A clean sweep!

That's it; they've all objected with virtually the same letter.

I am now the subject of an 'Action Group'. Ahh the suburban home counties.....

Now I must rush off to tend my hanging baskets

And the saga continues

Of the 6 houses in our cul-de-sac 4 have now objected vitriolically to our planning application.

Suspiciously, with the exception of the unintelligent rant of 'fag-ash Lil' across the road they all seem to be virtually the same letter.

I think I can smell a conspiracy!

Positivity

To those of you have have read my blog since it's inception will know that I am prone to more than my fair share of negativity.

In this, my 39th year on this planet I have realised it doesn't bloody well get me anywhere and so A little more positivity is in order before I turn 40 and turn in to a grumpy old man.

'I don't believe it....'

How to piss of all your neighbours at once....

I've submitted a planning application and created my own personal shit storm in the quiet little cul-de-sac were Wifey, me and The Boy and The Girl live with our two scraggy moggies.

Remember the Kolb grief cycle? No one likes change!

All work and no play

Many moons ago now I used to have a good job. I had literally dozens of subordinates ready to to my bidding, admittedly there was always a group who moaned like hell and needed a good kick up the backside, but invariably they did what I told them to do.

Now I work for Wifey.

That's right for getting on for 2 years I have been my wife's PA. It's a hell of a culture shock I can tell you and there have been ups and downs.

The bid downs side is you are always at work. Pillow talk now can be a list of jobs to do tomorrow; sometimes it's the best time to talk. It can sure be a passion killer!

And two years went by

I last posted in October 2008. Back then we were just heading in to reccession and the writing was on the wall for my job. I predicted well and was made redundant in January 2009. This was acuatlly fortunate timeing as I was goiing to hand in my resignation anyway.

Wifey's business was getting bigger and she needed help; she also managed to get herself pregnant....

The girl was born on 11 August 2009 and life's just been a whirlwind since. Oh, and she's just the most beautiful little thing. Platinum blond hair, big, big blue eyes, the colour of sky and always smiling and giggling. I can see I'm going to have serious troubles with her when the boys start to notice her.

The business has grown and there are now 5 of us.

I really do need to make some me time for a quick blog now and again.

Oh, and is anyone still out there?

Crisis; What Crisis?

I never thought that the current economic climate would affect Social Housing - I was wrong. Things getting tough all over the sector but I'm still hanging in here.

Lots has happened since I last posted but I just really haven't had the time to blog, far to busy with a job, a two year old and Wifey's business, which fortunately is going from strength to strength.

I'm tired

I normally get up at 06:45. The last two days running I have been up at 05:30.

Yesterday I was up early to go and look at a site; this morning it was the baby (when do I stop calling him a baby?) who woke early crying, which is very unusual and then a trip the our head office down in Dorset.

It'll be a long day tomorrow as I'm down to Chandlers Ford and then straight back to Gatwick.

Oh what a day

It's time to go home (so I can now use the interweb).

A day of confussion; things went great, then crap, then great, then crap again.

I really need to be my own boss!

Go to go any collect my boy so, if he's in a good mood (which he usually is), the day will be great again.

Alloy wheels

I love alloy wheels on a car, however, Wifey is not having much luck with them at the moment.

1 buckled beyond repair, one scuffed badly in Brighton and now one potential knackered after a trip to Shere.

I'm selling the car as it seems to be a little jinxed.

Anyone want to buy a Volvo estate with a curse?




Don't all rush at once........

Hello Again

I've no idea if anyone still checks this meagre blog, but I've here and alive.

I've actually been working, and living, a lot. They baby is now a joy and the apple of my eye. Proud dad moments are almost daily at the moment.

Wifey's business is really taking off. The company now earns more each month than it did during it's first year. The hours can be long but rewarding. I'm very proud of what she has achieved.

My job is actually keeping me busy. Our Internet protocol is very strict and so I can't just dip in and out of the net to get my daily fix of my must read blogs.

The organisation is not as dynamic as I originally thought, but it's a very stable job and my work life balance is great, I'm home by 6pm even after picking my son up from nursery. This then gives me more time to work for Wifey.

Blog 101

I'm too bogged down with everything at the moment.

Thing of note today - apart from a trip to Basingstoke, is that I became an uncle.

Baby boy, born at 10:10 am after a long and difficult labour.

Well done Sister in Law!

A Century

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...

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'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 :-)

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!

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!

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 :-)

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??

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?

Hi Ho

...It's off to work I go.

Today is my last day of freedom; tomorrow I'm at work in my new job. I've grown to my freedom, yet it doesn't seem that I've had any time off at all. Thie first week I struggeled to get out of bed for two days due to my Black Dog, then I spent two days looking after the baby. The next two weeks were spent in Derbyshire and this week has been slower, but it feels only this week have I had any time to me.

Today I'm looking after the bay, getting a hair cut, re-installing my smoke alarms (I took them down to decorate but to my shame they have been missing for about 5 months and Wifey told me last night I must have them back up by tonight).

I started to prepare our cloakroom to be redecorated on Tuesday; I had planned just to give it a like of paint but Wifey has decreed that if we decoate it must be a complete refit (Champange suites are not in vouge at the moment). Being in to construction I am having a difficult choice choosing a suite, I do like some of the Duravit and Laufen stuff, but designer Italian sanitary ware comes at a price and, alothough our house is quite large, it still has a ceiling price wich we need to consider when spending on refurbishment.

Anyway, I must go and get something doe as the baby is trying to kill the CD drive on the laptop......

Looking Up

Well, touch wood, things seem to be looking up. I've heard from my new employer and so far I've been booked on an away day with the national development team. A great day in Swindon..... I'm going on a two day course to learn about some specialist software I'll have to use - two days in Euston and the four days at the Charter Institute of Housing conference in Brighton.

In one year at my soon to be former er employer I only had one day of training and that was organised internally and turned in to merely a group meeting with our boss.

Anyway, I've fed the baby, so now it's time to wake Wifey with a cup of coffee - I'll also cook her poached eggs on toast for breakfast. Eggs for breakfast reminds me of a conversation I had with a girl at a party once when I was at college. My chat up line was "how do you like your eggs in the morning?" Her reply was simple; "unfertilised, now F*** off...."

Homeward Bound Part Deux

So, today I'm homeward bound. Yesterday I finished sorting my fathers house. Everything has been opened, recycled, shredded, binned, or kept for potential posterity. I loaded up my van for the journey back and then got down on my knees and vacuumed the entire house from top to bottom.

There is still the thorny issue of a storage unit which he had which will need clearing as it's costing us monthly at the moment. I've been asking my brother to do it since shortly after mat fathers death. So far he's not even been near the place, despite working not 5 minuets from the storage facility. This is starting to niggle me as it's something unfinished that needs to be concluded. I could come back up north next week to do it, but firstly there are things that need to be done at home, such as decorating, and helping Wifey with her business, which is still busy thankfully. I also miss being away from my family; I feel there are few things that can compare to snuggling up to your partners naked body in bed and holding her until she sleeps. I really miss that.

I feel like, apart from organising the funeral, Wifey and I have done pretty much everything in terms of sorting out the house. If I leave the storage unit to my brother there's no telling how long it will be before it's cleared, let alone sorted. I leave Derbyshire feeling like a job well done in clearing the house, yet I don't carry the sense of closure on the task that I was hoping for.

Second Birthdays

It's Wifey's second birthday today.

t was three years ago today that she suffered a near fatal stroke and so, on January 23rd each year she now celebrates a second birthday to commemorate the fact that she cheated death and has gone on, despite considerable adversity, to enjoy her life again.

So, Honey, all my love on your second birthday. I'm sorry I can't be with you today, but I'll be back home tomorrow.

xxx

The Stig

No..... Not the chap from Top Gear, rather the dump - although I am a very good driver ;-)

That's right, I've been at the dump so many times I feel like Stig of the Dump; Please tell me you've all read the book....

Anyway, I'm off to the dump in Derby - again.

The Boys are Back in Town

I'm back in Derbyshire toady after an easy journey up on the train - St Pancrass station is looking magnificent, but I don't think it was worth £800M.

It's very wet and flooded up here and the train was delayed owing to the water rising around the tracks, but I made it here safe and sound, went in to the peaks to my father's, sorted some more stuff, collected the van and now I'm back at my brothers.

I'll be back down south on Wednesday evening.

A trip to Brighton, Hove and Worthing for some specific treated us to the fantastic sights to be held of washed up timber everywhere - you've seen it on the news, but I had no idea until Sunday when I was down on the coast. It is amazing to see in real life.

Oh, and Wifey and I had a fantastic weekend - no work on either the business or the house, no chores, just 'us' time, and also time as a family. I think it was what we both needed.

Rise and Fall

Since the Autumn I have charted my battle with and subsequent descent in to depression. I written about some personal circumstances such as my job (It's been pissing me off since last January), my dad's death, our cat's near death and my father in law's illness.

Well, this last week I've been happy. It's been therapeutic sorting out my dad's house - some sad times and some happy times. Strangely the worst time was Thursday evening when I went to the dump to take some of the big bits of furniture. It seemed a terribly disrespectful thing to leave furniture that I have know all my life in a cold, arc lit and drizzly dump.

The best thing was coming home. I was great to see Wifey and Pickle, to talk, to eat, to drink and to, well, to do what couples do....

Homeward Bound

I've not completed my task as yet, but I've mad a surprisingly big in road to it. There is still a hill of paperwork (where there was once a large mountain) to sort and sift but I must only have a quarter left to do. Anyway, I'm homeward bound for the weekend. I have decided to take the train as amazingly it works out cheaper - 18:50 each way on the train - that's intercity to St Pancrass, across London and on to Horsham. In my borrowed van (as nice as it is) it's about £80 just in diesel. On top of that I have to endure both the M1 (or M40) and the M25 and I know from jobs of old that the M25 on a Friday night is a place I'd rather not be.

So, the train is taking the strain and I should be home in about 3 hours to see my lovely wife and hopefully a happy and smiling son.

I'm back up north on Monday morning for a few more days toil.

I won't post over the weekend as it'll hopefully be time dedicated to the family.

Have a good one :-)

Time Dedicated to.....

My father...

Having now a number of weeks to myself (or Wifey's beck and call...) I have decided to work on my father's house. I sit here in Derbyshire as I type over looking the gently rolling hills visible from my brothers study window.

I am now of the opinion that, whilst I still have depression, getting out of my last organisation was a good thing. I have undertaken a couple of bits of work for Wifey and the clients have found the work to be excellent, so a little of my self confidence is returning. Just having some down time is proving to be a great healer.

Anyway, time marches on an I have three quarters of an hour's journey further north to my get to my fathers house so I suppose I'd better sign off and get motoring in my builders van that I borrowed from my father in law.

Still Working

I may be on garden leave, (although I'm not exactly sure on what terms I'm on garden leave as my former boss will no longer communicate with me) but I'm now hard at work for Wifey's business.

She covers health and safety issues amongst other things and, being qualified in H&S, I get roped in to some of the work. Tonight I have to right an incident report for an accident at our near by airport.

Reading the witness statements it looks to be a case of a momentary lapse of concentration. A lapse which came perilously close to a very serious accident.

Anyway, a glass of wine and the laptop in front of the TV and I should have this written up before tea....

Things to Make You go Mmmmmm

So, an interesting day. It appears that I will not be parting on good terms with my current employer. I had some questions about the exact terms on which I was being put on garden leave. In return I got a snot-o-gramme from my boss saying that my services were no longer required as my duties were being perform by others in the organisation.

This was due to the fact that a return to work date for such an illness is uncertain and my job can't wait for me to recover. They've also changed the locks to my office building.

I did always say my boss was an alcoholic dictator didn't I. Today just proved that I'm better off out of the clutches of a work place bully. In all honesty I got off lightly, he is much worse to others since left and also current employees, but hey, I left on my terms and I think that this was do as a last parting shot to ensure he had the last word.

I've still got to collect my personal items - now that should be an amusing event.