Day Five - Tinsel Terror

Hallo Blog Followers,
                                  Yes this blog entry is two days late. But I think you will forgive me after you've read this MAMMOTH entry. Literally Friday was my busiest day yet. It was brilliant though! But I can safely say I have learnt a few things following Friday at Absolute

• The Tube is a rip off
• Blink and you'll miss a guest at Absolute
• If the other Work Experience fails to turn up till the afternoon... You are in for a bumpy ride

So anyway it is Friday... picture the scene. It is a beautiful day in London, and I'm walking to absolute, excited for another days work experience. It is quite cold though. My hands were like ice blocks by the time I got to Absolute. Anyway, I had been thinking that soon I would [probably be given the task of putting up Christmas decorations. I was looking forward to that job, as I love Christmas. Well I love the build up. The chocolate, atmosphere, rubbish telly and decorations. The day itself is always a bit of a let down... anyway so I walk in, and what's the first thing Adam asks?

Put up the Christmas trees :D

here's a representation of my face when I was asked...

So I went and got the decorations, which were in the gallery. As I ran up the stairs, Maggie and Ritchie, who were there at the time, looked confused, as it looked like I had just run a marathon. So i bring all the boxes down, which contain different bits of Christmas trees, decorations and fake presents. My task is to make three trees for the reception area. A nice easy task, to gently get me into the flow of a Friday at absolute :)...

WRONG

So it takes me about half an hour to make one tree up, due to all the bits being mixed up. Me and Adam look in the basement for more stuff and there are a couple of tree boxes there. So we bring them up. Turns out that there were loads of bits missing, and the other tree was a big one which you can't put up in reception. We needed three small ones. This meant I had spent the first few hours trying to make a tree that didn't even exist. Not good. Of course I had a meeting to sort out as well at 11, which took 15 minutes off my tree making time D= So I come back down, and I am informed that Nicola won't be in till 1pm. I think, well that's okay I've got a steady flow of jobs today, so it won't be too bad just me....

I am then given the task of collecting the recycling. Not too bad, you just have to replace bags on each floor. White bag for paper and shredding and blue bags for magazines. As I'm replacing the bag on Floor One, Gregg comes up me and asks how I am etc, then asks if I can help him out with something after I've finished the recycling. I explain the tree situation, and the fact Martyn wants me to continue the task from yesterday. So he tells me to come find him when I'm done. All good. So I collect all the full bags, and replace them then return them to the recycle area on the ground floor. I quickly sort the post.

So I'm about to head upstairs to see Martyn, to continue my task from yesterday. As I'm about to admit defeat with the trees, Gregg comes down to reception with £40 quid and a lot of paper work. He tells me he needs me to travel to Argos and pick up a Christmas tree, and then pick up a radio times along with some tinsel. I liked the sound of this job. As stated I love Christmas so getting a tree and tinsel sounded fun.

So I leave Absolute and head to the underground. I was given a map, but I hadn't used the tube on my own before. The Last time I was on it must have been around 6 years ago. So i get to the station. I'm standing there like a mug, not having a clue what to do. I look around, and then I spot a ticket machine. I head to it, but before I can get there, a man comes up to me and asks if I have 20p. Being the polite fellow that I am, I look through my wallet, but can only give him 10p. He seems happy enough. My good deed done. 

Just so you don't forget, here is the list of stuff Gregg wanted:

• A Crap Christmas Tree (His words not mine)
• Lots of Tinsel
• Christmas Radio Times

So I got to the ticket machine, and realised I didn't actually know which line the station I wanted was on. Luckily, as If a higher power had heard my brain, I notice a little holder, full of Underground maps, highlighting all the lines, destinations and prices. So I take that, have a quick look through and buy a ticket (£6.60! disgrace)

I make my way down to the platform (It sure takes a long time to get down to those platforms) and wait for the tube. I get on. They sure are depressing. Dirty, smelly and full of sad looking people. Luckily I was on it for about 5 minutes. I got off and headed up to society once more. The Argos was literally right next to the station entrance, so I head in and pick up the tree. Pretty simple. The box is quite long but its not difficult to carry.

I think to myself, I know, I'll walk back the way I came, I'm bound to find some where that sells tinsel on the way back. I see a newsagent across the street, and go in and easily spot the radio times. Two things off the lists done. Now onto the third, and final part. The tinsel...

Ahh tinsel... Colourful, shiny and just generally awesome. The smell also reminds me of Christmas :) So I begin my walk and search. I look in newsagents, Sainsburys, Tescos, Boots and little souvenir shops. Nothing. Its the sort of thing you expect to see everywhere at Christmas time... but when you think about it, what shops actually sell tinsel? Its places like G & T's and Poundland. There was none of that riff raff in London Town. So I walk for over an hour looking, but I just can't find any, anywhere. By this time I'm very tired and cold, and need the toilet. So I think, I'll head back, drop off the tree (Which is making my arms ache) go to the loo, then print of a map for directions to a WH Smith (As that was only place I could think of that might sell xmas decorations... don't ask me why)

I get back.So I'm heading up the stairs heading for the toilet, when I bump into Gaz on the first floor stairs (He is producer of Geoff Lloyd's drive show, Don'cha no) Instead of sharing a quick "You alright?" he asks me "O Colin are you free" He's the producer of the Drive show, so I say, "Yeah, I just need to get tinsel for Gregg" Looking back that must have sounded really stupid. Anyway, Gaz says he has a job for me... which leads onto my next point:

The awkward moment when you're heading to the toilet, and you get asked to make tea for Chris Martin from Coldplay

Because that is what happened. Gaz wanted me to make a drink for Chris Martin from Coldplay when he got there. Obviously that is not an offer you get given everyday. But I am knackered, in desperate need of the toilet, and Martyn and Gregg (Ironically both in earshot of me and Gaz) both need me to do jobs for them. I explain this, so he quickly says about getting Marc to make the drink instead, but he still needed me to get questions for him for a competition they were doing on the drive show. A producer wanting my input? Awesome, so I agreed to do that and am about to head to a PC to start gathering questions, when Eloise (Station Assistant and Work Experience person) says, no "Colin needs to go on his lunch break" I wanted to do this job for Gaz but he said he would do it so i could go on my break, and to be fair, I needed a break. I was knackered.

I gratefully went for my lunch break. I just needed to sit down. Gaz had also told me to come to him if I had free time to ask him if he had any jobs he needed doing in future. Which is good . 

After my break I start to head to WH Smith, to finally get the tinsel. On the way a market catches my eye. I think to myself, there is probably more chance of tinsel being here. As I walk through it I notice a shop. You know the ones, those shops where they sell a bit of everything. From lights, to sweets, to cards. I went in there as they have Christmas decorations outside. I look around, I turn a corner and...

HALLELUJAH

The mother load of Tinsel! So I stock up and head back, piratically skipping, to Absolute. I give Gregg the goods, and he seems happy =D I am then bombarded with jobs.

Firstly, Jenny asks me to go on the playlist of music used for the "No repeat Guarantee" and find the songs publishers. To do this I had to use a program called Selector, which is an odd little program that stores schedules, songs and other station stuff. I say its odd, as it look like it was designed by the same people who made Pong. 

So I do that for about an hour. By this time Gregg and Martyn are just getting irritated as they both still need my help... Well I say irritated. They weren't really. Anyway, Tim, who controls music played on the station asks me to do another task. Tim showed me the current A, B and C playlists (Three guesses to which category Paradise and Lego House came under) and he wanted me to use a program which shows how many times other stations have played songs, and then type them into another program. This was to compare how much Absolute had played them compared to Radio One, Two, 6 Music and XFM.

That took another hour. At this point Martyn had already said there wasn't enough time to do his task, so I went downstairs to help with the post. Martyn then gave me and Nicola a chat about his job at Absolute, which was really informative. It seems southeners are the best radio people... I'm just sayin'

THEN another task. Adrian on the first floor needed Thick Cardboard to put posters on for a meeting on Monday. I volunteered to do it and I'm a keen son of a gun. It was 5 o'clock and I have to leave at half 5 to get my train, so I power walked to Rymans... they didn't have any card thick enough.... so I power walked to WH Smith. The card they had was very thin, but I was running out of time and I didn't want to leave without at least attempting to get some card back to him. On my way back to absolute, I see and art shop, which I somehow managed to completely miss on my way to get the card. I have a quick look and they have foam board, which is perfect. I have no time to get it though, so i get back to absolute. As expected Adrian said the card was too thin, but I assured him I would get the thicker stuff as soon as I got in Monday morning.... and that's what I intend to do :)

So day five was the hardest day... but by far the most enjoyable. Just doing all these jobs is awesome, for a variety of people at absolute.

Anyway that's about enough from me... I have rambled!

Tonight I travel up to Reigate to live with my Uncle for a week. This means I can get an hour later train, meaning I wont be as shattered when waking and will be more fresh in the mornings... which is always good. 

Tomorrow is sure to be epic, with me meeting Kerry and Zoe, and me meeting the new work experience person,... Who I may already know!

You stay classy internet,

Colin