It’s a magnificent late July morning and I’m feeling a little blue due to a cold which has been bothering me for a few days. It’s not bad, just enough to knock the top off my usual feeling of wellbeing and combined with the residual tiredness which occurs after three weeks of watching the Tour de France late into the night, I am not feeling particularly energetic.
I’ve only got a few days to recover. The Olympic Games start on the weekend and like a moth to a flame I will be drawn to even more late night viewing as the Games of course are in London.
Life has returned to normal. Linda is back from New Zealand and was up at 6am to go walking and both Monique and Megan are back at school and solitude has once again descended on my weekday mornings.
It is a month and three days until I start a couple of weeks leave and head off to my nephew’s wedding in Fiji which I am looking forward to.
It will nice to have a break from the grind of work for a couple of weeks.
Yesterday was fine. Just the usual that I have come to expect from the MC.
I once again found myself working out of my “office” in the evening. Those who regularly read my blog will understand what I mean when I say that.
The reason for me being there was slightly different to what it usually is and what I have written about previously in my blog posts. I did actually manage to secure a seat at my return from my break at 8.45pm but was feeling slightly irritable due to my cold and I had worked quite hard during the day until that point and I really felt like working on my own.
The buzz in the letter sorting area at that time of night can be quite loud with the Vietnamese and Laotian ladies, free of serious duties for the day, laughing and gossiping and doing little of anything except waiting for the clock to run down. It’s quite okay normally but last night I could do without it and offered my chair to a friend who was coming back from her own break at 9.05pm and looked like she may have to head for the parcel area earlier than she is required to.
Once she had taken possesion of the chair she was immeadiately accosted by an eccentric fellow who seems to think of this particular chair as his own and was obviously waiting for me to leave so he could take posession of it himself, despite the fact he had already secured his place on the sorting line on the frame next to this one.
The lady concerned was happy to swap positions with him as she is a good sport and doesn’t mind where she sits as long as she has a seat.
This particular fellow can be rather annoying and we all have a laugh most days as he returns to the floor after his dinner break and, as sure as a Swiss watch, marches to the furthest corner of the MC where “his” chair is located. If it is vacant which is rarely at this time of night, he takes it. If not, he gives the occupant, who he must have seen from some distance away, thus lessening the need for such a close inspection, an intense, some would say “dirty” look. Then, with a dismissive wave of his hand he skulks off, returning every few minutes or so to see if his chair is vacant, like a deposed monarch returning to his kingdom, hoping to find his throne still warm and welcoming.
Just one of the number of eccentric and annoying people I have to deal with every day.
I spent a couple of hours earlier in the day working with another annoying fellow who is continually getting himself into trouble through doing the wrong thing yet sincerely believes he is never at fault and is being picked on or is hard done by. Despite my usual protestations that it is in fact he who has done the wrong thing on most of these occasions there is a mental bar running through his head that seems to preclude him from taking good advice.
He is a constant smoker and the new manager has cracked down on people ducking off for a quick smoke and introduced narrow guidelines for people who wish to have a quick fag during the day.
Of course my little friend is incapable of following the rules and was complaining to me yesterday that the manager is always trying to get him into trouble yet still says hello to him everyday when my friend would rather not talk to him at all.
It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him that I try to make it obvious that I don’t want to talk to him (my little friend) either but he still does. Perhaps there is a lesson there for him. But of course I didn’t want to be so cruel but it is yet another example of why I get so irritated with some of those I work with.
Perhaps I am mean or my patience with that type of self indulgent person is just wearing out but at the end of the work day yesterday a few minutes contemplating life in my “office” seemed preferable to sitting out on a sorting frame amongst the menagerie of the MC.
I wasn’t there for long before I emerged to find a vacant large letter sorting frame and finished the day in pleasant quietness.
So as the clock ticks down and the morning reaches it’s zenith I have a few things to do before contemplating another day sorting mail.
I hope wherever you are you can find your little thread of happiness and stay away from those who may annoy or harass you. Take care.
I’ve only got a few days to recover. The Olympic Games start on the weekend and like a moth to a flame I will be drawn to even more late night viewing as the Games of course are in London.
Life has returned to normal. Linda is back from New Zealand and was up at 6am to go walking and both Monique and Megan are back at school and solitude has once again descended on my weekday mornings.
It is a month and three days until I start a couple of weeks leave and head off to my nephew’s wedding in Fiji which I am looking forward to.
It will nice to have a break from the grind of work for a couple of weeks.
Yesterday was fine. Just the usual that I have come to expect from the MC.
I once again found myself working out of my “office” in the evening. Those who regularly read my blog will understand what I mean when I say that.
The reason for me being there was slightly different to what it usually is and what I have written about previously in my blog posts. I did actually manage to secure a seat at my return from my break at 8.45pm but was feeling slightly irritable due to my cold and I had worked quite hard during the day until that point and I really felt like working on my own.
The buzz in the letter sorting area at that time of night can be quite loud with the Vietnamese and Laotian ladies, free of serious duties for the day, laughing and gossiping and doing little of anything except waiting for the clock to run down. It’s quite okay normally but last night I could do without it and offered my chair to a friend who was coming back from her own break at 9.05pm and looked like she may have to head for the parcel area earlier than she is required to.
Once she had taken possesion of the chair she was immeadiately accosted by an eccentric fellow who seems to think of this particular chair as his own and was obviously waiting for me to leave so he could take posession of it himself, despite the fact he had already secured his place on the sorting line on the frame next to this one.
The lady concerned was happy to swap positions with him as she is a good sport and doesn’t mind where she sits as long as she has a seat.
This particular fellow can be rather annoying and we all have a laugh most days as he returns to the floor after his dinner break and, as sure as a Swiss watch, marches to the furthest corner of the MC where “his” chair is located. If it is vacant which is rarely at this time of night, he takes it. If not, he gives the occupant, who he must have seen from some distance away, thus lessening the need for such a close inspection, an intense, some would say “dirty” look. Then, with a dismissive wave of his hand he skulks off, returning every few minutes or so to see if his chair is vacant, like a deposed monarch returning to his kingdom, hoping to find his throne still warm and welcoming.
Just one of the number of eccentric and annoying people I have to deal with every day.
I spent a couple of hours earlier in the day working with another annoying fellow who is continually getting himself into trouble through doing the wrong thing yet sincerely believes he is never at fault and is being picked on or is hard done by. Despite my usual protestations that it is in fact he who has done the wrong thing on most of these occasions there is a mental bar running through his head that seems to preclude him from taking good advice.
He is a constant smoker and the new manager has cracked down on people ducking off for a quick smoke and introduced narrow guidelines for people who wish to have a quick fag during the day.
Of course my little friend is incapable of following the rules and was complaining to me yesterday that the manager is always trying to get him into trouble yet still says hello to him everyday when my friend would rather not talk to him at all.
It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him that I try to make it obvious that I don’t want to talk to him (my little friend) either but he still does. Perhaps there is a lesson there for him. But of course I didn’t want to be so cruel but it is yet another example of why I get so irritated with some of those I work with.
Perhaps I am mean or my patience with that type of self indulgent person is just wearing out but at the end of the work day yesterday a few minutes contemplating life in my “office” seemed preferable to sitting out on a sorting frame amongst the menagerie of the MC.
I wasn’t there for long before I emerged to find a vacant large letter sorting frame and finished the day in pleasant quietness.
So as the clock ticks down and the morning reaches it’s zenith I have a few things to do before contemplating another day sorting mail.
I hope wherever you are you can find your little thread of happiness and stay away from those who may annoy or harass you. Take care.
Strange Notations From a Laborious Life 