Dizzy Dee

Have you ever had to deal with Accident Claims at work?  While I was in England, working in a vegetable & salad factory, I cut my finger whilst trying to prep lettuce… It was a disaster. We worked on a production line, and when the supervisor saw my blood all over the place she was close to hysterical. LOL

She yelled at everyone to stop working, in the typical high pitched voice with British accent which I’d come to know so well, and even become fond of.  The panic stricken staff all put down their knives obediently, then stood at least a meter away from the line, which was already stopped after the supervisor had hit the emergency stop button.  Most of the staff being Iraqi or Indian, and not always understanding the Brits so easily, they didn’t quite know what had happened, but they knew there was blood, and that the supevisor was yelling - not a good combination.  The supervisor was an over weight woman, that somewhat resembled a man, as she had a beard (unshaved), and every now and again you could see her mustache surfacing (she shaved that).  People were scared of her really.  Petrified might be a better way to describe this.

Luckily I worked on the line with a lot of friends, one of who was nice enough to escort me to the first aid room. He had to support me while walking though, as I felt a little faint - I can’t handle the site of blood My boyfriend walked about 100 meters from us while we were on our way to the first aid room, and though we waved at him, he just waved back. LOL. I wonder why it never occurred to him that something strange was going on, since I was walking whilst literally hanging on to another guy. LOL. I guess he really must have trusted me?

I’m terribly scared of getting stitches, but when I got to the first aid room, they said I needed to go to the hospital. STITCHES. I was so panicky, but eventually agreed to go. Good thing they only gave me sterri-strips instead, but I had to brave myself for a tetanus injection.

Accidents at work happen so quickly. I never planned to cut myself, promise. I was however booked off for 2 weeks (for cutting my finger?), and I got compensated by the factory, firstly for injury at work, and then I still got my salary.

In South Africa I don’t think it works like that. You’d need to have yourself insured specifically for something like that. If you’ve had an accident at work, and you weren’t insured for it, you can always turn to KeyPoint legal services, as they special in helping people claim for accidents like these.

1. I can see your point, but I still think you’re full of shit.
2. I have plenty of talent and vision. I just don’t give a damn.
3. How about “never”? Is “never” good for you?
4. It sounds like English, but I can’t understand a word you’re saying.
5. I see you’ve set aside this special time to humiliate yourself in public.
6. Ah, I see the f***-up fairy has visited us again.
7. You are validating my inherent mistrust of strangers.
8. I’m already visualizing the duct tape over your mouth.
9. The fact that no one understands you doesn’t mean you’re an artist.
10. Someday, we’ll look back on this, laugh nervously and change the subject.
11. I will always cherish the initial misconceptions I had about you.
12. I don’t know what your problem is, but I’ll bet it’s hard to pronounce.
13. Any connection between your reality and mine is purely coincidental.
14. I like you. You remind me of when I was young and stupid.
15. What am I? Flypaper for freaks!?
16. I’m not being rude. You’re just insignificant.
17. Thank you. We’re all refreshed and challenged by your unique point of view.
18. It’s a thankless job, but I’ve got a lot of Karma to burn off.
19. Yes, I am an agent of Satan, but my duties are largely ceremonial.
20. No, my powers can only be used for good.
21. I’m really easy to get along with once people learn to worship me.
22. You sound reasonable…time to up my medication.
23. I’ll try being nicer if you’ll try being smarter.
24. I’m out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message.
25. I don’t work here. I’m a consultant.
26. Who me? I just wander from room to room.
27. My toys! My toys! I can’t do this job without my toys!

Its close to impossible to work these days. For me, because we create software, and that is usually done on computers, which usually need power to function.

The power was off everyday last week for about 4hrs each day. This week it might be off again, but now we have a generator. I doubt if it will work flawlessly though - we also thought we had a UPS that would work for 70hr straight, powering all the PC’s in the office. It ended up dying about 1.5 seconds are the power cut, giving us enough time to realize that it had kicked in, but was not worth much.

Today though I’m glad for the power cut. Its cold here, and still the aircon is on!? I suppose I get cold too easily, but I’m wearing warm clothes! Still the aircon is set on 18. As soon as the power goes out, we’ll only have the ‘red plugs’ on the generator, meaning the aircon won’t work - yay!

I’m a selfish person when it gets to things like this, but you have no idea how miserable I become if I’m uncomforatble.

Right now, I just wish I could’ve slept more. You might feel like I’m totally random today, but that’s just the way my brain is functioning. I didn’t have much sleep, and the little that I had was interrupted by the neighbours’ cat sneaking around in my room. I didn’t mind the cat so much, as the though of ’someone’ being in my room. I heard a bit of a noise at first, but saw nothing. Then another noise, and there I saw something move. I was terrified and probably a bit flustered from the sleep as well. Eventually when I couldn’t find the cat inside the house, I assumed it had gone out through the door which I had opened for it. Then finally I went back to sleep.

5am today my alarm started going off - I have no idea why though. I usually get up at 5.20am (and those precious 20 minutes help alot!)

This morning when I got to work the front door was unable to open - due to the power failures our magnetic lock hadn’t had a chance to charge properly, and the batteries ran out. That meant that I spent an hour waiting outside till someone was able to open the door.

Now, I’m just tired and grumpy. I might come back later when I’m a bit more cheerful.

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Where did you want to be, and where are you? I asked myself that question this morning.

When I was young I imagined that I would be an air-hostess. Somehow that occupation captures the hearts of many young girls, and it seems strangely glamorous. Though in my opinion its nothing more than a waitress really. I understand that these ladies (and sometime men - *cringe*) get to travel all their hearts can desire. But still. There’s no challenge in bringing people food and drink on each and every flight?! Only waiting for someone to complain about the turbulence, the food, the drink, or maybe even your attitude!? That seems really frustrating from my point of view. So at least I’m glad (so far) that I haven’t followed that path.

Anyway. As you might or might not know. I’m working in the Quality Assurance department of a company that creates online gambling software. In other words, I get to test poker all day long.

Well, not really. But that’s what most people figure when I tell them what I do.

I would NEVER have imagined that I would end up here though. I’ve heard some kids, saying how they would love to test Need for Speed, and what not. And even some adults who have insinuated that I have it really easy, and how they could only dream of such a job. But I haven’t heard anyone’s ambitions being to test poker. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not complaining. But its just not the typical job that gets discussed in class when a teacher asks what her pupils would like to be ‘when they grow up’.

So tell me about your occupations - or if they’re just jobs. Are you what you envisioned yourself to be when you were 7? Would you make the same decisions you did, and end up exactly in the job you are now? Some of these questions I don’t even know the answers of, and I suppose they might need some thinking…

1. Project Manager is a Person who thinks nine women can deliver a baby in one month.

2. Developer is a Person who thinks it will take 18 months to deliver a baby.

3. Onsite Coordinator is one who thinks single woman can deliver nine babies in one month.

4. Client is the one who doesn’t know why he wants a baby.

5. Marketing Manager is a person who thinks he can deliver a baby even if no man and woman are available.

6. Resource Optimization Team thinks they don’t need a man or woman; they’ll produce a child with zero resources.

7. Documentation Team thinks they don’t care whether the child is delivered, they’ll just document 9 months.

8. Quality Auditor is the person who is never happy with the PROCESS to produce a baby.

9. Tester is a person who always tells his wife that this is not the right baby

10. Team Lead is a person actually knows how many men and women required to deliver the baby , but will not tell anyone

Often I have felt that it is extremely unfair for people who smoke. They get to have smoke breaks all the time, while non-smokers have to work. It might seem a bit strange for a non-smoker to stand on the balcony just for the fun of it, but if its a smoker, its OK.

I suppose its better that way, and I really wouldn’t want them smoking inside, but it would be nice to be able to have a break every now and then, but then people can call you inside any time. However if they see that you’re smoking, they understand immediately that you NEED YOUR BREAK. Suddenly they find nothing wrong with it that you spend so much more time doing nothing that the rest of us.

To get a bit technical, suppose a smoker smokes 6 cigarettes a day (at work) - which I have found to be average for the people I know? Help me right if I’m wrong - they would typically spend 7 minutes outside for the whole little procedure (5minutes is just too short, and 10 too long). That would mean that smokers have 42 minutes which they spend, tending to their dirty little habit - while the rest of us are working!

I’m not jealous of smoking though, and I suppose they do need their perks too - besides, they will live shorter than the rest of us, so maybe I just need to understand too. And let them have their little breaks. While they can still enjoy it

Hey!!! I missed women’s day - so sorry!!! To all the women reading here, happy belated women’s day. LOL. I had the public holiday and all, but never realized that it was actually WOMEN’S DAY. Was that only in South Africa though? I think so? I’m a bit out of sync with the dates and all - I even missed a friend’s birthday!!! Work is going well. Different, but I’m kind of adjusting. Or it feels that way in anycase.
I really feel like going away for a weekend though. It would be so nice to just relax… *sigh*

So I am finally able to tell you why things are going up and down. The company that I work(ed) for was liquidated today. Its all still a bit unreal, but yes, I’m without a job as I’m sitting here. I have already lined up some interviews with recruitment agents, and someone I know has also offered me a job.I never thought it would come to this. I thought that these were the type of things you could see far ahead, and then still have time to search for another job, and all. Aparantly not. It hits like a Tsunami; hard and unexpected.

I’m OK though. I believe that the right opportunity will come along, and that it will work out for me. If I’m a bit absent from here, you know that I’m either at an interview or submitting my CV.

Its cold, cloudy, and WINTER. Since last night I’ve been missing England a lot. I was there for almost a year during 2003. If I had a choice I’d go back now. Not just on a 2 year visa though - It’d have to be permanent. Its very disruptive to pack up and go there, only to come back again, and then try to find your feet.

What I liked about it so much? Everything. If I had a decent job this time round I’d definitely enjoy it more too, but the job wasn’t bad. I worked in a factory, and the money was OK. The hours sucked. 6am - 12pm, sometimes till 4pm - and over weekends 4am - 2pm.

Now I have a comfortable 8:30am - 5pm office job. Nice and cozy, plus I don’t work with people so much. However, in a factory you don’t always realize how clever people are. It doesn’t take much brains to chop cucumbers, as opposed to my current job, where everyone is expected to think for him / herself. Not that they do, which makes it so frustrating at times.

I was talking to someone the other day about simple jobs. If the money is good, why not? People who do simple jobs, like chop cucumbers, don’t have stress. They wake up each morning knowing what is expected of them. As long as they wash their hands and don’t eat the veggies, they should keep management happy. If they work over time, its optional, and they get paid well for it. It really is a simple life.

You might say that these people don’t have dreams and ambitions, which might very well be true, but for myself, I have more than enough dreams and ambitions that are not work related. If I had more time to follow those dreams, I would definitely do so.

The older people who I worked with in the factory were really nice people. They were warm and friendly, and most of all content. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that a simple job will give make you content. But I am saying that an important position at a big company with millions of rands will not make you content. It is what is inside of you that counts. And with a simple job one has more time and energy to spend on the important things.

I believe it is important to set goals for yourself in different areas of your life: not only work. Personal goals might score a bit higher with me even. These are the goals which we set voluntary - things that are close to our hearts. Usually the sort of things that ‘really matter’.