The Christmas Spirit

I realise I'm a bit late with the Christmas-themed blog. But oh well. This is basically the tale of the run-up to my Christmas, and Christmas day.

In the week leading up to Christmas, I worked 6 out of 7 days. And subsequently lost all faith in humankind, and the will to live. Those of you who know me, will know I work in Sayers (and those of you who don't, have just been told). Most of the conversations I have with customers pass without any major incidents. We make the sales transaction and move on with our lives. However, there are some customers who feel it is their duty to make my shift just that little bit more stressful. Here are some examples of things customers do that make me want to hurdle over the counter and dropkick them all the way to PoundBakery, so they can mither someone else about baked pastry goods:

• "Can I have a pasty?" - The single most annoying question a customer could possibly ask. We're a bakery. We sell a variety of pasties, and I'm not a fucking mind-reader. You're going to have to be more specific.
• "Do you have any *name of any item we sell*?" - If it isn't on the counter, chances are, we don't have it. I'm not hiding a secret stash of steak pasties from you.
• "It costs extra to sit in? That's ridiculous. The world has gone mad! I'm now going to complete my conversation with you in the rudest way possible because, clearly, you write the company policy. Etc, etc, etc." - Actually, no, contrary to popular belief, the staff of this particular shop do not make the rules, we just follow them. You know, so we don't get sacked. It costs extra to sit in because you're paying for VAT and the wages of the sorry bastards who have to clean up after you. Deal with it, or get out.
• Similarly, don't pay the take-out price for a pasty, then sit in the cafe in the hope that no-one has noticed, then look at me like I have three heads when I ask you to either pay the difference, or leave.
• Do not ask me stupid questions, because stupid questions are usually followed up with a stupid answer, but no doubt if I gave you a stupid answer, you'd get me sacked. In the time I have worked at Sayers, I've been asked if the bean and SAUSAGE pasties are vegetarian, what the difference is between the plain iced bun and the fruited iced bun, and whether the cheese and onion pasties are very cheese-and-oniony. These are just a few off the top of my head and this is by no means an exhaustive list. Just take my word for it. People are idiots.
• There are quite a few options with our menu. So when I ask you if you want your coffee black, latte or cappuccino, or how many sausages you want on your barm, do NOT just go 'whatever', as though you have a 'usual' order that I should know about. I'm asking you for a reason, I work here and I know how the ordering system works, so just answer the goddamn question.

Over the Christmas period, incidents such as the above happen on a more often than average basis. On top of this, people go Christmas shopping, get themselves stressed, then come and take it out on us when they decide they want feeding and watering. For this reason, my Christmas spirit was at a low ebb, until I went home on Christmas eve after work.

I love Christmas eve. It's one of my favourite days of the year. This year, I spent it in my onesie, wrapping presents, watching The Holiday, and generally getting really excited about Christmas day. My Christmas day was also perfect, particularly Christmas morning. The only downside of Christmas this year has been that my dad has been working nights, meaning we got up at the crack of 7am when he got in from work and opened presents. Me, my mum, my dad, my brother and my dog, all sat downstairs, in front of the fire, and took turns opening presents (yes, even the dog). It was genuinely perfect. My dad sat with a pint(!) of whisky and lemonade ("Dad, it's 7 o clock in the morning!!"..."I've been at work ALL NIGHT." was the closest thing my family got to an argument throughout the whole of Christmas day) and turkey butties, while my mum made the rest of us breakfast.

Presents-wise, a couple of weird things happened. My dad bought my mum the same book as my mum had bought me, and none of us knew until we'd opened them, and me and my mum both got slankets (blanket + sleeves = slanket). I got a BEAUT Pandora charm bracelet, with an elephant charm and a hedgehog charm, which I love, amongst the usual things like dvds, books, perfume etc. My brother got an iPod touch, which nearly ended up outside buried in the snow due to the amount of mithering he did about how it works and how you put apps on it etc etc etc.

Which brings us to now, Christmas week. Last night I went out for a meal with Frankie, Vicki, Katie and Nathan for Frankie's 21st, during which we became that table that everyone hates, as discussed in my blog of a week or so ago when me and my friends went to a different Italian restaurant. Oh well, what goes around comes around. The highlight of my night was when Nathan got meringue in his eyebrow.

Today is my little brother's 16th birthday. Which makes me feel ridiculously old. Last month, he went looking at colleges and started trying to decide what he's actually going to do with his life, which made me realise that it's 5 years since I was doing that, and that in 6 months' time, I'll have left uni and will be turning 21, which means I'll actually officially be an adult. And that scares me shitless.