Well, that didn't go to plan!

We didn't exactly fit in the accomodation booking last night! By the time we'd had dinner and chilled out a bit, it was time to go to bed! Pretty pathetic excuse, I know, considering how much we have to get done over the next few days!

My girlfriend found an excellent looking log cabin by Lake Baikal, which is surely going to be an excellent place to stay. She has emailed them to see if it's available during our stay. Also, we have decided on our hotel for the two nights in Moscow earlier on in the trip, we just have to book it now, so we have done a little towards it!

I mentioned in a previous post about wanting to stay in a traditional Mongolian ger along the way. We think we have found a good looking place, with very reasonable rates too, only trouble is the transfers from Ulan Bator to it are not cheap. Still, a decision will have to be made on this very soon!

I best get on with my work now...

Second day in the final week...

All ok today! The only issue seems to be that one of them has something very important of mine. I'm apparently getting it back tomorrow, but we shall see!

With everything that is going on, I have realised that I haven't made any proper approaches for work once we get to New Zealand. I think I will spend the latter part of this week and part of the weekend on that (although just writing about it has made me go and have a look!)

We're both really excited about the trip now and are going to spend the evening booking up the rest of the accomodation we need!

Into the final working week...

It's Monday and it's time to get on with things, as I head into my final week working for these plonkers! Well, final four days...

Since I am not strictly working with the 'bosses' this week, I am hoping I will be able to do quite a good avoidance act for most of the week. If not, then I'll get a chance to say goodbye, won't I?

Look out Thursday for a celebratory post, although, being freelance, the real celebrations will only begin once the final invoice has cleared! Believe me, the way these two have run around like destitute pheasants for the last month, that really will be a result!

Another work clanger!

I was busy yesterday clearing out a room full of my old primary school work, videos (!) and rubbish CDs. It's always a difficult task, throwing away those little things that didn't cost anything, are worthless, but you claim have a significant part in your building as a person (obviously, I don't mean 'throw away' literally, I mean 'take to a charity shop' - the ONLY way to get rid of old stuff!). A Mountain Biking Action Man, countless Red Dwarf videos, little cast iron soldiers.... the list is nearly endless! It's tough! I'm glad I had my ruthless little sister on hand to help me break the emotional barriers with this stuff and let it go to a home where it will probably make a child very happy!

In the middle of this tremendous effort, I noticed I had yet another missed call from 'Boss' number 1. He left his stupid trademark voicemail asking if I would give him a call back, but for what? Just so I could re-iterate the contents of an email I sent to him last week! I won't lie: I wasn't surprised. But you can guess who received a 'forward' in their email this morning... and no call back, either!

On with the room clearing...

Trains, train, railways, railway, we're going round the world on a train!

As the title suggests, things are good here! I have just spoken to Intourist and our new representative there is just waiting on the final confirmation of our tickets, which should happen in the next two days! We are so almost on the train, I can feel the dust from the seats in my nostrils!

Why lie to me?

I mentioned in my last post that 'boss' number 1 lied in a voicemail to me last week. I found this out on Monday morning and I thought 'What a twat!'. It just goes to underline the poor working relationship they have managed to forge with me by lying and cheating their way through things. I know some people might tell me to just roll through it and expect that sort of crap from places of work throughout my entire life, but I feel slightly different about it. I can understand a little bit of witholding the truth, maybe because it is not appropriate to let a certain piece of information go public just yet, but to just ring me up and lie on the message, just to get me to call you straight back!? That's downright childishness! I'll call you back after I get the message, at my earliest convenience, thank you!

As a payment for that, I am holding some work leaving drinks after I finish on my last day next week. Pity no one from my work will be invited!

Bosses?? Arses, more like!

Oh my life. What a ridiculous couple of days it has been! Considering that I have not even been working for these guys these last two days, they have managed to make a real mockery of the terms 'director', 'business' and, indeed, 'boss'.

Now, correct me if I am wrong, but I always thought that as a freelance worker you worked the time and then you charged for the time you worked? Not so if you work for these dicks! I got a phone call yesterday evening from 'Boss' number 2 (he is MOST DEFINITELY number 2!) asking if it was alright for me to "not charge them for some work that I have done"! I reeled back. He's a pretty weedy fart, this guy, and I could hear in his voice that he'd required a trip to the pub and an awful lot of courage to ask me this, so I did his worst nightmare and said: "I'm sorry. Could you say that again please?" He squealed the words out again, this time with even less conviction. What could possibly be the excuse for them asking this of me? I was gasping in horror. Was this company seriously asking this? Not a very professional way of running things, now, I don't think. I told him that I would definitely be charging for the work carried out and that was that. Soppy loser.

I may have mentioned before, but my job involves the running of a short project for young people. The company have taken a lump sum payment to run the project and then pay their staff from that. Since the company is non-profit making neither of the directors are allowed to take anything like a dividend at the end of a financial year. They are, however, allowed to reward any member of staff with a 'bonus' if they like. There. That's it! That's the reason they don't want to pay me too much for doing the work that needs to be done! The money is running low now and me being at work eats into their bonus!

Moving on to 'Boss' number 1, I got a phone call today. I was working elsewhere at the time so I ignored it. He left a voicemail (in which there was a total lie!) and I called him back. Because I couldn't be arsed to speak to him for long, I popped outside and stood next to the noisy road to ensure the call would be as short as possible. It worked and I carried on with my (more important) work towards other things. Another half an hour passed and he called back again! I was pretty annoyed by now: I'd worked Monday, Tuesday and half of Wednesday for him and it had taken until Friday for him to get his brain into gear to ask me to do something! I ignored the call again and called him back a few minutes later - I just love making him leave voicemails like a bitch! This time he had a job for me. No, not any new work, just something for me to do there and then for him while I was working for someone else. Twonk. No idea how it works, I tell you!

I sat around for a bit before making the calls he needed me to make and then just text him the results of my call. Maybe I am too nice? Or maybe I have my sights set on receiving this last pay packet before disappearing off and never talking to them again? One thing is for sure: I am going to name and shame this wretched hole of a company in the not-so-distant-future. This pair of chumps need all the advice they can get...

Paid.

I have in my hand one of the most exciting documents I have ever touched. I am physically shaking with excitement when I touch this thing. Our train tickets have arrived from Trainseurope! We only paid for them on Wednesday and they were with us Thursday. Good going!

I got a bit of a tingle down my spine when Bob, our man on the inside, was reading back the itinerary to me on Wednesday, but that was nothing compared with the tingle I get when holding the tickets in my hands!

All the months of rubbish from the bosses at work. All the crap phone calls on days off. All the pressure not to have a day off (due to sickness etc). All the time spent answering to their pathetic needless demands. All the time WASTED answering their pathetic knowledgeless questions. All the times I felt a hit of deflation every time I saw one of their names pop up on the mobile phone screen. All of the crap I've felt from them for the last 15 months. All suddenly worth it!

The First Train Booking!

So we have literally just over a month until we depart from St. Pancras International. And we've only just booked and paid for our first train! Such is the way with most trains, you simply cannot book them that far in advance! A couple of months really is your maximum, even less for the type of journey we're going on! As I mentioned before, we turned to a company called Trainseurope to book our journey from London to Moscow, and a great job we did! One of their top men, Bob, has sorted us both a single journey from London to Brussels to Berlin (for the day) to Warsaw (for the night) to Moscow all for the 'Easyrail' price of £300! You couldn't get from London to Blackpool for less than that!

I have just realised that I forgot to give a detailed report on how my medical in Thornton Heath went. Basically, early one Saturday morning last month, my partner and I went to the very hospital where my Grandpa was born and had a chest x-ray. Which would have lasted a whole five seconds, but for the fact I have 'long lungs' (due, apparently, to my great height!) and the nurse had to take two shots of them. Ten seconds passed and we left. That was that.

The following Thursday I popped back to another part of Thornton Heath and had the remainder of my medical examination. Which was excellent. I completely take back moaning about the cost of it, given the results. There probably isn't a soul on the earth who would take issue with paying a few hundred pounds to a medical professional and, in return, being told they are completely healthy!

Needless to say, I passed. Both in medical eyes and immigration eyes, because approximately one week later I was issued with a 23 month visa for New Zealand and 12 month work permit! It's all on!

So there we are, all pretty much up to date. We leave the UK on 11th August, in just over one month's time; My employers are still completely clueless (they think I am going on another vacation there!); My partner is getting very excited about her home country and discovering parts of it with me; We've cancelled the TV licence; it's all go!

The Final Month...

So into my last month of working for these bozos I go! All the threats of me leaving the project early and the like seem like a thing of the past. Since one half of the project I work on finished in early June, I have had quite a bit of time away from the two dicks who run the company (and the company as well!) and life has been returned to an almost peaceful state. Except for last Monday...

Last Monday saw me have a run in with the toss, I mean boss, over the phone naturally. He was ranting and raving about the fact that I hadn't told him something prior to him going and having a go at a client (His words: "Bit her ear off!") when what I hadn't told him was hardly relevant and would not have stopped him going for her in any rate! Willy...

With only a few weeks left working for them now, I am going to start lifting the lid on what it exactly is that I do, with who and where. I look forward to revealing all soon!