2012 - 40

Palpable Relief

I don't have to worry about my job now. This is good. The day after everything was sorted, I wanted to leave. Friday was the day from hell...

Bleurgh

Most of the week I've felt like I've been living underwater. My chest has been so tight, I'd convinced myself it was more than just this protracted cough and cold. I've been using an inhaler for years now and I was almost out, so put a repeat prescription in last Friday, only to discover they had lost it. What made things worse was the receptionist wasn't the slightest bit interested; telling me that I'd have to request another one and call back Monday for it.

Can you guess what my reaction was?

10 minutes later, a helpful receptionist returned with a prescription - job done.

A few blasts on it and suddenly it was like the unblocking of a sluice gate. Great news for my breathing; but I woke up this morning with a shocking sore throat and the feeling that I'd rather be fucked by my back than spend many more weeks being the absorbent tissue for my work place's slew of germs. I might start wearing one of those surgical masks the Japanese wear when they go out in public.

Awful Brilliance

Apologies; an aside about football.

Last night England did what no one really expected and won a game. It was riveting stuff; end to end drama, played by probably two of the three worst teams at the tournament and while we ultimately triumphed; we were pretty much rubbish - fortunately Sweden were even rubbisher.

Ironically, it has boosted the expectations of England fans. More ironically, they all now seem to think we can win the competition. I thought football fans understood football?

I'm going to refrain from talking about Harry Redknapp and Tottenham. I'm still reeling.

Mushroom Madness

So, it's the 10th June and when we should all be sunbathing, swimming and thinking tennis, I was up in a special place picking about 6lbs of meaty horse mushrooms and reminiscing to 1997 when another shitty June produced one of the biggest hauls of shrooms I've ever seen or had.

I'm not surprised the mushrooms are up and in abundance; the weather has been distinctly autumnal. The good thing about early crops is the lack of bugs.

A week later, I fully expect to find more and the airing cupboard is now full of that deep, rich and almost dark aroma of dried shrooms - making it feel even more autumnal...

Mystery Solved

In November 2000, while my brother and dad were attending a Memorabilia fair at the NEC in Birmingham - incidentally the only one I ever attended on my own - my dad met a woman who specialised in Barbra Streisand rarities. At the same event, my dad apparently asked me if he could use my email address. I've since forgotten this, but Cathryn Draper, the woman who connected with my dad, didn't.

How, 12 years later, my email address finally surfaced on said seller's mailing list will probably remain a mystery. It, at least, solves the mystery of how my dad was getting email 9 years after he died...

Utter Bollocks

In this week's local paper there was a 'news' item about the improvement and success of the Northants Youth Offending Service, which passed its Government Inspection with a Good grade. This looks like a vindication of the staff cuts that happened last year and I'm sure everyone associated is puffing their chests out and hi-fiving each other.

What the newspaper fails to mention is that the 5 people who got made redundant last year saved the council £80,000; but for the YOS to be able to meet their targets they needed to pull in three agency workers - at the cost of £120,000 - to work almost constantly since last July.

These three agency workers (all friends of mine, so I don't really begrudge them) probably didn't do the amount of work the five who got canned would have done, cost the council an extra £40k and has left a few people with a really bitter taste in their mouths.

Stuff

• I haven't really been listening to much this week. I've still got Sugar on in the car and I've spent the morning listening to Bob Mould's solo back catalogue. At work I've had a mixture of Last.FM and Grooveshark on. Mainly classical, some Rossini and Bach, but I've discovered that my charges really have a problem with opera (which, so do I), so playing La Boheme by Puccini has been fun. It's like allowable torture!
• I have a little concern over the fact that a lot of my spuds have got flowers on them. this is about a month too early.
• We lost a duck last week. Stiff as a porn star's erection. Burying it was not fun or easy.
• Colloquial biscuits