Eimear

Waas very stressed on Thursday (see entry re industrial dispute) so instead of falling home and on to the couch with a take away, I went shopping….Debenhams had a 20 % sale, and my mam gets a further 10 % off with her store card, so I am the proud owner of two lovely casual shirts, one dressy jersey top, and some charcoal grey cords. I love them all :-) I feel rather giddy with the possession of them….have to make sure to wear them now, not keep them hanging up and ‘precious’. Can’t spend a penny for the rest of the month not already budgetted for, but worth it!!

An all out strike in a hospital is a serious business, and I am a union activist, so thousands of things to do. Been getting very stressed and taking way too much upon myself this last week especialy, which all has to be done around the ‘day job’, so don’t remember the last time I had lunch, or coffee break, or left at a decent time.

But for all the members who ‘can’t be bothered’ turning up for an hour picket duty, or want to fight with me about srike pay (which is something entirely out of my control), there are those who understand perfectly what we are about, who are willing to work without pay for the strike committee to cover essential services, who want to stand up and be counted just this one time, and tell our excuse for a government, and the media who have been demonizing public servants systematically over the last few months, that we do a good job, every one of us. We are pround of what we do, we do it well, and we won’t stand by and see our public services ruined by greed, incompitence, mismanagement and lack of imagination, withouth at least one big angry roar!!!

I have dorment accounts with a few euro in them all over the place, and a couple with larger sums, ‘emmergency money’....but they are not earning interest and I need to be more focused. Work out where everything is, close the dormant accounts, take out every cent that is mine, even if there is a huge amount of paperwork involved, and then decide how to make it all work to my best advantage. I need to do repairs to the house, and the rest can go in to a savings account that will earn me interest. If this disaster of a government have their way, I will be another 7% down in my wages next month, so have to make what I have work to my best advantage.