Noughty Films...

An old schoolmate of mine is now a film critic (amongst other things) and he asked us via Facebook to list our top 5 films of the last decade. I thought my reply would be worth a lazy blog post on here - please feel free to comment with your top five:


I don't get to watch many new films unless my niece and nephew are staying so I didn't think I would find much in the last decade. Then, thanks to IMDB, I realised just how long 10 years really is and how tough it is to narrow down my top five!

So here goes and I'll start with a cheat:
Lord of the Rings (Trilogy). I'm probably the only person left of my generation who still hasn't read ANY of the books (despite owning them) so watching the film was my way of catching up

Gangs of New York. I just loved the atmosphere

Casino Royale. In my [controversial] opinion getting Bond films back where they should be

Pay It Forward. Great philosophy that I actually try and live by anyway and top candidate for "well I certainly didn't see that coming..."

Happy Feet. One of my favourite films of all time. Unashamed family fun, great animation, imaginative soundtrack, singing and dancing whilst saving the world and Brittany Murphy sings Queen - what more could you ask for!

Close contenders that didn't quite make the top 5:
Eulogy - very funny but primarily because I'm in love with Zooey Deschanel
Mamma Mia - put your brain on one side, relax and enjoy some fun and Abba music for a couple of hours
Bubba Ho-tep - great film currently residing in my "wtf" category
King Kong - I thought it was an excellent remake up until the nonsense in Central Park which I thought was completeley superfluous

And that concludes the voting for the Seany jury...

Long time no blog...

Well the old place doesn't look much different from the last time I dropped by, although maybe a bit neglected. So what's happened in the last month?

The biggest and best event had to be the wedding of my friends Nick and Claire where I was honoured to be the best man. It was a textbook wedding with everything you (and of course they) could have wished for. My speech seemed to be well received, but the fact that I was the only person at the top table drinking the red wine meant that I was suitably relaxed when the time came.

Christmas has got a bit closer, but all presents are bought, wrapped and where appropriate, posted and received at the other end. The folks are having Christmas Dinner with me this year, I'm at theirs for Boxing Day breakfast, then we're off to see New Year in with Little Sis & Family.

I missed my blogday on 23rd November, but I guess after 5 years of waffling on here, I'm entitled to a bit of a quiet spell now and then.

The big question - what's happening at work? Well nothing new. I'm still there until the end of February, although I can't say I'm looking forward to saying goodbye to my team a week on Wednesday. The good news is that people do appear to be finding jobs and getting interviews, so even though I haven't had any success to date, it seems only fair that those leaving first find new placements first.

So I think that's about everything I have to report for now. I hope it won't be so long before I'm back again, but just in case, I'll take this chance to wish anyone reading this a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Oh and of course in the time honoured tradition, I've prepared another silly little animation.
'Ave a good 'un...

New Trick for an Old Dog...

It's been a change of scenery this week as I've taken a few days away from the usual day-job learning how to drive a fork lift truck.

I had been looking forward to it anyway, but it turned out to be much more fun than I expected. There were three of us on the course, all learning from scratch, all approached it with the same sense of humour and all just there to for CV fodder rather than any desperate desire to drive fork lift trucks for a living.

Each day was a gradual progression:
Monday we learned how to manoeuvre the truck both forwards and in reverse, initially in a straight line, then in clockwise and anti-clockwise circles and finally a tight figure of eight.
Tuesday we moved on to the hydraulics, how to lower and raise the forks, tilt them backwards and forwards to the appropriate levels.
Wednesday we built the test course and had a few practise runs as our instructor was called away for the day
Thursday was the first test day where we completed the practical test, theory test, pre-check test and I'm pleased to say we all passed.
Friday was the chance to re-run the practical test again to try and improve our scores, which again, I'm pleased to report we all did. Personally, I was delighted to have knocked a further couple of minutes off my time and with 16 less penalty points to come out top of the class. Little things eh?

So as a qualified counterbalance fork lift truck driver, I'm now trying to get a reach truck conversion course organised to expand my repertoire still further. This would seem all the more possible now they've announced that I will be staying with the company now for a further month until the end of February...

Big Dipper...

Its almost a tradition for me to moan about this every year so I thought I would get it out of the way early.

Only my second day driving home from work to the seasonally adjusted clock and yet already so many hundreds of motorists have seemingly forgotten the difference between dipped headlights and main beam.

The lights are supposed to be there for them to see or be seen, not to glare all on-coming traffic into driving off the road. Inconsiderate bunch of bastards...

Pub Report...

Now a more responsible person in my position would be spending every waking minute trying to decide how he's going to earn a crust after the end of January, but some times you just have ot put other people first. With that in mind, I took a trip out to visit my old mate Andy over the weekend to delivery a present and help him to celebrate (?) turning 40 earlier this month.

Thanks to Sharon who was taking little Laura to a more sensible birthday celebration, we had a lift from their remote farm to Ashbourne to see what delights the numerous hostelries had in store for us. With only a couple of hours or so to spend exploring, the itinerary went something like:

George and Dragon: Leatherbritches Dr Johnsons (and great jukebox incidentally)
Ye Old Vault: Deuchars IPA
The Horns: Wytchwood Hobgoblin
The Green Man: Leatherbritches Goldings
Smiths Tavern: Andy had a questionable Hobgoblin, whereas I opted for the much nicer Jennings Cocker Hoop. Pity we only found out as we were about to leave that Marstons Pedigree was their speciality, but a quick half was sufficient to prove the point.
Back to the George & Dragon, where each pint this time was accompanied by a JD to toast Andy's birthday
Back to the Ye Old Vault, but due to a technical problem the barmaid was having while the queue at the bar grew deeper, we panicked and fled back to the George to cram in one last pint and a game of pool before getting the call to say our lift back had arrived.

So there it was Ashbourne, a delightfully picturesque market town with a plethora of real pubs, full of real people and selling real food and most importantly, real ales. I don't really know what more I can tell you other than "go there".

I might possibly add that after a session like that, it probably wasn't the best of ideas to crack open the bottled real ale as soon as we got back to the farm. Possibly even less wise to then take a trip to the nearest village to partake in a further three pints of their real ales which equally went down a treat, although to this day I couldn't tell you what they were...

Taking it all in...

Two job applications still in progress right now, both of which have outlasted the earlier one (not much of a challenge, I admit).

Monday saw my first meeting with the outplacement consultants and I'm pleased to report that I was very pleasantly surprised. Although he complemented me on the quality of my CV, he went on to give me some good ideas towards improving it further still and provided some fascinating insights as so better ways to launch myself into the job market.

While I'm wading through the elements of the outplacement program, I also started the first of my in-house training sessions today. I'd heard a lot of positive feedback about the Basic Laboratory Techniques course and considering I'm part of the Technical Department, I probably should have followed it up earlier. Regardless, I managed to latch on to the course today and I'm glad I made the effort - it was really interesting with the added bonus that I got to play with some kit I otherwise probably would never have done.

Next training course is week after next when I'm on a fork truck driving course - now that's one I'm really looking forward to. I've no long term ambition of becoming a fork truck driver (or lab technician for that matter) but all of this training is being laid on for free and I figure I should take the opportunity to stuff the CV with as wide a range of experiences and training as possible to make myself more employable.

In the meantime, there is another training course being planned in the background that I'm particularly excited about. I can't say too much right now as some considerable strings are being pulled to get it provided for free, but if it works out as planned, I'll certainly be telling you all about it later on...

Our Survey Said...

It's laughable really - the application I sent off last night was returned and rejected mid-morning today!

I can't pretend I'm overly surprised as the last time I applied for a position advertised by this particular agency, the rejection came back even quicker. Seriously concerned the last time, I called them for some feedback on receipt of their email, only to be told that the position was very highly subscribed and she "didn't feel the role best suited my skill set". She then went on to reassure me that I had a strong CV and that she would be happy to work with me to find something else, but she would have to get back to me in a few weeks. You could almost smell the sincerity over the telephone and unsurprisingly I never heard any more from her.

Truth be known, it was the salary and geography that offered the main attraction for this role so perhaps there's a lesson to be learnt there. Not that I'm concerned right now anyway, after all, the game has only just begun...