Posted: Sat 31 May, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Gigs, M25, Sociable, Thoughts, Travel |
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve covered over a thousand miles just for social stuff.
Last weekend (the Bank Holiday) was notably mental, even by my standards. It involved :
- Friday. Go to work, come back at lunchtime, drive down to the O2 to see Nine Inch Nails in concert, and drive home. Home at 1am.
- Saturday. Drive down to Tunbridge Wells for a friend’s birthday do. Enjoy that, not drink much, then think “sod it” and drive home at the end of the night rather than sleeping in a tent. Home at 1.30ish.
- Sunday. See the parents for a fleeting visit, just so we all know that each other is alive.
- Monday. Drive over to Brentwood to meet up with friends. Drive home.
All told, that little lot amassed some 750 miles – and meant I travelled the same section of M25 (from M1 round to Dartford Crossing, or thereabouts) no less than three times in four days.. And then a meeting on the Tuesday down in Hampshire.
This weekend is a little bit calmer, but still consists of
- Friday. Normal work travel, cinema in the evening, then home.
- Saturday. Into Milton Keynes, collect new glasses and do some other domestic tat. Then drive down to Somerset for a house-warming thing, stopping off at Bristol to collect a couple of train-travellers and get them there too
- Sunday. Come back. (Unsure yet whether that’ll also be via Bristol or not)
- Monday. New job, new office, similar commute to the last month.
And next weekend involves a trip into London to meet up with friends and visit a couple of galleries with exhibitions I want to see.
I must be bloody barmy…
Posted: Fri 30 May, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, Interviews, People, Web Development, Work-related |
Today is the last day of my current contract. It’s been a hectic (but pretty productive) month, and has given me some further pointers for where I want things to go in the longer-term for my own development projects and ideas.
In the meantime though, a change.
I’ve been offered a full-time permanent role with a tech company in Milton Keynes. It sits on a par with a lot of my longer-term ideas too, and should give me a decent grounding in some bits that have been missing from my recent CV. So it’s got its bonuses.
I have my reservations this time – about the company itself, rather than the work. The work doesn’t really concern me at all. The company does.
Since being put forward for the role, they’ve been – pushy, I think is the best way to describe it.
I did the phone interview on short notice – it’s fine, I’m used to that.
Then the interview request came through, for tomorrow. OK, I can move things around, arrange things for that to happen. Then on the day they tell me “Oh, it’s likely to be two to three hours“. Nice to be pre-warned, and lucky I hadn’t just said I’d do the interview in my lunch-hour…
That all went ok, and the offer was pretty much there. But they wanted to talk to me the next day, to have a final phone conversation. Again, it had to be Today. It had to be ASAP. Pushy.
They know I’m working my ass off this week, closing the current contract. And still they’ve been pushing every damn day, “Have you done the paperwork” “Will you be starting“.
The paperwork didn’t even arrive ’til yesterday. I’ve said I want to read through the contract, make sure I know the deal and what’s on offer before I sign to start. And I’m working. So I got the paperwork at 12, in the end. By 3pm they were calling again, “We want to confirm you’ll be starting on Monday“.
I’ll start with them. But if they keep up this kind of bullshit pushy “We’re important” attitude, they’ll be told to fuck off before very long at all.
So yeah, I’ve got some reservations. The pros (currently) outweigh the cons, but it’s not by much. We’ll see.
Posted: Thu 29 May, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Depression, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Health, Insomnia, Project 42, SAD, Words, Writing |
Over the last couple of months, my creative side has felt like it’s completely locked up. I don’t particularly know why – although I suspect it’s linked to feeling constantly tired, burned out, and unwell.
After this weekend, I’m making some changes again – mainly employment stuff (of which a bit more tomorrow) but also a few life-based things.
With the new job, I’m aiming to limit myself to work-based stuff just in work hours. With the last couple of jobs they’ve been coming home with me, and it’s been sitting in my head. I suspect that’s been a mistake. It’s certainly put me in a position where a lot of the time I don’t even want to look at a computer while I’m at home – although again that may be down to also feeling depressingly run-down – so I’m currently hoping that if I limit myself a bit more workwise, I might have the time and inclination to do other stuff when I’m back at home.
It could also be that I’m going through a bit of a depression dump. It wouldn’t be the first time that I get affected like that once the days have started getting longer. I can deal with – and fight – the seasonal depression of long nights and grey days, but once the days get longer I lower my guard, lower my resistance, and sometimes it just hits hard for a while.
I’m hoping I’ll find some ways to reset myself a bit over the next couple of weeks, but we’ll see.
Posted: Fri 23 May, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Advertising, Bad Ads, Cynicism, Finances, Marketing, People, Thoughts |
Following on from yesterday’s post about Nissan’s dodgy advertising, maths and small-print, the other ad currently incurring my ire is from Lloyds Bank, advertising their new “Club Lloyds” current account.
Now, while I think that clubbing Lloyds would be a fantastic idea, that isn’t the thing with this new account. Here’s the ad…
And again, here’s that small-print, while they’re bleating on about how great it is to have an account paying 4% interest…
Pay two separate monthly Direct Debits to earn variable tiered monthly interest. 4.0% AER (3.93% Gross) on balances between £4,000 and £5,000. Lower rates apply for lower tiers
So yep – that 4% interest ONLY applies if you keep more than £4,000 in your current account – but below £5,000. And if we look at that Club Lloyds webpage, what do we find? (I’m going to paraphrase, but you can look for yourself)
- Balances from £1 – £1,999.99 – 1% interest
- £2,000 to £3,999.99 – 2% interest
- £4,000 to £5,000 – 4% interest (and note how that band is half the size of the other two)
And right at the bottom of the explanation?
We don’t pay interest on amounts over £5,000.
Yep – no interest at all if you’ve got over the £5,000 in there.
Fuck you, Lloyds.
Posted: Thu 22 May, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Advertising, Bad Ads, Corbett, Cynicism, Driving, Green, Marketing, People, Thoughts |
As regular readers will know, I have a really bad habit of reading the small print. (I say ‘really bad’ although it’s not – anyone who doesn’t deserves everything they get. It’s just ‘really bad’ from the advertiser’s perspective) There’s two ads doing the rounds at the moment that annoy me, so you know what? You get two posts out of it. Lucky you.
The first (which arrived in my inbox just now, and motivated me to write it) was for a leasing arrangement on a new car – a Nissan Leaf, if anyone cares.
The deal offered is this :
The 100% electric New Nissan LEAF Visia Flex FROM ONLY £199 A MONTH*
WITH A £3,250 ADVANCE RENTAL CONTRIBUTION
OK, so they mention that “Advance Rental Contribution” (which is a deposit, surely?) right at the start, and already it’s skewing the figures. But then we get to the bottom, and the small print…
Finance is available subject to status on eligible new vehicles registered between 01/04/14 and 30/06/14 in the UK to persons aged 18 or over. Rental stated is for Nissan lease. Advance rental of £5,750 (includes £3,250 Advance Rental Contribution) followed by 48 monthly rentals of £199 a month and final rental of £6,201.
Hang on – £5,750 upfront? That’s another £2,500, on top of the “Advance Rental Contribution” – where has it come from, and what’s it for? Even if you take out the first month’s £199, that’s still £2,300 unexplained. Fucking hell.
All told – with all those amounts listed, that comes to £21,503. For a poxy Nissan Leaf.
But then it gets better… (Sorry, “better”)
Once you have paid the final rental you can keep using the car by paying an annual rental of £50 + VAT; if you choose Nissan lease then you will never own the car.
As well as entering in to a lease agreement for the vehicle, you will need to enter in to a separate lease agreement for the battery. Monthly price shown includes the on-going monthly battery lease charge of £70.
Now they’re just taking the piss, surely ? So even when you’ve stumped up your £21,503 – sorry, £21,563 including that little final ‘annual rental’ charge, then you will *still* be paying £70 a month for the fucking batteries?
Up yours, Nissan.
Posted: Mon 19 May, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Bankruptcy, Cynicism, Domestic, Finances |
Following on from the post about Location, and deciding to stay here for another 18 months, something else occurred to me – and it’s something good.
If I’ve lived here for more than three years, it’ll immensely simplify any credit applications I make – and that’ll be useful when it comes to rebuilding the credit history and so on.
As it is, things are going well on that front, and all is good. The score is infinitely better than it could be – mainly due to maintaining all the payments on all bills and so on, with no issues therein.
But being able to show a bit of locational stability for a while will be no bad thing either.
Anyway, it’s just another point that adds to the reasoning.
Posted: Fri 16 May, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2013/14, Bankruptcy, Change, Commuting, Depression, Domestic, Driving, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Housing, Own Business, Project 42, Thoughts, Time, Work-related |
Over the last couple of months, I’ve been thinking a lot about location – where I live, where I work, where I want to live, all that. I’ve been in the current house for two years now, and I know I’m getting a bit twitchy.
The current tenancy doesn’t expire ’til November though – due to an initial six-month one, followed by 12-month ones. As a result, I’ve had plenty of time to think about it, look at the pros and cons, and – I think – I’ve now pretty much made a decision.
As has been noted on many occasions, I’m not all that good with permanence – I like change, embrace it even. It suits me. So two years in the same place is enough to make me twitchy, to start to feel that itch in the back of my skull.
It’s not too bad at the moment though. I’ve certainly had it far, far worse than this. If I were still in the same job as well, the options would be different – I’d be needing to move on in both cases. As it is, I’ve been back on the contracting since July, and it’s kept things decently varied – which means the house side of things can relax a wee bit.
There are places I’d like to move to, some new locations and some old. (Or at least close enough to qualify as revisits) They’re more about reflecting how much life has changed in the last few years, most particularly the ability to drive, which opens up whole new vistas.
For example, I’d like to go back to the North-West, live around the Peak district somewhere. I wouldn’t live in Manchester itself again, but there’s loads of places around it that I really like. It’s still a front-runner when the move does happen. The same applies for the South Coast, and Dorset in particular. It’s an area I love, but didn’t really get to appreciate as much as I could’ve done, because I didn’t drive. So yes, that’s also a front-runner.
There’s other places too. A revisit to Bath and/or Bristol wouldn’t be out of the question – particularly when not combined with an insane commute, ideally – and there’s new locations too. I’d consider most places, but Nottingham and Derby have always been good to me, and there’s a whole heap of other places. (Plus a long-standing idea to sod off to somewhere like Cork)
However, right now there’s also a bigger plan in place. Rebuilding after the bankruptcy, seeing what comes next, as well as looking at work and finances and what the hell I want to do/be when I grow up. There’s ideas on that score, but I need to have the time and inclination to do something about them. Time I’ve got. Inclination? Less so, right now. But that’s a post for another day.
I could move, sure. But practicality-wise, where I am right now is pretty much perfect for me right now. It’s not a long-term location, but for now it’s good. I’ve got all the transport links I need – my commuting radius for work covers an insane amount of miles. It makes my contractor life a lot easier. Location isn’t in many (if any) of those calculations I have to do. For me, right now, that’s an important factor, and outweighs pretty much everything else.
Financially, it’s easy. If I move North then the odds are that my rent would drop. But for where I am, for what I’ve got right now, I couldn’t do much better. I’d like some extra space, an extra room or two – but it’s not something that’s necessary right now either.
All told, while I would kind-of like to move, I don’t need to move. And staying put has its advantages too – location, money, blah blah.
That means that – in the lack of a good reason for moving other than “But I want to” – I’ve decided I’m going to plan to stay where I am for the next eighteen months. The six months from now for the current tenancy, and then extend it by another twelve.
Of course, the landlord might decide to sell up or something, or work may throw up something that makes me have to move. Neither option is likely, but they could happen. But short of those kind of eventualities, I’m going to face up to things, and not move.
By that time – November 2015 – I’ll have been in this place for three and a half years. Then I think it’ll be time to move on – or at least move up. If my work is still keeping me based in a way that the current location is still OK then I’ll just look at moving to a bigger place locally. If things change or work isn’t a limitation (I can work from pretty much anywhere, after all) then it might be a big location change too. We’ll see.