The other day I was working as the cashier in our store and then a coworker came by with her children to buy groceries. It was rather quiet at that time and before I started serving her, I pressed the button to call another cashier. My coworker turned around and then turned back at me with such a surprised look on her face and then I realized why she had that look.
I laughed and said, "I'm NOT crazyyyyy!!! It's time for my break, so I pressed the button."
She laughed, replying, "I was wondering why on earth you'd call another cashier because I saw nobody else behind me."
LOL LOL LOLLLLL!!!!
Oh yeah, while talking about this theme, today after work I went to another supermarket to buy something that wasn't sold in our place. While there, I browsed around to see if they had other interesting offers or products, so I was walking slowly around the store when a grandpa stopped me by asking, "Can you tell me where the cat food section is?"
I don't remember him at all, so I don't know if he just thought I was working there (which was odd because I wasn't wearing the store's uniform and I definitely looked like a foreigner so I had no idea why he knew I could speak Finnish), but I thought that I wasn't in a hurry anyway, so I asked the worker there where the cat food section was and he asked me to come along with him.
So I did. I showed him where the cat food selection was and he told me to take some for him. I had NOOOO idea what kind of cat food he was looking for, so I asked him what kind of cat food he was looking for - dry or wet? He told me that he usually bought the ones in bags, so I picked one and he said, "Yeah, that's the one. Take some."
Again I got a bit confused because that type had three different flavours and I told him about the selection, but he said, "It doesn't matter which kind."
I picked two and put them in his cart, but he told me to take more, so I asked him how many cats he had. He said it was a stray cat that had been abandoned by somebody, so he took the cat in. How thoughtful of him! :-D
After I took about a dozen in total (they were small bags), he thanked me and we parted way. What an interesting encounter! :-D
After having worked for a few months, I've learnt more things about being on the other side of "something" (in this case being on the other side of the customers' POV). There are things I wouldn't have known otherwise.
For example, sometimes for some items, the bar codes are incomplete (due to the wrong printing process) or for some reason the bar code label was ripped off (either partially or completely). Many times when this happens at work, some customers would insist that they remembered the prices of those items and they just expected us (cashiers) to type in the prices just like that. What they don't know is that in order to type in the prices, we need the supervisor's key to authorize it. Using the key, we then have to choose what kind of product it is so that it's shown on the receipt.
Another thing that I've experienced is after several busy hours being a cashier, it's so easy to lose the ability to count. I've shared this with a fellow colleague and she also said that it happens to her, so I assume it happens to the others, as well. Sometimes it gets crazy when the customer asks me to give me their change by exchanging some of them with coins. Or it gets even crazier when some customers give me so many coins to count as payment. When my brain is so tired already and I notice the queue getting longer and longer and I still have many coins to count, it gets rather stressful sometimes 'coz I just have to take my time to count carefully.
One time somebody gave me a BAG full of coins as payment. Thankfully it was filled with only one and two Euro coins. Had it been filled with 50 cent, 20 cent, 10 cent, and 5 cent coins as well, I would have probably freaked out he he...
Another thing that is a slight problem for me is on very very busy days, sometimes it's hard to have enough time to take a break (even though it's our right to do it). Sometimes in the middle of our breaks, we have to go back out there to serve the customers and other times it's just impossible for us to take breaks on time ('coz we have to do it by taking turns with the other workers). That's why whenever I have my break, I tend to try to fill my stomach as much as I can (esp. on very busy days) 'coz I don't know if I can take the next break on time or not. Glad to know that there've been calmer days, too. Phew!!! And it's nice to hear one thoughtful customer saying that we (workers) needed calmer hours (days) as well so that we could take a breath in between busy hours (days). :-D
All in all, I'm more appreciative towards those people who work in this type of job. Before I started working, I had NO idea what they had to deal with he he...Anyway, here's another autumn pic...taken from someone else's house near the river ha ha...
Well, this morning Sleepyhead me had a HAAAARRRDDDDD time waking up. Last night Arttu asked me what time I wanted to get up and I said 7 am. He woke up at around 6.45 am and then my alarm rang twice, at 7 am and 7.10 am, but I fell right back to sleep and managed to dream about something as well!!! I only woke up when Arttu came into the room with a smile on his face HA HA HA HA HA...
THANK YOU SO MUCH, Darling, for waking me up with a smile and not a frown!!! It certainly made my day MUCH sweeter!!!
After I got myself ready and prepared lunch and everything, I realized that Arttu had left his three mobile phones at home. Two of them are his and one of them is from his office. I was wondering whether I should have brought them with me since after all, my classroom is right next to his office. However, I wasn't sure that he would be there (he goes out a lot to fix computers and ATMs in banks or schools, so he doesn't stay in the office all the time). So I just walked to the course. It was -16'C, but funnily enough, I found that it wasn't as freezing as before. Interesting!!! Especially after walking fast for 5 minutes HA HA HA HA HA...
Today's lesson was fun in parts, since there are several funny people in our classroom. We had a few laughs and I'm looking forward to that again. We also conversed during lunch break, so it was good to get to know one another even more, even though I haven't really spoken to some of them yet ha ha ha ha...
And I got to steal a few kisses from Arttu. *HUGE GRIN* -----> This is probably the BEST part of the day HUA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA...
You see, he called me during my lunch break to ask if I wanted to come home with him. I said no since I had packed my lunch already, so he went home by himself to have lunch and when he got back to the office, I was just about to enter my classroom, so we stole a few kisses outside my classroom. And then I went to the toilet and we ran into each other again and I stole a few more kisses OOOOO YEEEEAAAAHHHH!!!! It felt good to feel "naughty" when nobody was looking HA HA HA HA HA HA HA...
Ahem...OK, well, I learnt many more things today, even though I knew most of them already, but I got to learn some more new words and I got to practise speaking to my mate. I sit next to the Turkish guy and he speaks good English, so we always pair up. His wife is Finnish and he's only been here for two weeks. He lives in Ivalo, farther up north in Lapland, but he actually says that Sodankylä is much colder than Ivalo. Interesting!!!
The Thai girl also doesn't live here, so she and the Turkish guy rent an apartment here (different ones, of course). I think the Turkish guy will learn Finnish quickly since he's pretty determined. Plus he obviously has a knack in learning languages, since he is good at English and he also speaks a little bit of different languages. He used to work in a travel agency, so he picked up street languages. He also lived in Germany and Italy once, so he picked up both languages. For someone who hasn't learnt Finnish at all, he's learning very fast. ;-D I think the Thai girl's the only one who's going to be in BIG trouble, since her English isn't good, so it's gonna be SO difficult for her. Poor girl!!!
My Brit friend MC isn't going to my course full-time anymore since she has to take care of her own business, but she's going to come every morning until lunchtime, then she'll go home. Her husband is going to the course full-time, though.
Oh well...I can still follow the lessons pretty well so far, but I need to learn more on my own as well so that I won't be "lost in translation" HA HA HA HA HA HA HA...
Okie dokie, time to blog hop and right after that I'll study and do my homework. It's not a difficult homework yet. I just need to prepare a few questions to ask my desk mate he he he he...
I'm sorry if I can't visit all your blogs every day since I really have less time to blog, but I'm going to try to visit you whenever I have time, OK???
P.S. Today two other books I won in eBay arrived. They're both in PERFECT shape, so I'm REALLY happy. Even though they're used books, they really look like new. Well, one of them is actually new, so it's really a SUPER GOOD bargain he he he he he...
All in all, all's well that ends well. That's my conclusion for today HE HE HE HE...I certainly hope your day's been as fun as mine.
