The Sorry State of this Nation

One thing I've noticed in the four months I've been here is that work is mostly a foreign concept. I mean that literally and figuratively. It permeates through the entire society. Besides colleagues whom I've seen pass the buck time and time again, and the scrounging unwed teenage mothers, the public transport here is also one big mess.

Consider today. We wanted to visit one of the markets in Central Blundon. When we got to the station, the normal four trains an hour was reduced to two. Two minutes after P bought his travelcard, they cancelled the next two trains so we would have had to wait for an hour. Needless to say, I was not amused. I pay £1,800 a year for my season ticket to get to work. This allows me to ride on trains, the tube and buses, but what is the point of that if services are so reduced?! Honestly, we should get our Small Island government to come over here and show these lazy sods how it's done.

It also bugs me when I see young men living rough and begging on the street. Most of them would be capable of work if they were not drug or alcohol addicts. If it wasn't going to get me beat up, I would give them a good telling off. I wake up at 5.45am every morning to walk the dog, prepare lunch for us (because it's so bloody expensive to eat out) and get ready to go to work so that scums like that can take over 30% of my salary every month. Bitter, who me?

I know that there are good and bad things in every country and this place is no exception. But sometimes, the laziness and inefficiency of the people really bothers me. When I had my two-month performance review with my boss last month, she actually told me that I was working at a very high level and that I should take it down a couple of notches. I have never had an appraisal where I was told to slow down before. My boss is also from the same part of the world as I am and understands my frustrations with the way they 'work' here. I know that she doesn't want me to feel held back by the way they do things in this country. Too late!

On the positive side, I guess it's good for them that they have people like me to set an example. A foreigner that to comes to their country, works hard, and supports the useless lower strata of their society. I can only take comfort in the fact that it is character building and all that stress does keep me slim!