No TV, Just Life: Difficulties at work

Busy night for our pregnant cat, but still no kittens. Just waking me up every now and then to get attention. She is now developing a preference of burrowing under the duvet. And she prefers to stay inside again today, thank you very much. My mind is more at ease, knowing she’s safely indoors while I’m at work, as well. She’s got food, milk, and a place to safely give birth, should the time come. Not that I know, yet, which place she’ll pick.

Going past my flower bed I see there is indeed another new flower open, deep blue with a yellow centre – will have to take some photos tonight! And there are more Iris’ about to open – two yellow and another blue and yellow one. And the Nasturtiums are blooming like crazy!

Well, at work, the leave-it-pile has reared up a bite – and the same person, who insisted I don’t touch any of it showed his backbone. It’s made of jelly. Because when someone insisted I do something NOW, I referred him to the decision-maker ... who then told me to do what is needed now. Then had the gall to state that I should be flexible! Ha Ha! So much for your management skill! So, I have no real choice but to turn to the pile and pick ALL the urgent items and address them – the deadline will have to wait. You can’t take the authority to instruct me to leave things to pile up, if you won’t take the responsibility of dealing with the consequences of your decision!

When our site manager got back, I told him of the situation – just let him know. Our electrician took exception to that and told me off for being a whiny woman in a men’s environment. At that point it just upset me, but later I realised he’s quite wrong: It’s nothing to do with male-female, its one subcontractor being given work by a host of employers with nobody taking any responsibility for separating the possible from the impossible. Funnily enough, the same electrician gets just as upset when subcontractors behave like they are employers. Anyway – he later gave me some good advice: Do one thing at a time, and if they try pressure offer to do less.

At the same time I also have to deal with some engineer with an attitude who orders me to do things, he assumes to be my duty. Things every adult on site does for themselves – but to him, such things are beneath him. He never, ever asks a question – always works on his assumptions and expects the world around to fit into his design. He’s butting heads with a few people on site, not just me. But he’s very stubborn, I’m afraid.

Funniest thing, though: He’s gone ‘native’ to the extent that on hot days he’ll put a pair of boxers on his head to keep cool! Like some of the workers use what looks like a trouser-leg instead of a cap. I’ve come across the expression in a lot of literature, as in wearing your pants on your head is a definite sign of insanity – but I never, ever, not even in my wildest dreams imagined I would one day see someone actually doing that! And not as a joke! At first I thought it was a beanie (he wears those, too) but there were two legs hanging one on either side! I couldn’t make this stuff up!

Back home I was surprised to see Silver coming running towards me! Independent little mite, isn’t she? I have no clue how she got out – she must have gone out the bedroom window? I’m glad she’s independent, but I do worry about her jumping such heights in her current state. I mean, it’s not like I locked her in with a trick – I did stay in the door asking her to come out, but she ignored me. Well, she’s staying pretty much by my side, has done since I got home.

I went into the garden to take some photos, then ended up trying to clear out the Nasturtiums in my vegetable patch. What a conundrum! You know those mazes for kids, where there’s lines criss-crossing and you have to pick which one goes from A to B? Well, trying to find where the yellow leaf connects to the stem of a Nasturtium is pretty much like that! Especially the one on the far right, which has literally tumbled over and over in the wind – it looks like a knotted bundle of wool! Nasturtiums single-mindedly turn their leaves towards the sun – they keep stretching and will twist and turn to get to the sunlight. Some of those big leaves have incredibly twisted and turned stems. I spent about an hour trying to clear that bundle – it looks like tumbleweed!

All the while Silver was lying on the grass not far from me. When I finally called it quits and went upstairs, she stayed on the grass. But when I stepped inside the kitchen – she was right by my side, again! Pan Tau Magic!

I didn’t take any photos of the Nasturtium knots, but I did take quite a few of new flowers.