Mine's a Bloody Mary

Back to the grind. The first meeting of the year to discuss all the latest initiatives for grabbing your blood and organs. Conscription for blood donors is still under review, but until it is introduced on a nationwide level, we'll have to make do with the more ad hoc 'press gang' method. Be careful when you go into the Bay Tree Centre over the next couple of weeks, that's all I'm going to say.

Donor awards for organ donors, that's the other thing. Donate a heart, an eye, and a pair of lungs and you could qualify for a bronze coffin!

I really shouldn't be revealing this, especially as I'm in the midst of assembling my CV to reapply for my own job. The good news is, though, that we aren't going to be called 'distribution assistants'. No, we're going to be 'strategic marketing assistants'! This is something of a victory, though it might have backfired in that I feel a bit intimidated by the new job title. I now doubt my ability to get my own job.

Jeremy Vine was dealing this week with the 'issue' of public sector workers being able to claim back their holiday if they are ill during it, which is apparently something I can do, as long as I have a doctor's certificate. 'Is this a perk too far?', asked JV. Hm. I spent years in retail, working Bank Holidays and Sundays for no extra money, and when I complained, I was told: well, get out of retail then. So I did, and now I'm told I've got too many perks and it isn't fair on private sector workers. Well, tough. It's not as if I don't work enormously hard for these privileges, as I told Jeremy myself when I rang him from the office after my third cocktail of the day, with everyone cheering me drunkenly on through mouthfuls of fillet steak.

Rare, naturally.