A couple of random thinks...

Wow, a week since I posted something, its been a busy week, lots of driving up and down and across the motorway network as we're working almost exclusively for a large supermarket company at the moment, they've expanded dramatically in the last two years and our work takes us all over the country now.

Random thought number one - today I learned why most company personnel offices are staffed by women, I was working in the personnel office of one of their large distribution warehouses today when one of the women picked up an employment application form from a man from Gambia who had the amusing name of Titibob,a s she read out his application she came to a question that read "What qualities will you bring to the job" to which I'd have replied "Its a warehouse picking job on minimum wage, what do you fucking think, I'll be good at picking things off shelves" but Mr Titibob had clearly given the question much intensive thought, his answer was "I will always try to be my best".

The four women in the personnel office all looked at each other and spontaneously sighed "awwww. bless him" in a mother-hen sort of way, and I couldn't help but think that if the office was staffed by four men the comments would have been more like "bloody silly bugger" and his application would have been binned, as it is I think Mr Titibob will be getting a job offer if only for the amusement factor that his name seemed to generate to the ladies in personnel.

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Suzannes mum has spent the last seven days in intensive care receiving the very best of treatment that money could buy anywhere in the world, all free of charge courtesy of the National Health Service.

With most organs having failed in her body last week following two heart attacks she has had a myriad of treatments and is very slowly starting to respond in small ways whilst still being reliant on computers to sustain her, the patience and professionalism of the nursing and doctoring staff in the one-on-one ward could not have been surpased if we were the Bruneii Royal Family, and it was exactly the same when my own dad spent his last seven days in hospital before he died eight years ago - when you need the NHS under emergency circumstances there is simply nothing that even comes close to providing the same excellence of service - its why the like of BUPA don't even try and compete with them.

In fact it annoys the fuck out of me everytime I receive phone calls at work from private health insurance salespeople wanting to sell me an expensive policy that would bring me no more benefits than the NHS has to offer, except that they try and wrap it up slightly differently or frighten you into thinking you won't get the same cover on the NHS.

I usually put the phone down on such salespeople without a single comment but occasionally if I'm arsey enough I'll ask them whether they provide an emergency response service just in case I have a heart attack this afternoon, or whether they prefer to cherry pick only healthy wealthy people who fall for their scaremongering, its usually them that puts the phone down when cornered in that fashion - the bastards.

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And I had a real Homer Simpson "Doh !!!" moment last Tuesday when Suzanne came home from the northeast after sitting in the intensive care unit for five days with her mother by asking her if she'd enjoyed her little break.

Doh !!!

Fuckwit brain time !!!

I defen myself here by stating that she doesn't often see her two brothers who live in London and who had flown up to spend the weekend in Newcastle, nor has she seen her other brother and sister who live in Newcastle since christmas and when not visiting the hospital they have been able to spend two or three days together for the first time in many years - what I should have said was "The situation with your mother aside, did you enjoy spending time with your family".

But I didn't , I fucked up.

We spent a very silent night back together again :(