I don’t want this to turn into an obsessional account of my sleeping problems, but last night was BAD.
I went to a meeting yesterday evening, not of the PC but of another committee, which consists of 2 parish councillors, myself, and two other residents. At some point in the proceedings – and this wasn’t pre-meditated – I told them that they might have to look for another Parish Clerk. The Chair, who I spoke to after the last meeting, was there, but the others didn’t have a clue. In part, I think it was attributable to my Former Favourite Councillor buying me a pint of mild – I told him I was only expecting a half, and he said, ‘I know, that’s why I didn’t ask’... anyway, as the evening wore on, my mood was anything but mild.
When asked why, I said it was because, of all the things I do, this one gives me the most aggravation for the least reward. One of the other guys said ‘Reward?’ in a slightly scornful and incredulous voice, as though there was something wrong with the idea that I might hope to get something out of it for myself. Yes, I replied, both financially and in terms of satisfaction. I also said about not being prepared to turn down more interesting opportunities for this, and that I’d spoken to my family and friends, and everyone was in agreement that I should give it up.
I think I gave them food for thought. They asked who else they could get to do it, and I gave them the name of the lady who advertises the clerks’ posts. But we’ll see. I haven’t burnt any bridges yet.
One of the bugbears is the noticeboard. This is right across the road from my house, outside the village hall, and yet I have this big, inexplicable block about actually walking over there and putting stuff on it. It just doesn’t seem very important. The Chair last night made a comment about it, she has offered to take it over, but even getting my head round getting the stuff together and calling her to come and do it seems too much effort. I know this is daft. She was commenting that I hadn’t put up a notice about an event on 7th June, and was saying that it will be too late because people won’t know about it – she also remarked that I’d put one on the noticeboard in the other village, and how nice that noticeboard was - I did that because I had to go over there, I knew I could leave this one. I said don’t have the time or the motivation, she said she thinks it’s the motivation. She could be right, but the time is the main thing – even something which takes a small amount of time is difficult to fit in when there is so much else which has to be done- it just goes down and down the priority list. It’s four months now since I went on training for setting up a website, provided by the County Council and using a Content Management System, I just need to spend a couple of hours tidying it up and getting it ‘live’, and I haven’t even done that.