Winter approaches - so does NaNoWriMo!

I know, I've been slacking!
Well, Hamilton has bucked up his ideas - a bit. He's still inconsistent and lacks maturity, and with one race (Brazil) left he has not yet clinched the championship.

Contributions to 'Pop and Crisps' continue, my latest extolling the virtues of the 1972 Vauxhall Viva were posted last Friday (see previous post for address). My two newsletters continue to go out as planned. I move to a new department, job wise, next month - more of that some other time, because ...

... The Big News is NaNoWriMo! The National Novel Writers Month. This is the tenth anniversary of this event and I'm signed up and ready to rock!

The challenge is to write a novel (a short novel by today's standards) of at least 50,000 words in a month. That means rattling off more than 1667 words every day. Characters and plot may be planned before hand but writing mustn't start to 00:01 1/11/08 (or 11/1/08 if you are 'over there') . The novel must be uploaded to their web site for word count validation before 23:59 30/11/08. If you are paranoid that they'll pinch your good work, they will scramble it for you. Chances are anything I write will look as if it is scrambled anyway!

Gotta dash, will post more soon - promise!

Grand Prix and Scrap-a-ganza weekend

Julie is back from Scrap-a-ganza in Holland. It was a three day scrapbooking convention which cost a fortune to attend. She returned totally disillusioned. Although the sessions led by visiting tutors were great, the organisation was abysmal. The transport from airport to hotel was a farce, the food was poor, there was no water to drink, the hotel was a long way from the airport, supplies for the classes did not appear - and on, and on. She will not be going again.

Did you see young Lewis Hamilton at Sundays Canadian Grand Prix. I think, when interviewed the previous day he joked about his father crashing his Porche at 30 mph. Well Lewis, pit lane speed is 60 kph which I estimate to be 37.5mph. I think the joke is on you! C'mon Lewis, concentrate!

In the mean time Kubica, in the BMW, has leapfrogged into the lead of the championship. Kimi - you better buck up your ideas, too!

I got a couple more articles on the 'popandcrisps' blog site (see below for address) 'pop' over and have a look - tell us what you think. I was rather pleased with a short story I entered for a competition, too. It didn't win but comments were good. I'll try and remember to put it on my web site.

Couple of newsletters will be published soon - web addresses to follow when published.

Bits on the interweb ...

I've had a couple of articles published recently. Back in April I had a short piece in Psychic News, Spiritualism's independent weekly newspaper. ( www.psychicnewsbookshop.co.uk ) More recently a new blog by author Josie Henley-Einion, 'Pop and Crisps' has accepted a couple of submissions. The blog reminisces about the 1970s and these were busy years for me. The blog can be found at http://popandcrisps.wordpress.com and my entries are 'Hair, fashion and metric' and 'Seveties - work and life'.
Skip over and have a read - tell me what you think. Tell Josie, too!

Another big gap ...

... and so much has happened!
AJ passed his test in January and now is whizzing around in his own car - quite the confident driver he is, too!
Sarah at work has had her baby - blow me down if she ain't pregnant again
I took the news sheet officer's post with the union and have published two issues so far. I'm also doing a newsletter for a local church. Quite a difference, eh!
The secondment that I applied for in July is going to be re-advertised so I'll try again if circumstances are right.
Julie was successful in getting a new job - much closer to home, so close that she walks to work! just think of all that duty we're not paying to the Chancellor now!
I have done two more cartoons for staff leaving the department since David's saucy image. Getting a bit of a habit.

The camping season is approaching and we hope to get a few days under our belt. Now that AJ is independent and mobile things should be easier.

Anyway, enough for one post, otherwise it'll be six months before I post again ...

Holiday season...

Well, summer's here!
AJ has been having his driving lessons and (according to him) is doing very well. He hasn't hit anything, hasn't broken the instructor's car and arrives home unscathed!

Work continues apace. Didn't get the secondment, but then again I didn't expect to, being the new boy and all that. We have two new members in the team, both 'seniors' as they know more than I do. So I shall have to make sure they work harder than I do, too! We are another member short as Sarah has gone onto maternity leave. That'll teach her!

David left for greener grass at Hewlett-Packard - I did a small caricature for a leaving gift for him, it was well received by all at the office - and boosted my Brownie points.

I'm spending a bit more time at the 'other' office at the present, due to the tasks I have to complete, probably only temporary. I hope so - they are a bit tight with the tea.

The union branch office has a vacancy for a news letter officer which I quite fancy a go at, so I spoke to the ex-officer who has been seconded elsewhere. I am expected to attend the next branch meeting to discuss with them the next step. I shall weigh up the pros and cons, but it doesn't seem too arduous with 4-6 issues a year. Should have a response by the end of September.

We've been away in the camper a couple of times - but you'll have to read about them elsewhere - see you there shortly...

... and another thing

Young AJ has booked himself a driving lesson - stay off the roads on Wednesday!

Slogging away!

Now, how long has it been? Three and a half months, actually! I'm almost an expert!
Our team has grown so we had to swap offices with the installers. Now we have the larger office but they get the air-con. Luckily the weather has been unseasonably wet and cool (understatement!) so we haven't need it. I feel part of the team and I have settled in well. As in any work situation things are constantly changing and three colleagues have either left or will be very soon - hope it's not something I've said! Two new ones are joining next month to keep the place stocked with us geeks!

We had a team building day, recently, and part of the day was lunch at an extremely posh restaurant in Winchester. It was one of those places where appearance is more important than quantity. Quality was, of course not in question, at all! Having a friend on 'the inside' meant we got the whole lot for £10 each - bargain! We're working on him for a Christmas lunch with the same rules, but I'm not sure we'll get the wine thrown in next time.

I know I haven't been there long, but the opportunity for a secondment has occurred. I have thrown my hat in as it sounds really interesting. It's only for six months and if I'm lucky enough to get it I will learn so much about the rest of the unit, and it should help my 'professional development'.

Julie is still looking for that 'special' job. She came close with her last application and her feed back was that she was, "... strongly recommended to re-apply when the next round is advertised." So, although not the success she was hoping for, it was a positive response.

I'll let you know how things develop, very soon ...

Another new job!

So, continuing from the last post, not The Last Post, the previous post, I completed an on-line, e-lectronic, virtual application form and sent it off. In effect, clicked the 'send' button, and waited.

March; Much to my surprise I was invited to interview and was successful! So it was time to start the tidying up of the desk and files at school, put all my belongings in a red spotted hanky, tie it to a stick and set off on my travels, again.

Unfortunately for Julie things at her place of employment had taken a turn for the worse. She is a very outgoing and 'bouncy' person. She does not suffer fools gladly, although she married me and stuck with it for 21 years! A group of work colleagues, whose names I will not mention, yet, decided to make a formal complaint and have made things very uncomfortable. The situation has now run its course, two of the women have left the department (hit and run comes to mind) and the dust is settling.

April; During the Easter beak I handed over my job to a temp who is to cover while a replacement is found. I snuck out quietly this time - last time I left they made a big fuss, all very nice, but embarrassing to do it twice in two years!

I've been in the new post for a fortnight and I am settling in well with my new colleagues. The learning curve, though, is vertical! There is so much I don't know, but I am booked in for loads of training to get me up to speed. Poor old synapses! My official title is ICT Support and Development Officer - oooooh!

To infinity and beyond ... !
(Thanks, Buzz!)

The Journey Resumes ...

Hello again!

Well, it's been half a year without a post - I s'pose I'd better catch up.
December; well that's when everyone does the Christmas thing. We did, and survived, nothing much to report. Oh, new year happened, too.

January; back to work.

February; we took 'Serena' for a spin. Off we went to Bristol for a short break. Weather was reasonable for the time of year and the camp site was conveniently placed for visits into the city centre. Our pitch overlooked the docklands development and the river taxi/bus stopped right alongside. Of course, no visit to Bristol would be complete without a trip to Ikea! Well, actually it would.

Back at school a vacancy has occurred for an ICT Manager. This has put the cat amongst the pigeons as the person who is/was doing that role has been sort of sideways shifted and the new post plonked above him. He's not a happy soldier! Anyway, being the loyal sort of friend that I am, I applied for the post. Well, I thought that if he was going to have a new leader it might as well be me. He applied for the job, too.

In the fashion of previous staff development at the school, neither of us got the job. It was given to some uninspiring techy from another school. I was unconcerned but poor old Steve was well miffed!

Around this time the County (my employer) had just completed its Pay and Benefits review. this is where it realigns the existing pay-scales with proposed new ones. All in the interest of efficiency, you know! In reality - saving money. Unfortunately I was one of the, 'your pay is frozen for two years then it'll drop to ...' brigade. My turn to be miffed! Nothing for it - will have to get a better paid job. So I sent off an application form for a job that I had had my eye on for a couple of years, but never completed the application process.

Pauses for breath ...

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 ...

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.