Aka Monday 13th to Sunday 19th May
2019
This week I started my second temp job, which started on
Tuesday, so Monday was spent preparing/worrying a little about it! In a nutshell
it’s a back-office role, involving a lot of filing, which ensures that the
business can function and respond to customer needs. So far, it’s nothing like
my previous roles, there’s less problem solving/responding directly to customers
needs and questions, but there is a hell of a lot of information and details to
remember and processes to follow. Of which I think I have about 10% down! But
it’s work, and it’s pays a nearly reasonable salary 😊.
And it is impressive, almost zen-like, seeing the rest of the team plough
though the work, especially when I kinda feel like I’m just about keeping my
head above water!!!
But there is/was one fly in the ointment, there was a short,
maybe five or so minutes conversation in the team, about another worker (who I
only saw for a few seconds, as I was busy trying to keep up with the work) but
who acted a little strange, as if he had a learning difficulty or mental
impairment, and the conversation centred around avoiding the person, due to how
that acted, their overly intense conversational style, odd eye contact, etc.
And it felt to me like it was verging very close to crossing over from joking
about the persons personal behaviour and onto his condition and how it affects
them.
Which made me think about a family member and the struggles
they’ll face, which sent me for a mental wobble, and got me down and a bit
teary. The problem is that I was concentrating on my work, trying not to
cock-up, so I wasn’t paying full attention, so I don’t know if this person does
have a condition or not (maybe I’m making snap judgements based on my
prejudices?) or if they are just a tad odd and I didn’t feel that I could
interrupt to ask if they were talking about someone odd or talking about
someone with a condition. It also made me think back to when I was at school
and how we would talk about the odd kids and take the mickey out of them and
how it (possibly) made them feel. All of which put me in an odd headspace for
the rest of the day, thinking about how shite society can be towards people who
are different, how complicit (and how much of a dick) I have been in the past
(and still can be) and what to do in future [NB I did bring this up later and
it was clear that the joking was not about the condition, but the person
themselves, which is still a bit shitty but not prejudiced]…
I also felt knackered from my new work routine, I’m getting
up earlier (partly due to work, but also due to the Summer sun shining through
my bedroom window), eating a little less, but still trying to keep up my
weights routine, so by Friday morning I was feeling pretty drained, tired and maybe
a little overly emotional (and spent the weekend zonked out). Which maybe meant I was feeling things a tad too
much and feeling them unfiltered.
…aside from work I did get some great comics (or what I
assume are great comics, because I’ve felt too tired to do any reading and have
spent my evenings zonked out in front of the TV):
…and a Mojo special about The Rolling Stones early days (1962
– 1969) and a Bo Diddley compilation (a purchase inspired by Johnny Marr
explaining how Bo Diddley’s ‘Mona’ partly inspired ‘How Soon Is Now’, although
I’ve been to knackered to listen to it yet!):
…and I did the G2 Crosswords this week (as per usual):
Monday’s crossword got the week off to a so-so start as I
had to cheat on a sixth of the clues (four out of 24), but I’d argue that
‘Rosie Lee’ means ‘tea’ not ‘cha’ (I know that ‘cha’ means ‘tea’ but using
‘Rosie Lee’ to mean ‘cha’ is dirty pool!), but I did learn that ‘ovine’ means
‘sheep-like’. Maybe I was a little on edge due to it being the day before my
new temp job started? Will my crossword prowess be negatively affected by work?
Who knows…
Tuesday’s crossword went worse, I had to cheat on a quarter
of the clues (five out of 21), I think my little grey cells were exhausted
after my first day back at work. The role is simple enough on paper, but there
is so much information and detail to know and implement that it made my mind
boggle. Well that’s my excuse for not remembering that ‘musical chairs’ is a
‘children’s party game’! But I did learn, from the crossword, that ’Occident’
means ‘West’ and that ‘Izmir’ is a Turkish seaport, formerly called Smyrna’…
Wednesday’s crossword goes about the same, cheating on five
of the 23 clues, an Illuminati score! I defo think I’m tired from my training
at work, as I really should have gotten ‘pullover’ from ‘knitted garment’ and
‘language’ from ‘tongue’, but I did learn that ‘Luanda’ is the ‘capital of
Angola’ and that ‘Rossetti’ was a ‘pre-Raphaelite painter and poet’…
Things went better with Thursday’s crossword, I only had to
cheat on a seventh of the clues (three out of 21). I think due to doing the
crossword at lunch, when my little grey cells weren’t fully tired! Although I
should have gotten ‘away’ from ‘not at home’ and ‘cradle’ from ‘hold gently and
protectively’, and I learnt that the ‘Nyala’ is a ‘large African antelope’…
And Friday’s crossword just soared, was a complete breeze,
as the answers came with very little trouble and I didn’t have to cheat on any
of the 23 clues. It was easy like Sunday morning! Bring on tomorrow’s crossword…
And Saturday’s crossword ends the week on a pretty good note
as I only had to cheat on a twelfth of the clues (two out of 23) and I learnt
that a ‘filbert’ is a ‘hazel nut’ and got some song names (or character names
for a Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol) from the grid – ‘Pollster Thud’, ‘Rogue
Granite’ ‘Orphan One-Off’ and ‘Reap Neurosis’…
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