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A strange time . . .

/ Tony / Leave a comment

Last week was a bit strange. The public holiday on Monday for Easter didn’t help. I wasn’t working because the cafe does not open on public holidays. Although it was open on Good Friday, which I thought was odd. When the cafe is closed we have to take the time as either unpaid or Annual Leave. With three public holidays coming up in May, I thought taking the day unpaid would be better.

Tuesday was back to ‘normal’. Well, I say normal, for me it wasn’t a day people would normally expect. Two weeks previous there had been an ‘incident’ so to speak, that involved a friend and former colleague. I had been told something, and it came out in conversation with the chef. It was just an ‘off the cuff’ remark when we were talking about standards.

However, the chef related the incident back to the boss who then quizzed my friend. It apparently was most embarrassing and unrequired. This type of thing has happened before and I was not happy about it. The chef can be very irritating at times. When he is busy he can get angry and quite aggressive. There are times when he will be ‘chatty’ but then will suddenly go moody and not speak for hours.

I took the decision before I went in to be on the quiet side. I would speak when spoken to, but I would not start a conversation and any reply would be brief and to the point. It made for a strange day. We shall see what this week brings as I am minded to be in the same frame of mind.

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I managed the get my car washer pump fixed eventually. It has not worked since August last year. I tried to get it repaired when the car was serviced, but the garage was not able to get the part. He explained that his ‘supplier’ did not stock the part, but that if I got one online he would fit it. That was in September and I simply never got around to buying the said pump. Then Mrs H had a problem with one of the tyres on her Mini. She got it repaired and it seemed quite reasonable for the type of tyre.

I then checked if that garage was just a tyre fitter or if they did other repairs too. It seems they are classed as an ‘Auto-centre’ and are able to do most repairs. This place was only six miles from home, whereas the garage that did the service was over fifteen miles away. So that was settled and £125.00 later, I now have working washers again.

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Two events next week !! Birthday on Thursday and dentist on Friday. What a combination! I’m not saying what birthday it is but suffice it to say that I will be nearer to 70 than 60. And I’m beginning to feel it.

I was intending to quit the job at the end of April. It is quite physical working twelve hours over two days, but when I get my wage packet on Tuesday afternoon, it doesn’t seem as hard going. That is until ten-thirty the following Monday when the doubts start again. I do think that I will quit in April 2025 though, but then again … who knows?

An interesting, if tiring week.

/ Tony / Leave a comment

After all the fuss R*** made last Saturday and Sunday, about not going away with school, come the day, he went off with no problems at all !! Mrs H had gone off to the hospital, for her operation earlier,so the only issue was him wandering around saying “Where’s Mum?” As soon as the bus arrived he was off with smiles. I got into work around 09:20, which was earlier than I hoped. Mrs H sent me regular updates, on what was happening to her. She went down to theatre at around 2pm, and she sent me a txt at about 5pm to say that it was all done. I drove down to the hospital to pick her up. There wasn’t much point in me going before, as I would have only got in the way. So I had the rest of the week off. I am applying for Special Leave for the four days. Nobody seems to think it will be a problem.

Her arm, or more to the point, the wound, looks quite okay to me. She is very worried that it may get infected, but it’s not going to happen. There has been a bit of blood leakage, but the practice nurse (nearly called her the District nurse – showing my age there) changed the dressing again, and this time put a few steri-strips on, which seemed to do the trick.

Work is beginning to get more interesting. I am now occupying a different desk whilst the usual person is on leave. I am now more or less in the centre of the office. But it is a small space !! There are 14 people in a quarter of the space I am used to. Hopefully, I will begin to feel a little more integrated as the week goes on. It will be good to get my own space though, although, I get the impression, that ‘hot-desking’ may be the norm in this team. Team !!!! Now that’s a new concept !!

R*** was back on Friday. Both his support worker and his ‘intervener’ were on the trip, and both sent regular txt messages to K***, throughout the week. I went to pick him up in the late afternoon, and all of the staff that had been, said he had had a fantastic time. There had been no problems and he had eaten well. They were so proud of him. It seems that he is also being a star at school this week, with no problems there either. That’s one of the things with his Autism though. One moment he can be really happy and good fun, then the next moment, he can just turn. It is strange when he comes down for his tea. Usually the same, either baked beans or tinned spaghetti with toast (not on toast!!) He’ll flick through Nick Jr 2 channel, checking out what is on for the next 12 hours. Then he walks round , droning, with his hands over his ears. The volume on the TV is down, and the only noise we can hear is him. He can hear something though, and it is very disturbing to him. This will go on for ten to fifteen minutes, then he will settle down and eat. Then it’s back to his computer.

The weekend is all gone ….

/ Tony / Leave a comment

   Another successful Sunday with the youngest, and yet again, no medication. That is three Sundays in a row. Just wish that it could happen on Saturday too. Now that would be something.

   We think we have a small leak in the hot water cylinder. There seems to be water escaping around the thermostat. However the people we pay to fix things like this do not see it as an emergency, and are not coming out until Wednesday. Fingers crossed that it does not get worse then !!

   I have a few days off work next week. I’m in on Monday and Friday, but mid week, I’m on leave. Youngest goes away on respite for a few days tomorrow, so it is a good time to take off. The eldest is 20 on Wednesday. He is coming up for his drama, but he has to be back at Uni on Thursday morning. Mrs H is not taking it too well I think. She was hoping he would come straight home after his lecture on Wednesday, but he wants to have a drink with his pals first. That may not go down too well if he is not home for tea.

   It is quite a big week for the IT at work. Our building is moving from Lotus Notes to Outlook 2003 on Thursday. I know what your saying, with Office 2010 due out soon, why are we still running 2003 versions. Apparently it is all down to licensing, suitability, time factors, or deployment issues, depending on who you speak to. What they don’t explain, is that it is all down to staffing issues !!! Still it will be good to get away from the limitations of Notes.

Two more days to go…….

/ Tony / 1 Comment

That’s right. Only two more days, then I get a week annual leave. To be honest, I think I need it. It has been a long July, and August looks like it could be the same.

The eldest lad phoned at lunchtime, to say he was not feeling so good. Sounds like he has had a dodgy pizza on top of a few (or not so few) pints of Tetley’s. He’s spent the day in bed. Of course Mrs H is thinking swine flu !!!! But then again, so many people think they have got/had swine flu, or at least, some version of it !!! Strange thing happened tonight though. Mrs H had been trying to ring him, and was very concerned (as usual) that he was not answering his phone. I signed into MSN on my mobile, and noticed the he was signed in also. So I messaged him, but got no reply. Then he rang to say how he was. Later, I had to go upstairs, and noticed that his room door was open, and that his PC was running. I turned on the monitor, and it was running an AVG scan. Could not understand why it was running, or why the PC was on. I checked some of the PC settings, to see if it was set to start-up when AVG scan was due, and there was nothing I could see. We are now thinking, that the youngest lad had, for some reason, switched the PC on. Unfortunately, his condition prevents him from saying whether he did or not !!!! Strange. I will ask S**** when I see him if it has done that before.

No J**** on MSN again. Not chatted since the 1st of August. I hope I’ve not upset her or scared her off at all. She is a nice person to chat to. Last thing I said to her, was that I hoped to talk more about her. Maybe that’s it. Maybe I sounded too heavy !! Who knows. Just got a message. Been busy, that’s all. I had a quick chat with M**** on facebook earlier. Been a long time since I chatted to her. She’s been through the mill over the past few months. Doesn’t pull any punches at all. She was one of the first people I chatted to on the ‘Lycos Chat’ that was. Seems to be a good laugh. Always been straight with me. Here’s a thought …… why are most of my online friends women ????

Bloody appraisal tomorrow (as I may have said a few times). It will be another period of my life I’ll never get back. It’s not as if it really means anything. No promotion, pay increase or anything like that, just an excuse to give me my ‘objectives’ for the year. Oh and an excuse for Spike to be both patronising and condescending at the same time. How does he do that ?? There must be an art to it.I’d just love to be fly on the wall, when he does G***s appraisal. She takes even more serious than he does. Could be fun.

Done for now.

It seems to be getting easier

/ Tony / 4 Comments

Mrs H took the youngest to see S****’s flat today. Well that was not the main reason for going, I suppose, and neither was taking the small table and chairs. No I think she had to go round for herself. Just to convince herself that he is coping. From what it sounds, he realised this and reacted accordingly. I just hope, that she gives it a lot longer before she rings up to go again. I can see him getting upset if she tries to go every week.

My pedometer arrived this morning. Apparently, it was sent on the 23rd July, but was left on someone else’s desk. A person who was on leave until today. Not that is much use. When I took if off my waistband when I got home, it showed that I had done 9 steps !!!! It looks like the Council has bought the cheapest it could find. Although knowing the way things operate in the Council, it probably was not the cheapest. I noticed straight away that the LCD screen was blanking out  when I was sat. I understand that all I need to do was start walking again to carry on the count. However, even the slightest brush of any of the buttons, and the thing resets. I have another one that I intend to use. I may complain, but as it will not do much good, I may not. I think I calculated, that I had done about 5,000 steps. I know I did 2,000, when I went out at lunchtime, and over the rest of the day it must have added up. It is still a long way off the 10,000 I should be doing.

Work was okay today. I managed to get through all I intended to. A bit less to do tomorrow, although I should be able to spin it out. S**** M******* did not say a word to me today. Spent most of the day talking to P***, so he wasn’t too pleased. It looks like G*** is applying for a temporary job to cover maternity leave. It is a higher grade, but the problem with temporary jobs is just that ……they are temporary. She will come back !!!! Like a bad penny as they used to say.

Done for now.

….. back to work we go ……

/ Tony / Leave a comment

What a horrible Bank Holiday Monday it has been. Rain all day, and cold too. It has been a strange weekend really. The youngest has been fine all three days, which was a help. The eldest……well that’s another story. He left his wallet at work on Saturday, he hopes. Then Sunday night him, his girlfriend and some friends went to the pub, then onto the friends house later. Did not get in until 3:30am. Then his girlfriend was ill all night, and this morning had to Harrogate for 11:00am. We left at 10:41am !!!!!!! I think I did pretty well to get them there for 11:10.  I thought he was going to burst into tears when he got in my car. He looked so depressed, and she looked upset too. so what could you do or say ? He had not even said goodbye. I told him to either say goodbye or go ! So he went! He was supposed to come home with me, but he decided to go out with them for the day, and stop the night. It is very upsetting for Mrs H.

It’s a four day week for the next four weeks. A leave day, another Bank Holiday and my hospital appointment. I could get used to this. Dentist tomorrow though and this time I need some work doing. I think I lost part of a filling. The tooth is quite sharp and was a little sensitive a week or two ago.

I put the new wheel trims on yesterday. They look very good. I also tried putting the graphics on, but that was not as successful. I got one on, but it did not look right. In fact it looked quite tacky. Not at all like I expected, so I took it off straight away.

Still no sign of Mrs C on MSN. As before, she has been in facebook, but not at the same time. I’ll just check MySpace ……nope not there. I’ll tell you what though JM left a tweeted at around 6:00pm that she was having a nap, and would someone text her at 6:45pm. So I picked up her mobile number from facebook and sent a text at around 6:50pm. Thought no more of it, until she replied back by text to say thanks. I was amazed … the power of Twitter I suppose.

Weekends all gone….

/ Tony / Leave a comment

Well if that’s my weekend, it all gone. Has it been a good one ? I don’t know. It’s just been the weekend. I’ve not done much really. A bit of ‘taxiing’ yesterday, oh and washed the big car. I’ll put mine through the car wash this week sometime. Made a start on my ‘Memories’ thing. That is not going to be a daily project, just when I get around to it, I’ll add a little more.

A normal Sunday today. A bit of washing, a bit of ironing a bit of cooking and nothing much else. I did manage to install Skype on my PC, and get it running. I have to use the cam mike though. It will not work with the head-set that came with the web-cam though. I managed to have a quick chat with Nina using Skype. It was a bit like MSN, so it seems to be quite a reasonable chat client in that respect. I have yet to try it with video, so that will be interesting.

I just missed my friend tonight. As I was signing out of MSN, they logged in. By the time I had logged back in, they had gone. Never mind.

It is going to be a short week this week. I’m on leave Friday and the following Monday, so it will be a 4-4-4 fortnight. It’s the last two days of this years leave, so I have to get them taken.

No suit tomorrow. I am going to wear a jacket and trouser separates. It will make a change.