Milton Keynes

Posted: Mon 16 December, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Festering Season, Getting Organised, People, Shopping | Leave a comment »

ScroogeOn Friday, I realised I needed to do some stuff in Milton Keynes that couldn’t be done/sorted anywhere else. On the penultimate weekend before Christmas. Oh tits.

As it worked out, everything went really well. I was in, parked, and ready to do everything I needed to by 8am. One thing was a look round the M&S to see if there was anything that appealed – and a bit of web-checking had shown that they were open from 7am. (God knows why they felt the need to be open for 13 hours when the rest of the shops weren’t open ’til 9, but I digress)

So – a quick belt round an almost-deserted M&S proved there was nothing I actually wanted – excellent. Back to the car to wait for 9am when everything else opened.

From 9am, I got everything done within 30 minutes, and was completely out of Milton Keynes by 10am. By that time there were already queues of cars to come in to the car parking, but my deeds were done.

Surprisingly organised, and surprisingly easy.

Even better, I think I’m now done and dusted for the entire Festering Season stuff. Next weekend should be spent avoiding retail environments completely, all being well with the world…

Reduced Interest

Posted: Fri 13 December, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Cinema, Domestic, People, Seeing Films, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

I don’t quite know why it is, but this last couple of weeks have had a severe reduction in the number of films I can be bothered to see.

Indeed, I haven’t even been to the cinema in three weeks – which is noteworthy this year. That Cineworld Unlimited card has certainly been worth the money – I reckon it’s saved me at least three hundred quid this year. (I’ll do the final figures at year-end, but that’s a conservative estimate)

And yet this last two or three weeks, there’s just been nothing that I’ve thought “Oh yeah, I fancy seeing that” – and bear in mind that on this one, my quality-control can be remarkably low.

I’m taking my dad to see the new Hobbit one this coming weekend, which’ll be good. But even then, that’s the only one coming out this week that I’ve wanted to see.

Hopefully things will improve again – although I’m guessing that’s not likely to be before the Festering Season at this rate. As in Summer, the next couple of weeks appear to be primarily loaded with child-friendly fodder for while they’re off-school, and the usual inane set of ballbag romcoms and guff. Always a joy.

Bad Habits

Posted: Thu 12 December, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: People, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »

At the moment, I’ve got a colleague whose bad habits drive me crackers.  It wouldn’t normally bother me, but he sits diagonally opposite me on the desk pod, which means I can’t help but be aware of them.

I know, we’ve all got colleagues that annoy, there’s things that bug everyone. Equally, I’m quite sure I’ve got habits or whatever that annoy others.

However.

  1. This particular colleague seems to spend a good 90% of his working day picking his nose. I don’t know why – I suppose there may be some underlying medical issue to it – but it’s vile to have to sit and watch it. Well, not watch it as such, but definitely to be constantly aware of it from the corner of my vision.
  2. When he drinks from a cup of tea/coffee, he slurps it up the sides. Every. Sodding. Time.
  3. And finally, as if constantly rooting around up his nose isn’t enough, he also then hawks back snot on a regular basis, with that lovely snotty death-rattle as it bounces round the tonsils.

There are other oddities and weirdnesses, but they’re the main ones that are currently driving me mad. If I’m not careful, I know I’m going to yell at him to just stop doing it. For now though, I’m counting the days ’til the end of the month, when his contract expires…

 

Clearing Down

Posted: Mon 9 December, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Cynicism, Domestic, Getting Organised, People, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Following on from last week’s “Neighbourly” post about people getting rid of rubbish as part of the communal set-up of where I’m living now…

Normally on a Friday someone will empty the bins in the office, make sure it’s all sorted and ready for Monday morning. We don’t have cleaners etc., it’s supposed to be a team effort. So – who does it?

Put it this way. I wasn’t in the office on Friday.  My bin – and all the others in the office – are overflowing with rubbish this morning.

Thanks guys, way to build a team…

(And yes, when I got home at 10pm-ish last night, I was the one putting out the bin at home, too. *sigh*)

Displaying Ignorance

Posted: Wed 4 December, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Education, People, Stupidity, Sweary, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »

In my current workplace, there are a couple of people who seem to be almost proud of their general ignorance – which drives me crackers.

I don’t care if you don’t know something – even if it’s something simple – but don’t wear it as a badge of pride, for fuck’s sake. We’re an IT company, you should know at least how to Google stuff and find out – rather than broadcasting round the office that you don’t know (as per one recent example) what a mouth ulcer is.

The only thing that drives me more mental is when these people – so happy to show that they don’t know shit – then feel the need to talk bollocks about something other people in the office are discussing, even though they so blatantly know fuck-all about it. It’s funny in a way (and sad in many more) when they start spouting stuff that (again) a simple Google or Wikipedia page will tell you is wrong.

I don’t get why anyone would want to broadcast how little they know about something/anything. Sure, I will always say “I don’t know”, when I don’t, but that is usually followed with ” but I’ll find out”.  I know, I’m an info-geek, I want to know about stuff, and I know lots about a whole range of useless shit. I know that, and accept it about myself.

I realise other people aren’t like that, and I get it. What I don’t get is why, if you don’t know something, you don’t look it up online – in an IT company, don’t forget – rather than making yourself look/sound like a total ballbag to everyone in the company.

Neighbourly

Posted: Sun 1 December, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, People, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

Nearly a year and a half ago I wrote about the weirdness of the bins for my row of houses, which no-one else seems to ever put out.

I’ve ended up being the unofficial bin putter-outer , which in general I don’t mind. It only annoys on days like today, when I’ve come back from a weekend away, and no other bugger has bothered doing anything about it. That’s when it rankles a bit.

To be fair, someone else brings them back into the bin area – I’ve ensured I’m not doing that but as well!

Type A/B

Posted: Sat 30 November, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Domestic, Driving, Introspective, People, Personality, Thoughts, Travel | 1 Comment »

Over the last few weeks I’ve been doing (again) a lot of driving, and the next week or so isn’t looking any different. (For example, next Friday is looking to be 350-400 miles on its own, with another 250-300 on the Sunday, minimum)

As always, when I drive I tend to be a Type-A personality, wanting to stop the sodding about and just get there. That’s par for the course with me, just get the job done and get on with it. And yes, that’s kind-of related to that laziness I mentioned in yesterday’s post.

However, when/if I get stuck in traffic jams or behind vehicles I can’t get past (road conditions, traffic, whatever) then I’m far more of a Type-B personality, and don’t get  stressed or annoyed about it. It’s a situation I can do nothing about, I can’t go anywhere or change anything, so I just have to accept it until I can change it.

It is (I understand) a bit of an odd state of affairs to be quite so middle-of-the-road on these personality types, where I can change from one to the other without apparent effect.  I don’t mind though – it means I’m less stressed-out than pure Type-As, and more effective/productive (usually) than the pure Type-Bs.

Besides, it’s not like me to be the stereotypical anything, so it fits in quite well with that aspect as well…

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