What annoyed you today?

[DigiDiva]

We are dressing our sections at work to support teams we picked out of a hat. We have England, Belgium and Mexico. I knew my 7 foot inflatable bottle of Corona would come in handy!

I hope this is all done in the lunch break. We are not paying our civil servants to faff about, and discuss football. Whatever next? 

I know you said that tongue in cheek, however, we do lots of fun things including charity days and have raised several thousands of pounds. All done in our own time. We 'clock off' and do it in our lunchtime. Contrary to common belief, we don't even get tea breaks, not one, and have to 'drink on the hoof' if we need a drink during the day. It's a really hard life, seriously. For our line of work anyway.

[Reinardina]

We are dressing our sections at work to support teams we picked out of a hat. We have England, Belgium and Mexico. I knew my 7 foot inflatable bottle of Corona would come in handy!

I hope this is all done in the lunch break. We are not paying our civil servants to faff about, and discuss football. Whatever next? 

I know you said that tongue in cheek, however, we do lots of fun things including charity days and have raised several thousands of pounds. All done in our own time. We 'clock off' and do it in our lunchtime. Contrary to common belief, we don't even get tea breaks, not one, and have to 'drink on the hoof' if we need a drink during the day. It's a really hard life, seriously. For our line of work anyway.

Good for you!

I never had an official teabreak in my life. We always drank coffee (tea wasn't so popular in Dutch offices), on the hoof.

The hard life has its compensations, as I assume you're pretty well paid, and have a good pension. Things to treasured! Especially in this day and age.
Your four holidays a year, should keep you going till you reach that age, and then you can really enjoy the fruits of your hard labour.

[DigiDiva]

I never had a holiday until I was in my 30's. Going abroad was a dream that I never thought would happen. Once we did it for the 1st time, we made it a regular once a year thing, for the kids mostly, giving up other stuff to make ends meet, as most families have to do . Now, kids grown, mortgage paid off, it's my time to play. I feel lucky to have 4 holidays a year however, what we spend on the 4 holidays, some spend one one, luxury long haul or all inclusive, a year. In total, apart from spending money of course, our holidays in a year cost about £2K, averaging £500 a holiday, including car hire. I have a pocket of accommodations I rent, all privately owned, in the villages away from the awful resorts. We rarely pay more than £150 a week, and that's not each, its in total, for accommodation only then we have to pay for flights and car hire.  I should have been a travel agent, Im an expert now!

[kerbside]

Would just like to stick 2 penn'orth worth in here. Hard work is a perception by someone doing a particular job I presume, I view hard work like my mate does, 6 days a week, 12 hours a day in a South Wales steel mill, to me that is hard work.

I am a director of my own company, don't call what I do hard as I have been doing it for years, mind taxing at times, yes, frustrating when peeps don't pay, yes, but sat on my arse all day either in the office or in the car seeing clients is not HARD work.

What I am trying to say is that one persons perception of working hard is not necessarily another's.

Good on you Chris, wish I had 4 holidays a year.

[DigiDiva]

I agree to a degree. However, there's physically demanding hard work  and mentally demanding hard work. Mine is mentally hard. Understanding legislation, ensuring it is applied, lots and lots of maths and having to deal with often verbally abusive, very demanding, unreasonable clients who scream and swear at you. Others who break their heart, sobbing on the phone. The pressure is immense  and the priorities shift half hourly. I have worked as a civil servant for 34 years and this is by far the hardest, most demanding job I have ever done. Private sector, I add, doing a similar 'complaints manager' job earn a lot more at a similar grade/level  as me.

[Karen]

George Orwell "Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence. In other words, it is war minus the shooting."

Or H L Mencken "I hate all sports as rabidly as a person who likes sports hates common sense."

And yes Karen, Postie is seriously overdue with a couple of little things coming all the way from China . . some stuff arrives within a week, some never.

Yep Im waiting on mine from Hong Kong

[Reinardina]

I agree to a degree. However, there's physically demanding hard work  and mentally demanding hard work. Mine is mentally hard. Understanding legislation, ensuring it is applied, lots and lots of maths and having to deal with often verbally abusive, very demanding, unreasonable clients who scream and swear at you. Others who break their heart, sobbing on the phone. The pressure is immense  and the priorities shift half hourly. I have worked as a civil servant for 34 years and this is by far the hardest, most demanding job I have ever done. Private sector, I add, doing a similar 'complaints manager' job earn a lot more at a similar grade/level  as me.

Can't civil servants retire after 30 years? I know the police can.

If you can get paid a lot more, to get abuse hurled at you in the private sector, I'd have switched decades ago.

With your inside knowledge of good value, worthwhile holidays in Tenerife, you should perhaps become a travel agent.

Why not set up a 'Terrific Tenerife beyond the Tourist Tat' website. (You can use this name, free of charge, if you like it.)
A nice, niche travel agency, for people who want to go abroad on a budget, but don't want to end up in the disgusting stag/hen party scene.

You could organise the package yourself, or be the middle woman, who advises on what to do, where to go and how to do it.

It may just be one of those sites that takes off, and you can sell it after a few years  to the travel industry. For millions. (In that case I will demand my ten percent as your personal adviser, of course.)

Don't know if you can have a second money making job as a civil servant, but if not, your husband could run it, with you behind the scenes.

[Hinfrance]

Ah, mortgage paid off - we did that by downsizing from a 3 bed in the Midlands to a 5 bed in south west France 

[Reinardina]

Ah, mortgage paid off - we did that by downsizing from a 3 bed in the Midlands to a 5 bed in south west France 

Have you now become a holiday destination for friends and relatives?

[Hinfrance]

 And then some. It's starting to get a little quieter after 11 years. Father in law arrives on the midday flight today, but from then on there are only a few guest free gaps until mid September.   

[Jediboy]

I was very angry/annoyed today. So much in fact that I called the police!
My wife vas I were going to pick our children up from school and were driving through the village at 30 mph, the posted limit. We were indicating to turn right and had slowed to make the turn. Just as we were about to turn a BMW overtook us at high speed. One second later it would have hit us, right where my 16 Month old son was sat. Not happy. Luckily I got his reg. 

[anglefire]

And you think the police will do anything?

I've got front and rear facing video cameras in my car - at least if anything does happen I'll have the proof as to who's fault it is.

They are also useful for recording off road trips

[Jediboy]

Video cameras. Good idea. May have to look into that. I know they're becoming more and more popular. If I remember correctly the large comet in Russia was caught on an in-car camera.
And I have every faith that the police will deal with this appropriately.

[DigiDiva]

Wow Chris, you were lucky

[Beryl]

What anoied me today was...................I didn't get a phone call from the 'Vindows Technical deportment'