For further evidence (if any needed) look no further than the selection of the GB Taekwondo athlete! World no 1 is British but not selected because he didn't use the governing body's training regime. Instead our candidate is ranked 56th! Dummy spitting out of the highest order in both cases....

Hope things work out for your daughter Sunrise.

It's been a really, really difficult day . The stress of it has been building up for a while, too.

Absolutely exhausted with overwork in the last few weeks along with numerous stresses and hassles.

Can you possibly take some time out? Or is there someone around who could share the load a bit? Too much stress for too long is a recipe for disaster. (I have a t-shirt from a Particular Episode!) Do look after yourself, Cyrilla.

My aaaargh: banks!

Aww, thanks, Misterioso.

I know what I SHOULD do! It's just that I have my finger in a huge number of pies and of course they all have their associated problems as well as the good sides. I've just worked non-stop for several weeks now on a vast number of projects and there have been more hassles with each of them than usual. At the end of a very busy year (I only managed a week off last summer, which really wasn't enough), I just haven't coped with it all very well.

Think I could sleep for a week! Sadly, things to get on with...

Thanks again.

The bank has managed to redeem itself.

But hospitals..... I am so frustrated. What does it take to get a travel expenses form stamped and signed?
Answer: around an hour and a half, four heated discussions, some clueless staff who either didn't have authorisation to sign, didn't have a stamp, didn't know where to send me to get said signature / stamp, a longish (painful) walk, and hopeless directions that sent me to the wrong place twice.

Hugs to Misterioso and Cyrilla.

Trying to work out why I am stressed out of my brain - it's wind down time, and almost the end of the term.
Maybe it's not work...

Got out of work to discover parking ticket on car. Last 2 days I had change and displayed ticket. This time didn't have change so used RingGo to pay by mobile. It worked (have receipt in my account and printed) so it will be cancelled, but it's not something I needed to deal with today. Brainless idiot obviously forgot to check their computer (time is nearly 2 hours after I bought the ticket!)

Ahhhh. Stessful situation at work right now. I need my team leaders help right now on something urgent but he is in a meeting with management and I can't interupt it right now.

It's no doubt wrong thinking on my part and I will get shot down in flames (not for the first time) but to put the other point of view: there is something quite frustrating about trying to get through a grossly overloaded schedule with insufficient time to see each patient, to be then presented with a form a to fill in or stamp, (when you are not routinely supplied with one) especially if the person clutching the form then becomes irate.

Many of the staff signing these expense forms will have had to pay for a parking permit even if they are allowed a parking space, and will have probably had to read a directive reminding them that their Trust must save X million pounds this financial year with no drop in care standards or increase in waiting times.

Having said this, I know you are living out in the wilds and it will probably mean a long arduous journey to get to an appointment. Just hope it doesn't happen too often.

Just don't get me started on the cost of interpreters.

I see your point, and won't shoot you down in flames! - But just to clarify, it isn't the consultant / doctor who is supposed to do the signing / stamping, but the admin staff. And I didn't become irate to begin with, only when sent from A to B to C to D.... Yes, many of the staff pay for parking permits, but most of us have ongoing expenses attached to our jobs. It is also very expensive to get to my appointments (early flight out to the mainland, bus fare and two taxi fares, flight back for every appointment) plus any teaching scheduled for that day that I lose out on. Since this happens several times a year on average - you will understand that I do need to reclaim the travel costs!!

Interpreters.....?

Sounds like lots of stressed people on here, hugs to you all

On the swimming front, nothing more happening apart from us being summoned to a "Disciplinary Meeting" of which we have politely declined (who needs disciplining??? Not us...) and we have now written to the minister for sport - who's family happens to know our daughter very well. We have let the club know that it "is no longer an internal matter" so that should have them worried after the verbal and physical stuff that went on. Daughter has been excluded from training until it is sorted out....

Kate has some blisteringly hard training sessions set for the next week (7.5 km a day!!) so she will be kept out of trouble. Control freak is right - but in this case control family. It's a little like the mafia....

Hopefully the Sports minister will be ready to shake up the system a little, but at this point, who knows?? We are just watching and waiting....

Thanks very much for your support. Fingers crossed she can continue....

I hope it all sorts itself out quickly. This kind of distraction is the last thing that you or your daughter need.

SB

I hope it all clears soon. And just remember, not long now until we can close our eyes and listen to Michael Johnson commenting on the ba-tons


Sunrise - such a jobsworth decision when your daughter is training so hard and so committed to her swimming. I do hope it's resolved.

Oh, Crotchetymum, you know how to cheer a girl up!

Argh, printer stress.

Trying to print off my newsletters - positively the last little bit of admin for the year. Printer 1 - I've plenty of spare ink cartridges except for the one tank that has run out. Printer 2 doesn't like me and refuses to print any further than half way down page 2.


Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Banjaxed my right shoulder.

Had some muscle pain in it yesterday, ignored it and played recorders yesterday evening which turns out to be a big mistake - one hour of bass and one hour of tenor = can't lift my arm this morning.

So now I can't drive, writing is very painful (I'm typing this left-handed) and have had to cancel my commitments for the day. I'm hoping it's cleared up a lot by Monday as that's my last teaching day for the term and entails a fair bit of driving. Public transport being what it is round here, the only option to get to my pupils is a taxi - which will more than wipe out the proceeds of the day.

Add to that the fact the inlaws are arriving for a visit this afternoon - I don't need this right now!!!

Owwww - O feek your pain.

Why is it that these things never happen on Monday or Tuesday when it's easy to get to a doctor?

Is it an impingement, or muscular? Might be worth trying alternating hot / cold with a wheat pillow and a bag of frozen peas (or an ice pack if you have one).

Eeek, that sounds painful. Hope you manage to drive to your lessons on Monday. In the meantime, make sure the in-laws wait on you!

Sorry to hear that Katyjay. Hope the problem is short-lived!

Sorry to hear that katyjay.

My mum and I had to rescue a cat this afternoon, it was horrible and the poor wee thing died just minutes before we got her free.

I feel terrible, C

You did try, so you mustn't feel bad - but that's a daft thing to say, because I know it must feel awful (goes upstairs to cuddle her kittens...)

You must do, Floss. Poor little cat. It must have been so awful.

Anyone got any tips/advice to help me stop my tummy from hurting?

I woke up this morning and i could feel this shooting pain in my tummy, i could also feel a knotty feeling. Ended up staying in bed until about 6 this evening as i couldn't even stand up properly. (i've decided i hate headaches, especially when they make me feel dizzy )

Still crying when I think about the cat. It was horrible, I'll spare you all the details on here, but it involved deep water.

Rach, where is the pain? *hugs*

Heat often helps. How about a hot water bottle?



Hope you're better soon katyjay.

Hope it's better now, katyjay



You tried, Floss (and mum). Much sympathy



I have only one bit of advice : go and see a doctor (a PM to anacrusis doesn't count )...

I really wish I'd taken today off work - got back from holiday late Saturday night. Got lots of stuff done yesterday, today actually I would just be sitting around doing nothing - well, collecting dry cleaning is about the only thing I have to do. I've also got one of the rats in at the vet having an op, which I scheduled for today to make it an 'as soon as possible' but probably would have been sensibly left until later in this week but still getting it done is good even if it does mean going to the vet twice (to drop off and pick up) and setting up spare cage and so on.

110 emails from work to work through. So far I have the stuff I can ignore deleted, now I have to go through the bits I need to pay attention to and work out which need something doing or not. Guaranteed that my mother will phone in the middle of me trying to get my head round this
Tomorrow being Tuesday, it's my day working in London...so going all that way and then having to start going through all that email probably wouldn't have been much fun, especially as we have a new starter starting who it seems I'm going to be doing a lot of training for...
Nothing really proper aarrrggghh, nothing that I can't start working through, just stuff it would be nice to put off for an extra 24 hours (and another 24, and another, and so on!)


Husband has gone to work with the dry cleaning ticket. I've got him to text me the details so I will go down there and ask very nicely and hopefully it will be OK (we know the people in the shop very well so it should be fine).

Yesterday I met a mouse by the back door. Today I am wondering if it is time to get a cat.

We get mice sometimes in the winter if it's really cold, and occasionally in summer too as we're in a rural area. We don't have a cat - but find mousetraps baited with chocolate are quite effective.

We get them too. The little bu****s like the wiring and sound deadening under the bonnet of my car. Its as if they are intent on getting revenge on a big cat!

One of our neighbours has a cat, but it is too lazy to catch mice. An electronic mousetrap baited with bits of chocolate seems to have done the trick.

SB

though I've just checked the schedule and the first relays aren't until 9th August. I think this is a serious oversight.

I could lend you one of my five. However they are just as likely to bring you in a live mouse and drop it at your feet - not to show you how much they love you as cats don't go in for that sort of thing very much - but to show you how very clever they are. If you are not convinced they will release the mouse and continue to hunt and pounce on it all round the kitchen untill either you have rescued the poor thnig and put it in next door's woodpile or they have killed it.

A more ingenious cat may well place the prize on your bed - it has happened here!

I read somewhere that rodents will avoid the smell of cat wee, so perhaps all that's needed is for the cat to exist and use a litterbox? I've not noticed any signs of mice or rats even though my cat is too useless to hunt anything, preferring sitting in the sun to chasing things. She does use the litterbox though.

My friend's cat deposited one on her pillow while she was sleeping. The squeaking in her ear woke her up.

I never had a mouse in this house until I had a cat. Now I get 3-5 a week.

On second thoughts, maybe not a cat but just a new mousetrap. The one I have is so springy and difficult to set that I worry that I'm more likely to loose a finger than catch a mouse.

Received what looks like a spoof e-mail from the US version of a well-known web site. I've certainly not used them this year. It's a) their mistake b) a complete spoof hoping for a reply c) fraudulent transaction.

Spoken to card company - they've said not to reply to e-mail, wait 2 days to see if it actually comes through. They've marked my account and to deal with it then.

NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! How can I wait that long for MJ to say the 'B' word *wails*????








We have taken to shutting the bedroom door at night in order to avoid the present of a dead mouse on the bed in the morning...

Decision made. Definitely no cat.
I now have a humane mousetrap which is like a see-saw in a box. I saw on the internet a trap which was a just a bucket with peanut buttter in...can mice really not get out of a bucket?
Anyway Ive seen two mice this evening so I'm getting a bit panicky. Now that the rain has stopped I would like to have the back door open not barricaded against rodent invasion.

The neighbour's cat has just caught a bird in our garden. The wretched thing (apologies to cat lovers, but I am a bird lover!) is always doing it - I'm tired of finding bits of wing on the lawn when I mow (it obviously doesn't like wings, for some reason). It's such a beautiful looking cat too, black and white and looking as if butter wouldn't melt in its mouth.

Any tips for keeping a neighbour's cat away without upsetting the neighbours? I know drenching it with water would work, but I don't suppose that would go down too well!

I'm a cat lover but I don't like how they hunt birds. (I'm fine with them hunting rats...)

You could use a water pistol? That's sort of less than drenching. Or run out and shout at it. I shout at the neighbour's cat when it comes round to terrorise mine (comes right in the house sometimes).

(Separate point - if my cat was being naughty, I would not be bothered if my neighbour soaked it with water. Water's harmless for the cat, just unpleasant. It's not like throwing stones at it or poisoning it)

Yes, I can answer that one...
Keep a water pistol by the back door and squirt the offenders whenever you see them in your garden. (I never get them but it makes me feel better)
Also get a cat-scarer. Its made of black metal in a shillouette of a cat and it has marbles for eyes. Somebody on here reccommended it to me and it really does work. I think I got mine from Kleeneeze.
Good luck.

Our neighbour used to swear by lemonade bottles, part filled with water, and placed strategically around the garden. I don't know why they would scare a cat, but it seemed to work.

SB

If one of my neighbours did that to my cat I'd be perfectly ok with it as long as there was nothing nasty in the water. I hate my cat catching birds (not too happy about her mouse and frog habit either) so don't mind her being discouraged.

Frogs? I have never heard that before.

SB

I used to have a hen who chased next door's cat away. There are no cats in our current neighbourhood, but the hen I have now chases squirrels and pigeons. A chicken is what you need BerkshireMum!