Hi-Ho. Hi-Ho!/ Thoughts on a cracking Wimbledon

Work

This week I returned to the workforce. Ironically with the same company that put boot to ass, just a short while ago. I have been welcomed back into the fold to work with my then manager, but in a new area, EC1; Barbican, Smithsfield, Clerkenwell. (I have grown to like the area already in my few days there).
I also have had to take up a new discipline; lettings! Probably the more lucrative field to be in during this credit crunch but still a field I have to learn. The motivations behind buying a property and just renting one for a year are poles apart, and I'll have to read them very quickly for I only have a 3 month, summer contract!
A job's a job though and hopefully I can exceed targets once more and show my worth.....

Tennis

I know the Wimbledon tournament finished last weekend with a fantastic lady's and men's final (more on them later), but this was, for me, one of the best and more enjoyable tournaments ever. I made my 2 trips down to see live tennis, but being out of a job afforded me the added ability to watch many more matches on the gogglebox, and there were some humdingers!
And on the finals, I'm glad that after the match fixing slur that was leveled at the Williams sisters, they both came out swinging and proved that the match was won on the day, by the best player, and not over the breakfast table, like had been suggested from some quarters.
And on the men's final, I was saddened that Federer lost, for it meant there was a changing of the guard, a new world order. Nadal has been the only man in the last few years that could regularly worry Federer, but not on grass. Now, there is no surface that Federer truly rules. Nadal has been World Number 2 to Federer's Number 1 for the last 3 years, but with his winning head to head record against him the positions must now to be reversed.
In my book you cant beat the world's best player more times than he's beaten you and still be number 2!

Previously, on Squish Pages

I had got my dream job. Ideal location in East London's Victoria Park. A 30-40 minute journey to work. I had lucked into use of a company car which I managed to end up with it 95% of the time. The company itself suited my personality and style; it was professional, catered to the mid to top end range of properties, and preferred a more laid back style over a pushy, aggressive style of some other estate agents.

But sadly 2 weeks ago I became victim to the credit crunch and was made redundant. A case of last in, first out. I am still coming to terms with losing such a perfect job. In one swoop my salary had improved by 1/3 over my previous job and money worries were soon to be just a distant memory as I now had a wage which was to give me choices with my pipeline of business due to me over the next few months. With the loss of the job I lost my pipeline too, and if I was to tell you there was over £2000 in my pipeline at the time (and growing), you would see how much I've lost.

I'm now in the worst financial position of my life now, from flying high to crash and burn. With no job, no pay, but still £800 worth of financial commitment still to make each month!

I had started to go out socially again as I had money in my pocket. I hadn't been to a nightclub in some 4 1/2 months and actually had a worry attack whether my clothes would look out of date, or if I had fallen behind in social etiquette and would come off like Encino Man.

Now I'm stuck back indoors trying to find a job as well paid as my last, in a industry which is struggling to sustain itself at the moment, and in a company that is not some shyster, spiky hair, pinstripe suit, agent. Plans to buy a car, a bicycle, a summer filled with music festivals and a paid off credit card have all been shelved. My only means of travel right now are my feet and my Oyster card, which I've now found that even a trip to the bank in nearby town of Ilford requires over half the day!

'Merry' Easter

Cold enough for you! Snow at Easter, whatever next.

I hope you boys and girls are having a pleasant Easter; better than my miserable weekend! With no money in my pocket and no petrol in the car, I've confined to the house, with the gogglebox as company. Not a major problem seeing as my Sky+ box was rammed full of unwatched shows. But with just £5 to get me through to this coming Friday and the fact that I enter the last month of my probation period at work, with me effectively not selling a thing during February I'm fearful that I have not done enough to keep my job! :(


At least Kimi Raikkonen provided a ray of sunshine on a dull weekend by storming to win the Malaysian Grand Prix early Sunday morning. It was well worth getting up at 6.30am for. It would of been a Ferrari 1-2 if Felipe Massa hadn't spun off the track whilst running in a comfortable 2nd place, next time. In further good news. the BBC acquired the rights to broadcast Formula One from 2009. ITV coverage has been dire from day one and I'm so happy they won't be showing it anymore. Hopefully ex-drivers Martin Brundle, Mark Blundell and Louise Goodman will be retained as the only ones on ITV at the moment who know what they're talking about!

Confesions of an estate agent

For this story to make sense there are a few facts you need to know.

- My job is Mon - Fri, with a stint every 3rd Saturday, accompanied only by a young lass who, only, works Saturdays.
- My company has 5 offices, and I'm able to offer any property from any of those 5 offices.
- This all happened on the weekend I expected my pay cheque to have cleared. It hadn't so I had no money on me. Not a penny!

My 1st Saturday

I had only worked 2 weeks before I had to do a Saturday, and unlike during the week when there are 4 staff, for a Saturday, there is only 2; yourself plus Nikki, the Saturday girl. Obviously I had not met Nikki yet so did not know who or what to expect as I arrived for work that day. I was holding keys for a property in the Islington office, having done a viewing on one of their properties the previous day. I had a 12pm viewing near their office and intended to drop the keys back then.

Only 5 minutes into the day Islington rang saying that they had a viewing on the property I had the keys for, in an hour! Not knowing what to do I asked Nikki is she could cover my 10.30 appointment while I hotfooted over with the keys. On my way back I gets an angry call from my manager. Nikki could not get into the property and the office was not meant to by unmanned either! I picked up Nikki from the house, apologised to the viewers, whisked her back to the office where we discovered she had taken the wrong keys, having mistaken tag 13 for tag 18! I then rushed back to do the viewing only to find parking meters everywhere! I had no money on me so had to drive back to the office with the car and then run back to the house to do the viewing!

Once back I had to cover a viewing in Stoke Newington. The problem was when I got there in was all parking meters again so I had to park about a mile away and again run to the property. The keys were with the landlord and because, being new, I had no business cards, the landlord would not let me have the keys! Luckily, Toby from the Islington office was there too, and he vouched for me. I was 10 minutes late, but the viewer was later still. All which meant I was not going to make it back in time for the next viewing! I had to call Nikki and ask if she didn't mind breaking protocol again and leave the office unmanned to do my viewing.

I was not having a good day and I don't think I was making a good first impression on Nikki, everything was going wrong. Thankfully the rest of the day was smoother but there was still a lot of back and forth. Luckily Nikki and I had each others phone numbers now, and we used them a lot that day as we tried to recover.

After work, which was only 4 hours, the longest 4 hours of my life! I thought I would pop into my old office and say hello to the old crew. Everything was fine until i got onto the A406 to Barking. There was a massive traffic jam and it took me an hour to get from Redbridge to Ilford! And then the Ilford turn off was at a standstill! Obviously I had given up on going to Barking during my hour stewing in the jam but had to take the gamble of trying to turn around a Barking, hoping that the traffic would be lighter. It took another 30 mins to get to Barking, by which time I was so fed up with my day that I headed straight home. I finally got home at 4.45 after leaving work at 2pm. Plus because I had unexpectedly had no money I had not eaten a thing all day!!

I haven't even got round to telling you how I set the alarm off in a million pound house, which had a police response, and how my manager got shouted at by the vendor and had to spend most of the day tying to get reset code from the alarm supplier and how she is now the only person allowed to do viewings.....

The great payday debacle

Now those of you that know me, know that I am always banging on about how I am short of money 'this' month. Blah, blah! I know! Hopefully I will pass my probation and keep my new job, which if I bring in the same about of business in 2008 as I did in 2007 I can expect a 30% pay increase in '08 over '07. Fingers crossed!

Right now, I am out of money! Lol! But it was January's pay that wiped me out.......

Like most folks I was paid early in December, on the 21th in fact. I had to pay off for the France trip, buy Xmas presents and leave enough in the tanks to make my financial commitments in January. January is always a tough ole month for everybody, and for me it was to be 6 weeks without money coming in. So obvious I was quite desperate by the end, and it was with glee that I went to the ATM Jan 31st, only to find no money there!

I hastily rang my old company and was told that the last pay is made out in a cheque! Not a problem, 'If I had known!', but I have all of my direct debts set up to come out within the first 7 days of each month and with my bank needing 7 days to clear a cheque I was in deep doo-doo! Facing £200 in bank charges and my credit rating being thrown back into the dark ages, I was not happy! After half a day ringing around trying to find a solution, my brother, thankfully, stepped in and bailed me out, taking time out of his day to deposit enough money in my account to cover the bills. The cheque itself didn't ultimately clear until February 11th; 8 days after I took it to the bank, meaning I went 7 1/2 weeks between pay days!!!

I still incurred 2 bank charges; £60 down the crapper! Even worst still, I'm on flat pay till May, meaning I can't dig myself out of this hole till then. However back to my first paragraph; the future is looking bright!

Guess who's back? (Well sort of)

Hello! I'm still alive!

While the rest of the world works on reducing its carbon footprint I've working on reducing my 'cash' footprint. December's pay, paid for my ultimately expensive trip to France. January's pay covered Christmas (and there's a story behind that which come in a future post); and as I didn't work all of January (new job) I didn't get a full month's pay. And with February, March and April being my probation; I am/will be on on a wage equivalent to a semi-bad month in my old job. So not a lot of cash around for the first half of this year.

The other reason for me dropping off the radar is me, unashamedly, still struggling with the '5 day' run at work. Apart from a handful of times, I have always had a day off during the week. Only working 3 days then getting my day off and a lay-in, then working just 2 days before another rest day. Bliss! After *cough cough* years working that way, since school, I now have to adapt to doing 5 in a row! My body still feels like it needs its lay-in every Wednesday/Thursday, but instead I get up and go to work again for another 2/1 days. By the weekend I'm so overtired that the weekend is spent sleeping, and evenings, having dinner, then early night.

Its getting better though, no more headache or stars!

Tee Hee! In fact I've blown out Jason and John at badminton tonight because I was out till midnight last night, and today I was in bits.

However, the main reason I've blogged tonight is because the London Freewheel is back!; the free biking day where the roads of London are closed to all but bikes. Its on Sunday 21th September and you can sign up here. I know a lot of people missed out last year so sign up early.

Thanks Sarah for the heads up.

Until next time!

My first week as a REAL Estate Agent

Introduction

Well, I made it through. My first week in my new job, and it was a week of many ups and downs, all of them internal as I got to grips with my new environment.

This ain't Kansas anymore!

I am used to a paper based office; applicants filled out on cards and kept in a box on my desk. Viewings logged in a monthly book (with the month's applicants logged at the back), and the property information kept on files which had to be noted up with every viewing. Lots of writing and no computer in sight.
In my new job all of the above is recorded on computer, sitting on my desk and only for me to use (everyone having their own). Now I know computers aren't new, but as I said on my interview, "I've never used a computer to do my job". It all comes as a bit of a culture shock and will take a while to become intuitive.

How much?!

Now I knew going in that I would be selling more expensive properties now, but hadn't anticipated how the sizing up would actually feel. First of all if you are looking for a 3 bed house and can afford a budget of £850,000, then A, your gonna have a better job than definitely me, and probably anyone I've sold a house to before, and B, arguably cut from a finer cloth. The true shock came on my second day when I registered a lady looking for a house near a station and her budget was 1.6 (millions of pounds)!! I panicked and wondered if I had to pass this lady onto a manager or something, but no, these are the people I'm now here to help!

A deer in headlights

Needless to say I so far haven't been to anxious to take a look around some of these properties I'm supposed to sell, that all look like magazine specials. I asked jokingly if I need to curtsy when meeting the vendors! And I already find myself trying to speak as properly as I can on the phone and in the office as the people I've dealt with so far are extremely well spoken! I'll eventually get used to it all and soon wont pay it any mind; and 'yes', I know they're just people and 'yes', I know they're not better than me because they have money but you can't help but be a little circumspect the first time round.

Fingers crossed

It's all a little scary because I'm on probation and only have 3 months to prove that I'm good enough to be there. I'm the only one on sales in my office, but my manager can sell too plus there are 4 more offices in the company, and with the database being open to all, I'm actually in direct competition with every sales negotiator employed! No pressure. No longer do I have to just beat the guy on the desk next to me, but the guys in the other offices!

Long ole week!

I've never had a Monday to Friday job. Never! Well not till now that is. I am so used to having a day off every 2 or 3 days that my body just ain't built for the 5 day run. That's probably gonna be the hardest thing for me to adjust to. Come Friday last week I was dead in the water, and I have had no energy this weekend. The thought of having the work another 5 days before getting another day off has practically broken me already!

No pain, no glory!

The long, long road

This is my 250th post! Wowzers! Yay me!

I start my new job tomorrow and I am a little apprehensive. I did the journey run for the first time on Friday morning and took a lil look around my new 'patch'. Despite it being a little bit more 'inner city' than where I've been used to working, there is definitely an insular village feel to the area. In fact I been told by someone who lives around there that it is now known as Hackney Village.

This past month I've not been able to go out as my cash flow is lower than I've ever known it. I've not one penny in my bank (I lie really - I actually have 17 pennies!), my credit card is totally maxed out, so no leaning on it as I have been in recent months. I've actually squeaked through so far this month by spending my Christmas and birthday money, but even that's all gone now! I'm gonna have to go bowl in hand to somebody....

Also in both good and bad news, giving up my job has meant giving up my car which is good because I wouldn't even be able to put petrol in the bugger right now, also having no car helps to keep me 'hermit-fied' and conserve money over the next 6 months whilst I build a pipeline in my new job which will hopefully translate into an improved pay packet come June. The downside of having no car means I'm now 'hermit-fied'!! (with no money to boot!). The internet and my PS3 are likely to become my new best friends.

the space my car used to go in

I recently bought 2 Hedkandi albums seeing as I've now gotta do all my raving indoors; Hedkandi - The Mix:2008 (I've got Axwell's, I Found You, on constant repeat (choonage!)) then when I need the chill-out room and some mellow vibes I slap on Hedkandi - Kandi Lounge.

choonage

Last night I was out for my and fellow colleague Neil's leaving drink. He arranged it all so I can't really claim it to be mine, its just that any leaving drink I would of arranged, would of been on the same night and featured the same people. We went for dinner in the fish restaurant 'Ark' in South Woodford. I had a tasty bit of salmon. We finished of the night in Switch bar, formerly Jets. I'd never been either before but Switch is defiantly worth going to again. I lost my wallet last night and had to walk home (no money) but luckily I had left in someone car and I have it back now. I was worried for a bit there and couldn't sleep soundly.

The end of an era...

3 weeks ago I quit my job....

...and today was my very last day with my current employer. Although, it didn't blooming feel like my last day. The phone still rang just as much, the problems still spewing out of the earpiece with their everyday regularity. Seriously you would not believe the amount of ways buying a property can go, and does go wrong. The slogan 'Same shit, different day' really does apply in my job. Most folks will move twice, maybe 3 times in their lives, so every problem they encounter during a sale becomes very real and a mini disaster as the experience is either new to them or long forgotten since the last time. However, with me selling 8 properties a month on average, and with the gestation period for an agreed sale being 3-4 months, it can mean that I could be problem-solving for some 30 odd transactions at varying stages, all with vendors and purchasers with little or no experience in the conveyancing process but seem to feel they know more than me just because its their property that's involved. All whilst I'm trying to sell my next 8 properties!! Being an estate agent is more like being a counselor!

It was also with a very heavy heart that I had to say 'goodbye' to my car. And I'm not sad because I no longer have a car and will have to take public transport, but because I got attached to my little car. My little Corsa that I'd had since new last March. I'm gonna miss the little tike!

I start my new job on Monday, and its more of the same! I'll be working for a much smaller company, but in a more upmarket area so I will sell less, but with property prices being higher, I can make more per unit. Put it this way, moneywise, 1 sale in my new office is equivalent to 7 sales in my old office!!

So 'goodbye' and 'thanks' to the five years with my old company and 'hello' to my new job and new challenges.

Survivor. Estate Agent stylee

Two weeks before Christmas I had a bombshell dropped on me at work. A chain of events were put in motion which could of cost me my job! Our Ilford office is a hulking great Georgian building over 3 floors, which at one time was utilised fully, but now 3/4 of the building lies unused; but the company still had to pay rent on the whole thing. A cost which has, from a business sense, ceased to make sense. So on 21st December that office closed its doors and transferred itself wholesale to our Barking office. The situation of 2 office Managers was resolved conveniently by the Barking Manager resigning in November (for an unrelated reason).

The new Barking/Ilford office only needed 2 sales consultants, however; Barking had one (me), and Ilford had 2. So in mid December we 3 were told that one of us would be made redundant, immediately, in a process that would review our last 6 months performance and discard the worse performing consultant. For a whole week we 3 worried whether we would have a job come Christmas, and it was not a nice feeling wishing ill on one your co-workers just so you could keep your job. Ultimately the axe never swung because elsewhere in our region someone took a career sideways step, decreasing the headcount by one and effectively taking the pot off the boil.

I got to keep my job, as did the other two, and now we are all working out of the improved Barking office(/Ilford). Yay!

The 'Hairspray' and 'The Ivy'

Exactly 2 weeks ago my office had its Christmas do. As we had won a bit of extra money for our performance this year, we decided to do something a little bit extra. We agreed on a restaurant, and choose The Ivy, and then wanted to back it up with a show. Alan, Sharon and Melissa had all seen the recent movie Hairspray and really wanted to see the stage show; I didn't need much persuading.

All 4 of us were working that day so some careful juggling had to take place so that all the company cars were at home come 6pm. A quick change into our snazzy threads then the tube to the theatre for a 7.30 start. I absolutely loved the show. It is set in the 60s, and I was totally thrilled with the era, the music and the outfits; by the curtain fall I was buzzing and saying to myself that this had been the best piece of entertainment I had ever seen!



From the theatre we had an 11pm dinner at the Ivy. I guess due to the high celebrity count I was told I was not allowed to take photographs. With that and the 'no camera' policy of the theatre I was left with a nigh on redundant camera! Grr.



Once I got home I ordered the DVD of Hairspray.

Guess who's back!

Hey there folks! Some of you may know bu I guess most of you don't but I've just come back from a 6 day trip to France. I had a fab time, but in an effort to keep squish pages in chronological order I've gotta first take you back a couple of weeks to something that happened at work...

...I've been debating whether I should mention this on an open forum but seeing as this blog is about 'me and my happenings', this is a happening that can't be ignored. I will have to be light on facts but the story will still be impactive.

As mentioned in a previous entry, we at work get a lot of repossessions, most don't take place as the client gets a last minute reprieve I guess by making good the outstanding mortgage. However about 2 weeks ago one took place; owner evicted, locks changed, keys given to us. As procedure, we have then to visit the property to give the bank a guide price for its resale; the bank also get a couple of independent valuations. On one such visit it was found that the locks had been changed, the property possibly broken into. The locksmith who came to change the locks again told us that the first locksmith one repossession day had found a pile of about 30 VHS videos near the TV and had played one, finding child pornography on it. He told his colleague who told us; which we then went to the police with. An accusation such as this always needs checking out and the police took a visit to the flat. By coincidence the guy was trying to get (break) back in, so the police had just cause to enter the flat (as they had the real keys). A search of the flat gave them cause for concern, and after reviewing the the tapes and hard drive of his computer they found enough to formally charge the guy with multiple counts of pedophilia! Scary huh?

Work Xmas do (well my old office)

Well, the holiday season kicked into gear for me on Friday night when I went to the office Christmas meal, but it was my old office in Barkingside. Their invite went out, as usual, to not only the current roster of staff, but also also old staff members now in other offices. That meant that 80% of Ilford's office was there to.

We went to a Greek restaurant in Gants Hill, Appollina. I had been there before but under its previous guises of Meze Meze and Mythos. The host office had prepared for the night by leaving the following day's diary empty so that the night could be enjoyed to its fullest. I drove so 1/2 a glass of wine was my limit.

There was a DJ/singer who entertained us whilst we ate then later on came some entertainment in the form of dancers; a guy who danced while balancing a stack of glasses on his head, then a belly dancer (who might I add was absolutely gorgeous) who dragged a number of guys up to dance with her in turn, but I was her first!

By the end of the night it all went the disco route, with everyone on our table dancing (we were also by far the loudest group). The night all wrapped up about 1am.










These photos and more on Facebook here

A funny thing happened at work...

On Friday something happened at work, which seeing as I've been an estate agent for nearly 5 years, its a surprise it hasn't happened before. Let me set the scene....

When a home is repossessed by the bank for non payment of a mortgage, its always with plenty of notice. A bailiff and a locksmith turn up evict whomever is inside and change the locks to secure the property. The occupant then has 14 days to contact the estate agent, preselected by the bank to receive the keys and later market the property, to gain access and clear the property of their belongings.

On Thursday a flat was repossessed. It was being rented out, so the tenants were turfed out. It was a mother and baby! So when the locksmith dropped the keys into our office he told us to be as to be as accommodating as possible with access.
On Friday a lady bristled into the office a declared that her baby was sick and she needed to get some medicine from the property which she was evicted from. At first I was going to go, but then Sharon went. 20 minutes later Alan dashed out of the office after receiving a call from Sharon. The lady and her boyfriend had lied just to get back into the flat and now were refusing to leave! After a stand off lasting 2 hours with the couple being incredibly abusive and several calls to he repossession company for advice, Sharon and Alan had to walk away from the property. The couple won the battle but will lose the war as they will only be evicted again, only this time forcible, with no access rights given next time.

CLAMPED!!

Wednesday is usually my day off but last week I had to change my day off because my company wanted to do a 'leaflet drop' day. Everyone in all the regions offices could come to work in civilian clothes and would spend the whole day pounding the streets canvassing, delivering leaflets to all our area rooftops to drum up business.

Myself and new guy Alex went out first and had the task of tackling all the purpose built flats in the town centre. On our very last development we parked up and hit the letterboxes. As with most new build the letterboxes were outside so it made things very quick and easy. However, in the 5 odd minutes it took us to return to the car, I had been clamped for parking in a resident's bay. Actually the clamp guy was just getting off his knees when we got back to the car.

I announced to him that I was the driver but told me he had already logged the registration number and I had to call the office. On doing so they told me that the release charge was £150 plus (get this) £50 to cancel a tow truck ordered to remove my car! I pointed out that my car was clamped not 2 minutes ago so the tow truck (if really ordered) had not even left the yard yet. The lady told me that the charge still stands even if cancelled!

Sadly I seldom have £200 of disposable cash so my Manager and Sharon had to dig into their own pockets, and bring the cash to pay the clamp guy. It took the guy about 7 seconds to remove the clamp, and for that he got £200! I felt so sick at the waste of money. My company have reimbursed Sharon and Alan their money, but have arranged to take £66.66 out of my pay over the next 3 months to cover the cost. What a total rip!

Get well soon Mel

Just wanted to wish all the best to my fellow Australia companion and co worker Melissa. She was rushed to hospital, with a suspected pulled muscle in her back, but after some tests it was believed she had and infection on her appendix, which had caused inflammation which was thought to have in turn caused the back pain. After emergency surgery it was found that the appendix were not inflamed, and now she had now developed chest pain and laboured breathing. I dropped in to see her after work yesterday and frankly she looked really, really poorly, and right now the doctors are scratching their heads and don't even think she has an infection anymore!

Here's hoping its nothing serious. Get well soon Mel xx

The mighty field mouse!

At the moment I am like the mighty field mouse. With funds low I've had to hunker down and weather the storm. Pleasure/pain; I've enjoyed me holiday and now in the turbulent air behind it comes the pain. Firstly, and most obvious, the diversion of funds has left my pockets skinny at the tail end of the month and secondly, having a targeted sales job means that I have not hit target due to being away but also the knock on, is losing ground within the office, having to play catch up! But while the mighty field mouse fills his nest with all the food he'll need whilst holed up I've not been spared the same luxuries, no comfort food! D'oh!

Another similarity is both of us are well cute, with those big eyes and button nose!

I did however venture out Friday night down the Fairlop Oak for drinks. Cat had put the word out, initially for the purpose of seeing Vicky M and her baby, but it was not to be. Anyways there were plenty of folks out some it was a nice night out, all be it short, as Cat was feeling tired and had a wedding to go to on Saturday. Channa had come out too! The first time I had seen her out since the new year! We've been promised more of her over the coming months.

Just sitting here a-flapping my gums!

I was in WHSmiths at lunchtime today and noticed the latest issue of 'Advanced Photoshop', a magazine aimed at computer artists and designers, with hints, tips and ideas on improving themselves. It was then I realised that I had lost my way with one of my New Years resolutions to get back into my art work. I had bought a new pad and pencils but so far there is only 1 doodle there.. I will need to refocus.

Its not gonna be that easy though with the new Tomb Raider game out tomorrow. It is a 're imaging' of the 1st and original game that came out a whopping 10 years ago! I have fond memories of this game; one of those landmark moments in life that stick with you long after they're gone. Like your first toy, or first holiday, or a song or book, movie or 'game'. I have to admit that I am looking forward to the new game, playing the levels again, all with a 2007 lick of paint on them!

From next week my office goes back to a 2 salesman office, because we lose new guy Abdul to the brand new Canning Town office, and revert back to the original dream team of me and Sunni. Our targets have changed accordingly which means I will now have to sell 9 properties a month, obtain 3 solicitor referrals and land 14 mortgage appointments (up from 7, 2, and 11)!! Wowzer!

The road to wellville

Well I'm still recovering from my chicken pox and now haven't been 'out' in over 2 weeks. Returned to work on Wednesday, enough of the massive scabs having fallen off for me to be able to shave my head and face. Fatigue has still been a factor though with me getting tired in the afternoons. Wednesday evening I went to bed at 8.30pm, Thursday I managed 10pm and Friday, 11pm. So I am handling my 'awake' time better each day.

I am still marked however, with my body still covered with white dots, some with dark rings as my skin trys to even out the colour. I think it quite likely that I will be left with some discolouration and pitted skin but hopefully my stunning good looks will be preserved!

I had the misfortune of having to work this bank holiday Monday. It started in fine form with me having to call the police after I seemingly upset 2 guys by asking them to move their car so I could park behind the office. Maybe I didn't give them enough 'respect' but they threatened me and told me to get out of my car, which I refused to do, then they tried to open the door themselves. They left as I started talking to the police, but not before spiting on the car and shouting that they would come back for me.

What a lovely world we live in!

Holiday anyone....?

I think I need a vacation! These last few days I have felt totally drained. I missed step aerobics on Monday and have been going to bed by 9.30 each night this week (usual bed time being 1am). Suppose it didn't help staying up till 4.30 last Friday night watching tv; reckon that that has offset me this week. Luckily I have a 4 day week this week and next, not having to work either Bank Holiday but I do have to work the Saturday in between (Boo!).

Sky have refused to return my £200+ saying the equipment is still not working despite having sent an engineer 21/2. They sent another yesterday but he rang the doorbell once then drove off not even checking back to allow time to open the door. Its been rebooked for tomorrow. Will this nightmare ever end!!

I did go out over the weekend: for my exploits read on.....