It seems I have nothing to say unless I’m moaning and what a sorry state of affairs this is. So today I’m going to post about only good things, my new years resolutions, and stuff I’ve been thinking about.

Firstly today has been a “nice” day. Nice because it wasn’t too stressful at work ( I avoided the dreaded one like the plague), My mom had the blonde kid after school as she hasn’t seen him since Christmas, So I came hope to an empty house and sat in the peace and quiet for a couple of hours until, Al came over for something to eat. He has only just left after plenty of pizza, many rounds of “Guitar Hero” and a bottle of wine.

We don’t do that often enough anymore!

Now to my resolutions:

Firstly YAY to me for last years resolution, It was to quit smoking and I did it. So what if it took me a couple of weeks.

OK, months. Well till the end of April to do it but it was done in 2006 so that’s an achievement. SO to this year I have doubled the target resolutions and have 2.

#1 I must must must find a new job!! Hopefully this will be done quicker than quitting smoking last year for all the reasons in my last post, But we wont go there.

#2 it is to make more time for people, I seem to spend a lot of time complaining that nobody ever comes to my house to visit me when with hindsight I don’t “actually” get around to inviting that many people over. I just presume they know they’re welcome and “expect” them to drop by. Well no more, by the end of January I will have purchased a new dining table and invites shall be sent out a plenty…just god help poor James if too many of them get turned down I do my own head in whining sometimes yet he just sits there and lets me!

I suppose really both my resolutions are about me being more pro-active, I really need to start looking out for myself with the zest I’ve thrown into other things, like work and the school for example. Only this time I get to benefit from it. Its not that I don’t get a lot out of helping others but i think I realised that it’s about time I did something for ME!!

Talking of the school, things are moving along there. It was the end of the “Informal Consultation” period last week, and the governing body have sent a report comprising of all the errors in the councils proposal back to them and have formally asked one of the other schools to enter into a federation with us, Good news if they accept because no schools will have to close then!!!

Saturday 20th we’re still having the rally, which I know the kids are looking forward to, I really hope we have a good turn out. I hope just because the most “interactive” stage is over (the bit where we get to have our say) that people will still understand the need more than ever now for a united front and a show of strength and support. this is where the decision making process starts in earnest!! However I’m sure I’ll of pictures of students, teachers and parents alike all making fools of themselves afterwards. After all this is supposed to be about the kids so it should be a fun day!

Oh my…… I have just glanced at the clock and my brain has just screamed HOW AM I STILL AWAKE, after a serious bout of insomnia last night I’ve had a day solely fuelled by caffeine and now I’m fit to drop.

I have no doubt that I will need to revisit and edit these ramblings of a very tired but quite content 26 year old tomorrow, but for now….adieu.

As I seem to have progressed from a general dislike of my job into a full on hatred of the building, the work, the people, the mess, THE MANAGER and everything else to do with it, i’m looking for a new job.

I was promoted twice last year but due to bad management I’m in the same position now as I was 12months ago….

I was offered a promotion due to my supervisor being promoted and moving to another branch, so I was offered his position, the next day he decided not to take his promotion as he wanted to stay on in our store….bye bye Stephs promotion..

THEN…He really did leave for a job with another company, so the job was immediately offered to me again, I accepted, Then my manager handed in his notice to join the police force and the Area Manager put a freeze on all staff changes…bye bye Stephs promotion!

The new manageress started and offered me the job again, gave me all the extra responsibility, the hours, the supervisory role, Left me to answer an alarm call out at 4A.M. to a ram raid at the shop and then work a 12 hour shift to sort the mess out, sits in the office leaving me to deal with the staff at the busiest time of the year….and 2 months later I’m still waiting for the contract and the pay rise.

I’ve had enough, I’ve told them I’m not doing it any more. Not until I get paid accordingly and maybe thanked for the work I’d already done at a reduced rate…..still nothing.

THEN, during the week between Christmas and New Year Jordan was ill, not seriously, but enough for James to need to call me out of work to deal with it. As i got off the phone she asked me who it was and I said, “James, Jordan is ill” before i got any further she screamed “oh, and I suppose now you want to go home, What about MY lunch break!!” and this was on the shop floor in front of other staff and customers. Talk about unprofessional and demeaning….she didn’t even stop to ask what was wrong with him…could have been hit by a bus for all she knew. I walked out after telling her children get ill and it wasn’t my fault, we’d all worked hard were tired and stressed but I really wouldn’t be asking to go home unless it was urgent!

When I returned to work I had a lecture about 100% attendance and the impact me having time off has on the company. About the need for commitment and dedication to my position and the example I should be setting to the other staff!!

It was the straw that broke the camels back, I want out .
I need to find a new job….preferably something with career prospects and training??

I’ve searched the web and spent most of Christmas in and out of the job centre and I’m going insane having to smile and play nice in the position I’m in now, I have a variety of experiences and I just want a challenge!!

*rant over* for now 😉

I haven’t posted for months, I’ve have so much really cool stuff that I could blog about too…ghost hunts and gigs, visits to London, visits both to and from friends. Christmas shopping, idiots, new managers and stories form work HOWEVER included in my usual frantic lifestyle of working parenting and partying SOME idiot in the powers that be decided it was a good idea to propose the closure of the blonde kid’s school!! Allegedly, due to falling roll in the area where I live.

Understandable this has dominated so much of my time blogging was just a distant thought and slipped into the usual routine of work and home came committee meetings, LEA investigations, OFSTED reports, arguments with council officials, arguments with parents, splashed with a liberal dose of despondency, remorse and in fighting but above all else camaraderie and the good old British fighting spirit!!

The saying “United we stand, divided we fall” as never been spoken with so much passion…well maybe it has but at the moment its the philosophy of all the staff and parents and you try convincing us anyone has ever fought harder for something they want and you’d be hard pressed to find someone who believes you!!

The injustice of it all is that the report they based their findings on, and so putting forward the proposal to close is so full of inaccuracies and bias that if they had looked at the true figures I’m sure a different conclusion would have been drawn. Although I suppose it doesn’t help matters that it’s a Labour Government who have published the proposal and Labour councillors sit on the boards of governors at two of the four school on our estate and a member of the committee who actually drew up the proposal is married to the head of the school which is SERIOUSLY under performing (and the figures are in the public domain that prove it),,, and Danesmore isn’t on of them!

So now the fight is one to get the powers that be to listen to us and review their own inaccuracy, that’s if we can find a councilor who will admit they are wrong, a long shot I know but a one we are pursuing mercilessly!!

In the mean time I am doing all I can to help the fight, running the school website with the help of JAmes, HERE, administrating the school forum HERE, attending rallies and definitely biting off more than I can chew by offering to sit in the schools PTA and generally help out in any way that I can EEEK, talk about the blind leading the blind…Wish me luck!!!

That title just about sums up my day perfectly, It seems like its lasted a life time but it was exactly 24 hours ago since I was last sitting in front of this computer screen waiting for a phone call and checking my mail!

I am so tired I’m not sure how I’m keeping my eyes open!! Last night was a nightmare I spent the night giving away an excersize bike and vigoursly sorting out BAGS of clothes, shoes and handbags (all of which I have excess of) to take to the charity shop! I finally collapsed into bed a little after 11 and settled down to watch some BAD late night telly and try to sleep.

About 12 my phone rang and as I answered, in a really bizarre case of bad timing, everything went off…it took me a minute to figure out what had happened it was dark…and I mean dark I couldn’t understand how my tv swithing it self off could effectivly send me blind, luckily for me it hadn’t, All the street lights had gone out too…we were in the middle of yet another power cut!

It lasted about hour…funnily enough just about the length of my phone call…and then the telly switched itself back on at a stupidly loud volume and scared me witless! Unfortunatly the return in power meant that all the burgular alarms up and down my street reset themselves and sounded similtaniously…including those in all the shops 100 yards from my bedroom window.

I reset my alarm clock..set my alarm on my mobile should we have anothr outage while I was sleeping and settled down to sleep…2 hours later I was STILL trying to sleep eventually about 3 I dozed off, only to wake up convinced my phone alarm has gone off and I’d switched it off and fallen to sleep again at 5:30 and my alarm wasn’t even set to sound till 7!!!

Dragged my ass out of bed (and I mean dragged it was so hard leaving my pillow behind) and sent the blonde kid to breakfast club and set off to work!

Was a pretty uninteresting day untill about 2 o’clock when a little old lady collapsed outside the shop, I helped as best I could and spent the best part of 45 mins phoning for/waiting for ambulances/supporting ambulance responder unit and holding hands with a very scared old lady untill a “proper” ambulance arrived to take her to hospital…finally got back into store 10 minutes before the end of my shift with a cracking headache and a wise cracking assistant manager who called me a “busy body” for wanting to help!

I’m glad I helped but what scared me was the number of totally uninterested individuals who walked straight past without a second glance before I arrived to help…

…People suck at helping strangers!!

Tonight I am a sleepy tired stressed out girl…

…45 minutes ago I returned home from my aerobics class after yet another stressful day at work and a weekend of little sleep after celebrating my birthday..mark 1…tea and toast in bed, meals with my sister and our respective partners. Mark 2 is this weekend Friday night curry with some brilliant people and then a night of ghost hunting at Dudley castle Saturday…

…but thats then, and untill I can let my hair down then I hav eto get through another stressful week in the “office”….anyone want to give me a job??… so right now I’m going to bed to sleep!!

After just speaking to somebody I haven’t spoken to all summer I have been informed that apparently i haven’t blogged enough about what I’ve been up to so they can keep up to date with with me even if we dont speak…

So heres a recap for John (and anyone else who cares…) in the last 2 months I have been to both V and Reading festivals and a couple of gigs. I’ve been out with friends and stayed home alone. The blonde kid has been away and returned again on 3 seperate occasions with different people each time. I’ve slept, cooked, played and worked, I’ve sat and passed my exams, I’ve been to friends weddings and no funerals I’ve been happy and angry but never sad and I think thats about it!!

I should blog more then when people ask me what I’ve been up to can point tham in the direction of this site instead of trying to remember!!

….haven’t got fucking clue!!

I have just returned to work after a 2 week break and now remember why I’m so much happier at home than when at work. The points of view of some of my work colleagues leaves a lot to be desired….

One girl thinks carrying a gun/knife is acceptable if your job puts you in danger, like a drug dealer for example…My reponse…If you deal drugs then you deserve EVERYTHING you got coming to you, AND since when is drug dealing considered work??? She then stood and argued (worryingly with some conviction) that they (the drug dealers) work long hours and it isn’t really the dealers that are at fault but the users???

GET A FUCKING CLUE SWEETHEART….Drug dealing is not only a past time for some of the lowest scum on the planet BUT also illegal.

Quick money it may be but at what price?? And as for it being long hours….MY HEART BLEEDS FOR EVERYLIFE THEY HELP DESTROY WHILE “WORKING” THE HOURS THEY DO!!

I seriously think management training or no management training…Its time I found a new job!!!