In the dining room at Woolworths, we've got a certificate from those two moronic creatures congratulating us for getting 100% in a store assessment. To Woolworths Head Office: I am not six years old anymore- nor is anyone working in your stores, unless you have secret child labour camps- so please don't try and make our lives working for you more pleasant by having stuffed animals reward us with bits of paper. Thank you.

I've just got back from working there for six hours and am now completely shattered. Who goes out shopping on Christmas Eve anyway? Even when the front lights were turned off and we're clearly trying to usher all errant customers out of the store, people just kept coming in. I know it can be hard to remember to buy everyone's presents if you've got a large family but really, by late afternoon on Christmas Eve if you still haven't got everything, I say tough. You'll just have to calmly explain to your beloveds next morning, 'Sorry honey, daddy was a twat and couldn't be bothered to get himself sorted for Christmas in time, so you're just not getting any presents this year.' There may be tears, but I think important lessons will be learned on both sides.

The two and a half hours or so after the shop closed was spent sorting stuff out for the New Year's sale, which basically involved me trying to find something useful to do (or else do a good impression of it), management stressing out when they can't find the stuff they're meant to be putting out on shelves, and the rest of the staff getting increasingly pissed off with one another and the whole thing. I think it was designed to remove any clinging shreds of Christmas spirit from our souls which had just about survived the barrage of constant Christmas songs over the past fortnight.

Despite how annoying it has been working there over the Christmas period- especially the issue where I got told off (or rather guilt tripped/disappointed at) for not checking the schedule I was never told existed, which informed me I would be working all day both Saturday and Sunday that particular weekend, and subsequent ones up to Christmas- I think I'm going to stay once my temporary contract has ended. I doubt I'll find somewhere better, and it's not actually that bad when there aren't huge queues of grumpy customers trailing back into the aisles. They're always especially grumpy if they've been queueing for five minutes or so already, and you have to inform them that they have to go to the Entertainment Desk to get their DVDs because sorry, we just don't have magic invisible drawers filled with discs to fill their empty cases up at the front tills. IDIOTS. But there are definitely worse places to work- at least Woolies isn't demanding and there are a load of actually quite nice people my own age to talk to. Maybe I'll get my own locker and name badge (I've been Ellie for the past six weeks) if I keep on there; a girl can dream...

And MERRY CHRISTMAS for tomorrow everybody! Hope you have a great day involving the opening of wonderful presents, stuffing yourselves stupid and falling asleep in front of the TV. Love and hugs to all xxxxx