Sunday, March 4th, 2007
Enough of being an ‘old git’, I’ve got a couple of nice things to talk about today.
It’s been said that for every action there is a reaction, well something like that happened to me last night.
I was putting away the last of the vegetables when I noticed a spider in the bag with the broccoli. Being someone who can’t even tread on an ant by accident without feeling totally remorseful, I took the bag to the back door and gently shook the spider out.
While I was at the door I noticed my black bucket had partially filled with rain from the last couple of evenings downpours. It looked like there was something inside and at first I thought it was leaves.
On closer inspection I realised that it wasn’t leaves, but a frog that had obviously jumped in to the water but couldn’t get back out again.
I gently tipped the water out leaving the bucket on its side so Mr Frog could get out at his leisure. He was very tired as he just sat there gently breathing.
I’ve always been mindful of making sure that collected water in containers is taken care of, so I walked round the patio checking other pots and a couple of the children’s buckets.
In one of them I found a little ladybird struggling, so I rescued her as well.
So all in all a good nights work and happily Mr Frog vacated the bucket some time last night.
And to think that if I hadn’t made the effort to put the vegetables away, none of those little creatures may have survived. I like a happy ending.
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Saturday, March 3rd, 2007
I don’t know. I think I’m turning into one of Harry Enfield’s Old Gits.
Tell me if I’m wrong here. If you had a team meeting booked at 10.00 am, would you be ready to go in to that meeting at least 15 minutes before, with I don’t know, an agenda, last minutes of meeting etc.
How would you feel if at just turned 10 0′clock one of your team members strolled in to work, complete with their breakfast, not a word of apology for holding people up and then eating their breakfast during the meeting? Would you feel a tad irritated, or would you feel okay with it?
I have to admit I was of the former yesterday. I haven’t got my head around this flexitime but if something is booked in surely you plan around it.
Also, I’m not an entirely stupid person. I was asked if I would like to add anything to the agenda, to which I said yes. I wanted it raised about ‘old files’ for people that left the company. All of a sudden people are sending leavers paperwork through to us to deal with and the stack is over a foot high as it is. Plus you can’t find the files as most of them have just been put in a pile.
I also know it’s not a priority as we have a lot of work on this coming month. I just wanted it raised to plan it in for after our busy period. At some point it’s going to end up an urgent job and why not make plans for it?
You’d have thought I was asking for the moon on a stick. They gave me all the reasons why we couldn’t look at it at the moment (which I am aware of !). Eventually our line manager had the common sense to admit it was a good point and that we could look at it later. Eureka! That’s all I was asking for.
I have now made the decision NOT to make any more contributions as I am ONLY a temp and obviously have NO idea about the workings of an office or indeed forward bloody planning. Yes I was riled.
So Monday morning, one dumb chick is heading for that office! Oh yes and at 11 0′clock!
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Thursday, March 1st, 2007
If I felt tetchy last night, stand clear of the fireworks tonight. Hormones are kicking in AGAIN! It must be the tiredness, because my tinnitus is really singing in my ears tonight.
They say life begins at 40, but what they don’t say is the rot sets in as well. Since I hit a happy 40, which I am very comfortable with, I also seem to be plagued with little ailments. Like tinnitus for goodness sake.
It just happened, it crept up over a couple of months and there it was. I’ve always had sensitive hearing to high pitched noises. For example, there’s a level of excited screaming that the children do that causes me to put my fingers in my ears.
It’s not serious in my case, it’s only affected the really high level of noise that maybe an animal could hear, but it’s there all the time. When I’m concentrating on things I don’t notice it, it’s more when I’m tired, the hissy ringing in my ears becomes more noticeable.
My father had it, so I mentioned it to the Doctor who sent me for a hearing test at the hospital. It was quite amusing really. They took me into an office for a hearing test and I was totally distracted by all the surrounding noise and phones ringing outside.
I mentioned it to the girl who said she would tell the consultant, but having met him and seen he’s a no nonsense type of guy, didn’t think he would be too happy with that. Funnily enough, they asked me to go straight back in to a sound proofed booth to do the test again.
This time I kept zoning in on the noise the girl made pressing the keys on the computer!
Anyway I did it and the chap I saw who was stern but very nice confirmed that I had a slightly affected hearing.
Although in my case he said it was probably due to a chemical inbalance, a consultant I saw last year said stress can play a part in it too.
I haven’t really researched it and have accepted that it’s just going to be there. But to my amazement I found out that a really close friend of mine also suffers with it.
On the work front, we had more sagas at work today. I’m not used to this flexible working arrangement in terms of the hours people do. I tend to stick to normal work hours and work round it.
Younger colleague went out on the tiles last night with her boyfriend and drank a little bit too much. She came in late, which is not a problem with flexitime, but she was supposed to be on telephone duty this morning.
She was a bit ill later in the morning, but to her credit she soldiered on and then mid afternoon decided she had to go home for a lie down, to get herself ready for tonight!
And she had the fecking cheek to question my coping ability yesterday! I ask you.
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