Paul's journal

I didn't know if I'd get to work when I heard a truck/train accident had stalled trains on my line. However when I got to the station trains were running again (despite what they said on the radio!)

When I got to work there was this throbbing hum seemingly right above me. I was happy when others came in and heard it too. It lasted all morning blurring into background noise but was gone after lunch.

Today's one of only two in the office so I felt pretty rushed but was pleased to get through my checklist of tasks.

Dubbed over the songs from Scrubs's My Musical to the computer tonight and then watched The Rich List to see Tim from my old work attempt to make a list (not very well).

The Trivia night was fun, but also a little sad. It was great to spend time with these people again, but my feelings of not quite fitting in are stronger now. There was a good turn up. About six or seven people I don't know or have never seen before. There were a couple of people other than me who no longer work at Fountain Gate (Peter, Mark who's moved to Karingal). A couple of the girls were more keen to see me than any of the guys (Sophie, Tania, Susan). Vera told me she was worried she'd made me quit because the last conversation she'd had with me was about me being one of the longest running staff members with another job. I laid that concern to rest.

I ended up on a team with Kat (Katherine) and Tim, both pretty new staff members, but also very extroverted ones too. We were 'The Little Team That Could'. Now we went okay but ended up mostly in the middle range each round. We were swapping answer sheets with team 'Interracial Darkness' beside us that included Ashwin, Scott, the new Chris and Jen's brother. The Burgers were loud beside them (The other Chris, Liam, new Darren, and Mark) and won a co. Lauren, Anton (still gorgeous), Andrew and Sarah (Team Wedgewood(?)) did well too. The two girls only teams got a bit confused for me (Diane, Antoinette, Tania and Sophie were all in there as well as several new girls). The dark horse team was The Avengers Josh, his girlfriend who's now on staff, and Sani who were high scorers.

The first round was about Village and I knew some of the answers, but I've been out of the loop for ages. The second round was TV and Movies which I should have kicked ass on but some of the questions were pretty tricky. The third round was a physical challenge. I went up as having the strongest arm. It was a timed scoop trial. 'I didn't come back here to scoop!' I argued. I don't miss it.

The next round was Geography and History and we did ok. The next round was Sports and thanks to Tim we did even better. I would have got about zero correct; who knew Gavin Wagnadeen was playing 13 years ago?! I finally got a music question too. The first couple of guess the song, artist and movie were hard. But I got the 'where is My Mind?' from Fight Club straight away (thanks in part to James Blunt's recent cover).

We didn't win any rounds, so no pick of the fame board for us (the prizes included comps I doubt I'd have been able to use), but we came close this round, tying with the Burger team. The tiebreaker was another physical challenge. Who's out most nimble. Tim deferred, Kat's on crutches so up I go again. The challenge is how can do the longest handstand. Mark did a really good go on his first try. I was ready to forfeit and I tried to get around the rules and see if using the wall would count. My first go was hopeless I think I got my legs to about 45 degrees. By second try was actually alright for someone who hasn't even attempted a hand stand since school. The crowd tells me I should have got extra points for my 'scissor kick' which was me trying to keep my legs in the air!

We did really well in the music round, thanks to several 80s music questions like Jason and Kylie's duet and a question about Milli-Vanilli. The next physical challenge Kat went up for and involved making pie boxes and did well. The last round was an all sorts round where we went alright. The final physical challenge Tim stood up for, blowing up a balloon until it burst. Josh won this tying the final scores between his team and The Burgers. Another physical challenge tie breaker saw Mark performing better at push ups than Sani and his team walked away champions.

I made a quiet exit. It was fun but as I said it doesn't feel like home anymore. I'm a visitor now. Maybe if a few of my closer friends had been there? Oh well. Glad I went anyway.

Went to a late movie tonight. It is indeed quiet when you go to a 9:30 session on a Monday night, and this was for a new release film! I knew all the people working, Paige, Liam, Lauren and Sani. Lauren asked me if I was coming to the trivia and I said I sure am. It will be good to hang out with my friends there again.

Like yesterday going to the movies was a bit of a mini-reunion. Kellie served me in the box, and I spoke to her and Darren. Darren said I'm missed which was nice to hear and said I should come to the trivia night in a few weeks. Appartently some other ex-staff are coming too. Most of the candy bar staff and the girl at podium were newcomers. I said hi to Ashwin on his way in. On my way out Sally and Sani were at podium so I went and said hello. Sally was saying they were among the old ones left. It's nice to see these old friends again. They were (are?) my friends, I just wish the friendship extended away from work somemore, or that I had such friends at work now.

Caught up with Scott (in TB), Paul (at podium) and Myrna (coming in to start a shift). Sarah's brother is not just a manager, but the GM. Marvin is "long gone". Sally is in once a week or every two weeks, Chan is still employed but doesn't turn up. Myrna applied but wasn't given a manager role, however Antoinette and Michael were, and Ryan has a site trainer role. There's only about 40 people working there now and they are recruiting 20 more. One newcomer is Rob's brother (older and not as hot) who came from Jam and is wearing the new blue shirted, no vest, Village uniform. I tried to sneak a peak at the TF trailer (which was at the last staff meeting) but it clashed with my film.

I dreamt about Village over night and for a change it was pretty accurate. It wasn't the Dandenong version that I usually visit in my dreams. Although there was a bit of the feel of the dream version staff room in the one I went too (lighting and colour wise) it was still laid out the traditional way. The funny thing was all these people that had left before me were still there. I was convincing Sussan why she should leave. Peter had come back for a few days a week. Darren was preparing a list of words that you think of when you think of Village(for Melissa!?) that I gave some ticketbox themed suggestions to. Martin and Antoinette were there. The roster for last week had only about six people on it and I was amazed at how few shifts were available. Next week's roster had more names on it.

This probably came about as I've been thinking about Village. I might go back there on the weekend when me and my sister go to the movies. I miss them all so much. There's so many people that were my friends, my social group, my peers; people that I don't see every week now and who I'm falling away from. Going back and seeing them briefly is a reminder that I don't have them now. I think that's what is keeping me from going there regularly.

Went to the movies at Karingal and it was very different from last time. When I went to see Psodien the place was packed with kids. This morning there was no one there. The place was almost deserted. My cinema, the same one I was in last time, had four other people in it, two kids with one parent each. I'm glad I chose Karingal because it was in 5 or 6 at Foutain Gate and even a week after the holidays these sorts of movies are never this quiet.

I left work just after 5 and went down to Minotaur to pick up the new Essential Handbook, the new Fables and a new TF comic. I made it to the station with a few minutes to spare for the Cranbourne train, but saw a familar, attractive face attached to a nicely dressed body. My mind weighed up the options or talking or walking past. Usually the latter would have won, but I miss my friends from Village enough to go and say hi, even though Darren S and I were never besties. He works as a draughtsman now in the city and catches the train to Hallam. When he asked me 'where'd you come from?' and I answered 'work' he reacted in that way of his where he finds every straight and simple answer I give him as the epitome of dry wit. It's a little endearing, but a little frustrating too.

Caught up with some old friends today at Village. Chan was opening the gates and we chatted a bit. He's one day a week now due to a full time job, having just trained Antoinette as a manager. Scott served me in the ticket box again, I always seem to get him, with Chris and Nick beside. Sarah served me in the candy bar and Ryan said hello on his way in. I called him Nick but I think it went unnoticed. On my way out I spoke to Darren W and Nicole and saw a few other girls on floor and in the candy bar that I don't know.

Missed my train because I had to go home for my train ticket and security pass. However this meant that when the 800 train came I saw Martin who was standing at a doorway as I walked past further to the far end of the platform than normal. We had a very brief conversation, and he told me that Alex and Darren Sav have left. I should have told him to say hi to his sister and Alex. Next time, Paul, next time.

Liam signed me in today for the preview screenings. It was a long queue for the Candy Bar and I ended up getting served by a new girl, who I'm pretty sure was around when I was still there but I never met. I had time in the queue to study the new combos. The all combos one price is gone, replaced with something more like Hoyts. There's still four or five combos, including the family combo on the board, but I think they've snuck in a 50c increase on a ChocTop combo. Dodgy!

Tonight's floor team was Alex, me, Gabi and Jess TP doing her first floor close and her last shift before she goes back to Uni. We had a bit of spare time early on to do cinema checks and all the stuff. We got new Munich t-shirts but their fabric's not very breathable and I built up a huge sweat in them.

Before we even got started we had calamity as a family came out of cinema one with their boy bleeding after running into the wall on their way out. We had a second boy hurt himself in the toilets and Sally was hoping for no more. In the first round of sessions Big Momma's House was the busiest. We got some help from Nick and Sascha on a few of them before he was needed back down at candy bar.

Jess and Gabi got told off by a customer for coming in to Rumour Has It, taking the bin in, before the film had ended. The credits were on over the footage of the wedding and she said she was going to report them. Both of the girls were taken aback at being told off by a customer. I just said don't worry you know what customers are like.

I went on my break when those sessions were done and grabbed some pizza and eat in silence with one of the new girls I don't know. Came back and finished off foyer bins for Alex and did a bin run. In the next lot of sessions we had tough turnaround times. There was one minute between The Producers and the next session in that cinema of King Kong. We again had Nick and Sascha helping and Alex and I tag-teamed at podium. I also got to do some allocating in cinema three for yet another very busy Big Momma's House while we waited for some films to come out.

Everything was back in by 9:30 and with not much else to do Gabi finished half an hour early and Alex finished two hours before his rostered time. I said you could get a very easy hours pay but he just wanted to go home and knew I'd understand, and I said yes I do. I asked Jess about how only working in the holidays was going for her. I discussed my thoughts of leaving and she understood and felt the same way about some recent changes.

The close went rather smoothly. We had some busy sessions to clean, three in particular was bad. We did two bin runs together (only three bins though) and then I did another two bin later so we left behind only the rubbish from cinemas seven and one for tomorrow. Both of those were supposed to come out at 1230 but got out early so we managed to be finished by 1230.

The Ticket Box is falling apart! One of the registers wasn't working, the broken chair from last week was still around, which Kellie fell victim to, nor did she have a credit card which meant I got many of her rejected customers. Next to me was Luke and Maysana beside him. We had a really busy night. During both of the hours or so when the films were going in the line never emptied.

We got some funny customer moments. One customer asked Luke what The Producers was. Another asked him if Memoirs was a Kung-fu film! Another asked me for tickets to Mon-itch. Kellie got a customer going off at her for not putting two stamps on one reel deal card. I had someone call from Newcastle wanting to buy tickets for tomorrow for his daughter and grandkids. We had a few people ask about Brokeback Mountain but not many. One customer asked us about a whole heap of Europa movies is North County on, is Mrs Henderson Presents? The night did go pretty quickly though with no big dramas so it was alright. Long day though and I'm kind over these.

Work didn't start off well. The box was full, Lauren, Sarah, Sophie, Tim and Darren, so I got the seat at the booking queue. I used to sit there all the time but it used to have a credit card swiper that worked and an unbroken seat. The seat tipped left and right and everytime I sat back down I almost went for six. Minutes in and both Sophie and Darren had problems with bookings. I also found that my code is no longer an E2 code.

I wasn't expecting it to be as busy as it was. Non-stop for the first hour or so I was there and having to turn away credit card customers was bad. Geisha was really busy, the first session sold out, and most other films did pretty well, except Narnia which really should have been swapped with Geisha out of cinema one and into ten (at least).

Darren left early, his shift extended through from the afternoon so I took his seat. The others helped out floor and candy bar during the break. The second sessions were quieter but still quite busy. They were all in by ten so I was able to sign out a little earlier than I was rostered to which was good.

My missing a shift didn't go unnoticed. Paul made a comment when I arrived because he was e2 the other night. Sally also commented on it and gave me a friendly naughty slap on the shoulder. Paul wasn't working tonight having swapped with Alex. Liam was on as multi-skill but spent most of his time on floor and Sharnie was 'enjoying' her final shift on floor but was on break when I arrived. Liam and Alex went to help candy bar during three quarters of an hour or so where everything was in and nothing was coming out. I kind of felt like I was the e2 but made a conscious decision not to be tonight and went with the flow

Then everything seemed to be coming out at once. We had Sascha, Luke and the new Chris come up to help us. Amongst this confusion a lady complained about slippery female toilets, Sascha and Sharnie went to investigate. That dealt with we then had a boy fall on the escalators and I had to run and get the first aid kit for Sascha. We get to cinema four and there's suss looking teenage guys at the fire door but they disappear, and one guy asleep. I went to wake him and he wasn't coming to. I start shaking him and yelling and it wasn't enough. We got him up but he was so out of it. He wasn't talking nor did he seem to know where he was. I didn't recognise him, nor did the other but Alex did, it was infamous Jake.

Liam and Alex went on their breaks and I went around and changed all the foyer bins. Had a bit of chat to Sharnie too about leaving. We both agreed that there's a weird unsettled vibe at work at the moment. I took some bins on a run and got back for the next round of sessions. Sally and Sascha were around to help with the first few. These weren't as busy as the earlier ones which were full of people avoiding the afternoon heat by going to the movies. When they were done Liam and Alex did a bin run, then Liam went off to help close Candy Bar and I went on my break.

I got an ice-cream on my break and put in the previews DVD that was in the Christmas packs. There weren't that many on it so I'm glad I didn't splash out to get one. Alex came and joined me as there was nothing to do. We went back and did a couple of the closes. None of them were too busy. We got through the first lot then had a gap where we watched some tennis in the bar. I went to see if there was a file note but Sally didn't remember seeing one. She said she and others would defend me if there were any major problems. We finished off another then took the one bin we had on bin run. Came back and finished off the last few, everything was pretty much done by 12 and I got sent home early, although only minutes earlier than Alex actually.

I missed a call from work but a message was left. It was Jane following up on my no show last night. My what? I rang back and was told I had a shift yesterday but didn't turn up. I didn't have one written down, I did not see one on the roster. My note has only Saturday and Sunday's shifts down. I felt like going down to see the roster but figured it would probably be down by the time I got there (and was probably already down). I got pretty upset by the implication and it made me think why? Why do I care so much about this casual job? It can't be good for me to be so caught up in it. It's fuelling the time to 'move on' feeling building in me.

Whenever I think back to Pete's farewell party I'm going to remember one thing more then anything else; getting to not only hang out with Brad but to also bond with him, get his number and the chance to further our friendship outside of work. The rest of the night blurs into nothingness in comparison.

Tonight in the box were Lauren Ca, Katherine, Darren and me. Darren had an afternoon/night session and was thus the first to go home, just a little bit early. It was a really quiet night. Despite some people coming in for the earlier sessions it then died down. As it was not picking up though so Chan let me go home early. Really I could have not come at all!

I ate tea in the staffroom. We now have a TV in there with a DVD player. Someone had bought in a Ali G DVD (taped from Comedy Channel). Yet another person is leaving, Sharnie finishing next week. The inclination to leave is continuing to grow.

For the first time in a very long time I had an E2 ticket box shift. A bit of a weird night though. There were five of us on, new Darren to my left, and Nick, Chris and Tim on the other. The Producers has not been a hit, it's not even half-filling cinemas even when it's in cinema eight for the earlier sessions. There wasn't a need for five people. There was a big gap mid-shift. A film at 730, one at 9:00 and only three in between. No one had a break so it was a bit of struggle to keep everyone looking busy. Chris ended up going to do some data entry and left early. Nick I kept sending on jobs like helping candy bar and floor.

I served three little old ladies off to see the Producers which made me laugh. I asked Darren if he'd seen it but he hadn't, and it wasn't funny if you've not see the show. Lots of people came in with screen savers (obvious presents) that we had to decline. I had one lady on the phone asking me lots and lots of questions about coming to see Zorro tonight. Would there be tickets, what time the ticket box opened, who would show them to the cinema. It was a little bit of a chore. Andrew and Sarah came to see a movie. I might have missed something there but it seems like they are seeing each other now. Despite what Michael was saying last week I still get a vibe.

Darren and Lisa came in late to see a movie. I had a bit of chat to Lisa while Darren got the tickets from Tim. For some reason I was a little surprised that she remembered me all that much. Soon after the guys signed out and I was left to serve the very few people that came in late. When Sascha signed me Marvin was buzzing in and out. I thought he might sign me out but no. I wrote a good file note for Tim because he impressed me with how dedicated he was to signing up VMC and how he interacted with customers. On the way out I had a sneak look at the Producers, coming in at the end of 'I want to be a Producer'.

I had discussed cancelling my shift today with Chan yesterday and so I went to see him after the movie. He was happy to cancel it, I wasn't closing or anything. Looked at a few shops before coming home. I caught up on TF and My Family from yesterday and spent time chatting online.

Gave X-Men Legends 2 a burl and it is good. Like the first though I'm not sure of the replay value. The first is tradeable, maybe when the new Tomb Raider comes out. I gave the Traffic miniseries a go, but there's too many stories and too many convienient connections between them that it's hard to get in to.