Posted: Tue 17 February, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2014/15, Domestic, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Own Business, Thoughts, Work-related |
As of today, I’ve started work in an office in central Milton Keynes. I’m still working the same contracts and so on, so it’s not a new employer or anything. It’s just a different environment, allowing me to separate work and home a bit.
While I can work from home (and have been for the last few months) I still find it’s easy to have days where I’m demotivated, and can’t really be bothered to get on with work stuff. It’s easy to be distracted, to never really get into “work mode”. In general I can get away with it, because the productive days outweigh the non-productive ones – but I don’t want that to be the case.
So I made some enquiries, and an office space had just become available in one of the buildings I’d emailed. It’s designed for start-up businesses – which I am/have – and is ideal for one or two people. Less than £200 a month (which is also a business expense anyway) including utilities and wifi/internet, right in the middle of Milton Keynes. Pretty much ideal.
I’ve got it for a minimum of three months – which takes me to just over the current end-date for contracts – and then a monthly-rolling renewal after that. If things go bad, one month’s notice and I’m done.
It’s another positive step, and one I hope will work out when it comes to balancing work and home life a bit better.
But it does make me feel a bit grown-up too, which is kind of odd, to say the least…
Posted: Mon 16 February, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Customer Services, Cynicism, Domestic, Finances, Getting Organised, nPower, Utilities |
As per comments on the previous post about my asshole energy suppliers, I will definitely be looking at changing them this year.
However, because of the ongoing billing fuckups, right now I have no decent figures for comparison purposes. I’m sure I’m not getting a good deal from the cockwhistles at nPower, but I don’t actually know for sure how bad the deal is. I haven’t had a clear and accurate bill in nearly three years – which makes figuring anything else out into quite a struggle.
As always, I don’t see the point in changing anything until I know I’m getting a better deal – so for now I’ll be keeping things with nPower.
However, that’s only for the next couple of months, during which time I’ll be keeping an eye on actual usage and what I’m paying. Once I’ve had the next bill, and know more about the usage and expectations, I’ll be able to make a far better estimation of what I’m spending versus what I could/should be spending.
And from that point, I’ll then have to decide whether I’m going to stick with [current location] for at least another year’s tenancy. If I am, and there’s a good offer around, I’ll swap. Until then, it’s going to be about making sure I’ve got the figures to back up the decision one way or t’other…
Posted: Fri 13 February, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2014/15, Bankruptcy, Business, Domestic, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Own Business, Thoughts, Work-related |
Among other ongoing things, I finally got confirmation today that I’ve sorted a new account for my limited company, so I can start doing things properly come April.
There’s still a bundle of other things to sort out along the way – but it’s a major step forward.
It’s progress for me personally as well, because this account has needed credit-scoring to get it started, and it’s still been accepted. That’s definitely A Good Thing, and bodes well for the future.
Posted: Mon 9 February, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Business, Change, Creativity, Domestic, Finances, Getting Organised, Own Business, Work-related |
I don’t know what’s been going on this last week, but I’ve been feeling pretty wiped-out all week. Not health-wise as such, there’s been no illness or anything to speak of – but my mood has just been flat and a bit demotivated. Not depressed – I know that one way too well – but just…. tired. I guess it’s just been one of those weeks.
Despite that, though, there’s been progress with other stuff.
As well as the normal work – which I’ve still been able to get enough done on – I’ve also finally got a business bank account sorted for once this contract comes to an end. Considering everything else that’s gone on, that’s quite something, and I’m really pleased about it.
I’ve also finalised the paperwork for renting the office for the next few months, so that should be a go from next week, with any luck.
So it’s all looking pretty promising. The first month of this year has already been more positive than pretty much all of last year. I’m not counting my chickens just yet, but things so far are looking up.
Now if only I could get back to being a bit more motivated and driven about it all…
Posted: Sat 31 January, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Old(er), Getting Organised, Health, Technology, Thoughts, Weigh Less, Weight Loss |
Over the last year or so, I’ve been using the FitBit Flex wristband to keep track of my daily steps, sleep statistics and so on. I’ve been generally impressed with its ease of use and so on, as well as the integration/communication with the FitBit App.
As it worked out, the only thing I wasn’t too impressed with was the strap itself – in that year-ish, I got through two straps, and had just ordered a replacement for the second. That’s not ideal, and is something of a design flaw. (I’ve let them know about it, so we’ll see what happens)
At the time I got it, I was a bit annoyed by a perceived lack of functionality within the Flex, so I was interested to see that they’ve released some more wearable things with more functionality – the Charge, ChargeHR and Surge (which is almost a smart-watch in its own right) – and I ended up getting a new ChargeHR.
Because I’m exercising more and so on, I was wanting a device to track heart-rate and so on as well, and the ChargeHR does that. I don’t need the full functionality of the Surge (plus I didn’t want to be taking myself up to that price point) but this one does pretty much what I want, particularly in combination with the phone.
The strap on this is a bit more obtrusive than that of the Flex – I can feel it as I’m typing this, for example – but all told I’m so far impressed with the device. And it has some of the extra things I wrote about a year back – and the Surge has built-in GPS as well, which was another.
It’s interesting seeing how these devices improve over time. It’d still be nice to see more innovation, but at least they’re doing more, and still maintaining a decent battery life and so on.
I’ve only had it a couple of days so far, but will probably write more about the ChargeHR in a couple of months’ time, as I’m more used to it.
Posted: Sat 24 January, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Customer Services, Domestic, Driving, Geeky, Getting Organised, iPhone, Work-related |
This weekend I’m off seeing friends Oop Norf, and because of working from home, opted for the easier option, leaving home early, stopping off at a services most of the way to where I’ll be, and working from there for a few hours.
It actually worked out pretty well – surprisingly so, in some ways – and meant I didn’t get stuck in tons of shitty traffic.
The surprising bit was that where I stopped, up at Hartshead Moor services, my phone had a full 4G data service – surprising, because Hartshead is pretty much the bum-end of nowhere. But still, 4G. That meant I could connect from laptop to iPhone using WiFi, which then gave me data via 4G, without having to pay a penny to the on-site extortionists of BTOpenzone et al.
That, to me, is a complete win. I’ve got unlimited 4G data through my phone contract (I know, it’ll still have a ‘fair-use’ limitation or whatever, but I’m well within that anyway) so it’s saved me the money of a connection through BTOpenzone, and won’t even hit my phone bill.
There are some bits of this modern life that I really quite like…
Posted: Tue 20 January, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Finances, Getting Organised, Travel |
The car passed it MOT with no problem at all. Needless to say, I am very happy with this news.
I had been getting a bit stressed about it, as I hadn’t heard anything from the garage by 4pm. In fairness, they’re normally pretty good about letting me know if something’s going to be expensive, so I knew it was likely to be OK – but all the same, it was a bit worrying.
Anyway, I called them just after 4, to find out what was happening. And all was well – it was just that the garage had forgotten to call me. Bit annoying, but far better than “Oh yeah, we had to do a load of work, here’s the bill”
As it turned out, it passed with flying colours. One advisory (an out-of-balance parking brake, of all things) and that’s it. I’m quite surprised by this – it’s a Y-reg with 125,000 on the clock, after all – but pleased. And considerably better off than I was expecting…