Jay, Pennywise and the Dark Satanic Mill

Jay's been off work for a while; he's had surgery on his foot. I've got his mobile number so we keep in touch occasionally by text while he was off. He came back to work on Thursday and called me over while I was on my way to the brown water machine. I asked him, as I have asked countless times before, if he has heard about his disciplinary. He answered in the same repetitive manner that he hasn't. I have looked on the Internet to see if there is any time limit for an employer to take action after a disciplinary but, as far as I can see, there is none.

Pennywise came into work yesterday for a meeting with Human Resources. While he was in the office, he chatted to Jessica and our managers and finally to Jackie. He did not even look at me. I'm not sure why. Maybe he's been reading this blog.

I may have explained that Pennywise is a born again Christian and so is Jackie. He had brought in a couple of books that he found interesting and was discussing them with Jackie. I was talking to Gary and one of the Gay Gordons at the time. Gordon was especially annoyed because Pennywise is still off sick and has been signed off for at least one more month and possibly two and was now in the office distracting various jesters from their work. While we were talking/slagging Pennywise off, Goodwill Josie came over to join us. She said "He's got his holy books with him. One of them's called How to Walk on Water. They're going on about how great they are. It's sickening."

I find it disturbing, myself. I've never really been able to trust born again Christians. They always want to convert me to their mad religion. Give me empirical proof that God exists and I might start to believe but I can't guarantee that I will believe in Jehovah. I'm more likely to go for a pantheon. I've always been an exponent of the view "Jack of all trades; Master of none."

Pennywise left after his discussion with Jackie. He had been in the Mill for 2½ hours. Add that to the 2½ days he has worked since 20th April and it really doesn't amount to much. He told Jessica that he's being treated for depression. He also said that his doctor told him that depression tends to affect highly intelligent people. I'm sure it does, I suffer from it myself (and still come into work every day) but I'm absolutely sure that suffering from depression does not automatically mean you're highly intelligent. Well, not unless you're called Jester, anyway.

Read and Weep Part 2

I posted yesterday's blog in the short time I had before leaving for work and I don't think I did my subject full justice.

I said that in nearly 21 years of being a copper, my husband has sustained no more than a few bruises. That is not strictly true. He can boast no more than a few bruises in terms of physical injury and I think he is lucky in that respect but police work has taken a more insidious toll on him.

21 years of those shifts for instance. He's now on a 5 week rota - Okay, I did my best but I was not able to put it on this blog in a legible form so I've given up. It's nights followed by earlies, followed by nights, followed by afternoons followed by, you guessed it, nights.

I never know whether he's coming or going so how on earth can he know? His body clock is messed up, his digestion is shot to pieces, he can't sleep - his body no longer knows when it's supposed to sleep.

He is now suffering from high blood pressure. Okay, I know the smoking and drinking (I wonder how many policemen have a drink problem?) and his weight don't help but I think those are also attributable to the pressures that he is put under every day.

Lastly, the depression. He probably won't thank me for mentioning it but I don't think he reads my blogs. Okay, he's never been a particularly happy go lucky sort of a man. I was attracted to his intensity when I first knew him and also a little alarmed at what I thought was his nihilism but this has got worse and significantly so since being in the job.

PC Copperfield and Inspector Gadget will explain far better than me the idiotic procedures, the bosses from hell, the bureaucracy, the idiotic members of the public a policeman encounters in the job. All I can say is my husband finds it all very depressing and his job satisfaction has to be nil or very close to it.

One thing I will say though is that he has worked with some of the most amazing people over the years. I've been privileged to meet a few of them and for a while they had a fantastic team working together from their particular Nick. Of course a forward thinking and energetic Chief Inspector or something similar decided to split them up over the Division a couple of years ago. Bloody typical.