Big Brother is Watching....Pah

Today was my penultimate shift at the lovely (ha!) B&Q before I depart for an admin apprenticeship at Fife Council. And my, what a shift it was!

I certainly didn't expect to find out as I was sitting in the canteen that my PRIVATE Facebook page had been hacked by B&Q to see if I'd said anything bad about them, that's for sure! Got served with a "damning" report of all the "derogatory" comments I'd made about the company after a nice little dressing down from the HR woman about something I'd allegedly said about her. My Wall, photos, everything on my page is private for personal reasons, so when she dropped the bombshell that she had a record of what I'd said, it's fair to say I was puzzled. How could she have gained access to it for a start? I looked at the paper all the comments were on and it was like they'd hacked into my account, used some program or other to do a search for posts with their name in it and printed them off! Sneaky bastards! To me, it's a gross invasion of privacy. It's absolutely none of their business what I think of them and what I post on Facebook, Twitter or anything else connected to social media certainly isn't their business! Especially when the alleged comments were made over a year ago on a Twitter account I don't even have anymore! If that's the best this so-called HR guru has to offer, then she's scraping the bottom of the barrel. For two-and-a-half years, I've taken all the shit the great British public have thrown at me and this is the send-off I get. She was perfectly nice when taking my resignation and I have never once said anything to the contrary. I'm e-mailing head office tomorrow after I finish there for good to find out exactly where they get off hacking into people's private accounts because of their own stupid paranoia. Rather than lambasting people for posting shit about them, they should listen to their employees' concerns and try to improve themselves. They're not a perfect company- hacking into people's private accounts is just one of many issues I have with them- and the staff they hire for the HR department is another. I personally don't give a shit that "Big Brother" is watching me and probably has been for the last two and a half years. I am, like any other human being, entitled to my own opinion without fear of oppression and B&Q as a modern company should respect it.

Heart Skips A Beat :)

Nice summery tune, always makes me smile when I hear it :)

The Little Things

Random pet hate of today- people who can't see the good things in their life.

Was on Facebook (suffering from terrible writer's block at the moment, have stalled at page 123!) and saw a post from someone I know who isn't really known for his sunny outlook on life. It read: "I hate everyone, why can't I just have something good in my life for once?" I can appreciate that everyone has off days but this post really struck a chord with me, so much so that I actually blocked content from the guy's page. He posts a really negative comment at least once a day about how he hates his job/love life/life in general etc and it's just not nice to see. He can be a perfectly nice person but he's really bitter and selfish sometimes. It kinda hurt me that although he can't see it, he has so many good things in his life that don't fall under his definition of "good". A loving family, a roof over his head, food to eat, his health, a job... He has all those things, which not everyone can lay claim to, yet he doesn't appreciate them. He always wants more and makes it the world's fault that he doesn't have it. He blames people in general for his own failings, doesn't take responsibility or do anything about it then the world all of a sudden owes him a favour. It made me realise all the good things I have in my own life. Although I don't always take the time to appreciate them, reading about him bursting with hate for everyone because there's something he wants but doesn't have really highlighted them for me. I love my family, my boyfriend, my friends and my life. I wanted to type a comment, saying he needs to grow up and take a good look at his life before deciding it's so utterly crap but it wouldn't make any difference.

The bottom line is, you forge your own path in this life and if you go round thinking the world owes you a favour, you won't get very far in life. Take every opportunity in life, embrace new challenges and make your own luck. And above all, appreciate the little things in life- they go a long way :)

Extract #1

Here's a little extract from my novel :)

Emily Miller loved Liam Crombie.

It was an irrevocable fact. She loved everything about him- his soft brown eyes, his lazy smile, the way his ash brown hair swept across his eyes. In her mind, he was perfect. She believed their souls were intertwined; that they were destined to be together. They’d always been close, even when they were children. She could still vaguely recall hazy afternoons in the thick heat of summer where they’d played on the Meadows together while their mothers had sipped Pimms and traded gossip about their neighbours. Then, as they’d grown up, their childhood friendship had blossomed into romance- not that anyone had really been surprised, of course. After all, they could see how well-suited they were; her with her sparkling green eyes and sweet smile and he with the slight swagger in his step and love in his eyes whenever she was around.

“He’s totally different when you’re with him dear,” his mother would say whenever she came round for tea. Emily would simply blush and laugh it off, saying it was just because they were close. Then one day, when they were fifteen, they went for a walk across the Meadows, the large park that lay just across from his house. It had been a warm night with just a gentle breeze playing in amongst her golden blonde curls. She remembered him even then, clear as day. He’d been wearing a red Ed Hardy T-shirt that she’d helped him pick out from House of Fraser and a pair of black Chuck Taylors. He’d looked wonderful. As they’d been sitting on a park bench, watching the world amble slowly by them, he’d turned to her and looked right into her eyes.

“You know I love you don’t you?” he’d said in a soft voice. It had been quiet, with only the gentle hush of a few stray leaves blowing along the ground breaking the silence.

“You know I love you too?” she’d replied. He’d nodded and their lips had met in a tender embrace. Emily liked to remember it happening with a sort of finality; like it had been a culmination of years of feelings and that nothing would ever be the same again. Which, of course, it wouldn’t be.

Hungry Hungry (and Judgmental!) Hippos

 This is me and the OH in a park in Glenrothes. Isn't he cute?! It's amazing how much fun you can have doing the simplest things :). There's another photo which I'm sure he wouldn't want being made public, of him showing off his superior swinging skills! After these were taken, I was treated to some lovely Chinese food. Gotta love him!

                      These are the "hungry hungry hippos" or as the OH calls them "the judgmental hippos"!

And finally the OH! Love how casual he looks while sitting on top of a stone hippo like he does this on a daily basis. He's really quite lovely :).

Rule the World (Girls)

Heard this song for the first time last night in the nightclub we were at for my two friends' joint birthday night out. I noticed something quite odd too. All my friends seem to have formed, for want of a better word, a clique. I've never understood cliques- the squealing, the incessant need to know every single detail about each other's lives and the obsession for rose wine! In my life, I've been perfectly happy with just one or two close friends and have never, ever been part of a "girl group". One of my friends, Heather, has this group of girl friends she does everything with and who she's been friends with since she was small. I've got to admit, I'm kind of envious of it. But, I suppose with the camaraderie of a girl group comes the bitchiness as well. I've been unlucky enough to have been stabbed in the back by someone I considered to be my best friend, so I'm speaking from experience.

I've got currently three best friends- Sammi, Lauren and Hayley- who I love to pieces and I decided last night, after allowing myself to sober up a bit, that they are more than enough for me. Sure, I may not be in the exclusive sorority that is "the girl group" but who's to say I can't create my own :)?

Hangover + Writing = BAD IDEA

Was out for a "night on the tiles" last night and believe me when I say, hangovers and writing DO NOT go together. OH is coming over at half six, so better get a move on and do something productive before then. Time with the OH consists of eating my body weight in peanut M&Ms, watching good movies (OH is "allergic to chick flicks" :P) and laughing a lot :). Got to say, he really is one of the best things in my life. When I met him, I'd planned to focus on my "career", such as it is. I work in a large DIY shop who seem to be good at promising things then not delivering them. Was told I could go on a management program but that never materialised and now I'm stuck telling ridiculously ignorant customers where the gloss paint is. Not really what I had in mind when I left school aged 17. I imagined I'd conquer the world or something, not be wearing a horrid orange apron and pretending to care about paint brushes or white spirit.

Going to try and clear the fog of my hangover and write a very important part of Ultraviolet today. This might require some chocolate/fried food/anything classified as "junk food" though.....