The Weekly Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 3437 by Angharad Copyright© 2024 Angharad

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This is a work of fiction any mention of real people, places or institutions is purely coincidental and does not imply that they are as suggested in the story.
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The British on/off summer/monsoon season continued where we would have a day or so of warm weather followed by a week of rain or very heavy showers. It was declared by meteorologists to be caused by global climate change and certainly, we were better off than some places where torrential rain had caused mudslides and killed thousands. The downside here was that farmers suggested that the price of much of their produce would cost more, especially things like wheat and potatoes as they were unable to harvest them. If that occurred with silage I suspect the same will happen with meat and milk which would be affected by it. However, seeing as farmers had contributed to the poisoning of our freshwater courses, particularly the River Wye, I wasn't sure I had much sympathy for them, but before I wrote them all off as destroyers of the countryside, I remembered that those farmers who farmed with empathy for the land and its denizens were super people and if they suffered they had my sympathy and I wished their vanishing breed success.

Of course, the water companies ever since they have been privatised by a Tory government had been printing money through their customers. Nearly all the rivers and streams have been affected by sewage discharges, many, like the Wye are effectively dead with a build up of sewage fungus as they call it, suppressing normal life in the water. It's not actually a fungus but a collection of bacterial growths but it does look like a fungus and tends to occur where sewage has flowed regularly into a watercourse and is probably happening to a river near you. Now to add insult to injury the people of Devon were told to boil their water because it became infected and many were becoming ill with sickness and diarrhoea, and the company involved then paid a dividend to shareholders. You couldn't make it up. Now some people in Surrey are having to boil their water for a similar reason. The water companies have reaped huge profits since privatisation but suddenly find they can't pay for all the upgrades needed and some were financially struggling, why? Offwat the regulator is also having to answer all sorts of questions as well. To me is smacks of incompetence or corruption possibly both, and the sale of this country's assets, especially to foreign companies against the interests of its people.

My dislike of the right in politics is well known, and at last, on US Independence Day we get to vote the Tories out. Before we all celebrate that at last the corrupt party that did so much damage to our nation will be defeated, I have to wonder about the likely winners as the Labour Party seems to be doing all sorts of questionable things to some of its members, some of whom are sitting MPs. And people are asking if there is any difference between the parties? the answer seems to be, not much, but at least we get to vote not that it's likely to make much difference where I live. In general elections my vote hasn't counted since I have lived here, so I am frustrated by the electoral process and feel that everyone should pass an IQ test before being allowed to vote. Democracy doesn't work but it's the best we've got and better than China, Russia, Iran and possibly the US. It amazes me that the candidate who seems to be in the lead is someone with a recent criminal conviction for falsifying his accounts at the last presidential election and who has never knowingly told the truth in his life. How can some Americans be so stupid? Goodness it makes Brits look relatively smart, and that can't be right, can it?

Okay, enough of current affairs, they just depress me, so let's get back to the important things in life, or my life. I was looking for a housekeeper who wouldn't cause my chef to fall in love with her. After history repeating itself several times I needed someone who was either gay or a male or looked like the back of a bus. which I know, say a lot about me, but I needed to employ someone who could work with David without him falling for her. Why couldn't he just find a woman somewhere who I didn't employ, but then he may then move to be near her or something, and I'd lose him and he is a marvellous cook. as well as a personal friend of the family and we would miss him, and at present, he's been the only one who takes some of my domestic load off me. My girls do help a bit, especially Danni, but the others are used to having most things done for them and don't seem to see the work that needs to be done.

When I last became upset through the lack of support I had from the family, the girls did help out for a few days, as did Stella but it soon petered out and I was back to square one again. Simon told me to employ someone and I know he means it but the others will ultimately find something wrong with my choice or David will fall in love with them again.

I tried to understand why they seemed to leave us after telling me that I am the best boss they ever had. Once they are used to working for me, I tend to leave them to their own devices and if the house is tidy and the laundry being done, I am usually happy. Okay, I may ask them to do other things as an extra or to work longer hours or watch the younger kids for a while, but I do pay overtime if they are due it, and I have a cottage for them to live in as part of their employment, so why do they leave? What am I doing wrong or are we doing wrong? I must ask them to tell me if they leave again.

For the moment, I had a pile of mail on my desk at home in answer to my ad in the Echo for several days. Now I had to sift through them and find the best to become my housekeeper; surely one of them must be suitable? I'd asked Stella to help me interview them but she wasn't interested, Trish was but she'll be younger than most and up at Cambridge from October, perhaps Danni will help, I'll have to ask her but she does have a degree of maturity compared to the others.

It was Monday again and I was in my office wondering about Delia my previous secretary, who'd left to study biology and ecology a few years ago but had popped in to see me a week or so ago and I had offered a job as maternity cover. Diane had been initially suspicious that Delia was after her old job but I hoped I had reassured her that her job was under no threat and that she was my personal assistant as long as she wanted the job.

My phone rang, "For you," was all I heard Diane say, and whoever it was, was put through to me. "Hello, Cathy," said a familiar voice, adding, "were you serious about the job offer?"

"Hello, Delia, yes I was serious, one of my staff is heavily pregnant and I need someone to cover for her. Obviously, you are interested?"

"Yeah, I had a think about it and talked it over with my mum and she said I could stay at hers, so yes, I am interested."

I won't say I was elated because I still had to convince Melinda to go on maternity leave and she seems so lazy that even making that decision seemed too much effort. However the thought of employing Delia again, however temporarily, seemed heaven-sent and filled one area of worry that I had. Now if I could find a housekeeper, I'd be much happier, but one step at a time was good for now.

Diane emailed her Melinda's job description with maternity cover written prominently on it and HR seemed okay with it. She promised to return it as quickly as she could and as she was doing a temporary job in a supermarket, I assumed that would be pretty soon.

So when I got home that evening I felt a little less overwhelmed until I checked my mail and saw ten new applications for housekeeper. David made me some tea and I retired for the next hour to start processing the forms, to weed out the unsuitables and then perhaps Danielle would help me choose from the possibles. What a delight life was.

We ate a tasty meal of farm-produced sausages in a casserole which was full of tomatoes and mushrooms with onions and separately cooked potatoes and carrots. It certainly filled a hole and I had to be careful not eat too much. The leftovers David would freeze and we'd have as a lunch-time snack in the future. Almost anything he cooked was delicious, though occasionally I wasn't in the mood for eating, and I know the girls had asked him to do real pizza made from scratch and I know Tom has asked him to do the odd curry when I have been away. Still, I suppose if I'm not there, they can eat whatever they want and I hope they do because it may stop the occasional grumble when I am there.

Taking a cuppa to my study I asked Danni to join me. When she asked why, I told her to help me choose a potential housekeeper from the applicants. She suggested that David may be better qualified than she was and I had to tell her quietly that I wondered if some of the earlier ones had left because of David's interest in them.

"Oh, can't you hire a lezzie then?"

"I don't think that would be an appropriate question for interview, do you?"

"Uh, are you gay?" she voiced then agreed with me.

"I think it may be unduly invasive as well as being illegal as I don't think you can reject someone for being gay, except with very vulnerable people and even then it's questionable because gay people are just the same as everyone else, except being attracted to same sex partners. Remember that most sex crimes are committed by heterosexual males, and some females. Homosexual doesn't mean paedophile and you of all people should know that."

"I thought you wanted my help?"

"I do, sweetheart."

"Well, it doesn't exactly sound like it, does it?"

"I'm sorry it's just such a difficult job to choose someone without knowing them and I get a bit wound up."

"Why not employ another bloke, David wouldn't chase after him, would he?"

"No but we have some quite young children here who would feel easier with a woman."

"Aren't you kinda being hypocritical about that?"

"Probably, beside no men as far as I know applied and generally such jobs tend to attract women, though if a man had applied and was suitably qualified, I would honestly consider it, though I don't know what your dad would say."

She chuckled, "Yeah, I could see a potential problem there in a houseful of women."

"Well, he may be gay anyway and if he weren't you or Sammi would be most at risk."

"Or he might if Julie came to dinner."

"I wish you wouldn't run your sister down, she doesn't do it to you and she does seem to have some boyfriend problems at times."

"Yeah, like all the time, times."

We eventually got down to examining the application forms and Danni asked what she was looking for or not. I explained to just read through them and if she felt good about the application we would look at in more depth. She seemed to get the idea quite quickly and we narrowed it down to a dozen. She said she'd had enough but she would help me tomorrow If I wanted her to. I told her that I did and thanked her for her help. I offered her some chocolate as a reward but she said she found the whole thing very different from anything else she'd done and she was trying to avoid chocolate for the moment as she was getting the odd spot.

So I went to bed missing Simon, but felt that compared to recently it had been a successful day and I'd moved beyond my sense of being held down by deep mud, so the sinking sensation was now changing to floating. All I needed now was to learn to swim more strongly, but I'd leave that for another day and tried to read some general reader's edition of an E.O. Wilson book. He died a few years ago but he was regarded as a great by my fellow biologists. All I needed now was to stay awake for a few pages, but it seemed unlikely.