Strike? No I’ll go shopping instead

Yesterday was the day of the public sector strikes.

I have mixed emotions about striking.  On the one hand you have the medical sector , emergency services, police, all of these professions do an amazing and often thankless job.

Although, as someone pointed out to me, those jobs are also a vocation, a want to help the public as well as a need for a job, I do believe that they deserve good pay, a good pension etc.

The people I have the problem with are the teachers who strike, the admin staff of the medical profession and also admin from various other public sectors, such as the Court Service.

Teaching is also a vocation, but one with good pay, a pension, job security and 13 weeks holiday a year.  I fail to see what they have to complain about.  Teachers can and do argue that that amount of holiday time isn’t a fair reflection given that they have to do lesson plans, marking etc over some points during that time.

Taking away the usual 4 weeks holidays that you would get, that leaves 9 weeks.  On the generous side of allowing 3 weeks to do the extra work, which on the average day of 9-5 equates to 120 hours, that still leaves 6 weeks of paid additional holidays to everyone else.

That is the way the school year works, I understand that, but you must appreciate that to a private sector worker like myself, seeing someone with so many good things about their job complaining and striking is irritating.  In these current times you are lucky to have a job and moaning about a tax payers paid for pension amount, which is more than the state pension the private sector gets, does not carry any favour.

My sister is a teacher, I say at this point, but I believe in what I say and am not going to not write about it because I am related to one.  She did not strike although don’t actually know what her views are on the subject.  If she reads this blog, I guess I will find out!

Even more than the teachers who strike, the people who make me the most angry are the administration staff that strike.  Teachers are at least contributing to society, teaching and educating and helping to improve lives, administration staff do none of those things.

Admin staff are just that, admin.  Part of my duties are in an administration capacity in my firm, but I wouldn’t dream of taking strike action.  Why?  Because I think myself lucky to have a job in the first place.

The last time there was a strike, I had to go up to the local Court on work related business.  When I got to the front doors I was told that I could not enter, that I would be crossing a picket line, and that the Court were on strike. 

Three members of staff that day, unbeknown to each other at that time, went up to the Court that day.  There were no people outside striking, no “picket line” to cross.  The admin staff just hadn’t shown up, probably used the day to go shopping.  If you are on strike, be there, show why you are on strike, don’t go shopping.

Incidentally, most of the large towns and cities yesterday were uncharacteristically packed with shoppers Christmas buying with their children in tow and I’m willing to bet that most of them should have been on the picket line.

So that’s the end of my little rant.  Understand some strikers, disagree with others and loathe the rest. 

Bouncy, Bouncy

So, genies. You know, the whole genie in a bottle and the three wishes deal. What would you wish for?

Genies came into my mind whilst on hold for 45 minutes to an insurance company this week. So along with charging me an exhorbitant amount, they also appear to have sent me slightly mad. Daydreaming for 45 minutes apparently sends my mind to weird places.

Anyway, genies.

In the unlikely event that you ever find a genie in a bottle, what is the perfect wish?

I went through all the usual options, being rich, which doesn't guarantee you are going to be happy, love which can bring you pain, expensive possessions which in the end, are just possessions, a fast car, which I would probably end up killing myself in......

In the end, I decided what I would wish for. Which is exactly the same thing I wanted when I was six years old. A bouncy castle. Because in the end, if you have something in your life that can instantly make you smile and laugh, what is better than that?

Daydream ends and I am still on hold, but now with a hankering to go on a bouncy castle.

Knee Replacements –From the Sidelines

As someone who has been on the side, watching my mum over the years having four different knee replacements, and now with my step dad currently in hospital having one, I have had a good insight into what happens, and the dos and don’t.

Obviously I’m not a consultant, I’m not in the medical field at all.  So this post is purely from experiences my mum has had, with me at her side, seeing how it works, what to expect, what preparation you should do. 

The first thing I would say is wait as long as you can before having the operation.  A knee replacement on average lasts about ten years, depending on whether you are having a partial or a full replacement.  So it stands to reason, the younger you are, the more operations you will end up having. 

The most important thing I would say is to research your consultants.  In England you can have a say in who does your operation.  Don’t automatically go for the person they give you.

My mum’s first consultant, although the operation went well, was a horrible man.  He barely came to see her, she was left in terrible pain for hours and she was released before she really should have been.  With a different knee replacement the surgeon broke a bone in her leg, which can happen with these operations I know.  However, he didn’t tell her that it had happened and it was only upon seeing a different consultant some weeks later that she found out the problem.

After that we researched the consultants and she now has a brilliant surgeon, who cares about his patients, looks after them well and she has had good experiences since. 

After 20 years of having Osteoarthritis, she can now even do a little run.  But she is awesome, my mum.

You get out of a knee replacement just what you put into it.  Once the operation is done, the physiotherapy starts the very next day.  The more you do, the more you try, the better it gets and the work pays off.


What isn’t always expected, is how long it actually takes to get back to normal, without crutches.  Each time she has the operation my mum forgets how long it took to recover from the last one, and she is still surprised every time. 


In the end, you recover at your own pace, depending on how hard you try,  but usually 3 months (ish) is the usual time.


So there we go, a (very much) edited version of knee replacements and the things you can expect.  The full version would have been at least a three normal blog post, but that would get boring.   Hopefully you are not bored already!