Dodging the Blame

As some people know, I’ve been involved over the last 15 months in a project to put in a Content Management System (CMS). It’s been a fuck-up from the start, and has taken 13 months just for the council to decide which system they want. But progress is finally being made, and we’ve got a deadline of 11th October for it to go live. Nothing like pressure at all.

In a meeting today about it, half the people have suddenly realised that come next week, they’re going to be at least part-way responsible for the website content that goes up from their departments. They’ve got to check it and make sure it’s right. Now, being a bunch of workshy blame-dodging motherfuckers, we’ve just spent three hours – yes, three fucking hours talking about whether there should be an extra approval system put in (bearing in mind a deadline a month away) so that they don’t have to take too much responsibility. This project has been on the go for more than a year, and yet these cocksuckers have left it til now to realise it means they might actually have to do something. It’s like the last year has never even happened. Like we’ve not had monthly discussions and meetings where all this has been gone through. Like they’ve been sleepwalking through, always assuming that final responsibility would be Someone Else’s. (In councils that’s the best form of responsibility there is)

I’ve now got an utterly bouncing headache, but I’ve been good, I have managed to get through the entire farce without once just saying “This should’ve been sorted out six months ago, you bastards“. But it’s been close, I can’t deny it.

Roll on Christmas. Yes, you heard that right – I’m looking forward to the Festering Season. Why? Because my contract finishes on December 24th. (I may move it a couple of days forward from there, but we’ll see.) So Christmas ’04 may actually be a happy, happy time.

Weird phase

Have you ever noticed that sometimes things just all click together at once? Where things you’ve been planning to do “when you get round to them” all suddenly start happening?

This week’s already been like that here. First of all was the resurgence (at long last) of the creative writing. That’s something I’ve been thinking about for at least six months. Then I finally got round to attending the public meeting of Redeye, a photographers collective around the northwest. Again, something I’ve been thinking about for the best part of this year, just never got round to.

And then to put the icing on the cake, I found out about a gallery space that’s looking for new photographers, and so I’ve got some prints done to submit to them. Nothing to lose really, and everything to gain. But that’s also been something that I’ve been talking about doing for most of this year.

I don’t know what’s made all this come together this week – but I’m sure as hell not going to knock it either.

Godfather

At long last, after a nightmarishly long labour, a friend of mine has given birth to her first daughter, Layla. 8lb 3oz. And amazingly, she trusts me to be the godfather. That’s going to be one messed-up kid…

The Teak House, Wokingham

A while back I wrote about the St George and Dragon in Wargrave, and wasn’t overly impressed with the place. Last weekend we went to The Teak House in Wokingham, which was a far better experience.

It’s a Thai restaurant, and came well recommended – and it deserved the recommendation. I know we’ll be going back more often. The service is attentive, although it’s obviously quite a small business. The food’s ace, and it’s just a pleasant place to spend an evening. And the prices weren’t bad either. Definitely recommended.

Yawn 2

Now here’s an idea I could live with – particularly after a lousy night’s sleep. Beds in the office – that way I could snooze and get paid for it, instead of sleepwalking like I do at the moment.

Of course, I’d have to sort out something about the snoring…

Yawn

I have to say, following making two purchases there, that the Filofax website is one of the slowest sites I’ve dealt with in years. It’s taken me about fifteen minutes to buy two sets of refill pages – it really is that slow.

Of course, the irony is that Filofax always tries to make out that it’s essential for organisational stuff, and saves time. Perhaps a site upgrade is needed. Wonder if I can persuade them…

Bankers

Do you ever have one of those days where you wonder if it’s you, or everyone else? That’s today for me. The bank account I have is with the Royal Bank of Scotland, and as part of the service I pay for on the account, it includes travel insurance (as mentioned the other day) but also no charges for foreign currency. So, as I’m off this weekend to foreign climes, I thought “Oooh, best order some currency, as they won’t have Icelandic kroner just in the bank on demand”. So far, so good.

Having checked the booklet about the member services for the account, it says “call us to sort out your currency requirements” (Slight paraphrasing there, but not by much) along with a number. When called, you go into the Automated Voice Response (AVR) system, and it says “for all travel requirements except Travel Insurance, press 1″. Off we go, pressing number 1.

“Oh no, we don’t deal with currency. You’ll need to go through the system again.”
“But this is the option for everything to do with travel”
“Yes, but we don’t deal with foreign currency.”
“…” (the sound of an utterly speechless Lyle)

Another call, this time going through multiple options in order to speak to a human being (well, bank worker, anyway)

“Oh no, you need the travel section for that. We don’t do anything financial”
“But the travel section don’t do currency, I’ve just spoken to them.”
“Well, we don’t do anything financial. You need to speak to the travel section.”
“…”

I’ve ended up talking to the business manager at the branch I’ll be collecting the currency from, and sorting it out at branch level instead of the “priority” customer services line dedicated to the people with my breed of account. I despair.