Him - "How is the new job going?"
Me- "Ok but I'm really bored. I'm never given anything to do. So I just re-write things from their folders, but spend most of the day drinking coffee. They never complain and pay me whether I do anything or not."
Him - "You'll be part of the new Government scheme. I wouldn't worry about it. They will be paid triple what you are earning just for employing you. You are making the company money just by being there. You'll never be asked to do any actual work. If I was you I would stop writing things and just put your feet up.
Me - "But why are they paying me so much?"
Him - 'The Government state that a certain level of salary has to be paid before the scheme kicks in. You will find that you will be getting the minimum possible and are unlikely to get any pay rises."
At that point I woke up. Weird or what?
*. *. *
Some strange voting in the by elections. The Tories held onto Uxbridge by the skin of their teeth but were slaughtered in the other two.
There was some tactical voting going on as the Liberal Democrats won Somerton and Frome but came nowhere in Selby and Ainstey. Labour took the latter with the Lib Dems coming nowhere.
This was voters saying it's time the Tories took a hike.
In my humble opinion this Government is morally and economically bankrupt but it also worries me what will happen when Labour win the next general election as they almost certainly will.
They failed to win Uxbridge because of the unpopularity of the policy of the Labour Mayor of London. Back in Norwich our city council is Labour controlled and they have made a number of unpopular and at times puzzling decisions over the years.
It will be fascinating to see what happens in South Norfolk in the General Election.
Sitting MP Richard Bacon won't be standing (see what I did there). But he has a massive majority in a seat that has been Tory for as long as anyone can remember. But, with the general shift away from the Tories and an MP that has been virtually invisible for years and who certainly backed the wrong horses in firstly supporting Boris Johnson and then Liz Truss, it could be possible that a different party will take our seat and it could well be the Lib Dems.
Which somehow reminds me of a joke.
A lawyer walks into a court building carrying a briefcase and some steps.
"What are you doing," inquires his colleague
"I'm taking my case to a higher court, " he replies.
The Prime Minister is beginning to annoy me with that Cheshire Cat grin which he brings out whenever he's interviewed and here we go back to yesterday's blog about the promise not matching the reality.
Rishi Sunak smiles at everything as if by so doing we will believe what he says. To actually believe what he is trotting out he must either be horrendously naive or thinks he can con us. I bet behind closed doors he's seething and I don't for a minute believe he's naive.
He would be better though admitting what we all realise that his party is dead in the water and there's no way back for him or the conservatives. That way he could at least formulate some policies for the short time his party does have left.
*. *. *
I have been writing lists again. This time lists of things that make me calm, things that I find satisfying and things I find stressful. Here's the start of those lists. Some of the things appear in more than one category.
*. *. *
Things that make me calm
Listening to music
Playing music (piano or keyboards)
Watching cricket
Drinking good wine
Writing
Spending time in North Norfolk
Going to the seaside
Great Yarmouth (yes really)
Reading (that's books and not the town)
History
Family history research
Meals out
Coffee out
Being with positive people
Doing jigsaws
Visiting libraries
Things that I find satisfying
Writing and editing Hethersett Herald
Writing and editing Good News magazine
Travelling
Writing this blog
Quizzes
Things I find stressful
Anything connected with aspects of medicine
Driving
Being with negative people
Travelling
More drivel tomoz. That's slang for tomorrow in the same way as arvo is hip for afternoon. I will also be adding to the lists as and when.