I need a focus!

If you read my last post you may know that I recently left my job, so now I am currently looking for work! However that being said I am tempted on starting my own business, because at the ripe old ages of 23 I'm already sick of other people being my boss.

My own little Planet

The thing is though that I have no idea what to do! Is it just me who struggles to choose what to put time into? I cant seem to decide which fires need fuel and which are best left to end in cinders. My previous work has led me into Television Production (Foyles War Season 9 & a few days on Vera) which I found to be great fun and would be a good career. Though I enjoy writing my own stories so making just other peoples might not lead me where I want to be in the end! With doing Video Game Design at College it has allowed me to focus on my artistic side doing Digital Art on Photoshop and 3D Art in Maya which I really enjoy but more recently I've started to have doubts in my own work and started asking myself "Am I really good enough to pursue this as a career?". 

 The Canyon Village 

I was starting to think maybe I should be a Graphic Designer so I applied for a job (which unfortunately I didn't get) or maybe I should be self employed doing that kind work. But is that what I want? I had a stint trying to get my own short film made which has come to a halt for numerous reasons, which I had written and made the 3D assets for! 

3D Digital Sculpt

Going from these two things had led me into my College course directly I guess, because with games it means that I could have a direct input into the not only the story, the design but the art side of things too. 

  Landscape design for a Game Concept

So with that I have decided to start working on some games with some friends from College! I've just got to try and focus myself into getting something done.

Well I've missed a few months...

So after months of not writing a post I decided today was the day,

After coming back from my second trip (which you can find out about in my other blog) I had ended up settling down I guess, I felt pretty steady in myself after starting college and in my relationship, which is a good thing! I ended up changing job again to a local bar and restaurant which was going well... until the time came for payday and low and behold I hadn't been paid. Day 1 no pay. Day 5 no pay. Day 15 NO PAY. In a job where you get paid monthly you expect to get paid on time. Especially when you work your arse off over Christmas for your bosses. Not only that but I had been told I didn't fall into the bracket to make the first months pay so ended up having to wait for the month after. Great right? So around 17 days into the 2nd month of employment I finally get paid, and at this point I can't just walk out because I'm already 17 days in hand for next months pay!

So after countless staff chasing their pay (why the hell should you have to chase your own money?) we get promises that this month (month 3) it won't happen and we will get paid on time. I walked in the morning of payday to find all the staff sat around, I looked around at all those unhappy faces and can you guess what the chorus of voices said? Yep. That's right. "No ones been paid." Again. For weeks we all chased our money eventually I received my pay nearly two hundred pounds short.

I've had enough of this sh*t. So with that little gem of a revelation, I got my shizat and I walked away. Weeks flew by with the freedom. It was actually great! However in those weeks that last part of my paycheck never materialized... Seriously! Do you have any idea how hard it is to not write very offensive words in this?! I ended up having to go into the restaurant and get my money in cash from the safe with the help from my friend and coworker!

Now call me old fashioned but not paying your staff is one thing but bills to keep the restaurant open? Well that's another thing. We received countless calls with threats of cancellation of internet and phone line, deliveries refusing to leave until we paid cash and from what I've heard since leaving deliveries will not even bring stock anymore from lack of payment and not to mention council tax hasn't been paid either.

So where was all the money going? Well it turns out the owners have bought another restaurant and are putting all their money into that, funny that isn't it? What kind of f*****g idiot does it take to realize that if you stop paying your staff at your current business, who are making you the f*****g money in the first place they're probably going to walk out. How these people run businesses is beyond me. People in the service industry work long hours, some do Christmas, some do New Years Eve and still not an ounce of thanks is ever received.

So if you're wondering which sh*thouse of a restaurant this is it's "21 Mediterranean Kitchen" in Knutsford in sunny little Cheshire. If you do decide to dine or drink there remember to tip the staff because it's the only way they're going to get paid.

And Today Went?

I arrived at my college perfectly on time, which was a strange as I'm usually late for everything... everyone seemed in high spirits and genuinely nice. I got given so many cookies and tortilla chips/crisps. And a subway sandwich, all for free! I even ended up beating a host guy on a fighting game on the Snes and playing Mario Kart 64. Educational! 

However, I do have to go back tomorrow as the induction for my particular course takes place then. The post I saw regarding inductions didn't actually specify different days but at least I got free food! It was actually really nice to even just sit on the train in the morning on the way to somewhere interesting, made me feel so much better to do something for a change. 

Any new updates regarding my work I'm sure I'll post them!

Chosen a path

So after last week's post about indecision I took control regardless of the situation and went for the college course, and I start my induction TODAY.

I feel slightly nervous but not half as much as I thought I would, I think its because I decided (eventually) myself. The only thing now is finding a job to fit in with the night course, not that I really wanted to do a bar job again. But it also means I can't do anymore television jobs... Shame really because it was pretty fun, if a little tiring.

So, I'm leaving for first day. Expect an update later on how it went.
Hazz

Mayday Trials and Japan

If any of you do not know what Mayday is (English readers should), for anyone who doesn't allow me to explain. Mayday is supposed to mark the time of year when the weather here in England gets warmer, trees and flowers blossom and has been celebrated in England for around 2000 years! Parades walk down the little streets of my town, a fun fair fills the air with the smell of hot dogs, burgers and... petrol. Which is followed by a crowning of a "May Queen" and then a Maypole dance (not as sexy as it sounds). Being a barman I must say I did not enjoy the day as much as the other 9,000 people in our town, not including the other unlucky few working bars and restaurants too! It's common knowledge that us English like to drink, well I'll now confirm that as we sold our entire stock of vodka, lager and white wine. So as you can imagine me and my fellow Barmen rue that 17 hour shift. At least that one day put some serious cash in the bank and next week's paycheck should be good!
Here's a little snap of our little street as the parade begins.

The celebrations here in our little town are not too distant from the Sakura festival I was lucky enough to experience. This festival itself takes place when the blossom trees reach full flowering and is probably the most beautiful sights I have seen, take a look:

Where I left off previously (the taxi ride if you remember) was not the end to that night obviously the nocturnal adventure ended when I finally arrived at my hostel... which had closed. Luckily however I found after paying the taxi what would be £50, the lady was inside and hadn't left yet! She let me in, gave me my key and told me where my room was. I followed her instructions and came to quite a grimy looking corridor which seemed like an old block of flats.

My room however was not as bad, although when I walked in I was greated my four French guys who didnt speak a word of English who stared until I got into bed. And just to make it better the guy who had the bed next to mine had the worst smelling feet I. Have. Ever. Smelt. Mezanine was the album on the menu tonight, morning would be here soon.

Morning came very rapidly actually, when I woke the French guys were gone so I headed down to the Rec room for breakfast. I collected my food and sat down, but something caught my attention. A voice. The accent was what struck me most first, I turned around to find a man called Reuban Grant. Who I happened to have met back in England at a music festival called Download, who lives in Manchester. What are the chances here? I mean literally on the other side of the world, in some random hostel in one of the biggest cities in the world.

After breakfast I decided to take some air in around the city and walked out into the busy streets. Over some of the buildings I noticed a tall structure that stuck out as unusual. It turned out that my hostel was right next to the Sensoji Temple, and with the Cherry Blossoms being in bloom it was quite a sight.

Wandering around a place like this was amazing, I have never seen a temple before outside of the fake ones built in the Trafford Centre...

 Now I've got to say not all of Tokyo is so lovely, Reuban, Dan and I decided on going out for a few drinks in the Roppongi district. Now Roppongi is known for being the "drinking place for Gaijin", we stopped in one bar which had the biggest assortment of bras hung around the ceiling which I've ever seen fronted by a barman from New Zealand. After drinking for a while we decided to head back, but on the walk the heavens opened up and we got soaked. I mean really soaked. Although we did get an amazing picture thanks to Reubans camera.

Now what happened next was something that made me a little uncomfortable, on the walk back we were stopped by a huge Nigerian guy who asked if we wanted some drinks and somewhere dry to sit while we dried off. Me, Reuban and Dan followed the man into a building, took a lift to the top floor and were shown into a small club contained in one room. It was empty. We were sat down at a table and left for a few moments until three Russian women came over, it dawned on me. This was a Hostess Bar. Now a Hostess Bar is nothing sleazy luckily, but it did have an air off creepy and wrong! We were brought one free drink each which I must say I was slightly hesitant to drink as I didn't order one. The Russian girls I must say were actually very nice, well two of them anyway. The problem here was that they kept requestion that we buy Champagne which was close to £300 a bottle, so as you can imagine the answer everytime was no! Now after a good twenty minutes of asking they began to get a little aggitated and one of the Nigerian bouncers came over asking why we have not bought the women any drinks yet in a very aggressive way. Dan decided to leave, we thought he had just gone to the bathroom so we didn't follow, and we remained sat there like lemons waiting for him. With him not returning we reached a logical idea, THEY KILLED SPONGE!!! (I should clarify we called him sponge because of his Spongebob socks) But then the bouncer told us that he'd left so the panic was over. Time to leave. I stood up and told Reuban it was time to go so we made our way for the door, not before I might add the Russian woman asked me to meet her "after work". But as I was still soaked, now pretty drunk and it was pushing 2am already I gave the offer a miss.

Bra Bar

The nearby temple, what really struck me was the size!

The temple's golden room

Cherry Blossom

Reflecting on the stream of life. Poetic right?

Since I have been back home living the work, work and more work life I've been feeling the need to reflect upon the "Journey" I took myself on last year. The thing that strikes me most about the whole thing was how much of a dream away it feels, regardless of how far I went or how many people I met it still leaves me yerning for more. It worries me. Mainly because now I dont feel at home at home. Do other travellers feel the same? Or is it just me? I'd love to hear from other travellers how they feel about being home and how they've delt with their "post travel depression" (which I'll now call PTD) or even how other people wanting to see the world feel. Every couple of days I'll be adding to my travel blog and uploading the pictures for you all to see.

After buying the rucksack and new trainers (a must, although they require wearing in!) The day came to leave. I said my fairwells and set off to work with my Dad, who as a bonus, works at Manchester Airport meaning I didn't have to wait in ques and thanks to him chatting up the lady behind the desk got a seat upgrades to more legroom! And being 6"4 it was very much appreciated.

After the long flight from Manchester to Chicago (stopping in Dublin) I was here. I'd done it. I walked along the (thanks Dad for just telling me what it's called) Airbridge from my flight and stood looking out across the Chicargonion runway. A moment of panic struck me. What have I done. What I had done was quit my job and within four days left the country. Alone. After pacing and collecting my single backpack I left arrivals looking for Amy Lancaster, photographer https://www.facebook.com/amyvlphotography
and cousin who agreed to have me stay with her for a while and was graciously collecting me, she was nowhere to be found. So here I am thousands of miles from home in one of the biggest airports, I tried to sit down in the airport bar but was told to leave as I was only 20 at the time...

But thank God, there she was staring up at the arrivals board, we must of past eachother. The way we talk is not something like two people who dont see each other for 4 years at a time, she is not only a member of my family but also considered one of my best friends. So now we drive to pick up Chinese food to suprise the rest of my family, I always told them I'd turn up uninvited one day.

Thanks everyone, I am Home