Talisman

I have come to the conclusion that my boss has questionable parentage after shouting at me this morning in front of 2 of my colleagues and stating that I am the most antagonistic person she has ever met, and that she will be grateful when she leaves to be made redundant in 12 weeks time as she will no longer have to see me. My crime was to ask her for a second handwritten copy of the notes from a meeting the previous day, as the first copy that I had been given could not be read as half the words were on the edge of the page and had not been copied correctly. The only reason I asked for this in the first place as because during that meeting the previous day I believe that she may have been indicating that she had asked another member of staff to "test me" by asking me to undertake certain tasks and then report back to her as to whether or not I done them. Of course when challenged she disputed this, which is why I asked for those notes - not a typewritten copy, as this can be altered, but a photocopy of the handwritten original. Needless to say, I have contacted the Union and am awaiting a call back on Monday, when my Rep returns from holiday. I do not feel at this moment in time that I want to let the matter rest, as it is not the first time she has shouted at me like this, and enough is enough. I am then considering a formal grievance procedure, but will have to see what the Union advise on Monday. I have heard it on good authority from others that the Head Housekeeper, who is also being made redundant has a reputation for passing on things told to her in confidence to this particular Manager, so I tested her by informing her that I had spoken to the Union. Half an hour after giving her this information, I went to the reception area for a drink of water, where I saw the two of them standing there gossiping. When they saw me they stopped talking and looked very sheepish and guilty. I later informed the same Head Housekeeper that I had asked for these notes and why (namely that I did not trust this Manager an inch). When I asked her for this second copy this morning, she also brought up the fact that felt insulted by this insinuation. The Head Housekeeper was then definitely doing as I suspected and relaying this information on. She had an interview for another job today at a nearby care facility for disabled adults. What she doesn't know is that I also have an interview with them tomorrow for the same job. Initially I felt a bit guilty about this, as I knew that she had also applied, and that this job would be ideal for her requirements, but after this I do not feel guilty at all, as she has been proven beyond doubt that she is more than capable of stabbing me in the back. The sooner I can get out of here the better. At least I have nine days off now though in which to mull things over.

Tears of a Clown - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles

I use Amazon for my wish list, since I read nearly all Kindle books it makes sense. The list currently has around 76 books on it, mostly from different countries for the Around the World Reading Challenge. I check it periodically to see if any of those books have been reduced in price and if they are, then I buy them. I had a bit of a spending spree at beginning of the year, as I had about £50 worth of Amazon vouchers to spend and quite a lot of the books were reduced at that time, so I bought about 6 or 7 of them.

Finished my third country of the year so far yesterday - A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra for the former Soviet Republic of Chechnya.

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena - Anthony Marra In a snow-covered village in Chechnya, eight-year-old Havaa watches from the woods as her father is abducted in the middle of the night by Russian soldiers. Their life-long friend and neighbour, Akhmed, has also been watching, and when he finds Havaa he knows of only one person who might be able to help. For tough-minded doctor Sonja Rabina, it's just another day of trying to keep her bombed-out, abandoned hospital going. When Akhmed arrives with Havaa, asking Sonja for shelter, she has no idea who the pair are and even less desire to take on yet more responsibilities and risk. But over the course of five extraordinary days, Sonja's world will shift on its axis, revealing the intricate pattern of connections that binds these three unlikely companions together and unexpectedly decides their fate. This is by far the best book I have read this year, although the year is of course still young. The book begins with a man named Akmed fleeing from his village in war torn Chechnya in the company of a young girl, his best friends daughter, her father having been taken captive and transported to what the author refers to as the Landfill. This somewhat ominous name conjures up images of mass graves, but as the book progresses we learn that it is in fact an interrogation camp, to which most of the characters in this book have been at some point. Akmed takes the girl to a nearby hospital, entrusting her to the care of a female surgeon named Sonja. Akmed strikes a deal with Sonja that in return for the girls safety, he will work at the hospital, where he is soon assisting with amputations, among other things. As the story of these three characters unfolds, we learn of the interconnecting threads that link them together. For a first novel (at least first published novel), this is an extraordinary piece of work that grips the imagination and will leave the reader pondering as to the nature of war, life and death for many days. This most definitely deserves four stars.

I think you are getting confused between Avebury and Amesbury bobblybear - Amesbury is a small village a few miles from Stonehenge. It is private access to Stonehenge that I have managed to book - to actually walk among the stones and be able to touch them before the site opens to the public for the day. We hope to visit Avebury as well though while we are in the area. You don't need special permission to walk around the stones there.

Sounds like you got off a lot lighter than us then. I have a week off from work soon, and Coran and I have booked a few nights near Amesbury in Wiltshire, which is just up the road from Stonehenge. I rang them this afternoon then and arranged a private access visit as a surprise, where we actually go right into the centre of the stones themselves. It has been a good ten years since the last time we did this, and it will be very different in the middle of winter.

Whereabouts in Surrey are you Chalie - I am up at Box Hill. We were cut off due to the floods for most of Christmas Eve. I am sure most people saw the Burford Bridge Hotel which is at the bottom of the Hill on the news as well - the main reason we were cut off !

I had an email from the woman at the Head Office of the company I was going to go and work for today, acknowledging receipt of the one I sent to her. It seems that she has forwarded my emails on to the Operations Manager, who will be in touch with the home concerned to investigate their procedures with regard to mandatory training. It is obviously too late for me, and I still think that I made the right choice, but this will give the Home Manager a major headache. If she thinks I have already caused her problems, then the s*** it about the hit the fan even more. If this means that things there change and it stops this from happening to even one more person, then I will be really proud of myself, and will consider that all that time and aggravation was not such a waste after all.

I have received read receipts for both of those email, but no further correspondence or acknowledgement - no "sorry it has turned out this way" etc, etc, which just about sums the whole thing up. After me bugging them for a few months they are probably as glad to see the back of me as I am them ! Copies of those emails have though been sent to the Union, just in case ....

Finished another country this afternoon - this time Guyana - Kiskadee Girl by Maggie Harris.

and thank you too Athena - I have applied for another one already this afternoon.

KIskadee Girl - Maggie Harris In the small Caribbean town of Guyana town on the South American coast, a fifteen year old schoolgirl is forced to face her father's sudden death, pre-empted by a strange foreboding. This memoir of growing up in the 50s and 60s reflects a society that was trying to find its path after centuries of slavery and colonialism. Life for teenagers was at a crossroads between tradition and discipline, political awareness and a new-found voice influenced by literature, the music of Donovan and the new reggae sound, and the movies of Britain and America. In a world within worlds, love and dreams exist side by side as a young girl on the cusp of maturity discovers her sensuality in the midst of her country's own movement towards independence. Kiskadee Girl vividly re-imagines Guyana, named from the Amerindian Land of Many Waters. The Berbice River runs like an artery through the book's emotional and geographical landscape, carrying tug-boats and ghosts, bauxite, bones, and long-forgotten stories. This is charming and relatively short read, about the authors early life growing up in what was at the time, British Guiana. Perhaps not the best or most interesting book I have read from this part of the world, but nevertheless poignant and beautifully honest in its descriptions of teenage emotions against the backdrop of the country's move towards independence. I would give this an average rating of three stars.

Judas - Lady Gaga

dessert

my pen !

I suspect Athena that might be easier said than done. I do hope though that you feel better soon. Some of you may recall that back in October I was offered a new job. It was only after I got my CRB that they informed me I would need to undertake what amounted to induction training prior to handing in my notice at my existing job - something that was clearly not possible. After several weeks of going backwards and forwards, trying to speak to various people on this (including my Union, who backed me up), the new company said that the training would be put back to January. I wasn't for obvious reasons happy with this. so I wrote to both the home itself and their Head Office expressing my concerns and asking them to come up with a solution. Neither of them responded. When I switched my phone on today, there was a message from the Home from yesterday asking me if I could do the training on 3 separate days in January not one of which is suitable. I rang the home and predictably no one was there, so I have emailed them again telling them where to go, and of course asking for a read receipt. I am sorry it has come to this, but I cannot work for a company that continually mucks me about and does not have the courtesy to respond to my emails. It may not be perfect where I am, but I am not about to jump out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Welcome back Noll - we all missed you, and I am sorry to hear about your recent troubles.

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds - The Beatles

Last Rituals by Yrsa Sigurdadottir (one of my favourite Icelandic authors) is one of this months Kindle Monthly Deals at £1.49

There are 3 films at the moment that I want to see - 12 Years a Slave, The Railway Man and course The Long Walk to Freedom. The other films I am looking forward to are Noah (filmed mostly in Iceland and starring Russell Crowe - I have seen the trailer and it looks brilliant), and Divergent.

I am nowhere near that organised Julie, but I do have a fairly lengthy wish list on Amazon with quite few countries on it. The most difficult ones I suspect will be the tiny Pacific island states, and a few of the African nations too - there have been many books from some of these places that I would loved to have read, but a lot of them alas are not available on Kindle, so I have to then look for other ones. The most unusual country though that I have managed to do so far would probably be Tristan de Cunha, which is a small island in the middle of the Atlantic. I managed to do that one towards the end of last year. I suspect though that the reasons I am getting through the challenge relatively quickly are twofold - firstly I am specifically looking for these types of books and secondly, I am doing it by country in which the book is set rather than where the author was born. For a lot of the smaller nations it would downright impossible to find any books written by someone born there, especially in Kindle, which is still after all relatively new technology. I have always felt from working with people from all over the world, that because you were born in a particular country that does not make you any more of an expert on that place than someone who has spent time there for other reasons - marrying a native say, or working there. I have worked with people who were born in say Africa or the Caribbean and came here as children, and so feel more British than African or West Indian - I also have a friend who was British born but has lived in Spain for most of her adult life, so is she more Spanish or more British ? She speaks fluent Spanish as do her children, who were all born there. For me then country where the book is set works just as well. if not better.

I am sure I will.

Thank you Marie.