The Road to Calamity

Into another month, and another gap has appeared in the usually regular writing habit of Mr R. Chesworth, esq.
I am extraordinarily busy at work, that's my excuse. Even by our usual standards for this time of year, everything is a bit full on. We seem to be at maximum capacity everywhere already, even though the schools don't break up for a couple of weeks yet. One of our main issues at the moment is roadworks, believe it or not. Our local councils seem to have deemed it necessary to carry out four different major bits of road repairs at the same time, all within a couple of miles of our main site, causing massive disruptions and delays to anyone travelling here, as there are limited ways to get to us, and all of them have temporary traffic lights and lane closures. For some reason, this is all my fault, as the manager, and so people were arriving to check-in absolutely fuming because they've lost the first couple of hours of their holiday sitting in their vehicles, and my attempts to lighten their mood by remarking "at least you aren't trying to fly over France this weekend" didn't go down well.
[A bit of context for anyone reading this in the future - French air traffic control called a sudden 48-hour strike last week and loads of flights had to be cancelled or postponed]
So I spent a bit of time this morning on the phone to our County Council, and our local council, and the local water company (who are trying to fix leaks at the same time and in the same places as the roadworks, just to add to the fun) and my conclusion is - not only does the left hand not know what the right hand is doing, but they are hands on completely different bodies, the owners of which don't talk to each other, and each finger on each hand is an independent entity that seems to ignore the wishes and want of the others. For those of you who don't have to deal with local politics and bureaucracy, I can absolutely assure you that it is the same now as it ever was - a bunch of bungling amateurs with no communication skills who seem to have staffed their planning departments with people who have an average I.Q of 6.
I mean... obviously... if you work there, I mean no offence, but really....

RC 7-7-25