ailments

I'm not feeling particularly well at the moment. I've got a water infection somewhere near my kidneys, and I'm trying to keep a cold at bay.

After I dropped Jayne and Aaron off from the concert the other night, I just felt like absolute crap - very run down.

It's not like me to feel so ill. I really don't think it's got that much to do with the inclement weather we're having either, I feel it's a lot about stress at work.

I don't really want to go off on one about work. Let's just say I put far too much of myself into moving all the gear around and it wasn't helped by there just being me, Ron and Ian doing it because we couldn't trust anyone else to help. Nearing the end, I was physically exhausted. I actually walked off the job in the last week during an internal bust-up, and Ian followed suit. Job or no job, I'd had enough, and needed some quality time to recover.

Signing-on was not fun. I hadn't done it in 16 years, and found the differences in the system between back then and now quite profound. Back in "the good old days", you basically went in, signed a piece of paper and walked out, no questions asked. Now, they're on your back like the plague - pushing people into job situations they're either not prepared to do, or more likely, unsuitable for. The pressure can't be fun for the dole either, because I'd hazard a guess they have targets to achieve.

But what's the point in bullying the unemployed - it just breeds contempt and some of us bite back.

I had a small row with the cheeky bitch behind the desk the last time I signed on. I was in a foul enough mood as it was. Neither did it help matters when the security guard strutting his stuff around the front entrance is none other than the younger brother of my best mate at school. Anyway, I'd blagged her I had a job interview somewhere, and she started asking all sorts of probing questions which, to be honest, had me at a loss to answer sufficiently. She said, "So, you don't know where you're going to for this job then?" I snapped back, "who do you think you are?" and stalked off.

So signing off was actually a huge relief, but I think my nerves were shot by then. I hadn't been feeling that great, either physically or mentally, and I've just wanted to close the curtains.

And it's beyond the remit of the blog, but there's a deeply-personal matter I have to attend to as soon as I get the guts to do it.

I think once I get past these, hopefully, minor ailments I'll be right as rain. Don't get me wrong, there are people out there really suffering from all sorts of things that far outweigh my mediocre concerns. I'm well aware of that, so I don't make a song and dance about it.....except on here!