17th April 2008

Yesterday I went to the City Of Manchester Football Stadium to steward the FA Youth Cup, Manchester City vs Chelsea, Under 18s. For under eighteens though, they looked absolutely HUMOUNGOUS! I swear one person was like 6 foot 3 or something. And all these kids are younger than I am! Whoa. Anyway, it was a pretty awesome match. I'd like to say that the City Youth Team play better than the real MCFC but that would just be taking the piss. I won't provide a commentary like most people will, because you can just read about it here

Today I got up early, and went to Crawford House, that's Manchester Business School area, and did the presentation that we were preparing a few days ago, I think you'll find when you read my previous journal posts. It went generally well, but we did have a slight problem with the projector not working. I had fortunately brought Fariq's thumbdrive (Which I forgot to return to him while we were in London), and transferred the slideshow onto there. Also, one of our teammates who vanished off the Earth while we were preparing for the slideshow suddenly turned up THIS MORNING ITSELF, the DAY OF THE PRESENTATION, and asked us : "Right guys, so what am I doing?"

Lucky I was late by a few minutes; I would have had quite a few words to say to him. You disappear right before we start preparing for the presentation, you ignore our phone calls, you ignore our messages despite us sending them incessantly, and ON THE DAY ITSELF you bleeding turn up and say "Oh what am I doing?" with an excuse of "Right.. I lost my phone, so I didn't have any of your numbers with me."

Sad to say, he was the only person who failed the presentation earlier today. Everyone else did their presentations fine. The last slideshow was a bit awkward. It was from a couple of students from the PRC (People's Republic of China) and they were highlighting the "Truths" about the Tibet and China conflict. To be honest, it seemed like they were actually advertising the strengths about China. Random photos of the capital and the great wall kept popping up during the slide, and the ending words of the presentation were "Welcome To Beijing 2008." I won't go any further, but it was quite a humourous experience.

In the middle of the presentation, I noticed that both of my teammates had sort of increased the pace at which words were escaping from their mouths, so I decided to compensate for that. I was the last speaker, so I asked the class questions like "Do you know what the Big Mac Index is? Are we clear on what the PPP is? Do you know what contestable markets are?", therefore bringing up our total time of the presentation to be about 12 minutes.

And guess where I'm stewarding next?

14th May 2008

Yes, I think you'll find that it will be quite an entertaining match indeed. Don't get me wrong. I don't steward just because I want to watch the match and for money, although the latter is quite true (Money). I steward because I actually like doing the job. It's quite nice when people come up to you and ask you about the match, who's playing, who do you think is going to win (I have to be careful there, and find out which side of the stands I'm stewarding, home or away.) so some prior knowledge of the game is important.

After my exams (which we all know I'll pass except for Statistics, which is very gay, and therefore doesn't count), I'll be training for my SIA badge. With the badge I get paid a minimum of 9 pound an hour for normal work, while for football events I get paid 14 quid an hour for doing the same thing. Sounds pretty good eh? The sad part is? I need to pay 245 pounds for the license PLUS an addition 140 pounds for the training. So it's 400 quid I need to fork up in order to get this.

However, I've spoken to a lot of my supervisors who have the badge, and they all say it's well worth it. Basically, during the holidays, if I work for 52 hours a week, that's 52 x 9 = 468 pounds. So... everything paid for in a week, providing I get up and work from 9 to 5. We all know that's not going to happen, so I give it 2 weeks at the most. Life is getting good. The catering agency I'm still contracted to can contribute to paying for the badge. Then after that it may be a fond adieu as I move on to greater heights. Everyone's very nice in the stewarding/security business. They talk to you nicely and don't yell at you like the bleeding chefs or the catering agency staff do. I get as much respect as I give to my peers and supervisors, and most will stop for a little chat with you while you're on duty. Plus, you're allowed to talk to each other while doing your job, as long as you don't move from your position.

Right, it's nearly 12 pm now. Suppose I'd better start revising again.

Stay safe!