Yay! It's Friday at just before 11am, and for the first time in what seems like aeons I'm not at work and it's not Sunday and I'm not trashed somewhere!! Though of course the one day I get to sleep in, Stevie P chooses to ring at 8.15am, bless him. Was lovely to speak to him and can't wait to see him in 3 weeks time! So, Borders opens later today - 5pm to be precise. I'm working 2-11pm, though may go in a little bit earlier than that to lend a hand. Keen or what? It's a bit like that though - one big happy family. I've said how nice the people are, and it's true. And it's more like being back at uni than anything - lots of new people thrown together with one thing at least in common - well more really I suppose. We're all workmates, all enjoy music and books and it seems to me, I've landed with a group of the most non-bookstore stereotype bookstore employees you could wish to meet! Fun, social, mad... I think there are going to be some wild nights out ahead!

So, we were in training from day one - I've worked in retail for HMV (for 3 months, 7years ago) but not since. We went through the whole bookstore thing, how Borders operates, what it considers its competitive advantage etc. And then we got down to dusting. Really. That was the first day. The place was full of construction workers and so we cleaned. Then the books came. Boxes of books. Palettes of boxes. Trucks of palettes. We stock in the region of around 190,000 different titles - and there's a lot more than one of most titles. God alone knows much stuff we've shifted over the ensuing almost 3 weeks. A lot. We ached from shifting boxes. We had a laugh. We learned. We worked long, long hours. And suddenly it's opening day and it seems like I can't remember life before Borders! Also, at least until Christmas it seems, I'm not working on music. I've been given 'front of store' to look after - so all the displays of new books and promotions that we have on (Borders Best, 3 for 2 etc.). It's going to be fun but mad in the run up to Christmas. We'll see how it goes. Last weekend got incredibly trashed as it seems a couple of weeks of working 60+ hours and a couple of beers are a great way to get smashed! Think I was almost delirious! Fun though. Drunken pool table snogging Friday, beers and flirting with Rod Saturday (very nice, shame he's got a boyf!) and then trashy singing with Garry at the Shift on Sunday. More of the same this weekend I think. I've got every Sunday/Monday off until Christmas which is great. Looking forward to getting back into some kind of routine too. OK. Time to go get ready. Update on the opening later!