Mugged...

 

Have any of you noticed that at certain petrol stations you can not get the amount of petrol you want?

Now I am not talking about how in some of the more "seedy" eastern European countries you have to queue for 3 days for  a cup petrol and then sell them a kidney.
 No its craftier than that,
 Our local Sainsbury is huge, no no it is properly mahoosive. Its about 3 acres inside and not only that it has a Marks and Spencer attatched that is of a similar size. Its location on the M25 junction 22 gives it prime location not just for destination shoppers but as a service  stop for passing motorists. On a weekend the place is so busy that you queue 20 mins to get in and out of the site, its open 24 hours a day and only closed last year on Christmas and Boxing Day. It is the modern day embodiment of the goddess Artemis..

Come all you hungry and suckle at my many titiies!

There is nothing wrong with success as it is obviously doing very well ....BUT, what I can not abide is the  sneaky greedy ways they have of screwing that extra penny out of me.

 Every time now for the past few months when I fill up at the petrol station I always aim to get £30.00 of fuel, I find this lasts about a week and is generally what most average users buy. So how is it, and its not just me others have started to notice too, that when you fill up to £29.99 the digital counter reads in increments of 1p but all of a sudden SKIPS £30.00 to £30.01. It is IMPOSSIBLE to dispense £30.00, the machine just wont allow it, believe me I have made it a mission to get £30.00 but it just wont have it. 

 There are 30 pumps, busy from morning till night and if each one is doing this, adding a sneaky penny to a bill then...

 At an average rate of 20 customers an hour each pump would make 20p x that by 24 hours and each punp would make £4.80 per day.  X that by 30 pumps thats £144.00 per day... X that by a month £4320.00.... X that by 12 months and all of a sudden our added extra pennies becomes £51,840.00 a year.

 From ONE petrol station!!!!! 

That would be enough to employ some one who actually spoke English, could afford deodorant and knew how to work the till, yet alas no.

How many other of Sainsbury's petrol stations are doing this, who knows? 

But what I do know is that it is wrong.....

..AND I WANT MY PENNY BACK!!!

So yeah right, Where was I...

 So after a somewhat protracted absence on this here blog I am once again the returning hero. Just like in the old westerns when the gun slinger leaves town under  a cloud, accused of cowardice, only to return all guns blazing and shooting up the place....

Well Hang on to your hats buddy cos PIOW PIOW PIOOWWW!!

So where you been? What you been doin? I here one person ask(thanks its nice to be missed)..

• Being not very well a lot, but much better now.
• Trying to look after 3 kids a home and remain sane as wife goes out to work full time.
• Exams.
• Working for the most difficult customer in the world. 
• Putting on weight.

  Not very exciting I know, but it has given me time to think and refocus on what I  need to do and what I want to do. Some times that loosing control of your life, the inability to do what you want when you want, is a break to the routine we settle into and find almost impossible to get out of.

 As you will have read here I started feeling un well a while ago and as the coughing got worse and the treatment got less and less affective and people started to ask if I was "all-right?", I began to worry a bit. After seeing a consultant I was run through some tests, a CTscan, x-rays, bronchoscopy and lung function tests. Now during this time I lost 2 1/2 stone (40lb apx), and not being heavy this showed quite alarmingly. I was also coughing in spasm until vomiting(sorry) several times a day and was unable to walk a flight of stairs without having to rest part way up. Worrying times all round, my family were concerned, my friends were concerned even the doctors were concerned..... I received a call from my G.P who said I needed to make an urgent appointment with her as some of my test results had come back and they needed to go through the findings. Now I was really concerned, only a couple days earlier a friend of mine had had a similar call from her G.P and she was informed she had breast cancer. At the appointment he G.P showed me a chest X-ray  that showed lots of grey dots over 3/4 of both lungs, "not good" was her words. A CT scan showed similar nodules covering half of both lungs and lots of fluid, according to her I was functioning on 1/3 lung function. Then she said that without the full set of results and particularly the biopsy results that she couldn't make a definite diagnosis but she was concerned that this was something serious. OH CRAP!! worst case scenario runs through my mind.    "What are we talking Doc, weeks, months...?"  She then chases the other results only to be informed that as she was not the doctor to order the tests she can not have access to the results until the consultant has seen them first and passes them down the chain of command to her. So a wait of a week before I get to see the consultant all the while living each day as though it could be my last. When i get to see him he breezes in all cheery and says that all my tests are back and there's good news and bad news... "yes, yes get on with it!!".. the good news is its NOT CANCER!!!! the bad news.... I didn't really hear much past that. I had been expecting the worst, I was prepared to hear it, I had come to terms with it and now here I was being told not to worry everything was going to be all right. I haven't cried for many years but I am not too proud to say I shed a tear sat there in his office. 

" The bad new is"...."you have a condition that presents itself with all the symptoms of lung cancer" ahhh ok. not so good then..."But is something that we can treat and in some cases we can reduce the symptoms to such a degree that all you will notice is sometimes a shortness of breath and will need an inhaler"...

 It turns out that I have Sarcoidosis, after putting me on a very strong course of steroids and various other drugs to combat some of the side effects I am now feeling much better. I have beeen   on these for a month and in that time I have stopped coughing, am able to function reasonably normal and can walk stairs without having to stop or chuck up. I have done a bit of research and am aware that it is a condition that varies in its effects according to how your body is dealing with it on a day to day basis, as with all auto immune conditions its a case of managing rather than curing. So with a good system of control, healthy diet, exercise and lots of tablets I should be fine.

 What I have discovered is that if I go to bed before 10:30pm I sleep for an hour and am then awake until going to bed the next night only to get another hours sleep and being up all night again. So as a means of getting me through the night  I will no doubt be churning out lots more drivel over the next few months at god forsaken hours. In the past 72 hours I have had three and a half hours sleep, I feel fine but my temper is shorter than Gary Colman.

What the F@*K you talkin bout Willis!!

I even found a forum for people who discuss weather presenters on local tv stations in the Uk and they were complaining that they were not qualified meteorologists..... Yes some harsh comments were left on that forum baby!   Trolling is the new Hobby.