interrobang (‽)

As a contractor, I’ve been fortunate to work for the same client for some 16 years. Admittedly this has actually been for six different legal entities, and via four different agencies / consulting companies, but always for the same corporation. During those years, I like to think that I’ve built up a good reputation as a solid, reliable worker. So I was somewhat miffed recently to find out that I was now - after 16 years - to be subject to a full background check and drug test.
It turns out that this is an annual check, and was brought in as part of […]

Yesterday I paid a long-overdue visit to the dentist.  I had been going to another dentist near my old office, but I stopped giving them the benefit of my extensive custom following certain ‘billing disagreements’ over what turned into several hundred dollars worth of ‘cleaning’ (and I use the term ‘worth’ very loosely…).  I didn’t think my teeth had actually gotten any worse since I left school as I don’t really have a lot of tooth left to get worse, on account of the school dentist (who I swear was paid by the tooth drilled) drilling out a large portion […]

I’m currently bed-ridden. Or at least sofa-ridden. Yesterday I underwent major surgery and I’m now convalescing at home. Actually, major surgery may be stretching it a bit - I had a verruca (or plantar wart, as they call them here) removed. But for all the palaver they made over it, it may as well have been major surgery.
It all started out simply enough with a very small verruca on the ball of my left foot. Finn had a couple of them recently (so I know where it came from…) and we managed to freeze his off at home, in about […]

Americans must have zero tolerance for pain.  Last week I had one of my remaining two wisdom teeth extracted (the final one being so calcified over with bone that to remove it would mean cutting a hole in my jaw, which I didn’t fancy).  I scheduled my appointment for 8:00am to minimize the interruption to my workday, and drove there straight from the office (where I’d already fitted in 2 or 3 hours of work).  The first red flag went up when the receptionist asked me who had come with me to “take me home, afterwards” as I’d be in […]

Today is the 4th July, which is a public holiday here in the U.S. (officially, it’s Independence Day, although everyone just calls it “4th July” which makes me think they’ve forgotten exactly what they are celebrating).  It’s probably the biggest public holiday of the year, which means that just about everything grinds to a halt.  Except for me;  I’m still in work.  My colleagues couldn’t understand why I (a Briton) wasn’t out celebrating Independence Day, too.  “Well, what are you celebrating independence from?”  I still think we should push for 200 years’ worth of back-taxes…
The up-side to working on a public holiday […]

Yesterday, one of my schoolboy fantasies finally came true and I found myself naked on a bed while two nurses (actually, a nurse and a female doctor) attended to my nether regions.  Unfortunately, as I was in hospital getting a vasectomy, my fantasy rapidly came to a screeching halt - just about the time they stuck the first needle into my kibbles and bits.
That said, the whole operation was done under local anaesthetic, was entirely pain-free and took less than half an hour from pants off to pants on again. Today, apart from feeling like I’ve been kicked in the […]