Diary 29th Of November And December 1st 2017

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Diary Thursday 30th November 2017 The close of one month and the start of the last now. November ended with a massive temperature drop. The gritters were out spreading gravel and grit on the roads in case of possible snow, frost and ice. Work went well, almost routinely. I was again inflicted with a dreadful finger scanner to use for reading parcel barcodes as I sorted them for the post office, and though I was getting more used to them, I still found them deeply irritating. It was busy for much of the day but in the end, work ran out and we were told to go home an hour early, but invited to work an optional extra hour tomorrow to make up for it. I agreed to do the extra hour. In the evening, I attended the local film society meeting, where we watched some member’s films, and one member looked at my own digital stills camera and finally worked out what I failed to crack for years, how to use it in video mode. I can now effectively make movies too though work, ad bad weather won’t let me really exploit this potential as yet. I got a lift home again for which I was very grateful given how cold it is now. I got paid my last welfare pay for the period of time out of work today too, right on the eve of receiving my first wages from work, but I have to budget carefully due to heavy taxation by the council, of which more tomorrow. Diary Friday 1st December 2017 Work was very busy, and I was delighted that management never inflicted a finger scan-computer on me today. I got to work pretty well alone and even the extra hour passed quickly. It was after work that the first day of Advent turned ugly. I had to get a new monthly saver ticket for the bus rides as today was the last day of the one I am using now. The bus station is under extensive renovation and highly disrupted with work expected to go on until late 2019. Despite the work turning much of the station into a construction / demolition site, passengers can still use it though bus stops, shop and other facilities keep moving, as do the routes for getting to them. I got off the bus from work to the bus station terminus and tried to find my way to the ticket office, only to find that I had blundered into the seemingly deserted construction site area. I was surrounded by cranes, lorries, and large steel fencing. I quickly backtracked to find that someone had locked the gateway. I wandered round looking for another way out for fifteen minutes, seeing no waring signs, or diversions or mentions of safety equipment. I spotted a construction worker on the other side of the fence and asked him how I get out. He just grinned and told me he didn’t know because it was hi firt day on the job and walked off. Apparently caring one jot, or thinking of telling someone else of my predicament wasn’t part of hi training, possibly until at least day two. Eventually another worker came in the work area and I walked over before he could cloe the gate again. He snapped at me as if I was dumb for being there and tried telling me it was a building ite as if this wa going to be complete news to me. There should have been no way for me or anyone to accidentally access the construction zone. Only authorization or wilful trespass should have got me in there. A lack of privacy warnings, or security made such accidental intrusions inevitable. Already infuriated I found that the ticket office, when I finally got to it, could not deal with bank card payments, but took cash only. This was due to their fibre optic power supply being cut off by the building work. I had to add another twenty minutes to my basic errand to go the bank, get the cash out and go back to the ticket office a second time. Getting home I faced further nonsense. I got a letter from the council demanding to know why I hadn’t already replied to a demand for copies of my wage slips relating to my new job and confirming alterations to my welfare benefits and reminding me that there is still two weeks to go before I meet the deadline they have arbitrarily set for sending them this information. As I already scheduled for today I contacted welfare by phone, being kept on hold for nearly thirty minutes (though relieved that they have now made these calls free rather than charging a fee for them), and requested a letter from them that they should have ent me and which the council is demanding to see urgently. The chap I spoke to was very helpful and assured me that the Council can access the DWP directly and get all the information on my payments there without bugging me at all. I thanked him for the information. I fired off an angry sarcastic letter to the council, attaching an e-mail photo of my wage slips but pointing out that the welfare people have ot yet not created the letter they insist on a copy of from me and that short of the invention of time travel, I will not be able to produce it for a while. I also pointed out that Welfare assure me that the council has direct instant access to the very data it is bullying me into producing for it anyway. Working again tomorrow, hopefully without so much garbage to come home to afterwards. Arthur Chappell