The turning worm ...

Regular readers of my blog may be forgiven for thinking that I have the patience and tolerance of a goldfish (about 5 seconds). Actually I am very patient and tolerant, and maybe that's because I hate confrontation and conflict.

I 'phoned up an airline to change some tickets for my boss in the week. Without going into any detail, the conversation ended in my asking the customer 'services' person not to shout at me, and requesting her name. When I hung up there was a round of applause from the 4 people in my office. That may give you an idea of the tone the conversation took. The following day - Friday - I had an email asking me to print and bind 25 folders for a seminar starting on Monday. Great, 7 hours to produce these folders. No problem if I had nothing else to do. No problem if the person who looks after stationery hadn't been signed off for 3 weeks. So, I found some folders and was told in no uncertain terms that I couldn't have them because they belonged to someone else. Crap. They had been ordered by the person who care-took my job for a year before I arrived (but wasn't good enough to be given the job full-time, and has resented me ever since I arrived as a result!) for someone in my department, therefore, they were actually free for me to use. I ended up shopping for stationery at 6pm on Friday and going into the office for 7 hours on Saturday to prepare the effing binders.

I wasn't impressed to find that someone (the same person who wouldn't give up the files the day before) had left the filter coffee machine full of stale grounds - they had gone mouldy so I ended up with soaking clothes and ruined shoes when I went to move the machine. I emailed her and her colleague asking them to make sure they remembered to empty the coffee machines after their meetings and I got a terse email back today (Sunday!) from her colleague to say, 'It wasn't me - talk to the cleaners!' So if they have a meeting in the morning and I have one in the afternoon, I'm supposed to clear up after their meeting before I can set it up for my own? Hhhhmmmm. Am I the only one around here who has any common sense? Funnily enough the 'president's' PA has the same name as the Director's PA at the university, but this one is at least a dozen times worse than the K I worked with last year. They're both blondes, too. I wonder, is it obligatory for PAs with the initial K, of a certain age, with blonde hair (either natural or 'assisted') to be unco-operative and downright unpleasant?

I need to put my thinking cap on. This worm has put up with enough over the past 6 months. This worm is about to turn.

Yes, I'm doing it again this year - Race for Life, that is! This is year three for me, and I'm determined to break into a trot at some point if I can get enough space amidst the crowds who gather on the Common in Southampton - and other venues throughout the UK - to raise awareness and funds for Cancer Research UK.

If you would like to sponsor me, you can do so through the link above or, if you prefer the good old-fashioned paper way, please email me with your name, address and postcode, and amount you'd like to sponsor me, and I'll fill in a regular form. Most importantly, please let me know if you are a UK tax-payer so that the charity can receive and extra 28% at no extra cost to you.

Thanks! I'll let you know how I get on!