The Grim Reaper's in for his his interview now!............

Afternoon All,

It's a beautiful afternoon here - can we at last believe that spring isn't too far away now? I hope so - I know that I say the same thing each year but this winter does seem to have dragged on and on.

Haven't been around for a while - when retired people say that they don't know how they found time to go to work, I now know what they mean - life's been busy and hectic around here for the last few weeks. My DIL has returned to work so we now have our Grandchildren for one day each week. the new allotment and the garden have all been taking up our time too.

Plus I have been busy learning how to crochet new stitches and making crocheted baskets etc., ........all these tasks though are so much nicer to undertake now without the pressure of working 5 days a week and doing the commute - I'm still at the stage where I think that I am so lucky to be finished and able to stay at home.

I talked last time about working on customer service in housing and the people I'd come across - I was on front desk one day and a young gentleman came in and said that he wanted to register for housing, I said fine that I'd need to book him in for an interview and asked for his surname - he replied 'Reaper' which I wrote down and then asked for his first name and he said 'Grim' - my head shot up and I said Grim Reaper? he said yes I changed my name by deed poll! I looked at him and yes it all fell together - he was a goth so his name suited his appearance.

So I can say that I've interviewed the Grim Reaper and lived to tell the tale!

After customer service I moved on to dealing with anti-social behaviour - it was a difficult and hard role to undertake - ASB officers earn well above the national average and earn every penny of it. Nowadays they don't just go into areas and properties where filth, druggies, pushers, organised crime are rife but now into areas that are classed as high alert areas for terrorism.  I did 4 years in this role, in a low income, run down area before I was able to get out and move onto something else and I hated it.

It was about this time when I got into reading blogs - I used to come home and read blogs written by ladies who stayed at home and crafted and had no idea of the sort of world that I had to deal with each day. Reading those blogs helped keep me sane!!

In ASB you'd have customers come in who wanted to complain about their neighbours - you'd get the pathetic ones come in - we used to have one lady (she always wore last nights tea down her jumper)  who'd lived in her house for 30 years and had always had an old lady living next door to her - the old lady had passed away and we'd moved a young family in who had a young baby and a 4 year old son and she came in a number of times to complain because the 4 year old had made a noise going up to bed and then she'd sit there sobbing because a 4 year old had made a noise!

We investigated but it was just a 4 year old being a 4 year old. On the third interview just as she started to blubber again about this 4 year old I said to her 'Look - cut the tears - they have no effect on this situation, all you're doing is making yourself feel ill  - he is a 4 year old and 4 year olds make a noise sometimes - if you're not happy with having this little chap living next door to you then you can either register to move and give up that house to a family and move into a 2 bed low rise flat or give us notice and go and live somewhere else'.  She declined the offer of registering to move and learnt to live with little chap next door.

Then you have really nice decent customers come in whose lives are being wrecked by a low life family that we've housed next door to them and my heart used to go out to these people. We used to have a really nice lady come into us - she lived alone with her daughter and we had put a right family in next door to her - this family lived their lives in the front garden - they drank in the front garden, they argued in the front garden, they had sex in the front garden, they disciplined their offspring in the front garden and both of them had gobs on them like the Mersey Tunnel, so everyone round there heard what they were doing. This nice customer just wanted to bring her daughter up in peace with out her child being subjected to this awful behaviour on a daily basis.

I'd interviewed them a couple of times, and they'd sit there and say all pathetically in a whining voice 'Oh, we didn't realise we were making a noise' and I used to think you didn't realise that you were making a noise with your big gobs! But I'd had no effect on their behaviour and they'd just carried on so this time I called them and then left them to sit and wait for me in the reception area for half an hour and then when I went into see them I told them that I'd received more complaints about their behaviour and the whining voices started off again but I stopped them dead and said ' Not interested! while you've been sitting in reception I've had 4 covert cameras put up and there all trained on your front garden - you as much as breath in that front garden and I'll have it all on tape, which I shall use to serve you with a notice and then go for your eviction -  So you as much as breath in that front garden and you may as well start packing your belongings!

 I hadn't had any cameras put up - but they didn't know that - it went quiet after that - sometimes you had to go down 'different'  avenues to get results! I moved office about 2 months later and we hadn't had any further complaints in that 2 months. I wonder how long it took them to revert back to their normal behaviour, because people like that just can't  be decent even if they're whole lives depended on it.

Back with more tales another day - Enjoy the sunshine and have a nice day

Byeee xxx