Crestgate and the US Military

Monday 9th August 2010.6am - 2pm

There are lots of staff away at the moment and somehow i found myself volunteering to "do" the magazines.

That involves cages and serious physical graft.I distributed hundreds of magazines ranging from Vogue to the Investors Chronicle.It was a good opportunity to have a look at the hundreds of titles that the PLC stocks.Every taste is catered for from Tattoo addicts to Wine buffs.

This task took approximately 5 hours and part of the process is to remove the out of date publications.Once the returns are dealt with they have to be boxed up and labelled.

Gay boy was on board with me today in the big unit and he's on the level.
We had a ball today.For an 18 year old kid he is very well read and seems totally different from most teenagers.He watches old shows like Blackadder and is a budding journalist.

The cockney scrubber was also present but she was snowed under with 12 skips of books to distribute.

At around 11.30am the big Pakistani unit who runs the stock room handed us a box of Crest toothpaste.The tubes weren't travel size they were the size you find in Morrison's.Gay boy collapsed in a fit of laughter which lasted 5 minutes.He found the whole stuation very amusing that the PLC sells toothpaste even though Boots is 2 doors away.

He was fascinated by the size of the tubes which could last every holiday for the rest of your life.

The rank curry i consumed at "Curry Asia" last night was repeating on me and i had to run to the WC for a rapid clear out.

Business was steady and time was flying by.
A squat muscular Yank arrived at the till with a Citicorp credit card to settle a £15 bill.

Gay boy tried to process the payment but couldn't do it.He called me in for assistance and even with manual input of the numbers it was "declined".

"I'm from the US military and they have given me an allowance for 3 days of travelling" he said.
"Unfortunately,the card has been declined on several occasions and i suggest you contact the issuing bank" i replied.
As Uncle Sam walked away sheepishly,Gay boy remarked "Is this how the US military treat their soldiers?"

The King was buzzing today and he summoned me for a meeting,my stomach turned over.I thought i had been rumbled.It was a chat to confirm my working hours for the previous 2 weeks.

I finished at 2.05pm and went to meet HID to collect the keys for our new abode.