2010: Week 1 - The Road Ahead is Clear

[grahamthomson]

Happy New Year, everyone! The first week of 2010 begins tomorrow.

It's back to work. I hope I can keep hold of my relaxed state of being for as long as possible.

I hope everyone has a good start to the new year. Think of your health, and think of your happiness. I think they're quite important.

It's a new start, so let's raise our spirits (or champagne, if you'd prefer). Here's to 2010!

[The Doctor]

I am recently returned after several days at Thurgood Towers. Now to have a shower, put some dinner on and watch Doctor Who Confidential.

-Ralph

[Deleted]

work all this week, plus should be getting me visa card this week too (maybe next week) but then i can join the tfcc after payday

[Philip Ayres]

You've use the wrong title. It has to be the Year we make contact this week

[Deleted]

I'm hoping to get some news back from the job agency this week regarding a job they advertised. They told me that the workplace on question doesn't start back until today so they couldn't contact them before now.

[blueshift]

Amazingly, every single important thing I gave to people to do when I went away has not been done. Every single thing! D:

[Bogatan]

Spent the first four days of the new year getting gradually sicker. I would feel better today, I do except I have a linger cough, but each time I cough my stomach muscles ache as though I spent a full day doing sit ups.

It hurts. It hurts.

Not all bad. Took HA BB back to Asda after deciding I'd rather have £30 and then my boss offered me a few hours work in a fortnight, not great but more than job seekers.

Andy

[blueshift]

HA Bumblebee is 15 quid in various HMV stores if yours has him. But then again, whilst it is one of the better ROTF figures, that isn't saying much.

[The Doctor]

Today I went silly and bought a pile of GI JOE stuff in Sainsburys, but it was so ludicrously cheap I thought 'why not?' then had hot chocolate with M. Back to work tomorrow, booooooooo.

-Ralph

[Andy Turnbull]

Back home today after the excursion to SDF Karlross, seasonal lurgy upon me and didn't make it to work today. Hope it passes by tomorrow.

Andy

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Get well soon, those who are struck low.

Back to work today after a fortnight off. It's my belief that you haven't had a long enough holiday unless you've managed to forget your computer login password. I am pleased to say that when I sat down at my desk I really couldn't remember it. Got it right before it locked me out though.

Only about a hundred e-mails awaiting me. Some of them were quite amusing building-wide alert messages for one of the weeks I was away: "The basement's flooded, don't go down there." "Due to leakages, please don't use any of the toilets. Go to the ones in the building next door." "Don't go to the building next door. Go to the hotel across the road." "Be careful when crossing the road to go to the toilet. Use the crossing." "Plumbers are working to clear the basement." "Basement is now drying out."

Speaking to colleagues, apparently all the stairwells smelt of urine that week. Glad I missed it.

Martin

[Deleted]

I had an irritating second half of the day today

need comedy and a teddy!

[legios]

Well I'm back on-line now after a most excellent New Year here at SDF Karlross. Ralph, Andy, Nick - I thank you for making it a most enjoyable weekend.

After seeing my last guest off this morning I did a little bit of necessary shopping and then decamped back home to do some pottering, watch some Doctor Who and read some of Jack Staff - fine black and white comics series that has been kindly lent to me by Andy.

One more day off tomorrow, which I have not yet decided what to do with, and then I am back to work on Wednesday. Have to do some rereading of a job application that I did early in December at some point as well, as I have an interview on Friday afternoon.

Karl

[Hero]

Started my job at the nursery today. Had a blast!

===KEN

[dinogrrl]

I'm really starting to feel rundown, with my inability to take an actual holiday with this job. Took off Christmas Day and New Years, worked all the rest. Being the only person is both a blessing and a curse. I'd have to co-ordinate to have the Boss come down from Canada and fill in if I wanted off for a week. Am hoping to get finances sufficient enough to take off a week or two back to Australia for 2010 Christmas.

Not the most positive way to start the year. Then again, it's winter and been below zero for five days and will be below zero for the next week. Winter always bums me out. I'm a southern hemisphere subtropics baby, not so much with the snow and ice.

[The Doctor]

Ugh. Getting up today has been a drag, not helped by insomnia. Back to work shortly. It's going to be a looooooooooooooong day.

-Ralph

[Fortmax2020]

Same here. Not much sleep last night and it was dark when I had to get up. Not fun. But at least it was a day later than all those folk working in England.

[Deleted]

I've had trouble getting to sleep at nights for about the past month or two. I'm sure its insomnia but I'm hoping it'll pass though.

[blueshift]

Ho ho, the office closed early due to snow!

[grahamthomson]

We closed today. The paper supplier rang at 9 this morning saying none of the trucks could leave the Manchester depot due to the snow. And without paper we can't do any printing.

So I spent the rest of the morning on the moors with the dog playing snowballs. Of course, he doesn't throw them back, he just eats them!

[primenova]

The first day of 2010 was ok. No ice on the roads which had all cleared overnight - its just that we got all the snow from day 2 onwards.

[The Doctor]

Bit of a struggle at work, not helped by lurgy.

-Ralph

[legios]

I've been having a few issues with motivation today. Knowing that I have to be back at work tomorrow had drained all the enthusiasm out of me this morning.

I forced myself to go out for a couple of hours walk along the canal in order to try to get myself going. It has been at least a partial success. The walk itself was very enjoyable. There were very few people about this morning, and when I got along to the Roman Fort there had clearly been very few people there for a goodly while. I ended up crunching through a good covering of half-frozen snow - I don't think that my feet were technically on solid ground at times, more floating on a raft of compacted snow.

It was quiet and still, wonderful. Went a ways to restoring some of my get-up-and-go. I came back and got a bit of cooking done this afternoon - a pie and some pasties for the freezer. Unfortunately that soaked up a lot of the enthusiasm I had been able to regenerate and I find myself somewhat flat this evening.

There was an unexpected visitor around here this evening. I nipped out to get some crackers to go with my cheese (see another thread) and noticed something trotting across the cul-de-sac I live on. It took me a second to realise that it wasn't a dog. By which point the fox was staring at me as if trying to convince me that it was just a dog and that I hadn't seen it anyway. We looked at each other for a moment and then it turned and walked on and we both went about our business in our respective directions.

Karl

[Deleted]

Dear Primus, that is cold out there

I've made it into work, but we might close early by a few hours, no one can get in, not even people who live round the corner essentially

[Deleted]

It's snowing outside!

End of message!

[Philip Ayres]

Swindon = Hoth

[Deleted]

And....i'm home

my boss said not to bother coming in on Thursday, since it'll be more of the same, and to just call up on Friday to see if there's a point

[Andy Turnbull]

Cold here but still easy to make it into work unfortunately!

Had training last night on my first day back so not the most productive of nights.

Andy

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Well, I was prepared to take a flexi-day today to receive my parcel from City Link, but I got through to a human being on the phone about 9am who told me that their drivers weren't turning up because of the snow, so I went in to work after all. It actually meant I walked to work twice this morning, once around 7am to pick up papers for a meeting in Birmingham tomorrow and send a few essential e-mails, then again properly at 9 when I realised my parcel wasn't coming. I told the lady on the phone that I couldn't keep taking time off work waiting for it, nor was it practical for me to go all the way out to their depot at Taff's Well, so they should just return it to the sender without wasting their time attempting to deliver it again. She said OK, and the parcel tracking system on their website tells me it's been sent back.

I have e-mailed the Amazon distributor asking them to send it to me again using Royal Mail. If they refuse I'll ask for my money back and look for other ways of acquiring a second multi-region DVD player (assuming that is what it was - I can't think what else it could be, even though the automatic e-mail originally said it had been sent by Royal Mail).

Anyhoo, it was really nice walking into town at 7am on all the unspoilt snow - a couple of inches fell in the night, and it was all pristine and untrampled for my walk. Other good news is that my meeting in Birmingham tomorrow is cancelled due to weather, which means I can stay in bed till 9 rather than get up at 5.30. Also, turned out to be a very productive day for me in an unusually quiet office.

Got my Amazon/City Link frustration well and truly into perspective last night when I caught a bit of Michael Palin's Sahara where a family had built their house out of a hammered out oil drum, and were still smiling - and when I opened some mail from Oxfam about the post-tsunami reconstruction - and when I went out back to roll my wheely-bin back down the drive and found my next-door neighbour had done it for me - and when I spotted Orion overhead. Do I really need a second multi-region DVD player in a one-person house? (Answer: no, but I'll still have one if I can get it.)

Edit: Hang on, I've just had a nasty thought.

tmukhub.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=haveyoursay&action=display&thread=3413&page=1#66727

Martin

[Nigel]

Jan 6, 2010 16:52:17 GMT Grand Moff Muffin said:

(assuming that is what it was - I can't think what else it could be, even though the automatic e-mail originally said it had been sent by Royal Mail).

The automatic email actually requires someone at the seller's end to manually click a few buttons and stuff including a drop-down menu to select the carrier. Royal Mail is at the top of the list whilst Citylink isn't included though there is a "specify carrier" option; the email specifying Royal Mail could just be laziness on your seller's part.