21 August 2021 (Saturday) - Before the Late Shift

I slept through till nine o’clock this morning; the aftermath of a night shift perhaps? Leaving “er indoors TM” and the dogs snoring (they have no trouble sleeping!) I made toast and peered into the Internet. Some friends were having birthdays. I sent out birthday wishes, and looked at the Facebook page of one of those friends. Had he changed his job? It didn’t take long (on Google) to find out that his Facebook page was a tad misleading. He wasn’t (and isn’t) the managing director of one of the leading Swiss banks. He is actually only the head honcho of their IT department. I say “only” – another few minutes on Google came up with an estimate of his salary… About ten times what I get. Forty years ago he was my best friend. To think we walked to school together for years. We were both in the Boys Brigade. We did so much together. I’ve seen him three times since 1984… I think he’s deliberately distanced himself from the old days (or just from me!). I mention this bloke from time to time. I’m not jealous… much.

 

I rolled my eyes when I read something on one of the work-related Facebook groups. In a discussion about something or other some woman had posted “With the turnover and incompetence we have in our admissions department, I do not trust them to admit the patient to the right medical record number”.

What a thing to say… let alone put in writing. It didn’t take me thirty seconds to see she was posting from… well, I won’t say where. But there’s not many hospitals in the area that she could be saying that about. A year or so ago someone posted something equally disparaging about their place of work on one of the other Facebook blood-testing groups and found herself out of a job by the end of the week. Someone she thought was a friend reported her to hospital management.
It’s called “bringing the workplace into disrepute”. Employers don’t like it. Several years ago I got a formal warning for posting a selfie and saying I was tired when on a night shift where I used to work. I suggested she might like to be careful… knowing full well that I would probably be misunderstood and would be embarking on a fight.

I had an email from Credit Karma; my credit score has gone down by eleven points. I wonder why?

I set off to work. I didn't bother switching on the radio - I just howled along to my strange choice of music as I drove toward Lenham. Today is International Geocaching Day and there is an e-souvenir if you found a film pot lurking under a rock today. According to the geo-map there were a few caches I might hunt for near Lenham Heath so I thought I might chance my arm there (as it was on the way to work). Just as I was on the trail of a likely target my phone beeped. A new geocache had gone live just on the other side of Lenham. The chance of being first to find... bearing in mind how few new caches appear these days that isn't something to be sniffed at.  After a short drive I parked the car at what seemed to be a sensible place to park, only to find  the car was at forty-five degrees to reality. Pausing only briefly to reverse off of the verge it wasn't long before I had the new geocache in my hand - and I'd got there before anyone else. First to Find. Result!!

Finding a cache on the way to (or from) work on International Geocaching Day would seem to be "a thing" in my world. In the nine years I've been doing this lark I've worked on eight of the International Geocaching Days.

 

I got to work and popped to the works canteen for a spot of lunch. Pastie and chips went down rather well before the late shift.

The late shift was rather hard work…

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