23 Dec 2010

Slack

Posted in Work at 9:18 am by alby

Further to yesterday’s message noting lots of people not coming to their appointments.

I totalled up the stats and we had a rather impressive 22 people failing to attend at the clinic I was at.  So for the 3 staff there we averaged 7 patients each not coming.

That’s half a full day’s worth. 1 of us could have taken the day off and there still would have been an excess of staff in the clinic.

What a waste of money.  Let’s see the scummy Tax Payer’s Alliance come out about that one instead of their ludicrous agreement that NICE shouldn’t do its job.  Words don’t have enough bile to explain just how I feel about the TPA.  Scum.

Anyhoo, hopefully today’s lists a bit more full.

22 Dec 2010

What else is out there?

Posted in Work at 1:12 pm by alby

I’m in work today and it’s mildly snowy.  Loads of patients not showing up or phoning to cancel as expected.

But then we have a duty to be at work and they keep sending us emails to reinforce this.

We’ve just had one saying the usual “try and get to work, contact your manager if you can’t get here, a day missed will be counted as annual leave…” etc etc.

The main thrust was to answer questions such as “if it carries on snowing can I go early?” and so forth.

The answer seems to be “no but ask your line manager” (mine’s on her hols).

And then the absolute best line I can remember in any email ever:

The situation is being monitored closely by ET and all staff will be notified of any changes to normal working arrangements, should there be any significant update.

Just wow!

I’m expecting a phone call;  ”ET… Go home!”

21 Dec 2010

Let’s see what man has to say about this…

Posted in Grammar!, Rants at 6:42 pm by alby

It’s rare that I discover something new that I loathe with a passion.  However I have recently had such an experience.

It’s a word and the word is “baby”. 

Note it’s the word and not the actual thing that I hate.

Actually it’s not even the word itself.  “Baby” is a very useful word and describes exactly the thing you mean when you use it.

But the way it’s used in one particular way really grates.

For instance: On a piece of health advice from the local health visitor (interfering old so and sos the lot of them) it may say something akin to:

“When placing baby in bed, make sure that baby is on her back.”

The first, minor, irritation there is that babies are almost universally female in these things, assumedly the nasty militaristic nature of boys has not yet surfaced hence the natural feminisation.

But my main gripe is the use of the word “baby” to substitute for a name.

It’s ludicrous and annoying.  When would one say:

“When plumber comes round make sure you have choccy biscuits and tea a plenty”?

Or:

“I can’t move this heavy item I must get man in to move it for me”?

Well you wouldn’t and that’s my point.

Please health staff use a bloody article will you!

12 Dec 2010

Mediocrity

Posted in Rants, Reviews at 9:26 pm by alby

Bloody hell it’s been an eye opening week in the cultural world.

I had a christmas do at work in the other day.  It was in a caff somewhere near the main shopping precinct/mall.  As it happened I had a few minutes to browse the local shops.  My word!  Does anybody actually buy the shite in the shops nowadays?  Unbelievable!  Cheap tat sold as luxurious, electronics that work but seem utterly pointless (3d telly I’m talking about you) and many many more examples of just how to wreck the planet for no good purpose.

Then the food was very “meh” and they sold drinks at about £5 a pint.  Hardly worth it but I’m sure they’d claim a certain ambience. Oh yes and we had crackers (christmas ones not Jacobs ones); every single one of the dozen or more we had included exactly the same “novelty”.  I’ve said it before but novelties only count as novel when there’s one or two of them.

The big news on the telly seems to be that X Factor and some ridiculous dancing show are the new “bread and circuses” distracting huge numbers from the realities of life.  I watched a bit of the beeb one which seemed to be a geriatric trying to do jokes followed by some z listers (and Pamela Stephenson) hurling themselves around a bit notable only for some Tory MP to embarrass herself to the background of derisive hooting of many a phone voter desperate to keep her in so they could hoot derisively again in future weeks.

But tonight I’ve actually caught a song’s worth of the X Factor.  Really?  Is this good enough folks?

Some woman murdering a classic track (in this case “Sweet Dreams” by The Eurythmics) with ludicrous dancers while stationary warbling standing on a dais with wobbly legs as well as vocals.

And the winner is Cowell who proclaimed something like “a great choice of song and a fantastic performance”.  No it wasn’t.  It was an ok Kareoke performance with ideas far far above its station.  How people can’t see that the only winner of this ridiculous piece of crap is Cowell escapes me.

Come on people there’s so much more out there that’s infinitely more inspiring and emotional and wondrous than the utter crap htat’s being fed through  the telly nowadays and it’s really not hard to find.

It’s a damned good job we have the students around to demonstrate that some people still care about life and haven’t just given up.

08 Dec 2010

Quiet!

Posted in Blog at 2:04 pm by alby

Long time no writing… again.

Life is busy and changed somewhat and I’m getting very little time to write anything.

I’m doing an OU course, driving a couple of hours a day and spending my waking hours at home doing the family thing.  Really not getting time at work (lunchtime as I write this) either.

I do miss writing here so I’ll see what happens in the next few weeks.

Cheers.