Dressing up to dress down

It was dress down and work and it was for charity. Children in need to be precise which for those of my readers who don't know is a big charity event which is held every year nationwide and they do a special broadcast on the BBC all night where people ring in donate etc.

My first thought o nthe bus in the way into the office this morning was " I'm not going to get any cake" as at my old place they always had a cake sale.

Needn't have worried about that when I got to the office they had cake, lots of cake, lots and lots and lots of cake. Well you get the idea. Of course with it always being so busy the only real charge you got to eat anything was during your breaks, so they tended to be groups of people chowing down on cake as fast as possible.

the other thing I didn't realise was that there was a theme for the dress down day which was " Fame" the original not the remake. Most people came in 'regular' dress down clothes but some people took to the fame theme with relish which meant it was difficult to know where to look sometimes.

Plus it did mean I was starting to feel distinctly overdressed which is quite a weird thing to feel on a dress down day!

I wonder what the theme will be for the next big charity dress down day which will probably be red nose day. Why Saxon? I hear all/some/none of you cry why are you concerned with that as that's months away and your only there till Christmas. Well not anymore. They have decided to offer me a permanant postion there and I decided to accept the offer. So I am now officially permantly back in employment.

I think that it's a certain yah me! moment don't cha think?

Anyway,

Later folks.

One of those days. Not one of those though, more one of those

I was thinking today,

Yes I know never a good sign or to quote a disney character " A Dangerous pass time I know"

The phrase one of those days is quite odd really. Because there's no real metre stick to define what a one of those days has to be like to be one of those days.

Not to mention everybody has their own definition of what one of those days means to them and because a day is one of those days to one person doesn't mean that it is one of those days to another.

Then of course there's the fact that each person's definition of what one of those days is can also change.

So can anybody know what one of those days truly is? and isn't the truth that every day is going to be "one of those days" to someone.

Confused yet? I know I am

But then again this is the kind of confusing place that my mind can wonder to sometimes as it did this evening whilst I was on the minibus back to the car park. I have had what can be described as one of those days according to my definition of the term.

Difficult customers I can handle easily enough, after seven years I've had a lot of practise at it. It's when I don't know what to doto resolve a situation is when I start to find things difficult as you want to help but you know you can't. Although I think this is something that will get easier with practise in my new role as I start to learn all the nuts and bolts of the new system.

It's dress down day at work tomorrow in support of children in need which means you have to donate in order to dress down which I don't mind as it is for charity after all. One of my colleagues was pleased to remember it was on as when we had the last dress down day he forgot. Although I did point out that it was better to dress up when it was dress down then dressing down when it was time to dress up!

Anyway,

Later folks.

It's funny what you can miss

There's a saying I heard once and it went along the line of, you'll always miss something unless your actually looking for it. I am paraphrasing there because for once my usually good memory has deserted me. It's true of my new company as I never really noticed their vehicles before and now I work for them, I see the darn things everywhere.

Connected with that I've also suddenly woken up to the fact of just how many transport couriers and lorries there are on the roads. It's weird to 'suddenly' see them as they've always been there and it's not like they've just appeared on the roads. Unless we're in some crazy real life version of the truman show but I digress.

It's been a fun day if a very very long one as I spent a lot of the day on the road as it were getting experience of the 'front end of the front lines'.

It was very educational and not just from a work perspective. Seeing the roads from a van drivers perspective rather then a car drivers perspectives throws up all sorts of points that you don't think of as a car driver.

The area we were in had a lot of old builders which had decorative stones which said things like " This stone was layed by Mrs such and such in 1890 whatever" again paraphrasing there if you hadn't guessed. It made me wonder about the history which had gone on in those buildings and just what would the people who laid those stones made of the city today.

Weather wise it was a horrible horrible day, really wet and and windy. On the plus side my new coat was brilliant and I did not get cold at all. So I think I made a wise investment there.

Well I was about due for one.

Anyway,

Later folks.

Sit tall stand straight

Another one of those things that I'm having to get used to at my new job is how I sit. Or to put it another way I'm actually have to sit up and straight the entire time. Mainly because I'm so busy you can't slouch as you have to be alert and focussed 110%. Which of course I know is impossible as by it's very definition you can only give 100% but lets not get into that little debate right now.

I have to admit yesterday my back hurt, today not so much so I'm hoping it shouldn't hurt at all by the end of the week. I also got a good shot of confidence when I recieved my stats for my first day and found that my accuracry rate was at a pretty impressive 96% for my first day. I had only made two errors and both of them were relatively 'simple' ones so I know what to keep an eye out for in future.

In case you haven't guessed I am really starting to really enjoy myself. It's very hard work but it certainly is a interesting challenge.

anyway that's it for today. Yes I know it's a short post but I need to get to bed early as I have a 'trip out' with work as it were tomorrow which means I have a very, very early start.

Later folks.

I see girls

There are always differences between companies no matter how similar the fields their in. There are also a lot of differences between my new job and my old one which isn't surprising considering my old place was about as good a example of extreme niche as you can get. The fact that it's closer, I now get home before 6pm and I have to wear grown up clothes to work are just a few of the differences.

The other difference is the sheer amount of girls at my new place. In fact I think they outnumber the guys which might not sound like a big thing but at my last place the ratio was significantlly in the other direction as the GW hobby has always been a more male dominated place. And that's not being sexist just a simple fact.

I have to admit I found today very hard with it being my first full day on the phones dealing with customers. Despite my new found sense of optimism in most things I was not feeling too good by mid day and was having one of those deeply pessimistic bouts that I have had in the past, Why am I here? Why am I doing this? I can't do this.. etc, etc, etc,etc.

Still by early afternoon I was starting to feel a lot better about things and finished the day feeling a lot more confident with a sense of what do you know? I can do this!

I had a slight detour on the way home to geektown, well I say slight it was into Loughborough as one of my colleagues from the training group was going to wait for a bus but she wasn't sure she had enough money for the bus and it was getting cold etc, so with that deeply ingrained sense of gentlemaness I have I gave her a lift home as there was no way I was going to feel comfortable knowing I had left a lady out in the cold.

Grumpy and I headed up to Leicester this evening as i needed to do a bit of clothes shopping. Yes you read that right I was going to spend money on clothes before I needed to, i.e worn the previous ones out! Shock story, news at 11!

We also popped into borders where I actually managed to find a couple of novels that I wanted to read. I steadfastly ignored the stupidly large section on Twilight. I am so not going to read that series! just because it was written by a mormon!

anyway,

Later folks!

Be honest

No matter how good your intentions it's inevitable that at some point you will find it very hard to concentrate in a church meeting.

My concentration levels in stake conference this morning were not helped by two things. Firstly the sun shining through the side windows at the top of the cultural hall which meant I had to sit at a very odd angle to keep the sunlight out of my eyes. The second thing was the stupidly large box of cookies that two young lads in front of me were chowing down on for the entire session.

It's hard to concentrate when all you can smell is choclate chip.

The new special of Doctor who this evening was very good and a bit scary as well. If there are any parents out there whose children found it hard to deal with statues after watching the episode 'blink' well if you let them watch " Waters of Mars" good luck getting them to have a bath!

It was a intensly thought provoking episode and very intense as well. The scene when the Doctor starts walking away from the base listening to the radio chatter as the colonists start to get infected one by one almost had me shouting at the screen demanding he get back in there and save them fixed point in time or not.

I'm not going to say anymore as I wouldn't want to spoil anything for Scully or anyone else who hasn't seen it.

I really can't wait for the two parter at Christmas.

Well it's Monday tomorrow and my first full week of work lies ahead. I've been contemplating why I found Friday hard and I realised after someone else pointed something out to me that maybe the problem is ( and not to sound arogant or anything) I've spent so long at being the best at something that I've forgotten to accept that I may not be perfect at everything. If that makes any sense.

I'm just going to try and learn from all of my mistakes, move on, not make them again and most importantly not dwell on them.

The last one might be the hardest.

But I guess I'll just have to try and see if this new found optomism of mine will overcome my old pessimism.

Later folks.

Why am I awake again?

I was rather annoyed at myself this morning for waking up at 7am and then trying and failing to get back to sleep. It's a saturday I don't have to be up that early. I shouldn't be up that early!

It probably wouldn't have been that annoying if I had a book I wanted to read but I didn't. I know that say sound strange considering I have several shelves full of books but most of them are history books and I have to be in the right frame of mind to read those. What I need and am lacking it right now is a good novel.

When I had my clear out a few weeks ago ( which I'm contemplating refering to as the great book cull 09 :-) I got rid of most of the novels which had been on my shelves. So with that, combined with it being several months before a new BL book I haven't read comes along and a general seeming lull in other SF books I want to read I'm struggling to find a good novel to buy/read.

Any suggestions anyone?

It's been very rainy and windy today but we seem to have missed most of the storms which were forecast for today. Apparently they've hit more 'down south'.

We were in Loughborough today and the fair was practically empty. Yes it may have been the daytime but it's usually busy then it was. I guess the bad weather is really hitting them this year.

Asides from that it's been a pretty quiet day.

Boring I know but sometimes have a boring day is just what you need.

Later folks.

Smile please

May you live in interesting times

If I remember correctly the phrase " may you live in interesting times" or words to that effect is supposed to be a ancient chinese curse.

And today has certainly been an interesting time.

I was on the front lines for the first time today as it were and I have to admit it was really hard. Especially as I seemed to be stuck getting difficul call after difficult call. Although fortunatly I wasn't the only one finding things difficult as my colleagues were also having problems as well as we all tried to put the classroom work into 'reality' for the first time. We all freely admited afterwards that we were all sure that we had made errors. Still that's part of the learning process, we've just got to make sure we don't do them again.

Of course this also highlighted a small downside to having such a good memory as it seemed keen to replay every error I had made in exact perfect detail on the way home.

Still it's the weekend now and I will follow Grumpys advice of trying to forget about it until Monday morning as theres no point dwelling on things over the weekend.

Surprise, surpise it's raining again and according to the weather reports it will do all weekend as the biggest storms of the year arrive. I guess this means that theLoughborough Fair will be a bit of a wash out ( no pun intended).

Jordan is due to go back into the jungle in the next series of I'm a celebrity get me out of here. Before anyone gets too excited I'm afriad that I must give you some bad news. They won't be leaving her there, she will be coming back to England.

There was a news report yesterday about the first women to join the red arrows (acrobratic display team for anyone who doesn't know). I found it amusing that the news reporters were trying to be as politically correct as possible by listing reasons such as Ingrained prejudice, tradation and g suits not designed for women as all possible reasons why theres never been a Female red arrow before. It seemed like they didn't dare say the other possible reason for why there's never been one before, there's not been a Female pilot good enough before to join.

Anyway,

Later Folks

Just Breathe

I would be lying if I said I wasn't feeling at least a small sliver of nervousness about tomorrow. Not a full blown panic attack of wanting to go and hide under a table whilst screaming that the sky is falling, but theres still a small sense of nervousness there as I will be on the 'frontlines' as it were for the first time tomorrow afternoon and it's going to be tough.

Plus it is Friday 13th and as long time readers will know Irony does like to mess with me something bad.

Still there will be four of us going live at the same time and nothing helps to reduce the scaryness of a situation like not facing it alone. We decided on the best bit of advice for all of us to bear in mind tomorrow afternoon, if something goes wrong don't panic just breathe! then go from there.

It's been raining again quite badly today. I think one of my main tasks for the weekend is to find a decent winter coat to wear over a suit jacket otherwise I can see myself potentially getting very cold and or wet whilst waiting for the buses in the morning and evening.

I've been doing a small amount of model making this week. I've found that I'm slowly starting to increase the amount I'm doing again but I am taking more time with the construction process. Whether it's because I feel I've got time now or more that I'm trying to make things last as it's gonna cost a lot more is something I've yet to decide on.

Anyway,

Later folks.

Technical difficulties

Despite the fact that all of the gadgets we have around these days that are supposed to make our lifes easier we seem to spend more time trying to solve problems with them then we do using them. For example our printer this evening has decided to throw a massive hissy fit and refuse to work for no obivous reason.

Which is more then a little frustrating when your trying to print something off.

The urge to throw it from the window is almost overwhelming right now.

It's been another rather hard day of training as we're into some very complicated stuff right now. I was starting to feel a bit frustrated by mid afternoon with some of it as I was having a bit of trouble trying to get a grasp of it and I did feel like banging my head on the desk in frustration at one point. But I reflected that if I can grap the process of how a Space marine is created then I can sure as hell grasp this.

Maybe there's something to be said for this optomism thing.

anyway,

Later folks

Habit Forming

It wasn't foggy this morning but it was rather rainy. I suppose I shouldn't complain really as it could have been a lot worse and been icey instead!

The rain did mean that I had to judge exactly when to get out of the car and make the dash across the car park to the bus to arrive there in enough time not to miss in and be left in the rain.

Yes I do think too much about some things I know.

It's been another hard day of training today. Fortunatly things are falling into place and I'm not feeling as nervous as I was about going 'live' on Friday even if it will be on Friday 13th. Who planned that anyway?

Whilst listening in on some 'live' calls today I realised how easy it has been to form new habits to replace the old work habits I had from my last place. I now don't even notice that I'm wearing a shirt and tie ( aka grown up clothes) as opposed to more casual clothes.

I did realise this morning whilst trying to find a book to take with me to read on my breaks that it's going to be a little while before a BL book will be released that I haven't read! I think it will be February the 13th before I'll be able to buy one I haven't read. And having to buy one will be a who new and strange experience!

In geek news apparently there's a chance that the character of the Black Cat could be appearing in Spiderman 4. I'm sure there considering the character as she's a well rounded character and not for the skin tight outfits she usually wears.

Well I guess if Iron Man 2 gets the blackwidow good ole spidey can get away with the Black cat.

anyway,

Later Folkd

Misty!

The day started somewhat unexpectly as not only had the car iced over, overnight it was also rather foggy as well. So this in turn lead to a lot of detective work as I tried to remember just where I had put all of my de icing kit for the car in the garage.


I also heard the new britney spears song on the radio on the way into work. I am starting to wonder if she is suffering from the same syndrome that Jordan suffers from, the " Look at me everybody, look at me right now!!!!!!" considering the shall we say subject matter of the song.


It was a very busy day of training as we've got a lot to cram in beyond we move into our first 'real experience' of dealing with customers on the phones on Friday afternoon. And don't worry we're already more then aware of the irony that we will be 'live' for the first time on Friday the 13th.

I have found training on the new system a bit hard to begin with but that's mainly because I automatically keep going to use the same keyboards shortcuts as I've been using for the past seven years and as it's a different system unsurprisingly they don't work.

It was rather foggy this evening as well when I left work but it's a bit easier then normal driving in Fog in that area as your not exactly short of light sources at the airport.

I'm getting to used to going to work now in grown up clothes, i.e shirt and tie. It's also a bit weird at how 'normal' it seems to be there. I thought it would take a lot longer to get used to it. Maybe it's just my new attempts at maintaing a optomistic nature, or just accepting the inevitable and not dwelling on things that I can not change.

It certainly has been interesting meeting and working with people from outside of the 'hobby'. So I suppose you could say that as well as now having to wear grown up clothes, I having grown up conversations.

Wow that's a scary thought :-)

Later folks

Back and Forth

Today has been slightly longer then the usual Sunday as I've ben doing a lot of going back and forth. Back and forth to wakefield to be exact.


My Brother in Law was baptised earlier this week and was confirmed as a member of the church this morning. I managed to make it just in time for the service thanks to what seems like a never ending series of roadworks that are slowly creeping up and down the M1 in what seems like some sort of evil plot by a mastermind who has come up with a evil plot despite having lost the plot sometime ago. What makes said roadworks all the more annoying is that their usually several miles long ( one series is almost up to 20 miles), the speed is reduced to 50 mph and they usually have average speed cameras. Which means you have to watch your speed like a hawk the entire time. But I digress ( nothing new there)


What I hadn't been aware of until Friday was that as well as my Brother in law being confirmed his two youngest children were both being blessed as well. Which made it a even more special day.


Now for all the non church members who are wondering exactly what I'm blithering on about by the term 'blessing' well I suppose the best way to describe it is our equivilant of a christening. Although both of my nieces were 'a bit older' then children usually are when they get blessed.

It was fun spending the afternoon with my nieces and nephews. Although I discovered that one of my nephews was convinced that I was older then his Mum (multi-task) and was shocked that I was 'only' 28. I'm sure there was a compliment in that belief somewhere but for who is another matter.

It's a start of a new week tomorrow which means another week of training which should be fun.

As long as I can remember it all.

anyway,

Later folks,

Not all that bothered

A lot of people are talking about the latest series of the X-factor and why the 'twins' are still in the competition. It is a topic that seems to be generated heated debate and even got a point where the PM event commented about it, obivously to show that he is 'with it'.

Me? Well I couldn't care less as I don't watch X factor and have no plans to start. I used to watch shows like that when the 'in show' was 'Popstars' ( remember hearsay anyone?) but quickly grew tired of them. Some people enjoy watching all of the terrible singers but all I can think is wonder if all of their families hate them as why else would they let them go onto a national TV and humilate themselves. Surely it would have been better to sit them down and just tell them honestly that they suck at singing.

We've had the heating on for a large part of today as dispite the bright sunshine we've have it's been very, very cold. I guess we are into winter good and proper. Still at least with Winter you know your going to get the weather your supposed to. I.e Cold weather as oppposed to the random weather we can get in other seasons.

It was very funny this morning as Grumpy was getting ready to take Owen out for his walk. Owen was getting all excited and was walking around and around Grumpys legs. Grumpy finally told Owen to stop as he would get dizzy or at the very least go the other way. At which point Owen promply starting to pace around his legs the other way.

Despite the fair not starting till Wednesday the first of the rides have started to arrive as the laybys between Geek town and Loughborough are starting to fill up with Lorries.

It's been a interesting afternoon as I've been reviewing my training material. It's slowly starting to make sense but theres a lot to learn. Hopefully when we start our next round of training on Monday it should get even easier as we're moving away from the theory side into the practical side of things.

Should be fun.

Later folks.