Comedy and Tragedy

This week has been very busy indeed coupled with the fact that I've been ill meant that this blog, which was mostly written last Monday, but never finished is four days late!

The first day back at work (Monday) was fine. I was warmly greeted by the Branch head and my former line manager Phill and my colleagues Ellie, Caroline, Tammy, Gemma and Kirsty and a couple of other good colleagues and it sort of gives one a glow that people still care about each other. In difficult and demanding times, it's good not to lose a sense of courtesy and friendliness. Without looking after your people, what would you have left?

I only had 85 e-mails which was a bit of a surprise. About half were for my information, about fifteen needed some sort of action  and the rest were just administrative thingybobs.

I'm on a diet again and to be fair, I have been throughout my holiday and the last three days, I've felt rubbish and in fact I think I've actually had a reaction to the stuff. They are sort of milk shakes with one decent meal a day. Bearing in mind that although I drank milk for England when I was younger, I haven't drunk milk except in tea for the last two years. I am now paying the price and I am starting a bit of a detox which leaves me with temporary inertia and slight dizziness which always happens when I cut down on food intake. My stomach is as solid as a rock. (Update - this was written on Monday - and apart from a sore throat - back up and running!)

But enough about that. The last week and a half has been pretty good weather wise so I've been lucky with my UK holiday in sunny East Yorkshire, however, my grass is starting to look brown again. I noticed that the forecast is for rain, some heavy, on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning so perhaps a bit of respite, I don't want to waste good tap water on the sprinklers.

To bring me down to earth, fellow blogger Weaver mentions in her blog the plight of women and children, the infirm and elderly in the Horn of Africa, East Africa and parts of other countries local to this area. This is indeed a distressing sight. I am so sad that the lack of meaningful Government in Somalia has meant that tens of thousands are marching simply to get basic minimal food and water. I am delighted however that the Muslim based self styled Government is now sufficiently embarrassed to allowed western aid agencies in to the country PROVIDING they abide by strict conditions and report to their committee first for permission. Their arrogance is staggering. What about their people? Don't they come first?

The News of the World are indeed in deep do-do. I am delighted that at last tabloid journalism is coming under very deep and close scrutiny. Whilst sympathising with today's NoW journalists and editorial team who had nothing to do with the early to mid 2000s scandals, I hope that this bites at the very heart of the empire that runs the paper that thinks it's invincible. Excellent coverage in the Daily Telegraph shows live daily news on the subject as it happens. 

To create balance, I was also disappointed to read that Police Officers were paid for information and I hope this doesn't detract from investigating and getting to the bottom of the evil that was going on at the time in the dark, dingy, back offices of NoW, but none the less also needs to be addressed urgently.

I hope this is a wake up call for all tabloid editors that public opinion and big business (by withdrawing advertising revenue) can and do make a difference to you if you screw up - oh how the tables have turned. It's about time the papers and editors started to treat the public with respect.

Finally, if you are in the UK and want a huge laugh, listen to a programme on BBC iPlayer (this is time limited) from a BBC Radio 2 boraodcast on Tuesday night, hosted by Barbara Windsor about the history of female comedians that shaped today's comedians. The subject on Tuesday night was the extraordinary character actress and comedian Hilda Baker. She was a northern lass who often got her words mixed up and in the first ten minutes of this programme, I was nearly wetting myself whilst driving home in my car listening to her repartee. He comic timing was brilliant.

So, some serious stuff and not so serious stuff today and looking forward to the weekend.

Chat soon

Ta-ra