22.57 22/01/2016

Decided to start a blog......  Why?

a) To see if I can remember how to write, indeed, how to do anything constructive.
b) To make a regular (if not frequent) record of some of the things that make me feel better about being alive
c)To offload/rant and therefore (hopefully)cope better with things not included in b)

As I write this I am ensconced in my "pit", by which I mean my dishevelled bed in my very untidy bedroom (one of 3 in my unremarkable semi in a pleasant semi rural late 60's small estate). I should correct that. My house is actually remarkable because it is now the only one in my street that looks like the abode of a poverty stricken hermit who doesn't (appear to) give a damn about the views of the neighbours or keeping up with the (dozens of) Joneses.

Garcon, my faithful, forgiving companion terrier, is curled up resignedly on the bed, having had to make do - once again - without a walk today.  My current excuse/reason is that I have been fighting the ravages of a heavy cold and cough and took to my bed almost immediately on arrival home from work (have had this cough for some months now but in the last few days, and in true Goons fashion it's turned from a "nice" cough to a real "nasty" cough).

Right, think I've proved - to myself - a little of a)

Here's a little something under heading b)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-35384908
(am new to this, remember!).

c) Having literally dragged myself up off my sick bed this morning at 6.20, given myself a pep talk - something along the lines of "Of course you feel crap first thing, but I am sure you will feel better after your caffeine fix and some more honey and lemon and a nice Marks and Spencer Granola Square - which you left in your locker at work you forgetful eejit and if you don't eat it today you will have to THROW IT AWAY - and you will be fine once you're in work, and if you don't start feeling better of course you can then go home early and Tall T (team leader) and your colleagues will love you and praise you and no one will have to rearrange or try to cover your appointments and clients will think you are a heroine as you cough and splutter through your meetings and you will also have the additional (sick) pleasure of proving to someone - who for now shall remain nameless - what a normal work ethic is like", (all this in the two mins it took me to find my mobile and turn off that annoying feckin cockerel alarm sound!), it was particularly irksome today, juggling the demands of thinking straight enough to do the work properly through a fug of snot/coughing-retching fits (and a big shout out to manufacturersof "Tena ladies" and their ilk) whilst covering shortfalls and deficiencies (in resources, yes but, more annoyingly, in professionalism and common sense - cf client CJ with whom I had spent quite some time on the phone in the morning, setting up a crucial meeting with a colleague on the second floor, but who on arrival was instead misdirected by a well meaning but dim colleague to the wrong floor, (2 people named X - a very common girl's name - in an office of 60 people, well I never!), where she patiently languished unattended for half hour before we realised the error by which time the colleague expecting her had gone for her lunch break and it was all too late FFS!. THEN to discover one team colleague had left lunchtime having felt unwell - now, as a warm human being, I have every sympathy for someone feeling unwell and needing to go home early (!) but as the aforementioned person hasn't  - by all accounts* -worked a full day on a Friday in living memory (possibly an exaggeration) not everyone was sympathetic. ..

And ...... breathe!

Well it's working for me, so far :-)

*a frequent refrain of an amazingly active nonogenarian relly with very firmly held views, rarely based on the facts, usually a byword for something she choses to believe or has made up.