Err, is this working?

Nothing major to relate in the real world since yesterday. We were both shattered last night and after managing to get as far as 830 and the end of DIY SOS crashed out on the couch for an hour or so of quality sleep before waking up and deciding that really we might just as well go to bed. So we did.

Today's highs have been the purchase of the new issue of Edge with the full scoop on Jeff Minter's Unity project and the new WiLDHEARTS single. Otherwise just plugging away at some confusing timetables (I think I turned them from Mikespeak into English) and stuff like that.

In the unreal world, however, things have been much more thrilling. Yup, time for me to waffle on a bit more about recent dreams.

Had one the other night which was actually set in my current job rather than harking back to the Argos days. I was delivering timetables to Newmarket and got back from lunch to find the van missing. Stolen was the diagnosis. This was followed by a strange chase round a department store that certainly isn't in the real town and a drive around with a colleague who happened to be passing to see if we could spot the missing vehicle. Hadn't found it by the time the alarm went off though.

Last night proved stranger still. Featured some kind of sporting challenge event crossed with quasi-religious hysteria (in which I seemed to be the venerated figure) all set in the grounds of some big country house. The Queen was there to dish out prizes and there seemed to be a rather large amount of gratuitous nudity. I never did work out what the sporty part was meant to be - plenty of people were intraining for different events but I never got to see an actual contest. Odd.

Wonder what the psychologists would make of those.

Oooh, just had an email while I was writing that lot. Cunningly timed to after most of the office has gone home for the weekend thus meaning we will have the big discussions on Monday morning. Seems we will be going LIVE with the new database system on Monday. Wham and indeed Bam (not forgetting the Thank You, Mam). I forsee lots of things not working still and many people getting their knickers in a twist over the small details and forgetting the bigger picture. Especially as the person appointed to look after the system isn't starting until March time. Time I went home too I think.

Interesting day.

The drive up to Beccles was in the main fun and relaxed, but there were a couple of annoying hold ups caused by roadworks which obviuosly had people behind me fuming as they were hanging far too close to my rear end. And just when I was almost in sight of my goal I was further diverted by a Policeman after an accident ahead. Great. Oh well, got there in the end.

Graham looks nicely settled into his new job and they have some pretty nifty kit on the printworks. Wandering around there was just a joy to a lover of books like me, the smells of ink and paper alone were enough! Anyway, the data people reckon they can do pretty much anything we want if I can get Routewise to spit it out properly so I will do a bit more playing around at this end and quite possibly save us £30-40,000 a year in printing costs if it works. We shall see.

Also managed to fit in a nice sausage sandwich at the King's Head across the road and catch up on a bit of the family news and stuff since he left Pindar. Oh, and getting rained on as well. Always good to fit that in...

On the way back I detoured via Leiston to deliver some bus boards to an operator there. I do like that part of the county a lot, and if the rain hadn't been doing its thing would probably have stopped once or twice to take some suitably scenic snapshots. Oh well, plenty of time for that to come. Also detoured into Wickes to pick up the door handles and latches. Should be very nice when I get home tomorrow.

Arrived back here to find my desk in its new place. I think I will soon get used to it, although in theory I do have a new desk on the way. Not sure now if I want to change the angle I'm sitting at (supposed to be swapping from a right bend to a left bend) but we will see when the time comes. Of course being nearer to the window doesn't make a difference to me as I am still far enough away NOT to be distracted by pretty young student girls passing by, and I am also further form some of the other noises in the rest of the team so in all probably a good move. And then got to meet the new boss. Chris Seaman. Seems OK on first impressions so hopefully he will stay OK. He is coming from a London background so it might take him a bit of adjustment to get used to the slower Suffolk ways!

Then again, if what they are saying on the news is confirmed, we will be on the move again soon anyway. A new office block for the power company TXU is being built across town, however they went bust and got sold to Powergen who don't want the new home. In many ways it would be nice to move to a spacious, airy, modern building but as it was designed for 800 and we have 1300 to squeeze in it will probably be just as useless as this one. Plus it is further from the town centre so although I might be pleased to be away from the shops, it will be a bugger when I do need to go in.

Tonight Joan is staying late due to a staff meeting to get Gill properly introduced and see where they are all going. I hope it will be OK and not a cause for more fireworks. I will find out when I pick her up I guess.

And finally for today, finished Tunnel Visions and despite wandering off into too much theory/philosophy and not enough transport stuff I still enjoyed it a lot. Have now Started on the Otherland saga by Tad Williams with book one City Of Golden Shadow. Only read the prologue thingy last night so can't really comment on it just yet, but looks interesting and entertaining, as all good fiction should be. I don't think I will read the whole series in one go though, as each book is enormous. Some light relief in between volumes will no doubt be required.

Phew, Joan just called to say she isn't too bad and things are going in the right direction. Which is what I needed to hear as I have just had a very depressing lunchtime.

Other than the not knowing I was just gloomy through not having any spare money, drab weather and loads of books I wanted to read on the shelves and no way of fitting them all in.

back to drab reality of work now, but at least one weight is lifting from the shoulders.

Hmm, I had intended to add to yesterday's waffle during the afternoon but circumstances conspired against me. First blogger refused to publish, then there was more furniture moving to assist with (and that is still going on today). That was then compounded by a quick look in to the Llamasoft Forums which lasted a bit longer than planned. Yup, the long awaited IT has been revealed at last as a game called Unity for the Gamecube. So, yay! I have the right hardware already (as suspected). OK, so there is still likely to be another year of waiting, but at least we now know what we are waiting for and I can keep on with my learning of Cube hardware and generally getting better at games.

Joan heard last night that Gill had been at the meeting yesterday claiming that it was actually Lesley who ran the store anyway. Hopefully though things will be improving now - I dropped her off just as the evil one was arriving and there wasn't an immediate punch-up on the doorstep. And nearly three hours later I've not had Joan on the phone asking for help, in tears or announcing her resignation so fingers are crossed. I do hope they can find a way to work together and that Gill is only there for the three months initially mentioned as I don't want to see Joan affected this way.

Homewise I bought the four doors for downstairs last night. So thanks to Dad for lending me his big car to transport them in. Luckily they had them in stock in Felixstowe so no trip to Ipswich (and more importantly as they were a fraction of a smidgeon too long, no trip home with the boot open). Plan to pick up the handles (well, knobs actually) and latches tomorrow on my way back from a meeting in Beccles.

We also took a viewing of a video tape sent over from Canada last night. A mix of the Christmas lights around Burlington and Oakville, Caroline & Chris's new house and Darrell's new band. Very nice indeed the lot of them. Although I don't get the concept of selling you a house with the basement unfinished. Surely you have enough to do on moving in without that to sort as well? I will have to take advice from people on the appropriate side of the Atlantic there I think. I would also get some colour in to the house asap but that's just me.

Well, today marks the fifth anniversary of me last working for Argos. Yup, the Tuesday after the catalogue came out (and I think it was the 21st then as well). The months of put-downs, lack of supprt, insults, general morale-sapping and personal attacks finally took their toll. I'm not going to go into the full, gory details here and now (I expect I'll write them up on here at some point as eventually I want to backtrack over the entire 30+ years of me) but suffice it to say the way I was five years ago today resulted in one of the staff at Stowmarket phoning Joan worried and Joan making me an appointment for the Doctor on the Wednesday. He signed me off sick for a fortnight and I then ended up being off 12 weeks or so before starting here. Which was a change to say the least!

And that all ties in reasonably well with the fact that Joan spoke not to her new boss as I had thought, but to the Area Manager instead. She did so representing the entire store not just her own views, and he promised to get it sorted out. Gill was at a meeting yesterday afternoon when the conversation took place and another all day one today so hopefully he will be able to sort her out during those and things will be better from tomorrow. Certainly they have plans for a full store meeting on Thursday so if that doesn't clear the air I am going to get involved, whether they like it or not. After all, I am not about to let what happened to me happen to Joan. And not just because we need the money (although she did also have a look in the Job Centre yesterday too)!

Today all in the office has once again descended into pre-big move, furniture shifting chaos. There are desks and filing cabinets and stuff going everywhere as I write. Mostly I'm staying out of it but lending a hand when needed so as not to look too lazy. There have also been verbal fireworks with Chris really letting fly at Charles. First time I've ever seen him get worked up like that and, truth be told, rather wonderful to watch. In a schadenfreude kind of way of course.

Definitely a Grand Old Duke of York weekend just gone. When it was up it was up but when it was down it sure was down.

Saturday started great for me. I got a load of old files and junk cleared off the PC making room for some last bits and bobs of music I had kicking around on zip discs to go on. Then got a load of ironing done whilst finishing off the MDs to send to America and later made and printed the inlays for them. And I even managed to squeeze in a viewing of War Games one of the best cold war/teen hacker combo films ever as far as I am concerned. Great performances from all involved (and the realisation a couple of years ago as to why I recognised Barry Corbin when I forst saw Northern Exposure) and fond teenage wibbly thoughts about Ally Sheedy. Looking forward to re-visiting it again soon with the commentary.

Then I went to pick Joan up, which is where the down bit kicked in. It was her first full day with the new Manager and to say that they did not get on would be a boit of an understatement. It seems Gill has rubbed everyone up the wrong way and there was talk of a mass exodus if she didn't sort herself out pronto. All of which left Joan in tears when I got her home and in need of much TLC. Not a good way to ingratiate yourself with a new set of staff. Having just spoken to her, Joan has said a few things today which will hopefully ease the situation but she wouldn't give me the full details so I will just have to wait until I get home to find out more. Fingers crossed.

We then finished off after calming down with a fab stir-fry from our new wok (The old one having bit the dust recently) and a bit of Casualty. Nice.

Yesterday we did another trawl round all the big DIY stores looking at doors. I had completely forgotten that we had set the process of getting the interior doors replaced before Christmas (as mentioned on Friday). They are to be done this Friday now (provided I can get them in the car tomorrow) so that buggers my New Year's resolution of not touching a paintbrush this year. We also had a tasty junk food lunch out (Mmmm, double rodeo burger, you are my friend) and looked at some cute birds in a pet shop.

Then it was round the corner to Ma & Pa's for tea. That went very well and they managed to avoid the work issues for most of the night and then skillfully change the subject before it got too stressful when it did come up. A good evening on the whole.

Today I have been thrashing in new and revised timetables to go off for printing. Some big changes coming up (again) which will need a supplementary booklet preparing (again). One day I'd love to have a stable network.

Didn't go out at lunch time today due to excessive water hurling itself fromt he sky. However, I have been out now as there were some films to post off to Pindar in Preston. Our in-house post people can't handle special delivery so it means a walk to the post office whenever we have something in production. This did mean I was able to take a quick look in Out Of Time but though tempted I managed to resist buying any cheap CDs.

New Boook! I am now progressing nicely with Tunnel Visions by Christopher Ross. Very good. A mix of his experiences, anecdotes and reflections garnered whilst working for London Underground interspersed with other tales from his travels, bits of psychology and other rambling passages. Just the kind of book I'd end up with if I was trying to write about this job I expect.

OK, time to go see if the Felixstowe Homebase has the doors we settled on or if I've got to come back to Ipswich after work tomorrow.