Friday Catch Up

Happy Friday all!  Ahh there is nothing that I relish more than coming home on Friday evening and completely chilling out knowing that I don't have to go to the dark and gloomy place tomorrow.   I had an invitation to a bonfire evening tonight but to be honest, I've been happy just being home and warm and cosy.  Rock and Roll that's me!!

Another of my chickens is poorly.  We found her this evening still out in the pen sitting in one of the holes they'd dug during the day.  This is unheard of as they put themselves to bed at dusk with amazing regularity and we lock the coop up later on when we also feed the cats.   We've put her into the coop but she wasn't moving much and didn't really acknowledge us.  My guess (and hope for her sake) is that she will have quietly slipped away by morning but if not then it will be a trip to the vets I reckon where I shall pay the princely sum of £29 for her to be humanely put to sleep.  

I'm now wondering whether they've picked up a virus as this is the second one to go downhill in two weeks. The vet said that it was simply old age with the last one (Betty) and that it was cataracts which had made her go blind. The vet kept chickens herself and so I trusted her judgment.   I'm now a bit suspicious of something more viral unless it's just coincidence.  My poor chucklets :(  They been a complete joy and I shall miss them so much.  I don't like the thought of just having the one on her own and will definitely get more but not until the new year now.  The garden is becoming a rather overcrowded pet cemetery.

ANY-ways....  Work is a barmy as ever.  We're undergoing restructure and regrouping in our department after a mammoth effort and billing frenzy for our year end.  This resulted in a bonus pool of £100,000 being made available to all 175 staff.  Amazing eh?!  That should be (tap tap tap).....oohhhh.... around £571 pre-tax each! YAYYYY!!!     Except it's not.  It's pro-rata'd on salary.  So, for example, people on £40k per year come out of it with around £800 pre-stoppages and those of us on a lower salary will receive a  rather more modest average of £300 pre-stoppages.

To receive even a few quid extra in one's pay packet in this current climate of recession, redundancies and gloom and doom is incredible and the company should of course be lauded for it.  I'm truly grateful for any monetary gift which may come my way.  The money I will receive will certainly help out, particularly with Christmas this year as I was beginning to think that we may have to cancel it!   A little anarchic part of me however can't help questioning the fairness of the bonus division.  We all work bloody hard and the firm are always banging on about a being a fair and inclusive employer, so why differentiate on the amount of a bonus paid?  Word at the photocopier (!) reveals that a good many of my colleagues think the same.  When news of the bonus scheme was launched (amid great build up and Hollywood style in-house promo!), everyone's head was up and there was great excitement - until the time that the screen showed how it was to be calculated and giving an example of "if you earn £20,000 THIS is what you could get!".  Half of those excited heads dropped immediately because they're on nowhere near that salary and so the example meant nothing to them.

Now please don't think that I'm an ungrateful wretch!  The extra really will help our family.  I'm just making a little observation here!   My Dad had a delightful saying if ever anyone showed any sign of ungratefulness which went along the lines of  "you'd moan if your arse was stuffed full of five pound notes!"

(With an arse the size of mine though I would have NO cause to moan if that were the case I can assure you - it would probably amount to more than my bonus payment!)  

Have a great weekend!