Posted: Wed 22 January, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Introspective, Own Business, People, Sociable, Thoughts, Work-related |
Assuming that everything comes through OK (I’m still awaiting final confirmation) one of the interesting things about the new job will be how I handle working from home (WFH) for four days a week.
I know I gripe (regularly) about colleagues and so on, so in some ways it might be nice to not have to deal with people for a while. But at the same time it is good to have some social contact, which wouldn’t necessarily be the case with a WFH role.
Time will tell, I’ll find out how I do. I’ve still got other options, potentially including renting an office space that I can share and get some social interactions in that way. We’ll see.
Posted: Sun 15 December, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Getting Organised, Shopping, Sociable |
As I said earlier this week, the last month or so has been pretty manic and sociable, including lots of driving and the like. It’s been great, but it’s left me absolutely knackered this week. So the plan is/was to have a quiet one – or at least quieter.
Of course that still means that this weekend includes
- Shopping in various places, including
- Cat supplies for the next month
- Minor domestic food shop
- an early (and high-speed) visit into central Milton Keynes *shudder*
- Getting the car’s tyres replaced/refitted
- Sorting out domestic bits along the way, including
- library book return/renewal
- posting invoices, expenses claims etc.
- Bloody bins
- Collecting various parcels etc. from the local Post Office
- Visiting the parents
So it’s not exactly been quiet – but at least it’s been on my terms, and I feel much better for having got a load of stuff done while also having down-time, and not covering more than a hundred miles or so.
Posted: Mon 2 December, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Sociable, Travel, Work-related |
Over the weekend, I had the opportunity (for which read “I paid to use”) a new(ish) hotel concept in the UK, a IHG brand called “Staybridge Suites”. (They do have their own domain name, but it just points to the same IHG one – major missed trick) They’re aimed primarily at the business market – which currently over-run with Travelodge and Premier-Inn level ‘no expense spent’ rooms.
Currently there are only four in the UK – London (Stratford/Olympic area), Newcastle, Liverpool and Birmingham. From what I saw over the weekend though, there should be a lot more of them – they’ve got the potential to kick Travelodge’s arse into the next century.
Basically, for not much more than a Travelodge, you get a small suite. Bedroom, bathroom and a living room. What makes it stand out that is that there’s also your own small well equipped kitchen area, including two-plate cooker, microwave, fridge/freezer, dishwasher. If you’re staying in the area for a while you can buy your own food, and have what is effectively a home away from home.
Even more importantly, there’s also a breakfast bar that doubles as a desk, including a decent office-type chair. There’s plenty of power sockets, wired internet connections, and wifi is provided as part of the cost of the room, rather than being the extra cost it is in most places. They’ve thought about the ‘travelling business person’ market, and aimed the rooms right at it.
They provide the breakfast – undersold in the blurb as “complimentary continental’ – which really is a breakfast buffet on a par with (and somewhat better than) the competition. They also have a 24-hour “pantry” with food, snacks, frozen meals, and drinks – at reasonable prices. Sure, a supermarket is cheaper, but we’re also not talking rip-off hotel mini-bar levels of pricing.
Additionally, they’ve organised ‘meeting times’ in evenings during the week, giving you the opportunity to meet other hotel users, ‘do some networking’ and all that. There’s food and drink – and again, it’s complimentary. I know that in this case ‘complimentary’ means “it’s all in the original cost/bill”, but even that is pretty radical in comparison to the competitor’s “Here’s the price for the bedroom, now we’ll charge extra for everything else”.
All told, it’s been very well thought about, and I don’t think there was anything about it that I didn’t like. Taking into account all the ‘complimentary’ stuff that you’d pay for anywhere else, I think it’s also a cost-effective solution.
Staybridge is definitely a brand/concept that I’d like to see more of in the UK – I know that if I end up working away from home again, I’ll look for a Staybridge before I look for any other accommodation options.
Posted: Fri 15 November, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Charity, Charm School, Cynicism, Introspective, People, Sociable, Thoughts |
For many, many reasons – none of which I can really be chuffed with going into right now – I’ve grown up to be horrifically independent, both in action, life, and thought. One facet of that is that I’m sensationally bad at group activities, at doing what ‘most people’ do.
Today’s a case in point. I know I’ve waffed on about it before, but it’s Children in Need day, which is one of my particular bugbears.
“But it’s for charity, isn’t it?” is the calling-card of the day, assuming that if you’re not taking part and dressing up (or whatever) then you’re A Bad Person, and Uncharitable to boot. “Why not dress up, everyone else is doing it”.
And that’s part of my problem with the entire thing – it’s that ‘everyone else’ is doing it. Like Groucho Marx said, I’m not interested in being part of any club that’ll have me as a member. In the same way, if everyone else is doing something, you can be pretty damn sure that I won’t be.
The other side, when it comes to these days of charity and fundraising, is that I don’t like being conspicuous about which charities I support – and I like even less being forced (or attempts to force) to support charities because of how their perceived. I don’t publicise what I do, or who with, or why – because it’s no-one’s fucking business but my own. Being pushed to take part in something popular, into some fund-raising activity or other because everyone else is doing it, that can fuck right off.
So today, I’ll be in my corner, “Bah Humbug” hat and all. If you don’t like it, sod off. Go on, everyone else is doing it.
Posted: Wed 16 October, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Gigs, Literacy, London, Reviews(ish), Sociable, Words, Writing |
Last night I was in London to see Neil Gaiman‘s one-off reading of his new children’s book, “Fortunately, The Milk” at the Methodist Central Hall in London, (also known as Central Hall Westminster) which was also fortuitously a friend‘s birthday (I won’t say which one) As it turned out, we also bumped into Clair
It was excellent. I’d been lucky enough to get tickets when they went on sale, but I know it sold out pretty quickly. The tickets also included a special signed copy of the book as well, so definitely value for money.
It’d been billed as “with special guests”, but with no real clues as to who might turn up – and it turned out that (among others) Neil’s wife, Amanda Palmer came along as a surprise – even to Neil – and Lenny Henry was also there, along with Mitch Benn, and live drawings from the book by Chris Riddell. (who is just ridiculously talented) There were several others who I didn’t immediately recognise, although some research has helped on that score.
The book itself is brilliant – if you’ve got spawn, add it to the Christmas list – and the performance of it was great, with lots of humour, and a brilliant atmosphere all the way through.
As for the venue, well, I want to visit that again and look at it properly – it’s quite amazing in and of itself, and even more so when you look at the history of the place. It’s spectacular inside, and totally not what I’d have expected from the name. It’s about as restrained and subtle as Mardi Gras in New Orleans.
A brilliant evening, even with a jam-packed train ride home. (Apparently there was some sporting event on at Wembley as well, which meant lots of happy football fans)
Posted: Fri 4 October, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Introspective, Media, News, Sociable, Thoughts |
This week I’ve seen two stories about the ‘Angola Three’, and in particular Herman Wallace, who has just been released after 41 years in solitary confinement, after a judge ruled he didn’t get a fair trial. In 1972. (Bizarrely, the reason it wasn’t a fair trial is because women were excluded from the jury, in breach of the Fourteenth Amendment.) Oh yeah, and he’s only got weeks to live, as he’s got advanced liver cancer.
The first story was in Reuters, ‘Dying ‘Angola Three’ inmate freed after 41 years in solitary confinement‘. The BBC picked up the story too, and has also had a couple of supporting pieces, one about what solitary confinement does to a prisoner, and one asking how people survive solitary confinement at all.
It makes for interesting reading, as well as a pretty damning indictment of America’s methods of jailing and punishing people, some of which I still feel hails from that Puritan background of the original settlers.
Honestly though, you can’t really imagine being in that kind of situation, of hardly having any human contact for 41 years. It’s hard to conceive of a lifetime (near as dammit my lifetime, anyway) with minimal human contact and interaction, being confined to a 9′ x 6′ cell for at least 23 hours a day. Even more so when it’s for a crime that they say they didn’t commit (and for which there’s no evidence to say they did) But that’s what these men have lived through. The final one of the three, Albert Woodfox, is still there, still in solitary confinement. He’s been there since 1972, and there’s no end in sight.
I’ve sometimes wondered how I would handle solitude and solitary life – in some ways I’m quite close to it anyway, not needing or wanting much in the way of physical interaction. But that’s on my own terms, and it’s my own choice. If I want to go out and interact, I can do. Most of my contact with friends is via t’internet, Twitter, Facebook, mobile phone and the like. It’s still interaction, just not on a physical level in general.
How would I handle it if that solitude were enforced? If it was in a cell with a locked door? Honestly, I don’t know. And I really wouldn’t fancy finding out.
[Updated : Herman Wallace died, less than a week after being released.]
Posted: Sun 21 July, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Charm School, Domestic, People, Sociable, Thoughts |
Every time it gets warm, I find there’s one behaviour of people around me that grates more than most. I know it’s primarily me being a grumpy and antisocial swine with no real desire for family/children, but still. it grates.
The thing is – basically – other people being ridiculously noisy. I don’t mean they should be silent or anything similar, but why does any summer time have to involve super-loud conversations, screaming spawn, and so on and so on.
Yesterday, I was out at the local Forestry Centre – I’d had to go somewhere, as the local school fete ensured there was nowhere I could park near to my house, so I thought screw it, and went and sat in the sun. (There’s a side rant needed about that at some point, but that’ll be another day) While I was out there, there were no less than five family groups all yelling and shouting, letting their kids run riot, and generally just being asshats for no good reason.
In the evening I was sat back at home- having finally been able to park- and again there’s people yelling and screaming, and there seems to be no real consideration for the people around them. It’s like a “Fuck you, matey, we’re having a good time in the sun”, and that’s all there is to it.