Back again!

The 'smart new environment' has not arrived, it is due to start sometime this month. My Health and Safety skills are being dusted off and brought back into the daylight as my services as H&S rep for Unison are called upon.
An issue that has been developing for sometime has now fermented sufficiently for the management side to call me in. Obviously I can't tell you lot the details, that wouldn't be professional, would it? I'll hint at my progress as we work our way through, suffice to say I've met with the aggrieved and arranged a meeting with the 'other' side.
Moving on. New technology at the school fails to impress. The new student reporting application has more bugs than a ferral cat, but hopefully, as my skills with MS Access and VBA/VB improve things should run a tad more easily. It's Year 9 report day tomorrow, if my next entry is in upper case - it will be a sign of metaphorical screaming!

How many wives does a bloke need! Father, long lost, nomadic, prone to female attachment, is getting wed - again! That'll be the fourth, and he is 77. Oh, well! There was no inheritance left anyway, I hope he'll be happy (he usually is!) and Julie and I will see him on the big day. It does mean, though, that I shall have to make sure my visa is up to date as it takes place within the perimeter of the M25 - lock doors, place crowbar next to driver's seat, practise diplomatic protection escape manoeuvres, keep route map open at correct page for alternative travel plan, don breathing apparatus so as not to be poisoned by the polution, carry phrase book to translate strange local dialect - I'm not really a city person, you see!

Poor Julie fell in the bath last week. Gave her noggin a right old clonk! Whipped her off to the local A&E where, after only an hour, she was diagnosed as only bruised and sent off to buy paracetamol and ibroprufen. Satisfied that she was going to survive for the next three days she went off to her 'scrappin' retreat' to recover. Three days in a posh hotel on Gloucester made her feel better. If you visit the UKScrappers website you'll probably find out details of what they got up to. AJ and I survived on 'K rations' - pizza, wine and NASCAR on the telly!

'night all ...

Something new!

For those into fresh air and countryside - check out the new club for campers, the Yellow Wedgie Club! Blog can be found at http://yellowwedgie.blogspot.com with a link to their webpage!

Has it been that long ...?

Well! The new school year has continued apace. Year 11s have done their work experience and things are now settling into a routine. I am becoming familar with a regular group of late arrivers, who unsurprisingly, were mostly the same ones who were arriving late last year, with the addition of a couple of Year 7s who seem swamped by the whole 'big school' process.

Now that I have redisigned the systems everything runs a little smoother and a lot less paper is generated. We have a new reporting system installed which is currently in the experimental stage. More to follow on that as things develop!

As for the management of the office ... no change. Building work is due to start in the next month and we shall have a smart new environment. I wonder how the atmosphere will change?

That was the week that was ...

Are any of you old enough to remember that programme?

I thought that the week would get better as it went along. We started with about 60 of our Year 10 students having spaces in their timetable, by the end of the week none of them had a timetable! On a personal note, my week had been reasonable with no real upsets until Friday. Friday was the day that the computer network was to be taken off line while the new high speed internet link was installed.

I was ready for it; I would deal with my late arrivals and then spend the morning catching up on non-pc based tasks such as a bit of filing, impromtu meetings with various people I don't usually get to see, mixed in with a little social interaction until lunch time when the system should be back on-line. No such luck. Although the network fired back up wonderfully, and the internet connection is blisteringly fast, the information management system refused to even raise an eyelid in response to my frantic requests for access. It seems that the technicians responsible for my bit of the network decided to tinker with the virus protection programme for good measure, 'while we had the system down'! Well come 1700hrs on Friday evening (the technicians having gone home around 1530 in the fond belief that the system was up and running) I was still trying to convince it to produce class registers for Monday. As the ex-network manager I can't begin to imaging what they have done - but it probably involved a bright idea that turned out to be as dim as a TocH lamp! I gave up and printed of a Word document as a temporary solution - hopefully we can get the problem sorted so I can catch up on Monday.

One of my colleagues from the office left on Friday. She is moving to a similar post at another school, although this time a private school run efficiently along business lines. It seems quite amazing that supervisors and management at our school seem oblivious to the discontent amongst the support staff.

During the down time of the computer network I had a meeting, in my role as Safety Rep, with the H&S Administrator. This was a very productive half an hour and we should be able to move things forward at the school. Luckily, I have more training than her so I have the advantage should we need to enter into any negotiations.

AJ is back at college. Julie ran him to the bus stop on Friday, but force of habit led her straight past without stopping. A quick about turn got him there before the bus. Hopefully the enrolment season will drop off soon and she will be able to come home from work at her proper allotted time. She is so worn out this weekend that we haven't bothered taking the camper away.

I've still got Sunday to re-charge my system, then back to the front line to get the timetables, registers and absentees sorted - sounds like another busy week ahead!

Back to School

Well, it is for some. Some of us have been there all through the summer, making sure everything is ready for the start of the new school year.

AJ is getting ready to resume his A Levels at college, Julie is enrollling new students at hers and I am preparing for my new season as Safety Rep for Unison at my school. This should be interesting as, prior to my excursion to the NHS, I was on the other side of the fence as H&S Administrator in the same establishment! Hmmm! I'm not short of the theory or its practise - but dealing with things from the staff side will need a different approach.

We've still got Sunday to go before the onslaught of the tiny sevens, and on Tuesday the rest of the rabble arrive - not least the teachers. We'll soon find out what we've forgotten, or got wrong over the break. I'm gonna put some new systems in to action to try and streamline my job, and hopefully the teachers can start using e-mail and electronic storage to reduce the amount of paper generated.

I'll let you know what happens ...

August update

Thought it was about time I posted again. As usual during a Bank Holiday week I lose track of the days - it's Wednesday already!

AJ got his first pay packet. That really impressed him - until he saw how much Her Majesty's Inland Revenue deducted! "Welcome to the real world!" I said. "Mum and I have yet to deduct your house-keep as well." That really made his day!

Timetables for the new academic year are not going according to plan for my boss. She is trying desperately to track down teachers so that they can tell her where the students are supposed to be - when there are more than 1700, there are quite a few spaces to fill!

Oh! On the performance front, our school had their best ever year for 5+ A*-C grade GCSEs with just over 71%, so everyone is happy - except the head; she thinks we should have done better. Glass half full or glass half empty? I think it was a good result, but then again I am now bottom of the food chain!

We're looking forward to 'admission season' finishing at the end of September then we can get some time off, especially Julie who is working long hours at the college - we'll get 'Serena' out and about and breathe some country air.

The website has been updated, the new style is a bit 'moderner' than the rather dated pages although the old pages are still available should you wish to browse.

What's all this Beta Blog stuff? I'm only just getting the hang of this one - I'd better check it out ...

Web site news ...

For about a year I have been unable to edit my web pages due to duff information given by the host's technical team, but now I have solved the problem and updates have been made. I shall try and give it a fresh new look over time.

The address is : http://homepages.tesco.net/~kimpm/Kim

Addition to the family

Ooops! Sorry, been so busy didn't have time to do any blogging.



Anyway, we made the trip and we PX'd Beryl for a Swift Mondial on a Fiat Ducato base vehicle. To follow our tradition of naming our vehicles she has been named, Serena. Ah! That's nice.

Our first camper was a VW Auto-Sleeper Trooper, her name was Cleo. Cleo took us to France, where we slept on board during renovations to the house we had there. We travelled on south and west to the Ille de Re; a beautiful area we plan to revisit. The Dutch campers were facinated by our driveaway awning.

After a year we went bigger and better, we swapped Cleo for Penny, the Pilote Debut Coachbuilt on a Peugeot Boxer chassis.

Penny was a four berth with loads of space and an on-board toilet which made life loads more 'convenient'. In our two years with Penny we went to France again and toured England as far north as Hadrian's Wall. A week in the rain in Keswick spoilt it for us and the following year Penny was sold on. This coincided with a change of job where weekending was less convenient. Beryl was the replacement vehicle to be used for dialy transport.

So, now we are getting sorted for trips away with Serena. Contrary to Jeremy Clarkson's opinion, we enjoy the peace and quiet away from our usual routine and filling the Portapotti is part of the fun. Emptying it is also part of the fun! Hopefully our attempts at parking and setting up will be more successful than theirs.

We'll let you know what happens ...

Counting down

Just one more 'sleep' and then we are off to find our new camper! Go West! the song says, so that's where we're going.

We'll mount up early and get the posse rolling before the grockles get out and about. The trip is around 160 miles, there and back, so the deal should be complete by lunch if all goes according to plan. The crew will consist of the full family; pilot - me, navaigator - Julie, stoker - Alex, so little Beryl will be well laden. She has been suitably prepared, including a quick wash 'n' brush up, and it will be her longest journey for some while.

So, you come back now, if y'wanna find out how we get on, d'ya hear!

Where've ya been?

I know! It's been nearly three months since I've blogged. To be honest, very little seems to have been interesting enough to get creative about, but things are on the move!

Julie has been thinking 'holidays', and between us we've decided that we're going back to a motorhome/camper/motorcaravan, call it what you will. We started about four years ago with a VW Autosleeper Trooper. 'Cleo' was great fun but a little small for three of us. Actually she was a little small for two so after a year we traded her in for a Pilote Debut 35 on a Peugeot Boxer chassis. 'Penny' was a full four berth coachbuilt motorhome made in France. As our life style went through various phases we found that 'Penny' was becoming under used, so after a couple of years she had to go. We bought 'Beryl', the yellow peril, a Citroen Saxo as basic transport (see thumbnail on the first post).

Watch this space for further details - there will be an announcement when we have a new arrival!

Strewth!!

Well things have moved on. I missed the April posting and now it's May. We are currently being deluged with April showers - the weather is pretty naff even by English standards.
I completed the series of illustrations for Alex's animation project. He has taken them to college and 'doctored' them accordingly, I hope to see the final result sometime soon.

Life at the school is good so far. I can get my head down without too much bother from the others. Being in a room full of women is Ok, except for one (no names, yet!) who has the people skills of a glove puppet. Luckily I can keep my interactions with her to a minimum. Off on a course tomorrow - should prove interesting, all the other delegates are teachers. Hmmm.

Next week is half term, so Julie and I will be taking time off so that we can still have time as a family before Alex decides he is too old to holiday with 'the old duffers'! Nothing planned yet - let's see what happens ...

All change

Well, having applied for various jobs I have been interviewed and been successful.

As from 31 March I finish with the NHS and return to Education. Possibly not the best career move, but it gets me away from an organisation that I find so frustrating the work for - and I've only been there for 8 months!

Leaving all that behind I move to a school in an administrative position which should, if all goes according to plan, mean I can concentrate on the arty-crafty things that keep me busy when out of work. Currently that includes a 60 image run of illustrations for my son's animation project at college, a personal cartoon for a friend, and a decorated money box - quite a variety!

So watch this space - I'll report back in April to let you all know how it's going.

Tempus Fugit ...

Doesn't time fly when you're having fun! Work continues as before ... there is now talk of creating a 'Bloggong Policy' 'cos apparently some members of staff have been saying nasty things about their bosses on the internet. I would have thought the current libel laws would cover what they need.

The job applications are going off. No replies yet but it makes me feel better that there are some there to apply for.

On a domestic note, I am getting out the brushes and acrylic paint again, and will be getting my hand in to rejuvenate the brush strokes and folk art skills. Gonna start with a piece in the style of Warren Kimble as a request from Julie. Then we'll see where we go from there. Hopefully when I get a different job I'll feel more inclined to spend time after work slapping paint about - would like to start doing some adult education classes to pass on the skills. Enough of this waffle, back to the paint brush ....

Oooo! 2006

New Year is here. A time for resolutions, I s'pose. Well they are not really very helpful because they are usually forgotten by the 15th, so I'm not going to bother. But what what I will do is aim to change my job - if the right alternative presents itself.

The people I work for and with are in such a piteous state; no team spirit, back biting, trying to protect their own, trying not to be made redundant the atmosphere is totally draining. As I am bottom of the food chain I have no influence for change so I must leave them all to their own fate.

The search is underway - 2006 has begun!