Wednesday 14 October 2009

(not so) Wordy Wednesday

I made my weekly visit to my local pub last night. It was the usual mixture of some quiet time reading my book (useful when people I know aren't in there), chatting and copious quantities of Stella. I should add for any foreigners in the audience that Stella is a strong lager.


On my way home I picked up a cheeseburger, and as usual stuck a DVD on while I ate it. And as usual just managed to turn the DVD off before I fell asleep. I've watched most of the DVDs I own at least once, but I've watched the first twenty minutes of each of them countless times.

Although I woke up early this morning, I was tired and dehydrated, which meant that I went back to sleep again, woke up late and drank about a litre and a half of water before attempting to go to work. I don't tend to drink enough to be hungover, so once I was properly awake the day went okay.

This in turn means that I got home late this evening. And realised that I had a blog post to write. Hence it's not going to be the usual meticulously planned 15 chapter epic.

Anyway, I was over at Kat's blog, where she was commenting on some educational issues, and it occurred to me that all the people in Britain who do degrees like Media Studies and Egyptology would be far better off being trained to pull pints, flip burgers and clean toilets.

I'm not complaining about the service I got last night in the pub, nor about the tasty burger from the kebab shop across the road, nor particularly about the cleanliness of the pub's toilets. Nevertheless, these are three areas in which there is a definite skills shortage in this country. So much so that these jobs are often done by Polish immigrants. And people with degrees in Media Studies and Egyptology.

Sadly none of the people that make important decisions ever ask me, so I doubt things will improve. It's always the same story. Recently they appear to have decided to stop selling Noodle Town Instant Won Ton Noodles in our local supermarket, leading to an important deficiency in my diet. You'd have thought with the amount I was buying they might have at least run this by me beforehand. Oh, well, it could be worse. At least they've still got Green Beans...

10 comments:

Jean Knee said...

I feel your pain Brian. They stopped carrying Soy cheese quakes here a couple of years ago and I still have not found a proper replacement. :(

I can flip a mean burger. I think my degree in crafts for the elderly really prepared me for the challenge.

Brian o vretanos said...

Soy cheese quakes and won ton noodle soup could have been a winning combination, but sadly we'll never know...

If you ever want to emigrate here, I'll put in a good word for you at the kebab place.

Jean Knee said...

I'm not sure about the migration thing, do you have lots of old people?

Brian o vretanos said...

Of course there are old people. They are mainly seen in the summer when coachloads of them descend on otherwise deserted holiday spots.

So your best bet would be to spend your summers in a seaside resort like Brighton, Blackpool or Morecambe, where you can't move for old people, and your winters in Texas.

Actually, you might like Morecambe all year round. When I lived near there 20 years ago they'd got rid of a lot of psychiatric units and paid for the patients to stay in cheap B&Bs. A friend at college who lived there once found someone stroking his car.

Geriatrics for one half of the year and nutters for the other half. Kind of a win-win situation...

Brian o vretanos said...

[Though of course I'm not being serious - I'm sure too many "mental patients" are locked up needlessly]

Jean Knee said...

you had to put that disclaimer in just in case I'm crazy, huh?

eliza says I'm just fine

Bee said...

Green beans ate begining to litter store shelves in preperation for Thanksgiving.

Here cleaning toilets and flipping burgers are done by Mexican immigrants. Sadly, I was born here so I don't qualify ;o)

Anndi said...

My daughter announced the other day, that she wanted t try Miso soup... so we head to the market where we've both seen some before. We can't find any... huh? We ask the nice gentleman who says: we just stopped carrying it, it wasn't selling.

Oh well...

kat said...

Couldn't agree more :) Nuff said.

Unknown said...

Rest assured, many people with media degrees end up in those areas ...