Gardeners Questionable Time...

While tending the grounds of Seany Towers this morning, I realised that it's probably time I posted some more pics of how a few things have been growing in the last month or so.

Starting with the veg bed, there are definite signs of life. From the bottom upwards, there are white onions, carrots, red onions, cabbage, spinach, radish and lettuce. The only no shows so far are the fennel seeds at the far end, but they were only planted a week or so ago as an afterthought.

First seeds were planted down the left hand side and three weeks later, the second set were planted down the centre. In a couple of weeks time I'll plant the final set down the right hand side, so if everything grows to plan, I'll have a more even supply rather than a sudden veg and salad mountain.
















The two apple trees finally bloomed (although not shown on these pics), hopefully a sign of some fruit to be expected from them later this year and the oak has finally sprouted leaves so I'm happy that it's survived the move from Mum & Dad's now.























The little blue spruce has suddenly burst into life and adopted a new pale green identity. Although I'm pleased to see it's unexpectedly grown so soon, I'm also curious to see when (or perhaps whether) it will turn back blue again.









In the greenhouse, all of the seeds have been a qualified disaster, the only ones to have really come to anything are the spring onions, of which there are now two pots of them growing











The garlic is coming on rather well too with 5 plants growing nicely and a 6th shoot just appearing above the soil line


I'm at a loss to understand why the seeds in the greenhouse have failed in such quantities, so I've cheated and bought a few plants for the growbags. On the left from top to bottom are green peppers, red peppers and chilli peppers. These have already proved popular with the local slugs, having almost completely finished off the chilli pepper plant. After an unsuccessful eco-friendly approach using egg shell, I've finally resorted to slug pellets to keep the greedy little blighters off, but the other two have grown considerably.

The next round of "cheats" was buying tomato plants, from top to bottom being pixie tomatoes, beef tomatoes and ailsa craigs. The pixie tomato is a strange little plant having refused to grow in any direction but has plenty of flowers on it, so we'll see how effective it is at bearing fruit.






The final seed cheat occurred after I spotted B&Q selling little herb plants, six for a fiver (cheaper than I'd previously paid for the seeds!) So combined with some cuttings from Mum & Dads and a couple I'd bought earlier, the herb "garden" now consists of ten planters containing chives, lemon balm, lemon thyme, Moroccan mint, oregano, parsley (flat & curly), rosemary, tarragon and thyme.


Quite honestly, I'm not entirely sure when I turned into the bloke who could identify plants and the various birds that frequent the garden and secretly hope I'm still not the one who'd openly admit to enjoying it.

I really must get myself a job sorted out soon. In fact, there may finally be some news to share soon, but more about that next time...

Dream on...

Although I've always been fascinated by my vivid dreams and the occasional mystery behind them that I can't correlate to activity in the previous day, I also readily acknowledge that there are few truly interesting conversations that begin "I had the strangest dream last night..." Perhaps the fact that I'm writing this at such a ridiculous hour reinforces that this one was a bit unusual.

So, quick dream recap: I've just returned a board game to a criminal looking family down the road then hurried back home, locked the door and turned the lights off. As I stand there behind the locked door, I'm suddenly feeling really uncomfortable and nervous about being in my own home. Then I woke up.

Amateur interpretation time:
Board game? WTF, no idea what that's about
Criminal family? No idea, I'm very lucky to live in a cul-de-sac full of friendly respectable neighbours
Uncomfortable in my own home? I've lived on my own for most of my adult life and it's no secret that I absolutely love it. I have certainly never felt nervous about it, although like any other sane person in this day and age, I tend to keep the doors locked and the alarm is set whenever I'm not here.

So none the wiser as to what my subconscious is trying to tell me, I'm awake, a little confused perhaps, but otherwise, no big deal. Still wide awake a few minutes later, I decided to put the radio on to help me drift back off to sleep again when I'm suddenly aware of some unusual noise outside the bungalow. Then the sound of something like paper or card falling down, shortly followed by the security light coming on in the front garden.

Surely there's no-one posting leaflets or charity begging-bags at this time of the morning? I flew out of bed and went over to the window, but no sign of activity outside. Inside however, some well-meaning plod had posted a hand-shaped card through my window, warning of the dangers of leaving windows open for opportunist thieves.

Now I figure if the sound of a falling piece of card and the sudden illumination of the outside security light is enough to wake me from my slumbers, there's little chance that any scrote is likely to get anything significant through a small window opening before I get to them.

The police are not to know that though I suppose and I guess their intentions are good, but what's really intriguing me is the connection between my dreaming about feeling insecure at home, then someone actively promoting the idea in the middle of the night through a partially open window. Furthermore, it's now gone three in the morning, I'm completely wide awake and not exactly happy about it.

Still on the bright side, at least I don't have to be up for work in the morning...

Quiet Now, Settle Down...

Finally I've made some progress this week on the Adult Education teacher training I've been chasing so many people for. Despite another meeting with yet another training organisation since my last post on the topic, everything was indicating that my funding for the course was looking very unlikely.

By chance, my continued frustrations came up in conversation with my ECDL IT tutor (who works for North East Lincs Council) when he asked if I had approached them. I explained that I hadn't as I was being led by the "powers that be" to make sure I took advantage of any free funding available.

After a quick word with the secretary there, it appears that they do offer the course locally and the fee was about £120 - quite frankly, I was considering paying it just to get things moving. Then she suddenly added that as I am unemployed and claiming benefit, I would only have to pay the £20 registration admin fee!

To cut a long story short, it was only a couple of emails and a phone call later that afternoon before I had enrolled on the course, met my tutor, caught up on the two lessons I'd missed and paid my registration fee which was actually only £10! OK, I also have two assignments to complete before my first lesson next week, but that seemed a small price to pay (first one completed this afternoon).

Consider me one happy bunny.

Another observation though, the centre where the course is held is on the premises of a closed primary school. As was the other centre where I studied for my IT course. It occurs to me that if perhaps they had kept some of the primary schools open and as a result kept class sizes smaller and more effective, surely there would not be the same need to invest in converting them all into adult education centres now?

Not that I should really criticise the council who's employees have been so helpful in my most recent quest. Even more so if this training goes to plan as I happen to know for a fact they are in short supply of Adult Education tutors...

It's only a number...

I've always maintained that age is only important to you until you leave school - once I'd left and gone to college and started work, I found myself on equal footing with people of a variety of ages.

A few of my managers have been younger than me, but as long as they knew their job, their age seemed irrelevant.

I remember being a little shocked when Matt Smith was named as the new Doctor Who, not being sure how I felt about being older than a timelord, but I then discovered that I'm older than his predecessor too so it wasn't really anything new to worry about.

Apparently I'm older than the current James Bond too, although with the new film now being put on hold, there is talk that the role will be re-cast - but I doubt it will be to someone older.

This afternoon I discovered that I'm older than two of the individuals campaigning to become Prime Minister later on this week and it was the political theme that got me thinking about my age.

With three days to go before the election, our local Labour candidate has finally decided to distribute some literature to introduce himself and between the predictable waffle about being local, deeply caring and empathetic to the concerns of our village, he mentions that he is currently reading politics at university. That would also explain why the picture looks like his school photo.

Even if I thought Labour stood the slightest chance locally (or possibly elsewhere), there is no way I could entrust any responsibility to someone with such limited experience of life and "grown up" issues like trying to buy a house, or working for a living.

Still, I'm sure his Mum is very proud of him and given his age, there's a very good chance that I went to school with her...

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...