The Picture Map #dreamdiary 107

 I’m heading into Wales with my mother for a hiking break. But rather than rely on the sat-nav; we’ve got a book with pictures. It’s not a map but an actual book with full-paged illustrations on the left and text on the right which tells us the history of what we’re seeing alongside written directions. There’s a large rock in the shape of a tower that’s been split into two by lightning and there’s a waterfall flowing down the gap and alongside a grassy knoll. It wouldn’t be ideal if I was alone as I’d have to keep stopping to turn the page; but other than that it’s a great personalised guidebook for our route. I hope that the navigator doesn’t lose their place, and that instructions to return home are included too. But at night or in bad weather I’d be buggered as I wouldn’t be able to see the sights or the landmarks, or probably the book itself for that matter.

Another Process to Learn

I never seem to do this process correctly. The idea is that I scan it into a returns box then on a weekly basis I generate a manifest and place the items into a box for transportation. But it seems that every time I load the items onto the manifest; they don’t appear on the screen for me to release. Even when I scan them, they’re still there. When I successfully do release them, they’re only absent from the system for a few days then next week they re-appear as if I’ve never sent them. Usually I just end up sending them any way to be rid of them, then I email the collection team that they’ve already been dispatched. It’s not as if it’s my stock or even our stock. Since doing it, I’ve learnt that it’s been changed again and that I’m still doing it wrong. It’s best to let sleeping dogs lie and avoid doing it until I’ve been shown the correct method again.

 

Teachers

Just what do teachers get up to in the staff room? It’s probably the only respite in the whole building apart from an unoccupied classroom. It’s a perfect social scene for teachers only; and the headmaster or headmistress might even conduct their operations from there. It’s probably the only place where you could have a quiet sit-down and read the paper; though you may get some interference from other colleagues or be caught out from the boss. Imagine the tips and gossip that’s been switched from between those walls. There might even be secret investigating planned between classes. Rivals might battle it out with nothing held back between those walls whereas they’re forced to be best mates in view of the students. Both cruelty and kindness can be exploited here and all school rules are thrown out of the window. But whatever you do, don’t let a single student step inside.

Push You to Your Limit

Short people can be persuasive; especially when they’re skinny, middle-aged and bald. Perhaps it’s their way of making up for something. You don’t want to put them into a spot of bother by letting them down, but at the same time you know that you’re not supposed to do what they’re asking of you.  In the end you agree to their terms and just hope that nothing goes wrong and that you’re not found out. It might even cause some restless nights. At least this deal is legitimate and there’s an opportunity for you to check that it’s progressing as agreed. But you have to wonder what else they might get up to in their spare time. And once the deal is over, you just hope that they’re not going to ask you again, and hope that you don’t need a favour returned; otherwise they might try to exercise their right to repeat their favour again.

Cage Rage

Our stock is transported to and from the warehouse in metallic cages. It’s delivered by a trailer on a truck with a tail lift on the back that the driver controls. We seem to get through many drivers and it’s rare that we have the same one twice. The driver wheels the cages off the trailer and onto the tail lift and lowers it down. We have the happy task of pulling the cages off the tail lift onto the ground then push them up the slope and into the store. Once the tail lift’s empty, it goes back up to the trailer for another load. Sometimes we deal with pallets which involves a second person if it’s heavy. When everything’s off, it’s our turn to return the favour by sending back the empty cages which we have to do at a bit of a run to get them up the ramp and onto the tail lift. It’s a lot of manual labour!  

Room

This film is an interesting psychological experiment from a child’s point of view, if not slightly cruel. Each action just raises more questions and makes you glued to the story until the answer is revealed. I wondered at one point whether Jack was truly a boy. I thought it was a fantastic idea to get Jack as educated as possible when Joy felt it was time that he could cope without her to attempt a rescue. Though I am a bit bewildered as to why Joy didn’t attempt to escape through the skylight. There was certainly a wide-ranging offer of equipment on offer that she could use to smash the glass, and the exercises that she undertook with Jack at the beginning of the film certainly didn’t portray any lack of physical fitness. It was also interesting to watch the after-effects of leaving the room, and at one point it was debatable as to whether Jack was prepared to accept life in the world. I also wondered whether the suggestion of suicide didn’t enter Joy’s mind until she underwent the TV interview. The result is a heart-warming tale that just makes you wish good things on those who have undergone unnecessary suffering.

Tally Ho

It’s important to keep track of things. You never know when the information will come in handy. An empty box is a space witing to be filled. But is it a good thing when it is? If you’ve only filled half the boxes, does that mean that you’ve only completed half the task and that there’s still a lot of work that needs to be completed? Is it necessary to keep track of it at all? Can the data be interpreted by everyone, or is it a good thing that the purpose of the data is secret? We can work out which of the columns have summed up the rows but it’s difficult to decipher what the percentages are for. It might even be that the dots don’t hide the answer. The biggest numbers don’t always create the biggest loss, or even the smallest. It must mean something to someone.