Kinky La Rue

And you know what? I didn’t go mad. I didn’t call SJ bending her ear letting off steam.I didn’t foam at the mouth.

Remember, I don’t live where I work, I have to make the journey in especially whenever a client makes a booking. So I spent a fiver on a return journey to Victoria, got to the apartment, but something told me not to get fully dressed, or undressed in my case. So I just put on my cami top and my sussies. I didn’t break out the new pair of stockings out of their packaging  just yet, I thought I’d wait for the phone call. Which didn’t come. He didn’t cancel, as I asked him to do when making the booking. Just didn’t turn up.

But like I said, I didn’t get mad. I sighed, mumbled oh well underneath my breath and got changed again and left. Even when I got to the station and my train was cancelled (sound familiar?) at rush hour to boot, I didn’t snap, I just got the fast train to East Croydon and caught the slow train back to my regular station. And  time-wise I wasn’t too much later than if I had caught the cancelled train anyway.

I stopped and picked up some fish n’ chips for dinner and came home just in time for one of my favourite shows on the telly, Judge Judy.

So no, not mad at all. Too much of a waste of energy. But I have allowed myself the luxury of keeping the no-show’s number in my phone under something unmentionable, just in case the chap thinks it’s a good idea to try and call and make another booking he has no intention of turning up to.

Except it wasn’t the bag, it was the bloomin’ wallet. I had forgotten I’d bought the wallet at the same time I bought my bag, but because the wallet was inside the bag I didn’t think it could be that.

I was in my local shopping centre again this morning and sure enough, I was beeped as soon as I walked into Marks. I thought, okay, enough is enough, as much as I like the bag I’m not going through with this for the next how ever many years. I was finding myself actually tensing every time I walked into a shop.

When I got home I called Fossil, where I bought both the bag and the wallet and explained that I keep setting off the security scanners in shops. The kind lady explained that I may still have tags on them. It doesn’t have to be a big tag, she explained, it can be a small rectangular tag. I searched and searched. I couldn’t find anything on my bag, but hey presto, there was a small tag inside my wallet. I ripped it out and did a small jig of happiness.

No more bleeping wallets, no more bleeping bags…well, we’ll see on Thursday when I go to Tesco’s to do my weekly shopping.

Tell you what though. I didn’t bleep with every shop I went into, Sainsbury’s being one of them. Makes you think, doesn’t it?

Yes, go on, laugh at me. It looks like I can’t make up my mind. I have added yet another date to my Edinburgh tour.

It’s not as scatty as it looks. I’m seeing one of my old favourite clients (it seems I have a few of those scattered throughout the country doesn’t it,lol) who hails from Glasgow and he’s making the trip over to Edinburgh to see me. But he’s only available on the morning of the 5th November. So I’ll need to get there the day before. It’s the least I can do for the trouble said customer is going to to come and see me.

So, the final dates are the 4th-8th of November. And that’s it. Well, it has to be because I’ve already booked my flight.

Roll on November.

I was in Tesco’s again this afternoon and I was beeped as soon as I stepped out of the lift. I wasn’t wearing my Marks and Spencer’s bra, so I can only deduce it was my messenger bag.

Roll on Edinburgh Airport on the 4th. It should be interesting.

Last week I was in my local shopping centre and at various times in various shops, I kept getting beeped at when walking in and walking out. You know, when the security scanners go off when you’re walking out because whatever it is you’ve bought hasn’t been scanned properly, or the tag hasn’t been removed.

But in my case, in the past week it’s been happening walking in as well as out of stores. I haven’t been the slightest bit embarrassed because I know I didn’t nick anything, but it did start to get annoying that the scanners would go off in almost every store I went into. It happened again yesterday in Tesco’s.

And by process of elimination, I’ve finally got it down to two things. It’s either the underwire in my new bra, or the chunky metal on my new leather messenger bag. I bought both and started wearing them around the same time and obviously I’ve changed clothes a few times since so I can only deduce it’s one of these two.

Boy, it’s going to be fun going through airport security when I go to Edinburgh in November. I’ll either have one or the other on me.

I’ve just about recovered from my weekend course and what a long weekend it was. The course started around 5pm on Friday afternoon, then we had a 10hr day on Saturday, lasting from 9am until 7pm (obviously with breaks and lunch inbetween), then another 5 hours on Sunday. So that’s nearly 20hrs of learning crammed into a weekend.

Don’t laugh, but I was absolutely shattered by Sunday night. I was still recovering yesterday, hence the lateness in blogging about it. My head was spinning, crammed full of learning, but it was a great experience (apart from getting up at 6am on Saturday and Sunday). I met a lot of lovely people, most of them very young, either still in uni or just graduated. I think I can safely say I was the oldest in the class. I probably even had a couple of years on my tutor. But I never felt out of place and everybody got on with everybody.

Although I’m now partly-qualified, there is a a lot more to the course than I anticpated (including a month’s intensive course) and a lot more money. Whether or not this is achievable is another story. I’ll just have to see what I can do, see what the rest of the year brings me. It would be a shame if this course came to nothing. But hey, at least it’ll look good on my CV.

I’m getting the hang of this learning lark again.

Regular readers may remember that I had signed up for a course. A course that, if successful, will help me ease out of this business when the time comes.

It’s a pretty intensive one over the next two and a half days, finishing on Sunday. It also has a choice of a further course by distance learning, which I will take up once this one is completed.

It’ll be weird going back to college, even if only for the weekend. Wish me luck.

…..”I don’t get paid enough for this”.(Alert, this is an angry post).

I reckon this applies in this case to my friend and colleague Melody BBW. Have a read of her latest entry here, paying special attention to point no. 9. This is a booking that took place this week.  I think the chap in question can consider himself lucky that it wasn’t me. Absolutely outrageous!

Like the professional she is, she has put up a warning on SAAFE to warn other ladies of this gent’s questionable antics.

Well, it looks like PCWorld haven’t taken my letters seriously and have ignored my last correspondence. So I’ve just downloaded the claims form from the HMCS website to fill in and send away so I can start proceedings to take them to small claims court. I’m gobsmacked at their arrogance that they feel I don’t warrant any kind of response.

I know people always bluster and threaten to take companies to court for various reasons, so I imagine that’s the reason why I’m not taken seriously; it’s something they’re probably used to hearing. But you would’ve thought the registered letters would’ve given them a clue as to how serious I am. Who would pay for registered mail to ensure it gets to its destination if the complainant wasn’t serious?

Well, I guess they’ll soon find out just how serious I am. And that’ll be the last time I’ll buy anything from PCWorld. There are too many other options open to the consumer now, in stores and on the net.

I have a lovely-sounding prospective client I have been in email communications with, who would like me to pay a visit to Edinburgh. So much so he’s already sent me a deposit for my fee and and an overnight stay plus travel. Now that’s what I call serious.  It seems he was bowled over by my new pictures and was compelled to drop me a line.

So, long story short, I’ll be coming up to Edinburgh on the 5th November and I’ve decided to make a tour out of it. It was initially to be just an overnight visit, but I thought it was too much running about in 24hrs. I’ve done it before, where I’ve visited clients for an overnight stay in Glasgow and the 500 mile trip each way in 24hrs fair tuckered me out. And then up until a couple of days ago, I was only going to stay for two days. I thought at least this way I’d be refreshed for said client on the  afternoon(6th).  But then I thought, I’ve never been to Edinburgh before, why not make the most of it? So I made up my mind last night to make it three days, including the Saturday now, which can prove to be popular for some clients. I did put an announcement up on the main site, but as I say, I was still contemplating whether or not I should come for 2 or 3 days. I only just last night amended my hotel stay to extend from the initial 2 days to 3.

And I know, geographically speaking, Edinburgh’s not that far from Glasgow, so all you gentlemen Weegies have no excuse now. And you know I’d be well worth the trip.

So that’s it. I know it’s a couple of months away yet, but you can’t say you didn’t get ample warning. Edinburgh it is, from Thursday 5th to Sunday morning 8th November. The Friday afternoon will already be booked for my client, but at this moment I’m free all other times.

I’ll drop little reminders here and there up until then.

Edinburgh Castle