10000 and counting

Hurrahhhh,we got there, while I slept my 10000th visitor arrived and it was none other than MICHELLE of Justitia fame:

Returning Visits:7
Location: Australia
Hostname:tow-ts1-2600.tpgi.com.au (203.213.0.10)
Entry Page:jmw500.blogspot.com/
Exit Page:jmw500.blogspot.com/2004/11/gemmak-gets-reviewed.html#comments
Referring URL:maggiezfarmaz.blogspot.com/

I'm kinda glad it was a regular and friend rather than someone just passing through. Amusingly and typically, as I sat an watched for a time last night as the counter had only 12 to go, it's provider kindly took it down and left a message telling me I was required to replace the code with a new one!! Even I don't relish fiddling with even the simplest piece of code and my template at that hour of the night but it had to be done! lol.

Anyways, thanks chaps and chapesses for your continued loyalty....the next big one is 100000 but at current rates it's gonna be at least another 4.5 years so I think for now I will forget about it!

gemmak gets reviewed

This goes a little against the grain for me but under threat of severe punishment being heaped upon me if I do not, I have promised Magz I will draw your attention to THIS

I submitted my blog to the Weblog Review a few days ago and today the considerations of three brave reviewers were published.

To Magz I have to say the biggest thank you....you flatter me, it is probably undeserved but it's kinda nice *blush*.

Where my other two reviewers are concerned, your points, good and bad, are of value, honest is good. I have taken your thoughts on board and I thank you for the time you spent here and your efforts in writing your reviews. I only take issue on one small point.....my world clocks are there because I need them in my dotage!! I use them constantly, I cannot for the life of me remember the time differences for so many places and when I can afford five small matching clocks for my desk they will be gone. None the less I have to concede, that for those who do not have a fondness for 'busy' sidebars mine was never going to be a winner! :o)

Thank you again to all of you but for obvious reasons a great big thank you to Magz.

Christmas 2004? No thanks.

I'm feeling a little sorry for myself right now.

As a child and as an adult I have adored Christmas time, it has been marginally ruined by the unending run up entailed in retail but none the less it is a special time and one where I look forward to spending time with PG and our families. It has become more important to me with my move North and the consequent infrequency of time with them.

PG has just called me....what were we saying about employer loyalty? He has worked 9 of the last 10 Christmas's without complaint but this year requested time off to enable us to spend it with my family at my sisters home in the Midlands. Failing that he had asked for an early shift on Christmas day so that we at least could eat dinner together and enjoy the late afternoon and evening.

You know what's coming next don't you? He just received his rota for the festive season, he has the the Thursday and Christmas eve off........I am required to work those two days and that is followed by a 3pm-11pm shift on Christmas day and a repeat on Boxing day.....New Year is much the same!!

I have no relatives nearby and nor does PG and my friends here will be spending Christmas with their families. I could, I suppose, travel South alone but I don't want to leave PG alone for Christmas and I don't want to spend it without him.

I know someone has to do the job but hell......why is it always him?! All of his colleagues have families close to hand, and I know everyone would like Christmas off and that is not possible, it is a drawback of moving so far I suppose but FFS...........good will to all men?? Forget it.

So, if you need a blog baby-sat or a website designed over the festivities call me........I have a few free days!

I'm off to sulk now. :o(

Bound Stateside again

Today again I am about to pack my virtual case and head off Stateside to take care of 'And now for something completely different'. Lisa, it's owner, is Chicago bound on a business trip and consequently will be absent for the day.

It's a little weird to be let loose in someone else's 'patch', kinda like taking care of someone else's child or pet, almost more worrying than looking after your own.

That said it should be fun assuming of course my small mind can come up with enough posts to keep both sides of the Atlantic up and running all day and can fathom the technicalities and navigation of a different provider!

Catch you there later maybe!

I'm ever hopeful

Today again I am at the mercy of another tradesman! I mentioned last week my small disaster with my car's windscreen whereby in my attempt to remove a large heap of something unpleasant not so kindly deposited by a seagull I scratched it so badly I rendered it akin to that obscure glass one finds in a bathroom window protecting the modesty of those therein! How I hear you say can seagull deposit damage glass........this was a new one on me but once aware it became sadly obvious that seagull 'pooh' is full of sand!

Hence it is that I await the arrival of the tradesman charged with the job of replacing the windscreen. Forgive my lack of faith but I'm not holding my breath. I have no reason to doubt this guys appearance at the stated appointment time other than my lifetime's experience of tradesmen and women. If this guy arrives at the time and place designated it will be a rare occurrence and I am currently attempting to think of a suitable prize should he do so. No lewd suggestion thank you!

Plumbers, electricians, heating engineers, landlords, insurance salesmen,telecommunications professionals and motor mechanics, none in my experience ever arrive on time if at all so why should a vehicle glazier be any different? I am ever hopeful though that this time will be different and that by dinner time I will have a bright shiny new windscreen designed to be seen through, installed.

There is of course the other issue involved here....how successful said installation will be, I have been this route before only to discover 3 inches of rainwater loitering under foot subsequent to rainfall and the fitting of a new windscreen. Again I am ever hopeful thought not convinced!

Fur-ball!

Ditto 09.11.04

I must learn to say 'NO'!

Grrrr...I have to work today, it's not the work that is bugging me rather the inconsideration and stupidity that surrounds my working today.

I agreed a week or two back to take on an extra day a week, no problem, I need the money and was glad of the offer. Needless to say though this was not contracted and hence can be fiddled with at corporate will!

It is thus that on Sunday my shift for this week was changed suddenly, this is not unusual, apparently we as employees have no life outside of work and never have arrangements made! I would normally have worked a full day on Thursday which suits me fine but it has been decided in someone's wisdom that my presence is required for half a shift today and half a shift on Thursday instead.

This may sound like no big deal and mostly it isn't save for the fact that I have an almost 40 mile round trip on each occasion and as my remuneration is not impressive, once one deducts the tax and the cost of the fuel it is barely worth my working at all! In fact if you consider that it also makes two days this week unusable then from my point of view it is completely pointless.

Add to that this shift is across the middle of the day, I get no break, the length of the shift is carefully engineered just within employment laws to make sure I don't get one, and hence don't have a chance to eat the whole thing aggravates me intensely!

Of course, this situation is within the parameters of my contract so apart from appealing to the common sense (???) of my management I have no argument. I have had this 'discussion' on many occasions with those that decide my shifts but still it appears to fall on deaf ears!!

Why do I not just learn to stand my ground and say NO!? I'll tell you why, in the first place I am not good at the 'no' word and in the second, despite 'talking the talk' on employee considerations, when push comes to shove there is little action..... should I make my point too loudly they will stop offering me overtime at all. It seems we have to be more and more flexible as time goes on..........it will come as no surprise to learn that flexibility and loyalty seems to be a one way street!

This is a small point but it aggravates the hell out of me. Rant over.

gemmak goes Stateside

I made mention yesterday that someone had kindly and somewhat flatteringly, extended an invitation in my direction over the weekend to do something I have never done before and promised further details, well this is those details.

This morning I packed my virtual bags and headed Stateside to take up that invitation HERE for the first time.

Here's hoping I can maintain the standard, it's kinda scary to be plodding around in someone else's territory!

A narcissistic moment

Please excuse my narcissitic tendencies where my visitor stats are concerned!

Those of you who visit here regularly will have noticed by the number of bits of tracking code scattered around, that I am more than a little interested in seeing who has been here!

This week I am hoping to make it to what I see as a tiny milestone.....10000 hits, I never in a million moments of imagination envisaged when I began this, that anyone would read it let alone that number. There are those among us who have far more impressive stats but for me what I have is just fine. I might add here that my stats are reasonably accurate. I persist in using the less than professional Bravenet counter purely because it is the only one that allows me to ignore my own hits without having the luxury of a static I.P. and thereby does not artificially inflate my figures. On the odd occasion I have lost the cookie and registered my own visits I have even been know to subtract them! How's that for honesty? Lol.

Hidden away there are others that supply me with much improved tracking facilities, it fascinates me to see who has been here and where they came from etc. To be able to watch someone navigate my tiny little patch of the w.w.w. and know they are in the Bronx, Saudi, Spain, Canada or wherever and to narrow it down to a specific city or closer is still just amazing to me.

So like I said, apologies for my narcissism and to those of you who visit, ta very much!. I will endeavor, with all this technology, to define and report back who exactly makes the 10000th hit when it happens but I make no guarantees! I recently read a blog in which the author was thanking his 100000th visitor, hell, if I ever make it to that I will throw a party but by then I imagine I will be too decrepit to join in! :o)

Little things

Fallow Doe © Laurie Campbell

As ever I have worked all weekend with nothing outstandingly good or bad involved, no customers of note in either a negative or positive respect, just day to day weekend retail madness.

It will never cease to amaze me that so many people want to shop on a weekend and and it confounds me further that they are forming a queue at the door by 9.30 on a Sunday morning, if not sooner. There are many places I might like to be at that hour on a Sunday, if I had not to work, but on the doorstep of a superstore in the cold would most certainly not be one of them!!

The mundanity and routine of the working weekend was tempered by one or two small but very pleasant surprises.

The first was an invitation from someone who has become a good friend of late, an invitation to do something I have never done before and that I am looking forward to like a small child.....more on that soon.

The second was the beautiful sight, as PG and I left home this morning for work, of two beautiful adult deer not 20 yards away. They had no cover other than a light mist, both turned in unison at the sound of the door closing shut, looked at us for a few moments and then meandered slowly on their way, stopping to graze intermittently as they went. We stood and watched in silence as they pottered around the field, seemingly unperturbed by our presence until they had gone from our sight.

We have lived her now for three years but until this morning had seen no evidence that there were deer 'in the back yard'.

So that was my weekend, no fireworks here, there are too many animals in close proximity had we even wanted them but instead a few little events that made it quite a special two days.

It's the small things in life as they say .........

Coronation Street anyone?

In control.

The case of the missing parcel

The birthday present to my Mother finally turned up but not I might add hastily, in quite the manner one would expect.

I left the situation with the company I purchased from somewhat in mid air, they had no idea where it was and couldn't contact the courier charged with responsibility for delivery because they were by then closed for business.

My father rang me at around 11.30 last night. He and my Mother had been out for the evening celebrating her birthday and upon their return my Mother commented that it appeared there was a parcel left on the doorstep of the house next door to them, she was concerned for it's safety. My father, aware of the lost gift, walked down the drive to investigate and sure enough it was the missing parcel. It was duly rescued and taken indoors.

None of this may sound that peculiar, I was relieved it was at last with it's recipient BUT it may sound a little less acceptable when I draw to your attention one or two small points!

Both my parents house and that next door have house numbers on the front door three inches high, both houses are set back from the road necessitating a walk toward them making it nigh on impossible that anyone could miss the numbers, the packege was clearly and correctly addressed and required a signature upon delivery and last but by no means least...........the property at which this gift was unceremoniously dumped is quite patently uninhabited and not yet entirely constructed!!!!

God preserve me from idiots; just let me loose with the courier at the start of business this morning.

Sorry Risky, but at this stage I am at a loss to know who else to blame if not the driver! :o(

The best laid plans

What is it they say about the 'best laid plans'?

It being my Mothers birthday today and my being 400 miles away I duly very carefully arranged to have a gift delivered to her today. Well that at least was the theory!You know exactly what's coming here don't you?

Yup, the carefully arranged delivery is nowhere in evidence....the ineptitude of some companies never ceases to amaze me. I always buy from large, national and apparently reputable companies and doubtless pay through the nose but that's just fine....assuming they keep their side of the bargain, which on far to frequent occasions it seems they don't!!

So, the phone calls and courier chasing has begun. Granted the company concerned are most apologetic and apparently helpful but that doesn't change the fact that they now can't resolve this situation until Monday and that her birthday is today.

One thing is for sure, if said gift is not delivered sharpish on Monday and with profuse apologies, the very nice operator at the Next Directory call centre will be receiving a somewhat less than very nice call from yours truly.

How do companies of this size get away with it? I certainly couldn't!

Arghhhh.....

5th November

Well it is Guy Fawkes night!!! What more can I say other than they won't be here long doing something very odd to your eyes :o)


It is also my Mothers birthday so:

~HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM~

fireworks especially for you!
xxxxx