I bang my head, but I feel no pain
by davebarclay1954
Well here we are again, dear reader, Wednesday and the work week is half way through. Oh to have a job, something to do besides sit and listen to music, watch netflix, drink, eat and feel wonderfully free. If only my pension could cover all the basics and leave me enough to live off then I would be able to just chill.
My two chosen fields, IT and accounts, are recruiting at the moment but not for full time permanent staff, just temporary staff to cover maternity leave or holiday time, or in the case of IT, to upgrade their systems and ensure they are bug free. This isn’t the first time I’ve been without a job, but it is the first time I’ve not had anyone telling me that I should be doing more to find something or risk having my benefit stopped. I actually did get sanctioned once because I was less interested in a part time job than keeping a roof over my head.
I received a letter telling me that my benefit was going to be reduced to 25% of my entitlement because I should have applied for the job at Argos they told me about, when the day after they told me about this I received a letter from the council in Basingstoke telling me I had 2 weeks to either vacate or they would evict “sometime” following this deadline. By the way that wasn’t an error they told me I would lose 75% of my pittance which would not leave me enough to feed my family on even if I stopped eating, drinking and living. My wife at this time was pregnant so I appealed against this decision and given that I had moved from Basingstoke to Sunderland and then to Newcastle the appeal was successful.
People were told that those on benefits were going on foreign holidays two or three times every year (the minority fiddling the system were but not the majority) so people were put out about this and wanted a cap put on benefits because no one should be better off out of work than working. I understand this, it was never a long term solution for me to be out of work (although I did have a few longer term periods of at least 12 months after being made redundant during a depression). I would just like to add that for me, at any rate, being on benefits was to keep me ticking over until I could get another job.
As with so many others, however, interviews were not my strongest suit, I therefore had to work on my nerves by getting friends to mock interview me for jobs. With the advent of the internet I discovered that I could look up information about the company so could have one or two questions ready to ask before the end of the interview. I was always stuck as to what to ask because salary has to be a no go area until you get the job, as is holidays. The only time I ever mentioned holidays at an interview was the one time I had two weeks in LA booked and asked if I could start following my return to the UK.
Any road up, as the actress said to the bishop, enough of my problems. I wish I could fly away to my favourite city and stay there listening to the jazz and the blues. Sleeping by the banks of the mighty Mississippi rocked to sleep by the river moving under the boat and not a care in the world. If only Covid19 hadn’t been sent to wipe us out because of the way we are destroying this planet. To quote Agent Smith from the Matrix “The problem with the human race is that they are the virus destroying the planet!”
If we were all to try and make the post-Covid19 world the best it can be then maybe we could save those creatures threatened with extinction, the planet and also ourselves. However, those in power in the 3 most influential Western (non-) democracies (the USA, the UK and Australia) have no interest in doing anything other than protecting those hastening the climate crisis by relying on gas and oil to power machinery and generate electricity. Why? Because that’s where the bulk of their personal wealth comes from.
barclaydave 
We sure have gotten ourselves in a mess, haven’t we? Yet…there are still those who think the whole pandemic is a hoax. This crap about having their “liberties” infringed upon…what about those of us who follow the rules because it’s the right thing to do…and…we might want to live. Silly us.
I don’t understand the way things are across the pond. I think everyone should just pack their ditties and move into Buckingham palace. Not like there’s not enough room! Bwahahahahaha!
There was a young man on Twitter last week (27 year old in Spain on holiday when restrictions were lifted) he said he thought the virus was a hoax until he caught it, now he’s having trouble breathing and thinks he may be dying from it. Shame, not, I have no sympathy with anyone who tells me it’s not real and I should get a life and not worry about dying. I do worry, same as you do Laurel, that this virus has been caused by our destruction of the natural ecological balance of this planet. Every indigenous person in the Americas, Australasia and elsewhere all recognised that there is a very positive balance between ourselves and nature. This balance has to be maintained in order to ensure survival not only of the human race but also the planet. When did we (civilised) humans forget this and start polluting our rivers, streams and destroying the planet in the name of the mighty dollar? Capitalism is destroying the environment and is therefore responsible for this virus so, maybe, it’s time for a change at the top and choosing a better way to live.
Have you heard the latest? President and Mrs. Trump have it now. I sort of wish I was still “friends” with this lady I used to know, who thinks the virus is a hoax and all Democrats should be hung. Kind of like to say…”um…so what about Trump?” LOLOL
Yes I heard that even after testing positive he is off out fund raising instead of staying indoors, refusing to wear a mask (like the rest of his selfish brood) so if he infects all his supporters who’s gonna vote for him in November? Hopefully no one and he will have to leave the White House and then he will be incarcerated because of every crime he has perpetrated before and since taking the top job. Just two more to go now, this side of the pond forcing an election but we’ve got hobson’s choice at the moment, johnson or starmer, Tory-Blue or Tory-Red, and after throwing two elections in order to oust the socialist leader who was elected to the post of Labour leader by the rank and file membership. Those red Tories don’t deserve to be elected but the only choice we have is Tory-Blue or Tory-Yellow unless the Green Party can get enough to put candidates for every seat then we may see the Greens coming from nowhere and forming a government.
It’s a crazy world…and he’s already back at the White House. I never wish anyone ill, but I thought this might make an impact. That’s what I get for thinking.
I don’t understand much about the law over there…actually I understand next to nothing, but it seems to be as nutty over there as it is here.
I’d like to be president for a week or two. There would be equal taxes…and no one would be homeless or hungry. Sounds like utopia. Sure…that’ll never happen.
Wow, Laurel, you seem to have quite a good handle on things anyway for understanding next to nothing, lol, if you were President for a year and I were PM over here for a year there would be two countries getting shaken up, that’s for sure. Equality in taxes, free health care for all at point of need and build enough affordable housing to house all the homeless, making sure that anyone who needed help with rent or food got it. Nothing for the greedy, in fact I would see to it that our shitshow was jailed pending trial (no bail) and that the jury was made up of people hand picked by me to provide a guilty verdict. Utopia on both sides of the pond, such a shame it won’t happen in our lifetimes (unless there is a huge shake up in politics and the MSM)…
It just blows my hair back! It is going to be a hoot when the elections happen.
In Denmark, there is free healthcare and free education…but…their taxes are exorbitant. I used to know a guy (lost him in the divorce from POS) who was the vice president of CCI. In all his years working for them, he was never able to afford a car. They finally provided a pretty used Honda for him…just before he was fired. Sigh.