This blog is for Sommer, who after ascertaining that I’ve not dropped off the edge of the world, has agreed that I’m allowed a little moan. She did! I have it in writing.

So here goes….

What the hell is wrong with this country? You wouldn’t believe the palaver we’ve had trying to get a job advertised in the Job Centre.

Six phone calls; passing us between the local Job Centre and a central number. When Dilys mentioned in passing that this was the fourth phone call she's made and still no one wanted to help us - spoken very politely by the way - the snarky bastard on the other end said the number of calls was irrelevant and she needn’t mention it to him. Good job Dilys handled it; I’d have ripped his ears off with my reply.

Eventually she managed to speak to a lady – the first person with a bit of common sense who was only to happy to take the details. Of course whether they ever post it in any of the Job Centres remains to be seen.

Unfortunately one of our administrator’s partner has a degenerative illness and she’s struggling to cope with work and his care. She asked me today if there was a possibility of reducing her hours and job sharing; she still wanted to work – it gets her out of the house and gives her a break from it all, but she’d understand if I couldn’t agree to it. Work is a little on the manic side at the moment. I’ve been in the position she’s currently in, I sometimes look back and wonder how the hell I managed to juggle a full time job, a young family and caring for my mum. I would no sooner tell her that I wouldn’t support the changes she needed to make than chop my own arm off, there is always a way around things. So she’s over the moon, she thought she’d have to give up work. Some people are so easy to please.

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I thought I’d broken the new printer yesterday - it stopped printing half way through the payroll run. I had a quick fiddle but didn’t have time to mess too much so I left it well alone. I'd already had one run in with a member of staff who couldn't understand the phrase - 'I'm sorry I can't help you at the moment, I'm up against the clock to get the payroll finished'. I wasn't falling out with the printer as well.

After another half hour of fiddling today I moaned about it to Craig who looked under the desk and pointed out that the lead was out of the back of the server. Two fecking mintues and he’d put it right and then walked a way with a smug grin on his face.

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I can’t decide which of us is on the way out – me or the dog. Himself had the spaniels out with him and child on Saturday as there was a shoot on – so Billy and I decided on a gentle stroll down the fields.

He got half way down there and his back legs started to play him up, he’s old now after all and the ground was uneven. I couldn’t get my breath; I was sounding like a rusty old boiler – no comments please, and really struggled to get the pair of us back home again. If anyone was watching they would have wondered what the hell was going on, he’s no light weight is Billy and I reckon I found every bloody hole in that field. I’m lucky I didn’t break my ankle.

From a distance I must have looked like a staggering drunk. It wasn’t actually the gentle amble with dog and camera that I originally planned on. I’m getting so fed up and down in the dumps with how my health is at the moment; I can’t remember the last time my asthma affected me so much. But the worse part was once we got out of the field and I put Billy back down on the floor and stood wheezing; the little sod walked quite happily back towards home.

OK, moan over - don't look at me, all complaints to Sommer :)