Posted: Fri 29 November, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2013/14, Business, D4D™, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Health, Own Business, Project 42, Thoughts, Time, Weight Loss, Work-related, Writing |
Yes, this is the 6,500th post on D4D™, according to WordPress. So what better time to look at what may be happening here over 2014? (There’s no guarantees, it’s more about where my head’s at right now)
In just over a month, it’ll be 2014. As usual, I’m not making any resolutions for 2014 – that old ‘everyone else does it, so I’m not‘ thing kicking in again – although there is the stuff from Project 42 (i.e. what I want to do from November to November) to consider. Which all means I have to balance out time across a number of things – something I’m renownedly abysmal at doing.
So – what may happen is that D4D may step back a bit, maybe not have the daily updates. (Of course it might stay the same, too. It kind of depends on everything else) I’ve got some writing ideas – as well as some other things I’m not going to go into right now – and I need to make time for them. I’ll still be updating, it just might not be daily.
This coming year is going to be interesting. There’s a lot of potential ideas and plans, a lot of stuff I’d like to do, but I do need to figure things out in order to be somewhat realistic about it as well. I’m going to take time over December to get things in place, work out priorities, form that limited company that needs doing, and a bundle of other prep crap to let 2014 be as productive as possible.
As for D4D™, it’ll keep on going – on and on. I can’t guarantee another 6,500 posts (who could?) but it’s not being planned to die off anytime soon.
Posted: Fri 8 November, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2013/14, Business, Customer Services, Cynicism, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Own Business, Project 42, Work-related |
As part of Project 42, I’m looking at getting back to having a limited company, and as a result of that I’m doing some research (again) on company formation agents, business banking, accountants, other management services etc., and generally getting myself a bit swamped. And as always, it’s all a bit of a minefield, a crap-shoot of hoping to find a company that’s merely slightly less grim than the others.
Business banking is a major culprit on this one – all the business banking people seem to be just as shit as each other. There really are no redeeming factors – and indeed, there’s even less on offer for new accounts than there was a few years back when I did this last.
I’m still somewhat gunshy about using an account to keep track of the business again – after my last one went bankrupt just before time to do the Tax Return, having taken all the fees etc. in advance, and leaving me properly In The Shit.
There seem to be more companies doing on-line management services for limiteds now, although they’re certainly not cheap. (And in a couple of cases don’t appear to want any new business, as they haven’t bothered answering even basic questions)
There’s no real hurry for these decisions to be made, thankfully. It’s all just research, figuring out the best deals etc. before I take the leap.
In the meantime – if anyone has any recommendations on business banking accounts, I’ll be interested to know it.
Posted: Thu 7 November, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Amazon, Business, Customer Services, Domestic, Kindle, Reading |
For returning the broken Kindle, this time Amazon made me use a new (to me) service called CollectPlus. (or Collect+, depending on whether you believe the URL or the logo)
Collect Plus have created a network of locations – usually corner-shops, garages/filling stations, newsagents and the like – where you can drop off a parcel for delivery. It is – I assume – a kind of private mail/courier company, the sort of thing that’s risen from the ashes of Royal Mail’s service (or lack thereof)
So far, from my side, it’s been a pretty positive experience. I went over to the local(ish) collection/drop-off point on Sunday – yes! getting a parcel sent on a Sunday! – and went through the necessary bits. I’d printed off the label from Amazon, stuck it to the box, and all was prepared. Then I simply gave it over to the person on the till, got my receipt, and job done.
I got the email today from Amazon to say that the parcel has been delivered to them – not the world’s fastest process, but it’s cost me nothing to do, and it’s all run pretty smoothly so far. It’s also been a lot quicker, easier, more effective and less painful than anything Royal Mail ever managed…
Posted: Mon 21 October, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Business, Customer Services, Cynicism, Domestic, Finances, nPower, Utilities |
As nPower have today announced that the average joint-fuel bill will be going up by over 10% from December 1st, I’ve decided that I’m now definitely going to take my complaint to the Energy Ombudsman, and cost the fuckers some money.
Jesus christ, a 10% increase. Do they think people are made of money? Fucking hell.
I wouldn’t mind so much if there were any decent alternatives to change over to. Sadly though, they’re all as shitty as each other.
Posted: Sat 14 September, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2012/13, Bankruptcy, Business, Domestic, Own Business, Work-related |
So, as well as everything else, I’ve got a number of projects ongoing for which I’d now (I think) like to form a limited company again.
I know the company name is available, I already own the relevant domains etc. It’s just a question of whether I actually do go down the route of limited company – which has its own issues with paperwork, accounts etc. – or whether I just do it as a sole trader.
In general, I prefer the limited route, and I’m safe again to be a director now the Bankruptcy has discharged. But I need to decide which will work best, and how it will all combine to work. I know that with a Ltd. I can also use it for my contracting etc., although that tends to make the company very profitable very quickly. Might be a good thing, might not.
And of course some of it will also come down to whether any of the main banks will let me have a business bank account, what with only being a month out of Bankruptcy.
It makes more sense (kind of) to start on this kind of venture in January, start of a new year and all that. I need to think about all of these things for a while before making the decisions on where I’ll be heading. And that’s some of what this weekend will be about, I think.
Posted: Wed 11 September, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Business, Geeky, People, Work-related |
More and more I’m coming to the realisation that I am so not a data geek. I use data and databases all the time, but I don’t usually deal in big data systems that need epic sizes of database and insanely complicated methods of getting that data in and out of those systems.
This current role is now my third over the years where I work with exactly those types of system. Crapco back in Bracknell/Wokingham – and in a weird coincidence that’s also where I last did any intensive cycling – were the first. A duller bunch of people you couldn’t want to meet, and I hated it. The second was about 2, 2½ years ago, an educational company in Cambridge. And now a tech company in Cambridge.
The thing is, they’re all very similar – as are the people who work in them. In all three cases, the people involved were (in my eyes) ineffably dull – all had been with the company for at least five years – and deeply insular about their work. They didn’t want to teach anyone else how to do stuff on ‘their’ system, primarily (it seemed) because they thought their own jobs would be at risk if they told someone else how to do things, or were in any way helpful at all. It’s just a mindset I simply don’t understand. After all, if you’re swamped enough that you can justify an extra person, surely it makes sense to then get that person up to speed so you can reduce that work pressure. But no. And it’s all so “This is *my* section!” and cliquey that it just does my head in. No-one wants to teach how to figure out where things are going wrong, it’s like a “oh, figure it out yourself” type thing. And don’t get me wrong, most of the time I can evaluate how things are working, and where things are going wrong. In environments like these though, you can’t do that. It’s been made so insanely complex over the years, anyone coming in new is effectively fucked from the start. And that’s the position I find myself in. (Again)
Couple that with one simple fact from my side – which is that when it comes to these kind of companies, I simply don’t care enough about their data to want to work with it and worry about its accuracy. “Oh, but it’s 0.001% out on those figures.” And?
All told, it’s a lesson I need to learn, I type of place I no longer wish to work in. I’ll be OK here for the remaining five months of the contract – but I won’t be renewing after that. I’ll probably keep my options open too, by keeping on looking for other roles…
Posted: Tue 27 August, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Business, Commuting, Domestic, Driving, Getting Old(er), Getting Organised, Public Transport, Travel, Work-related |
Today I start my new contract, over in Cambridge. The commute is kind of weird, I’m going in the opposite direction to last time I travelled that route.
As long-time readers of D4D know, I’m not averse to the odd idiot commute. This one is actually pretty sane in comparison, although I suspect I’ll have to spend some time finding the ideal route. There’s a couple of sections – primarily from St Neots to Caxton – that are vile, although honestly I suspect all the routes are much the same when it comes to heavy traffic.
As it is, I’ve gone from the 20 mile journey to Previous Place (well, Previous Long-Term Place) to a 40 mile journey to the new one, so my commute has doubled. Although, weirdly, it’s pretty much the exact same distance as the drive to the office of the short-term contract – just in the opposite direction.
Apparently for a lot of people a 40-mile journey to work is too much, but for me it’s nothing – it’s still less than half of what I was doing when I was living in Norfolk and Suffolk, and working in London. And it’s nowhere near my record commutes – although they were by train rather than driving – of Bath->London (115 miles each way, each day) and Manchester->London (200 miles each way, each day) although I will never do a journey/commute/contract like that again. It pretty much killed me when I did it fifteen years ago, I can’t see it would be any different now.
Still, in that context, a 40-mile journey is absolutely nothing. I’ll spend some time figuring out best routes, best times and the like, and settling into the new schedule. But really that’s all just part of a new contract for me.
I’ll write more about it once I’m more settled into the routine, and know more about what I’m actually doing.