18 and rebellious!

With this week, for me, being all about highlighting the plight of carers in the UK, I thought I would tell you a wee story about me in my younger days before I entered the world of the unpaid carer.

When I was about 17, I worked as a receptionist in a hotel.  If you've seen the TV programme Faulty Towers, well the place wasn't that much different to that but it was my first job so I couldn't really complain!

I loved my job, as no two days were the same and the shift would pass in a blur!  I lived in as well, so I was often called on to help in other areas of the hotel.

This is how the hotel looks today....much improved!

Two weeks before my 18th birthday, I was in the bar with some friends (drinking diet coke I hasten to add), when one of them bought me an alcoholic drink.  There was lots of teasing in the form of "bet you're too chicken to drink it" and "go on, the boss isn't here, he'll never know!"  Being the type of person who likes to rise to a challenge I began sneakily sipping it and was nearly at the end when Ron, the boss man appeared and he had a total flaky!!!

So he banned me from the bar for the next two weeks and even worse he put me on a late shift the day of my 18th birthday!  It was a Saturday night too so I was not a happy bunny about that late shift and was feeling pretty miserable but hey "you mess with the bull, you get the horns right?".

I was about 2 hours into my shift when I guy I knew really well told me he was having a party at his that night and that I should come over after my shift.  I wasn't keen to start with but by 10pm, my birthday nearly over, I thought "why the hell not?" so when my shift finished at 11pm, I donned my glad rags and headed off with the attitude that "I would show the boss man that he hadn't spoiled my partying!".

I met my friend there and we had such a laugh.  Lots of drinks were consumed, probably about 5 or 6!  Hey that's a lot for an 18yr old and bugger they went straight to my head!  I staggered across the road, back to the hotel at around 6am, fell into the shower and came down stairs and somehow as soon as the water hit me I became totally incoherent and the Night Porter couldn't understand a word I said.  I was sure my tongue had grown two sizes too big all of a sudden!

Quickly he set about filling me full of black coffee. Mmmmm I wonder if that is why I take it this way these days? After about 14 cups of black coffee which is great for a hangover I hasten to add and 4 slices of toast he reckoned I was good to go!  By then I was in agreement cos I felt almost human.

Sundays were pretty slow cos we didn't have a lot of people in and the bar didn't open til 12.30 so I had a job keeping myself from falling asleep.  When my Boss came down after checking with me that there was no immediate problems he then headed off to empty all the games machines ready for me to count the money.

My co-ordination was still in "pissed" mode which would have been ok if he had left me to count all the change myself which was his usual but no that day, of all days, he decided to help me.  I was going ever so slow so he decided in his infinite wisdom that he would count the coins and put them into piles of pounds and I would bag them.  Sounds like a plan right?  Eh no, cos every time I reached out for a pile of coins I would either miss them or knock them over!  After this happening for the umpteenth time, my boss was getting a tad bad tempered and asked "was I drunk?".  To which I indignantly replied "no, I am not!!!".  Are you impressed that I managed to say this at all, never mind with a straight face too? (Now you know where Holly gets her acting skills from, NOT!!)

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His eyes narrowed and he took a real hard look at my face, taking in my bleary eyes and said "you'd better not be!".  Shortly after he left cos he was getting fed up of helping someone who kept undoing his good work!
Thank god cos I was convinced he was gonna suss me out.

Around about 2.30pm, with only an hour of my shift to go, I was sitting at my desk, nodding off when suddenly there was an almighty bang! My head shot up and I leapt outta my seat only to see one of the chefs, Phyllis, standing there, banging her hand on the counter.  She fell about laughing and I had to check my pants cos really, I nearly shit myself! My eyes were out on stalks for the next hour, terrified that I would fall asleep again.

The shift finally ended and I crawled upstairs to my bed.  Suffice to say I never went to work that hungover again but it did cause great hilarity among the staff and believe me I entertained them often!