I got a job!
It’s not the dream of 9 to 5 with weekends off, but it’s nothing to sneeze at either. And you can believe me because I sneeze a lot.
I am now employed at a greeting card and gift shop called Saffrons. It’s a family owned business that’s been open for a year. So far it’s great. I am only part time but I am liking it; and part time is better than no time! Seeing all those cards every time I work really makes me want to write letters to all my friends, which I think I’ll do. And it’s definitely better than working in a fast food restaurant and wanting to eat burgers every day.
The building that I now work in is from the 15th century. The shop is three stories: two for sales, and one for with the office and storage room. It is white and black, and because it is a heritage building there are tons of laws that stipulate all the things you can’t do to it. Like paint it, building on it, change it in anyway; basically, you can’t touch it. I think it’s really cool to be working somewhere with a history. It sure beats a boring box store in a strip mall. Maybe working in a card shop was not the reason I moved to England, but being around old buildings, and ancient history definitely was.
This is a sign posted on a wall on the street where I now work. How cool is this?
outloudkat, since 2009 
This is too cool. 15th century is so badass!
I too started my fabulous upward career path with a (long-ish) stint in retail – jeans, jeans, books, cards/gifts…. I did like the cards/gifts the best – the bookstore had no windows (Yonge and Bloor underground), not much of a selection, (and really stingy pay, no benefits, and a meagre discount) There were also too many dodgy customers clustered around the ‘men’s magazines’. Sometimes they left them open to the centerfold for the enjoyment of the rest of us. One day a really thoughtful visitor arranged these displays for all the rest of the community – distributed in various places around the shelving of the store. When they did actually buy them, they tried to hide them face down at the cash desk, or inside a pile of other more innocuous magazines. I did sometimes enjoy breaking up the little gatherings by coming through with my piles of Time magazine to restock – which tended to disturb the concentration of the “readers” – (sorry Hugh fans). Other patrons seeded the magazine section with pamphlets about the end of the world and promised salvation.
Here’s the Canadian to English connection: It was a British chain, and we featured lots of books and mags about the Royals, as well as Woman’s Weekly, and Beano. Christmas always included a cartoon collection “Giles” ( http://www.gilescartoons.co.uk/cartoon.asp ) which I could never make any sense of. What I really needed was an ‘English to Canadian cultural dictionary.
Actually, I left out vegetable retailing – I sold those at a farmer’s market for a summer also.