Yeah, decided it was time to start again.  Been a long time, mainly cos its been very busy.  I have a couple of large chunks of work on, and have had for about 2 months now, and its been insane.

As well as that, I lost a work mate only to get him back again in a most bizarre twist of resignations, and then picked up some new accounts to work with.. only to lose them again in yet another bizarre twist of work allocations.  Everyone was totally surprised by the movement, so that will be 3 sales directors and lord knows how many sales engineers this particular telco operator has had in.. erm.. 3 months.

So, whats up eh? Well, as of this week it now takes 3 times as long to get to work. The A36 is being dug up not far from BoA so my direct line to work is a bit.. erm.. skewed.  And so is everyone elses, so all the major traffic now routes via Melksham and clogs the A4.  I managed to keep the Dark Lord on my tail the other night as my Sulu like navigation skills came back in to get us home across country, but the only real benefit of it all (other than the fact the road might not collapse now - and I do say might as they did similar work about 5 years ago) is that you get a great chance to look at the wildlife.

And most of it, for once ont he A36, is still running about, and not flattened by the wheels of a 30 tonne truck.

Maybe I'll nip to the Dark Lords house and cycle in.. other than having to lug about two laptops at the moment.

That was a comment that my mother said to me the other morning on the phone... prompting a large amount of laughter from my end.

The reason for the comment was very simple, and not at all discussing a variety of dodgy movie that she may or may not have glimpsed on late night TV.. which she didnt, but with a sentence like that, I could believe it.

Anyway, it was a discussion of Christmas presents.  I have been given a fine example of practical physics.. a Galilean thermometer.  For those that have not seen them, its a sealed glass tube with some sort of fluid in and a set of floating, differently weighted, balls.  Each is assigned a temperature.

As the room temp changes, more or less balls float to the top.. the warmer it is, the more sink to the bottom (due to the fluid being less dense). So, with two balls up, its warm (about 24 degrees on mine).

It seems to tally very well with last years digital weather station too.. so pretty accurate..

And, as I now know, also provides a lot of humour as a side dish.

Happy New Year!!! 

went to london today and a couple of great passengers next to me..

The first was this morning, of course.. some lass from Bristol who was "having a bathroom drama" - her words.  Everyone she spoke to on the phone, and it was a lot, and quite loudly, was told about it, accompanied by one of those tittering little laughs.  And she hadnt slept for 2 days because of it..

Still, there was a slim chance of someone going in tomorrow to fix it.

The other this afternoon was a classic.. salesman i think, who wouldnt accept that anything he'd done was a mistake or wrong.  The first hint of this wa a conversation with a techie about a project running over - sounded like a classic case of under priced stuff to me, but it wasnt his fault even though "yes, I know I moved the price down a bit.."

The seconc was a classic though.  He made another call.. it went like this:

"Oh hello"

"Is that Alison?"

"Oh, Hi Alison, have I called you by mistake?".

The last sentence made me crack up - the way he questioned her to see if he had called her by mistake. As if, being the recipient of the call, she'd know if he'd called deliberately or not, she'd just know he called!!!!!

They just get in the ******g way.  Was supposed to move house today. Two weeks ago we were proposed with this day, and we accepted.  As did the rest of the chain.

Yesterday (and i think there's a song in there somewhere) we get told there might be a slight issue.  The person(s) at the front of the chain, in rented accomodation, had gone to see the potential new neighbours.  This, when it was revealed, apparently makes the indemnity insurance on their mortgage (for having a shared drive) invalid.  And for two weeks they've been trying to reword it suitably to allow it to proceed.  Two weeks.  For two weeks some tw*t in a suit has been stopping 4 groups moving just because someone wanted to be a friendly neighbour. So we havent moved.

However, the seller to us said "sod it, move anyway" as we get on great and he's moved already.  Unfortunately, he's separating from his missus, and she objected.  Or rather, objected to the fact that he told us to move stuff in without asking.  Or, more accurately when we met her, her f*****g man in a suit solicitor objected.  Lord S reckons they are all Professors Of Advanced C**tology.  Very rude, but it would seem to be very accurate.

But, compromise reached.. we could keep the key today, and if we need it again, can go ask.  Which is handy cos trying to get hold of BT to move the installation date is difficult... with 3 hours of attempts basically.  I bet they wear suits.

A distinct lack of posting.. so,.. whats gone on?

Well, the new job is good.. could bea lot of interesting travel in UK though, such as next week I have to go to Bedfont Lakes (drive best way) thne the London office (Paddington, so best not to drive) then home in the same day.  Might be interesting logistics. Hey ho.  But other than that, I think I've managed to fill my brain and it aches. But its good to be busy again.  I've also managed to recruit the Dark Lord across, which is great news.  The old team of Tertio are back.

Moving house soon too.,. so boxes are everywhere at the mo.  Was looking for somewhere small for me n weekends with kids, but in the end discovered an ultra bargain of a place, with enough room for all kids, home office, and a master bedroom.  Was cheap due to unknown planning for a new school, but as I grew up to one as a kid, I dont mind.  And now its all been resolved, its still only looking over the playing fields, so no worries anyway.

Other than that, lots of other stuff.. but probably too much to remember.. so I spose i'd better just keep posting more.

Even the annoying international survey  people have stopped phoning from the USA.. once I told them to phone me in the morning, and I meant my morning, they seemed to lose interest.  Shame, cos I was going to give them an alternative number to ring me on next time - the local police station perhaps, or even Dominos Pizza.

Driving a rear wheel drive car on an occasional basis has its ups and downs.  Or rather, can have its round and rounds.

So, I decided to go for it on a skid pan for once, and trotted over to Castle Combe this morning to have a go on their course.  They run you over a peanut shaped track for most of the time using a rear wheel drive car and a front wheel drive car as well.., just to get the difference.

It started off not too badly.. we just got let into the cars and off we went, spinning all over the place - its like ice. Then a quick talk on how to control the car in a skid, and off we go again trying to make a better go at it.

Absobloodylutely brilliant it was.. a dozen of us on the course, and in two groups of 6, we left carnage everywhere,,, cones smacked, BMWs doing pirouettes.. and big smiles on everyones faces.

Then the brake test - using both ABS and non ABS, try and avoid granny.  Most of us did, she only ended up under the BMW twice I think.

To cap it all off, there is a time trial - 2 laps of the course, one each way round, do a 180 and reverse back into the garage.  Prob being, of course, that you forget all the training to try and blitz the time.

Was a hoot anyway, and I seriously recommend it to anyone who has never been in a skid, or who just wants to learn about it and have serious fun trying. I'm just glad I dont have to clean the cars afterwards.