Bee Orchid's articles

This week, I have been dusting off, and polishing the plank in readiness for the people I’d like to walk it. Top of the list are those disgusting people – and it is disgusting – who drop their face masks as they leave the shop they were in. These are dirty, if not with Covid, then potentially cold germs, or flu and so on, and some poor sap has to pick them up. It’s disgusting! Dispose of them properly people! Next would be people who are shopping in pairs, or even family groups, despite being…

Jake awoke, and felt like he always did, like boiled cr*p. He’d felt this way for weeks now, but didn’t dare tell anyone, especially his employer. He’d have to suck it up and go to work, same as he did every single day. Working in Food Production, he was an important man. More like an unimportant drone, just like a bee, he often thought to himself. No time off allowed because people would starve if he didn’t work. That was the Corporate mantra, anyway. How could you argue with that? Besides,…

During my time off, we’ve been experimenting with some Vegan and vegetarian fare. The food we make has been good, such as bean casserole, lentil dhal, Haloumi ‘burgers’ (delicious!) though with my son being lactose intolerant, we have tried some specific Vegan fare, with very mixed results. I eat cheese, yogurt, milk with no ill-effects but ice cream, no matter how good, always makes me feel somewhat sick. With that in mind we tried Roar vegan ‘ice cream’. We’ve tried 2 different flavours, and h…

I’m off now, for over a week, and I’m very pleased about it. Initially, I thought I may get bored though I have a ‘list’ of things that need doing so I’m sure I’ll keep myself occupied. Work has been quite a slog, with Christmas and the New Year, and an average of almost 500 orders a day; it’s been exhausting! Customers have been mostly okay, but there’s always one or two, and today I was told to move my trolley. Honestly, a polite request will get you want you want, and we’d all be happy that w…

This week I had a wistful moment. Some tech guys were sat at a till with some equipment in pieces, and they were using a very snazzy-looking laptop to run some tests. I passed them a few times, picking orders, and kept trying to see what they were doing. I didn’t do much of that in my university post, however I did some technical fault-finding when I worked on a Help Desk. I’m not sure I could do it now, not sure I have the patience let alone the know-how, but it did remind me of happy times tak…

Recently, we’ve had some ‘excitement’ here. I was in the bowels of the pirate ship (work to you) on Thursday, when we were plunged into darkness. A few exclamations went up, though within seconds the emergency lights came on. It was gloomy; however, I could see well enough. I was on a Blue pick, so carefully carried on working. After about 5 minutes, the lights came back on fully. I finished on a Blue pick, only to then be told that the system was down, and I couldn’t ‘sign off.’ Man, I was put…

Recently, I’ve been experiencing a wide range of emotions: I’ve been gratified to see that the police that I mentioned in a previous blog have been (allegedly) fined for breaching lockdown rules, and that members of the Senedd (Welsh government) who breached rules, are being investigated and could lose their jobs. I’m not sure I’d fire them, however they do need to be held accountable: you can’t make and enforce rules, expect the general public to abide by them, and then metaphorically stick…

My son has recently declared that I’m not to be trusted. Sadly, I may have to agree with him. As mentioned before, my laptop has been playing up. It shuts itself down with alarming frequency, and with no notice. Initially, I assumed the battery power had run down, however upon restart, the battery power was fine. I’ve lost work. It’s frustrating… My son has an old PC in his room, and he has given it to me. It’s a huge beastie compared to my laptop though it’s so much faster, and it has a good am…

Here in the UK, it’s business as usual. The PM went for a nice long cycle ride whilst telling the rest of us to stay local. Police were seen eating and drinking in a café whilst the rest of us are not allowed, and most cafes are shut anyway. And a politician has told her constituents to stay home unless it’s absolutely necessary to go out. She told them this whilst she’s sunning herself in far off climes. Talk about hypocrisy! So, as I said, business as usual; one rule for us plebs, quite anothe…

This week, I have been disgusted by customers who have left a mess in the store. I was in the egg aisle and slipped on something. I almost lost my balance, grabbed my trolley, twisted my ankle, and scraped my elbow on the trolley. I managed to stay upright, barely, but my elbow is now cut and bruised. The culprit? Somebody had dropped an egg on the floor and just left it there. Honestly, it costs nothing to tell a member of staff, and we won’t be cross, we will however clean it up before somebod…

This past week we’ve had snow and ice. The one day, we had almost 3 inches of snow fall, which then melted slightly, then froze. The council didn’t collect our rubbish on the designated day, stating icy and dangerous driving conditions on side roads as the cause. Now, who grits the roads? Oh yes, the local council. Oh, the irony… Priceless! Meanwhile, three of us in the street work in retail, and as far as I know, if the store is open, and we don’t attend, then we don’t get paid. The young man i…

Well, that’s 2020 down the drain, and thank goodness. It’s not been all bad, I landed a job after all, and I’m often glad to see the back of a year, however 2020 has been particularly bad for obvious reasons. I’m hopeful that 2021 will see us get on top of this awful pandemic, that vaccines will do their job, and that people will stop their foolishness and selfishness (illegal raves, parties, mass gatherings, ignoring social distancing) and that we can all return to some sort of normalcy. Hop…

Okay, that’s not as bad as it sounds despite some people thinking I’m a tad weird. As previously mentioned, the Deckhand had bought me a nice steel so I could sharpen my cutlass I mean kitchen knives. I spent a happy hour, approximately, on Christmas Day taking it for a test drive lol. The knife block was emptied, and the 5 knives therein given a good sharpening. This was a block of knives my ex gave me before he left for Oz. They didn’t want to pack it into storage it as they were still using i…

Day 5 – Sunday I was scheduled to work a 6-hour shift instead of my usual 4 hours. Some staff started at 4am, some at 5, and so on. Before 10.30am, we’d finished picking which was fine by me. I could have stayed on, stacked shelves, done some cleaning, but I was more than happy to leave. In the end, I only had 15 minutes overtime that day. Swings and roundabouts. I’d had a bad night Saturday, so wasn’t too bothered about losing some overtime. After I’d clocked off I did just a little shopping, t…

Well, 8 days as far as work is concerned. Part 1: Day 1 – Not too crazy, only a 4-hour shift which was nice. So many customers on the shop floor wanting us to reach things, and also asking questions. Oy! One of our colleagues was playfully jostling another colleague’s trolley so I laughed and then told them to ‘play nicely.’ After that he kept calling me Mum – cheek! He asked if I wanted to smack his hand. I said No, and that I thought he might like it which amused him hugely. Afterwards…

Recently, my ‘picking’ has garnered 2 minor complaints. The first was a customer who wanted Cheshire cheese. There was a big empty space on the shelf, and a note stating it was out of stock. This was duly put into the scanner, and the customer requested I choose an alternative. Which I did. Later, the supervisor questioned me about it, and I stated that I can’t pick what we don’t have, so I gave an alternative. The second concerned mince pies. I couldn’t find the one requested, so I gave an alte…

Since having my flu shot, and getting very wet and chilled, this pirate has been feeling under the weather. Nothing major, and no high temperature, just not feeling great. My ‘pick rate’ in work slumped a little, and I did go to great pains to state I wasn’t feeling so good since having a flu shot. The one day in work I sneezed so hard I had a slight nosebleed for the next few hours (I’m a bleeder). That was fun! I had to keep lowering my mask when nobody was around to… well, you know. The injec…

This week the Deckhand narrowly avoided being keelhauled. He’d made a coffee in the galley and put his full cup of coffee near the breadboard. Usually, he leaves it by the kettle. Anyway, he opened a cupboard, fumbled the marmite jar which leapt out of his hands and crashed into, you guessed it, his full coffee cup. This fell over, soaked the breadboard, soaked the dog’s meds, and then proceeded to drip onto the Ship’s Dog’s bed. Good grief! He grabbed the kitchen roll whilst I grabbed a dishclo…