OFFS.

I am so pissed off. I just went through all my photos of a lovely weekend and went to send them to the computer to upload them to flickr.

Instead of send, I pressed delete.

I could cry.

Really quick one because

I have a friend to stay.. Charlotte, my friend from primary school. We’ve known each other for twenty years and we don’t see each other very often so we ‘re gas bagging…

That’s nothing vile for anyone that’s never heard that expression before…

Just as she was arriving, a girl parked in the spot outside our house and I said to BN that I was going to pop out and say something to her… there was a two car space outside and she parked right in the middle of it..

I said something very breezy to the effect of friend coming to stay, due any minute, could she back up a bit so she would be able to park..

This girl looked at me, looked at her boyfriend.. looked back at me as if I was a two headed alien.. sneered and got bakc in her car without a word.. moved it about a foot backwards.. got out ..

I said ‘Oh no words then? Great way to communicate with people excellent.. that’ll get you far in life… Thank you very much for your time.. Very much appreciated..’ I called after her.. her boufriend looked pretty embarrassed. By her I hope.

I would never normally say anything.. but Jesus.. It’s only the tiniest favour.. was it really that unreasonable to ask that she couldn’t even converse with me?!?!?

People!!

Anyway.. I won’t be posting probably for a couple of days as Charlotte is here.. and I’m drinking wine. Again. But not in the same proportions that I did two weeks ago. Because that would be foolish.

ps. BN made that smiley. Whaddya fink??

Nursery Rhymes Times

Rowan’s nursery have turned out to be a little crap.

There’s several things they’re not doing that they said they would and there’s other stuff they’re doing which I don’t think they should be….

Did I or did I not get told when we joined this nursery that they would toilet train her? Are they doing that?

ER NO!

Did I or did I not get told that they would do whatever kind of toilet training we wanted?

Is that happening …? No!

This particular nursery is putting Rowan on a potty persistently, when we have specified on at least 8 occasions that we want her to be put on the toilet.

I don’t care who you are.. that all kinds of irritating!!

Every time BN picks her up from them, he’s told how she’s gone on the potty and every time he gets told that he says that we asked for her to be put on the toilet..

‘Oh well - now we know, we can make sure that happens from now on’ *bangs head against wall*

Eeerrrrrrrrrrr.. ACTUALLY!!! We tell you that every time we leave her here and every time we pick her up!!!

Secondly - there is nits at the nursery..

Not a big deal you say.

They can’t help that you say.

I agree .. nits are unfortunate and inevitable at a nursery…

However..

How come the woman that works for me gets a letter saying that the nursery has nits and I don’t?

I don’t mind if there’s a notice on the front noticeboard .. I don’t care if they hire a plane to do sky writing.. I don’t care if they teach the kids to say it and have them pass on the message..

I don’t have to have a letter!!!

But don’t send some people letters and not others.. Inconsistency just makes me think of what else they’re not consistent about.. what else is there they’re doing for some and not for others?

Thirdly, the woman that works for me got a phone call last week to say that her daughter had been sick and needed to be collected.

When Scotty got there, her 3 year old was sat on her own, in the corner, on the floor, with dried sick around her mouth, without having had a change of clothes and without anyone looking after her.

Scotty also says that her little girl has had marks around her mouth on more than one occasion showing that she’s been drinking from something dirty…

Fourthly.. when we were shown around, one price was quoted and when we received our first bill another one was charged. Scotty says their prices have gone up and that .. yes …. you guessed it… she got a letter!!

So.. what to do..?
I’ve contacted a couple of new nurseries and we’re looking round one next week hopefully..

Do they bank on the fact that lots of people won’t remove their children because they’re either unable to because of work or because I’ll feel bad for depriving her of nursery when she loves it so much..?

But do we take her out while we look or leave her there and wait till we find something new…

Can’t decide.

Pretentious…. moi?

Was that Only Fools or Fawlty Towers I can’t remember..

Ya know, pretentious means to be affected or false in order to impress …. so when I came across this blog and saw the comments my innocent little meme had provoked, I was a little confused….

… and yes… never one to shy away from a direct (or indirect) confrontation.. I had to retaliate..

I can’t really see where in my words I created that impression. (Or why the interest to be honest… I’m like totally flattered dudes!!! )

So.

Background on the meme.

It was a bit of fun and derived from a conversation in a pub once (about 6 years ago I think) where that was the *exact* wording we used…

We were a little tipsy and it was good fun.

It held good memories for me. So I recreated it - in it’s entirety.

“…..Which is, I think you’ll agree, a question as potentially disturbing as it is difficult. Why can’t I listen to music again? Who says? Why? So I’m not going deaf or dying? Well, what is it, then? Why can’t I listen to music ever again? I don’t get it.”

You know I don’t know why you can’t listen to music anymore. Who really cares? Desert Island? Loss of stereo for all I care. If we were dying (we agreed) with time only for three more songs… there would surely be more important things to do than listen to music, or try and figure out three songs at least. If we were going deaf… that would be depressing.. so it wasn’t anything that yawn.

It wasn’t supposed to be depressing. We couldn’t think of a reason, OK? Geez.

It was just a question. Fatman was right. If it was just your three favourite pieces of music, it would be easy. Well easier. It wasn’t supposed to be easy. That wasn’t the point.

It’s a meme. It is pointless.

That’s the point.

OK.. okaaaaay… sorry…… maybe I should have said… ‘Some years ago, when slightly drunk, some friends and I came up with this rambling question with imperfect scene setting….’.

But thanks for the dissection anyway.. I’ll be more careful in future not to be so fake.

You know, I think it’s easy not to get the question if you don’t want to. Call it obtuse if you like. I wouldn’t be so bold. I’m quite harmless and I’m quite fun and I enjoy harmless fun. So sue me.

I remember a few years ago, a really lovely summery day and me and my entire family were sat in my parents back garden.

Recently on the BBC, they had broadcast a program (Nick Knowles I [sadly] seem to recall) about personality type. The theme was there were a finite number of personalities that every person would fit into and that they could determine your type if you took part in an online questionnaire.

It was good fun & it was harmless and not particularly time consuming. So, I took part (I’m curious about such things) and I was a Go-Getter - I remember… distinctly funny because I’m really not!

Sitting around this sunny afternoon in my folks back garden, it came up in conversation and most of us had a go.

It came to my dad’s turn. He’d not been there the whole time, granted, and had to be filled in on the reason for the questionnaire.

Well.

The dark mist came down.

He kind of clouded over and his evil X-Men alter ego took control. He was obtuseness personified.

Qu.
When you put together flat pack furniture would you be the type of person to:
a) read the instructions from cover to cover before you even unpack the box
b) have a go and resort to instructions if necessary
c) never touch instructions and plough through until you get it right?

There were more options than this, more questions than this etc. but I can’t remember them now and that’s really not the point anyway…

Dad was like, ‘well I never do flat pack furniture’.

‘Dad, it’s the idea of the question, not the actual question itself. Replace flat pack with something relevant to you. It could be anything that uses instructions that you could either decide to use or not…’

‘Well I don’t really build things, so how would I know?’

And so it went on. Give me strength.

I mean really. It’s embarrassing. I felt embarrassed on his behalf.

It’s a quiz. A questionnaire. A bit of fun. Is it so hard to take part?

If you don’t like to take part in such things and/or don’t find them fun or mildly entertaining, then where’s the point in being polite enough to take part if you’re not polite enough to humour it..

The whole point of hypothetical is that it’s hy-po-thetical.

It’s not really happening. Hello..? Can you get that?

I could explain hypothetical if you wish. Would that help?

I think meme’s can be fun - but having said that - I certainly haven’t done every one that I’ve been tagged with! Because some of them are crap.
So fair dos to you.. anyone that doesn’t want to do one. It is not a totalitarian regime where memes are mandatory.

But just don’t call me names.. because it’s pretty unnecessary..

Now … does anybody need me to explain obtuse?

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Dooce.

I found dooce’s site today completely by accident - following a few links through, reading blogs - as you do - and scanning around to see if I came across anyone or anything else etc. etc.

I know Heather’s ‘famous‘ for want of a better word for losing her job after writing about work, but I had never thought to actually look for the website. I didn’t even realise that this would be *that* blog (yes yes… I’m not always known for being the quickest hound at the dogs) when I read this post that actually made me gasp.

Yes. Gasp.

It may sound ridiculously OTT but it was the kind of post where the scene setting (the email from the reader), actually made me raise my hand to cover my mouth as I read ahead … aghast …

I know, I know, not the normal words for anyone under the age of 55 - but trust me - read the post and then you’ll know what I mean.

How anyone thinks they ever have the right to contact another and even begin to allow this kind of bullshit drivel to pour onto the keyboard, amazes me.

I blog because I want to. I blog because I can. I blog because I enjoy the thought of my kids being able to view this one day and either be a part of it by writing (as my sister’s do) too or just laugh at the stories from when they were little.

Whatever. The point is …

I don’t want aggression or verbal from people. I can’t begin to think that any blogger is searching for aggressive retorts from readers.. Sure, I love to get responses to what I write. Depending on the post, I’m inviting support, solidarity, reassurance, networking for whatever purpose etc. etc. the list goes on. But not bullying or harassment or verbal abuse.

To re-use an ever popular phrase of mine -

…wind your neck in, get on with your own knitting and find something to do in your own life that doesn’t involve upsetting others.

Rant over

The wonderous world of temps…

A candidate came in today:

‘I worked for 3 weeks for you at *client*. I thought I got on alright. I wont (pronounce want) ever late, I worked ‘ard - *I thought* and my pick rate was ‘igh. ‘igher than the other bloke anyway.’

He paused as he thought of his next attack. Little pockets of white spittle had gathered at the corners of his mouth and the distinct aroma of weed, cigarettes and bodily odour were working their way over the desk toward me. He looked like he’d brushed last nights chip fat through his hair for the ‘extra slick wet look’ and his sovereign ring glinted at me in the florescent lighting…. you get the picture..

‘But then they said they only ‘ad one place from now on and they’ve picked that other bloke working wiv me. ‘e ‘ad more days off van me, ‘is pick rate was slower van mine and *I* don’t fink ‘e worked as ‘ard as I did - but they picked ‘im.>

…….now I’m not a genius - but I’m thinking - because you smell, you’re weird and you’re a fuckwit aggressive

‘Why did they pick ‘im?’ he yelled at me aggressively.. as he stood over me and shouted -

I thought ‘hmmm.. why don’t you go home and think about that and see what you come up with..

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