well... tomorrow actually but if I'd put that, it wouldn't have fitted with the song title

Well, what an absolutely crappy day it was today. I was due to go for an interview with Islington PCT. They wanted me to work three days a week, doing swine flu vaccinations. They loved my CV, but just wanted to see me personally and, if they like me, I could start work tomorrow. What's there not to like? LOL Of course, they'd love me.

NO CHANCE - I never made it there.

For the uninitiated, First Capital Direct (FCD) is a rail company, the one I'd use to get to London for work. It's a very expensive way to get to work (rail fares are ridiculously high here) but it'd be easier and less stressful than driving to London.

This will probably sound crazy to some of you out there but, amazingly enough, this is how the rail companies (especially FCD) operate. In a nutshell, they don't employ enough drivers. Train drivers are expensive the train so they just don't employ enough; they rely on the drivers that they do have to work overtime in order to fill the gaps. It apparently works out much cheaper than training and retaining drivers. This year, FCD told it's drivers that they wouldn't be getting a pay rise but they WOULD get a paltry 3% rise next year. Any idiot could see what the result of that would be. Yep! You probably guessed it: The drivers decided to withdraw their goodwill and they refused to work overtime and on their rest days. RESULT: An acute shortage of trains from my area into London. Some people managed to transfer to other rail companies but a lot gave up on the railway and took to their cars instead. Having checked with the staff at Bedford Station before I left, and being told that an extremely limited service was being done and that there were long delays. I decided to drive half-way to London, to Stanmore, and then get the underground into town. Good idea huh? NOT!!

To add to the misery of virtually no trains, there's major roadworks in my area while they build a new by-pass. It took me over an hour to travel just under three miles. Having managed to get to an exit from that particular road, I decided to nip through the local villages and try to get a Virgin Rail train from Milton Keynes. No luck there, either. A lot of other people had had the same idea and the roads en route were also grid-locked.

Eventually I just gave up and went home, in hopes of getting my blood pressure back down to normal at some point.

So, I never made it to the interview. I was so ticked off The job was really money for old rope: £22/hour for sticking needles in people, and it would have lasted at least a month. I really need the money as well. Funding 2 kids through university is crippling us financially and the money I would have earned from that job would have gone a long way towards alleviating our problems.

So THANK YOU FIRST CAPITAL DIRECT!! YOU REALLY SCREWED ME TODAY!!

I don't blame the drivers. They seem to have been treated really shoddily by management and I quite understand why they've taken the action they have. I'll bet even money that the fat-cat bosses of FCD will be getting a hefty bonus at some point, while they've managed to wreck the lives of so many 'little people'.

There's no point trying to re-schedule the appointment because the situation won't improve until the dispute is sorted and the trains are running again. It'd be a nightmare, if not impossible, to get to work.

On another note, my old man's busy decorating my son's bedroom and, at the same time, he's gutted our downstairs cloakroom because we found that the water pipe (not the waste pipe thankfully ) had been leaking and the floor was ruined. He's re-floored the room itself but still has the toilet and sink to fit and the walls to paint. He's bought everything he needs to do the job, he just needs a bit of time to do it. Until then, how many of you can boast a toilet in the living room??? I must try to get some photos because it looks so weird, LOL. Still, it saves nipping to the bathroom during the commercial breaks, LOL

I finally got a call from Air Med today. I was beginning to think that they'd either forgotten me or that I'd ticked someone off big-time and was getting no work, but they've just been very quiet on the medical side lately. Plus they're constantly 2 pilots short while the guys (and gal) go over to America for the Lear 35 type ratings. I'm off to get a patient from Scotland tomorrow and taking him to Bologna. Let's hope the string winds have died down a bit. I don't mind turbulence, but it's not good for my patient. All that vibration and bouncing up and down is no good for fractures.

Hope you're all fit and well,

Take care, stay safe, shiny side down



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