We are thinking of running a regular slot in the magazine, possibily on the back page, consisting of amusing anecdotes from readers. Would people be intertested in reading and contributing to such a slot?

My ex mentee a refugee from Sudan who happens to be a Muslim invited myself and my hubby to his home for a meal. My hubby agreed to come along to support me although he is usually quite a reserved person. The only Muslim people he has ever seen are from watching television. When we arrived we sat together on the settee.  My mentee's friend arrived with the food that his wife had cooked and the two of them went into the kitchen shutting the door. My hubby and I watched the television that happened to be on loud on an Arabic station that had men chanting with guns in the air on it. From the kitchen we could hear heated raised voices, this went on for a good ten minutes. The front door had been left open as it was a hot day, I looked at my hubby who looked concerned and said "now is the time to leg it if you want to". Instead we enjoyed a lovely and very tasty meal, afterwards going home in the car I remarked how keeping the chopped lamb bones in the sauce must increase the flavour but it means removing them from your mouth. Hubby said he did not want to offend our host and said it was only because he loved me that he swallowed them! I have since asked my ex mentee who is now a friend what the arguing was about, he said they were arguing about whether to heat the food up or not!

I think that is definitely true love if your husband is prepared to swallow bones for you! Lucky he didn't choke!

Yes I think it a good idea - lets look on the bright side of life a bit more.

When I worked as a local authority social worker I was sent, because I was a man I was told, to see a family where the woman's partner had threatened to 'blow the health visitor's head off' after she had expressed concerns about their child 's development. This chap was known to the Police for weapons offences I was also told. A colleague offered to accompany me on the 'Section 47' visit and waited outside as I approached the house in trepidation. After I had persuaded the family to let me in and to explain why I had come, I found the man was of very slight build and with my six foot one and 16 stone frame I towered over him- he was also wearing thick glasses and busy doing the ironing. Not the sort of image I had of an armed gun slinger. He became less threatening as I got to know him and I eventually managed to develop a good working realtionship.

 That's funny - I wouldn't have been brave enough to even enter the house!

It reminds me of a funny story about an ex manager of mine. My desk was right next to his office (the naughty seat) and i watched him one day whilst he was on the phone to a very irrate service user. He had his feet up on the desk and was leaning back in his chair. The conversation went on for quite a time and as his door was open you could hear it was getting quite heated. Anyway he was leaning further and further back in his chair unti lhe was virtually horizontal. He then just acrucial time in the conversation fell backwards, legs up in the air and the phone on the floor. EEH we did laugh.  

nice story!

here is another two pennyworth - 

Whilst working in a crisis burdened child care team, stress can sometimes thwart your integrity. Like the occasion I had to call at a house on quite serious business. It was a Mrs Jones who lived in Wilson Street the referral said. When she answered the door I asked, ‘Mrs. Wilson?’ After her stern negative response, I made matters worse by then asking, ‘are you sure?’  Or when I once visited a mum whose child I was responsible for on the child protection register, mum had been found very feckless, her standards of cleanliness had been deemed quite low. I tried to encourage her towards cleaning up the house, reducing the unpleasant smells and hopefully impressing the different professionals that had reason to call on her. On one visit entering through the back door, I met her in the kitchen where we stood talking with a background of dirty pots stacked high in the sink. As we chatted on and without thinking, I was pulled up by a remark she made and realised I had started to wash up myself.

At a later date, and having received a desperate call asking me to visit on a day I had an interview for a new job, I called around dressed up unusually in a smart (ish) suit. After we had dealt with her crisis she explained how she had been cleaning up the home and I had noticed it was looking tidy. ‘I have been washing the furniture she told me.’ As I felt the water seeping into the seat of my trousers, ‘I’ve just done that settee,’ she said.  

LOL You sound as if you could write a book on funny stories LOL

Ok I will admit to a time when I embarrassed myself completely in front of all the dircetors of social services.

It was the ADSS annual conference and on the last night of the conference, there is a dinner and disco. I hadn't been working for Community Care very long, and after a couple of shandys I decided to hit the dancefloor and throw some shapes with my boss. We were really getting down to Grease Lightning and I was doing all the moves, spun round but lost my footing and fell straight into the disco lights in front of the DJ which all fell on the floor and blew the electricity. So there was me on my back on the disco lights, legs all over the place, trying to get up like a turtle who has fallen over back on his shell, in the total dark with all the directors looking at me, my boss wetting himself and the DJ shouting at me that I'd ruined his decs and would have to pay...

It was excruciating! Luckily the electricity came back on so normal services could resume. I'm always very careful when Grease Lightning comes on these days...