Today I've mostly bin...

[LAT]

...in London to help my sister celebrate her 70th birthday! (how did that happen? )
We went to the Mummies exhibition at the British Museum which was really interesting and followed that with our tri-annual visit to a wine bar for supper. (three sisters, three birthdays to be celebrated)
While at the BM I also handled a Stone Age hand axe which was a real thrill. To think that someone first held that, and used it, so long ago.

[Bunnylump]

Watch out Scurra, she has an axe!

[LAT]

... up in London again today taking advantage of the Open Garden Squares weekend. We picked the Belgravia/Pimlico area, because we know where we can park near the Tate on a Sunday, and visited 10 different gardens. They were really interesting, beautiful little (and some not so little) oases of green calm. A lovely way to spend a summer Sunday.

[eirian]

.... learning how to type when one finger is all bandaged up.. managed to chop the top of my finger off - knew I hated gardening! (isn't actually that bad, I hasten to say before Wulf starts panicking!)

[Bunnylump]

Ouch. I hope your tetanus injections are up to date? Not everyone realises you are supposed to have a top up once every 10 years...

[Scurra]

Ouch.

[LAT]

Ooh nasty! Hope it heals up well.

[eirian]

interestingly, I started at the walk-in centre and the only thing they really did (apart from saying I might need stitches and therefore referring me to A&E) was give me a tetanus.

At least I should get lots of sympathy at work today!

[Wulfruna]

Oops - it was of course your Dad who panicked rather than me - (keeping his eye on you on Facebook before I got round to looking here! ). Glad it wasn't worse - any excuse for a go-slow at work....

[eirian]

any excuse for a go-slow at work....

which is exactly what the boss who I'm helping out while her PA is off said!

mind you, it was put into perspective when we found yesterday that Ste's dad has been taken ill on his way home from holiday - so he's in a Rome hospital for the next few days at least until they find out what's wrong. luckily Ste's sister is in a position to be able to fly out to support her mum and take out some extra stuff, so we had to wake up at 3.30 this morning so Ste could take her to the airport!

[SparkOut]

Ouch, and oh dear! Best wishes to you and all

[Bunnylump]

Hope Ste's Dad makes a speedy recovery too.

[Bunnylump]

Been to Brighton for hen weekend #2. Had lots of good bits including a pampering session, followed by afternoon tea (that we all baked at home and constructed complete with china in the hotel room!) We also saw some wonderful jazz musicians in the evening at *** ******* on Saturday evening. HOWEVER (and this is a big however) the manager there was, well, how can I say this? A complete anal orifice? Suffice to say that I have since written a letter of complaint, demanding a written apology, prior to me posting my comments on Trip Advisor...

Well, fair play. Here is the response I received. What a great letter.

Dear *****
My name is J*** E*******, I am the chef who perhaps undeservedly escaped criticism in your letter, dated 31st March 2014.

Your reasoned and absolutely fair account of the events that took place in the establishment on the 29th March have upset me deeply and forced me to question many things in my life. You see, the bottom line is that this is MY business and therefore all the criticism of that outrageous night falls squarely at my door. I'd be most grateful if you would allow me to expand. In late February of this year, I bought the lease for *** ******* from A*** L*******, the owner and extraordinary asshole (sorry) who made your night so unpleasant. I have been running the business for over a year beforehand, turning its fortunes around and realising a lifelong ambition to cook and run a cafe. I paid my landlord rent but was constantly hamstrung by his refusal to allow me to make any changes to the look and atmosphere of the place or to improve some of the eccentric systems he had implemented during his own disastrous tenure. Finally, in order to remove the constant problems that A*** created in my working life, I decided the only way forward was to take on the running of the whole establishment and buy a full lease from him. As part of my lease terms, A*** is permitted to "run" Friday evenings and promote the jazz events. With hindsight, this was a huge mistake on my part since it leaves my business vulnerable to criticism, based on his drunken, obnoxious antics. Although events of the 29th were by far the worst outburst, I still find myself having to regularly manage his pig-headed behaviour.

So, before anything else, I would like to offer you my sincerest apologies for the terrible experience you had at my place. My staff also happen to be my children. They too witnessed the horror show and would also like to apologise unreservedly. There were massive arguments behind the scenes because of what took place. Furthermore, I would like to offer you and your party a full refund for every expense incurred on that night and an open invitation to join us one evening at an event of your choice, with food, drink and front row seats as a gesture of goodwill. We have started to broaden the range of entertainment at *** *******and now run cabaret nights, Comedy nights, Folk music and other genres. Could you please let me know what costs you incurred and I will send you the money by return mail.

There are no excuses for what you were subjected to. On the night in question, as with all Friday nights, I was stretched between my kitchen and the restaurant floor. We are a modest outfit with scant resources, so it's me in the kitchen, my son Gabriel waiting tables and often, my eldest, Jamie working the bar. The responsibility for seating and managing the audience rests with the promoter. In general this works well since all but the most moronic promoters recognise that their job is to attract people - especially new people - and show them a good time. The blatantly obvious theory behind this methodology is that people have a good time, go away and tell others, and, most importantly, make a return visit. The weak link in this theory, within *** ******'s operation, is my landlord, for whom Jazz is more like a fetish than a passion. The weekly audience is largely built of his cronies, who adhere to A***'s need for a silent, reverential experience during the gigs. I have grown to dread these nights because no one has any fun. Unfortunately I am contractually committed to allow him to continue in this way for the first year of my three year lease.

I do not want to waste any more of your time by labouring my apologies, I'd only start sounding like the Monty Python dirty spoon sketch.

I hope to hear from you soon and would love to believe we might see you here once more, when you could expect a completely different experience.

With kind regards...

Note, I have removed the names just in case this could constitute libel!

[LAT]

Wow. That is a really impressive letter. Obviously a lot of serious attention has been given to your complaints.

Good luck to them and I hope they get rid of the a** h*** as soon as they contractually can!

[eirian]

... getting really p****ed off at the inner workings of the Council. They have been doing a restructure of our section and admin is one of the main areas. Their plan is to put in a 'supervisor' to manage the admin across our part of legal - actually a sort of co-ordinator role to make sure everyone has sufficient admin support and to share out work if admins are over/under worked. I'd 'expressed an interest' in the role when it was advertised amongst the admin in our part. Today the same post was advertised across the whole of legal. So, instead of being the main candidate (I say modestly), I'm now going to be one of many. Makes me feel really devalued - why, if they'd already had expressions of interest from 5 people (as far as I know, out of the 8 who could have gone for it), do they need to advertise again? Do they think we're not good enough?
I hope (well, have been reassured, but not by people who'd know) that it's probably just a HR policy that admin posts have to be advertised wider than they had thought they needed to, but it still feels as if they think I'm not good enough to do it (even though the Head of our bit had already checked that I was going to apply!)

Bah.

Mind you, this same Head of Section isn't exactly the most popular of people at the moment anyway - her PA is going on maternity leave and she's decided that me & my colleague, who are already covering for one vacancy, can cover it. That means if one of us is off, the other has to cover 4 people's jobs! Apparently there isn't the finance to pay for maternity cover, despite the vacancies...

For some reason I was more than a little annoyed this afternoon!

...update - I've eventually got the job. Apparently it was originally intended to be advertised across the whole section, and I have had an apology for the lack of communication.
I may say that the Head of Section was really pleased I'd got it, and she *is* actually getting cover for her PA (who's going to be part of my team), so I may forgive her...
So it's a *gulp* I'm now part of the management...

I can also report that my FIL is back home, although he was taken back to hospital on his arrival back in the country. He'll be ok, he's got a throat infection, and an irregular heartbeat which combined to encourage a panic attack (couldn't get his breath). We'll be keeping a sharp eye on him now though.

[giraffe]

Congratulations on the job and I'm glad FIL is improving. It's a worry being ill away from home.

[LAT]

Congratulations Eirian! And I imagine it is quite a relief to have your FIL back home and to know what it was that caused the attack.
Hope all goes well for both of you in the future.

[Bunnylump]

Glad to hear that FIL is back home. Hope they get him back on track quickly. And congratulations again.

[Bunnylump]

...Yet another pub quiz, this time a fundraiser run by the mother of a lad, Paul, who went to my kids' school, and who was a close friend of my nephew, and died last year in suspicious circumstances, aged 25 . The money was going to a local homeless charity, DENS. I have to say that because the curry was made by Paul's mum, it was authentic, and way above usual standards you might expect in a pub. Anyway, we won, again . But at least it meant that we were able to donate the prize back into the charity pot.

They are organising a series of events in Paul's memory (the next one is Cookie Fest, which will be a music festival held locally) and again, raising funds for DENS. It is so commendable that his Mum and friends are finding something positive to do to put their energies into, rather than just grief at losing someone so young. So sad though. We were only just watching some video footage of the children's Christmas performance at primary school. Paul was there, aged 9, being the "fairy on top of the Christmas tree" in his tutu. It doesn't seem possible that 16 years later he was found, smashed to pieces, below a high shop building.

[eirian]

... FIL has actually been back in hospital for a while now - apparently the nerves aren't getting the instructions to the muscles in his throat properly, but it's all under control and he's massively improved.
He's in an acute neuro ward and last night one of the other men on the ward decided he wanted a chinese, so took orders and phoned it in. He then snuck out to the front doors of the hospital on the basic he needed some fresh air and then came back with a casual nod to the nurses as he passed. They then all settled in the day room with someone on look out while they all tucked in!