WORK and LIFE

DO YOU WORK TO LIVE or LIVE TO WORK?

The UK still has an ‘opt out clause’ from the 48 hour week (EU working time directive Oct 1998). It seems (depressingly) that, as well as the British government, many workers also want to opt out so that they can work longer hours.
WHY? Some because they need more money to live or buy more stuff. Others (it seems to me) because they don't want to go home. They don't know how to cope with 'leisure'.
In 1998 the French introduced a 35hour week, but they had to drop the idea last year. Do people need to be protected from themselves?
We are surrounded by workaholics. Mind you girls - you do look good in the smart suit and high heels.
One in four workers in the UK has a second job (twice as many women as men)
I'm a bit of a magazine browser and believe me they are stuffed with articles like '8 ways to slow down and enjoy your life' or ‘7 days to a stress free you!’. You know the sort of thing.
Then there's 'Cut your stress in half’ - one of the examples was 'Mrs I. Haveitall - 38 year old accountant living in Manchester with husband (business man) and their four children’. ‘Scuse me? Do you really need FOUR children. If you love children so much shouldn't you be a nanny or a play group organiser instead of an ACCOUNTANT!? Anyway she says she is running round in circles and failing to get everything done. There just aren't enough hours in the day. Well I am surprised.
I loved my job and it was a great source of personal satisfaction. Others aren't so lucky. But - get it in perspective. I couldn’t be doing with the sort of teacher who would BOAST about all the piles of marking s/he took home or the hours spent after school running junior science club or the lunchtimes where there was no time to grab a sandwich. It was really saying ‘I can work harder than you.’

Why? What are you afraid of? Enough is enough.
GET A LIFE PLEASE.

KAZ

ADVERTS

Pick up any magazine and five more will fall out to the floor. Sometimes they are good for a smirk – especially the advert above. Did the photographer borrow his granny’s plant and a disposable camera?
But hey – how much would I save if I bought two?
Would it be enough for the battery operated ear vac at £14.99?

KAZ

UPDATE:
BOLTONIANS: In the interests of ‘research’ I watched Vernon Kay’s new show on BBC1 last night. Memo to Vernon; never work with children, animals or the wife!
I also wanted to seePenny Smith who I really like. Unlike most celebrities, she has no ego at all. She has a great sense of humour, which is a blessing as her singing was excruciatingly bad. I shall not be watching again

CLUTTER: Germaine did a similar (??) piece in The Grauniad the day after mine. Oh for that vocabulary. Read it here.

ERIC BANA: He’s in an Aussie movie this weekend on BBC2 . It’s ‘CHOPPER’ a true story and very violent. Radio Times gives it 5 stars. But I’ll be asleep by 12.15 am.

TOP TEN DUCKS

Here are my TOP TEN DUCKS

1. Mallard - Ubiquitous but amazing - males very randy. All Mallards are brown in the summer
2. Tufted duck - Like the one you have in the bath - but not yellow
3. Goosander -Beautiful plumage
4. Golden Eye - Always surprising every winter
5. Gadwall - Looks smooth, serious and knowing
6. Teal - Small like me
7. Wigeon - Lovely colours
8. Pintail - Slim, sophisticated and beautiful
9. Shoveller - Mallard with a long snout
10. Mandarin - Is it real?
    

If you go down to your local lake/resevoir you may catch them before they fly North.
Silly ducks - why don't they go to Spain like everyone else?
KAZ

CLUTTER

Clutter, stuff, bits and pieces, odds and ends. Is there anyone who isn’t burdened by their ‘things’? Everyone needs more cupboards. New flats up my road advertise 'extra storage in the basement'. Old warehouses charge you silly prices so that you can keep it all locked away. Charity shops have notices saying ‘No more PLEASE’

Shirley, an old friend, came to see me on Friday. I told her that Jack had offered to call for her. No … she confided, my house is so chaotic and full of ‘things’.

7 years ago I moved from a large old house to a VERY small flat. This was to be nearer to my mum who was ill. I set about clearing the clutter because I had to.

I had been a car boot addict for years and developed a taste for kitsch especially flying ducks, Tretchikoff ladies, plastic fruit and Mickey mouses. The worst nightmare was the books – they had to go! As I looked through them I came across a small volume called ‘Clear out your Clutter’

The dilemma! Do I throw it away or keep it to tell me how to get rid of it? No answer to that.

Anyway – the point is - that this clear out was the best thing I ever did. I felt free and relaxed in my new white box on my new white sofa. I could lead a guilt free existence without all that stuff demanding my attention.

No, it didn’t last. But it was good whilst it did.

‘If in doubt chuck it out’
KAZ

Science

So the latest from those really clever American scientists is … ‘The more educated you are, the faster the Alzheimer’s will get you. Each extra year of education you struggled through will give you an additional 0.3% of deterioration.

Interesting that this comes in the week when there’s a huge drop in University applications …. Could there be a connection?

Well thank God I didn’t do a PhD or that evening class in car maintenance.

Guess what? The previous research proved exactly the opposite.
I don’t believe a word of any of it.
I am (used to be) a scientist but I’m not proud of it any more.

Get off to your evening class, go the pub afterwards and ignore it all.

KAZ

FEAR

There was an advert on the hoardings recently (see my version above). The message ‘1 in 5 women are let down every month by their sanitary protection’. This sends a cold shiver down my spine. All young women fear leakage, they don’t need to be reminded by 20ft high hoardings.

One advantage of being a pensioner is you can wear white trousers all the time.

Note to self: Remember you look terrible in white trousers.

Then there’s the one that asks ‘What does your loo say about you?’ I don’t think this is addressing the man of the house do you?

The worst one is the big V fighting the big C! Er…. ‘scuse me Mister Branson .. If I give you some money are you going to protect me from getting Cancer?’ NO? Well pssss off then and stop frightening me. I already pay you for my internet.

Identity theft? OK it happens, but is there really a need to panic? You can’t go out without seeing old gits coming back from Tesco with a string bag of carrots in one hand and a shredder in the other.

Don’t get me going on the identity card topic

Remember – the thing you worry most about is not what will get you in the end.

KAZ

UPDATE:
ASDA : Had to take swimsuit back as it had curves where I hadn’t.
BILLIE JO: I e mailed the Guardian about the innocent prisoner thing. They didn’t print but they put my blog on their Newsblog page (Log links) last Friday. So I’ll forgive them. It’s been replaced now.
WRINKLES: Kept forgetting to use the ‘not Boswelox’. I am avoiding mirrors at the moment.
....And if you were wondering about Phil Kay's radio station click here

Boltonians

So tell me …when did a Bolton accent become sexy?

I enjoyed listening to Vernon Kay’s Brit music session on Sat morning as I was driving along. After Vernon was Sarah Cox another Boltonian. The lovely Stuart Maconie who reads out Kev’s daft e mails on radio 2 sounds similar. He’s from Leigh I think. Then there’s Peter Kay ... is it a common name in Bolton?

Now I don’t come from Bolton, I was born in the home of Peter Kay’s favourite radio station. My family either supported Wanderers or Rovers but never Preston North End!

I was OK on grammar, but I didn’t really know about ‘vowel sounds’ until I got to University. My roommate was from the deep South (Upminster wherever that is) and my landlady was exceedingly posh. They were much amused when I said things like ‘a thowsand pownds’. I just didn’t get the joke. Rob (ex husband from Barrow in Furness) once collapsed in hysterics when I asked the greengrocer for ‘a pownd of sprowts’.

Now you get good money for talking like that. So repeat after me:

Rowndabowt
Check this owt!
How Now Brown Cow (try it in Boltonspeak)

vernonkay.bbc.co.uk .. where co rimes with d’Oh

Keep practising and I’ll hear you on the Radio soon.

KAZ

Billie Jo

On the day when Sion Jenkins was first convicted of Billie Jo’s murder in 1998, I had a date with mum for Scampi and chips in Yates’s Wine Lodge. We agreed that he was guilty as hell and a thoroughly reprehensible specimen. My mum was an excellent judge of character.
We’ll never know for sure who really killed Billie Jo, but we know that Jenkins is a wife beater and compulsive liar who hit his daughters regularly. He’s now married to a millionaire divorcee.

Guilty or not, one serous issue emerges from all this.

Prisoners who don’t admit their guilt don’t get privileges.

They usually suffer greatly because of this.
So, our system refuses to admit that we sometimes get it wrong.
Anyone who has seen ‘In the name of the father' with Daniel Day Lewis and Peter Postlethwaite will agree that this rule should be changed as a matter of urgency.

But not for the sake of Sion Jenkins

R.I.P. Billie Jo

KAZ

ASDA

I just spent £54.63 at ASDA.

I only went in for a paper and some stir fry.

O.K. so I didn’t really need to go to the superstore up near Sportcity, but it was on my way. I was traipsing round with my little trolley for nearly 2 hours!

The most expensive item I bought was an olive green swimming costume for £10. I’ll probably never wear it as I’m not a fan of white flesh.
I got 2 cheap mags and a DVD of ‘Closer’ for Kev’s valentine. I saw the film with Eileen last year. He’ll like the sex scenes with Natalie Portman and there’s a scene with Julia Roberts in her kitchen – and she’s got My Sink. Really, it’s true – I was so proud. I’m also so modest that I didn’t mention it to Eileen.

As well as a couple of CDs, a Sebastian Faulk’s novel, a scrubbing brush (56p), and some super glue, I picked up a magnificent stainless steel bowl which was half price (£5). I spent £5 on washing stuff and about £6 on food. I bought NO DRINK at all.

Got back to the car – I’d forgotten the paper. Had to go back and bought a computer mag as well.

My granddad used to run the village Coop. He said that a sunny day would always separate folk from their money.

KAZ

Betty Friedan & Germaine Greer

Germaine Greer happily slags off Betty Friedan in yesterday’s G2 even though she’s just died. I’m with Germaine – you cannot be ‘a loyal member of the Republican party’ and a feminist. Betty Friedman was a few years too early for me. I have been a feminist since 1969.

My inspiration was Germaine Greer. I agree with CamillePaglia on this.

'The Female Eunuch' TOTALLY TRANSFORMED MY LIFE.

Who knows? Perhaps ignorance would have been bliss and I would have enjoyed a quiet life arranging flowers.

In the 80s I ran a General Studies course called ‘Surviving Sexism’. Most of the young women didn’t get it. All they wanted was an engagement ring and lots of dosh! In 2005, my brilliant A level Chemistry students just wanted to be Beyoncé or Britney.

Who am I to judge?

Germaine sometimes looks a bit daft these days but I still adore her.

KAZ

ERIC BANA

Went to ‘Munich’ with Eileen yesterday.
She had to pay full price - she’s only 58.

It was a bit of a boys’ film, but totally, totally brilliant. Especially in the light of the Hamas victory and the World cup in Germany.
The main man was Eric Bana who is terrific. So who was he? I asked Eileen who usually knows these things. No idea. We assumed he was a celebrated American Jewish actor.
How wrong can you be - Google tells me that he’s an Aussie of Croation descent. He used to be a stand up comedian and his big film break was playing ‘The incredible Hulk!’
Inspired casting Mr Spielberg – the film revolved around him.

Richard Gere has been getting rather tedious lately so it’s time for a change.

My cat was called Eric – I’ll tell you about him soon.

KAZ

CHEMISTRY

I used to be a Chemistry teacher.
Actually it was only a few months ago!
One faithful ex student (Sam) sends me e mails. His style is brilliant.

E.g. gd nws kaz i got in at mmu, but i still wudve liked a B in chem it wudda made u proud if u think abt it i did get a B cos i did better on that mod 3 resit and they dint take it into account. thats wat really annoys me kaz that i needed 3 measly marks and i got them 3 marks but they dint let me take it forward.
aaaaaarrrrr 3MARKS!!!!!

When I write back I have to type it in full, then go back and delete all the vowels – not really the point is it?
Last week, Sam ran into the lab technician who told him the new Chemistry teacher is great.This made me feel awful! I also felt awful about feeling awful.
Jealousy??
Did I really want my students to have bad teacher?
Well I’m only human.
The feeling soon passed. I suppose I just wanted to be missed

KAZ