On today’s show we placed the spotlight on a woman who seems to have got away with hardly ever turning up for work, but still drawing her salary.

I guess that many of us have taken time off work illicitly but surely this must take the biscuit.

A teacher in Italy, Cinzia Paolina De Lio, has just been fired from her job at a secondary school near Venice after successfully avoiding turning up for work for 20 years!

How you may well ask did she achieve this level of absenteeism? 

Well she used her sick leave, her clearly well deserved holiday time as well as permits to attend conferences.

But it seems that on the rare occasions that she actually turned up for work, her efforts at teaching were less than spectacular, and indeed it was at one of these rare appearances at work which proved to be her undoing. Unfortunately for her, she caught the attention of a school inspector who described her lesson has “confused”.

From this point on things moved rapidly downhill when her pupils went on strike after she started sending text messages while she was in the middle of conducting oral exams!

Topping her performance it seems that she had to borrow text books from her pupils as she had forgotten to bring in her own material in with her, and she then went on to hand out marks that bore no relation to the work students had handed in. 

Her dismissal could hardly have come as a great surprise to her, but undaunted by this setback, she successfully challenged the ruling and got her job re-instated. 

However all good things come to an end and once the court learned that she had only been present in class for 4 years out of 24, the decision was reversed. A move that was later upheld by the supreme court.

Journalists who attempted to reach De Lio after the latest ruling were thwarted as she told them she was “busy at the beach” but that, “she would reveal the true facts to the world” at a later more convenient time to her.”

Poor woman must be exhausted and run off her feet!

In the second hour we asked the question “when is a sign not a sign”?

We only pose this question as a bizarre road sign has appeared on the B3159 near Martinstown, just outside of Dorchester, Dorset.

The sign which is rectangular with a red background – simply reads: “Sign not in use.”

Well according to some people a sign that reads it is not in use which means the statement on the sign is false which means it is in use.

Well if that’s the case wouldn’t it have been easier if it had read ‘sign intentionally blank’.

According to the Highway Code , it actually means that a variable message sign ahead is not in use, or being tested.

In short, the ‘sign not in use’ sign refers to another sign that is – you’ve guessed it – not in use.

The ‘sign not in use’ sign, however… is very much in use.

Mind you should you head to Winchester you might find yourself at the point where Symonds Street meets the somewhat confusingly named Great Minster Street, and the slightly larger and more spacious, Little Minster Street.

When you get to this junction, if you cast your eyes around you’ll find a sign bolted to a lamppost which tells you not to look at it.

I’m confused, in spite of which I hope to return tomorrow.

See you then,
Scott