Peak Mileage
Posted: Mon 10 March, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Sleep - or lack thereof, Sociable, Travel | Leave a comment »A good weekend has been had, allbeit with a fair number of miles involved. Nowhere near any of my super-heavy-mileage weekends of previous years, but still not bad.
A very good friend was having her wedding (technically her second wedding, but we’ll gloss over that) up in the Peak District – just outside Darley Dale and Matlock – so Saturday morning was a quick drive up the M1 and up to the venue in plenty of time, so I had a wander through Matlock as well. Sadly, it turned out that Matlock was having Dipshits Day Out, leading to whole hordes of fuckwits in the shops and pub where I went for a drink while wasting time. Ye Gods.
A great wedding (and venue) made the rest of the day really good, along with meeting up with old friends and so on.
Sunday was glorious, and a trip over to see another old friend in New Mills ensued, including sitting out in the sun and putting the world to rights. Then a drive down to near-Oxford to see the parents before they bugger off to the US for a couple of weeks, and then finally home. All told, just over 400 miles in two days…
- Home -> Peak District (130 miles)
- Peak -> New Mills (40 miles)
- New Mills -> Parents (200 miles)
- Parents -> Home (40 miles)
And then just the usual 40 mile commute this morning as usual!
Away Again
Posted: Sun 9 March, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Domestic, Driving, Green, Hypocrisy, Travel | Leave a comment »And of course bear in mind, when I’m wanking on about reducing impact and so on, that I’m actually a hundred-and-odd miles away from home this weekend, and I’ve driven the whole way.
So yeah – trying to reduce the impact, and all that piss. And sometimes failing. But it’s worth it.
Taking Time Out
Posted: Thu 27 February, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »One thing I’m ridiculously bad about doing is taking holidays. I should be better at it, but for a number of reasons I’m just not.
Part of it is that I regard time between contracts as a bit of a holiday. Slightly more stressful holidays (with repeated sending out of CVs etc., and potential interviews) but still, a break from the normality of work. I know it’s not a holiday as such, but in my head it counts.
When I’m in a contract, I’m getting paid on a day rate – which makes a week of holiday an expensive proposition. I know, I can sort out my time/money so I have ‘paid leave’, but it still jars in my head, that I’m not getting paid when I could/should be.
I know I should book breaks – even if it’s “just” when I know a contract is coming to an end, and booking a week or whatever before I start a new one (or even extend the current one) but it’s never a priority in my head, so I don’t bother booking them in.
Finally there’s my own mind-set and cynicism, telling me that I spend my time on my own anyway, and that a holiday would just be more of the same, so what’s the point?
I do plan to get out and do some more ‘holiday’ stuff this year, but sometimes those hurdles feel pretty challenging, almost insurmountable. We’ll just have to see how things work out, I guess.
Ominous Omens
Posted: Tue 25 February, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: A428, Commuting, Domestic, Driving, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »On my commute, there is one road that is always a pain in the tits – the A428 between St Neots and Cambridge. It’s single-carriageway (i.e. one lane in each direction) and thus is the main sticking point on the entire journey (the rest of which is dual-carriageway). Because it’s also the quickest/shortest link from Cambridge to the A1, it’s prone to use by a lot of heavy vehicles – trucks, lorries, and even cranes.
On the journey in this morning, there were a lot of cones by the side of the road, all laid out and ready to be deployed. Oh bollocks.
It turns out (not that you can tell from the Highways Agency website, which is unutterably fucking shit, and a nightmare to get information from) that there’ll be work going on there for the next month. They don’t say what’s going to be done, or whether it’s limited to non-stupid hours (it won’t be) but it may just make the commute a bit more interesting.
I’ll know more tonight once I’ve done the drive home, and see how it all goes. Alternatively, it’s going to be a case of finding alternative routes for the next month…
Changing Hours
Posted: Fri 21 February, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Change, Commuting, Domestic, Driving, Insomnia, Sleep - or lack thereof, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »At the new contract, my hours are somewhat different to usual. It actually works out pretty well – both for me, and for the business – but it’s rocking my body clock a bit in this first week.
Based in Cambridge, I’m working 7.30 – 3.30. We work with development teams around the East Indies, so when I’m starting work, they’re just finishing – it means we can do meetings without extra hassle. It also means I’m avoiding all the really crap traffic (although this week is somewhat non-standard, as it’s half-term, and I suspect it’ll be a bit different leaving during ‘school run’ hours in the afternoon)
However, starting at 7.30 with a 45-minute commute means I’m leaving the house at 6.30-6.45, and getting up commensurately earlier. It’s not a massive change, but it’s enough that I’ve noticed it this week. I’m sure I’ll get back into the swing of things though.
In fairness, I’ve left home at earlier times than that though, for far longer commutes (in both time and distance) and getting home much later as well – although I have somewhat got out of the habit of those over the last couple of years.
It suits me for now though. I’d rather do 11am-8pm or similar, which would actually suit my body-clock, but that’s not on offer this time round. We’ll see though.
Quiet week
Posted: Tue 11 February, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, Own Business, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »Having finished the most recent contract last week, this week is (potentially) a bit quieter.
Of course, that just means it’s quieter by my standards – which actually means keeping busy, sending out CVs, talking to agencies, as well as getting out a bit and doing stuff I don’t get the chance to do (or I’m not in the mood to do) on weekends.
Today that was a trip into Cambridge – other than working there, I haven’t been in for a visit in years. I figured it’s going to be quieter mid-week than either next week (half-term) or weekends in general.
It was actually pleasant, mooching around, avoiding tourists and cyclists (which is par for the course in Cambridge) and seeing all the bits that have changed. I find Cambridge quite interesting for the sheer pace of change, the way places open and close (and occasionally move) – it’s very fluid in a lot of ways. Oxford always seems a bit more staid, that there’s plenty of stuff that has been there for decades. I know, Cambridge has plenty of stuff that stays as well, but it always seems (to me) to be over-weighed by the ones that change.
Anyway, the rest of the week is already getting booked up, there’s a couple of interviews for later in the week, and plenty of other organisational stuff to be getting on with (as well as a bundle of invoices and the like) in the meantime.
All fun and games…
Fortuitous Timing
Posted: Wed 5 February, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Getting Organised, London, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »As regular readers know, I’ve been working for the last ten days in London on a short-term contract.
I finished it yesterday, just a couple of hours before the current Tube strike started. Looking at the news today of how people have coped with it (or not) I am so pleased that I wasn’t working today or tomorrow!
For me, it wouldn’t have actually been too bad – as I wrote over the weekend, there is/was a route that would’ve enabled me to get to the office without using the Tube at all – but I think the knock-on effects of other people not being able to use their normal routes would still have screwed things up.
Still, it’s been nice to have this timing work out so fortuitously for once.