Eish! London 18 - 21 May

Monday, 18 May

Another day, another agency, another muck up. I call in and an agent from the 3rd "cool" agency (one of Em’s colleagues) sent me on an hour’s trip to get to a school. I was rather impressed that I got there in time. I walked in, along with another girl, and said that my name was Shannan, I was from the agency and I was there for Year 4 cover. I was speaking to the deputy head and she looked at me, then looked at a paper then back at me in confusion.

"Oh," She says. "Yes, both your names are down, but someone else arrived for your Year group Shannan and we had your name, but we thought he was replacing you so he is in the classroom now." I could not believe it! Someone arrives, they don’t have his name and they let him into the classroom! After all my criminal checks, after all the health and safety rubbish, they let a guy into the classroom just like that! His name wasn’t even on the list and they assumed I wasn’t coming!

She concluded with: "I would rather not take him out now as the class has started already."

That left two of us for the other class. The Deputy phoned the agency and they chose the other girl to go in, so I had to leave. I was livid! Absolutely livid! Not only would I now not get paid for the day and I had turned down another job for the day, but the agency had called 3 of us for 2 posts! Wrong, absolutely wrong! I got on the phone with the agent as I was walking and he told me they would find me work, I should find a café and sit and have a cup of coffee.

"I don’t drink coffee in the morning," was my cold reply.

The agent didn’t quite know what to say so told me they were looking for more work, I should go and have a cup of coffee and they would call me. Once again, these people do not listen. They didn’t find me work either and I eventually managed to get them to pay me for half a day. {Later I learnt that I should have fought for a full day’s pay, this was from another girl that the same agency had done the same thing to. Unbelievable!}

I had, however, sent an email to the agent saying that should such an incident ever happen again, they would be paying me for the whole day. His reply:

Hi Shannan,

My sincere apologies again for our communication error this morning meaning you were double booked. I hope we can make it up to you by finding you as much work as close to home as possible over the next few weeks. As discussed we will pay you the £62.50 half day rate for the inconvenience we caused this morning and compensate you for your travel expenses as well. The half day pay will go through the payroll this week but I would need any receipts you may have for the travel to keep our accountants happy.　

Again my apologies for this morning Shannan and thank you for your patience and understanding.

Kind Regards, Mark

Whatever! I wasn’t double-booked, you sent two people. Different! At least he sent me a decent email and was polite and accepted responsibility. Although I was still very unimpressed with the agency and they went from the ‘cool’ agency to the ‘double-booking’ agency. I needed to vent, so I ventured into my "Trash" folder to delete all the rubbish that accumulates in there faster than metal is attracted to a magnet. As I scanned through the filth folder I saw my Globe email had bounced back to me. I opened up the email and it said the email address was incorrect. Bother! I went back to The Globe’s Website to find a general address, and placed the contact’s name in the subject box, hoping that would achieve a better result than the address the actors had given me:
Date: Mon, 18 May 2009 12:43:16
Subject: Attention: Dot Duke
To:

Communications.I@shakespearesglobe.com

I would have to wait and see if my new approach would work.

The good news for the day at least: I was quite excited because my primary school friend Shelly landed in London today and she was now in Oxford staying with another school friend. We made plans: Jane is going to drive me through to Oxford on Saturday to stay with Mariette, Shelly and Mariette’s boyfriend, Dave. It’s going to be a great reunion.

Thursday, 21 May

Today I went to the East of London and it will officially be marked as the worst supply teaching day I’ve ever had. Please see the email that I sent to the agency (22 May), after I had calmed down, anything I write in this regard could be used against me in a court of law, as it has evoked in me the desire to do things that would put me in a court of law!

Thank the Lord for a good evening: Hippodrome for La Clique. A friend from my theatre club back home was in town and all her girlfriends in London had organised to go to this Burlesque show. Unfortunately the seats were standing and the minor scoliosis I have in my back did not appreciate this, so I ended up sneaking into an empty seat one row in front of where we were standing; thankfully no-one seemed to mind and my back was much happier! It was also a large hint that I still needed to find a chiropractor in London; something I　had been avoiding.

It was a circus type show and I was fascinated at what was performed on the small circular stage in front of us: Two men with gorgeous physiques using their bodies to balance in amazing positions; a couple on roller skates rotating at super-fast speeds; a contortionist who managed to fit his whole body through string-less tennis racquets and other items; a Freddie Mercury impersonator; a lady who played an instrument somehow using the muscles and air between her legs! And a whole lot more. Nothing like a night at the theatre to take your mind off things that are best forgotten. At least schools are in mid-term break now, so I have a week to recover!