Old Lady

Sometimes people I meet make the day at work either fun or more bearable, take your pick. I called an elderly lady to my counter position today, and she was (I'm Guessing) 80 years + of age.
Immediately she started moaning about how long she had been waiting to be served. Now today was the last working day of the month, and traditionally each last day of the month we are hammered with people wanting road tax disc's - fact.
So when I said to her "When you came in today you were just a teenager" she left with a big smile on her face, after posting her letter to the U.S.A. ,and me too. It was priceless.

No.5

Conversations

This first one took place at 5:20pm Friday, with a well known person who used to sleep rough in Bury St.Edmunds.

Note the time
Customer "Morning"
Me "Just got up have we" ?
Customer "What are the mugs on the counter for"
Me "they are free if you have a life insurance quote"
Me "its from as little as £5-7 a month"
Customer "where am I going to get that money from"
Me "do you have anyone you'd like to leave something to"
Customer "No"
Me "if you believe in re-incarnation you could make your will out, and leave it to yourself" !

Lots of chuckling breaks out.
I don't think I'm going to sell many life insurance policies with that line.

This second one was Saturday morning, with an elderly gentleman (possibly a bit bonkers), with some letters to post.

Me "Morning"
Customer "Morning, I can't get used to this" "I've been away for 40 years" (meaning abroad)
Me "That is a long stretch" (meaning in jail)

He either didn't hear me, or chose to ignore my comment.

No.5

Working Saturday

Had to start work at 08:30 today. Met with a colleague in the car park and gave her back some plant seed trays, that she have given me with plants last year, for my garden. This is so hopefully she can grow some more this year, and hopefully gain a few more freebies ;-)
The morning went quite quickly, and come closing time, at 12:30, I called in Billy Hill for a football betting slip and popped in "The Grapes" for a pint, to ponder over my bet.
Coupon filled out and bet placed, back across St.Andrews street, I once again head to Sainsbury's to see if I can get parked and to my weekly grocery shopping.
Shopping done. £44 lighter, and home to pack it away. I changed out of work clothes, and go to my local for a pint. Feeling peckish I ordered a Chicken Korma to eat. A couple of other friends arrive and had a very pleasant chat with them, before walking back home for the evening.

No.5

Phone Calls

My home phone number has three zero's in it. I like my number, and wouldn't want to change it, and would go as far as taking it with me, if I was moving house within the area.
But occasionally I get calls from people who have miss dialled. This used to happen more frequently in the past, from people trying to call "The Butterfly hotel" in Bury St.Edmunds. They would turn two digits round and get me, and I would inform them politely of their mistake, after I realised the similarity in the numbers. This has not happened recently, I don't know if the number has changed since it was taken over as "The Ramada".

About a month ago, at 5:15 on a Sunday morning, my phone rings waking me up in bed. I ignored it as caller ID said withheld. Just over an hour later the phone rings again, again waking me, and this time half asleep I answer.
Me "Hello" nobody speaks on the other end.
Me "Hello, Hello, is anyone there"
Woman"Hello, is that the Samaritans ?"
Me "No sorry, you've got a wrong number, this is just a private residence" I say, trying to put her off ringing, and waking me up again, and I put the phone down.
Then I lay back down and the guilt kicked in. What if she was suicidal ? could I have been able to talk to her and help ? Some would joke here, that know me, that I'd of made her worse ! But again the number was withheld, so I couldn't call her back. I haven't had any more calls for them, to date.

Then yesterday, while I'm at work, I get a message left on my BT 1571 answering service, for someone in the NHS from a district nurse.
Nurse "Hello Phillipa, I'm Trying to arrange a walking frame and possibly a chair raiser, for a Mrs XXXX of XXXX address. Please can you contact the ladies daughter Mrs XXXXXXX on XXXXXX phone number, so as not to concern or worry, Mrs XXXX. Thanks"
The strange thing about this message is about the people the nurse mentions. Mrs XXXX, an elderly lady,lives about 30 yards from my parents house, and I've known her since I was about 5 years old. Her daughter and son-in-law live about 100 yards away, and I've known them about 10 years. All a bit bizarre.

No.5

Overtime

So much for an early finish today. Worked overtime from 14:50 until 17:35. Tomorrow is my day off but I am going on an Express mails seminar, about Royal Mail and Parcelforce worldwide products, at the Holiday Inn in Colchester. This will be overtime too, including my journey time, plus travel at 40p a mile.
I've been wondering, if it snowed all day tomorrow, whether I can claim expenses if I got "snowed in" there.

No.5

Back to Work Tomorrow

Started out today calling in at my Brothers house. He's back home tomorrow but I just checked everything was ok, and I needed to put out a wheelie bin (hope I got the right colour one) for collection tomorrow.
I had been asked by Mum if I wanted lunch with her and Dad, which I accepted, roast rib of Beef sounded too good to pass up on. So I called into Tesco Express for a newspaper, and headed to Horringer.
While Mum cooked lunch, my father and I walked up to the Six Bells in Horringer, and I had a Pint and a half of Greene King IPA (all I had time for) before the lunch was going to be ready, and I was driving.
Nice meal with cheesecake to follow had me feeling full up, before I took the car home and popped to my local for another pint in there, before a neighbour gave me a lift home, thanks Donna.
Watching the Chelsea V Arsenal game, and thoughts turning to returning to work tomorrow after my week off, though luckily I have an early finish about 14:50

No.5

Childrens Car Seats

As I mentioned yesterday, I took my brothers family to Stansted Airport yesterday. This involved putting my four and a half year old Nephews car seat into my car, for safety and Law. Well have you ever tried fitting the seatbelt around one of these car seats ? The diagram on this one is none to clear.
First you find out that the child seat won't fit under your cars headrest and have to remove it. Then as your wrapping your seatbelt around certain parts of the child seat, putting it into clips, then round the back, you find that your seatbelt has locked and won't pull out any further. This forces you to let it retracked back a bit, where it goes back through one of the holes you've threaded it through, and has now fallen down the back between the car seat and the child seat.
When you finally get the seatbelt round and plugged in, looking a bit like how the diagram looks, you feel that you need to jerk the child seat forward, and check that the car seatbelt is gonna lock the child seat in place, where it doesn't. So you undo it, and repeat the whole process again, and realise it was correct the first time.

Now with this child seat in place in the back of my car, and my weekly groceries requiring purchasing, I've been wondering ? Can I get away with parking in the Parent/Toddler section of Sainsbury's car park ? (my preferred choice of Supermarket).
Their car park is usually full when I go, and as a hetrosexual male with no children, and thankfully no disablity, it is a nightmare to find an empty parking space, because half of them are set aside for black welsh lesbians with one leg, and I have to park near the Petrol station.
Then when you find the last free space in the car park, as you go to swing in, you find some lazy person has left a trolley in it !

No.5

Poached Egg

I got up this morning, at 3am, to take my brother, sister-in-law and nephew, to Stansted airport. They were going to Salzburg in Austria for a few days. Got back home at 6am and went back to bed until 10:30.
When I got back up again, I decided to have my second attempt at a poached egg, as my first the previous day didn't go to well, as the yoke broke.
So I've seen it done, you boil the water, stir the pan and make a vortex in the middle, and pour the egg in. This time I've cracked the egg into a small glass, and poured it in... Perfect.
Once cooked, being an uncouth male, I put it on the top of a... Cornish Pastie. It was gorgeous !
Damn car is filthy again after the mornings journey though.

No.5

New Tyres

Went down to Bury Tyre Centre on Station hill at about 10am today and had 2 new Tyres at £74 each put on the back wheels of my car. While it was being done I took a stroll down to Tesco to get a paper and lotto ticket.
Left the Tyre centre, and called in at my brothers to pick up my nephews car seat, as I'm running them to Stansted airport in the morning at 03:30. Unfortunately, when I knocked at the door, my brother jumped up out of an armchair and put his back out, throwing the whole trip into jeopardy. Osteopath appointment quickly made !
Went home and done some chores, before going to my parents house for an evening meal with them of pork loin, followed by apple crumble, and watched a bit of tv. Bed now as I'm up early.

No.5

Rainy Tuesday

Got up and saw it was raining, so I phoned the tyre centre and told them I wouldn't be bringing my car in until tomorrow (Wednesday) for the them to be fitted. Rather felt I wanted to leave my shiny polished car in the garage one more day, and hope its dry tomorrow (fat chance).
Knowing my luck I locked somebodies cat in the garage when I put the car away, and its crapped on it.
Went the pub at 12:30 and have to say, it being wet, sat and read my newspaper and didn't leave until a rather naughty 7pm, whilst chatting with a few friends, who called in and out during that time.
Now waiting for Shameless to start on channel 4.

No.5

I have this week off work on holiday

I had got a bit lost with the blog, for a while, mainly because of Facebook and most of my friends knowing what I've been up to through that site, and hadn't written for ages.

I've got this week off work, through annual leave, not swine flu ! I was offered the jab and thought prevention is better than cure, I might as well have it.

So having had a fairly boozy weekend, I decided my car needed some attention, particularly after the recent bad weather and all the grit put on the road (until they run out of it) and decided to vacuum, wash and polish it today. Popped down to Motorspares on the industrial estate about 10ish to get some Polish. Then on returning home I rang around some Tyre fitters to get some quotes for a couple of new boots for it too, before setting about the vacuuming.

Not the hottest of days to be outside working, but a couple of sweatshirts had me warm enough.

This picture wasn't taken today, as you can tell be the trees behind, but the car looked as good as this afterwards, and duly parked in the garage after, to avoid any frost or snow tonight. Took a shower and the wandered off to the local for a rewarding pint of lager.
So in the morning I'm off to Bury Tyre Centre on Station hill for the new tyres to be fitted.

No.5