Right ! End of a good week. Sadly marking the last day that my current boss will be with us. Parting is such sorrow. I've really learned a lot in my time working for Heather. She's such a breath of fresh air.

So looking forward to the weekend though, as I haven't seen Chloe for two weeks. To tired to say that much more.

They were taking the piss... because we bloodywell werent

... This is what greeted me this morning. Boy was I glad that I wasn't on a late night today, as I would have been rather pissed off to have been woken up by the digger working away at 7:30am. At least it meant that I didn't sleep in any longer than I did, which was a good thing, as had I done so, I would have been late for work.

One thing I forgot to mention in last night's blog was that at one point at work we were told that half the toilets in the building were out of order. When an office the size of a large superstore, and with about 2000 people working in it suddenly reduces the available facilities, it does rather have an impact.

We were the furthest away that you could possibly be from the working toilets. Just knowing that the nearest working loo is a good walk away plays on the mind, and makes you aware of the need to use them more. Also meant I wasn't quite so happy to drink as much coffee as I would normally. I don't know if this reaction is typical, but it's how it works for me.

Been another good day today, lots of things done, lots of fun too chatting along with my team. Visit today of the team member I haven't seen for some time went well enough. It's good to see people on the mend after not being themselves for quite a while. It's hard for them if they've off for any real length of time. 

New toy for the cats

I think the cats like their new toy.....

Another day of progress at work. Many things achieved. Many people helped. Many problems solved. Looking good as the count down to the end of month compliance looms. (Like it does every month).

Haven't seen one of our work family for a while, and they're coming in tomorrow. It'll be nice, as this will mean that they get a chance to get used to being around us again.

Another thing looming is that my boss is moving on to greater things. She is being replaced by someone else, who seems very nice, but I am still more than a little bit sad to see my current boss move on. She's been really good for me in that I've learned lots of things from her about how to survive the at times false and insincere world of call centre politics. She is an inspirational leader who tells it like it is, doesn't put up with bollocks and rewards and appreciates effort.

Up sucking to one side, the cats decided to reward me for running out of cat litter (they did still have litter in their tray, it just needed changing). When I came home, after stopping into Tesco to buy some more, and feeding two hungry kitties I set about clearing out and then cleaning the litter tray. Whilst I was doing this, Twilight decided that rather than wait for me to finish she would squat and pee on the Asda carrier bag in the storage cupboard. Nice.

It's all rock'n'roll here.

Monday Monday... (text version)

Been a good day today. Got an upbeat feeling about this week.

Chloe's back in the UK, the ship she was on docked into Portsmouth this evening. I'm glad to know that she's back in old blighty. I'm just a tad amazed that she didn't manage to start a major international incident, war with France, ejection from the European Union or something...

Her priorities are right on though. She was more worried that she'd missed some youtube videos from Yog's cast. (something to do with that Minecraft game she plays incessantly).

 It's now the second month of life with my HTC Wildfire S. I am still rather impressed with the nifty little thing. I'm getting more used to it, and have managed (as you would have seen) to shoot some video on the go with it, and use that to include into my (v)blog.

I have completely forgotten all the excitement that temporarily besotted me about the prospect of an Iphone (4 or otherwise). They still haven't deigned to announce to the world what the future looks like. Personally I think they like messing with us.

No, not feeling like I missed out Iphone wise. I am, however still longing for the Blackberry. I lament about the battery life of the Wildfire S, and although that's got better since I got the Juice Defender App, it does run low to unusable after a day's work, and that's without me really using it that much throughout the day. It's the lack of the keyboard, and the frequency of updates that I could comfortably get on my Blackberry (without shedding loads of battery life). The decision to not pay for unlimited usage, when I don't need that much has worked out ok, I don't actually use it all. I'm not exactly being frugal with my internet usage on the phone, just careful, and I'm not running out of the 1 GB I got with it (£20 a month). Nowhere near running out of voice or text messages.

Either way, it's not possible for me to change this phone, there's no way in hell I can afford to buy a simfree handset to use with this sim, or to get a different contract just on the whimsey that I have yearnings for the joyous ease of the Blackberry real keyboard. Touch type is all well and good, but it's annoyingly inaccurate. It's that couple of milliseconds slow (not anything like the unusable of the old Windows Mobile in the late 90s. God that was torture) and the faff of typing with my fingers.

Maybe I should file my fingers down, to make them easier to use with my phone ? Sharpen them to a point or something. That'd work, right ?

my blog is boring

Another one of those lazy weekends. Even more pointless because I didn't see Chloe this weekend, as she's in France with the school. I had meant to get some cleaning, and some creativity done.

Not cleaning creativity, these are two different subjects.

What is it about me not being motivated to do anything outside of work these days ? I haven't been bothered to put the energy into sorting out the direction to take for 'Made In Pompey'. I'm just not getting any enjoyment out of things, but that's mainly because I'm not actually doing anything to enjoy. What a stupid thing to expect reward without effort.

I have however, been blogging more. But what is it that I'm blogging about, if I'm not actually doing anything worth commenting on ? That's gotta be really boring to read.

Sorry.

After all, my blog is so boring, that I don't even get any angry comments. There are plenty of 'haters' on the internet (people that no matter what will say something horrible about anything that's uploaded). If I'm not provoking even hatred in people, what am I good for ?

Saturday

A working day, being the end of a rather tough week. In human terms some exceptionally difficult stuff is week, I wouldn't know where to begin, even if I could really talk about it. Suffice to say there are some times when I really don't enjoy being a manager. If I did find enjoyment in the things that have been going on this week, then I would definitely be in the wrong job.

Still. You can't make an omelet.....

This half season thing with Doctor Who means that It's nearly October, and next week we'll be treated to the climactic ending. From the spoilers it looks like next week is really going to be a treat.

I'm going to be typically English now, and talk about the weather. We are rapidly descending towards winter, and I'm looking forward to it. Last night it was most definitely nippy. I felt this quite keenly as I'd been waiting around at Havant train station. As normal I'd gotten out of work late, but went for a swift drink. Feeling I deserved it after the week I've had. Today, was glorious warm sunshine. Perhaps Summer's last parting hurrah ?

I've noticed that all the occasions (as few of them that there are) that I've had an alcoholic drink lately, I've plumped for beer. My god. I'm turning into a man.

SOLD

At the second attempt (after being screwed over by some arse from Nigeria) Chloe's netbook has sold on ebay. Sadly not in time for her to have part of the money to take with her on her school trip to France. I think I've done a rather good job of packaging it up..... Just need to get myself in gear and post it off on Saturday.

I'm Dan the digger....

Fancy a spot of digging ? My day off lie in didn't get interrupted by the workmen from the site digging up the Taylor Wimpey sales office car park. Their turning it into the park area that it's meant to be. Which is rather nice. I hadn't expected them to be doing this until the site was much nearer to being completed.

I'm sure it'll be really nice, maybe I'll get to sit out there in the 2012 summer sun, nice cold drink, laptop, and all in reach of my wifi signal.

Chloe goes on her school trip to France at the end of the week. It seems quite a frightening prospect, but I have to catch myself and realise it's not like she is camping on the side of a mountain somewhere with her friends, she's going with the school.

Windy walk

Aside from being woken up by two hungry cats, or the noisy antics of two builders outside the window, this morning had something else unplanned about it. That being that I was suddenly motivated whilst walking to catch the 700 at Hilsea, that I should take that, of all opportunities to try and record some video footage with the camera on my phone.

It came out quite well, I thought. The only grumble is how loud the wind noise is, but it was rather windy, so it is to be expected.

The day at work was strange in that there were only 4 members of the team in today. It's hard to inject some energy into such a small group of people, especially when they aren't the lively ones. Lovely as they are.

Still at least I managed to get on the bus going in the right direction tonight. Here's the film that I made on my mobile whilst walking through said wind, to get to work....

The Magical Mystery Tour

Today, work was, well. Rather work like. Apart from the distinct lack of people in (some off sick, some on holiday) it was unusually quiet - at the start at least - for a Monday. It did get busier later on in the day, but that wasn't until after I'd had my bit of mini drama with Mike.

Every now and then his mickey taking crosses the line, and he seems to be fixated on winding me up to the point where he wants to watch me cop. That's normally annoying enough (annoying that a colleague would do that, annoying that I would react that way, that he's able to 'play' me in that manner), but today he did it in front of the rest of the managers in the zone. In the end I got tired of it and asked him to back the hell off. It all sounds a bit vague, and maybe a tad overly dramatic. Behaving like a premenstrual teenager. Not cool.

Not really something I ever claimed to be. Still I managed to get my point across without swearing, or raising my voice. Much.

When I finally got to the end of my day, without any other dramas. I walked to the bus station, knowing that I needed to get home before the man from Asda turned up with my home delivery. So eager was I to catch the bus home when I got to Havant bus station, that I ended up getting on the number 23 that was traveling the wrong way. I realised this as we went past the college and into Leigh Park, and by this point had figured that even if I got off the bus, the next one that was going to be going back the way I wanted, was the one that I was on, when it made the return journey part of it's circuit.

Luckily I had my Kindle with me, so was pretty well occupied during my little trip. It's quite a nice thing to do, be on the bus as it goes round. Maybe I will try it one day, to get away from any distractions. Just sit on the bus and go round and round, doing some writing. After all with my week pass, it wouldn't cost me anything more than I normally would have to pay out anyway. Hmmm...


Chloe had put her netbook up on ebay (well, I had for her), and we'd both gotten excited about someone that had taken the buy-it-now price of £100. Chloe is really eager to get the money so she can spend some of it when she goes to France at the end of the week. I had a suspicion that something didn't quite ring true, when they contacted me by email. Initially giving a UK address for shipping, but then, when they said they'd completed payment (which they hadn't) they then supplied a Nigerian address.

About as Kosher as a bacon sandwich.

I am still here...

I've got so many ways of getting my opinions 'out there' that I actually don't bother using them.

So, after a gap of 3 months, here I am, September 18th, in bed, sat at my netbook whilst half watching 'He's Just Not That Into You'. Drinking a cup of hot chocolate.

Anyone in the know, may have been reading the blog, and wondering if I'd actually made it to my 39th birthday. I did, and as I am sat here typing this somewhat meandering entry, have made it way past that point.

So many things have happened, all things that you can (if you are at all bothered) catchup with from my vlog.

I don't really do this because I kid myself that other people are remotely interested in what I have to say. I do this for entirely selfish reasons. It's the only time I can get my point across without someone trying to argue with me. 

As it is now three months since I enthusiastically decided to document each day counting down to my 40th birthday (and over nine months since I gave myself the new years' resolution of blogging daily). Time to catch myself up, decide if the targets or goals that I set for myself this year are really ones that I want to achieve, and if so, make sure that they do come true.

Last year turned out to be all about buying the flat. It wasn't until June time that this became apparent. There was a part of me that felt the need to find someone to spend time with, in my new home. I make it sound so clinical.

Have I changed any of my habits ? Have I done anything different ? So why am I expecting to get a different result ? I'm always telling the guys (in my team) at work that if they want different outcomes (in their performance) then they must do something different. As I believe Einstein said 'only a fool does the same thing and expects a different result'.

Just don't do this consistency thing very well. The bit where something becomes routine. Normal. Mundane.