has been a bit shit, and a bit cool.

* Terry Wogan is retiring from his breakfast show. Absolutely gutted. I love the waffling banter, the micky-taking, the bawdiness and the Janet & John sketches. I didn't hear the whole statement he gave till this afternoon. I cried. He sounded close to tears himself, at times.

* Mini and friend went out the back door to start their school journey ... Mini ran back and battered the door ... there's a squirrel in the trap! It totally freaked out. Flinging itself round the long thin cage, after an hour or so it had ripped skin off it's scalp by battering the top of the cage. I was shaking and close to tears. Texted ex. Texted Andy. Ex would come to get it. After chatting to Andy I realised that I hadn't thought about what would happen once it was trapped. I didn't think it would be daft enough to go in the trap :( Texted ex saying - if you kill the squirrel you have to cut down the tree. Then ... The squiirel is freaking out. It's head is covered in blood. Very stressed ...

He phoned me. He thought the only options were to kill the squirrel and cut the tree down! I suggested he might set the squirrel free somewhere.

He ended up taking it in his car, driving to work and having to shoot it. It was too badly injured.

We saw another squirrel foraging this afternoon :roll:

The thing is, he says the grey squirrels appeared from America and brought with them a virus. The red squirrels we had weren't immune to this virus and so have seriously suffered for this. 'They' want to kill as many greys as possible so they can introduce red squirrels back into the UK. Apparently, if a grey squirrel goes onto yer bird table, you have to sanitise the table or the virus spreads (to birds?)

* I saw the Shouty Man when I left the house. He has Tourettes and I've not seen him for aaaaages. Had a brief chat and he said he's been in the local 'institution' quite a bit recently. Was a relief to see him and know he was ok.

* Had to go to DSS for a Rapid Reclaim. They closed my claim because (they said) I'd missed an appointment. I have proof that I was there on the day they said I wasn't ;) a dated print-out that the dude gave me (about a job) plus I went to a Back To Work Session the next day. How would that have been arranged if I hadn't seen him. EH??? ;)

My appointment today was at 11.40am. Got there at 11.30am and had to wait till

... 12.35 to be seen :-/

They are so over-booked, it's ridiculous. Someone was on a sickie. They handed me a Complaints Form for the claim being closed and asked that I remembered to write that I had to wait an hour. They must be so fucked-off with being hated by busy people and trying to juggle everyone's lives.

* I came out eventually, after a relatively smooth reclaim, got the bus into town jumped off to get a drink and fortunately the same bus was still there when I arrived back with my bottle of iced tea (lemon flavoured). RESULT.

All in all, quite a hectic, emotional day. And I have PMT :))

P.S. Although they closed my claim ... they still paid me on 2 dates, including the one they said I didn't sign-on for. Fucking useless gits.