Maundy Thursday

So here we are, Maundy Thursday.  Time was that those of us working in the public sector got the afternoon off on Maundy Thursday, but that's something else this government has spitefully taken away.  (Actually, the change goes back to New Labour days - our 'privilege days and half days are now included as part of annual leave, although what I'm supposed to do with a half day is beyond me - but I'm prepared to use any stick to beat this government with).   Obviously, I could have simply taken that odd half day of leave today, regardless.  But for various reasons I had to be available all day.  Nevertheless, I had hoped to effectively finish my actual work early, then slope off and do something relaxing whilst leaving my work phone on.  Needless to say, that plan was stymied by the sudden appearance of a whole stack of stuff in my in-tray this morning which I had to action today, as I'm on leave next week.  So I ended up spending several hours this afternoon crawling my way around the narrow streets of some far-flung villages.  What kind of local council allows parking on an already narrow road running through the middle of a village, I ask you?  As if it wasn't congested enough already, for God's sake. I was stuck in traffic for what seemed like hours.

But, as I've already mentioned, I'm now off work for the next ten days, with the wonderful prospect of not having to crawl out of bed for work tomorrow because it is Good Friday.  Despite this only having been a four day working week, it's left me feeling drained.  Probably because I've been trying to do in four days what I'd normally do in five.  On top of that, I've had to deal with the local council again over my parking permit: after wasting time phoning them three times to try and renew it and being fobbed off with excuses as to why they couldn't and I'd have to ring back, I instead tried to do it by post.  Bad idea.  They issued me with the wrong permit, which resulted in more frustrated phone calls (it took forever to get over to them the concept that the permit they had sent me wasn't the one I'd asked for and needed, even then they tried to charge me a second fee for issuing the correct permit).  I finally got the right permit in this morning's post - forty eight hours after the previous one had expired.  But enough moaning.  I did do something enjoyable this week - I recorded my contribution for this week's Overnightscape Central podcast over on The Overnightscape, on the subject of schlock.  A topic close to my heart, I really got a kick from recording it - you can hear the whole podcast over there now.  Anyway, I've rambled on for long enough - bring on the Bank Holiday weekend.