Days Like These

Yesterday was one of those days that is best forgotten. As you may be aware, we are short staffed in work and as such are stretched to the limit. Now add to this two members of staff off sick and it reaches breaking point. I am not the only one in work that is under pressure but I have the additional labour of having deadlines to meet on a project that resembles an old donkey that should be taken out the back and shot. The receptionist was off sick yesterday and we have a rota in work that lists our names under "First-Line Cover" which is updated every month. This means that when the receptionist is off, whoever is on that week must cover reception. Yes folks, that name was mine and therefore additional duties fell into my over-burdened lap.

The Gods were certainly looking down on me and thought "That's not enough, he needs to be broken!" and thus the Director waltzed in first thing in the morning and dumped another piece of work on me. This took until 11am as I was constantly having to pick up the phone to direct calls. Why is it never this busy when the receptionist is here? After the 20th call, I dropped the formalities and just stated the Agency I worked for and transferred their call. In between all this and for the remainder of the day, I recieved emails from my boss from home [lucky for some] regarding the website and changes of plans and re-drafting.

I'm also arranging the order for jumbo paperclips with the logo of this new website on one side and our logo on the other. I ask you, jumbo paperclips as a promotional tool? What is she thinking? Who is going to hold on to a giant red paperclip? I mean, a ruler I understand. That will stay on the desk and be used. Who's going to keep a giant red paperclip on their desk in case they have to keep together a jumbo stack of paper? Nonetheless, I struggled through the day until 20 minutes before leaving when I recieved an "urgent" email requesting additional work be done. I felt like deleting it and pretending I never saw it but that only comes round and bites you on the ass.

I stayed a little late and started into the work before deciding to throw in the towel, go home and chill out. I needed to pick up a few groceries so I stopped at the Spar around the corner, on my way home. Amongst the items purchased included a jar of Chicken Tonight. Whilst I was at the counter, the bag handle broke and I requested a new bag. As I left the shop, the bag broke again and the contents hit the floor with an explosion of sauce. I, god knows how, calmly picked up the bag and, extracting the other items covered in sauce, threw the broken glass sauce bag into a nearby bin and walked straight home. A few people moved out of my way so I must have had a face on me like a son out to revenge the man who shot his daddy. I dumped all the stuff in the kicthen, walked into the bedroom and collapsed on the bed.

It was around 10 minutes later before I finally had the will to get up and begin pottering about. Nothing like a bit of pottering to soothe the nerves.

Later that evening, I watched Hitch, a romantic comedy with Will Smith. Boy was that a cheesy piece of crap. It was like a ROM-COM Ferris Bueller with Smith talking to the audience throughout the movie dishing out useless advice. It was very clichéd: Man woo's woman using a technique. Woman finds out and fight ensues. Man wins back woman by being himself. Awwww.....bleugh! Even the jokes were clichés but I'll not bore you with details.

I would give my day and this film 1 out of 5.