Time for bed...

More lovely weather, so more fun in the garden to be had. The soil in my garden is particularly poor (probably more accurately described as clay with an inch or two of topsoil) so the only chance I had of growing anything edible in there was by building a raised bed.

So, thanks to a kindly local scaffolding supplier who let me have a couple of old scaffold boards for a fiver, a few bits of wood I had kicking around in the garage, some compost and a bit of time (which I have no shortage of right now) I managed to convert a little corner of the garden from this




















To this




















Next decision is what to grow in there. Carrots and onions are quite easy, but are also ridiculously cheap all year round so I'd rather plant something that will return real value for the effort put in. I like the idea of a salad garden right outside the kitchen door, but there is only this little 8x3' area to work with so I'm going to have to limit my choices somehow.

I'll update as the plot thickens (yeah, he's still got it!)...

Not so hairy biker...

It comes as quite a surprise just how much exercise I obviously got chasing up and downstairs at the office or around the factory, or more accurately, how unfit I seem to have become now that exercise has been removed from my daily routine.

It's not that often I have the excuse to go very far of late and when I do, it tends to be in the car, but last week with no more incentive than a bright morning, I decided to hop on the bike that I bought with oh so good intentions last year (and to be honest, hasn't been very far since). A little wary of exactly how unfit I was, I found myself back home again after only four miles or so and frankly, a little ashamed of how wobbly my legs were and how out of breath I was.

This morning, greeted with a similar excuse of fine weather, I headed off in another direction towards the coast and returned home having covered about 8 or 9 miles, still with equally wobbly legs but admittedly not so short of breath. Big difference today was the rediscovery of how pleasant it is to take a leisurely ride out on a sunny day, enjoying the country lanes and exchanging pleasantries with several other cyclists I passed along the way. So much so, I'm quite happy to get out there again a bit more often.

Like most of my mates, in my teens I would think nothing of cycling those sort of distances and much more, several times a week, probably on the grounds that it was the easiest and most effective form of transport I had. Of course that was a lot of years (and several stone) ago, but having just realised that it was a year as of yesterday that I bought this bike, I really ought to start getting a bit more use out of it and with a bit of luck, will get a bit fitter in the process.

No ambitious claims or predictions this time though - Lance Armstrong I certainly ain't...

A tour of the grounds...

You've got to love the British weather; I managed to get sunburnt arms only yesterday whilst sat reading in the garden, yet today we're back to grey skies, persistent rain, jumpers and the central heating back on.

I've not usually been one for posting heaps of piccies on here but inspired by Delcatto's recent post of potting activity, I thought I would share some photos of what's been going on in the garden over the last few months. You may notice a theme of gardening on the cheap...

Firstly let me show you the trees, starting with a hazel tree actually grown from a nut and currently standing a couple of feet tall














Next along is a blue spruce, actually bought from a garden centre, but on the cheap as I chose to make a project of it rather than spend 40-odd quid for a more fully grown one













Then in the corner is the first apple tree, a Cox's Orange Pippin. This one actually had one apple on it when I bought it so I know it worked at the time.













Currently the tallest in the garden (although looking a bit weary at the moment) is an oak tree. Affectionately known to the family as the Zoe Oak as it was grown from an acorn planted by my Dad around the time my niece was born 10 years ago. Transplanted from Mum & Dad's garden late last year, I'll feel happier when it reassures me that it has survived the journey.








The second apple tree is a Spartan, predominantly picked because it fruits later in the season than the Cox's. Once they are both settled, between here and Mum and Dad's garden we hope to enjoy a few consecutive months of free apples.











The last tree in the garden is a Calfornian Giant Redwood. OK, not quite so giant yet (approx 2 feet tall) but this was grown from a seed planted by Dad around the time my nephew was born nearly six years ago. I share similar concerns here as I do with the oak, that this may not have endured the transplant & journey too well, but time will tell I guess









My last "trees" are from my attempt to emulate Dad's success of growing trees from seed and resulted from my planting the contents of some dried and emptied pine cones. Currently reaching the dizzy heights of approx 4cm tall, there are two survivors from a considerably larger number of seeds.










Along the long border of the garden, are a dozen or so boxwood shrubs, all grown from cuttings taken from the front garden and therefore, falling nicely into my preferred price range












Meanwhile... back in the greenhouse...

Rather than dig out a herb garden I opted to buy ten planters, loads of seeds and a couple of plants. To date, only the plants have shown any signs of growth, but it's still early days yet.












In fact, the greenhouse crops have yet to really show any signs of success. Having planted two lots of tomatoes, peppers and spring onion seeds, it is only the latter that have started doing anything and will shortly need moving to more substantial pots











There are a couple of other pots in the greenhouse which I've planted out of curiosity. Firstly a ginger root this weekend (obviously nothing to show you yet) but one of the garlic cloves has certainly sprung to life












My hopes are pinned on all of these to start producing some shoots soon.















Finally, is the Kiwi Fruit plant I bought for a couple of quid last year, largely out of curiosity to see whether they could be grown in the UK. The picture here would seem to suggest not...

The Waiting Game...

Well we're into week seven of the unemployment game and I can't pretend I'm getting on with it too well. I should be grateful for that mindset I guess, as there seems to be no shortage of individuals quite happy with their lot as I wade amongst them during the bi-weekly humiliation ritual of signing on. I think on reflection so far it's all of the waiting that I'm finding so frustrating.

My job search criteria is now extended to anything within a 20 mile radius with at least 2/3 of my previous salary but vacancies are still few and far between. When you do apply, nobody ever replies unless it's an invitation for interview, so you wait around wondering until an appropriate amount of time has passed before following it up.

I'm registered with about 20 different employment agencies but with only one exception so far, they seem more interested in having lots of names on their books than placing anyone in suitable roles. There's only so often you can update your CV as an excuse to contact them and give them a shove (I'm currently chasing them all every 2 weeks), so in the meantime you find yourself waiting.

In an attempt to make myself more employable, I've tried to enrol on some training courses. The ECDL IT course was relatively easy to get on and I completed the 18 week course in 2 weeks, but I'm waiting for the Easter holidays to finish so I can take the final exams.

The PTLLS (Adult Education Teaching) course is proving more troublesome. I have filled out the same registration form umpteen times now and had the same accompanying "How to look for work" workshops in the process, but each organisation just keeps referring me onto another one. I don't understand what all of the delay is - there are millions of pounds set aside for training "victims" of redundancy, but the red tape I've encountered on this exercise makes it crystal clear that it's almost impossible actually getting your hands on any of it. I have another meeting with another training organisation on the same topic next week.

To my absolute amazement (and to an extent, shame) I seem to find myself spending any spare time either in the garden or the greenhouse. Quite frankly, not the best choice of hobbies for someone who has a problem with too much waiting around. There seems to be some signs of new life in the garden now, but I'll save the details of those for another post.

But on current performance, who knows how long I'll keep you all waiting before you get to read that...

Snow joke...

Happy New Year! I've always said you can't beat a deluge of snow and a healthy coating of black ice to add a touch of excitement to the daily commute.

For some reason I feel obliged to share this morning's incident; could possibly be described as a blonde moment, would that I had sufficient hair to dye blonde in the first place.


So yesterday morning the car was covered in a couple of inches of snow and without stopping to think, I unlocked the car from the remote key then opened the door to watch a handful of snow fall inside the car right onto the drivers seat. Cue a few harsh words muttered beneath my breath whilst wondering why they design car doors which allow that to happen.

This morning in full view of my snow-scraping neighbours, the car was in similar condition but I'd remembered what had happened yesterday and brushed off all of the excess snow from the door before opening it. Car seat perfectly clear this time, cue smug, self satisfied smile to the neighbours. Unsatisfied with my little victory, whilst stood there I then decided to take the de-icer and scraper from the door compartment, reach inside the car and turn the key in the ignition so the car could be warming up while I cleared the remainder.

Unfortunately the windscreen wipers, still on from when I had parked up the night before, decided at this point to remove the deep covering of snow from the windcreen and yes... you guessed it, deposit the entire lot all over my seat, footwell and pretty much any other little opening it could settle into on the way down.

Bloody weather...

The end is nigh... or is it...

Evenin' all. I hope anyone looking in has had a nice Christmas and is looking forward to the new year.

On the subject of looking to the future, I posted this on Facebook a little earlier, but now I've decided to follow Delcatto's lead and post it on the blog too.

It's important that this message is spread as far and wide as possible. I appreciate that it is a long video clip but please believe me when I say that it is definitely worth taking some time to watch it...

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...

Gizza Job...

The moment finally arrived last Tuesday and I received the letter giving me notice that my employment terminates on 29th January.

I had expected it to be a little later than that and I genuinely think its unwise to let me go quite so early in the overall scheme of things, but it is more than most have been given so I can't really complain. Furthermore, I now have the basis to start building my future from. So onto the master plan.

Plan A: to make sure my lottery tickets are always up to date. Hey, let's face facts, I'd rather not have to work at all, or at least would like to have the option to work on my own terms. Admittedly, this is a tad of a long shot.

Plan B: stick with the current job until the end of January. They have now confirmed my redundancy package in writing and it's far too much to just walk away from unless something quite amazing turns up. Next week is my first meeting with the outplacement consultants they have provided to help us all in our move towards a new future. They are also providing heaps of training which I'm taking advantage of; everything from problem solving techniques to fork lift driving.

The second part of plan B is to start looking for a Customer Service Manager role within about 20 miles from home. Clearly I'll be taking advantage of every resource out there on the internet and writing to absolutely anyone who I think may be interested, in addition to whatever the above-mentioned consultants have in mind.

Plan C kicks in around December and basically involves expanding the job search to any managerial position with similar prospects and package as I have now within about 50 miles from home.

If this hasn't reaped any rewards by the end of January then plan D is to take a couple of weeks break then pretty much apply for anything just to buy me a bit more time until a more appropriate opportunity comes along.

Best case, I'll get a better job than I have now that starts at the beginning of March next year. Worst case, I can actually afford to be out of work until the back end of next year if absolutely necessary. Given the choice though I'd rather put my redundancy payout to something a little more exiting than just living from.

First job application has gone off today so the plan is now officially under way and the fun starts right here...

Office Moves...

I spent most of the morning moving office again today even though it's not that long since the last move. It came as a bit of a surprise to many as an office to yourself is a luxury that was only enjoyed by the MD and myself (more by circumstance rather than my status within the organisation I hasten to add) and as offices go, it is quite a nice one...



Truth is, the redundancy letters have started being distributed now (I haven't had mine yet but I know it's on it's way) and I thought the room would be put to much better use as a private area for people to make personal calls to arrange interviews etc., somewhere for people who want to talk in private about any problems or challenges they are personally facing, or at worst, to host some of the countless meetings resulting from the transfers to other sites.

As for me, I'm now closer to my own team as well as being amongst the other teams I work most closely with and now we can all see out these last few months in the same office together...

A Quick Pint...

Despite the title, it's an alcohol free post in all senses; the content doesn't discuss it (from here on) and the writer hasn't had any since last Saturday (and that won't last long either).

I had an appointment at the blood donors for later on this evening, but as I happened to be passing and the car park seemed empty, I thought I would see if they could squeeze me in early. Although officially they were just about to close the afternoon session, they very kindly agreed to sneak me through as the last donor before their break.

Now I don't mind waiting around there and they usually don't keep you too long. Sure, I'm not a big fan of sitting around doing nothing, but the potential end result of my donation far outweighs the importance of anything else I would be doing with that time.

I'll spare you a blow by blow account but I walked in there just before 4:00pm this afternoon and little over 30 minutes later I had registered, been tested, given my donation, downed a coffee and a couple of Club chocolate biscuits and was on my way back home. Never in my 39 pint history can I remember getting through so quickly.

So what else was I supposed to do with the time I'd saved other than come on here and encourage you to do likewise? You know my opinion on the matter by now: if you can't donate that's fair enough. If you can but just don't want to, you should be ashamed of yourself. If you want to find out where your next nearest session is so you can make a donation, click on Billy below...

No news is no news...

Well we are getting ever nearer to the end of the 90 day consultation period at work and today they have announced that they intend to close the plant a couple of days before Christmas.

Effectively that means that many of the employees will now all finish on that same day. Some will be required to work on for a while afterwards but as yet they haven't determined who that is going to be and how long they will be needed for.

Indeed, some have decided not to wait, forego the pot of gold at the end of the "rainbow" and have already been fortunate enough to find employment elsewhere.

For now though, my plans remain unchanged - I fully intend to sit tight and claim my rightful reward for enduring 14 years there and will not start looking for anything new until I have a clearer idea of a finishing date. I may find out as early as next Tuesday or maybe not until much later on in the year.

It probably wouldn't hurt to have a clearer idea about what I want to do when the time comes. As of right now, I still have absolutely no idea...

Trichological tale...

Ever since that fateful day about 6 years ago when I had my head shaved in the pub for charity, I think I've only ever paid for a haircut once or twice since, preferring instead to cut my own. Fair enough, I'm into my second pair of clippers, but I'm thinking that as I'm saving about £7.50 every other week, they have pretty much paid for themselves.

Whilst giving my self a once-over at the weekend (I could probably have phrased that better) one of the teeth fell out of the attachment comb so having finished my trim, checking carefully that I hadn't left any rogue black stripes, I set about finding a replacement.

Unfortunately, it seems that everywhere only sells the attachment combs in full sets of six, a little wasteful for me as I only ever use the 3mm attachment. So I rang the Remington Help Desk, where the automated voice gave me an alternative number if I was looking for spare shaver or clipper parts. The company at the end of the other number advised me that they were only available in sets of six, but she could sell me a set at a discounted price (plus postage which then worked out about the same!). I politely declined.

Not exactly angry, I thought I would give the Help Desk another quick call just to share my experience with them as I'm sure it is a quite common problem. To my surprise, without my even having to prompt, she happily told me that they always have spares about the office and would gladly pop a couple of replacements in the post to me free of charge.

So there you have it a happy post, with a little good news twist in these times of recession. Oh and of course, if you find yourself needing to buy a set of hair clippers, make sure they are Remington...

Blog Sulk...

I discovered earlier this year that the file host I've been using to store pictures for the blog is closing in October, but since they announced this they have been assuring me that they would soon be posting simple instructions to transfer my files.

Last night I finally remembered to check back in again and these "simple" instructions involve signing up to a $4 a month subscription. OK, it's not exactly a huge sum of money but I'm not going to start paying it out of principle. The only real free alternative it seems is to check each post on the blog over the last 5 years and save the pictures individually. That ain't gonna happen either.

As well as the pending disappearance of many of the pictures, the YouTube copyright police have been removing videos here, there and everywhere leaving even more holes in my blog posts.

I still believe there is a place for the blog, Twitter, and I hate to admit, even Facebook, so I will be keeping it going. Chances are that nobody would have even noticed if I didn't mention it...

Sporting Life...

Like thousands of others, I looked on in disgust this morning at the footage on the news of the violence at the Millwall vs West Ham match last night. You can't really call them football fans as it appears that the actual sport is merely an aside to the taunting and fighting that many of them seem to have paid their entrance at the gate for.

Now it is widely accepted that I know absolutely nothing whatsoever about sport, maybe not even that much, but I think I have a solution; a bit off the wall maybe but then you should expect that by now.

If I understand correctly, half of the football grounds across the country are empty on a Saturday afternoon as their teams are playing away that weekend. In addition, most of the clubs could use an extra few quid to top up the coffers.

So I propose that every Saturday the teams go and play each other as scheduled and the fans who want to enjoy a couple of hours with their friends and families cheering their sides on, go along and do so.

We can also assume that there are a proportion of "fans" for both teams who are largely indifferent to the sport but just want to go and kick the shit out of each other for a couple of hours. So why not charge them the same price to be allowed onto the pitch of the other ground (i.e. of the team playing away) where they can merrily beat the living daylights out of each other to their hearts' content?

No police presence, no St Johns ambulance or other medical assistance, just someone to clear up the remains and usher the last few stragglers out at the end of it all. If a few of them get hurt along the way, well surely that's what they were expecting wasn't it? If they want to fight, let them do it, locked in a ground where they are no bother to anyone but each other...