Flu jabs

I asked my pharmacist if she could give me the flu jab, as had been advertised in the media. But, no, she said - the HSE hadn't even contacted pharmacists about it. And on top of that, pharmacists were going to have to pay for the training - €500.

It'll probably be in place by next year! Patience Patience!

The Catholic Church in Ireland

I couldn't believe my ears this morning when the Archbishop of Dublin spoke on Morning Ireland and referred to Child Sexual Abuse as "CSA". How can they reduce the rape of children to an acronym? He caught himself and the second time, he used the full term. But still. I don't know why I'm surprised. The clip is on the Morning Ireland website through this link.

Public Accounts

It's that time of the year again, for the report from the Comptroller and Auditor General. And like every other year, it shows squandering of our money by our cushy and inefficient civil service.

There are some areas of improvement, though. Under minister Joan Burton, the department of Social Affairs has managed to cross-reference information from the taxi regulator database and the landlords' register, showing some taxi drivers and landlords/landladies fraudulently getting unemployment benefits.

And apparently, our water mains are leaking as much as ever, despite 1 billion spent in the last ten years to fix the water network!

Musing

I'm not really a gripy person. I hear all these things on the radio and in the news, consultants getting a fully-paid year off before their retirement, FAS civil servants ignoring all their codes of conduct, Bertie Ahern having a lavish 60th birthday party, and to be honest, my blood boils for about 5 minutes, then I think "Whatever, my life is good, I have a husband who loves me, as much work as I can handle, a healthy cat, beautiful and vibrant nieces and nephews, and never enough hours in the day to do all the things I want. Why should I spend energy raging against politicians and wasteful civil servants? The world is not perfect. And I'm not the one who's going to change the world". But still, it's good fun to give out. So, bear with me. I will never have enough bile in me for a daily gripe, but I'll sign in whenever I hear or read something that really makes me go mad!