Sure as Sure can be

Theres been two main things about today that I've found annoying. Firstly it's got even colder and I don't like being cold. But we have managed to sort out the automatic timer on the central heating so at least it comes on and warms the house up before I get up in the morning.

Secondly it's certainly been 'one of those days' when everything seemed to go well if not wrong, not right. Or to put it another way I seemed totally unable to catch even the smallest of small breaks.

I think though I'll just follow Grumpys advice in this situation, as well as my new attempted optomisitic outlook and just forget it and move on. Onwards and upwards, forwards not back, looking to the future, insert generic inspiring cliche here etc.

I have to admit that I am finding it easier to maintain a optomistic attitude more of the time ( no really) but in a way it's down to my new job in that if I was to get downhearted and pessimistic I would find it very difficult to turn it around as the workload is just so constant. I would probably just spend me time hiding under my desk.

Or to put it another way I tihnk I'm getting better at not dwelling on anything that goes wrong or anything I can't change.

In geek news Torchwood is coming back. Yessssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woo hoo! Awesome! It's great because it would have been so mean to leave it where they did at the end of season 3. Although it does mean that there will be new team members. Although I don't know if people should forgive Jack for what he did at the end of season three. Making a heavily pregnant women walk up a very tall hill is not the sort of gallant thing we should expect from Captain Jack harkness.

Although I'll love to see if Torchwood will be 'out in the public view'as it were or if they have to come up with one heck of a explanation as to why theres now a giant crater in the middle of cardiff.

We have our institute christmas meal on Friday. In a serious break from tradition we're actually going out for a meal. Whether or not this is down to the fact that Brother H had some spare budget or the girls just didn't want to risk the guys cooking is still a matter of debate.

Anyway,

Later folks.

Well at least it's later then the shops

I was a little surprised this morning to find we were singing Christmas carols in sacrement. I know Christmas is fast aproaching but we're not even in December yet! Well if we've started singing Christmas carols at Church I'm sure the relentless barrage of christmas songs on the radio will start any day now.

All the talks were given by the bishopric this morning which was different but we were worried when one of them started their talk but basically saying we should blame the bishop for him speaking. Now I could be wrong but I'm fairly certain that starting a talk bytelling everyone who to blame for you speaking is not the best way to create a impression.

Our Sunday school lesson somehow took a rather large left turn into talking about politics. No, I have no idea how we got to that point either. But at least for the first time the classroom was actually warm as opposed to the corridors being boiling hot and the classroom doing a good impression of a block of ice.

As it was the fifth sunday of the month our final lesson was a joint between relief society and priesthood as was about 'relationships', between members of the ward as opposed to couples. There was a story using a analogy about people giving away " Warm and fuzzy's" which made others feel good before a evil witch tricked them and so from then on they only gave away " Cold and prickleys" I think the point of the story was that we should all be warm and fuzzy towards each other. It was at that point that the teacher asked for suggestions as to what were the most important things in forming relationships. Physics wanted to put his hand up to say " Warm and fuzzys" but photoshop interjected before he did and told him he should be more precise. Which of course physics being physics he immediatly decided to be and started asking what scale of temperature he should use to measure " Warm and fuzzies", how they would be stored and what their relation was to Cold and prickleys material wise.

Fortunatly Photoshop gets physics sense of humour.

Physics has also started to nickname me " Womanizer". When I asked him why he said it was because I had, had more girlfriends then him. But then added he was more successful as he had got a 100% success rate from the efforts he had put into dating. I pointed out that he had told me he hadn't had any girlfriends, which he confirmed and said that proved that he had got 100% success rate from his efforts he had put into dating, which was no effort at all.

So we had philosphy, dating tips, politics and discussion on the material properties of things which didn't exist. Church is always more fun when physics is around.

anyway,

Later folks.

Look to the skies

I remember someone ( as to who it was, I can't remember their identity has lost since been lost to the mists of time) once making a joke that they reckoned that the weathermen only guessed at the weather and must never stick their heads outside when they do so because if they did they would be accurate a lot more.

I was reminded of this comment as I read a article in the newspaper which weatherman have predicted that we will continue to have a very mild winter. Mild? They call this mild? When it's been so cold we had to put the central heating on at 3pm then crank it up by 4pm as it was getting cold. This is there idea of mild? What's their idea of a cold winter? The Day after tomorrow!

Okay so today hasn't been anywhere close to the Day after tomorrow but it's been very cold indeed, a your feet remain cold all day kinda cold.

Apparently the bookshop borders has had to call in the recievers which is not good as there my favourite bookshop! If they go under that will leave only Waterstones which although okay are not as good store for store as borders are/were. Delete as appropriate depending on what happens.

Asides from the cold weather it's been a bit of a non descript day really. I've just generally been taking it easy and enjoying having a day to myself to do what I please.

Anyway

Later folks

Cut from a Different cloth

One of the strangest thing I've been getting used to over the past couple of weeks is the 'difference' in the customer base I now have to deal with. The basic customer cliches and stereotypes that I've dealt with over the past seven years are still present but in my new role I'm finding some new ones, plus there always seems to be slight variations on the old cliches as well.

It's proving to be a interesting learning experience.

That's assuming trying to get the hang of everything doesn't send me bonkers first.

Apparently we're going to be seeing the mid season of finale of Flashforward in the UK before the USA. I was really interested in the series when it started but now, well it's starting to feel really long and drawn out. I think the decision to expand it to a full season of 20 episodes is having a rather negative affect on the show.

From what I read Stargate universe seems to be developing okay. However the chances of it appearing on a terrestial TV channel seem slim to none! But at least they show chuck on Virgin one so there's still something scifi based to watch.

Speaking of things to watch it looks like my next big challenge will be to persude Grumpy to buy a new DVD player as the old one seems to have completely packed up for no obivous reason whatsoever.

It's also been a bit bittersweer today as I recieved in the post some sample copies of the last marketing material I wrote for my last job. I had copies of all the others I had done so I was keen to have a copy of the last one and they were kind enough to send me a couple of copies as I wanted to have a full set. Granted I'll probably never use them for anything but it's nice to have them to at least remind myself that I was writing material that was used worldwide. It is a bit weird to think that a project I started and helped define and wrote is and will go on without me.

It seems a lot longer then two months ago when I left the office for the last time. It's not been a easy few weeks but I think I'm now back on the level as it were. The way I've been approaching my modelling has changed significantlly as my hobby has changed from being my job back into well just a hobby.

So my jobs now my job, my hobby is now well just my hobby and I guess I'll figure the rest of my life out at some point :-) I may know a lot but I've still got a lot to learn.

Later folks.

Judge not

We're all quite experienced in judging. Not the kind where you sit behind a big desk in court, rather with simple every day things. Judging how long we need to cook the veg, how much water needs to go in the bath and how long can we lie in bed before we have to get up.

(This isn't a random waltz off onto a tangent already, I am going somewhere with this)

I have been getting experiencing in perfecting my judging skills this week in catching the bus to and from the car park at work. If I judge it too early I'm out of the car too early and have to wait in the cold for the bus to make it from one end of the car park to the other, if I judge it too late I'm left to skuttle across the car park to catch the darn thing before it leaves.

Alas my judging skills are still far from perfect and I find myself shivering whilst waiting for it to arrive most mornings despite my new new winter coat.

Oh well, not really the end of the world is it :-)

It was extremely busy today at work but it was also a lot of fun. I'm really feeling like I'm starting to find my feet and my latest round of stats which showed that yesterday I managed my first day with out making any errors was a real boost.

I did go out hometeaching this evening however despite making a appointment the family we were going to visit weren't in. Which although annoying wasn't the end of the world either. At least we went.

Well one more day until the weekend.

Later folks

Smoking Bright

I feel like I should be writing this post whilst wearing sunglasses as it's rather bright in Grumpys office right now. Mainly because the light blub blew earlier and Grumpy decided to replace it but somehow managed to replace it with one which is a lot more powerful.

So everything looks a bit bright and stark right now.

Grumpy's also just put his head round the door to ask me to keep an eye on the lightshade in here as he's started to worry that the lightblub is so bright it might get too hot for the lightshade to handle!

It's been a long day today. Work was great though as there were a wide variety of things to do and to learn. It was afterwards which was the struggle as my energy levels seemed to go flat pretty darn quickly for some reason.

Which may well be in part to me not being totally used to my new work patterns yet and the fact that the last few weeks have been pretty full on and busy. I'll just need to plan better when to work and when to make time to rest and play :-)

And on that cliche I think I'll end it for today.

Later folks.

Anyone responsible for Health and Safety look away now

Humour searching

I was back in training today ( a day earlier then I was expecting but c'est la vie I guess if you misread your training schedule d'oh!) for the next stage of well training. Not a huge surprise I know that I was in training to receive training. I'm sure you would have been more impressed if I was in training to recieve next weeks lottery numbers but never mind.


So with a lot of new training it's going to be a interesting three days as we'll be once again turning the theory into practise.


Still if my system skills still need working the one thing where I'm doing great in is my customer service skills, which should be the case after almost seven years of practise. I'm just gonna have to work on merging the two together no matter how frustratingly long that might take. But as Drat says every hero needs a chink in their armour so I guess system weakness is mine for now. Granted not as cool as something like kryptonite but c'est la vie again I guess :-)


But if I have a superhero style weakness what would be my superhero powers? Any suggestions anyone? ( nice ones only please :-)


I'm going to have to try and figure out Grumpys alarm clock this morning as he set it on Friday to get up early, turned it off successfully then somehow managed to turn it back on and couldn't turn it off. The things so loud it woke me up at 6am this morning and I spent three fruitless minutes trying to turn off my alarm clock before finally waking up enough to realise that the ringing alarm clock wasn't mine!


Anyway,

Later folks.

Strange but true

As my new job is very target focussed we get a sheet every day which measures us on the previous days stats. I was happy to get that my hard work is starting to pay off finally as the number of errors I made on Friday made a sharp decrease from the previous day. Yes I know it's early but I'm hoping that it could mean that a new 'system' I tried on Friday is working. I guess I'll find out tomorrow when I get todays stats.

It did help to cheer me up enormously as it was a tough day today. So finding out your not making as many mistakes. Strange but true :-) There will probably be more earth shattering discoveries along these lines as the week wears on such as Water is wet and fire is hot.

Stay tuned.

Katie price aka Jordan has apparently left the jungle after being nominated to yet another task on I'm a celebrity ( apparently she has done all of them). Well you know what that see, live by the sword and you'll get nominated to do a lot of horrible things but a british public who don't like you.

Grumpys luck with electronic goods seems to be continuing as the DVD player has stopped working. Of course right at the moment when he actually wanted to watch one of his DVD's. D'oh!

The weather was once again rather yucky today as it rained. Rather a lot. It was one of those days when you feel very sorry for anyone who smokes as you see them outside trying to get in a quick fag break.

It was also a noteworthy date in that today was the day when I offically changed from being a temporary staff member to a permanant one. Yah me! Not that it made any difference in the slightist to my usual work but it was still a nice thing to contemplate.

Oh one last thing before I forget. I appreciate all of my regular readers and commenters and one of the most regular to leave comments is Drat. Well Drat has had some good news recently and has got engaged. So congratualtions to the Drat from the Saxon and just remember once that ring goes on her finger... you'll never be right or be able to win a arguement again :-)

Later folks.

Deep in the Dark depths

I've been sitting in front of the computer wondering what to write for a while now. It's not been my usual problem that I have from time to time of suffering from a complete writers block it' more the exact opposite. I have so much stuff rattling around in my head I don't know where to being or even if it will make sense once it emerges from the deep dark depths of my mind.

Well I suppose I should just try and keep things simple.

Like me.

I've got two more days of 'basic work' before I and the rest of my training cohort go back into training for specialist well training. After that we'll be doing 'normal work' which should prove to be an interesting challenge.

Not that the basic work isn't proving to be a challenge as it's proving a bit hard to get to grips with all of the multitude of bits and pieces, and it was proving to be a bit frustrating on Friday. Grumpy did point out that I was likely being far too hard on myself as nobody going to be perfect after only four days and should just accept that it might take a little while to get everything exactly right.

Speaking of Grumpy his mobile phone has turned up. Huray! Although the circumstances of it's reappearence seem as baffling as those of it's disappearance. It might well turn into one of those enduring family mysteries. Just where did the phone go for a week?

anyway,

Later folks.

Maybe a blood hound would be a good idea

Grumpy is a litte annoyed at the moment as he has managed to misplace his mobile. And by misplace of course I mean that he's lost it somewhere. Of course irony couldn't a miss a opportunity like this so Grumpy managed to misplace it while he didn't have it switched on. D'oh!!

He did ask Owen if he could find it. Owen gave him a look which seemed to say " what am I? A bloodhound?"

It's been another rotten day weatherwise, with it being overcast and rainy, not to mention a little windy near enough all day. Still I suppose we shouldn't complain as at least it's not as bad as it has been in other areas of the uk.

Apparently the latest series of I'm a celebrity is rapidly turning into the 'torture jordan show' as she's ended up doing every trial so far. I guess she should have really expected that was going to happen shouldn't she?

Strangely enough Marmite has been in the news today for two reasons. The first is that they will be releasing a new extra strong version next year. The second is that a petrol station has stopped stocking marmite in their shop after a shop lifter keeps stealing all the marmite they put on the shelves. Nobody knows why he keeps doing these. One theory is that he has a pregnant wife who has some really, really strong cravings.

If she keeps eating that much marmite she probably won't have many taste buds left either.

anyway,

Later folks

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.

The Clothes maketh the Man

It was rather interesting the difference having a 'dress down day' at work had today. Not that it made any difference to the work it was more that there was a subtle but very noticable change to the atmosphere with people in jeans and t-shirts as opposed to shirts and ties.

Not that every day is going to be a dress down day mind you. They only have them every few weeks and their usually held for a charity. If you want to leave the shirt and tie at hope your have to pay.

One of my fellow trainees forgot it was dress down day and still turned up in a shirt. But he was very philosopical about the whole thing and simply shrugged and got on with the work. As he deemed it, he was happy as he hadn't forgotten anything important like his work folder.

We had a random conversation start after talking about the phonetic alphabet and it was suggested that we come up with a new Phonetic alphabet for Chavs. Yes I know it certainly was a random conversation.

It's started raining again this evening. Some people are referring to us as having a Indian summer, if the rain keeps up it will be more likely we'll be having a english winter.

There will be a fair bit of running about this weekend as not only will I have the shopping to do, I will also be having to revise some of my training material ( i thought learned about Space marines was tough) and head up north to see some of the extended family as my Brother in law who was baptised on Tuesday will be getting confirmed as a member on Sunday.

Well at least being busy keeps me out of trouble.

I hope :-)

Later folks

Can we do this? Yes we can

It was another day of intensive training today which assuming I passed the tests okay means that I should now have two new qualifications.

Not bad for a few hours work hey?

Of course that makes the training so a lot easier then it was. It certainly wasn't. To be honest it could have also been quite boring but fortunatly we had a very good trainer who made the material very interesting.

It's amazing sometimes how much goes on behind the scenes as it were that we don't think about. The stuff I have done previously to do with logistics it strictly small time compared with some of the other stuff that goes on out there.

Our training group is really getting along great now as well. At the start of the week there were long silences where we all just sat there but now we're chatting away sharing stories of previous employment, life etc and how we ended up there. I think we're all glad that we've gelled as a group so early as our training kicks up a notch tomorrow as we start a really really intensive week of training before we 'go to the frontlines' as it were for the first time next Friday.

Grumpy has mentioned that I seem to be really enjoying myself and I am. I loved my old job and was gutted when I was made redundent but I'm trying to accept that it's the past and concentrate on the future and become "a optimistic optimist" to quote Drat as this new role is proving challenging and I am enjoying the challenge.

I've seen whats happened to people who were made redundent from my last place and couldn't 'let it go' and have become very bitter and twisted. There's no way I want that to happen to me.

Dress down day tomorrow and we get to use the computers for the first time. It should be busy, challenging and fun. Now if only our trainers can stop saying Do Do and it should be almost perfect.

Later folks.

Who, What, Where, When and How

I think we've finally reached that point of the year that I'm going to have to appeal to Grumpy to set the central heating to come on of a morning as it was oh so cold this morning. I really wanted to do what calvin from Calvin and Hobbes does in a situation like this and stay in bed until it's as warm outside as it is in it. Unfortunatly as Companies don't accept that excuse for not turning up to work I really had to get up.

I just made sure I got dressed really quickly.

Work was also interesting if very tough today as we had a lot of rather intense training this morning. It was quite difficult but I think it's in part as it's all theortical right now. Once we move onto some practical training we think/hope it will become easy as we will be putting the theory into practice.

In my old job there was a team 'joke' that everyone used to fine it really funny if somebody used the phrase 'Do, do' such as " I do, do that'. Of course irony being what it is our trainer at the moment keeps using 'Do, Do' again and again and again. It's very hard to be serious when you have to fight the urge to giggle like a naughty child.

This afternoon we will doing a training session on communication and had to list three features and the benefits of said features for three random items. And there were very random items as we had a Cat, a Rose and a Safety pin! The best feature I came up with was for the rose where I said that the feature was a high pecieved value and the benefit of this was it increased your chances of romantic opportunities. Which all the girls thought was very good and most of the guys thought I'd gone nuts!

The weathers been a bit rainy again today. I guess it's another bit of proof that winter is upon us. I guess I should really invest in a winter coat that can fit over my suit jackets otherwise I might get a bit cold waiting for the bus to and from the car park.

We've got another rather intense day of training tomorrow, before a slightly more sedate day of computer training on Friday which is a 'dress down day'. Which won't be a weird for me as everyone else I'll just be wearing what I used to wear to work for the past seven years.

anyhow,

Later folks.

Deep weird and random

Like most people dispite my best efforts sometimes my thoughts can wonder, like this afternoon whilst in a training sesson that was being held in a computer room, meaning we were having to sit on stereotypical office chairs, wheels etc the thought suddenly struck me. I wonder what will happen to my chair? As in the chair I used at my last company, which I used for at least the last four years.

At which point my good old inner voice decided to take over and berate me for thinking of things which were completly pointless and focus! As why was I even thinking about a damn chair.

Still asides from that short interlude into complete pointlessness it's been a very interesting day indeed as our training has started to ramp up, we also got our training schdules for the next four weeks and to say it's packed is a understatement! I did have a brief moment of panic looking at everything I'm going to need to learn. It was at this point that my inner voice decided to interject again ( it's being remarkably optomistic these days) saying to stop whinning as if I read a book in a few hours and can memorise the background to tabletop wargames forward and backwards there's nothing to stop me doing this.

To use a cliche I'm certainly throwing 110% into this as to use yet another cliche there's everything to play for.

As you can guess I am certainly enjoying myself with this challenge. Plus one of the other trainees today thought I was 22 and wouldn't believe I was 28 which pretty much made the day for me.

Well it's institute tomorrow and we'll have our new 'official' substitute teacher for when Bro H is out and about.

Plus it's the fair next week which should be a lot of fun.

anyway,

Later folks.

New beginnings

It's been a very interesting day if somewhat surreal.

I mean I got up at the usual time for work, I got ready for work in the same way and when I left the house I even left geektown in the same way.

However that's where the similiarity ended because as it a seemingt nod to Doctor Who when I reached a certain point I turned left instead of right and travelled in a new direction for the first time in almost seven years.

The new company I work for is well known and is based at the nearby airport. This means that the distance I have to travel each day has been more then halved.

Not bad, even if this means I have to dress like a grown up for work. They did mention today that as long as we wore a shirt that would be fine but we don't have to wear a tie. Not that I would dare do that as it's one of Grumpys biggest bug bears these days. People wearing shirts without ties!

It's also a little longer to get from the car park to the office that it was at my last place. A mile and a half to be exact. Fortunatly the company puts on a free mini bus so you don't have to face a long walk each morning.

There were six other people starting today as well so it's been a very interesting day. It was just a basic 'welcome' session today. The training will begin in earnest tomorrow. It's a very regimented and comprehensive training regime as we've got four weeks of training ahead of us, with certificates, assessments etc. We should be fun, it's certainly going to be a interesting challenge and to be honest I'm looking forward to it. It should be interesting as it's similiar to what I was doing but also very different.

The system of breaks was different as well. Rather then one hour for lunch you get two 15 minute breaks, one in morning, one in the afternoon and a half an hour for lunch. However during training you get your lunch boosted to one hour and you still get your two breaks. It was weird at lunch today as i found myself at a loss as to what to do. At my last place I could paint some models and did so every lunch time for probably the last four years so it seemed strange not to be painting.

Even though this new place is based quite near a junction of the motorway it was surprisingly easy to get home quickly. Of course I've probably just fated myself for tomorrow but c'est la vie.

It's good to be working again. I know that everyone who works will at some point or another will complain about their work and say that they want a break. However when you don't have work you find yourself at a massive loss as to what to do. I have to admit that as October wore on I found that the time I was getting up was gradually getting later and later.

Not to say that I was sleeping in till Mid day or anything even close to that but it was later then usual that's for sure.

The Loughborough fair is due to be here shortly. Should be fun, if we can get a YSA trip together that is.

anyway,

Later folks.

Here comes the ole rain again

I woke up early this morning to a sound I hadn't heard in a while. Rain hitting the window and there was rather a lot of it.


Yes Winter seems to be upon us as we had what seemed to be our first major winter storm. The rain was coming in horizontal at one point the wind was so strong and lets not forget the sheer amount of water of the roads. My little KA was giving off a bow wave that would have done a destroyer proud.


There was also a amusing game of musical cars this morning. Which is like Musical chairs but with cars.


Grumpy has started to play indoor bowls on a Sunday morning. However as Tapdance had borrowed his car for the weekend we only had my car. So I drove into church and he then went off to bowls before coming back to pick us up from church. Simples as the meerkat would say. Well not quite because as I was giving someone a lift Grumpy had to sit in the back of the KA and the back of the KA is not a easy thing to get into and out of if you're any taller then about oh 4 ft tall. I don't think Grumpy was too impressed when I had a fit of the giggles watching him trying to get out.


It was also weird getting to church a lot later then I've needed to for a while as I was released as the Ward bulletin co-ordinator last week. They've now decided to switch to a montly email newsletter instead. I will not miss trying to get info out of people at all!

anyhow I am intending to have a easy evening before getting a early night as I will be getting up bright and early tomorrow as to use a cliche, a new chapters about to begin.

Later folks