This is my 100th post - I didn't think I'd get this far, so I'm quite proud of myself, especially for a blogger who has no aspirations to be a writer.....
I'm off to London tomorrow to the EcoBuild exhibition, which will be a nice day out of the office. Working as I do in social housing it's a subject that has been brought to the fore by government funding rules. There are some very strict codes that we must adhere to in order to get cash out of the treasury. I do, in principle, agree with the vast majority of these codes, it's just a shame they're not applied so strictly to the private sector.
Anyway, by tomorrow night I should have a couple of bags full of interesting literature in new eco goodies....
Saturday was a quite one, some associates of Wifey opened a new shop so we went to the grand opening, followed by a brief visit to our local town of Horsham.
Sunday was good; we went to Worthing. The vast piles of timber are still there and most of the beech (if you can call pebbles a beech). Walking along the sea front there was only the smell of freshly sawn timber. We sent lunch with my outlaws in a great restaurant called Claudes. It's a creperie and if you ever go to Worthing, go there for lunch. We spent a happy two hours chatting together and lots of grand parent cooing over the baby.
We spent some time looking around the shops for a new baby seat as Pickle is growing out of the one we use in his grand parents car. The seat only gets used for about 20 minutes each week so spending £100 on a new seat was money we didn't really want to part with.
Money I didn't mind parting with was for some clothes I bough for Wifey. She wasn;t even in the shop, I just picked them of the rack, paid and left. I'm glad to say they all fitted her perfectly and she liked the style. It's the privilege of a long term relationship.
I also didn't mind spending money on her in The Body Shop - especially since another massage moment ensued.
Anyway, Wifey is calling for her laptop back...
Tuesday 26 February 2008
Friday 22 February 2008
Spaced Out
Wednesday afternoon, all of yesterday and now today I've been spaced out. My brain is in there but it does not seem to be accessible by my faculties..... Not so hot when you need your brain power at a decent level to comprehend the vagaries of the new organisation.
I've also noticed that recently my posts have been somewhat banal, but I guess that's just how the time has taken me - I've been busy both at work and at home with Wifey's business and I have much less time to ponder such things at work as I had done previously. My blogging now is usually done on a laptop in front of the TV while Wifey is doing the tea and as such restricted a little by guilt. (Although I do loads of other stuff around the house).
Today I am blogging during my lunch hour. There is loads of stuff I could, and indeed should, be doing but I wanted some time out.
I enjoyed last night. I'd had a relatively long day; I dealt with the baby, dropped him at Granny and Grandad's, drove to a meeting, sat though that and straight on to another, talked to my manager, made a mad dash back to my office, dealt with an urgent matter before the last post and then drove back to collect the baby. 11 hours and 170 miles later I was somewhat tired. Never the less I got home 5 minutes before Wifey who'd been at an exhibition all day. I let her give the baby his evening bottle (A nice time), change him and put him to bed.
I, on the other hand, emptied her car of the exhibition stuff, had a shower and made the living room ready. When she arrived back downstairs I stripped her naked, laid her down on a duvet, the lighting was low and Jack Johnson was on the iDock. I then proceeded to massager her for 1/2 and hour, amd then tucked her up on a sofa under the duvet. I then prepared tea. I actually took great pleasure in taking care of her. It's times like that that are important to a couple; It reminded my that time spent with her is one of my greatest pleasures*
*most of the time ;-)
I've also noticed that recently my posts have been somewhat banal, but I guess that's just how the time has taken me - I've been busy both at work and at home with Wifey's business and I have much less time to ponder such things at work as I had done previously. My blogging now is usually done on a laptop in front of the TV while Wifey is doing the tea and as such restricted a little by guilt. (Although I do loads of other stuff around the house).
Today I am blogging during my lunch hour. There is loads of stuff I could, and indeed should, be doing but I wanted some time out.
I enjoyed last night. I'd had a relatively long day; I dealt with the baby, dropped him at Granny and Grandad's, drove to a meeting, sat though that and straight on to another, talked to my manager, made a mad dash back to my office, dealt with an urgent matter before the last post and then drove back to collect the baby. 11 hours and 170 miles later I was somewhat tired. Never the less I got home 5 minutes before Wifey who'd been at an exhibition all day. I let her give the baby his evening bottle (A nice time), change him and put him to bed.
I, on the other hand, emptied her car of the exhibition stuff, had a shower and made the living room ready. When she arrived back downstairs I stripped her naked, laid her down on a duvet, the lighting was low and Jack Johnson was on the iDock. I then proceeded to massager her for 1/2 and hour, amd then tucked her up on a sofa under the duvet. I then prepared tea. I actually took great pleasure in taking care of her. It's times like that that are important to a couple; It reminded my that time spent with her is one of my greatest pleasures*
*most of the time ;-)
Wednesday 20 February 2008
I'm Lost
So, the new laptop is up and running on the network as is the new printer. Wifey and I were trying to use the new laptop for proper work stuff, not just web browsing. So the new machine has Windows Vista Business and Office 2007.......I remember when I changed from Windows 3.11 to XP and last night the memories of being totally out of my depth came flooding back.
I'm sure I will get used to the new software, and I've seen some great new gadgets to play with, but at the moment I'm like a fish out of water with it.
Oh, and it's Wednesday already, the days are just wizzing past since I started the new job.
Now, on to something about Wifey; we are going on holiday in two weeks time to Portugal with some friends and last night came the desperate cry that people up and down the land will be uttering in the next few months...."I've lost my beech body!". So Wifey is now on a mission to loose 1/2 stone in two weeks so that she can walk down the beech in her bikini and turn some heads.
When ever she's walking down a beech in a bikini, she always makes my head turn :-)
I'm sure I will get used to the new software, and I've seen some great new gadgets to play with, but at the moment I'm like a fish out of water with it.
Oh, and it's Wednesday already, the days are just wizzing past since I started the new job.
Now, on to something about Wifey; we are going on holiday in two weeks time to Portugal with some friends and last night came the desperate cry that people up and down the land will be uttering in the next few months...."I've lost my beech body!". So Wifey is now on a mission to loose 1/2 stone in two weeks so that she can walk down the beech in her bikini and turn some heads.
When ever she's walking down a beech in a bikini, she always makes my head turn :-)
Monday 18 February 2008
And the Week Flies By
I last posted 6 days ago and the week just seems have flown by. I'm much busier at work and, for the most part it's great. It's not all roses in the garden but then no job ever is - even Wifey has bad days and she's the big boss.
The baby is starting to walk a whole lot more and a couple of nights last week he was an absolute joy and made me glad I am a father. There is a new nurse at his daycare nusery where he goes every Tuesday and Wednesday; she, like all the other nurses, has fallen in love with him and thinks he's the most handsome baby she's every met and smiles more than any baby she knows. He's a luck boy my son, he just smiles and people melt in waves; no that's a quality I'd love to have.
The weekend was full of up's and downs but I did manage to wash my car and I'd not washed it for five months, which is about 10,000 miles without a wash. I started with a bucket of acid! Now my little Polo is not big or flash and it's coming up for threee years old (which is very old for me) and yet I felt like a king driving to work today :-)
I may have mentioned that last week we had a new laptop delivered, yet on Tuesday our colour printer gave up the ghost (I'm deeply unimpressed that a peice of kit less than three years old is beyond econimical repair). So a new printer was ordered (another wad of cash going out of the door...) so today my brither in law has come to link up the new laptop to the network, set up our wireless VPN (Virtual Private Network) and to install the new printer on to the server.
Now, cast your mind back to last year when I posted about my IT skills - It could be a long night!
The baby is starting to walk a whole lot more and a couple of nights last week he was an absolute joy and made me glad I am a father. There is a new nurse at his daycare nusery where he goes every Tuesday and Wednesday; she, like all the other nurses, has fallen in love with him and thinks he's the most handsome baby she's every met and smiles more than any baby she knows. He's a luck boy my son, he just smiles and people melt in waves; no that's a quality I'd love to have.
The weekend was full of up's and downs but I did manage to wash my car and I'd not washed it for five months, which is about 10,000 miles without a wash. I started with a bucket of acid! Now my little Polo is not big or flash and it's coming up for threee years old (which is very old for me) and yet I felt like a king driving to work today :-)
I may have mentioned that last week we had a new laptop delivered, yet on Tuesday our colour printer gave up the ghost (I'm deeply unimpressed that a peice of kit less than three years old is beyond econimical repair). So a new printer was ordered (another wad of cash going out of the door...) so today my brither in law has come to link up the new laptop to the network, set up our wireless VPN (Virtual Private Network) and to install the new printer on to the server.
Now, cast your mind back to last year when I posted about my IT skills - It could be a long night!
Tuesday 12 February 2008
And the week goes on
I was very tired by the time I arrived home on Friday, although I was home by 4pm. The weekend was relaxing; Saturday was spent in Horsham for lunch, Crawley in the afternoon followed by a visit to Wifey's grandparents.
I went for lunch in the coffee shop of the cook shop where the knif incident happened last week. I talked to the manager and he was very accomodating in sitting over a coffee and discussing what happend, what has been done since the incident and also about the general risk assessment and health and safety issues in the shop. I feel he was wise to be accomodating as if he'd been obtuse I would have talked to the HSE. The knife had been left on the sales counter after it being shown to a customer, then a small rush ensued and the knife was not placed back in the cabinet. The cheaper knives are all kept padlocked and cabled tied in their plastice cases and can't be accidentally pulled out by either children or thieves.
The manager was not aware the child and his mother had been left alone and promised to look in to the matter, but in fairness a mistake was made, compunded by the mother and the assistant who originally helped did not know what to do - they are in the process of holding training briefings about safety and what to do should an accident happen.
Anyway, in Crawley we chose a new suite for our downstairs cloakroom - I just need to make sure everything fits and works with our current layout, I then need to pursude Wifey to pay up for it all.
Sunday was in Brighton with some friends at a sushi bar that we like and that are child friendly. We missed Wendz and Martin, but I'm sure we bump in to them one day....
Yesterday I was our Bournemouth office, and overnight stay st a hotel in Canford Cliffs (which was really rather nice) and then a day training on an office in Poole. A good couple of days but I seem to have picked up on the internal politics. I know they exist in every work place, but I do hate them...
Anyway, Wifey wants my laptop, despite now having 3 laptops a desktop and a server to choose from!
I went for lunch in the coffee shop of the cook shop where the knif incident happened last week. I talked to the manager and he was very accomodating in sitting over a coffee and discussing what happend, what has been done since the incident and also about the general risk assessment and health and safety issues in the shop. I feel he was wise to be accomodating as if he'd been obtuse I would have talked to the HSE. The knife had been left on the sales counter after it being shown to a customer, then a small rush ensued and the knife was not placed back in the cabinet. The cheaper knives are all kept padlocked and cabled tied in their plastice cases and can't be accidentally pulled out by either children or thieves.
The manager was not aware the child and his mother had been left alone and promised to look in to the matter, but in fairness a mistake was made, compunded by the mother and the assistant who originally helped did not know what to do - they are in the process of holding training briefings about safety and what to do should an accident happen.
Anyway, in Crawley we chose a new suite for our downstairs cloakroom - I just need to make sure everything fits and works with our current layout, I then need to pursude Wifey to pay up for it all.
Sunday was in Brighton with some friends at a sushi bar that we like and that are child friendly. We missed Wendz and Martin, but I'm sure we bump in to them one day....
Yesterday I was our Bournemouth office, and overnight stay st a hotel in Canford Cliffs (which was really rather nice) and then a day training on an office in Poole. A good couple of days but I seem to have picked up on the internal politics. I know they exist in every work place, but I do hate them...
Anyway, Wifey wants my laptop, despite now having 3 laptops a desktop and a server to choose from!
Thursday 7 February 2008
Tired
After my month off work it has been a rude awakening having to go to work this week - It's been a funny old week; moments of franetic activity, lots of being nice to people and some, just sitting and trying to find something to occupy my time.
First weeks are funny like that.
So, this week I was on the road at 7 on Monday, 6 on wednesday and it'll be 6 again tomorrow, which meeans a 5:15 wake up. It took me two hours to get home tonight as the M23 was shut at Gatwick. I work very near the airfield and as such I got snarled up in the jams of the diverted traffic. Two hours to drive 16 miles :-(
I was hoping for an early finish tomorrow but my boss called me. So, you're getting your laptop tomorrow morning, what are you doing in the afternoon as I have a meeting I'd like you to sit in on". One didn't feel it was appropriate to respond "well after the early starts and the odd late finish this week I was hoping for a POETS* day". I know I'll have to put the hours in, but there is always the next rung on the ladder to reach for and that rung is a senior management post. The next job up the ladder carries all the right perks; at that pay grade I can choose all the desirable cars** (no mondeo's and vectra's....). Company credit card and 4* hotels are within my grasp, but more importantly I'll be in a position where I can really exercise my skills and make a difference.
I do also realise that the next rung has it's downsides, but I guess the positives give me something to work towards.
*Piss Off Early, Tomorrow's Saturday
** I don't do company cars, I drive my little polo and laugh all the way to the bank on car allowance :-)
First weeks are funny like that.
So, this week I was on the road at 7 on Monday, 6 on wednesday and it'll be 6 again tomorrow, which meeans a 5:15 wake up. It took me two hours to get home tonight as the M23 was shut at Gatwick. I work very near the airfield and as such I got snarled up in the jams of the diverted traffic. Two hours to drive 16 miles :-(
I was hoping for an early finish tomorrow but my boss called me. So, you're getting your laptop tomorrow morning, what are you doing in the afternoon as I have a meeting I'd like you to sit in on". One didn't feel it was appropriate to respond "well after the early starts and the odd late finish this week I was hoping for a POETS* day". I know I'll have to put the hours in, but there is always the next rung on the ladder to reach for and that rung is a senior management post. The next job up the ladder carries all the right perks; at that pay grade I can choose all the desirable cars** (no mondeo's and vectra's....). Company credit card and 4* hotels are within my grasp, but more importantly I'll be in a position where I can really exercise my skills and make a difference.
I do also realise that the next rung has it's downsides, but I guess the positives give me something to work towards.
*Piss Off Early, Tomorrow's Saturday
** I don't do company cars, I drive my little polo and laugh all the way to the bank on car allowance :-)
Wednesday 6 February 2008
In the Post
I've now been In Post for 4 days. I still haven't got my bloody laptop - IT training is on Friday in Bournemouth and then's when I get my PC; I've been told not to expect anything cutting edge....
My boss is new in post (it was his job I originally went for). He was an internal candidate but does not have experience of Development and as such he is not going to be my line manager until he is more up to speed with his job. I like my new boss and we've both identified lots of things which we need to change to make some dramatic improvements. We may not get the resources we require but we#'l start to out an action plan together next week.
At the moment I'm meeting and greeting and, following a 05:30 start. I met up with my contemporaries in Swindon today - Interesting and challenging..... They are a mixed bunch, some are uber slick sales rep type, others are world weary and and cynical and pretty much everything in between. My boos and I are quite different - both of us are engineers and we think the same way.
Meetings in the office today, Bournemouth Friday and again Monday and Tuesday with an overnight stay. Staying over night was an interesting exercise in office politics. I've been placed in a hotel comensurate with my car grade - they don't use my pay grade as I've one grade higher than the next highest paid of my contempories (or so I was informed at my appointment meeting). I'm entiled to a 3 tor4 * double room with ensuite...... I wonder if there will be a mini bar??
My boss is new in post (it was his job I originally went for). He was an internal candidate but does not have experience of Development and as such he is not going to be my line manager until he is more up to speed with his job. I like my new boss and we've both identified lots of things which we need to change to make some dramatic improvements. We may not get the resources we require but we#'l start to out an action plan together next week.
At the moment I'm meeting and greeting and, following a 05:30 start. I met up with my contemporaries in Swindon today - Interesting and challenging..... They are a mixed bunch, some are uber slick sales rep type, others are world weary and and cynical and pretty much everything in between. My boos and I are quite different - both of us are engineers and we think the same way.
Meetings in the office today, Bournemouth Friday and again Monday and Tuesday with an overnight stay. Staying over night was an interesting exercise in office politics. I've been placed in a hotel comensurate with my car grade - they don't use my pay grade as I've one grade higher than the next highest paid of my contempories (or so I was informed at my appointment meeting). I'm entiled to a 3 tor4 * double room with ensuite...... I wonder if there will be a mini bar??
Saturday 2 February 2008
Saturday Night....
....was a very catch tune by Whigfield in 1996 as I recall. Apart from that it's Saturday night and I'm facing the night all on my lonesome as Wifey has gone out to a hen party (dressed in a mini skirt and low cut top) where she assures me that her and her girlfriends are going to have a meal at a respectable restaurant and it will alll be good clean fun. He girlfriend who collected her was simliarly dressed and they are one their way to ensure all the enterainment was lined up for later. I thought it best not to ask any further.
I started my job on Friday. I arrived at 08:45 but my colleagues didn't start showing up until 09:30 as it was a Friday...... My boss arrived at 10:00, but then again he did have to drive from Bournemouth. He was gone again by 13:00 and so, after a long lunch I went back to the office to read my induction pack and left for home about 16:30. I have my own office with my name on the door (tastfully done on a sheet of A4 paper...) but It's a decnt size and I even have my own meeting table and lay-up table (for speading architectural drawings out) I also have a view on to the high street. Not bad really, alothough it could do with a lick of paint.
My one dissapointment is that I don't get my laptop etc until I have had my IT induction and that's not until next Friday. I have to drive to Bournemouth for that. The training looks enthralling - 20 minues is set aside for showing me how to unpack and repack the laptop in it's case......
Next week will be the real start - Southampton Monday, office meetings on Tuesday, company wide Development Team meeting in Swindon on Wednesday, shadowing a colleage on Thursday and then off to Bournemouth for IT training on Friday. It doesn't sound like I'll have a chance to get bored.
On another note I was in Horsham today in a well know cookshop when I overheard a comotion; Next I heard a shop assistant call for an ambulance and describe the problem; I also heard the screaming. I am a first aider and so I follwed the noise to see if I could help. I found a six or seven year old boy sat on the floor with his obviously shocked mother kneeling beside him in the entrance foyer of the toilet. It transpires that said boy had grabbed hold of a knife, out of shear instinct his mother, knowing it was dangerous, grabbed the knife away from him, in doing so she sliced his hand open quite badly.
I'm not going to judge the mother; as a parent I know that despite your best efforts you don't always get everything right and this boy seemed well cared for and his mother was beside herself with worry, she also looked like she was coming down with shock. When I found them the mother had been left alone by the shop assistants and was glad of any help. I briefly checked the wound, the resultant scream and drip of blood told me not to investigate further. I simply reapplied the hand towels which were being used as a compress and kept the pressure on - all I could then do was try and keep everyone calm, which I seemed to do. The ambulance arrived and I left the situation to the pros.
Looking back I find myself disturbed by the incident in the following ways; How did this young boy get his hands on the knife? I accept that as I parent I am responsible for my child, but I keep our knifes in a block on the work top away from little hands. Yet in this cookshop he was simply able to pick up a knife. Surely the shop has a responsibility to keep such dangerous items out of reach - their expensive knives are locked in a very large display case yet the cheap knifes were displayed on a rack that went all the way to the floor.
Secondly, the shop assistants offered no help what so ever, they called an ambulance and left mother and child to it. I think the behaviour of the company as a whole and the shop assistants were abominable. What do you think?
I started my job on Friday. I arrived at 08:45 but my colleagues didn't start showing up until 09:30 as it was a Friday...... My boss arrived at 10:00, but then again he did have to drive from Bournemouth. He was gone again by 13:00 and so, after a long lunch I went back to the office to read my induction pack and left for home about 16:30. I have my own office with my name on the door (tastfully done on a sheet of A4 paper...) but It's a decnt size and I even have my own meeting table and lay-up table (for speading architectural drawings out) I also have a view on to the high street. Not bad really, alothough it could do with a lick of paint.
My one dissapointment is that I don't get my laptop etc until I have had my IT induction and that's not until next Friday. I have to drive to Bournemouth for that. The training looks enthralling - 20 minues is set aside for showing me how to unpack and repack the laptop in it's case......
Next week will be the real start - Southampton Monday, office meetings on Tuesday, company wide Development Team meeting in Swindon on Wednesday, shadowing a colleage on Thursday and then off to Bournemouth for IT training on Friday. It doesn't sound like I'll have a chance to get bored.
On another note I was in Horsham today in a well know cookshop when I overheard a comotion; Next I heard a shop assistant call for an ambulance and describe the problem; I also heard the screaming. I am a first aider and so I follwed the noise to see if I could help. I found a six or seven year old boy sat on the floor with his obviously shocked mother kneeling beside him in the entrance foyer of the toilet. It transpires that said boy had grabbed hold of a knife, out of shear instinct his mother, knowing it was dangerous, grabbed the knife away from him, in doing so she sliced his hand open quite badly.
I'm not going to judge the mother; as a parent I know that despite your best efforts you don't always get everything right and this boy seemed well cared for and his mother was beside herself with worry, she also looked like she was coming down with shock. When I found them the mother had been left alone by the shop assistants and was glad of any help. I briefly checked the wound, the resultant scream and drip of blood told me not to investigate further. I simply reapplied the hand towels which were being used as a compress and kept the pressure on - all I could then do was try and keep everyone calm, which I seemed to do. The ambulance arrived and I left the situation to the pros.
Looking back I find myself disturbed by the incident in the following ways; How did this young boy get his hands on the knife? I accept that as I parent I am responsible for my child, but I keep our knifes in a block on the work top away from little hands. Yet in this cookshop he was simply able to pick up a knife. Surely the shop has a responsibility to keep such dangerous items out of reach - their expensive knives are locked in a very large display case yet the cheap knifes were displayed on a rack that went all the way to the floor.
Secondly, the shop assistants offered no help what so ever, they called an ambulance and left mother and child to it. I think the behaviour of the company as a whole and the shop assistants were abominable. What do you think?
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