(no subject)

What I did not need this morning was an obnoxious arsehole within the first ten minutes. Alas, that was exactly what I got. The notes from a previous wave showed that this bloke had been difficult before. While my interview with him was never plain sailing, it had looked like we were at least going to get finished - until he went off on one halfway through. What sympathy one might have for him for having a lung related disability that stops him working altogether, he lost completely by stopping the survey to launch into a tirade about how he was unhappy with this line of questioning and how, because of his condition, we should be able to "fill in" the questions without asking. I did my best to explain the way we had to go about things (and if he'd just got on with it, his survey would have been finished long before his tirade did) but I ended up getting cut off after about ten seconds of any sentence I managed to begin, just for him to launch into more of the same old vitriol. Finally he hung up.

As I went up to report the abandonment to Lesley, the duty supervisor, Rene was waiting in line. She too had had an abusive respondent. We moaned to each other while we stood waiting and I told Rene I felt like packing it all in. "You can't pack it in," she said, "if you do, everyone will."

A more amusing one came mid-morning when I interviewed a guy who, asked if he'd like to work longer hours, said no "as that'd mean paying more taxes to Gordon Brown and I can't stand the man". A few minutes later he made another reference to "dear old Gordon" - as the context was financial, I replied, in a friendly way, "It's dear old Alistair now, of course." The guy said "I say Gordon, as Alistair's just a puppet. A puppet with black eyebrows." I wonder if this man is a fan of ITV's hilarious Headcases?

Later, during a health and safety break, Karen passed me in the coffee lounge on her way back from the Ladies and stopped for a quick chat. I told her a little about the arsehole guy. She was pretty understanding and said "Oh, you don't need that, it throws you off for the whole morning." I also told her about Hawks blowing their play-off chances - she just made sympathetic noises. As she disappeared back into the unit she advised me to just look forward to my holiday in July...

Thank fuck it's Friday.

(no subject)

Went to the wrestling at the Thorngate this evening. Loudmouth heel Flying Phil Powers was back, although we didn't hear much trash talking from him at first - he just shouted abuse at a couple of hecklers, which was mostly inaudible thanks to the noisy kids who made up 70% of the crowd. A heel team, including 'The Zulu Prince', won the six man tag team elimination match - by cheating, of course - so in the next match, the individual final, I naturally thought Kris Kay, the local man and a face, would beat Powers. Instead, The Zulu Prince came out to ringside and kept attacking Kris while the ref's back was turned, then the Zulu handed Powers a pair of brass knuckles. Kris succeeded in disarming him, then he put the knucks on and turned to hit Powers - only for the referee to turn back to the fight at that point and disqualify Kris.

While the crowd booed and Kris 'protested', Powers was presented with the cup and then took the mike and started the trash talking, running down the people of Gosport as cheaters and morons. That was the cue for Kris to take the mike and call Powers and The Zulu Prince despicable bastards (pretty fruity language given how many kids were present!) It was unfortunate that when The Zulu Prince tried to interrupt Kris, Kris told him "Shut up, you monkey." I'm sure he didn't mean it as racist, but he should have had the common sense to say 'idiot' or 'prat' instead. Kay went on to challenge the two of them to a tag match at the next Gosport event on 13 June. Powers, after another trashing of Gosport, suggested an alternative, him against Kay on 24 May at Southampton, prompting catcalls from all the wearers of Pompey shirts in the audience! Kris answered that he'd take on Powers anywhere as long as "that idiot" (pointing at the Zulu) was nowhere in sight. Then Mal, the chairman of the federation, made his way to the ring, and delighted the crowd when he began "I echo Kris Kay, there is only one word for you two - despicable." He said he'd seen everything from where he was standing, took the cup from Powers, announced that the result of the final was annulled and that a rematch would be held at the 13 June event - and that Powers was suspended until he stepped in the ring with Kay that night!

The wrestler most of the kids wanted to see was the Flatliner. His match was last. His opponent, Jase the Ace, got boos the moment he appeared simply because of who he was up against, but then confirmed his heel status with some trash talking of the audience. The Flatliner was his usual showman self, spraying water from his mouth into his opponent's face as always on entering the ring and doing all his showboating tricks, with a little help from his mini-me Little Lenny. Of course, he won, sending the kids home ecstatic.