MUSICAL CHAIRS

Today is judgement day and it sounds as if even these tragic events will have more than a small element of farce attached. It seems that the people whose arrival has made redundancies necessary are to begin work today, on the day when those who opted for voluntary redundancy learn their fate which seems a trifle insensitive to me. To make matters worse it has been deemed unnecessary to make seating arrangements for the new comers, I foresee a good deal of embarrassing shuffling about. Good Grief, if management can not even decide where these unfortunates(late face it folks they will hardly be welcomed with open arms) are to park their bums it bodes ill for any more complicated arraignments, such as who does what.....and when?

While I expect that the new comers will not be expecting a warm welcome one might suppose that they will expect to be able to sit down. Having an impromptu game of musical chairs is unlikely to lend a party atmosphere to these sad proceedings and may well increase the natural resentment of those displaced on their behalf.

It is also rumoured that they bring with then their own leader and assistant leader and once again no provision has been made for them as regards their proper accommodation. I would also suggest that this may well cause much confusion as to who is actually in charge and the balance of power will certainly alter as a leader and deputy are already in post.....so who decides whom is in charge, May I suggest pistols at dawn behind the cathedral?

I expect from my trenchant remarks you will have realised that I am more than a little partisan, that is to be expected, however I am sorry for the poor souls who today will enter in to the seventh circle
they must be apprehensive to say the least. This is a situation fraught will difficulties being made more so by lack of preparation . The expression “Managerial Inertia “ springs to mind, these people do nothing until catapulted in to it by the force of events or a swift kick in the pants!

To any readers who are not concerned in the events which have monopolised this blog for days I say this, there is every chance that your own managers are every bit as inept as the ones featured here. It will there fore perhaps place you on your guard against such overpaid under worked characters. as these. While people I care about are in trouble I do not feel able to prattle airily away about the birds , the garden and the menu for today. Please bear with me,I feel that I must report these matters for as long as this situation continues. It feels a little like publishing an underground newspaper in time of war, my only regret is that I did not have the facts earlier.
Disclaimer

No phones were hacked to obtain information for this article, nor were any bribes offered......Oh hang on a minute, there was that bag of toffees.........does that count​?

I had occasion to visit the hospital today as the confirmation for my appointment tomorrow had not arrived. There were people sobbing in corners, hugging each other, groups of people were huddled together whispering and every where I looked I saw hospital staff talking on their mobile phones. It seems that today the entire admin staff were told that they would have to re-apply for their jobs and to expect drastic cuts in staffing levels.......20 per cent plus! I spoke to a member of staff I know and she told me that most of the cuts were to come from the lower orders and not from the higher echelons who's main concern is not to lose their hand made leather shoes in the thick pile of the luxury carpet in their offices.......no surprises there then!

GOING TO HELL IN A HAND CART

There is now another problem facing the inept bunch of clowns who's antics have preoccupied this blog for some days now. They have made so many people feel that they will be the ones who will be forced to leave that the redundancy package is now over subscribed...who would have thought it?
The short time that people were given to make yo their minds has lead to a panic which will if allowed to run its course lead to a double decimation of the workforce. Perhaps though it is simply a matter of some many people have had enough of being jerked around by a bunch of jerks!

I was certain that my son was considering taking the offer and I was right .In the end all that stopped him was the feeling that he would be leaving people in the lurch. I have reason to know that he has recently rejected an offer of employment that would have been very much to his advantage.
I am afraid that in light of what has happened he now regrets his decision and I do not blame him, after all no one likes to be treated as a worthless piece of trash!

I read last nights missive from H.R with disbelief and since few people have taken a chance on it it would seem that they do not believe it either. It is to be hoped that the management will make up its collective mind as to what exactly is on offer, assuming that is that they have a mind between them, recent events have called that in to question. An employment lawyer could drive a truck through what has gone on lately, it is a shame there is such a long waiting list for tribunals.

I know that there is an person who is in over all charge of the place and he did flash about making rash promises a few months ago, where is he now? Not leading from the front that much is certain.

As I have said this matter has occupied y blog for some time and for that I make no apology, this house has been turned upside down by the matter even before I knew for sure what was going on, and now, now I vent my anger at those who have caused this grief .Do they I wonder realise that it is peoples lives that they are playing with here.

Many years ago I worked for a titled tycoon at his country house in Berkshire he and his wife hired and fired people for the fun of it. She would say “Oh my,I have,n't fired anyone for weeks.”
They once hired a couple to work for them in New York flew them out there and fired them before lunch on their first day, leaving them to make their own way back to England,. They told the story at dinner parties afterword as is it was a great joke. Lord and Lady.........are now dead, for which relief much thanks. While they lived they were so unpopular that they had a private army guarding them at all times, fully armed too!

If you are wondering what the point of that little story was it is this,while the titled pair thought that we were powerless in their grip we were busy putting bogies in to the lemon dressing and using Her Lady ships face flannel to clean the bidet! There is more than one way of getting a bit of your own back and it can be fun too

While “Them Upstairs” dither it is difficult to know what will happen next as if things were not unsettled enough they keep on moving the goal posts. The only certainty in these uncertain times is that what ever they do they will without a doubt make a complete Horlicks out of it, not that this is any consolation. Question. What percentage of points related to performance?......Hmmmmmm!

SNAKES IN THE GRASS

This has been a dreadful day which has seen me worried, angry and very sad by turns and it has left me in murderous rage. My son arrived home today more distressed and unhappy than I have seen him since Primary School and a thousand plagues upon the spineless reptiles who are largely to blame for his misery.
His description of what happened yesterday sounded like the scene on the deck of the “Titanic” when all the life boats were gone, People jumping overboard, people without hope, it sounded ghastly. The difference being that this ship did not hit an ice berg,no it was scuppered by its officers who then basely buggered off in the only lifeboat. We talked for hours before I managed at last to dose him with a sleeping pill and get him off to bed and I freely admit that I am worried. In his present mood there is no knowing what he wile do but this much I know, he is at the end of his rope and when his sadness turns to anger,which it surely will those who have provoked him will wish themselves a mile hence.

It did not help that yesterday the efforts he had made to make the redundancy procedure fair was hurled in his face by the person who should be dealing with the matter in the first place.
What will happen now is any ones guess but I happen to know that my son has written one of his “letters” to one of the managers about the current debacle and the unnecessary panic that their methods have produced. They are like a bunch of panto mime villains and deserve to be hissed at every time they show their cowardly faces!

Why things have been handled so badly is what I would like to know, the ratio of managers to staff is more than sufficient for one of these exhaled persons to have at least fronted up to wield the bloody axe instead of farming out the dreadful task to people like my son. The managements attitude is at best arrogant and uncaring at its worst it shows dismal cowardice and an inability to clean up their own mess. They are in short despicable, worthless and as they are not doing their jobs , redundant.........just a minute, I think I may have the answer to the problem, and a much fairer one after all who will miss them? How much do the actually do? And how much of that do they actually get right? Answers on a post card to........

For what it is worth I am desperately sorry for all who are caught up in this mess, I know only too well what it feels like to be where you are but this I will say, The darkest hour really is just before the dawn, good luck to you all and God bless Mama Cass.

NO ROOM AT THE BOTTOM

Until this morning I have only been surmising as to what on earth has been the matter with my son for the past couple of weeks....now that I know I have to say that a more ridiculous woolly minded amateurish, cack handed way of going about things I have never, even in my wide experience with damn fool managers been unfortunate enough to encounter. You could not make it up and if you did no one would believe it.

So people are to be made redundant, and for no good reason that I can see, that is bad enough. There is a department called Human Resources, in my day it was called the personnel department,. Still I suppose that Human Resources as a title separates the work force from the Lower Order Primates Department, which comprises “The Management including and this is important ,the Human Resources team.

As I understand it there are several tiers of “management” higher than my son so that if redundancies are to be made you might suppose that one of them should and in fact is probably paid to deal with the matter,. It should be the higher management who make the decision as to who is to go...and why, but no either they whimped out, which is my guess, or in an attempt to give things a democratic air they have turned it in to a nauseating travesty by having the poor buggers chose a representative to liaise with the work force. This has the effect of keeping themselves well out of the way when the excrement gets in to the air conditioning(which incidentally has not worked properly for years,)

Since the Human resource department seems to be doing bugger all at the moment perhaps they could be made redundant as according to my understanding of the criteria they certainly are well ahead in the cock up stakes. Already there is talk of protests as although the Management has stated that all departments will be able to avail themselves of the redundancy package since at least one department has been told that there will be no redundancies amongst their number it hardly seems likely that any of them will avail themselves of this generous offer . They have in effect been ring fenced.......why? I am not surprised that people are angry, protest away guys .In my day we would have been wandering round with a length of clothes line looking for a tall lamp post to hang the buggers from, but please don't shoot the messenger, who through no fault of his own cannot defend him self at this time

During the entire process “the Management have been conspicuous by their absence presumably cowering cravenly in the trenches.........I mean their offices while the poor reps go over the top on their behalf. I suspect that they are afraid that some one might speak harshly to them, poor dears. It seems to me to be a despicable act because you see these representatives are by no means exempt from the threat of redundancy themselves.

You may think it odd that a company could be run by such a pack of baboons but why not. There is a town in the north of England which recently elected a chimpanzee to Mayoral office so there is , as you see a precedent.
I have marvelled at the apparent ineptitude which has over the years seemed almost mind boggling.

For a company that relies for its very existence of hard ware that works it seems insane to continue flying by the seat of their pants as they have for some time But what is in my opinion the worst of their crimes is the fact that without the loyal hard-working people , some of whom are about to get the push there would not be a company. These people have stuck it out through years of mismanagement and dodgy decisions. They have soldiered on in spite of having their morale at rock bottom for months, in short they deserve better that they are getting.

They deserve at least to be told by some one in authority what is going on and why. In fact they do not deserve to lose their jobs at all.

The sentiments expressed in this fearless expose are entirely my own, however if anyone out there knows what I have been burbling on about they may well agree with me, the whole business sucks!

RAINY DAYS AND SUNDAYS

Today was a real damp squib for me as I had intended to spend it working in the garden, but after having to dive for cover from the rain half a dozen times I gave up and admitted defeat.
Last night bat walk, the first of many we hope was a resounding success, due mainly to our secretary who has become an expert on bats during the past weeks. The bat walk was attended by a member of our Local Councils conservation team and our secretary was able to tell even him things about the little creatures that he did not know. That what I call dedication. He has asked to be present on our future walks and of course we are delighted with his response.

I was unable to attend as I cannot get about on rough terrain so I spent the evening writing thank you letters to all the people who have helped us to save the church yard . It was so nice to write my thanks instead of the usual verbal kicks up the backside which have been my stock in trade for so long, I still cannot believe that we won.

Next summer we hope to hold a special open day when we shall invite all who helped and encouraged us along to see what their assistance has achieved. I am in the throws of trying to find a wild life celebrity to come along to open our little nature reserve officially, this could prove difficult as we do not seem to be high profile enough for some, we shall see. If any one out there would like to come along I shall publish the detail nearer to the time, I guarantee your welcome.

Our next committee meeting on Friday will be a celebration of course but this is just the beginning for us and we fight on until we have stamped out the present culture of tidying nature out of existence at least in our area and further if we can.

Next week promises to be a trial in more ways that one for my family. My heart goes out to my son and all those involved in certain “TOP SECRET” doings, if you ask me it's a bummer! What ever it is !
For my self the long awaited hospital appointment is next Friday morning, I shall be glad to get this over with as I have been waiting for months to find out what the bumps on my kidneys actually are and hopefully to begin treatment for the kidney stones the pain of which I cannot begin to describe.
I shall have to go directly to the meeting from hospital so it will be a busy old day.

I am making quiche for dinner with a salad from the garden and some fresh beetroot cooked today, they have done well this year, I love them so much that I eat them by the pound, greedy me.
I took a picture of a grasshopper today, they are so pretty when they fly as most of them have beautifully patterned wings, this little chap was however stationary when I immortalised him. If ever there was a good reason for not hacking down all the long grasses I our parks this is one. I shall have to get a new soap box soon as my old one is falling apart due to overwork!
This blog has done more jumping about that any grasshopper so I will stop before I make you all dizzy. I wish good luck to all in the coming week.

IN THE KITCHEN WITH AVIE

I have just spent the entire day in the kitchen cooking up a storm and I have loved almost every minute of it. There were a few hairy moments as my cooker is still playing up, however I am coming to terms with its strange ways and this week apart from a malt loaf which resembled nothing so much as a house brick all has been well.

I decided to make a large batch of Hungarian chocolate biscuits, a delicious grown up chocolate cookie with a hint of freshly ground coffee. They are a bit of a pain to make and of course as everyone knows chocolate is the messiest cooking ingredient known to man. I have to psych myself up to make them but it is worth the bother I promise you.

HUNGARIAN CHOCOLATE BISCUITS
8oz butter
4oz caster sugar
8oz self raising flour
2oz cocoa
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

Filling
2oz cocoa
3 table spoons of strong black coffee
2oz butter
2oz caster sugar

Cream the butter and sugar and the n work in the flour, cocoa and essence to make a soft dough. Divide in to walnut sized pieces and roll into balls, place on a greased baking sheet and then flatten with a fork dipped in water. Bake at 350oF/ 180oc for twelve minutes, leave for a couple of minutes and then lift carefully on to a wire rack to cool.

Filling
To make the filling put the cocoa and coffee in to a pan and heat together to make, a thick cream, do not worry about any lump . Take of the heat and add the sugar and butter and beat well to make a thick creamy filling then leave to cool. Sandwich the biscuits together with the filling and allow to set before serving or storing.

Remembering that I had promised my neighbours a lemon drizzle cake this week end I next set about the making of two of these delectable cakes. This has been proving tricky of late as my oven refuses to play ball. This time I made two loaf sized sponge cakes and these came out perfectly...phew! As soon as they were out of the oven I drenched them in a mixture made with four ounces of granulated sugar and the rind and juice of two lemons, I then breathed a huge sigh of relief and poured myself a beer, I really needed the beer by this time.

The sudden change in the weather has been playing havoc with my courgettes, they go yellow and drop off before they have made a good size, a nasty affliction as you may imagine. Today I decided to pick all the small ones before this happened again and with these I made a pasta dish, a favourite with my son, the recipe for which I believe I published last year but if any one would like it again please let me know.

My son returned from his game happier than I have seen him in weeks, I know that something is badly wrong as he has taken to eating chocolate again, he has been on a diet because of his hypertension which I am afraid he inherits from me. He also has my temper and I am truly worried as by my calculation an explosion is well overdue.
In spite of various worries it has been a pleasant week, we love to be together and always make the most of time when we are all at home. I love days like this and now I am tired but content, my little cat is curled up on the bed awaiting my attention so I had better not keep her waiting, good night to you all, and blessings lite upon you.

PANIC STATIONS

We all woke very late this morning, this was most likely due to the fact that non of us has slept properly for days in my case this was due to excessive heat, my son has had other reasons which he will not divulge. It was lovely to wake up feeling refreshed for the first time in days and I thoroughly enjoyed my coffee as I planned my day. I enjoyed watching our illustrious leader Cameron squirm as he was repeatedly asked about his relationship with the ex editor of The News Of the World, who was arrested this morning.

This whole business stinks to high heaven if you ask me. Here is the scenario, The boss messes up and so the owner has everyone except her fired. There does seem to be a regrettable tenancy for the poor bloody grunts to get the push when there is trouble at the top. The management never seem to consider the possibility of firing their own sorry asses when the going gets tough, we see it every day, some of us at closer quarters than others, and yet it is logical to lose one manager whom no one will miss to save three of four workers who make the companies money from joining the dole queue.

Here is a general question for any one out there, What does your boss actually do? What does his boss do? Think about it, I will bet that he does not even tell you what to do because he is waiting for someone to tell him to tell you what to do, does that sound familiar, I thought so!

Now back to this morning, I had decided at about eleven thirty that it might be a good idea to get up when I suddenly remembered that today is a bread making day and that I should have had it baked and out of the oven by now. With a loud cry of “Oh bugger!” I hastened to the kitchen and began rather belatedly to make the bread. As it turned out we had all forgotten as we were too busy congratulating ourselves on having already done most of the weeks chores.

With the bread in the oven we sat down to a breakfast of buttery crumpets and croissant and strawberry jam, by now Things had calmed down a little and we discussed the forthcoming space shuttle launch, I should say the last space shuttle launch. My son feels very strongly about this and believes that it is a wasted opportunity, so much so that he has written a book on the subject which is soon to be published. I have read it, it made me cry!

I spent the rest of the day playing catch up which pays me out for lazing about this morning but I do not care, it was lovely and for two pins I would do the same thing tomorrow morning.

My son has been besieged by e mails this afternoon as despite all efforts to ensure the send ing out of vital information on time the person responsible for these communications buggered it up again, still no one will be asking him to leave I will wager!