This and that!

It's been a little while since I posted (well apart from the farting video) but I have been frantically busy, this week in particular, getting home anywhere between 9-10 p.m. I honestly don't mind because I know this is my busy period in any case and there is a feeling of satisfaction when things start falling into place! That being said, I'm pretty tired right now so I haven't been online much lately.

Even though I have been working late and you would expect traffic to be easier by virtue of missing the rush hour, traffic is still just as awful as ever. In fact on Tuesday night I must have left here around 8 p.m. and it still took me 90 minutes to get home because, yet again, there was an accident in the run up to the toll booth. There were only two cars involved from what I could see but one was pranged and had ended up across the right-hand lane - very dangerous. They had it signaled and the emergency services were just making their way there but it would have been very, very easy indeed for another car to plough into them. I tell you, I won't miss that madness at all!

And talking of "that madness", I have just - about 10 minutes ago - sent another mail to HR asking where the heck my paperwork is, noting that my resignation letter was dated 1 October so we are looking at six weeks and counting! When I was in HR I could have all the paperwork prepared in one afternoon and even if we were busy nobody waited more than a couple of days. I am just itching to get my resignation/retirement signed, sealed and delivered.

Oh, and did you like yesterday's video post - that made me giggle so bad! Just my schoolboy-ish sense of humour I guess. I was watching TV the other night and that's what made me think of that video. Well let's back up a bit here shall we. I seem to have phases where I tend to watch certain types of TV programmes. For the longest time it was cookery programmes (because I was obviously going to become a world-famous cook), then there were the "Place in the Sun" type programmes where I was obviously going to up-sticks and move somewhere sunny. Oops, been there, done that - got the T-shirt. Then there would be the "renovate an old farmhouse" kind of programmes because I was obviously going to do that too. Then I moved on to "Snapped/Killer Women" because I was obviously going to .... oooooops, better not even go there I suppose, but suffice it to say I am very happily divorced! Anyway, at the moment it is all about emergency services, be it air ambulance, regular ambulance or ER kinds of programmes. Well, the other night I was watching an ambulance-type programme which was based in the West Midlands, so it was all the more interesting to me because I knew the places involved. What these programmes do for me is highlight the excellent emergency services that we have in the U.K. and this despite the fact that the NHS is slowly being crippled and these people are seriously underpaid. I mean, seriously! But what leaps out of the TV is the compassion that they have for their charges. The highlight of this one particular episode was when two lady paramedics were called out to an elderly gent complaining of pain which had moved up from his knee to his chest. He lived alone and had pancreatic cancer so they were aware that he was already on morphine but ran various tests on him and determined that his pain did not come from his heart. To the camera one of the ladies said that in many cases these people are frightened and lonely and don't always necessarily need much more than medical reassurance but sometimes maybe just a smile and a chat. So they went into the kitchen and made him a cup of tea (the solution to all ills!) and sat and chatted with him for 20 minutes, making sure that he understood that he had to go and see his GP on the Monday morning. By the end of their visit he was visibly improved even though they had not actually administered any medical treatment. As they headed towards the door he got up to accompany them out and to lock the door behind them, when all of a sudden he let out a prolonged, high-pitched ("alto" I think) fart that I swear lasted five seconds. They all burst out laughing, to which one of the paramedics said "problem solved" then! Ah, bless his heart!

In other news, this Sunday is Armistice Day of course, and the 100th year anniversary of the end of WWI. Traditionally in the UK for around 10 days prior we wear poppies in remembrance, the sale of  which allows the amazing British Legion to collect millions of pounds in aid of war veterans (from all conflicts) and their families. I am usually able to buy a poppy through a colleague who gets them from the British Consulate here in Geneva but this year I thought I would like something prettier and longer-lasting. So I decided to buy a poppy broach through the British Legion that I could wear every year and simply donate money at collection time. Anyway, I went onto their site and I don't know if it was just submerged by enquiries (hopefully for them) or whether my geriatric computer was about to give up the ghost, but every time I tried to put my selected broach "into the basket" it wouldn't let me. So after about 10 minutes of this I decided to give them a call - which of course took around 15 minutes to be answered. So much the better as far as I'm concerned because that hopefully meant they were selling-out! Anyway, in the end I got through to a very nice lady and placed my order for one broach at £15 with an additional £15 for postage! That's a lot of money for postage but, again, if it's for the British Legion, I have no problem with that. Buuuuuuuttt, just as we were finishing up I happened to glance at my computer and every "click to put in basket" seemed to have gone through all at once, leaving me with a total of 15 poppies at £15 each plus (I imagine) £15 each for postage! Yikes, while I'm more than happy to support the British Legion I hadn't planned on spending £450!!!! Not to worry, of course, because in the end I was able to empty that basket and hopefully will get my one-and-only poppy in time for the ceremony here in France on Sunday.

This is the broach I chose!