Well, it generates the bills...

It seems I'm in a week of celebrations. Blogday last week, jobday yesterday and today it is exactly one year since I stumbled out of the estate agents with the biggest bunch of keys I've ever laid eyes on - at least one of which opened the front door to my bungalow.

So what have I achieved with the place in the last year?

Entertaining? I still haven't got round to having a barbie, but I've inflicted my culinary creations upon the family two or three times with another visit scheduled this Christmas.

Gardens? Well my uncle very kindly tidied up the front garden a few months ago but other than keeping the lawns reasonably trim, I've done little else.

Decorating? Admittedly, some of the rooms weren't exactly to my taste but I haven't decided what I want to replace them with just yet.

Alterations? None really necessary, although I took the radical step of putting a noticeboard up in the hallway.

Changed lifestyle? Well just over a year ago, I would have been out almost every night whereas I think I've only been out three of four times in the last month (although I make it count when I do get out).

Do I have any regrets? None whatsoever - I still think it's a great little place and probably one of the best decisions I've ever made...

Well, it pays the bills...

It is eleven years today since I... well, I don't know exactly how to describe this.

Joined the company? Not really, seeing as the company merged and changed name a little over two years ago.
Started my job? Not strictly true either as this is my fifth role there (although I'm pleased to say they've all been progressions).
First walked in the door? No, I'd been there several times previously as account manager when my previous employer supplied labels to them.
I started working in Scunthorpe (we know how proud I would be to claim that)? Well partly true, although I was based at our Grimsby site for four of those years.
OK, it's eleven years since I left the security of my steady job in a small pond to become a small fish in a very large one.

Funnily enough, I remember after the first few weeks, I'd decided it was the biggest mistake I'd ever made and started planning to move on again - clearly without success. So eleven years later, I'm still here; the pond has got bigger (as has the fish) and I'm still trying to figure out how I always seem to find myself swimming upstream in a pond...

An encouraging start...

As intended, a Friday night in and an early start this morning; everything went exactly to plan and by 10:00am I'd bought all the presents I set out to buy from exactly where I'd intended to buy them. None of that e-shopping angst for me this year thank you very much.

Time to grab a quick cuppa with the folks whilst in town and then set off home through the millions of people who'd obviously also decided that today was a good day to start preparing for Christmas. Still, I got home without too much delay and managed to get all the presents wrapped this afternoon.

The next challenge will be trying to pick an opportune time to get the food shopping in before the hoardes descend on Tesco. I suspect another early morning start may do the trick - the widespread panic buying is bound to kick off before too long. After all, we've only got 1 month to go before the big day and they are only open... hmm... oh yes, every single day and most of those for 24 hours...

A weekend off...

I promised myself a weekend off the pop this week for a number of reasons; the main one being that I'm absolutely knackered, but I also ought to start making some preparations for Christmas in order to change the bungalow from "sleeps one" category to "sleeps five".

As we wouldn't be doing the usual Friday pub supper, I decided to raid the freezer to see what needed using up and happily settled for steak, egg and chips. If I'd paid a bit closer attention I might have realised that I'd taken out a pork steak rather than beef but it did the trick all the same.

Now the topic of Christmas preparation got me thinking of what I would need to buy and equally, what was still left from last year. Right at the back of one cupboard was some lager that I'd obviously bought for someone else's consumption which had happily sailed past it's best before date. Fighting my original urge to just pour it down the sink, I decided there was only one other thing for it - onion rings in beer batter.

Not bad if I say so myself, although admittedly not my most taxing of culinary challenges. Anyway, it was certainly a better alternative to drinking the rubbish...

Many Happy Returns...

I can hardly believe that today the blog has reached it's 2nd birthday, or that the picture I found is a perfect match for the one used in the last blog birthday post



For as long as I can remember, I've never been successful at keeping a diary or journal for either personal or business purposes (except for Outlook, without which I would now be shamefully helpless). That said, here we are and thankfully my muse shows no signs of deserting me just yet, so I guess I'll keep it going for now.

The observant among you may have noticed that I've stopped the "special" posts every time the counter passes another 1000; not that I'm not extremely grateful for your continued interest, but simply because I thought it had become way too corny (even by my standards).

However, this special occasion provides me with an excellent opportunity to thank all the visitors over the last two years and here's hoping I can keep providing you all with many happy returns...

Todays lessons...

360 degree appraisal feedback: day two.

We discussed management styles but spent the majority of the morning sharing our appraisal feedback with the rest of the team, identifying areas for development and seeking feedback and advice from each other.

After lunch, we learnt that it is possible to build a bridge out of newspaper, sellotape and string that is capable of holding 250g over numerous points at a height of 20cm. And that our team designed the better one. Not that it matters. No, really it doesn't. Well, alright, not much.

Like many courses I've attended it's been extremely valuable, worthwhile and provided a lot of food for thought for the future, but the challenge now is to keep everyone's momentum and transferring what we've learnt into the "real" workplace. I had barely got back to my desk before I was surrounded by 30-odd e-mails, messages on the answerphone, several queries in person and two days of backlog; all of which needed handling whilst considering how I would approach it as the new improved Seany.

Oh and in case you were wondering, it was "Windmills of Your Mind", but the next line wasn't an appropriate title for anything I wanted to say today...

Like a wheel within a wheel...

Reporting as promised at the end of day one of the 360 degree appraisal feedback session.

Well I did say "maybe". I'm afraid modesty prevents from sharing any scores or detailed information, but suffice to say that the feedback was a lot more positive than I'd expected. It was a strange experience sat poised to open a booklet full of opinions from colleagues from all levels within the business and despite the initial ego boost, there's no escaping that there are still plenty areas for improvement.

It seems that it's often not as much about changing your personality to suit the corporate mould as finding ways to change people's perceptions. For example, whereas some people apparently find me open, friendly and approachable, others suggested I can be abrupt and could do well to listen to people more. Well anyone who thinks I'm abrupt can go screw themselves.

Joking aside, it has proved to be an enlightening day where we learnt lots about ourselves and each other; not least of which being that we couldn't build a domed shelter out of newspaper and sellotape within 25 minutes.

Tomorrow - personal development plan and I assume we're talking "Plan B"; primary plan still being to get my 6 numbers drawn in Saturday's lotto...

Like a circle in a spiral...

For the next couple of days, I'll be taking a break from my current mayhem at work to get involved in something a little bit different.

Last year, we introduced 360 degree appraisals for our senior management team and it was deemed successful enough to roll out to us lesser mortal managers this year. For those who aren't familiar with the process, instead of a one-on-one appraisal with your boss, this entails completing a questionnaire to appraise yourself, then the same form is sent to your line manager, your direct reports and 6 peers of your choice. Have you any idea how difficult it is trying to find 6 people peeing all at once? Ahem.

Well tomorrow is the start of our 2-day feedback session and I must admit I'm quite intrigued. I think I've a pretty good idea what my boss thinks of me and I'd like to think I'm in touch with my team's opinion, but I made a deliberate point of selecting peers from a broad spectrum across the business to ensure I got a balanced perspective. Sure, it would have been easy enough to pick out half a dozen workmates who were guaranteed to say something nice, but where's the fun in that?

Everyone I've spoken to who has been on the sessions so far said it was quite an enlightening experience and were surprised just how much they got out of it, so by this time tomorrow I will know first hand and I'll share my experiences accordingly. Maybe.

As I've always said, I wouldn't be paranoid if everyone didn't have it in for me...

The Diary of Seany...

I can't believe it's a week since I was here last, but I guess if there had been anything worth telling you all, I would made time to write something.

Work has taken up much of my spare time in the last week; by Friday evening, I'd managed to give them a full day's work for free. On a cheerier note, it looks like I won't be working between Christmas and New Year this year, but it's clear that our traditional Christmas shutdown can no longer be taken for granted.

There is no doubt whatsoever that the highlight of the week was Chris and Debi's wedding yesterday. I've quite famously managed to avoid the deed so far, but theirs was just the kind of day I think I would want.

We headed off to the registry office of a lovely little market town not too far from Grimsby where the service itself was suitably tasteful, although surprisingly quick - we were only in there for a little over ten minutes.

Back into Grimsby for an informal but really enojoyable reception with an abundance of buffet and to our surprise, the DJ also had karaoke set up. For those who've never had the mis-fortune to witness it first hand, Seany, alcohol and karaoke are not a good mixture and I knew it could only be a matter of time.

It started with four of us joining the groom for a rousing chorus of Swing Low Sweet Chariot, although we were cut short when the words stopped appearing on screen (I'm not entirely sure why - it's not the most complex of lyrics). Shortly afterwards I was back on the mic singing Rhinestone Cowboy accompanied by Mum and my last song of the afternoon was a re-lived nightmare.

Just to recall it for you, we were at Debi's sisters 18th birthday where they had karaoke and after a bevvy or two too many, I picked out The Diary of Horace Wimp by ELO. The music started, I sang along, following the lyrics and it all seemed to be going OK when the horror suddenly struck me that there was an incredibly high note coming soon. My heart sank and panic set in as I realised I couldn't just change my mind at the end of the first verse so I swallowed what little pride I had left and just went for it. Amazingly, judging by the positive reaction from the crowd, I'd got away with it.

It seemed only fitting (especially seeing as Chris remembered the original event) to put myself through the experience again - hardly confident even though I'd blagged it before.

There was a break for a couple of hours when we retired to the Tap, after which it was back out to the evening reception. More beer, more food, more karaoke but by about 9:30, I'd begun to realise that the Martinis, Malibus, sambucas and Corkys during our "break" at the Tap were maybe not such a clever idea. That said, I can't beat myself up for leaving early - after all, we'd been on the go for 9 hours or more by then.

So an excellent day was had by all and they are both on their way to Thailand for their honeymoon. Unsurprisingly, my agenda back home today has been somewhat quieter...

A little too late methinks...

News just in:

I've just been watching Good Food Live and they've been tasting a few bottled beers including Wychwood Hobgoblin (which was their favourite too incidentally).

"A strong fruity ale, but with distinctive toffee overtones to it. Definitely too strong to be considered as a session beer"

Oops...

Room with a view...

I'm sure this will mean nothing to anyone else, but today has been a momentous day for me at work. No promotion, no relief of duties and certainly no promise of bags of money, but you have to cling to whatever little perks you can get.

When I first took on this new role about two years ago, I was delighted that it also provided me with my own generously- proportioned office and wait for it... an opening window! OK, it does overlook a car park on an industrial estate in Scunthorpe, but a window is a window and I rarely get time to gaze out of it anyway.

So why the big deal today? Well our main reception and meeting room have both been undergoing some refurbishment and alternatives had to be found.

First the meeting room - now who's got a decent sized office that we could convert? This seemed like a good time to keep my head down and my gob shut (not before time, many would suggest); end result being my office had appeared to go without consideration.

Next the reception, which they had decided to relocate to a portakabin in the car park. Had I escaped completely? Well not exactly - they dropped the portakabin right outside my office window where it stayed for the last couple of months; possibly explaining why nobody had pursued the meeting room idea.

However, late this afternoon, a bloke with a crane (I'd like to think Bob and Lofty, but I didn't actually see them) finally took it away again. Just in time for it to get dark outside...

My work here is done...

Well here it is folks, a bit brighter but content-wise nothing really different from the last incarnation. I still can't bring myself to change the St Michaels Mount header so I've settled for changing the colour scheme instead.

When I first played around with the new Blogger beta templates, I particularly liked the idea of twisties to tidy up the archives but to be honest, couldn't figure out how to apply them to my existing blog. I'd been putting off the alternative because selecting a new template means losing all previous customisations to the old one (of which I had quite a few) but as it turned out, it didn't take too long after all. In fact it still left me enough time to rustle up some supper and iron a fortnights worth of shirts (which serves me right for not doing any last weekend I guess).

So now it's back to the familiar problem of trying to come up with some worthwhile content...

Caution: Man at Work...

Well everything went to plan yesterday and I'm now the proud owner of a sparkly shiny house, even if it did involve my having to work like a person who's not very good at finding similies trying to find a similie to illustrate how hard I worked yesterday.

Today is therefore my day of rest, or more accurately, my day of doing something a bit more along my lines of enjoyable, so I've decided to give the blog another makeover. After all, it will shortly be time to celebrate it's 2nd birthday so perhaps it's an appropriate time for a change of image anyway.

It's quite possible that I won't get it finished today as I'm not too familiar with the Blogger Beta and my html is a little rusty, but I'll have some fun trying. So, if things are missing or disorganised for a little while, please do not adjust your set...

Something for the weekend...

Despite my attempts to throw as many pints of Hobgoblin down my neck as humanly possible last night, I was up with the larks this morning as clear as a bell. This bodes well for the weekend ahead.

I suddenly realised while making a cuppa this morning that I am at the right end of a completely commitment-free weekend as all of my original plans have been cancelled for one reason or another. That's probably not that out of the ordinary for a lot of people, but I can't remember the last time I wasn't either going out, or unpacking from a trip away, or packing in preparation for a trip away, or more recently, full of cold and feeling generally sorry for myself.

So, facing the prospect of two free days ahead, I need to find something to do. I've already lost a few (virtual) dollars at internet poker this morning so I'll give that a miss. I ought to write something for the blog seeing as I haven't updated it since Tuesday but that's not going to take more than half an hour or so.

I guess I'll have to take my pick from cleaning, washing, ironing, gardening, cutting hair, Christmas shopping, building shelves, cooking meals, baking bread, filing away bills, finishing the work I brought home, re-potting plants, and so the list continues.

First things first. Time for another cuppa after which it will be just about the right time to see what delights Rachel's cooking up for us this morning...

Sign of the times...

At this time of year it's prudent for us all to keep an extra eye on the roads in the mornings, but today for the umpteenth time, I could see flashing yellow lights in the distance rather like this:



Clearly there was need for caution ahead but as I got closer I still couldn't quite make out the centre panel:



In fact, I was almost next to the thing when the warning finally became fully visible:



I join the motorway at Barnetby Top junction where, irrespective of local weather conditions, I suspect there is some kind of contraption nearby that belches out the thickest of fog into the surrounding area most mornings. In fact, I imagine that the majority of people who pass that way regularly would be more surprised if there wasn't fog in the air.

So, I thought while we are using valuable resources to power these things, perhaps they could consider this hazard warning for fog-free areas...

Food, Glorious Food...

Not that I've had a day of overly excessive eating, but I've certainly heard enough about it for one day.

First off this morning came the shock announcement that school dinner numbers are declining as a result of the recent campaign to enforce healthy school meals. I hope you're sat down whilst reading this but they had some kids on camera admitting that they'd rather eat chocolate and crisps than the new healthy dinners. I'm sure at their age I'd have thought similar but that didn't mean to say we got any choice in the matter. Added to which, Mum was a cook in the school kitchen so I didn't dare say otherwise anyway.

I'd just about recovered from this shock announcement when my drive home was disturbed by some indivual from Sustain bleating on about the latest Burger King advert. If you haven't seen it yet, it's a very amusing parody of the 1972 Helen Reddy hit "I Am Woman", except that it consists of several stereotype blokes munching on double whoppers and singing about being men. Believe it or not, this Sustain bunch of do-gooders are asking the Government to prohibit this advert before the watershed as people may associate unhealthy eating with being manly. As if the Government haven't got anything better to worry about. There's a copy of the advert here but you'd better be quick as it will probably be banned altogether before long.

Alright, I know they are entitled to their opinion, but so am I which is why I kept shouting "Oh fuck right off" repeatedly at the radio. Not one of my most productive protests I admit but it was a spur of the moment thing.

Resisting temptation to call in at Burger King on the way home out of spite (any excuse eh?), I drove straight home and made a delicious healthy sandwich of home baked granary bread, roast lamb (trimmed) with mint & mayonnaise dressing. And guess what? I'm still overweight and I don't care...

Remember, Remember...

So this is my first bonfire night since I moved here and I'm guessing that either they really like their fireworks round these parts or someone declared war while I wasn't paying attention...

Lazy Sunday...

I think it will be a quiet one today after yesterdays fun & games.

Knowing what was ahead later in the day, I rustled up a fried breakfast, albeit with gammon as I didn't have any bacon. The trip to the car showroom didn't bring forth any real surprises. There was no doubt that they certainly wanted my car but they had nothing reasonable to offer in exchange, so the sum total of the morning's achievements was a free cup of coffee.

I got to the Tap for 12 noon as agreed, and wondered briefly whether I'd been set up as it was about half an hour before I saw any sign of the other stag day participants. I'll not give a blow by blow account of the afternoon, but I know that by teatime, the party had dwindled to just three of us. I can recall at least 16 drinks of one kind or another in nine different pubs, a train ride, a very nice Indian meal and by 10:00pm, I reached the point where I felt OK but could not physically drink any more [very rare and a little disturbing]. That seemed like a good point to opt for the taxi home, leaving the other two to go and watch some dancers from Poland and Lapland. Or something like that...

Grand Day Out...

Debbie & Chris, two of our Tap regulars, are getting married in a couple of weeks time which means we've some traditions to get out of the way.

Today marks Stag Day. Whatever happened to stag nights? I thought the idea was for a "last night of freedom" before getting wed, but it appears that Chris isn't taking any chances and we're all joining him for a last day of freedom.

Of course, it's not uncommon for stag parties to take place out of town and for whole weekends at a time now, but I think we'll be pleased to get through today. Strange thing is, knowing I've got this ahead of me, I'm sat here writing this at ten past six on a Saturday morning...

Car nt believe my ears...

A little over 2 months ago, you may recall my telling you that a local car dealership rang me to say they had some unbelievable offers on and could do a great deal if I'd consider trading in my car. To cut a long story short, despite a few fanciful ideas at first, I walked out a week or so later with a newer upgraded version of the same car. Just like I had the time before.

I don't think I mentioned it at the time, but the day before I was due to collect the new car, I had a call from one of their salesmen telling me that they had some unbelievable offers on and could do a great deal if I'd consider trading in my car. Feeling charitable, I decided to save him any further embarrassment and told him that one of his colleagues had just beaten him to it on the telesales list.

Well, guess who rang me tonight? Another salesman from the same dealership explaining that they were short of models of my particular car and could do me a great deal if I'd consider trading it in. Let me just remind you at this point that the cars have all been 1.6lt Ford Focus of some description or other and according to the logbooks, have never been owned by anyone famous.

It seems that despite my having assured him about my short-lived ownership, his offer is quite genuine so I've got an appointment this weekend to go and discuss what they've got to offer. This could be my opportunity to live out my original mid-life-crisis plan of buying something a bit silly, but I suspect I'll probably come away with yet another Focus...

Scunthorpe calling...

It occurs to me while typing today's title that it also happens to be a much treaured pastime of mine.

That aside, tomorrow promises a little something out of the ordinary at work. Initially it was looking like another overseas for the latter end of this week but I managed to wriggle out of it on account of other commitments back in good ol' Blighty. It seems perhaps I spoke too soon.

Tomorrow sees the presentation of our new computer system prototype and this posed a bit of a logistical issue as the presentation takes place in one country but there are lots of people in this one who need to see it to but can't all be there. Our new conference room with the latest in multimedia communication gadgets isn't quite ready yet so we've had to improvise somewhat.

So at 9:30 tomorrow morning, the presentation starts in Portugal and I will be in a training room in sunny Scunny surrounded by telephones, microphones, speakers, computers, projectors, screens and a room full of colleagues, trying to facilitate the same full-day presentation from 1000 miles away.

I can't wait - it's got "good glitch-free fun" written all over it...