macdonald’s where we could stop for lunch. I then used the SatNav from that point!
St Bees was glorious. The tide was on its way out, which meant we could explore the sandstone cliffs, climbing up and over rocks, looking at the carvings and examining rock pools. I saw ravens, which I haven’t ever seen in Cumbria. Ravens rank up there with my favourite of all birds, so I was super happy. We then climbed to the top of the head, I bought the kids ice cream in the shop, and sat on the shore eating them, whilst watching a tight rope walker practicing his routine. I’ve decided St Bees is my favourite place, and now I’m more confident about getting there, I’ll definitely be going more often.
I didn’t get the job in Lidl. I think they employed on a first come, first served basis to be honest. I couldn’t attend the first round of interviews because they were on a Saturday, and I’m more or less in charge of my department on that day so can’t take them off. I got interviewed the following Sunday, meaning I had to get up early on my day off and drive to another town 7 miles away. The guy interviewing me spent most of the interview talking about himself and only asked me why did I want to apply to Lidl and to expand on my retail experience. Considering I’ve worked in retail for about 15 years, it’s not as if I’m lacking in experience! So I really got the feeling they’d already made their decision before I went in.
It’s ok. I have a job, so I’m grateful for that.
Speaking of work, we had a very odd staff Christmas do the other week. We’ve got a sister shop in Penrith, but we never do stuff together because it’s awkward with the other shop being about 25 miles away. I’ve never been in the shop, as Penrith isn’t really anywhere that’s worth visiting, but we speak on the phone every day. Both shops are run by the same family, Dawn is my boss, her brother runs the other shop and their parents own the company, so there is a nice family dynamic. So they decided that this year we would attend this event that was an hour’s drive away from us both, to the east of Carlisle. I’ve not seen a venue like it, it was this sprawling house with enormous gardens, but the owner, Brenda, does demonstrations in her house. We were told we would be watching a cooking demonstration, then get the chance to eat the food afterwards. I have to say, her house was amazing! She’d flamboyantly decorated it for Christmas and had staff bringing us nibbles on plates. Honestly, it was so cliché, I half expected someone to come round with a silver platter of Ferrero Rocher! Then we got the cooking demo. But what I hadn’t realised was that we provide her with all her cooking implements and the whole thing was just talking about that. If I’d gone as a paying customer, I’d have felt like it was just basically a massive sales pitch! Still, it was nice mingling with the staff from the other shop. It was a great morale booster, and now I know exactly who I’m talking to on the phone! They seem to employ a “type”, so we all have a very similar sense of humour, which is lovely.

---

My big news is that Robert has moved back home! I don’t really want to go into much detail, but he basically walked out of his job. He’d gone to Lancashire to help out for 6 months, didn’t like it after a few days, came back to Pooley Bridge, had an epiphany and realised that his work hadn’t delivered promises, even though he’d been there 16 months. He contacted a place he’d attended an interview earlier in the year on Wednesday just gone. He’d been offered a job with them earlier in the year, but decided he’d use it as leverage to get himself a promotion with his then current job. Current job promised him a promotion from commis to chef de partie, but that promotion never materialised, even though he was already doing the role. He messaged the other people on Wednesday asking if there was anything available. The head chef said that they were currently recruiting a few roles for Christmas. So I picked him up Wednesday night, he spoke to the head chef Thursday, got offered the job on the spot and started on Saturday!
He’s at an advantage because, even though they’re desperate for staff, there’s no live in accommodation yet, but it’s only about 5 miles from here, so he’s got somewhere to stay until they can sort out a staff house. The staff house will be in this town and he’s quite keen (understandably!) to move into it, so he’ll be very close even if/when he moves out.
Also this place is famous for making its own whiskey and gin and Rob gets a staff discount, so that might be Christmas sorted too! ;)