Just don't go there!

Well, I have spent the entire day alternately fiddling with templates and fighting an inoperable Blogger...to very little end!

I built too many templates to remember and then discarded them all, either because I didn't like them once complete or out of frustration when Blogger failed to allow me to do something as basic as publish!

In the end, not to feel like I wasted the entire day I made a few changes but you'll have to look hard to notice.....the complete remake will have to wait while I re-ajust my patience settings!

At least Blogroll has got it's act together now.

Anyone got any Prozac?

'Blogroll' bother

Ever since Blogroll had a spot of bother a few days ago mine refuses to show the 'updated' append....anyone else noticed this problem with theres?

It's good to talk.

That's another working weekend over with....I have three days of 'playtime' ahead of me now and then four at work! Yes I said four, I am actually going to work almost a full week for once, euchhh! I can't say I relish the thought but there is no avoiding it and the financial remuneration is not to be sniffed at!

The weekend was reasonably uneventful this time, no customers of particular note, no gossip to cause excitement. Last week when I told the story of the customer from hell my description was supposed to be loose enough that the individuals concerned where not recognisable. Hey ho, I failed there. Yesterday a colleague arriving for work greeted me with the opening sentence..."so you had 'Mrs X' in then last Sunday"! Having read the post he knew immediately who I was referring to.... Ooops!

That brings to mind a conversation I had with my boss a week or two ago. I was in his office for my annual appraisal but as I think we both knew it would, the conversation turned to the topic of the sacking incident back in July. I admit to having been somewhat nervous of discussing this situation with him, I had until that point avoided it for fear of reprisal and for fear of inappropriately losing my temper. In the event I was pleasantly surprised. We managed to behave like adults! He had, as I suspected, acquired the URL for this blog ( yes I know where from now but it's not an issue) and had read the posts in question. What surprised me was his reaction....he was for the main part upset that I viewed him as I did and had felt unable to approach him to discuss my feelings.

He and I have some history, we haven't always seen eye to eye but we had in the past worked on that and had improved our working relationship dramatically. This situation had undermined all of that. This was I think the longest appraisal I have ever had and barely did we touch on any performance issues, we did however agree to disagree on the incident in question and move forward.

He, I assume for legal and professional reasons, was not ever going to tell me his side and I for the same reasons didn't want to discuss the specifics. That said he knows I will continue to support the individual in question and respects my decision to do so and I know he disagrees with my opinion.....we will both live with that.

I feel no less strongly about the situation and I will fight what I see as discrimination wherever I can, the colleague involved knows he has my full support but I have to give the boss credit ......I have rarely, if ever, had a manager prepared to listen to and accept the point of view of a minion, or to give up the time to do that.

It's good to be working in a more positive environment again and C.S. if you read this, my apologies for misjudging you.

The Infinite Cat

For those of you who like me have a predilection to madness and stupidity where cats are concerned go HERE:

...and thanks to Justitia for the link

Payback

Princess of Wales Conservatory. Kew.

The last 48 hours has seen me absent from the blogosphere for an unusually long period of time.....and surprisingly I survived to tell the tale! I managed to pop in briefly very late last night but barring that not a keystroke have I made.

This unusual state of affairs was the result of the weather, unseasonably sunny and warm for the main part had the result of spurring into action a project that had been 'waiting in the wings' for some weeks.

The building PG and I live in was originally built approximately 200 years ago as 4 cottages for workers on the nearby railway. Having been long since decommisioned the cottages were sold. 5 years ago they where renovated and converted into 8 flats by our current landlord. We inhabit a flat on the first floor which provides us with stunning views but no garden. Those on at ground level have gardens. The property directly below us is let to a guy who keeps it purely as a 'bolt hole' and rarely visits even to collect mail let alone attend to his garden, which for the last year has borne more in common with the Amazon than an idyllic country extension to the dwelling.

So it was this situation that prompted myself and a neighbour to tackle the landlord on a solution to the ever increasing eyesore. As is the way of landlords he was in no hurry to spend time or money rectifying the situation but after some discussion gave us permission to effect a take over. Ok....so it's not our property but it is the environment we live in and is our home, the two of us finally agreed to take on the task.

For the main part I enjoy gardening and have missed not having a 'patch' to call my own. I am passionate about plants and horticulture in general, how many of us residing is Scotland I wonder visit Kew gardens on perhaps ten occasions a year.....I do!

The weather having taken a turn for the better my neighbour and I decided to take the proverbial bull by the horns on Wednesday morning and tackle the task before us. And some task it turned out to be. Plants and shrubs of maybe decades age and rooted somewhere near Australia were in abundance once we had cleared the ever advancing weeds, the soil was heavy with clay and we dug and pulled and swore and sweated for the entire day. For all our efforts, upon standing back to admire our progress this patch of land looked barely touched...... and so it was that on wakening yesterday morning to find yet more sunshine we set about day two.

The rewards were at last evident by the time, late in the evening, that extremely strong winds and rain called a final halt to the project, Kew Gardens it will never be but this small piece of land albeit quite bare and uninteresting thus far, is at least clear and tidy....but oh how I suffered.

I recall many moons ago teasing my mother, when she had been involved in some physical task complaining of her aches and pains and being warned to 'wait until I was her age'. So now I am suffering her warning and the payback is brutal! My back is locked into a strange position, I have muscles I never knew existed complaining loudly, my hands are red raw and so stiff even my efforts at typing are painful and I lost all but 3 long and manicured fingernails into the bargain!!!

PG nagged me into a bath last night in an endeavor to alleviate my state of decrepit-ness having taken much amusement in the state of disrepair I had fallen into. He rarely misses an opportunity to remind me of in the fact that he is some years my junior! The results of the prolonged soak were pleasing, somewhat less pleasing was waking at 3 this morning and being unable to eject myself from the bed without his assistance in rolling me off the edge!

Goddamn....what happened to this body of mine? Having been a gymnast for years, ridden large motor bikes and spent years in a physically demanding job it used to be strong. It seems but a few months since I could easily lift a 40kg bag of cement (don't ask) without any detrimental effects, not bad for a woman of 5 foot and 7.5 stone,...........oh how my mother will laugh. The phrase 'I told you so' will soon be ringing, if sympathetically, in my ears I think!!

My only comfort is drawn from the fact that my neighbour, the other member of the 'digging party' is suffering no less than I...... despite being 10 years my junior. :o)

City girl, new experience.

Harvested


Clouds

This normally quiet part of the world has been a hive of activity and noise for the last week or two. Something that has never figured in my life before has been much in evidence.....the harvest.

As a city girl the question of how crops got from the field to the consumer had never really fluttered through my mind for more than a few childhood moments sat cross legged and impatient on a cold hard floor during school harvest festivals!

Here in a community whose economic survival is based on farming, the seasons and weather are of greater importance than I am used to and dictate what is done and when. I am fascinated by a way of life I have never witnessed before and have given little or no thought to previously.

The harvest in particular seems to be fraught with difficulties, crops can only be lifted under certain conditions and here for the past few weeks the normally still, quiet atmosphere has been permeated by the sounds of heavy machinery in the fields. This is not a 9-5 job by any stretch of the imagination. Once the crop is ready to be harvested and the weather suitable, those who's job it is to carry out the work are in the fields 24/7 until it is done. Social lives stop, the pubs are quieter than is the norm and it seems half of the already meagre population disappears.

Never before have I seen the almost eerie sight of these massive harvesting machines cutting their straight lines in the fields throughtout the night lit by powerful halogen lights. Nor did I ever realise just how big and technically advanced they are. These things are immense and this is the one time of year when getting stuck in traffic becomes slightly more common. Get behind one of these monsters and you have no chance......alone they can barely manoeuvre using both lanes let alone allow other traffic past!

You know .......

.... You're From London When...

You say "the city" and expect everyone to know which one. You have never been to The Tower or Madame Tussauds but love Brighton. You can get into a four-hour argument about how to get from Shepherds Bush to Elephant & Castle at 3:30 on the Friday before a long weekend, but can't find Dorset on a map. Hookers and the homeless are invisible. You step over people who collapse on the tube. You believe that being able to swear at people in their own language makes you multi-lingual. You've considered stabbing someone. Your door has more than three locks. Your favourite movie has Hugh Grant in it. You consider eye contact an act of overt aggression. You call an 8' x 10' plot of patchy grass a garden. You know where Karl Marx is buried. You consider Essex the "countryside" You think Hyde Park is "nature." You're paying £1,200 a month for a studio the size of a walk-in wardrobe and you think it's a "bargain." Shopping in suburban supermarkets and shopping malls gives you a severe attack of agoraphobia. You've been to Tooting twice and got hopelessly lost both times. You pay more each month to park your car than most people in the UK pay in rent. You haven't seen more than twelve stars in the night sky since you went camping as a kid. You own hiking boots and a 4WD vehicle, neither of which have ever touched dirt. You haven't heard the sound of true absolute silence since 1977, and when you did, it terrified you. You pay £3 without blinking for a beer that cost the bar 28p. You actually take fashion seriously. Being truly alone makes you nervous. You have 27 different menus next to your telephone. The UK west of Heathrow is still theoretical to you. You're suspicious of strangers who are actually nice to you. You haven't cooked a meal since helping mum last Christmas with the turkey. Your idea of personal space is no one actually standing on your toes. £50 worth of groceries fit in one paper bag. You have a minimum of five "worst cab ride ever" stories. You don't hear sirens anymore. You've mentally blocked out all thoughts of the city's air quality and what it's doing to your lungs. You live in a building with a larger population than most towns. Your cleaner is Russian, your grocer is Korean, your deli man is Israeli, your landlord is Italian, your laundry guy is Chinese, your favourite bartender is Irish, your favourite diner owner is Greek, the watch-seller on your corner is Senegalese, your last cabbie was Pakistani, your newsagent is Indian and your favourite falafel guy is Egyptian. You wouldn't want to live anywhere else until you get married. You say 'mate' constantly You think anyone not from London is a 'wanker' You think anyone from outside London and north of the Watford Gap is a 'Northern Wanker' You have no idea where the North is. You see All Saints in the Met Bar (again) and find it hard to get excited about it. The countryside makes you nervous Somebody speaks to you on the tube and you freak out thinking they are a stalker. You talk in postcodes. "God, it was really warm round SW1 the other day" You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from London.

Get Your Own "You Know You're From" Meme Here

Of Poldark and porn.

Poldark

My post yesterday and the subsequent comments prompted me to consider the the porn industry and the offerings of modern television schedules in general, further.

Pornography for me is neither particularly offensive nor a pleasure and I don't feel degraded by it as a woman or a human being. As Dale said in his comment, "in North America it is big business" and were there not a market for it we can be rest assured that in an era, where the mighty dollar is a God, it would not exist in the volume it does. There has always been, and doubtless will always be, an enormous market for the mainly low quality products this industry produces....The Sun's page three and Hugh Heffners Playboy are now institutions, they are in comparison to most more recent offerings tame stuff but none the less they appeal to the same base nature in a large proportion of individuals.

Sex is an inherent part of mankind and since time began a powerful driving force in much that we do. It is therefore no great surprise that human nature has an unending fascination with it in one form or another. One only has to google the word 'sex' to get an idea of how much is out there, it would not be so if there were no market. I cannot say that this is a 'man only' phenomenon though I would suggest that women prefer in the main, something slightly less 'in your face'......as an individual whilst I have no problem with pornography in essence, the unending close ups of random individuals engaging in multifarious acts that must on occasion defy even the most athletic body leaves me cold. At best it is soul-less. Porn is for the most part aimed at the male of the species and there is no doubt it is received with relish. Men and women are inherently different creatures (ok guys I know you didn't need that pointing out) and if you have ever tried to find pornography for women on the internet you will know how little, by comparison, there is.

I am of course talking here of what has become the 'legitimate' main stream porn industry, where those involved are involved of their own choice and free will and have not been coerced. Where coercion and deviance are involved I have like most a big problem with it, that is a whole different subject and a very tragic one. We all have our own opinion as to where normal behaviors end and deviance begins but there is no need for me to spell that out here.

My main concerns with what is on offer and how it is offered are these. Firstly pornography is for adults and spamming and advertising that is available to minors requires much tighter controls than are currently in place. Children should be bought up in a safe environment to enjoy a true childhood and learning that sex is only about self gratification is harmful. Porn most definitely does not promote sex as part of a loving and respectful relationship!

Secondly, like advertising, it concerns me that the presentation of all that is pornographic instills in people unrealistic standards and goals in life. The reality is that we are not all sexual Houdinis, with perfectly honed and well endowed bodies and nor are we multi orgasmic on a thrice daily basis! Is it any wonder that sex therapists are inundated with lost souls feeling unnecessarily inadequate and that the population at large feels they are somehow missing out?

All this brings me to my second point....the content of modern television schedules.

I was bought up in a household where television was a big part of our life, not because we watched it unendingly, quite the reverse, we, as children, where only allowed very limited access but because my father worked for the BBC for nigh on 40 years at the sharp end in production. He and his colleagues were proud of what they produced, they had been in from the very early days of modern TV, had watched it grow and were involved in its evolution.

Today, despite a vast array of channels and options the quality and choice on our screens, with a few exceptions, is dismal and for the most part is made up of reality shows, game shows, porn by another name and 'drama' that concentrates on either sex, violence or both. There is good work out there but you have to look damn hard to find. Anything mentally challenging or stimulating is generally well hidden. The days of treats such as Poldark and David Attenboroughs journeys around our natural world are sadly all but gone..........feel good, stimulating television is rapidly becoming a thing of the past!

And who do we blame? We blame the production and broadcasting companies... but while we turn on in our millions to watch this claptrap it is hardly surprising, in an industry that is like most, economically controlled that claptrap is what we get!!!

Porn star??

It never ceases to amaze me just how peculiarly idiotic the occasional individual can be.

Late last night whilst indulging in a little of the infuriating male pass-time of channel hopping, PG found himself, inexplicably watching a documentary (I use the word very loosely here) on the subject of the porn industry. Inexplicably my foot.... for someone who maintained it was not intentional that he had arrived at this particular channel he seemed somewhat keen to remain there.... men will be men. This un-delightful half hour of footage was one of those low buget programmes produced under the guise of 'education', though I doubt the producers had little more in mind than cheap titillation.

This post, I promise, is not going to be a moral or ethical lecture on the pro's and con's of pornography, I will leave that for someone else, rather it is to register my perhaps unkind amazement at one individuals utter lack of common sense!

The programme was intended to be focusing on the endeavors of a particular director to find a new star, though the cameras (along with PG's gaze) seemed to be focused elsewhere mostly. Suffice to say the 'applicants' for the position came and went, did their stuff, said a few ill articulated words, in general about how impressed they were with the kindness of the attendant male participant and how the legitimate side of the porn industry is wonderful.... and off they trotted, all blonde hair and oversized assets.

My amazement was centered on the final girl, perhaps aged in her early twenties, who arrived late but seemingly with the appropriate attributes...that is barring one thing.

This young lady's face was completely covered in angry looking red spots and on closer inspection so were her legs! She was not investigated further. My surprise was not with her medical predicament but with the fact that she, in an industry so apparently obsessed with appearance and sexual health was completely outraged when told kindly by the director she could not be used in that days shoot!! He advised her to seek medical attention, advice she seemed to ignore. He attempted with unexpected tact, to explain the situation to her again and again but for what seemed like an interminable length of time she persisted in arguing that 'it was nothing' .....absolutely no amount of persuasion was going to convince her otherwise!!! She was finally unceremoniously dispatched toward the exit and the advice to see a doctor was reiterated.

It may well have 'been nothing' but come on, how could she possibly have imagined that in the porn industry of all industries it would be acceptable.

Utterly amazing!

I know, I know, I should really have been more sympathetic and in the main I am, the issues surrounding this industry are serious and many.... I just couldn't resist being amused by her audacity and stupidity.

Porn star??...I doubt it.

Scary!

You Know You're Addicted to your Blog When...

If you can't access the site, you have a minor freak out - and a major case of hitting reload. You found yourself composing journal entries during dates, movies, even sex! When you're out, you suddenly think of a witty reply to a comment somebody made to you... several days ago. You've downloaded some sort of blog program which has only the purpose of making entries easier to write without going on the site manually. You consider it a great offence if someone deletes you off their friend's list. The first thing you do every day when you go online is check your friends blogs - even before checking your email. You actually paid money for a few extra pictures with a full account when you could actually just alternate pics when you want to for your screen icons. When your friends ask what's new, you get mad at them because you already wrote it in your blog and they didn't check it yet. You have put more time into your blog than all your assignments for the semester. You have more friends in the blogosphere than in real life. You've met at least 50% of your Blogger friends. You can't seem to call your friends by their real names - only blog names will do. You've fallen in love with someone you met on blogger. You have posted about a party or get together on your blog... and random strangers showed up. You are guilty of traveling more than an hour to meet someone with Blogger. (Extra points for traveling five hours or more) You've written a protected entry about one of your blog friends. (Extra points if they eventually found out about it) You have written posts to notify people you're going to sleep. You talk about your blog friends to your real life friends all the time... like they're a part of your group. You've created a blog community, and people actually post in it. You've been recognized in real life by a fellow blogger'er. You have friended someone because of their blog icon. You have "pity friends" on your list, who you would defriend if you could. You've pimped one of your friends on journal, trying to get people to friend him / her. Instead of doing research, you post difficult questions on your blog. Your pets all have their own blogs. You know, right now, how many people have friended you (without peeking). You've stopped being friends with someone in real life because of something they've said on your blog. You're guilty of posting sexy or nude pictures to get more people to friend you. You have consoled yourself after a horrible day thinking "At least this will make a great blog post" You're jealous of people who have more friends and / or comments than you. You have written a really great, solid post - only to be disappointed by the lack of good comments. You're guilty of commenting excessively to get more traffic to your journal. You've deleted a post a few minutes (or hours) after you've written it, because it seemed lame in retro spect. You have an additional, secret journal that hardly anyone knows about. You've broken up with someone - or ended a friendship - soley via Blogger. You have gotten mean anonymous comments (bonus points for figuring out who it was via their IP) You've been reported (or reported someone) to Blogger Abuse. You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends who are blog addicts.

Get Your Own Addicted Meme Here

A personal triumph

Andrew Murray

I was heartened this morning to read this story.

Andrew Murray, a 17 year old Scot who survived the Dunblane massacre of 1996, yesterday won the US open tennis junior title.

A true case of courage triumphing over adversity. Long may he continue to achieve his dreams.

"My long-term aim is to make the world's top 10"

Andrew Murray.

And the prize for customer from hell goes to...

This weeks two days in the world of retail was particularly challenging! To be strictly correct it was actually only one day. Saturday saw me ailing and I called in sick, something I hate doing but on this occasion was unavoidable. Sunday was madness.

Anyone who has the misfortune to be employed in this field will know only too well that there is a very definite clash between the need to provide an excellent service and to maintain the approval of shareholders. The two things are not good bedfellows........an excellent level of customer service is difficult in the extreme to provide with the skeleton staffing levels dictated by the need to maximise profits!

In the main I enjoy the high pressure environment and it's challenges though I'm not sure I could cope at that 'pitch' full time as I used to. For 8 hours solid we are at full stretch endeavoring to 'keep it all together'. I wonder at times if some who walk through our doors have any idea whatsoever of what is involved in a modern retail environment. Historically it is considered a job for those who can do nothing more professional, perhaps that used to be the case but it is by no means true in this day and age. Even to operate a checkout in the modern retail environment requires considerable skills in my opinion, but yet much of 'Joe Public' still appears to imagine shop staff are there in the main to be abused and condescended too.

The specifics of yesterdays experience are both annoying and amusing at once. The phrase 'If you didn't laugh you would cry' springs to mind.

First I must explain that this outlet is a very large, self service, warehouse type establishment. We retail, among other things, much technical equipment and are expected by customers to know everything about everything. We are talking thousands of products here and sadly perhaps, the days of small shops where the proprietor was a specialist in his or her field has gone. We do our best but we are not trained technicians, those of us who have been in the business for years have gradually acquired considerable product knowledge and the company provide some training but we are not tradesmen.One cannot recruit specialist staff into a retail environment at the rates of pay on offer.

My job specifically is it to keep the checkouts running smoothly and queue-lessly, to man the front of house desk, from where the rest of the store is controlled during opening hours. I deal with all enquiries, requests for information and process refunds and the more complicated transactions. For the most part of the day I am directing other staff, via a tannoy, to points in the store they are required to be, shouting instructions to checkout operators with problems, along a line of tills, holding at least one phone on my shoulder, dealing with a queue of customers who need my specific attention and trying to complete a pile of paperwork that a computer spewed out overnight. The adrenalin flows freely, if it didn't I would be reduced to a snivelling heap within 10 minutes.

We have a very progressive refund policy that allows for a full, no questions refund within a long period should a customer change their mind. We don't adhere closely to it, rather in the name of goodwill we have a tendency to overlook most of the criteria and refund within much wider limits. Something that in my opinion,having worked in retail security, is only encouraging dishonesty but what do I know?

Against this background you will perhaps understand why yesterday the sight and sound of a particular family walking through the doors en-mass filled me with dread. All shops have them....the people you just know are going to present problems and test your patience and personal communication skills to the limit. This family are notorious to us. They recently emigrated here, are very well educated, financially very comfortable and an absolute pain in the ass. We are not Harrods or Harvey Nicks and yet they demand, very rudely, something akin to an army of personal shoppers. They demand complete attention, require that I recall individual staff members that they prefer to deal with from lunch breaks to serve them, seat themselves at some point in the store and proceed to direct as many of us as they can command to attend to their every whim. Add to that, a large proportion of the goods they purchase they invariably return for refund,up to a year after purchase having nigh on destroyed them and rendered them unsaleable. Yesterday was no different. 27 items in various states of disarray where dumped unceremoniously on my desk along with a pile of very questionably stained receipts, dating back almost a year, with a loud demand that I sort it out.

I know from experience this lady will question my every move, she will check that I am refunding for the correct items, question each and every price, add them herself to be satisfied that I or the technology have made no mistake, she will never have the correct credit card to hand and all the time rattle complaints in my ear! Through out this delightful exchange I have to maintain absolute politeness, remain understanding and sympathetic to her every complaint, listen to her argue with her husband and 30 something daughter (who still incidentally refers to her annoyingly as 'mummy'), take other directions and complaints from said husband and daughter and attempt to appease the by now growing annoyance of a large queue of customers forming behind her.

That is the bit that really angers me.....in the real world surely this woman knows this is a self serve outlet and that she can't or shouldn't demand such special attention, her behavior is selfish in the extreme. She shows an utter disregard for all those other shoppers waiting patiently in her wake, they too need attention but for this lady that is of no consequence whatsoever. For her with her arrogant manner, they are not worthy of any consideration. Each time she walks though the door the majority of staff become embroiled in the scene, despite attempts at escape and for her, the rest can go hang!

Sadly the bottom line is that she spends a lot of money with us and by virtue of that we have to accept her obnoxious visits, I disagree. Those customers that spend less are no less important and deserve our attention just the same. Whilst retail is generally understaffed one cannot staff to unprofitable levels and we can only stretch ourselves so far. We should not be giving special treatment to someone purely on the strength of their spending power but the reality is that we have to.

I'm sorry, but where the f*** do people like this learn such outrageous attitudes?....I just don't get it!

How common are you?

gemma is the #1711 most common female name.
0.003% of females in the US are named gemma.
Around 3825 US females are named gemma!
source namestatistics.com

....and my real name is #77!.....how common :o)

The end of the rainbow...

....is in Scotland!





11.09.04