This is my pub - the left back window on the second level with the sign hanging outside it is where my room is.
Lane End has a population of around 1000 people and is quite a cute, affluent little village. There are two pubs, a chemist, a vet, a barber, a soap/aromatherapy store, two little cafes, a garage, a chinese takeaway, a corner store called McColl's (which is a chain of dairy-type stores here in England) and a shop called Londis, which is equivalent to the Four Square in NZ, but it has post-shop services as well. That's pretty much all in one street, the 'High Street'. As cute as it is though, there's not a lot that happens here!
Lane End is a 15 minute bus ride from High Wycombe, which has a population of around 100,000. It's the largest city in Buckinghamshire (I love how the regions over here are all 'shires'). High Wycombe is really quite rough. The people, the shops, everything is run-down and I've been told a number of times not to go there at night! I thought Hastings was bad, but High Wycombe is 10x worse. There are three good things about High Wycombe though:
1) It has a mall with decent shops and a library in it.
2) It's a fairly central place, with excellent bus services to other (vastly superior) towns and cities.
3) The BEST thing is it has a train station which can take me to London's Marylebone station in 27 minutes.
When I first moved to Lane End I was quite gutted at being placed in such a small village. There aren't many people my age and there's nothing going on. But now that I have a routine and have made friends at work, it's not so bad. Sure, I'd still rather be living elsewhere, but it's alright for the time being.
Two other people live at the Grouse & Ale, both kitchen staff. There's the white-haired, Romanian dessert and pizza chef Costin who must be around 58 or so (He's got a 5-year-old daughter back in Romania though! What a sugar daddy hahah) and there's 40-year-old sous chef Ewan who keeps his dog Boris in his room with him. Weird, right?
Costin and I get along really well and he is always giving me food and offering to make me food (no wonder I love him! ha). He speaks in heavily accented, broken English. He will often tell me about things in his life and calls me 'darling' or 'baby', but not in a creepy way. Sometimes he tries to be vulgar/seedy like the other two chefs, but it doesn't quite work coming from him. Which is funny. I feel sorry for Costin sometimes because Kevin and Ewan (the two main chefs) don't like him much. Mainly because he's slow and seems to make mistakes a fair bit. But he's the hardest worker of them all. He's always the first in the kitchen in the morning, and last one to leave.
Then there is Ewan. He's really bubbly and friendly - sure doesn't act his age! I like Ewan but I also don't feel 100% comfortable around him. Not that he's creepy or anything, but you know how with some people you don't care and can be yourself but with others you're always conscious of what you're saying and feel awkward? Yeah it's kinda like that. I don't really know why. Ewan smokes like a chimney and also sometimes smokes "special" cigarettes which he tries to mask the smell of with air freshener, but that never quite works. Everyone knows he does it but no one says anything. Pretty sure if the big boss Carlos knew he wouldn't be happy. Especially because the bar has a big 'No drugs' sign up! Ewan goes out with Alison, who is one of the other front-of-house staff members. Ewan and Costin both live on the third floor.
I work around 30 hours a week, with usually 2 days off a week (sometimes it's 3, sometimes 1). A typical working day for me is as follows:
7.45am - wake up, get changed into gym gears
8.30am - gym for an hour or so
10-12pm - shower, breakfast, get ready
12pm - start the lunch shift
3pm - finish the lunch shift, eat some food, watch some tv, chill out, sometimes have a nap
6/7pm - start the dinner shift
10/11pm - finish for the day
About an 8 minute walk from my pub is the Lane End Conference Centre. This is where I go to the gym. And THANK GOODNESS it has a gym! Honestly, I think I'd go insane here if I didn't have my little gym/sanctuary to go to every day. It's in a part of the centre called The Cedar Club, which is a bar/lounge/leisure centre. When I joined I was the first member because it was brand new, and I've still yet to have a workout where there's been someone else there! It's so great. It also has great showers (better than my one at the pub), a steam room and a sauna (which I looooooooooooooove to use). There's a big TV in the gym which I turn to the radio. So I turn up the tunes and have an hour's solid workout where I zone out of the rest of life. As opposed to when I use the sauna, in which I always seem to think deeply about life. LOL.
This is my lovely gym. It's small but has everything I need. I love coming here.
So this is my life now. It's not fantastically exciting (except for what I get up to on my days off - which I will detail later on) but it's not so bad.
That's all for today.
xx
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