Costly mistake

One of my staff has this morning made a mistake that will cost the business ~£25k of revenue as well as hugely inconveniencing one of our best and largest customers. My already busy day in London has been worsened ten times.

It is a good job I’m not in the office though, otherwise at least one person would have been fired at 8.30am.

Now I have to not only do my day of meetings as planned, but also try to rescue a dire situation from escalating even further as the day progresses.

Avoid contact with brain

As well as now taking a combination of anti inflammatories and antibiotics for my knee, after my last consultation I was also advised to use an anti septic scrub on my knee. The rationale behind this was that the scar tissue around the joint means that it can be a source of infection. The past year has shown that if it gets infected, I can get sick and then the knee gets a little worse, and a vicious circle is formed.

I eventually got round to picking the prescription up yesterday morning. I was somewhat shocked to be handed a sizeable bottle of  what seemed to be industrial scrub. Upon reading the label I was shocked to discover that I had to avoid contact with my brain and my inner ear canal. I remain somewhat mystified as to how I myself could possibly get the stuff into contact with my brain. Further reading gave the impression that this stuff is mainly used in operating theatres.

Anyhow I have today bought a little squirty bottle to use rather than a big old plastic bottle, that makes it a lot easier to use in the shower. It is also bright red and if not washed off properly leaves big giant red swathes on your skin. If I knocked it over and someone saw the mess, they’d surely think that I’d murdered someone.

esure? Are you sure?

The insurance for the Jeep is due on Sunday of all days. Anyway given the fact that I can’t be bothered to ring lots of insurance companies I tried the much advertised gocompare website. I’m always skeptical when you are forced to put in your phone number, so I put in a number that goes to a line here on my desk that gets used for some work stuff.

Anyway esure came out the cheapest quote by about £40, so I closed the browser window whilst I thought about what to do.

Moments later this phone rings and it is a call centre monkey asking whether I wanted to go ahead with them as they were the cheapest quote I’d had. I stopped the girl dead in her tracks when I said no, she seemed genuinely confused as to why I didn’t want to buy the cheapest policy for the car.

With great pleasure I told her that there were two reasons I wasn’t going to go ahead. Firstly I’d not asked to be called and had ticked a box which said “Do not contact me by phone, post or email.” And secondly, their TV adverts with Michael Winner were so annoying to me, that I could never buy their products.

After the call had finished I suddenly thought I could have ended the call with a “Calm down dear,” sometimes my brain doesn’t work as quick as I’d like it to because that would have been a great parting shot!

Dancing in the dark

In it not always advisable to go dancing in the dark, especially when you are in a field walking the dog by torchlight.

Picture the scene, I am wandering round plugged into a world of my own listening to my new MP3 player. For some strange reason I wandered a different way over the field, it was very dark and without the torch (seeing as there was no moonlight) I couldn’t see where I was going. Of course this darkness doesn’t seem to bother the dog who is haring around like a frenzied monster. Because it is cold, I have on my big ski coat complete with fleece a hat and gloves, so I am nicely insulated against the wind and the wetness.

In an effort to keep in touch with the music of today I downloaded the top 100 Indie play list and was happily listening away when on came an unknown song that I really liked. So I did what I’m sure any person would do, I had a little dance and strutted my stuff as I walked along.

I then promptly fell into what I can only describe as a furrow. At the time it felt like a ditch, but on reflection it was more like a furrow. Anyway one moment I was ’strutting my stuff’ the next I was face down in a muddy field. Several thoughts ran through my mind, firstly along the lines as to what had just happened, secondly along the lines of the pain now shooting through my knee and my back and then thirdly a sense of panic as it was dark and I was lying in a big patch of mud.

The panic over the darkness was subsided when I realised that the beam of light I could see was my torch. I then slowly got up, established that nothing was broken and that I was simply covered in mud. Aside from a twinge in my knee and my back throbbing I seemed okay and slowly hobbled on my way to firmer ground.

During this entire debacle, the dog was stood there looking at me inquisitively with her head cocked to one side trying to work out what was going on. We eventually made our way onwards and an hour or so got home. I’m sure I’ll be aching a little tomorrow.

Next time I’m walking through that field, I won’t vary quite so far off the beaten track, I give no guarantees that I’ll stop the dancing though.