Winter break

Well, I am now back and reblogging again after my little excursion to northern Europe. And it was well, cold. However, having got back to England I am pretty sure it is colder here so I don’t feel hard done by in the slightest.

What with it being a multi-destination break arrived at care of the channel tunnel, I spent a lot of time on trains. Eurostar is brilliant, much nicer than getting on a plane and so delightfully easy and hassle free. Trains in Holland and Belgium are also good. I liked that when our train from Amsterdam to Brussels was running late they just (apparently randomly) axed stops with scant notice. Probably would have pissed me off though if my stop had been one of the ones they axed.

Accommodation was excellent in Brussels and really actually pretty dire in Amsterdam despite being more expensive. The Belgian hoteliers were welcoming and accommodating whilst their Dutch counterparts turned out to be a bunch back packing stoner loosers.

However, Amsterdam was a much more interesting city with a bit more going on. Ignoring the whole stoner nonsense, which I really don’t have time for, it seems like a very pleasant place. Possibly one of the most similar places to England in Europe that I have been though. I was frequently mistaken for being Dutch and actually quiet enjoyed passing myself off as a quiet Dutch person (quiet because I can’t speak a word of Dutch) (although that having been said the whole Dutch language seems to be constructed from taking a couple of English words and a couple of German words and sticking them together with some extra vowels).

Brussels was also pleasant and although I spent only a short time there by comparison to Amsterdam I think I can say with some confidence that I have seen most of it. No disrespect to the fine hosts but it is not an exciting city.

I think I will stick up some photos in a forthcoming post now that I have worked out how to upload them onto my pc from my phone but am not doing it now because getting them onto blogger takes a little time. Time I am now going to spend ironing my shirt for work.

Inquiry

So today I am in a public inquiry. My part in this is getting cross examined by the lawyers who are either going to try to do their best to make me look like the man (my counsel) or like the village idiot (appellant’s counsel).

I have been under cross examination in inquiries before and was pretty nervous about it. This time however I am relatively laid back about it as I know what’s coming and am fairly confident I can deal with it (although do have nagging doubts about being overconfident...).

The worst thing about it is having to speak, in public, to an audience which I dread. However from experience, due to the pressure of being under cross examination, worries like this (and everything else) go completely out of the window because it is such an intense experience as everything is caught up in thinking about and responding to the cross examination. I literally do not have the mental capacity to think, let alone worry, about anything else apart from being cross examined.

This is also my last post until about this time next Wednesday. I was a little surprised that anyone expressed an interest in taking over the blog temporarily but Mark is taking over as of tomorrow until this time next week.

I have attached no mandate or restrictions so what is delivered is entirely in his hands. I guess I will have to see what comes out of it.

Read only

I recently read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time which was very good and easy to read. However, being a book, you have to buy it or borrow it off a friend or a library or something like that.

I also have read They’re Made Out of Meat which is a short story (which I have linked to before in case you think you are having a deja-vu moment). I liked that too but what with it being a short story it was over rather fast.

I also recently read Gods Debris. I thought this was a good read too and what with it being available for free on the internet and being somewhat more than a short story (but still not huge - 124 pages of Adobe Acrobat) it has the best of both of the above two.

Have a read.

And the point of that was

I have previously said I wouldn’t (generally) rant about the stuff I was up to at the weekend but I am going to do a U-turn and confess that I wasted most of Saturday on the internet. So I at least have something to show for it I have added a bunch of permalinks (to the right) to some of the more fun slash interesting stuff.

I also produced a bunch of ‘generic’ posts to stuff for times when I don’t feel like expressing anything. I guess these will get posted as and when. However this is also in part response to a number of people saying that they like the linky posts I do. So thanks folks (sarcasm), it’s nice that you read Nick101 to find out what’s up with me. Having said this I don’t think I could sustain five posts a week all about me.

Nevertheless, follow the links. I don’t just link to any old crap you know.

I stuck the new permalinks up on Saturday but now feel a little remiss about not saying more about Orisinal (having spent much of Sunday there) because it is exceptional. Have a look, I challenge anyone not to find something that doesn’t make you smile.

Europe baby

This time next week I will be in Brussels and then Bruge and then Amsterdam. I am looking forward to this, it should be fun.

Not sure how we (me, Nick and Mike) ended up going for a long weekend in northern Europe when really a good burst of sun would have been nice but it is a break nevertheless which should be good.

This is the first time my blog will have to take a break from me unless I find internet terminals whilst abroad which in fairness shouldn’t be too hard. However I have also thought of giving the blog reigns to somebody else for a week. But I am not too sure if this would be egotistical or destroy the point of doing a personal blog or some sort of Freudian weirdness or just odd in general and actually whether anyone would give enough of a crap to be interested.

Nevertheless if you read this and want a no commitments play with a blog for a short time from Thursday 24th to Tuesday 29th let me know.

Welcome to Slough

So the travel costs from Maidenhead to Ealing are prohibitively expensive (taken in conjunction with rent). Guess I am not moving there. Running out of ideas…

50 (+ 1 actually)

So my last post was my fiftieth (not that I am counting, the nice people at blogger do that for me). I wanted to do a grand fiftieth post to commemorate this but as is often the case the importance of posting about other stuff (in that case sandwiches and job things) seemed more important at the time.

I am surprised I have gotten this far with this whole blogging thing. Firstly because I seem to have maintained my interest in it for the time being and second because people are reading it and moreover coming back to read more. The latter is particularly surprising given some of the tripe that I think I come out with.

The success thus far has in part been a consequence of the feedback I have got from people which has been really positive (although I guess it is unlikely that anyone is going to tell me this is garbage if it is) and has helped keep my own interest focused. So hey people, leave comments, I love getting comments. (I need the validation).

Another theme is that quite a few people have said stuff like ‘how do you come up with stuff to post’ etc. and they always seem surprised when I insist it really isn’t that hard. Just type stuff and it comes out. Really try it, you might like it or even be good at it. Being better than me at it couldn’t be that hard surely?

So here’s to me and my blog (swigs mug of tea in a self congratulatory manner) and here’s hoping to another fifty posts perhaps...

Double bookings

So I had another interview yesterday. This time with Wycombe District Council.

The interview went fine although it was a little strange being interviewed by my ex-boss. Especially when asked certain ‘typical’ questions you seem to get in interviews etc. and I generally have my ‘typical’ answers. However, I can’t exactly ‘big-up’ the stuff I did whilst one of the interviewers was my then boss. This floored me a little as I wasn’t too sure what to say, do I include the stuff I did with my ex-boss or come up with something else? Anyway I think I bodged it through just about.

However leaving the interview I was pretty certain that I preferred the [withdrawn] job. Don’t get me wrong I would quite happily settle for Wycombe and could do so with a lot less upheaval. But [withdrawn] seems a more interesting challenge.

Finishing the interview I then had to wait for an hour while the other candidates did the practical test and got interviewed before coming back for the psychometric tests at midday.

By the time I had wandered around Wycombe a little, decided I was going to get a Subway sandwich after the psychometric tests, found Subway, decided Subway was too far from the offices and the car for me to have time to get lunch from there, found an alternate sandwich place and wandered back to the offices I had kinda come to the view that I didn’t really fancy wading through an hour and a half of tests and to have a late lunch as a consequence. This especially as it would be a sandwich not from Subway. I could be spending the psychometric test time walking back to Subway and thinking about all the sandwiches I could be having for lunch and then eating the sandwich.

It occurs now that my focus on a Subway sandwich was probably symptomatic of not really wanting the job and probably being a little bit hungry too. I did the psychometric tests anyway (of course) which weren’t too bad, although I do wonder when I get given these tests at job interviews. I mean, are they really more insightful than my qualifications or are they just checking that I am as clever (or dumb) as my paperwork says I am.

Anyway, we’ll have to see how that pans out. It would be nice to be offered the job, if only for the ego boost.

I spent the afternoon having a look around Maidenhead and checking rental prices. I think Maidenhead beats Ruislip, Eastcote, South Harrow and all the other north west London places I have been thinking of moving too in terms of general atmosphere and the rental prices are comparable. Overall I think I prefer Maidenhead but my commute would be a little more complicated and may even be prohibitively expensive. I need to find out more on this.

I never did get my Subway sandwich by the way.

New pad

So this weekend I had the opportunity to take a look around some of my short listed areas for living in. Ruislip and Eastcote both seemed very pleasant. Both fairly quiet middle class suburban places and both eminently commutable to my new place of work. I think I could settle for either without too much upheaval.

Both are pretty much twenty minutes or so drive from where I live at the moment and aside from being a little closer to London proper are pretty much a comparable replication of where I am living at the moment; quiet, white, middle class suburbia. They are also within what I suppose I am going to have to settle for in terms of commuting time and distance. However, neither locations left me feeling particularly excited about the prospect of moving there. It just seems really, well, bland.

South Harrow was also short listed and I visited there too. It is a lot more urban and has much more of a London feel to it. It was also a bit grimy and certainly more than a little worn around the edges. It would certainly be a more interesting place to live I think but also possibly a little too much on the grimy and urban side of things for my general preferences.

I haven’t investigated Maidenhead at the moment but I know the town vaguely and could possibly picture myself living there, more so than anywhere else I have looked at thus far. The commute would be different from here, being a longer train journey but travelling more directly into Ealing Broadway train station. I am going to have a look around Maidenhead estate agents windows this afternoon (I have today off work).

What I would really like is to ‘test drive’ all of these places for a little while to see which one I liked however have neither the time or money so I am going to be committing for at least six months if not a year and want to get it right. However, I think when I start looking properly the situation is going to be forced upon me when I actually start looking around individual flats. Lets face it, what I really want is a flat with a short commute, decent sized living room, space in the kitchen for a washing machine and a dish washer, a power shower and off street parking.

Friday

As I have posted before it is often not so much that I can’t come up with anything to post. More that I don’t feel like expressing anything particularly. I feel this way at the moment but feel obliged to post something (particularly given last Friday’s absenteeism). So here are a bunch of bunch of mildly amusing links that I have found recently (for the most part robbed off the linkbunnies).

The Landover Baptist Church is a quite nicely polished spoof pseudo-religious site. The letters page is particularly funny with the outraged emails that are sent to them.

Amusing lists care of Mc Sweeney’s. Some are hit and miss but I like the style and have considered robbing the format for a couple of my own posts. Klingon fairy tales are one of my faves.

The implausibility of the trash compactor in the Death Star in Star Wars Episode IV.

Find out which level of hell you are going to be committed to in the style of Dante’s Inferno.

I may add some of these to my permalinks at some point.

All change (and excuses to get stuff)

So I rationalise if I am going to be changing job and flat and doing this commuting thing there is a bunch of stuff that I really do need to get, in order, most important first.

A new flat: I loose my current one when I move jobs and being homeless is just below ‘clean teeth with angle grinder’ on my list of things I don’t really want to ever have to try.

A new suit and some more shirts: I have three suits, but don’t wear one cos I don’t like it, so two really. Introduce the practicalities of not being able to take one of these to the dry cleaners whilst at work (try taking your dry cleaning on the tube!) and not otherwise being around when a dry cleaners is open I am going to need another suit if only for the day to day practicalities of having something varied to wear to work. Also I just want a new suit and this is actually a rather good excuse.

An Oyster Card: For doing the whole ‘commuting is cool in the 21st century’ by waving it at entrance barriers and making them flash lights and go bleep and stuff and getting you places too is handy.

A new pair of glasses: My current pair have been held together with bent staples and sticky tape for over a year now and I haven’t sorted the situation cos really I couldn’t give a crap. I think a new job though calls for a degree of professionalism in terms of eye-wear.

An I-pod or other such portable music device: To keep me entertained slash happy on commuting trips and other journeys not involving driving (with associated in-car entertainment) which looks like an increasingly prospect.

A man bag: Which I have wanted for ages but haven’t really needed cos the car or pockets have sufficed to keep stuff in up until now. But being more remote from home, mobile without car and an increased payload (ie. aforementioned I-pod etc, book, paper, lunch, water, extra layer of clothing…) means I am going to need to port this stuff about and a carrier bag (even a posh one from Harrods or Bentalls) just doesn’t cut it. Also folks have said I would look like a ponce if I had a man bag and in fairness I probably would. But looking like a ponce with supporting justification sits with me a little more comfortably.

A PSP: Similar justification as with the I-pod toy. It’s at the bottom of the list though because it is an indulgence rather than a necessity.

Weird stuff to put in the sea

So I think common consensus is fairly established that The Principality of Sealand is a little bit mental. But it’s not the only weird structure that got built in the Thames Estuary.

Of course all this really does pale in comparison to what those crazy folks in Dubai are up to. I mean really, a hotel shaped like a sail on an artificial island and a reproduction of the entire planet in an island archipelago.

All change (subject to completion of satisfactory paperwork)

Yesterdays post was hardly the dramatic ‘check this out I have a new job’ that I intended it to be. Rather it turned out to be a rather mundane rendition of how me and my prospective employer didn’t really manage to sort out what exactly was going on.

I had intended this whole thing to go something along these lines:

Me: This job you have offered me a princely sum for, I would like to take it.
Head of Planning: Excellent work, good to have you on board.
Me: It’s a pleasure Sir; I will have those references in the mail to you today.
Head of Planning: Likewise, I shall ensure your contract is also dispatched forthwith.

However, it didn’t. I never got to formally accept the job and only, I think, conveyed that I wanted it by harassing a large number of people over the course of the day to finally be informed by my recruitment consultant’s stand in (who I think mentioned was nevertheless very nice) that the Head of Planning had got the message but was on holiday until next week and we’d sort out the particulars when he was back.

But anyway, reservations about how it has worked out thus far and will pan out in future aside, I should have a new job. At the moment I am feeling a mixture of being excited about doing something new, in a fresh environment with all kinds of different challenges but equally really rather nervous and slightly scared that this is going to be a very, very big change.

First of all I need to work out where I am going to live. Not wanting to really want to share a place, end up in a small studio flat or have a massive commute my choices are pretty much defined as being somewhere between Harrow and Uxbridge on the Piccadilly Line linking into North Ealing tube station or to intercity it from Slough (yuck) or Maidenhead into Ealing Broadway. The current front runner is Ruislip which has the fairly decent trade off of being about a 40 minute commute (one way) combined with just about acceptable rental payments on a one/two bed flat. But I need to do further research into stuff before committing.

I think the next few months are going to be interesting but perhaps not necessarily enjoyable as I try to sort all this stuff out. However I am not doing anything for the time being. I want some solid paperwork from these people before I'm even going to consider handing my notice in or make any other permanent changes.

All change (in theory)

I should probably explain the lack of posts both on Friday and my usually posting something earlier, today. The [withdrawn] offered me the position of Principal Planner at 16:22 on Thursday last week. I spent Friday and the weekend deliberating and considering whether I was going to accept the position.

However, suffice to say that by Sunday afternoon I was pretty convinced that I was going to go for it and could make it work financially and practicably on a daily basis (mainly in terms of where to live and commuting related stuff).

I was hoping to do a grand post announcing this and briefly expressing my feelings on it after ringing them and confirming my acceptance of the position much earlier this morning. However, I can’t get in touch with them and nor can my recruitment consultant's stand in (who is very nice in fairness) as the main guy is on holiday.

So, erm, hopefully at some point, eventually I might be able to talk to my prospective employer and sort all this out however for the mean time it is still rather up in the air. Perhaps tomorrows post will be a little more triumphant?...

H5N1 lite

I’m ill. Despite trying to ignore it and hoping it would go away of its own accord (because up until now I didn’t have time to be ill), I am now laid out being all hot and shivery and sore throatish. I am presently in that phase where lucozade tastes good and having a diet consisting of squishy fruit, soft bread and soup.

Don’t get me wrong though, I am not complaining (too much). It’s actually quite nice to have a break where I can’t really do much apart from wrap in layers and sit around and watch TV. It’s been a little while since I have had the opportunity to not do anything.

The interview with Ealing BC yesterday was interesting but I am not going to theorise on the outcome of it. I shall just wait and see.

I was however more than a little baffled by their offices. I was met in main reception and taken through about five (seriously chunky) security doors before arriving in what looked like an internet café. There were small desks with computers on, a cafeteria with tables and chairs, breakfast bars and a lounge area with a big plasma tv all decked out with lots of white walling, jaunty lighting and masses of glass.

It was only after the interview that I was told that this was the planning department. Nobody had their own desk or paperwork (which included heads of service etc). You just sat where you liked for whatever suited. A meeting in the cafeteria, day-to-day work at a computer, concentrated work in a quiet room. And it was all almost completely paperless. Not too sure what to make of it. It was all very interesting and different but couldn’t help but get the impression that they were enforcing a relaxed working environment which as a consequence wasn’t relaxed at all.

Hits from across the pond

Ok, so yesterday my site traffic had a (small) peak in activity attributable to another website (from somebody I don’t know) linking to me which left me with a strange warm and fuzzy feeling. It was actually quite strange reading what I had written being quoted on somebody else’s website and then getting linked to. I mean really, I didn’t think I was particularly quote-worthy.

I would do a link back for demonstration purposes but I think that would be blogging narcissism.

In other events, it appears that me and blogger are struggling to reconcile the clocks changing. It seems I can either change all the post times an hour forward so the time stamp on historic posts are one hour into the (retrospective) future or stick as is and all comments on my posts are one hour into the future. Not too sure how to fix this.

Sorry we missed you

So, about ten days ago I thought it would be a rather nice idea to get myself a new mobile on account of my having never liked my current one and especially having put up with it for nearly two years now. So clever old me gets online and finds me a good deal. A painfully long wait of around ten days and finally a ‘sorry we missed you’ note from parceline is sitting on my floor when I get home from work.

Ok, fine, I wasn’t in, this was not unexpected as I do work during the week. The ‘sorry we missed you note’ explains that I can either ring or go on the internet to arrange another ‘standard’ delivery time, arrange a ‘premium’ delivery time or go and collect it.

Now, I can’t manage a ‘standard’ delivery time because this could be any time during the course of the day and I’m not about to take the whole day off work. For ‘premium’ I have to dish out a tenner and then all I get is either a morning or afternoon delivery window or on a Saturday morning. Have these guys not heard of the evening? So I think I’ll go collect it, but best find out where to collect it from though before committing to anything.

Me rings up the phone line, standard robot lady greeting. Press one for ‘standard’ delivery or press two for ‘premium’ delivery. Erm, no I want to find out where the collection place is. Ok, so I press no number buttons when prompted and after a wait of what seems like ages I finally confuse the robot lady and she tells me she’s going to connect me to a customer service assistant. Yay, what I wanted all along. Sadly, the customer service assistant is another robot lady who tells me to leave a message giving details of whether I want ‘standard’ or ‘premium’ delivery. I conclude that these robot ladies are not very bright so I try again. This time I play the whole mash the key pad and press lots of buttons when the first robot lady asks for ‘standard’ or ‘premium.’ Same result, robot lady two asks me to leave a message.

Ok, so I give up trying to talk to a human being or make polite conversation with the robot ladies and try their internet version. Enter reference number, fine. ‘Premium’ or ‘standard’ delivery or ‘collection.’ Right, collection please, when would you like to collect. Hmm, well finding out where I supposed to go would be nice but the earliest I can actually manage is Wednesday evening pretty much regardless where it is So Wednesday 18:30 please... I get this screen:

What, where I am supposed to collect the thing from! Where is the fabled 'parceline depot.’ So I explore their website now that I appear to have committed myself to collecting it from…?

After finding no indication of where I’m supposed to go I send them a mildly arsey email. In fairness I get a swiftish response to this and am directed to Humphreys Road, Dunstable which is about 30 minutes away so I am not too unhappy with that in the event (although, I still don't know where on Humphreys Road I am going but am happy to settle for this after the hastle so far).

I spent nearly an hour trying to get to this point though. Why must it be so hard? All I wanted was to talk to a human being to ask an easy question (or even a mildly personable robot lady would have been ok too).