Friday Five!

Those blossoms were a good 4-5 inches across


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Finally measured my “Royal William” roses.

Stunning!!

Fabulous! And I bet they smell like a dream!

Fabulous! And I bet they smell like a dream!

Nothing beats an English rose!

Stunning! We don't have any roses blooming at all yet or evening attempting to bloom.

Stunning! We don't have any roses blooming at all yet or evening attempting to bloom.

...in the Frozen North! 

1.  TGIF and a bank holiday weekend!
2.  The last few weeks I have had enough work to keep me busy for 1-2 hours, then the rest of the day I just sit and look at the internet.  Yesterday I had absolutely NO work all day long, yet I had to be in and just sit.  I am really angry and bitter about the fact I've got to be in the office, full stop, and having no work makes me even angrier.  Then I think about all my colleagues 'working' from home... if I've got no work, then they've got no work either, yet they get to sit in the comfort of their home, having a jolly wee time, while I have to sit in the office.  I was on a conference call earlier in the week and they were all like 'ha ha, im sitting in the garden/sprawled on my bed with the cat/having a coffee in the conservatory' all the while I am tethered to this germ-ridden office and the social distancing measures that day by day are reducing, because people have become numb about the situation.  Apologies for the rant, but it's not fair and I am beyond furious about it.
3.  My 5-litre mini keg of Abbeydale Moonshine hasn't arrived yet, and I'm out of beer!  Drank the last of my cans last night. 
4.  Oh, and another rant:  I am so sick to death of these packed lunches they send in for us every day, since our canteen is shut... choice of 4 horrible dry (no butter, no mayo) sandwiches (tuna, chicken, cheese or ham), a packet of crisps, a piece of fruit and a bottle of water.  The bottles of water just get left in the box, because they're not even chilled and we have access to chilled, filtered water in the break room, so everyone just drinks that instead. 
5.  I want a proper barista-made coffee so bad.

1.  TGIF and a bank holiday weekend!
2.  The last few weeks I have had enough work to keep me busy for 1-2 hours, then the rest of the day I just sit and look at the internet.  Yesterday I had absolutely NO work all day long, yet I had to be in and just sit.  I am really angry and bitter about the fact I've got to be in the office, full stop, and having no work makes me even angrier.  Then I think about all my colleagues 'working' from home... if I've got no work, then they've got no work either, yet they get to sit in the comfort of their home, having a jolly wee time, while I have to sit in the office.  I was on a conference call earlier in the week and they were all like 'ha ha, im sitting in the garden/sprawled on my bed with the cat/having a coffee in the conservatory' all the while I am tethered to this germ-ridden office and the social distancing measures that day by day are reducing, because people have become numb about the situation.  Apologies for the rant, but it's not fair and I am beyond furious about it.
3.  My 5-litre mini keg of Abbeydale Moonshine hasn't arrived yet, and I'm out of beer!  Drank the last of my cans last night. 
4.  Oh, and another rant:  I am so sick to death of these packed lunches they send in for us every day, since our canteen is shut... choice of 4 horrible dry sandwiches (tuna, chicken, cheese or ham), a packet of crisps, a piece of fruit and a bottle of water.  The bottles of water just get left in the box, because they're not even chilled and we have access to chilled, filtered water in the break room, so everyone just drinks that instead. 
5.  I want a proper barista-made coffee so bad.

I am so sorry Albatross. That is not fair at all. I hope things change for the better for you soon. x

1.  TGIF and a bank holiday weekend!
2.  The last few weeks I have had enough work to keep me busy for 1-2 hours, then the rest of the day I just sit and look at the internet.  Yesterday I had absolutely NO work all day long, yet I had to be in and just sit.  I am really angry and bitter about the fact I've got to be in the office, full stop, and having no work makes me even angrier.  Then I think about all my colleagues 'working' from home... if I've got no work, then they've got no work either, yet they get to sit in the comfort of their home, having a jolly wee time, while I have to sit in the office.  I was on a conference call earlier in the week and they were all like 'ha ha, im sitting in the garden/sprawled on my bed with the cat/having a coffee in the conservatory' all the while I am tethered to this germ-ridden office and the social distancing measures that day by day are reducing, because people have become numb about the situation.  Apologies for the rant, but it's not fair and I am beyond furious about it.
3.  My 5-litre mini keg of Abbeydale Moonshine hasn't arrived yet, and I'm out of beer!  Drank the last of my cans last night. 
4.  Oh, and another rant:  I am so sick to death of these packed lunches they send in for us every day, since our canteen is shut... choice of 4 horrible dry (no butter, no mayo) sandwiches (tuna, chicken, cheese or ham), a packet of crisps, a piece of fruit and a bottle of water.  The bottles of water just get left in the box, because they're not even chilled and we have access to chilled, filtered water in the break room, so everyone just drinks that instead. 
5.  I want a proper barista-made coffee so bad.

I totally feel your anger and sympathize.  Nothing worse than being bored at work and listening to other people brag about being at home.
If there's any consolation, the fact that you are working means that you are one of the few that is indispensable.  Guess who's going to be first out the door when things go Pete Tong in a few weeks?  It won't be you.
Could you bring in some mayonnaise and ketchup from home to tart up those sandwiches?  Maybe some squash for the water?

I totally feel your anger and sympathize.  Nothing worse than being bored at work and listening to other people brag about being at home.
If there's any consolation, the fact that you are working means that you are one of the few that is indispensable.  Guess who's going to be first out the door when things go Pete Tong in a few weeks?  It won't be you.
Could you bring in some mayonnaise and ketchup from home to tart up those sandwiches?  Maybe some squash for the water?

I really don't have a right to be as angry as I am... as you previously pointed out, at least I still have a job/income.

Re the sandwiches... I don't bother with them, as I go home at lunchtime every day to take my hound for a toilet break, so I eat while i'm there... I just know that other people here are getting fed up... especially the vegetarians!!  A lot of folk are starting to bring lunch from home, but that means that all these sandwiches are being thrown out at the end of the day, which is so wasteful.  I've started bringing one home every day, taking the meat out and feeding it to the hound as a snack.
And last week, I collected about 20 oranges that had been lying in the box all week... took them home and juiced them.  Got over a pint of free, fresh orange juice!

Ahh Albatross, that's all so rubbish.I think it's incredibly rude if your co-workers are bragging about being in their gardens and in the sun.  Hopefully your beer comes in soon!

Friday! Long week.......

1.)  Tesco click and collect today.  Living for the excitement of fresh groceries and beer! 

2.)  My husband made a roast chicken dinner last night (his first ever roast) and was awesome.  Something else to add to his repertoire! 

3.)  Been continuing on the recording sessions and sharing with family and friends to add to it. Having a lot of fun! 

4.) Bank holiday weekend. Supposed to be crap weather though. 

5.)  Tired. Not been sleeping great this week. 

Albatross, that's awful.  I'm so sorry people are being dicks and bragging about working from home, yet not working.  If it's any consolation, I had a friend tell me this week that her office did a virtual pub quiz.  One of her employees is furloughed and she was saying how it's the BEST THING EVER and yadda yadda yadda.  Meanwhile my friend is having to compile a list of people to make redundant.... and guess who is top of her list? 

1.  I *just* found out I have an interview for the local role that I (think) I really want.  170 applicants down to 4 and I'm one of them.  Interview Tuesday.  Wahoo!

2.  Had another interview yesterday and I'm onto the next stage with that one.  It's further away and less money but potential for a promotion and can mostly work from home.  So a definite contender.

3.  My husband's birthday is tomorrow.  We are going to play Minute to Win It games during the day, and then have a pub crawl with various Zoom calls in the evening around the house.  Should be great fun!

4.  We've been doing a free online pub quiz every Wednesday and Sunday night.  We suck soooooo bad.  We are usually in the bottom 20%.  On Wednesday's quiz, we had an unbelievable stroke of luck and came in 8th.  We literally guessed at so many of the answers and they were right!!! 

5.  I need to lose weight.  I think COVID 19 is called that because we are all expected to gain at least 19 pounds while in isolation.  I know I've done my part.   

Oooh KFDancer, you're rocking it with the interviews. Good luck!!

One of her employees is furloughed and she was saying how it's the BEST THING EVER and yadda yadda yadda.

Wow. Being furloughed is definitely not a good thing at all.  Okay, in the short term seems fun, like getting 80% pay to sit around and do whatever, but that means too that the business will have a lot of trouble afterwards getting back on its feet.  My hubby has been on and off furlough (luckily been working the last few weeks) , but we're terrified that he will not have a job after all of this.  That's scary.  I know of others too who are in similar situations.  Especially as the furlough rates will be dropping and firms will still have to keep cash flow to pay people (and claim back afterwards). Gonna be more and more jobseekers soon. 

Oooh KFDancer, you're rocking it with the interviews. Good luck!!

Wow. Being furloughed is definitely not a good thing at all.  Okay, in the short term seems fun, like getting 80% pay to sit around and do whatever, but that means too that the business will have a lot of trouble afterwards getting back on its feet.  My hubby has been on and off furlough (luckily been working the last few weeks) , but we're terrified that he will not have a job after all of this.  That's scary.  I know of others too who are in similar situations.  Especially as the furlough rates will be dropping and firms will still have to keep cash flow to pay people (and claim back afterwards). Gonna be more and more jobseekers soon. 

Without question.  I would have appreciated furlough with the agreement of redundancy at the end.  But my friends who are on furlough (two of them) are very fearful of their futures.

I'm sorry you're still having to work in the office Albatross. I think you may have a case if others doing the exact same role are able to work remotely and there are no parts of the job that can't be done from home. The guidance has been very clear that if your job can be done remotely it should be. I hope whoever manages the food at your office is on Olio, give the extra sandwiches to people who need it!

1. Finished submitting my FLR(M) this week. I wish they had more information on the biometrics centres opening. Going to work on scanning today. Really glad they are scrapping the NHS fees for NHS workers, I hope it applies to those on family visa paths too but I won't hold my breath.

2. Our soundbar died so we bought one online from Curry's after reading the reviews a few places. It's an LG so expected it to meet expectations. The sound is *awful*. Buried in the reviews are a few people who agree with me, it's tinny and not remotely balanced, and the subwoofer randomly unpairs. So far we have spent 6 hours on the phone trying to return it, they have no Internet or text based customer service. We got through to them on Facebook because we are concerned about missing the required time frame for notifying we want to return, and all they did was direct us back to the phone where you end up in a transfer circle for hours. So angry and frustrated.

3. My garden is making progress. Looking forward to taking some "after" photos in a couple months when things are flowering.

4. Really wish I could get back onto a normal sleep schedule. 5-6 hours a night definitely isn't enough.

5. My kitty is doing a lot better. 5mg of steroids seems to be the trick. We've gotten a new food for her to try since she stopped eating much dry food, and she loves it. (Feringa) Hoping she starts gaining weight soon now that she's stopped losing it.

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