Music: Rammstein "Sehnsucht"

Everytime I started to do something today I was interupted which meant at one point I had about four tasks on the go. It was then that the switch machine decided to start doing some very weird things, even though we weren't actually using it at the time, so Francis asked me to phone the helpline and find out what was wrong with it. After ten minutes of being on hold and the second loop of the horrible mucic/musac, I decided to put it onto speaker phone and get on with something else. Forty-five minutes later I begin to fear that I will forever have the musac version of Chariots of Fire running through my head, but thankfully some kind soul decided to take my call. After twenty minutes of explaining our problem the lady tells me that "it is acting strange because it is next to your printer and the electicity from that is interfering" so I tell her that it has always been there and has never acted as it is now...I didn't get anywhere with that so Francis decided to see if she can get any help from them, only to be put on hold for another half hour. It was about then when a lady of about eighty came in. I was busy filing some records away and Paul was behind the desk filling out a form. He spoke to her first and motioned to me to carry on with the filing. Their conversation went something like this:

Paul: Hello. May I help you?
Lady: Yes. Is there a dentist available today?
Paul: I'm sorry, but this is an opticians. There is a dentist further up the road though.
Lady: Oh. Its just that when I woke up this morning I couldn't see, so I was hoping someone could take a look at me, I was very scared.
Paul: OK. Well, we work on an appointment basis only, so let me see when the next one is [goes to the book, I show him one at 3.40pm today, it was 2.30pm at the time]. Ah. We have one at 3.40pm this afternoon.
Lady: Oh. Thats very late. I don't know if I will still be in town then.
Paul: Its just in over an hour's time, do you have any shopping to do?
Lady: Yes, but it won't take me until twenty to five.
Paul: The appointment is at twenty to four.
Lady: Yes, I can't for wait two hours, thats too long.

Thats when Amanda came through to see if I could help her in the other room. I have no idea what happened after that or whether the lady came back at 3.40pm, but when I saw Francis on my way home from the PDSA she told me that Paul wasn't the same for the rest of the afternoon.

I don't think I was very productive at the PDSA today. Come to think of it, I don't think any of us were. I'm glad that I can still help out a few hours a week, but if I don't get more hours at Drinnan's soon I will have to start looking elsewhere...which will mean I will have to say goodbye to both.

Well, my tummy is telling me that it is time for dinner.