Katy Klein Has a Chat

I signed up for mystery shopping a while ago but eventually turned off my account after being besieged by mystery shopping opportunities by email.

Thanks to unemployment I have reactivated my account.  It’s quite silly because I could be earning enough money to buy lunch by going to a job each day.  Instead I am getting real joy out of a free lunch with a tidy $7 profit. I also get to try new things.  Although in the case of fast-food-mystery-shopping on Monday it wasn’t as exciting as I had hoped.  But I am repeating the experience today (with a different meal combination).

I was quite excited about my first mystery shopping experience which involved going into a store and trying on a clothing item.  I carefully rated the customer service I received. An unfortunate side effect of this though, was that I found that for the next week I was rating the service I got in every shop.  I even found myself thinking that I wished I had a rating form for one shop – so very rude! 

But it’s very easy to be critical.  On my last assignment I was a little more considerate towards those working in the store.  I remember my days of working to put myself through Uni and sometimes serving customers all day does your head in.  I found that whilst most people are polite and some even friendly, there is that constant percentage of people that range from rude to downright obnoxious.  Unfortunately they are the ones that drag behind you as you go home for the day. So I still give good feedback now but I make sure I am also a lot more understanding.

So me and the boy are attempting Semi-Dry-July.  It’s the watered down version of Dry-July which was never going to happen.  Not because I am a raving alcoholic but I just really enjoy a nice glass of wine.

Dry-July is a challenge where you stop drinking for a month and are sponsored for your efforts with the money going to charity. Our version includes five nights where we can have a drink and a total of eight drinks for the month. Obviously no one will sponsor us for this and the money we save goes to our favourite charity – the mortgage. It got off to a shaky start as by the 5th we had both racked up two nights of drinking (largely due to the opened bottle of wine which we didn’t want to go off!).

So last night we went to see ‘MyLife in Ruins’ at The Como.  Nia Vardalos (last seen in My Big Fat Greek Wedding) was there to introduce the movie and she looked stunning.  She had all the charisma that she has on the screen. Waiting for the movie to start I normally would have had a glass of wine with the girls but thanks to Semi-Dry July I couldn’t, and I missed the social element of it. Walking past the bottle-O later I found myself looking longingly at a bottle of cheap plonk.

Substituting a delicious glass of juice (200% RDI of Vitamin C) in place of wine for dinner hasn’t quite cut it but I am hopeful that I can make it through the month. Even if it means avoiding walking past pubs and bottle shops.  On the bright side it is a really good excuse should you become pregnant and don’t want to tell people for a while.  But they may catch on as Semi-Dry-July leads into Stone-Cold-Sober-August and then TeeTotal-September……….