the journey home

Many people who drive home from work every-day and get stuck in traffic will be able to relate to this post.

At around 20 past 5 every weekday, after grinning as I zoom down the dual carriageway, singing the great escape, my mood is ruined as I hit the inevitable rush hour traffic which sees me slowly edging towards a roundabout in my bid to get home.

In the month and a bit I have been doing this I have started to notice certain people around me who also do the same journey from Monday to Friday.

There is the girl in the red car who chews chewing gum, the grumpy faced businessman who despite having a very nice car, seems unable to drive and often gets too excited by gaps in front of him, speeds up too quickly, and then has to brake suddenly.  There is the 30-odd year old man, in the blue car who always smokes and looks very content to just sit in traffic.

And finally, there is a person I hope I never encounter again in rush hour traffic. . . . the man in the silver car. Here is why. . .

Last Friday I was sitting in the car waiting patiently for the traffic to move, when Radio 1 played a song which I like a-lot. So I decided to sing along. But not just sing, oh no dear readers, I was performing - Loudly and dramatically .

Just as I was half way through belting out the first chorus I turned my head to see man in silver car sitting staring at me with his mouth wide open, clearly shocked and surprised by my larger-than-life performance.

Immediately I stopped singing and tried to retain my dignity. I noticed that in his shock, silver car man had missed a massive 2 car space in front of him and thankfully he moved forward. However I then moved forward too and it was a dance, I would get away from this man who I had just completely embarrassed myself in front of then he would be next to me again. It was very upsetting! So finally I got round the round-about and we sped away from each other.

But still the fear remains that he will return and I will be once again singing. . .

Much Love
Fi
xxx

This week at work

So, I had a very interesting week at work this week. I will not bore you with all of the details, but a few amusing things did happen to me.

At the start of the week, I was sent in search of a Scorpion. Yes a scorpion. I am not going to lie I was terrified! Basically, a scorpion had jumped out of a box of fruit at a local shop. When we found the story we did not know when this had happened. So I was terrified. . . armed with my camera I went off in search of the scorpion (I contemplated picking up a stick on the way so I could keep it back). Bravely I entered the shop, and looked around for the creature, I looked up too as I wasn't sure if scorpions could jump - I didn't want it landing on my head! However it soon became clear that the scorpion was long gone. Relieved I returned to the office and hoped that there would be no more creatures crawling around.

I then had to go out and take a photo at a local church, I arrived at the Church to find the main door open and walked into the main body of the church. It was quite dark and surrounded by pews I cautiously headed up the aisle looking for where I wanted to be. Now normally I do not think Churches are scary but there alone, in the dark with only candles, I was a little frightened. In fact I was doing this thing I do where I dictate my own news story in my head when in a bad situation. It went like this:
"A Young journalist was today missing from the Aberdeenshire area. It is believed she left the office at around 11 and was last seen entering an old church..." I had just reached the sob story about how wonderful and talented I was (No need to be modest when you are missing) when I was stopped in my tracks - "Hello," came a voice behind me and I got the fright of my life. "Oh God" I shouted and turned round to be faced with the vicar. Uh oh.

After apologising profusely for using the lords name in vain I found where I was going.

I would just like to point out that normally I really like being in churches, I find them calming and I do not really think they are a likely place for a crime scene. But you never know.

So those are a few of my adventures this week, at least I cant ever say my life is predictable.

I hope that this blog finds you all safe and well.

Kisses

Fi

xxxx

I'm a professional. No really, I am!

Since starting my real job, I have been feeling quite grown-up and have been attempting to act all professional and like I know what I am doing.

Sadly however, the power of thought seems unable to overcome my clumsiness and general lack of ability at life and as a result I have had some truly whopping moments so far.

One of these moments came in my second week working as a reporter, I was returning from being out at a story but I could not get the office door open (In my defence it is quite stiff) a man at reception had to come and open the door for me and said, "have you never opened a door before?"
He then asked "If you are here with a story for the paper just let the receptionist know and she will get you a journalist" He clearly assumed I had never been in the building before because well, lets face it, I was defeated by a door. So I told him, "Erm actually I am one of the reporters" and decided to scuttle upstairs and hide under my desk, however fate was against me and what I did instead was walk into the pull door and almost fall over. This is the first event which ruined my ability to look professional.

The next event happened, once again on a job where I was getting in my car to leave the job and I stalled twice and then reversed instead of going forward, this would have been fine had the people I was photographing not decided to come up to the car and give me a cheery good-bye.

Then whilst out on a story, I triumphantly pulled out my notepad, ready to get my shorthand on, I looked all impressive and ready for action when I noticed. hanging out the back of my notepad an empty crunchie packet...

As well as having general issues functioning on day to day events I have also had some problems with the phones. Now the call transfer system is confusing and I transferred one guy back to myself three times before hanging up on him (If you are reading this I AM SO SORRY!)
But as well as the technology letting me down my complete inability to speak sense has also proved an issue with me leaving one poor man three numbers on his answering machine, with apologies in between as I got them wrong, and then afterwards I realised that actually NONE of the three combinations were right.

Then I have another issue, giving out my email address, people always double check the letters and you know when you go yes that is a for alpha for example, well I always come up with the most ridiculous examples and I said to someone the other day yes that is p for philharmonic, they must have thought what a twat.

But apart from this things are going swimmingly well.

Kisses

Fi

xxxxxx