Switch that bloody thing off!! and when is it hometime?

If there is one thing that I detest more than beetroot, and patronising people it is being woken by your alarm clock on an given morning. We've been having a particularly nasty spell of wintery winter - if this is a foretaste then we're going to freeze our butts off!! Today snug in my bed dreaming of ..... (oops private sorry!!) the persistent ringing woke me from a deep warm slumber. After switching the thing off and uttering curses not repeatable on this site I staggered up and to work.

I am not what is termed a morning person and tend to only "warm up" by lunch time. I am indeed an Owl, unlike my mother who is a cheery lark - up at some ungodly hours humming around the house like Martha Stewart on Red Bull. This of course does not auger well for my job which entails answering the switchboard at the company I work at. Unless I have had some form of caffeine beforehand I turn into a slobbering, wild eyed harpie. I do pity the first poor souls who phone in - they havent learnt yet. Dont phone before 9 am or else risk it.

Of course by 3 pm my lunch time high has worn off and I am counting the minutes to freedom. It is maddening beyond belief, as most would agree waiting for that clock to chime that glorious sweet sound of home-time. Thanks to circumstances and conditions where we work we are all gathered like a herd of wildebeest waiting to cross the Mara river by the door when we hear the 4:30 pm news signal. One hardly has time to blink before the parking lot is empty and not a soul is in site.

Our boss once chirpily said to us as we staggered out one Friday afternoon after a day from hell that "those who love their job linger longer". It took all my self-control not to fire back with "well if you bloody paid us enough and treated us properly we might actually linger". I resolved to go home and make a vodoo doll right then and there - maybe one day I'll actually use it!!