(no subject)

Well, this morning's shift certainly wasn't dull. Less than an hour had gone by when someone came round handing out proxy payclaim forms for us to fill in for any shifts from the week before last that we'd been unable to input. They'd clearly decided it was unlikely the problem was going to be fixed on time. The interview I was doing finished at 10.15, then I filled out the forms and went over to the support team. Paul and Sue #4 directed me to Dan, saying "For those, Dan's your man". "They like to make me suffer," Dan groaned, prompting Sue's reply "You love it."

When I came back from my mini-break Sue #5 told me that people whose ID numbers began with 4 were now able to input payclaims for that week. She guessed, rightly, that my number begins with a 3, but she knew about the proxy payclaim forms having been handed out.

Sarah #1 turns 40 tomorrow, so she'd brought in a fine selection of cold cream cakes. There was also salt and vinegar Pringles and sour cream and garlic dips from Linda. I dipped into both liberally through the shift. Julie, sitting directly facing the nibbles table, though she was always talking on the phone, kept looking at me in a disapproving way whenever I had another nibble. Excuse me, madam, I'm feeling out of sorts right now, and those Pringles are proper moreish.

Today's obligatory refusing miseryguts was actually, for me, a comic figure. He said his wife had told him not to do the survey any more. When I probed for a reason, he said he'd best not say what her actual words were, so I asked him for the general idea. He replied "She says you're a bunch of nosey busybodies who've never done anything for us" and added that the field interviewer who did them three months ago was "nasty". Suit yourself, squire.

After 1 pm I passed Lorna on the way along the corridor. She told me the payclaims problem had been fixed and that I should be able to enter the claims for the week before last. I said I'd handed the proxy forms in but she said to try and enter the claims on the computer now the fault was sorted.

So after my last interview (overran by a minute), I had a quick look at my internal emails then went into the payclaims programme and clicked on 2 April. It worked. With the overrun and the time it took to enter all three claims from that week, plus today's, I got to claim an extra quarter hour. Not bad.

(no subject)

To Ferneham Hall for the Gosport Gang Show. The guy selling programmes in the foyer, clearly remembering me from my mother's mayoral year, said hello, asked how my mother and I were, then, spotting the HWFC badge on my jacket, said "Still supporting Havant & Waterlooville?" so I told him I'd been to Liverpool - that impressed him. Alan, the District Commissioner, spotted me in the bar; he also remembered me from mayoral days so came over for a quick chat. Someone else who remembered me was the lady selling souvenirs, who said hello at the interval; she asked whether my mother would be coming this year so I had to explain she's busy with the local election campaign at the moment.

The show was very jolly and lots of fun. It opened up with three cast dressed as cabin crew, introducing the show in airline flight style. My favourite sketches were a 'Medieval Helpdesk' with endless Tudor-themed spoofs on customer helplines and wordplays on computer terms (a messenger boy entered, began delivering his news coughing and wheezing, then collapsed and died : "This page has expired!"); a song sung by four kids as battery hens ("Don't buy our eggs, buy free range"); a sketch of a group of lost Scouts taking refuge in a barn on Halloween night, complete with a squad of Ghostbusters and the Monster Mash; and a 'Musical Interlude' consisting of various cast members just singing songs - their songs of choice were little-known (to me, at least) but nice, though it was weird hearing 'When Children Rule The World', a song about Christmas, in April. The two girls singing 'For Good' had excellent voices (it was a shame that one of the night's several sound system cut-outs happened during their performance, though I was fortunately near enough the front to hear them unamplified) as well as looking exquisite in their orangey-gold full-length dresses, and the three girls singing 'Learn To Be Lonely' harmonised beautifully.

The finale was punctuated as usual by a speech from the director, who presented three of the cast with Chief Scout Gold Awards, and apologised for "a few gremlins in the sound system" then neatly added "But I'm sure you'll agree that it's these gremlins on the stage who count" indicating the cast, and called for a round of applause, which was generously given.