Moving Office

Posted: Fri 7 September, 2018 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Business, Domestic, Getting Organised, Own Business, Work-related | Leave a comment »

As well as all the other stuff I was doing last week, I also moved office. As you do. Because of course life wasn’t already busy enough, and all that.

As it was, it wasn’t that much of a slog – I’ve stayed in the same building, but moved three floors down, and to the other end. So why move?

Basically, the previous office (which I moved to about a year ago) suffered from the absolutely shitty combination of ridiculously thin stud walls, and being surrounded by excessively noisy and selfish people. It was tolerable for a short(ish) while, but all told it conspired to end up pissing me off.

Of the three companies around my office, I had one lot who simply operated at maximum volume all the time, and who I could hear through the ‘wall’ all day every day. I had one lot who weren’t too bad, but were a counselling organisation so you’d sometimes be able to hear people breaking down and crying etc. in the middle of a session. And the final lot were just incapable of closing their door, so again I could hear everything that they did. (And if I returned the compliment and left my door open with the radio on, would complain that I was disturbing them, while paying absolutely no heed to the fact they were doing the same consistently)

There were other bits too that ended up pissing me off – the way others would turn all the lights on, but be incapable of then turning them off again (I suspect they had partners at home who just followed them around turning stuff off, as they were so incapable of doing so) and leaving the communal toilets either stuffed full of bog roll, or completely unflushed – and doing so Every. Fucking. Day.

So all told it just got to be too much, and I wasn’t enjoying going to work. I looked at offices in other places (particularly with the added issues of the commute for the next two-ish years) However, none of the ones I looked at had the convenience of location and facilities around, and all seemed to be at least three times as expensive as where I currently am.

However, I ended up talking about that with one of the directors of the foundation that owns the current building, and it turned out that a different unit was just becoming available. Ideal. Quieter end of the building, better walls, and just generally an improvement.

2017/18 – What’s Next? The Coming Year

Posted: Sun 5 November, 2017 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2017/18, Bankruptcy, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Old(er), Getting Organised, Health, Own Business, Rebuilding, Thoughts, Work-related, Writing | Leave a comment »

As is traditional round these D4D parts, I lay out my hopes and/or plans for the coming year on my birthday. Like New Year’s Resolutions (and as likely to be completed, it seems) but on a different arbitrary date. Because why not? It’s as good a day as any.

That list for last year (2016/17) wasn’t massively successful, mainly due to my inability to get out less, so I’m hoping to be slightly more realistic this year…

So, the plan for the coming year is…

Keep rebuilding the finances, adding to savings and so on.
By the end of this year, I’ll have completed the whole bankruptcy process, and it should be off my credit history. (As I understand it. Some people have said it only comes off at six years from the end of the bankruptcy period, which’d make it September 2019. We’ll see)
Exercise more, lose weight, improve health
Another ongoing process, carried over from 2016/17
Complete September’s walking marathon
This imploded epically in 2017, so it’s another carry-over. And this year I’ll do some more training, and not destroy my feet four weeks before it…
Write more
Actually complete some stuff, and see what to do with it from there.
I’ve also got some tech answers to this, giving me more time and space for writing (I hope)
Do less
I’ve written about this before, but I am *really* bad at doing nothing. Lazy days do my head in, and I end up feeling stupidly guilty about “wasting” a day. But conversely, I’m acknowledging that I do need downtime for other things. So I need this as a reminder.
Business ideas
Look at completing some of the business ideas and plans, and see what I can do with them from there.

And for now, that’s it. I’m hoping it’ll be a bit more successful than last year’s list!

Dragging

Posted: Fri 3 November, 2017 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Animals, Depression, Domestic, Getting Old(er), Getting Organised, SAD, Single Life, Thoughts, Time, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »

This week is always a tough one for me – I find that more and more, my body is really messed up by the changing of the clocks. It leaves me slightly disoriented, particularly because daylight levels have suddenly changed according to the clock. For example, last week I was getting up in the dark to be ready for work, but evenings still had some light to them. Now, arbitrarily on one day, it’s changed so that I’m rising and going to work with daylight, but that the evenings are darker much ‘sooner’.

Because of the Seasonal Depression I get anyway, I know that my brain is aware of light levels and so on, but it’s always interesting to see what affects it. It’s not fun while I’m in that change, but it’s still interesting to see it.

All told it leaves me just out of kilter, more tired than usual, and just that nagging feeling that Something Is Not Right. It eases off – it usually takes about a week to do so, so we’re nearly there now – but it’s a tough week of being tired, demotivated, and slightly crankier than usual.

And of course it’s not helped by also a ) being very close to my birthday, and b ) having been another busy week or so. I was away last weekend, I’ve been out most evenings this week, and then it’s busy this weekend as well, although I’ll at least be home in the evenings/nights. Being out so much also means that the cats decide I’m leaving or something, and get extra clingy and annoying while I’m home – which also doesn’t improve my mood or temper. I’m not good at being In Demand – and particularly not at being In Demand And Shouted At – but there we go, that’s what this week has entailed.

It’ll all ease off again, I know. It just means that this week post-clock-change is a beast.

Situation Standard

Posted: Wed 18 October, 2017 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2016/17, Day Trips, Domestic, Driving, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, London, M1, Single Life, Stupidity, Thoughts, Travel, Work-related | 2 Comments »

Yet again, I appear to now be idiotically busy over the next few weeks – well, really ’til the end of the year, what with one thing and another. I still don’t quite know how I end up doing this to myself, but it’s pretty much standard behaviour these days.

I’m not complaining – in general I like being busy, and prefer it to days doing nothing – but every so often I look at the calendar, and the board that holds all my upcoming tickets, and think “Lyle, you really are a bloody idiot“.

So, just in the next six weeks, and in no particular order, I will be…

Seeing Sir Ian McKellen as King Lear in Chichester (and staying overnight, possibly stopping off in Oxford on the way back)
A one-day conference in Birmingham, which may or may not happen, depending on other work commitments/stuff
A day-trip blitz run to Sheffield
A day in London doing a food festival in the morning, and a play in the evening
followed the next day by a day-trip run to Middlesbrough and Durham (for reasons I won’t go into now, as it’d identify the dates I’m away)
a weekend in Newcastle (which is, of course, not the same one as being up in Middlesbrough, despite proximity and so on)
A day trip to Cambridge
An evening in London, via Oxford (there’s reasons, but yeah, still idiotic)
And at least two other visits to London (with another one in early December)

Not just those travels, but somewhere in there also needs to be

Finally getting the starter motor on my car replaced (a hassle/fight that’s taken way too long, and will get written about some other time)
Seeing a number of films, which I’ve already got tickets for
other (more local) food things
Working (of course)
And finishing off two other projects.

In short, all a bit mad.

I know I’ve said it before – but for next year I need to start doing a little bit less, not being so booked up, and allocate some downtime for myself. I just need to get some perspective on it all – because ‘downtime’ for me is also car-time and driving-time, it’s time where I can just float a bit, figure things out and so on.

Mind you, that’s also what I’ll be doing over the next six weeks, so I can figure bits out and what I want to do (and how) in 2018…

Moving Emails

Posted: Mon 14 August, 2017 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Amazon, Business, Customer Services, Domestic, Geeky, Getting Organised, Own Business, Technology, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Over the weekend, I ended up moving a lot of my email processing over to Amazon’s “Workmail” product. So far, it’s gone pretty well, but we’ll see what happens over time.

The email server/service I was using (via a company I do a lot of my hosting with) was generally OK, but had some significant issues which they didn’t appear to be able (or willing) to fix. The main one was that emails with attached files – particularly PDF and Word documents – would occasionally disappear. They wouldn’t bounce back to the sender, and they wouldn’t tell me (the recipient) that something had gone wrong, they’d just disappear with no notice to anyone.

Generally it’s been survivable, but last week there were things for HMRC and others that didn’t make it – things that were, safe to say, bloody important.

So I’ve moved the primary accounts over to Workmail, and it’s been quite smooth. The setup didn’t take long, and while there were a couple of teething errors when it came to migrating the emails from Old to New, it all worked pretty nicely. Once I knew what the hell I was doing (and/or looking for) it became even easier/better.

After that, the main ball-ache has been putting the new accounts onto all my devices, and getting everything to syncronise properly again. It’d be nice if you could just push the new account to your devices, but that’s a level of tech that’s above and beyond what we’ve currently got, sadly.

Still, it’s all worked, I’m fully moved over with all my key accounts, and it hasn’t made me want to throw computers through windows. Even that is pretty noteworthy, I think.

London (2)

Posted: Mon 12 June, 2017 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Day Trips, Do More, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Food, Geeky, Lead Developer 2017, London, Solo Dining, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Following on from last week’s post, I was in London a lot last week.

On Thursday and Friday I was at the always-excellent Lead Developer conference, at the QEII Conference Centre, near Westminster Abbey and Houses of Parliament. I could have chosen to stay in London overnight on the Wednesday and Thursday nights instead of travelling each day, but honestly, I couldn’t be bothered. So instead I ended up with longer days, travelling each day down to London and then walking (because I’m a lunatic) from Euston to Westminster, and back afterwards – roughly three miles each way, and yet still preferable to taking the tube.

It made for long days – particularly as I also chose to eat in London both nights, with a friend at Iberica on Thursday, which I’d not been to before (but will be go back to) and on my own on Friday at Monica Galetti’s Mere Restaurant, which I love. (And apparently I’m the person who’s been back the most since they opened in March – an achievement of which I’m simultaneously ridiculously proud, and somewhat ashamed)

And then on Saturday, having seen a recommendation from a friend, I had been lucky enough to get the last available ticket for the matinee performance of The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, at the Donmar Warehouse. I’m going to write more about that in a separate post, which’ll be done for later this week. (Just in time for the production to finish on the 17th. Helpful, eh?)

Sunday was allegedly calmer, but still busy – and involved catching rather more sun than I perhaps should have, although not to any point of danger or ill-health.

And now, I’m back for a new week of work, which is going to require some brain-power at some point early on. Bugger…

A Week Of Wankers

Posted: Wed 10 May, 2017 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Customer Services, Cynicism, Domestic, Getting Organised, People, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Last week seemed to be purely populated by incompetents and clowns, sadly. It meant I was dealing with cretins and “customer services” on about four fronts, which is… less than ideal.

My idiot bank has done an ‘update’ which means that payments done through the banking app aren’t going through. It works via the website, or via phone banking, but not through the app – neither the iOS or Android versions. So I called them to explain, using the version numbers for the apps – and the in-app versions don’t even match up with the release versions. Genius. The people I spoke to didn’t seem capable of even understanding the problem, and then when they did, told me there was a new version of the app that I needed to download. Except… that version hasn’t actually been released and made available on the app-stores yet. Genius². So there’s a complaint in about that, where I was promised a callback within 48 hours. Seven days ago. Genius³

Following on from that, my shitbracket accountants continue to be the epitome of incompetence – failing to communicate on anything; breaking promises left, right and centre; failing to provide stuff within deadlines; needing to be nagged every inch of the way; the usual. It’s a good job I’m not paying for the service at the moment (I’ve had an issue about their communications “skills” for the last 18 months, and their Operations Director promised I wouldn’t pay until that was sorted. As they’re ongoing, and with no signs of improving, I’m still getting the service for free) although I’ve no idea what they’ll do instead as an apology when they get round to it.

Having made that complaint, including copying it to Directors, not one of them even bothered to acknowledge it. Which continues to confirm that they’re crap at communication. Oh, and then they tried cancelling my account, then reinstated it, and fucked that up too. Massively impressed, as I’m sure can be imagined.

On that one, I was promised a callback from the Operations Director (again) by the end of Monday. Still waiting.

There were a couple of others too, although to a much lesser degree. I’ve no idea where it’ll all end up (except with me getting apologies and some form of compensation) but it’s all good fun in the meantime.

Of course, it would be nice if these people just did the jobs they’re meant to, and did them without cocking it up, but there we go, that’s life.

Changeable

Posted: Sat 11 March, 2017 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Business, Domestic, Films, Getting Old(er), Getting Organised, Seeing Films, Sociable, Stupidity, Theatre, Travel, Work-related | 1 Comment »

The last couple of weeks – and the coming one – have been… chaotic, to say the least. I’m used to this in general, but it’s felt like it’s been even more frenetic than usual this month, and there’ve been a lot of contributory factors that have all conspired to make it so.

Work-wise, I’ve been ending up on-site at least twice a week, rather than the usual one day a week, and that’s just disturbed things a bit. Usually I can take my work laptop on-site on a Monday, and then leave it in my own office for the rest of the week, rather than constantly lugging it around. This month though it’s been on-site, in-office, on-site, in-office etc. etc.

Around the work stuff, there’s been a lot of other bits going on, with stuff in London on some evenings, as well as other social stuff and going to the cinema. And it all adds up.

For example, this week has involved…

Monday – on site
Tuesday – working from home, then going to London to Mere in the evening.
Wednesday – in office
Thursday – on site, then seeing Kong: Skull Island in the evening
Friday – in office
And then just my usual idiocy in the coming weekend, another trip to London to see friends, and a social-and-food even locally on Sunday

Next week is no different really, including two London trips to the theatre, as well as all the usual work. I’m vaguely hopeful that I won’t be on-site more than once, but I’ll only find that out during the week.

Once next week is done, I’m hoping that things will be a bit quieter again. That’s certainly the plan – if nothing else, I need some downtime – but we’ll see how it goes. In fairness, I can handle the multiple days on-site or I can handle the other stuff – it’s just when it’s both things at once that it gets somewhat harder to deal with.

Beginnings

Posted: Wed 4 January, 2017 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2016/17, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Health, Own Business, Resolutions, Single Life, Thoughts, Weight Loss, Work-related | Leave a comment »

The first week of the year’s started well so far, with a fair amount of preparation being done for the rest of the year.

Among other things, I’ve signed myself up for a couple of training programmes for more technical stuff, as well as laying out some plans and concepts for the main development things I want to work on this year. I’m currently hoping to have got at least one of them launched by the end of January, so I can see how it develops.

Along the way, I’ve figured out a couple of starting points for writing as well, which may or may not work out.

So it’s all a bit promising for now. We’ll see how it works out.

And not to be ignored, I’ve also started work on losing some of the weight I put on over December. It’s safe to say, I’m not overly happy with how much got put on (although I’m not back to where I started this time in 2016, so it could be worse) in the space of a month, but as we’re now back to a point where I can (and will) eat more sensibly again, it should all work out OK in the end.

Onwards and upwards, and all that piss.

2016/17 – What’s Next? The Coming Year

Posted: Sat 5 November, 2016 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2016/17, Bankruptcy, Change, Do More, Domestic, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Health, Own Business, Rebuilding, Thoughts, Travel, Weigh Less, Work-related, Write More, Writing | Leave a comment »

As usual, following on from my posts about what’s happened over the last year, it’s time to think about – and write about – what I want to do over the coming year.

Similar to last year, I’m going to keep it fairly simple and open, rather than being too detailed. I’ve got better details in my head, but they’re not going to be written down.

The basic goals are going to be :

Continue rebuilding the finances, and keep boosting the savings
Exercise, improve health, lose weight
Complete September’s walking marathon – ideally in under seven hours. (My target is more ambitious than that, but I’ll be happy with 7 hours)
Write more. (And ideally complete/publish some)
Do more of the ideas around my own business
Get out less. Ideally, some kind of middle-ground between being ultra-quiet/sensible, and the idiocy of the last year
Look more at some political ideas, and see how that goes. (This one’s the random ‘maybe’ one, I don’ tknow if anything will happen with it or not)

I could go into more detail – although that’s handled more in my notebook of to-do lists and ideas – but for now this’ll cover things.

On first viewings, it should be an interesting year.

A busy week

Posted: Thu 8 September, 2016 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2015/16, D4D™, Do More, Domestic, Driving, Films, Food, London, Media, Own Business, Single Life, Sociable, Solo Dining, Thoughts, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Suddenly, it’s a week since I last updated anything here – and there’s a good reason (or ten) for that.

Mainly, the good reason is that I’ve been sodding busy.

Since last I wrote here, there’s been (in no particular order)

Driving to Marlow for a late lunch at the Hand and Flowers
Driving to London (Saturday at ungodly o’clock)
Visiting Meatopia – on the Saturday, along with several friends
Seeing The The’s “Infected” film at the ICA in London on the Saturday evening
Staying overnight in London
Visiting Meatopia on the Sunday, just me, but ended up meeting several other people, as well as starting some business discussions (Win!)
Driving home from London, having walked 20 miles over the two days
A vaguely normal Monday, with added shopping and faffery
A normal Tuesday working, then meeting friends and going to the cinema to see Hell or High Water – heartily recommended
A semi-standard Wednesday, and then cinema to see Morgan – also recommended, for different reasons, and thoughts on both films will follow
And tonight, being at the Milton Keynes Geek Night, just to top things off.

So yes, not much going on at all.

It’s been pretty positive all round, but it has left me feeling like a stunned monkey. So there’ll be more writing as and when I get round to it. I’m back in London this weekend, but look like having one day that’s (currently) quiet, so that’s at least vaguely promising…

Resilient – or Not

Posted: Wed 27 July, 2016 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Customer Services, Cynicism, Laziness, Own Business, People, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Over recent weeks, I’ve been having dealings with a number of companies I don’t usually deal with. There’s probably more on those to come, once the issues are sorted, but what’s struck me initially is just how ill-prepared they are for anything going wrong.

I’m not talking (necessarily) at the whole ‘disaster recovery’ level, where the business will die if it doesn’t have backups and a spare data-suite etc. hanging around on the off-chance. This is more at the customer level, but (to my mind) no less important for all that.

In three different cases over the last couple of months, I’ve been promised call-backs from various people, all of which haven’t happened. The excuses differ, but basically come down to “the person who organised that was away and no-one else knew anything about it“. Now, I get it, stuff happens: people go on leave, get ill, or change jobs. (And sometimes all three) But that lack of handover, lack of communication, lack of back-up procedures and so on, is a worry.

What would have happened if – for example – I were a customer, wanting a quote or whatever, and expecting a response that doesn’t happen? Or when complaints are waiting to be handled, because the only person who knows about it has chuffed off somewhere?

For my own business and work, I make sure my end client always has access to a copy of the stuff I’m writing and doing. They get to see what’s changed, and can see that work’s being done, even if not necessarily the details and the ins-and-outs of the code. But they have access – so that if I get hit by a bus tomorrow, or go off with some kind of long-term illness (or any of the other options) then they can carry on. I don’t kill their businesses by being unwell, or dying.

In this age of technology, it’s not even that difficult. Calendars and emails can be shared, and accessed by colleagues (assuming the procedures are in place) when the owners are away. Out-of-office notifications can be set at the server level by IT if they’re made aware someone’s long-term ill etc., and emails can be auto-forwarded to someone else if the original person leaves.

It’s not at all difficult – but it still seems to be too much effort for any number of companies and organisations to set up. Lowest common denominators, and all that.

Planning Stuff

Posted: Sat 9 July, 2016 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2015/16, 2016/17, D4D™, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Single Life, Sociable, Thoughts, Travel, Work-related, Writing | Leave a comment »

As well as slowing down a bit for the second half of 2016, I’m also starting to plan stuff where possible for the first half of 2017. For me, that’s scarily organised.

Part of it is looking at stuff I want to do – and places I want to go – and starting to put things in place for those to happen. I’ve got a couple of breaks booked for the second half of 2016, a week in Cornwall at the end of September, and a weekend in Dorset at the end of October (in which I’m hoping to break the back of some writing ideas – that’s the current plan, anyway) but I’m also looking at what I want to do in 2017, and starting to book it up where/when I can.

So far, that’s looking like a long weekend down around Bath and Bristol (an area I like, don’t know enough about, and want to know more) and potentially a week each in Lake District and somewhere in the North-East. I may do something abroad as well, but we’ll see.

I’m also looking at things I don’t want to carry on – in particular the restaurant project I’ve been doing this year, with at least one Michelin-starred place per month for the year, part of my whole thing about eating alone. I’m still really enjoying it for this year, and I’ve no intention of giving it up completely – but it might go down to a quarterly thing, rather than monthly.

There’s a bundle of other stuff getting prepared for next year – but not stuff I’m going to write about just yet. Most of this is just in the contemplating and planning stages, rather than actually happening, but I’m going to spend time this year sorting out next.

Which, for me, is disgustingly organised…

Slowing Down

Posted: Thu 7 July, 2016 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2015/16, D4D™, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Single Life, Thoughts, Travel, Work-related, Writing | Leave a comment »

The first half of this year has been particularly barmy, and has felt close to non-stop. It’s safe to say, there’s been a lot of life going on! I haven’t written here about a lot of it, because while it’s been fun, it hasn’t been massively newsworthy – but I think even here it’s been fairly clear that I’ve been doing a lot.

All told, there was only one event/thing that I wanted to do that I didn’t get to do – and that was more from an overdose of sanity and reality than any form of timing clash – and that was that climb up the Gherkin.

However, as a result of it all, I’m pretty wiped out – so the plan for the second half of the year is for me to slow down a bit.

I’ve still got loads planned, but I do intend to also have some more peaceable weekends, ones where I’m not all over the country and generally running round like a pillock. I know that September is insanely busy, so I’m definitely going to pad out the weeks either side of it.

There’s a lot of other stuff I want to do as well, which is part of why I’m trying to settle a bit and not be covering the country quite as much as I have been.

That’s the plan, anyway. Whether it’ll happen like that, only time will tell.

Time Flies

Posted: Tue 28 June, 2016 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: @Media 06, Domestic, Geeky, Getting Organised, Lead Developer 2016, London, Own Business, People, Thoughts, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »

The Lead Developer conference this year was at the QEII Conference Centre – a spectacularly bad location (right next to Houses of Parliament, and round the corner from Downing Street) for the days of the Brexit Referendum and its aftermath.

It made me think of the last time I was there, though – which was for one of the @Media conferences, the first one I’d been to. Looking back, that was exactly ten years ago. Now that’s how to feel very old very quickly!

As well as the various talks and so on, it was also good to catch up with friends, including Topper and Pix, as well as meet some new people. It made me realise (yet again) that I really should be a bit more sociable, catch up more frequently and so on – although at the same time, it’s also always good to meet up with people and just drop into conversation as if you last saw them a couple of days ago, instead of a couple of years.

Unchecked

Posted: Mon 27 June, 2016 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Cynicism, Domestic, Geeky, Lead Developer 2016, London, Milton Keynes, Own Business, Public Transport, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Last week, I was in London for three full days, travelling down each day. On both the Thursday and Friday (while attending the excellent Lead Developer conference) I was using the trains at peak times. Onn Saturday it was a busy time when I went down, and busy-but-late on the way back.

At no point in those six journeys did my tickets get checked. Not at platform gates, not on the train, nothing. I could’ve gone through the entire thing without paying a penny to Virgin Trains.

Of course, Sod’s Law being what it is, if I had braved it and gone without a ticket, there’d have been about six checks per journey. I know that – and it’s why I always buy a ticket. But it does annoy me, how rarely these things are checked, and it makes me wonder how many people do take the chance, and go without paying for the ticket.

Low Steppage

Posted: Mon 25 January, 2016 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Health, Introspective, Laziness, Milton Keynes, People, Thoughts, Weigh Less, Weight Loss, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Because of the issues with the car last week, it meant I actually got out a lot less than usual.

I’ve written before about my general aims to get out more, walk more and so on – although I do a lot of walking anyway, in comparison to most people. As part of that, a couple of years ago now I started using the FitBit activity trackers and so on, which allowed me to keep an eye on things.

I have a 5,000-step-per-day ‘target’, which I normally blast through (although some days are closer than others) and average around 50,000 steps per week. Last week, for the first time since getting the FitBit, I did about half that, and didn’t reach my daily target on most days.

A lot of that was simply that I was working from home, rather than in my office in Milton Keynes. That meant I didn’t go out for a walk in the morning, nor to get lunch and then take the ‘long’ way back to the office – all of which contribute to those totals.

Additionally, I wasn’t feeling great – just a bit burned out, and with this nagging cough (nothing serious, it just keeps tickling and being a twat) it meant I didn’t want to go out as much as I usually do. And then not doing my usual weekend stuff of going to the cinema, walking round Milton Keynes etc. – it all conspired to make it my worst week in two years.

Of course, my worst week’s activity is still a lot better than that of a lot of people, but it’s annoyed me anyway.

A Remembrance of Shitbags Past

Posted: Fri 15 January, 2016 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Domestic, Legal, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Yesterday, I got a call from an agency about a new job role – ‘Lead Developer’, great salary and good upcoming projects. It sounds like a fantastic role, and the company in question certainly know the value of buzzwords and marketing when it comes to this kind of thing.

Sadly – well, amusingly – it was for the same job/company as I worked for in Summer 2014. I didn’t write much about it at the time, because it ended up going down the route of taking legal advice etc., so wasn’t worth causing extra hassles by writing here and naming/shaming. (Not least because the owner of the company, known around here as ShitCo, wouldn’t feel any shame whatsoever)

It was not a good job – and was probably one of my worst jobs in the last decade. Not least among the issues was having taken the job on a salary offer of £x (and that was the salary on the contract , when it eventually appeared) but then the company deciding to pay me £10,000 less.

Coupled with working idiot hours and so on, yeah, it wasn’t a good role or time at all.

I ended up leaving after three months, with no notice (although my contract did say that was OK within the initial trial period) and nothing lined up to go to. Not that that’s ever stressed me out, as regular readers will know – and indeed, I was working two weeks later, at the contract I’m still working on now.

So yes, speaking to another agency about why I wouldn’t be interested in that role was entertaining – the agency couldn’t understand why they were looking for a fourth ‘lead developer’ in less than a year, but our conversation made things somewhat clearer for them, it’s fair to say. And the words “lying” , “scheming”, “disorganised”, “manipulative” and “unholy motherfucker of the first order” never even passed my lips.

Leaving 2015

Posted: Fri 1 January, 2016 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2014/15, 2015/16, D4D™, Domestic, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Food, Getting Organised, Looking Back, Own Business, Solo Dining, Thoughts, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »

It’s the end of 2015, and for the first time in a long time, it’s been a good year. It’s had its ups and downs for sure, but the general direction has definitely been upwards and positive.

On the ‘ups’ side, we have…

worked all year on the same contract, which has made things a lot easier
built up some savings, for the first time in at least a decade
started up my own company and business, plus laying the groundwork for next year’s developments
been out to a good range of restaurants, and had a long weekend in Edinburgh
done some writing, and developed some ideas for working on in 2016

On the ‘downs’…

When I say ‘worked all year’, I mean it. Holidays and breaks have pretty much not happened. Certainly nothing more than that long weekend in Edinburgh
I’ve not built up the savings as much as I could/should have – but that’s been down to stuff with the car, the restaurants, and actually having a decent year of non-monastic living
having my own company again means I also have to deal with HMRC, Companies House, and bastard accountants
I haven’t actually finished any of the writing things

So it’s all swings and roundabouts, but all told it’s been a good year with a lot of stuff I’m really pleased about and/or proud of.

2015/16 – Business and Work

Posted: Sat 14 November, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2015/16, Business, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Own Business, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »

At some point in the coming year, I’ll be changing contracts. That’s just par for the course (although I’ve been in the current one for a year now) so it’s not a worry. I’ve mentioned it before in relation to finances and so on, but this post is going to be more focused on the work side of things.

One of the bigger changes within this year was that I’ve also gone back to working through my own limited company, instead of through PAYE Umbrella companies, which means I’ll be better off in the long run.

I’m pretty much sure that I’ll be sticking with contracting for the coming year at least. There *may* be a perm role somewhere out there with my name on it – but I’m not convinced, and not looking for it.

In fairness, I have had some good perm roles (or as they’re sometimes known, “proper jobs”) along the way. However, it’s also valid that every single role I’ve fucking hated (or has involved working for an utter shitwhistle) has been a perm role. The last couple in particular have left me not wanting to go back down that route for the moment. (And yes, that could come back to bite me on the arse, I know)

So for now, I’m aiming to stick with the contracting. Along the way I’m also looking at developing some of my own stuff properly – like the writing post, I’ve got a huge number of ideas on the go, but unlike the writing post, I’ve got a goal, a target, and a particular product/concept to focus on.

There’s a timeline for that, which is the end of this 2015/16 process. At that point, there’s a conference and exhibition going on, where I want to be able to have a product I can launch and discuss with the target market.

That’s the goal, and the plan. Things may arise to change those aims, but for now it’s looking promising.

2015/16 – Getting Out More

Posted: Tue 10 November, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2015/16, Change, Day Trips, Domestic, Driving, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Food, Getting Organised, Single Life, Solo Dining, Thoughts, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »

As things stabilise more here, I’m looking at what I want to do in 2016 – and in particular towards taking some breaks. This year has ripped past, and I’m renownedly shit at taking holidays at the best of times.

So part of the plan will be to do some weekends away, as well as a couple of longer breaks. I’m looking at places/destinations at the moment, so that I can book them before the end of this year. That way I can have them as immovable events when it comes to going to a new contract in 2016.

I’ve already booked up a couple of weekends away, and it’s all looking pretty promising. And continuing on from last year’s side-project about being more comfortable with eating on my own, there’s more places booked and going to be booked on that score too. Details of those will follow as and when through the year though…

2015-16 – What’s coming up next?

Posted: Thu 5 November, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2015/16, Bankruptcy, D4D™, Day Trips, Domestic, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Own Business, Thoughts, Travel, Weigh Less, Work-related, Write More | Leave a comment »

Following on from yesterday’s “what happened in the last year” post, now we get to the fun stuff, the “What’s going to happen in the coming year?” post.

Although, to be honest, some of those goals aren’t going to change much. I currently see 2015/16 as a year that’s more about consolidation, of building from the foundations of 2014/15.

So, the outline goals are going to be

Continue rebuilding finances.
Continue with health/exercise/weight-loss stuff
Write more
Develop more things based around my own business
Get out more

There will be some significant changes during 2016 that I already know about and/or expect – as well as a number of things unexpected and un-planned-for.

Among the expected changes, I know that I’ll definitely be looking for at least one new contract sometime in that year. As yet I don’t know exactly when, but I can live with that – when it happens, it’ll be fine.

Also, the final financial stage of my bankruptcy will come to an end early in the year, and I’ll have paid off the three-year repayment plan. (That’s happening later than the three-year anniversary of the actual declaration, because it takes time to organise and sort out in the first place) I plan to keep making that payment, but into my own savings account, which will (obviously) help build things up.

Finally, I may end up moving by the end of the year. Or I may not. I don’t know for sure. Actually, that most likely won’t be in this time-span, as my 12-month tenancy agreement renewal starts today. I may know that I will be moving (as I’d have to give a month’s notice to end the tenancy etc. etc.) but the odds are that I won’t have actually moved. If I decide to do so.

I’ll write in more detail about those outline goals over the next few days, and see what they bring.

For now, I’m just happy to have some ideas about what’s going to come next.

2014-15 Summing Up

Posted: Wed 4 November, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2014/15, 2015 vs 2014, Bankruptcy, Car Repairs, Domestic, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Food, Getting Organised, Health, Looking Back, Thoughts, Travel, Weigh Less, Work-related, Write More, Writing | Leave a comment »

This time last year, I made a list of things I wanted to do in the coming year.

So how have I done? Actually, not badly at all. (The initial goals are in bold, with the results in colour afterwards)

Weigh Less – Kind of. It’s fair to say, this has had its ups and downs. Over the course of the year, I put back on some of the weight I’d lost, and then lost it again. With more regular attendance at the gym, I’ve also changed shape, lost a noticeable amount of fat, but replaced it with a similar weight of muscle, so I’ve maintained roughly the same weight throughout the last six months, despite looking (and feeling) fitter and lighter. It’s annoying, but successful in a way.
Write More – Less successful. I’ve completed a couple of pieces, and got ideas for others. So I guess I’ve written more – and been doing more here – but still, it’s not quite what I’d hoped/planned for.
IAM Test – Kinda. I’ve booked it in, but it’s not happened yet. I’ll write more about that when it does.
Ideas for my own business – Successful. In the last six months I’ve changed to doing the contract through my own limited company, and dealing with my own accounts and payroll etc. – which is definitely a good step in the right direction. I’ve also got more/better ideas and goals for the coming year, and what the plans will be.
Build The Finances – Successful. It’s not been perfect. There have been unexpected expenses like the car’s turbo needing replacement, and a few other things along the way. There’s also been that nasty habit of getting out and having a life – some of which hasn’t been super-cheap.
But all told, I’m coming out of the year in a far better position than I went into it. Not as well as I could have come out of it, but there we go – my choice, my decision, and it’s still a good position to be in.

So all told, it’s been a pretty good year. Most of the plans have borne fruit, or are at least showing growth and promise for the coming year. Frankly, I can live with that as a set of results.

Stasis – At Peace

Posted: Fri 25 September, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2014/15, 2015 vs 2014, D4D™, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Introspective, Thoughts, Work-related, Write More, Writing | 2 Comments »

While I was wandering around London last weekend, I had the time to do some thinking about the whole ‘not feeling the need to move on’ thing, which was much-needed.

There’s a lot of reasons for not feeling the need to move on at the moment, as I’ve written about already. I won’t bother with all those again, because this one is actually something else, something I hadn’t really looked into massively.

Basically, at the moment I’m really quite content with life and how it’s shaping up.

That has it’s good and bad aspects, for sure. Obviously it’s good that I’m content, that I’m at peace with things, and not yearning for change. It’s not something I’m massively familiar with, it’s all quite new, but I’m not going to complain.

On the downside, it also means I’m not feeling a huge level of urgency about things – certainly not for moving, but also with life in general. It’s kind-of all steady at the moment, which is fine for the time being. I don’t know that I want it to stay like that long-term though.

I am a lot less angry and irritable, though – and that’s primarily a good thing. I’ve noticed, looking back, how much D4D™ has changed over that time, looking back to when I started vs now. Life’s a lot calmer – but it’s also quite a lot duller.

Sure, people still piss me off. Life still pisses me off. But it seems (at the moment) to wash off again pretty quickly. I don’t feel the need to rant, to vent things out when I do get pissed off. (Well, not as much, anyway) But that also makes D4D™ less ranty, less annoyed, and somehow less amusing – both for me, and for anyone else still reading this rubbish.

It also goes some way to explaining (I realised) why I’m having problems getting going on some of the writing ideas. I’m not angry enough, not needing to vent out onto keyboard/paper. I need to find another way to do things, which may take time. We’ll see.

All told it’s a good thing, a sign of positive change – but it’s also going to have some knock-on effects, requiring some though and some further changes. That’ll take some time, and some sounding out of options. But it’s all good, and all entertaining.

Thirteen

Posted: Sun 9 August, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Change, D4D™, Domestic, Driving, London, Looking Back, Thoughts, Time, Work-related | 2 Comments »

Today, D4D™ is celebrating its thirteenth birthday.

Way back in 2002, when I wrote D4D™’s first post in Blogger, things were very different…

And despite having slowed down and slacked off for periods over that time, it has to be said that D4D has outlasted

No less than eight houses (or at least my tenancies in those houses) – I’m still in the ninth place, so we don’t know which will win on that score
Four relationships
Two cars
Countless jobs and contracts – I’ve come up with a rough figure of 22, but I’m sure I’ve missed at least two
Oodles of other stuff I’m not going to rehash

There have been pauses, and things have definitely slowed down when it comes to writing here. But it’s still going, and we’ll have to wait and see what the future holds

Ker-Fut5 – The Return

Posted: Thu 9 July, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Car Repairs, Customer Services, Domestic, Driving, Getting Organised, M1, Milton Keynes, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »

As of this morning, Saab is back in my possession.

While I was at the garage paying for the work (Car, you owe me big time. Any further breakdowns this year and you’re likely to go to the great scrapyard in the sky) they showed me the old turbo.

Wow. When they said it had exploded, they really weren’t far wrong.

Somehow – and I don’t know at all – some of the blades within the turbo itself had shattered. Bits of metal every-sodding-where.

All now seems well. They’ve warned me there may be some smoke from the exhaust due to the amount of oil that went through the entire system, although it’s been fully cleaned out.

So we’ll see how we go. I hope all will be well for a while from now.

(And now I’ve just got to do one more run with the hire car, then return that tomorrow and get in to work. Fun)

Warm

Posted: Tue 30 June, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, House Work, Milton Keynes, People, Single Life, Thoughts, Weather, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Today is the UK’s hottest day of the year (so far) – which is quite surprising, as it’s right at the start of Wimbledon fortnight. Usually that would signify two weeks of grey/damp/wet weather, but this week so far seems to be clear,bright and – yes – warm.

Of course, I realise that people in Australia, America, and umpteen African nations (as well as a bundle of others) are laughing their socks off at us here thinking that 30° C is anything more than ‘slightly warmer than winter’, but lordy, we do like to complain about it.

The thing is, here in the UK we’re just not used to extreme weather – or even ‘more than mediocre’, really. 30°C isn’t extreme to most places, any more than -10°C is, but to us in the UK, those are extremes. Neither end is common enough for us to have created the infrastructure to deal with it – neither air-con in every building/facility, nor heating and anti-snow/ice stuff for the cold bits. Neither hits us for more than three or four weeks a year, really – and on average it’s probably even less than that.

So yes, we’re not good at dealing with weather – and some of that is just part of Being British™, I suppose. But there is also that side to be considered, that we just don’t have the equipment (whether in buildings/facilities/institutions, or just within our own bodies) to cope with it decently.

For myself, I don’t mind it. I used to really dislike hot/warm weather, but I’m getting better at it. Today’s been spent ‘working’ at home, and it’s meant I’ve been out in the yard for most of it, now that it’s a decent place to be. Those two weekends of doing stuff here turns out to have been pretty much perfectly timed, so it’s a pleasant environment. And there’s been enough shade in general to have let me be out in the warmth without crisping myself in direct sunlight.

That’s a win all round in my book.

Reintegrating

Posted: Tue 23 June, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Cynicism, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Old(er), Getting Organised, Insomnia, Introspective, People, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »

By the time my contract comes to its (current) end date, I’ll have been ‘working from home’ for nine months, with only one day a week in the office. It’s fair to say I’m getting pretty used to that kind of state of affairs, where I don’t have to deal with loads of idiot colleagues all day every working day.

So I’m already wondering what’ll happen when it comes to The Next Job, which will – pretty much certainly – involve being back on-site five days a week. It’s going to be interesting, for sure.

It’s fair to say that I’ve already become very used to working on my own schedule and workload, and it suits me nicely. Even better, I don’t also have to hear the inane banter and chatter of other people, particularly about things I’ve no interest in – soap operas, X-factor, Big Brother and the like – or fuckwitted opinions with no basis in anything like reality. I’ve become more acclimated to peaceful offices where I can have a radio on if I want (or not) and that’s about it. I’m less stressed because of it, and generally less ratty. (And if I could then sort out my sleep patterns, all would be rosy in the world)

In short, it turns out to have suited my personality quite well.

As a result, I may end up focusing more on further jobs where ‘working from home’ is the primary – but there’s no guarantee that they’ll happen, or come up in a timely manner. As always with my stuff, I’ll take whatever gets offered first, and work from there.

In honesty, I can’t say I’m looking forward to any return to full-on office-based work, but it’s something I’ll face up to as and when it happens.

Going (More) Digital

Posted: Tue 31 March, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Geeky, Getting Organised, Music, Technology, Television, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Over the last month, I’ve upgraded and/or invested in a couple of new bits of hardware for media, and it’s been an interesting journey so far.

The first bit happened once I’d bought the new TV, and has been the addition of an AppleTV – which gives me far better access to various streaming services etc., and lets me watch them on a decent screen instead of on the laptop or phone. So far I’m pretty impressed with it – although the initial setup was a pain in the bits, until I’d finally figured out one thing that wasn’t mentioned anywhere except on the first screen. If you’re on that first screen – or if you’ve reset the bloody thing so you can see that screen again – you can touch an iPhone to the AppleTV and it gets all the settings across automatically. Wifi details, iTunes account details, etc. – which makes things very easy indeed.

There hadn’t been any real point in getting the AppleTV ’til I’d got the new TV screen – the previous one wasn’t that great, and once it had been knackered, I was more interested in replacing it, rather than in showing AppleTV/Streaming stuff on a knackered screen. But it’s good now.

I’ll write more about it at some point, as my use of it gets more advanced and more noteworthy.

The second thing is more for the office than for home (although as and when I give up the office, it’ll come home and be used there instead) and that’s a digital radio. Yes, I could’ve just bought a normal radio for less, but I was actually interested in the channels that are digital-only (including BBC Radio 6 etc.) as well as the ‘normal’ ones. And yes, I can listen to those stations via t’internet and streaming, but it still takes up bandwidth, and means the laptop is working harder, with less decent sound quality.

I’ve only used the radio for a couple of days so far, but I can’t deny, I like it. Set-up was an absolute doddle – turn it on, let it scan, job done. I’ve set up some favourite stations and so on, but in general it’s just a decent bit of kit with better sound quality, and it’s nice to use. And it’s good to have some music to work to, as well. Sure, I’ll probably also set it up so I can play stuff from phone/laptop into it, but for now it’s good just to have the radio going.

Bloody hell, I’m entering the 21st century…

Taxing The Tolerance

Posted: Sat 21 February, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Customer Services, Cynicism, Domestic, Finances, Getting Organised, HMRC, People, Stupidity, Work-related | Leave a comment »

As regular readers probably vaguely recall, HMRC have never been an organisation I’m a great fan of. I find it amazing that they can be quite as unhelpful, disorganised, obstructive and basically clown-like they really are.

Way back in the 2012-13 tax year – about the only year in my entire employment history where I worked fully PAYE for just one employer throughout the year – supposedly I underpaid my tax by just over £600. Yep, underpaid by £50 a month, all year – and somehow I am responsible for a fuckup that I have absolutely no influence or input on, so I have to repay that money. Even though the entire thing was between HMRC and my employer at the time, and I wouldn’t know one end of a tax calculation from the other.

It’s hardly going to ensure that either HMRC or the payroll department have to get things right, is it – if the only person penalised by those two sections fucking up is the person paying the tax, not the people who’ve actually screwed it up.

Anyway, the figures were disputed by me, and it’s been going on for two years now, with HMRC doing fuck-all. (Which seems to be what HMRC excels at)

I got a final demand for the money last month, with a deadline of this week. I’ve spoken to them in the meantime, but no, because of other figures and assumptions they’ve made, it was pay it all, or start having legal proceedings. Always fun. And despite repeated requests, HMRC still haven’t given me any of the figures that have brought them to the conclusion that I’ve underpaid. (Which also makes me think the entire thing is dodgy as shit, if they’re so unwilling to provide documentation)

Today I called them to make the payment, and spoke to someone vaguely competent. It still took an hour (and of course that’s at my expense, both in time, and cost of the call) but things are more promising now. Bear with me, this might take some time…

The person in question looked into the entire thing. Weirdly, despite having had the same employer all year, my record shows three – because the company in question went through restructures and fucking about. So they’ve screwed things up from that point. The screwup is still there, and still my fault – but at least I (sort of) understand where it’s come up. They’ve also promised to send me the calculations and explanations, although I’m not holding my breath on that score…

However. Ah, the however. It turns out that I also overpaid tax in tax year 2013-14 – something that HMRC have completely failed to tell me at all. It’s been a year, but nope, no information about overpaid tax, or anything. If only they were as good at telling you you’re due a refund as they are when you’ve under-paid.

Additionally, somewhere along the line – and bear in mind that HMRC now receive “RealTime Information” with every payroll run about my details, employer details, salary, and tax paid – HMRC have decided that my expected income for this tax year (2014-15) to be in the region of £150,000. No-one can tell me where that figure has come from, or how it’s fallen into their system – because of course it’s updated every fucking week with the correct and up-to-date information – but there we go, a calculation that I’ll receive a salary nearly three times what’s expected.

All of which means that I now have only about £200 to repay (still not my fault, but sometimes the fight just isn’t worth it any more) because the overpayment from 2013/14 has balanced most of what was ‘underpaid’ in 2012/13. So that should be all sorted now. I can pay that £200, and we’ll all be good.

Except – yep, another however/except…

Here we are, in February 2015. Online payments have been around for a good decade. Payments by phone for a lot longer than that – probably what, 25 years now?

And HMRC don’t have any system for paying unpaid/outstanding PAYE payments online. Or by phone. Or by debit/credit card at all. The ONLY ways that HMRC can take a payment for unpaid PAYE are – are you ready for this? – by cheque, postal orders, or banker’s draft. (Or by taking it out of the tax payments for the forthcoming tax-year – which I didn’t want to do, for a number of reasons) They can take payments online for other things, but not unpaid PAYE. No-one can explain why – the best I got was “We’re looking into it, but the system isn’t ready yet”. But with unpaid PAYE, we’re back int the 1970s.

My bank hasn’t issued cheque-books now for at least five years. The person I spoke to didn’t even realise you had to pay extra for postal orders or bankers drafts – so there’s no chance whatsoever that I can discount the costs from what I owe. Yup, yet again I’d be liable for the costs – and also if (as has happened to me before) HMRC ‘mislaid’ a payment.

So even though it’s the only option I didn’t want – and that’ll get complicated for other reasons – I’m going to end up paying that £200 over the tax year, rather than knowing I can start from scratch again.

In short, HMRC are useless cunts. But I suppose that won’t change any time soon. Still, come the revolution…

Inherently Lazy

Posted: Fri 20 February, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Health, Introspective, Own Business, Weigh Less, Weight Loss, Weirdness, Work-related | 1 Comment »

As I’ve said before, I’m inherently lazy – but in some ways my laziness makes me put in more effort. Weird, but true.

My new office is up on the fourth floor. The building has both lifts and stairs to get there – and that’s where my laziness kicks in.

You see, the lift takes ages – and I’m too lazy to wait for it, and then dawdle up to the fourth floor. So I slam up eight flights of stairs – eighty steps, all told – and always get to my floor before the lift does.

I know that’s no-one else’s version of laziness, the whole “can’t be arsed to wait” thing. It just always strikes me as somewhat amusing that my version of laziness expends more effort than anyone else’s. It probably says something about my brain, but well, the fact my brain works in strange ways (or possibly in Strangeways) has never been in any doubt at all.

Looking Back – 2015 vs. 2014

Posted: Wed 18 February, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2015 vs 2014, Change, Domestic, Getting Organised, Looking Back, Thoughts, Time, Weirdness, Work-related | Leave a comment »

One thing I’ve noticed this year is that so many people who had an absolutely rotten 2014 seem to be doing much better in 2015 – myself included. (And yes yes, all hail the gods of Fate, and do not tempt them to be bastards)

It’s not any “new year new you” type bullshit – several times I’ve had conversations where friends have observed just how much easier this year has been than the last one was. There’s no viable logic for it, but it’s what seems to have happened. Friends who fought bureaucracy and uncaring jobsworths for all of 2014 have suddenly found doors opening in ’15, with additional “Oh, you should also contact [x]” type referrals that add extra beneficial factors.

From my side, the seven weeks (so far) of 2015 have been infinitely more positive than the same time last year. Still chaotic and hyper-busy, but in far more positive ways than I’d have expected.

I’m hoping that the rest of the year maintains this initial attitude. Even if it does get a bit tougher further down the line, all I would ask for (and hope) is that it doesn’t end up as shitty as any of 2014 was.

And no, Gods of Fate, that is not a challenge being issued.

Business Account

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 | Leave a comment »

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.

Office Space

Posted: Mon 19 January, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Introspective, Own Business, Sociable, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »

With the way work is going this year, I’m going to be looking again at renting some office space for the time being.

Last year I rented a desk in a shared space for a while, and that worked fairly well, but wasn’t perfect for a number of reasons. So while that’s still an option, I’m looking at stepping things up a bit this time round, and actually doing a proper office.

As with all large towns, there’s a number of options available in both Milton Keynes and Bedford, and I’m looking at my first one tomorrow. It sounds promising – designed for small and start-up businesses, monthly contract, central Milton Keynes and so on – but I need to see it and figure out the necessities. I’ll write more about it in the coming days, I’m sure.

Why do I need some space like this?

Well, I’ve got a lot of work coming up, and while working from home is OK, I find that it’s occasionally difficult to keep up motivation when there’s no real push to be “at work”. Also, I find it’s suddenly very easy to not actually interact with anyone for several days a week, and that’s not ideal either. I know I could easily become very hermit-like and insular, and I don’t actually want to do so.

So renting an office space will at least give me back a commute, a journey to/from work, and because the building is shared with a number of others, it’ll probably allow me to make some connections and interactions along the way. Never a bad thing.

Renting a desk is OK – but limits me to the times the main office is open, which I found more restrictive than it could’ve been, and limited the available hours I had. I’m hoping that a rented office will give me more flexibility, enabling me to do longer hours when necessary and so on.

Anyway, we’ll see what happens and how it all shakes out. I’ll know more by the end of Tuesday…

What Kind Of Year Will It Be?

Posted: Thu 1 January, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2014/15, 2015/16, Business, Creativity, D4D™, Domestic, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Old(er), Getting Organised, Photography, Resolutions, Sociable, Thoughts, Travel, Weigh Less, Work-related, Write More, Writing | 1 Comment »

As regular readers know, I don’t really do New Year’s Resolutions. It’s partly my knee-jerk response to the whole “Everyone else is doing it” ethos, which means I won’t. But also New Year is just an arbitrary day for making plans – and I tend to do it from birthday to birthday, for no better reason than that it’s an easy day to remember as a start/finish date.

Anyway, with that said I do have plans for 2015. Sometimes plans work better on a calendar year instead of birthday-to-birthday – although there’s also a couple of ideas and plans this time that would also work better to a fiscal year, April to March. But for the sake of argument I’ll stick (for now) to my usual resolution/plan structure, while also acknowledging the whole 2015 thing.

What I won’t do is go into reams of details – I know what I want to do, and I’ve got most of it written down in to-do lists and the like – but it can all be summed up in four key points, which can be summarised as:

Create More – includes writing, photography, and web-based work/business plans
Do More – includes activities, day trips, longer weekends, and perhaps even a holiday or two.
Save More – working to rebuild finances, build up some backup savings, and restore the credit score.
Weigh Less – the goal is to lose another two stone in 2015, which is what I also lost in 2014. So it’s feasible.

And that’s “it”. Obviously there’s details, sub-plans and sub-goals in there as well, but they’re the key points. They’ll do me for now.

I’m hoping that 2015 will continue in the positive direction that started in the last quarter of 2014. I’m quite sure there’ll be some hiccoughs and roadbumps along the way – that’s realism rather than cynicism, my life is never a truly smooth process – but with any luck at all it’ll be a positive year, and lots will get done.

And if not, if things go wrong, then I’ll just do what I can, and keep on in the same way as I had to with 2014.

But I do hope that 2015 is positive and constructive. That’s the intention, at least. But we’ll see.

What Kind Of Year Has It Been?

Posted: Wed 31 December, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2013/14, 2014/15, Domestic, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Health, Reading, Seeing Films, Thoughts, Work-related, Writing | Leave a comment »

(With apologies to Aaron Sorkin for nicking/appropriating a title he’s used in every series he’s written)

2014 hasn’t been an easy year, with some real ups and downs. Some of the downs have been pretty bloody down, and back in August/September was about as low as I’ve been in a long time, with the finances right back to Ground Zero. The last couple of months of the year have been a massive improvement, a real resurgence that’s left things on a very positive note, and that’s nothing but good.

But man alive, there’s been a lot going on.

Work

I’ve had two spectacularly bad jobs – both permanent roles – this year, the second of which took three months to escape from, cost me a buggerload of money (the owner decided to arbitrarily cut my offered salary by £10K, a drop of just under a thousand a month, with no warning or notification) and affected me a lot more than I’d ever have acknowledged. In small ways it’s still ongoing – I’ve invoiced the dickhead for the money he screwed me for, and my New Year’s present to him will be a claim through Small Claims Court (well, now Money Claim Online, but who’s counting?) so that should be fun.

I’ve also had three contracts (plus one that over-ran into the start of 2014) with two being OK and one being less so. That one was an easy life, which was more about being a bum on a seat “in case anything happened”, rather than actually doing stuff. Easy, but not my kind of thing, as has been written about elsewhere.

The final contract of the year – which flows into the start of 2015 – has been the catalyst for getting things on a more positive footing. It’s been work that suits me, as well as being one where I’m able to work from home for the majority of the time, which also suits me.

Finances

As per the work notes, the London job cost me a lot of money, with the savings I’d made up ’til then getting used for keeping things afloat while I still believed that The Dickhead would actually pay what was owed. Even while everything was down at lowest possible, I still got through – no borrowings, no late payments etc. So it’s not as bad as it could’ve been, and yet again showed how far I’ve actually come – but it’s still annoying to have been knocked back after a year of being successful on it all.

I’m back on the up now, things in credit and so on. I still need to build up the funds again, but that’s happening, and will continue to do so through into 2015.

Creative / Writing

This year’s writing and so on hasn’t been great – because of everything else going on, it just hasn’t happened as much as I wanted it to.

Writing-wise, I have done some stuff. I’ve entered some small pieces to some competitions, although without any decent results. However, at least it’s been about getting things done and submitted – which is more than I managed in 2013.

Photography’s been a lot slacker. Along the way I’ve got out of the habit of carrying a camera all the time, and it’s proving harder to get back into doing it. I love the SLR I’ve got, but it’s a pain in the chuff for most of the time.

The daytrips of late have been partly about taking photos again as well, although they’ve all ‘only’ been taken on the iPhone, but at least I’ve been taking photos again, and they’ve been pretty decent.

Summary

So while 2014’s been a ropy old year in many ways, it’s ending up with a lot of promise, and lot of optimism for 2015. Whether that will be justified or not, who knows? But I’m going to give it my best.

And really, what more can anyone ask than that?

Organised

Posted: Sat 6 December, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2014/15, Cynicism, Domestic, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Interviews, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Every so often, you have a day where you feel like everything’s actually pretty good, pretty organised, pretty nailed down.

For me, today’s been one of those days – and indeed, a lot of this week has felt like that. Of course, some cynicism says that this is just the precursor to a failure of epic proportions, but for now I’ll take the little victories.

It’s been a week where things have felt sorted and settled – I’ve been able to get things done on/for the house that’ve been waiting ages to be done, I’ve started organising things for January when the current contract (currently) expires (and I’ve even got a phone interview on Monday for something else straight afterwards, as well as another one already showing interest) and the finances are pretty much stowed away too.

And along the way, I’ve somehow also managed to now sort out all but one thing for the Festering Season – and that one outstanding one is just a case of not having even the slightest inkling of what to do/get. I’m not actually sure how that’s happened, but I’m not going to complain. Hell, I’ve even managed to organise and decide upon a couple of birthday things for people for next year, which is downright shocking.

Today’s been more of the same. The next week or so is pretty busy what with one thing and another, so I’ve been organising some bits of life around that, and that’s all working out nicely too.

All told, it’s just been a positive day – indeed, a pretty positive week – and yes, I feel that’s worth noting after some of the shit that’s occurred this year.

A Long Five Years

Posted: Fri 7 November, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Bankruptcy, D4D™, Domestic, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Thoughts, Work-related, Writing | Leave a comment »

While I was looking back through D4D™ and what happened when, I found the category for the “Five Year Plan”, which started in – um – 2006, to go from 35 to 40. And now I’m 43 and still using it.

Oops.

So anyway, it’s going to stay as a tag/category, but the goalposts are changing a bit. (Well, they’ve already changed, as I’ve been using it for three years past the original target) It’s going to take me through another two years now, to 45.

I’ve a nagging feeling I’ve written about extending the timeline before, but I can’t find it right now.Hey ho.

Along the way of that plan though, lots has changed. When it started, life was heading in a particular direction, and since then everything has altered pretty radically. Indeed, I don’t think there’s a single part of the original plans or intentions that has stood the test of time, or remains in place.

There’s still a lot of things I want to do, and things I’m working towards. There’ve been some savage roadhumps along the way, at least one of which doesn’t actually complete until the end of 2015. However, I do feel it’s generally going in a positive direction, and we’ll see where things end up.

43

Posted: Wed 5 November, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2013/14, 2014/15, 42-43, D4D™, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Old(er), Getting Organised, Health, Own Business, Project 42, Weight Loss, Work-related, Writing | Leave a comment »

Today, I is forty-bloody-three. It doesn’t seem like a year ago I was forty-bloody-two, but there we go. Time flies when you’re having fun. (Or dashing around trying to avoid a shower of shit. Either way)

I’ve looked back to what I wrote this time last year, the usual ‘plans’ post and it’s not been too bad for once.

And in general it’s worked out for the most part. Goals in bold, explanations in normal text.

Weigh Less – Successful. I’m now more than two stone lighter than I was a year ago. There’s still a considerable way to go, but it’s been significant progress throughout the year.
Write More – Also successful, albeit not to the degree I’d have liked. I’ve got more ideas and more plans of what I want to write in the coming year, I’ve got two projects started and significant progress, and completed some shorter stuff, including submitting three pieces to competitions. None were successful, but it’s still progress.
IAM – Didn’t do. Mainly because of the fluctuations of the year, the IAM thing just didn’t happen. It will do this coming year, though.
Own company – Successful. Again it’s been knocked a bit by fluctuations and inconsistencies, as well as a couple of let-downs, but generally successful.
Business Ideas – Kinda successful. I know more about the direction, but need to do the work.
Rebuilding the finances – 50/50. It was successful – but then with those fluctuations, and the shower of shit, it’s back to square one at the moment. At the same time, it didn’t descend into “being in the shit”, although it was close. So, you know, little victories.

And for my 43rd year? Much the same, I think…

Weigh Less (continued work)
Write More
IAM Test
Own Business Ideas
Build the Finances

There may be others, there may not. But if I can have the successes of this year without the downsides and letdowns, it should be pretty positive. That’d be nice.

Slightly Quiet – the Recovery

Posted: Sun 26 October, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Depression, Domestic, Driving, Finances, Getting Old(er), Introspective, Stupidity, Thoughts, Weigh Less, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Carrying on from the last couple of posts – Reasons and Repercussions – I’m hoping that I’m now on the road back. (If nothing else, the fact I’ve done these three posts should say that I’m on the way!)

This last few months has been tough, there’s no denying it. There’ve been a number of facets to that toughness, but I’m generally optimistic that they’re all on the way back to something approaching sanity.

Financially it’s definitely been tough, and I’m back to pretty much square one again. This month will (hopefully) be the last of that level of toughness, now I’m back to working on contract instead of permanent roles. The last few months have cost me dearly, going into what savings I had amassed, based on promises that salary deficits would be fixed and so on – which never happened.

Socially it’s been absolute piss. I’ve hardly seen anyone – some of that is related to the financial stuff, some of it down more to depressions, to not wanting to go out, as well as to feeling a bit trapped by a number of things.

Workwise – well, we covered that in other posts. Safe to say, it’s not been fun, and it’s affected me pretty negatively.

Creatively, it’s been a bit of a dead zone. The only positive is that the amount of time spent on the road while commuting gave me the opportunity to think a bit about some writing ideas, although I didn’t have the time or inclination to actually get them done. Still, with any luck that’ll be part of the next phase.

Really, the only real positive of the last few months has been health-wise – I’ve managed to lose two stone in weight, and been walking far more than I was. And again, that’s something I’ll continue making the effort on, I think, as well as (now I’ve got some more time to myself and my life) getting back to the gym a bit more.

This last few months have left me feeling pretty flat and wiped-out. I’m hoping that now it’s a bit more settled and sorted, things will head in a more positive direction for a while.

Slightly Quiet – the Repercussions

Posted: Sat 25 October, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Depression, Domestic, Driving, Getting Old(er), Stupidity, Thoughts, Work-related | 1 Comment »

As I wrote yesterday, some of the stuff of the last few months has affected me in a number of ways, none of which I’m all that great at explaining at the time.

The work and jobs I’ve been doing this year haven’t left me in a good place, and I’ve found that (as on other occasions) it affects me more than I’m actually happy about.

I value myself to some degree by the work I do – and I like doing good work. Being part of a grinding factory of make-work bullshit isn’t my thing, and that was the kickstarter this time, a three-month contract with a company in Cambridge that was almost local-government in its use of people and make-work self-justifying crap that signifies the environs I really hate working in.

The work I did there was negligible – it wasn’t even relevant – which never helps. The next one was just bad, totally demoralised staff and an obsession with everything being “Agile” and a “Minimum Viable Product” (MVP), which appears to be techie-code for “Yeah fuck it, that’ll do”.

The idea of MVP is a good one in a startup business, or one that’s launching. It means that you do the basics, get it ready and get it out, then continue improving, adding functionality, listening to customer demands and the like. However, when you’re in a business whose product has been available for a while, MVP means basic “do what the customer requested”, but without any thought for knock-on effects, or even how that functionality affects or integrates with existing code and setup.

From there, the next role was more challenging, but owned by an asshat. Lots still ongoing on that one, but at least it’s over.

But when all’s said and done, it all affects me – and more than it should. More than I admit, probably even to myself. It leaves me demotivated, and not wanting to work on my own projects – whether web/tech-based, or just writing. You’d think – and logic would dictate – that when I’m down about my paid-work being shit, I’d want to rectify that with producing decent stuff outside of work. But it doesn’t work like that – if I’m not happy with what I’m doing, I don’t want to do more of it.

With the excessive work hours at the last place as well, I didn’t really have time. I felt like I was existing only to commute, work, and sleep. Never a good place to be.

About the only positives to come out of it all have been that I’ve learned ever more about things I really don’t want to do, more warning signs about working with/for douchebags, and some more writing ideas when I get back into the mood for it.

Slightly Quiet – the Reasons

Posted: Fri 24 October, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Depression, Domestic, Interviews, Work-related | Leave a comment »

I’ve written many times about depression and how it affects me – although at the same time I realise that I don’t actually write about its effects on me, and I rarely (if ever) write about it at the time it’s all happening.

If I’m honest, this post isn’t going to change that status quo, I’m afraid.

I’m truly, truly awful at asking for help, and even at saying “No, I’m not doing well”. I go quiet, curl in on myself, and fight through it, being the only person I know I can rely on. I guess I’ll never really be an open book, it’s just not in my nature. I like to think I’m open, that people who truly know me should/would know what’s going on in my head, but I know that’s not the case. In many ways I am open, there’s very little I won’t disclose or talk about. But – ah, that infamous ‘but’ – I don’t disclose it at the right time, at the time of need. Afterwards, and with hindsight, yup. But at the time? Nope.

So – the last six months here haven’t been overly fun. It’s mostly been work-related, but that’s then had knock-on effects into every other aspect of life, which is never a good thing.

I’ve been more aware this year of my work instability, it’s been very much a year of ups and downs – and more downs than ups, by a significant margin. With everything else, I thought I’d aim at permanent roles rather than contracts, but the two perm roles I’ve had this year have been utter, absolute dogs. Roles and situations I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. (In balance, I’ve also had a contract that was one of the worst and dullest in recent memory, so it’s not been a good year all round)

The first of the perm roles lasted exactly three weeks. I knew within a couple of days that it was a dog (the interview whanged on about how positive everyone was, and within those two days, I knew that was a sack of shit, as was the product they were working on) I left and quickly moved on to Job Two, which turned out to be even more of a dog – although this time because of the owner, rather than the work itself. The work was grand, the owner was (is) a cunt. I won’t talk about it, because there’s a lot of legal tat still ongoing. Safe to say, signifcant dollops of broken employment law, disregard for Working Time Regulations, Contracts, and many many other things.

More than anything else, it was Job Two that burned me out, and pushed me further down the slope. It’s not been a good year anyway, but that job was the final shove.

I left there at the end of September, once I’d been paid. I didn’t have anything to go to, didn’t even have any applications or interviews lined up. I just knew I needed to be out. Even with my experience of interviews and so on, knowing there’s no safety blanket makes that a pretty nerve-jangling decision.

It took me two weeks to get a new job, that was all. I’ve been ridiculously lucky, and the new contract seems like it’ll be OK – I’m two weeks in, and it seems to be going well.

All this is most of why I’ve been quiet for the last few months.

I’m hoping that things will start their slow build back to normality – or at least my usual approximation of it – and that things here will come back too. We’ll see.

Changes (Once Again)

Posted: Thu 16 October, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Interviews, Project 42, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »

At the end of September, I quit my job with nothing to go to. It’s been an interesting couple of weeks – and it’s hard to believe it’s only been a couple of weeks. Anyway.

I mentioned it earlier this month, but haven’t said a great deal in the meantime.

When I handed in my notice, it was with immediate effect. The company in question – well, it hadn’t been fun. Being underpaid by 20% didn’t enamour them to me – and that’s a situation that’s still outstanding – but despite that, they still assumed I would continue to work all hours in order to bring their badly-timed and shitly-specced projects in on time. Indeed, I say ‘assumed’, but it was actually expectations – with real shock when I would have a life outside of work, and wouldn’t be available to keep their arses out of the flames yet again. The additional fact of not having a contract provided the seal on things.

I did get a contract in the end – one day before I left, and certainly well after the 8-week limit. Happily, it was breached and invalid immediately, because they’d written the original offer salary on it, which hasn’t been paid at all in the three-and-a-bit months I was there. Oops.

I left with immediate effect, and with nothing to go to. Not necessarily my wisest move, and not necessarily one I’d choose to make again. I had a bit of confidence from my previous history with interviews and contracts, but all the same that confidence could’ve been a real kicker if I wasn’t careful.

As it is, that hundred-percent interview success rate is now gone – although not by much.

I had two unsuccessful face-to-face interviews – which didn’t disappoint me. For the first, the commute would’ve been at least 90 minutes each way. Great for the whole “unemployed for two days”, less great for energy, sanity, or having a life. For the second, it was based in London, and the evidence afterwards is that it wouldn’t have been right – I would’ve been offered it, but the company in question U-turned their plans post-interview, so the role I interviewed for didn’t even exist.

Other than that, I had three phone interviews, including the one I accepted. Of the other two, I’ve since been offered one, and got to face-to-face interview on the other.

I haven’t worked out the actual success ratio, and don’t really need to. All that matters is that it took me two weeks from leaving one place to starting another. And that’s no bad thing at all.

Minimum Viable Product

Posted: Thu 12 June, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Business, Creativity, Customer Services, Cynicism, Design, Geeky, Thoughts, Web Development, Work-related | 2 Comments »

One of the buzzwords in the current (but please God, not much longer) workplace is “Minimum Viable Product“. It basically means “The customer gets what they’ve asked for, and nothing more”. In other words, “Yeah, fuck it, that’ll do”.

It’s a good concept when a business is starting, when you’re writing the first versions, where it’s a product idea and you don’t know if it’ll work, and/or what’s going to be the popular or desired features. So you write the minimum to launch it, make things work without bells and whistles, and find out what people want. It stops you from diving down the wrong path (and yes, mixed metaphors, live with it) and wasting time that’s valuable, that could be better spent on creating the things people do want.

It’s great for a startup, for a new product.

It’s NOT great in any other eventuality, and particularly not for an established product with customers paying shedloads. It leads to inconsistencies, weird functionality, and general oddities. Buttons disappear, sections are different, and it’s all a bit amateur. And that’s exactly what we’ve got.

But can you persuade them? Nope. It’s the buzzword, it’s How Things Must Be.

Which just isn’t healthy.

All Change (again)

Posted: Fri 30 May, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, Interviews, People, Web Development, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Today is the last day of my current contract. It’s been a hectic (but pretty productive) month, and has given me some further pointers for where I want things to go in the longer-term for my own development projects and ideas.

In the meantime though, a change.

I’ve been offered a full-time permanent role with a tech company in Milton Keynes. It sits on a par with a lot of my longer-term ideas too, and should give me a decent grounding in some bits that have been missing from my recent CV. So it’s got its bonuses.

I have my reservations this time – about the company itself, rather than the work. The work doesn’t really concern me at all. The company does.

Since being put forward for the role, they’ve been – pushy, I think is the best way to describe it.

I did the phone interview on short notice – it’s fine, I’m used to that.

Then the interview request came through, for tomorrow. OK, I can move things around, arrange things for that to happen. Then on the day they tell me “Oh, it’s likely to be two to three hours“. Nice to be pre-warned, and lucky I hadn’t just said I’d do the interview in my lunch-hour…

That all went ok, and the offer was pretty much there. But they wanted to talk to me the next day, to have a final phone conversation. Again, it had to be Today. It had to be ASAP. Pushy.

They know I’m working my ass off this week, closing the current contract. And still they’ve been pushing every damn day, “Have you done the paperwork” “Will you be starting“.

The paperwork didn’t even arrive ’til yesterday. I’ve said I want to read through the contract, make sure I know the deal and what’s on offer before I sign to start. And I’m working. So I got the paperwork at 12, in the end. By 3pm they were calling again, “We want to confirm you’ll be starting on Monday“.

I’ll start with them. But if they keep up this kind of bullshit pushy “We’re important” attitude, they’ll be told to fuck off before very long at all.

So yeah, I’ve got some reservations. The pros (currently) outweigh the cons, but it’s not by much. We’ll see.

Location Fixation

Posted: Fri 16 May, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2013/14, Bankruptcy, Change, Commuting, Depression, Domestic, Driving, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Housing, Own Business, Project 42, Thoughts, Time, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Over the last couple of months, I’ve been thinking a lot about location – where I live, where I work, where I want to live, all that. I’ve been in the current house for two years now, and I know I’m getting a bit twitchy.

The current tenancy doesn’t expire ’til November though – due to an initial six-month one, followed by 12-month ones. As a result, I’ve had plenty of time to think about it, look at the pros and cons, and – I think – I’ve now pretty much made a decision.

As has been noted on many occasions, I’m not all that good with permanence – I like change, embrace it even. It suits me. So two years in the same place is enough to make me twitchy, to start to feel that itch in the back of my skull.

It’s not too bad at the moment though. I’ve certainly had it far, far worse than this. If I were still in the same job as well, the options would be different – I’d be needing to move on in both cases. As it is, I’ve been back on the contracting since July, and it’s kept things decently varied – which means the house side of things can relax a wee bit.

There are places I’d like to move to, some new locations and some old. (Or at least close enough to qualify as revisits) They’re more about reflecting how much life has changed in the last few years, most particularly the ability to drive, which opens up whole new vistas.

For example, I’d like to go back to the North-West, live around the Peak district somewhere. I wouldn’t live in Manchester itself again, but there’s loads of places around it that I really like. It’s still a front-runner when the move does happen. The same applies for the South Coast, and Dorset in particular. It’s an area I love, but didn’t really get to appreciate as much as I could’ve done, because I didn’t drive. So yes, that’s also a front-runner.

There’s other places too. A revisit to Bath and/or Bristol wouldn’t be out of the question – particularly when not combined with an insane commute, ideally – and there’s new locations too. I’d consider most places, but Nottingham and Derby have always been good to me, and there’s a whole heap of other places. (Plus a long-standing idea to sod off to somewhere like Cork)

However, right now there’s also a bigger plan in place. Rebuilding after the bankruptcy, seeing what comes next, as well as looking at work and finances and what the hell I want to do/be when I grow up. There’s ideas on that score, but I need to have the time and inclination to do something about them. Time I’ve got. Inclination? Less so, right now. But that’s a post for another day.

I could move, sure. But practicality-wise, where I am right now is pretty much perfect for me right now. It’s not a long-term location, but for now it’s good. I’ve got all the transport links I need – my commuting radius for work covers an insane amount of miles. It makes my contractor life a lot easier. Location isn’t in many (if any) of those calculations I have to do. For me, right now, that’s an important factor, and outweighs pretty much everything else.

Financially, it’s easy. If I move North then the odds are that my rent would drop. But for where I am, for what I’ve got right now, I couldn’t do much better. I’d like some extra space, an extra room or two – but it’s not something that’s necessary right now either.

All told, while I would kind-of like to move, I don’t need to move. And staying put has its advantages too – location, money, blah blah.

That means that – in the lack of a good reason for moving other than “But I want to” – I’ve decided I’m going to plan to stay where I am for the next eighteen months. The six months from now for the current tenancy, and then extend it by another twelve.

Of course, the landlord might decide to sell up or something, or work may throw up something that makes me have to move. Neither option is likely, but they could happen. But short of those kind of eventualities, I’m going to face up to things, and not move.

By that time – November 2015 – I’ll have been in this place for three and a half years. Then I think it’ll be time to move on – or at least move up. If my work is still keeping me based in a way that the current location is still OK then I’ll just look at moving to a bigger place locally. If things change or work isn’t a limitation (I can work from pretty much anywhere, after all) then it might be a big location change too. We’ll see.

The Next Step

Posted: Sat 3 May, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2013/14, Commuting, Domestic, Driving, Getting Organised, Project 42, Thoughts, Words, Work-related, Writing | Leave a comment »

This last week, I’ve been working from home – which is something I usually enjoy, but it’s not been overly assisted by feeling like rubbish, and somewhat demotivated.

Alongside that, for whatever reason, the cats have been super-demanding and really whingy, which has pissed me off more than it should.

All told, it’s meant I haven’t got as much done this week as I should’ve done, so it’s time to do things differently.

I’ve been aware of ‘co-working’ spaces/offices for a few years now, but never really felt the need to make use of them. I did look at them quite seriously when I had the possibility of the long-term ‘working from home’ gig earlier this year (which fell through) so I had some decent contacts.

As it turns out a couple of new ones have opened up quite near me in Milton Keynes. One in particular is ridiculously priced (as in ridiculously low) so I’m going to give that a go this coming week. Four days for £30 all in. I can live with that.

Of course, I still need to find out what the catch is. (If there is one) But if it works out and I like the place, it might be worth my while to make use of it for longer (depending on what other projects come up, naturally) Looking at the costs, it could cost me £80 for the whole of May, which is pretty insane…

We’ll see how the first week goes. But this could be the start of the next step up the ladder, having a place to work from for myself…

Big Business

Posted: Thu 27 March, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Introspective, People, Personality, Work-related | Leave a comment »

As it turns out (and I do need to remind myself of this more often, and/or not take on the jobs) I really don’t understand big companies. I don’t have the necessary mindset for working within them, and I simply don’t get how they work. All of this also probably contributes to explaining why I don’t want to work in them too often, and why this current contract won’t be being extended by me.

I like small companies – even medium-sized ones. I like the ability to bypass management (if it even exists) and talk direct to business owners/directors, and make a difference. I like knowing that (mostly) the people I work with are productive, and know what the hell they’re doing.

In a big company, I’m a fish out of water. It seems like productivity becomes something that’s talked about and aimed for, but isn’t actually achieved. Ever. I don’t get the mindset where people would rather have meetings (and sometimes meetings about meetings) in order to establish who will be to blame if a project goes wrong, rather than just getting on and doing the project. I don’t get how productivity seems to become a way of avoiding work, because there’s “so much” other stuff to do.

Currently I’m working in a huge barn of an office, with probably 100-150 people in it. Yet they seem to collectively do less than the previous company I worked with, which had six people in a room. People here seem happy to be bums on seats, to do as little as possible on a daily basis and simply mark time ’til they can a) go home or b) retire. It’s not a mindset I can work with, let alone live with. I want – no, if I’m honest I need – to be doing stuff, to create things that work, that make life easier.

I needed to write this so I can look back on it, so I can remember just why I don’t like working with big faceless companies, the behemoths of the world – regardless of the industry they ‘specialise’ in.

Not Extending

Posted: Tue 25 March, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Cynicism, Domestic, People, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Six weeks in to my new contract, discussions are starting to happen about whether the contract will extend or not.

For the first time in quite a long time, I’m not planning to extend this one – I’ll be happy to finish it and go elsewhere.

Usually I’m good with sticking around, as I generally enjoy the work I’m doing. Here I’m happier to move on – the work’s OK, the people are OKish, but the overall atmosphere just isn’t one I want to continue working in if I can possibly help it.

Since I started, three other developers have left. I’ve been here six weeks, and I’m now the most senior developer on-site. There’s no indication that they’re bothered by this, or that they plan to recruit anyone else. Any contract extensions will be on a ‘monthly rolling’ basis – meaning that as soon as I’ve got one sorted, I need to start getting the next one done. It’s all budgetary bullshit. There’s no willingness to commit to anything longer, no organisation, no preparation.

And that’s going to get them left with a bundle of managers, and no-one actually doing the work.

It’s not the fault of my own team. It’s an institutional issue, something that goes to the core of the management structure, finance department and so on – and it appears that no-one has ever stood up and asked why things are like this, or complained that it leads to loss of talent, knowledge and skills. (Or maybe they have, and then not been renewed themselves – that wouldn’t surprise me)

Once I’m gone, it may be that in a couple of months I look back and think “I wish I’d stuck with it” – but I can’t see that being the case. I think I’ll be better off without the hassle, and I suspect that sticking around here will be more hassle than it’s ever going to be worth to have it as a long-term job on the CV.

And that’s why I think I won’t be extending this contract.

Connected?

Posted: Tue 4 March, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: BT, Customer Services, Cynicism, Domestic, Geeky, Own Business, Utilities, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Since before Christmas, my broadband connection has been pretty flaky, occasionally cutting out completely and so on. I reported it to BT at the time, and they did fuck-all. (Imagine my surprise at that one)

Last weekend, it suddenly got much, much worse – no connection at all for most of Saturday and the router descending into an endless cycle of attempting to reconnect. Sunday started in the same vein, so I called BT’s fault department again. Twice. (The first person tried to transfer the call, fucked it up, and disconnected instead. Slow handclaps)

They ended up escalating it to the ‘second tier’, who would investigate and call me the following day. As that was a Monday, I asked them to make my mobile my primary contact, as I’d be at work, not available on the home number. You’d think that would be pretty easy/sensible, but it took them three attempts.

Yesterday, I got the first call. Yes, the line’s fucked, but they can’t tell where. It could be inside the house (we’ll gloss over the fact that when there is a line, the connection is fine, and all the in-house equipment works well with no issues) or on the line itself. So they’ll need to send an engineer.

How’s tomorrow?

No, I’m at work. How’s about a weekend?

We don’t do engineer visits for this kind of thing on a weekend.

OK, so I’ve got to take time off from work in order for this to be checked at BT’s convenience. Who do I invoice for my time?

Oh, we don’t do that. We won’t pay for your time. You also need to be aware that if the problem turns out to be with your equipment, or something like corrosion of BT equipment, you’ll be charged £130

So this could be an expensive proposition. (And how much do we want to bet, fellow cynics, that the issue is ‘corrosion’, and thus makes me liable?)

I asked at that point for a call back from a supervisor, because I wasn’t happy with the entire thing. They promised to call me back between 12 noon and 1pm.

The call didn’t happen. I got home, and found a message on the landline at 4pm saying “I tried calling you back, but you weren’t available”. No shit, you fucking moron, I was at work – as it said on the fucking ticket. I called them back, and we’re now in the land of official complaints. Again.

On a more positive note, a random check on BT’s page last night showed that my exchange should be getting Fibre (and BT Infinity) this month. Which may just make things worth sticking with BT…

Wheeled Danger

Posted: Thu 6 February, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Charm School, London, People, Stupidity, Sweary, Work-related | 2 Comments »

Over the last two weeks, I’ve been commuting into one of London’s busiest main-line stations, Euston. It has a huge throughput of people, and it’s always an absolute pig to navigate.

It’s not just the sheer quantity of people – although that doesn’t help – it’s also the crap they lug about with them. One of the banes of my life at this point is one I’ve written about before – fucking bastard wheeled suitcases. I swear I don’t get the need for them a lot of the time. Sure, if you’re travelling onwards or whatever, I suppose they’re useful. (Although I’ve never had – or wanted – one myself) And yes, I know, I can’t tell who’s travelling onwards, and who’s just an inveterate ballbag.

But in my opinion/experience, dear God, the fucking things should be banned outright. They’re not a danger in and of themselves, but they certainly are when they’re under the ‘control’ (and I use that word in its loosest possible context) of fuckwit owners. In a similar way to umbrellas, the owners thereof seem to be utterly unconscious of their extra dimensions – increased width with umbrellas, increased length with fucking wheelie bags – and assume that everyone else will get out of their way. (If they’ve even thought about it at all)

For myself, I got whacked by fucking wheelie suitcases on a regular basis, and I’m currently now nursing a twisted/twatted ankle as a result of one of those collisions, where the person had walked in front of me (with space to spare) and not realised their cunty fucking wheelie shitty suit-bastard-case was trailing behind. So I got caught up in the piece of shit, and it ripped into my ankle. Which, frankly, fucking hurts.

It will come as no surprise to regular readers, but sometimes (OK, most of the time) people really piss me off.

Moments That Mattered in 2013

Posted: Tue 4 February, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Bankruptcy, Domestic, Work-related | Leave a comment »

[This is being done in response to Lori’s Prize Draw]

In a number of ways, 2013 was a funny old year. There were a couple of important moments – allbeit nothing life-altering – that had knock-on effects that’ll continue to reverberate into 2014 and beyond.

The important moment (for me) was back on 9th August, which was the day I was discharged from my bankruptcy that I’d declared a year previously. While the discharging of it wasn’t life-changing per se, the actual process of bankruptcy certainly was. There’s still another four-and-a-bit years of it sitting on my credit record, but compared to how life was heading pre-declaring, it’s a very different vista these days. Getting the full bankruptcy discharge was the first really significant milestone along that path back (I refuse to use that reality-TV-tastic “journey”, because my friends will punch me in the throat if I do) and had a feeling of “OK, I’ve done that, got through it, what’s next?” that I’d been missing for a long time.

The second moment (somewhat linked) was being made redundant from the job I’d had throughout the redundancy period (and a bit before) in mid-July. The timing was beautiful – the money I got as a redundancy payment came into my account on 11th August, just two days after the point where I’d have lost it.

I’d kept a permanent job throughout that period, as I wanted to have something stable while everything else was in flux. (To put it politely) It fulfilled those requirements just fine, but the redundancy announcement – regardless of how shabbily the entire process was handled – was a joy, a release of the shackles I’d been feeling.

With the two combined, it meant that once I’d been made redundant, I took a week off, which was much-needed. I took some time, but sent out some CVs at the same time, so I was ready for August. I was going back to contracting (my preferred workstyle) and sent out a few CVs. I landed an interview for the Tuesday of the second week, which went well enough that they asked if I was free to stay after the interview, and work that afternoon. (I could, and did)

July and August 2013 reinforced in me the knowledge, the surety, that I could get through, that whatever life threw at me I’d come through it and be fine. I was unemployed for exactly six and a half days, and by the end of my first week at that first contract I was a discharged bankrupt.

It was weird how smoothly everything ran, and how it all clicked together to work to the best advantage. Sure, it was a bit of a stressful month from mid-July to mid-August, but it all worked out, and it left me in a far, far better place than I’d been.

Looking back, that’s the moment (well, month) that mattered the most in 2013…

Getting Business

Posted: Fri 31 January, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Customer Services, Domestic, Work-related | Leave a comment »

With the prospect of that new job (of which more later/tomorrow) I wrote a bit about my own doubts regarding the prospect of primarily working from home, and being on my own most of the time. I’m still not sure how I’d handle that, so I thought I’d make some enquiries about the costs of renting either a shared office or a ‘proper’ office in a block where I’d at least have the opportunity to socialise with other people, rather than becoming even more hermit-like than usual.

I found three local offices of interest, two owned locally and one national company – Regus. I’ve worked in Regus offices before, so wanted to use them for comparison purposes more than anything else.

However, the experience of trying to find out costs from Regus was noteworthy – and not in a good way – so I thought I’d write about it. Bear in mind, in all three requests I made it clear I was interested in getting a quote for comparison purposes, but that I was definitely planning to be using an office somewhere.

The two local companies came back within an hour, one with a quote, one with a range of options, and saying “But you’re best off coming in when you get a chance, so you can see what we offer” – which is reasonable.

But Regus. Ah, Regus.

First of all I got a response asking what it was I was interested in, and where. (Despite having already explained in the initial contact email – which was copied at the bottom of the response) So I explained – again – that I wanted to know costs, either for getting a ‘day office’/’shared office’ for a few days a month, and also for renting an office longer-term. Not a difficult concept, you’d think, for the industry-leader in office rental/hire.

But no, this seemed to be an utterly brain-melting experience for the little fuckwit I was dealing with. Over the course of 12 – twelve! – emails, he gave me information I didn’t need, and completely failed to understand what I was after. I asked him to pass it on to a manager, someone who could answer the question. He forwarded it on, asking them to call me. They didn’t bother.

I finally got hold of one of their sales managers today, to explain the problems I’d had with getting an answer out of Regus. From that point I’ve had the quote I wanted – and it’s less outrageously expensive than I’d expected, in honesty – and the offer of a significant discount because of the cock-up, and the fact I’ve stuck with trying to find out.

But it’s pretty scary, when you think about it. This is one of their primary channels for getting new business, and it failed utterly. I could have (and indeed should have) just abandoned it ages back. That’s what Regus deserved. I just kept on going because I was interested in just how long it would take, and how bad the experience would continue to be. After all, if this is how they work with people before they’ve received any money, you can only imagine how much worse it would be once money had been handed over, and the person/business was a captive entity.

Sometimes you just wonder how some companies actually stay in business.

Taxing

Posted: Tue 28 January, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Bankruptcy, Customer Services, Cynicism, Domestic, Finances, Getting Organised, HMRC, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Last week I got a letter from the taxman (also known as HMRC) regarding taxyear 2012/13. Supposedly I’ve not paid enough tax in that year.

Now that’s pretty impressive. It’s just about the only year in living memory where I was

Employed – throughout that year – by one company
On PAYE throughout that year
Didn’t change any tax-relevant details
Didn’t have to fill in a tax-return of my own
Was purely reliant on my employer and HMRC to get my tax correct.

And still it’s fucked up.

Of course, I’m going to have to pay it. I don’t mind paying when it’s part of my earnings (well I do, but that’s a different thing) or if I’d made a mistake in estimating what tax I should be paying. I can live with that – it’s a pain in the tits, but I can understand what I have to pay, and why.

What I really do fucking mind is that I have to pay that tax when it’s been underpaid through no damn fault of my own. My employer of the time won’t be penalised, and won’t have to pay for their cock-up. HMRC won’t pay on it for their cock-up.

For that tax-year, it is ONLY possible that the error can have come from my employer, or HMRC themselves. (Who would only have dealt with my employer – not me directly) But it’s me that’s going to have to pay an extra £50 per month to rectify it next tax year.

Cunts

[Addendum : Because of the bankruptcy, from August of that tax year I shouldn’t have paid tax anyway, it should all go to the Official Receiver until August 2013. So that’s going to be a whole different lump of fun/hassle. I’m waiting for them to sort out this first stage before I then totally confuse things]

One Year On

Posted: Sun 19 January, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Bankruptcy, Change, Domestic, Driving, Finances, M1, Work-related | Leave a comment »

It’s now roughly a year since my Mondeo killed itself on the outside lane of the M1. It’s pretty scary how time flies sometimes. At the time I was lucky, because despite certain essential bits of the engine having effectively exploded I was able to coast/chug across to the hard shoulder. I suspect that whatever it looked like from outside the car caused some brown trousers on the part of other drivers, but there were no collisions or dangers.

That was really my last “oh shit!” moment when it came to finances. I honestly didn’t know how I could work it out to sort out a replacement vehicle, what the hell I was going to do with Mondeo, or even what I was going to do while waiting for a replacement vehicle. I spent a couple of very cold hours on the hard shoulder of the M1, waiting for the recovery vehicle and trying to work out what I could do next. I was pretty sure that repairing Mondeo was unfeasible – which was confirmed once the recovery people turned up and did their diagnostic tests – so I knew that was likely out.

Fortunately, I got somewhat lucky. Once I got home I was able to get in touch with the people handling my bankruptcy, explain the situation, suggest a plan of action, and within an hour they’d agreed to it, which freed up a certain amount of money. I also organised an advance on my pay with my employer, allowing me to rent a car for two weeks until I got paid. It was a real juggling act, but I got through it.

And in the end I got the Slab, which has so far served me well. I got a good deal on it, although there were some things I didn’t consider at the time- particularly what amount of vehicle tax I’d pay on the thing.

I did OK in the end, and things have continued to improve ever since then. I hope I’ll never be in that situation again, but as with so many things, if it does happen, I know I can handle it again.

Year End

Posted: Tue 31 December, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2012/13, Bankruptcy, Domestic, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Own Business, Resolutions, Thoughts, Web Development, Work-related, Writing | Leave a comment »

Here we are, at the end of 2013. It’s been an eventful old year, what with one thing and another.

In no particular order – and probably leaving out a load of lesser stuff – my 2013 has consisted of…

Having Mondeo kill itself in the outside lane of the M1 – always an interesting experience
Renting a Renault Megane for two weeks – the shittest car it’s ever been my displeasure to drive
Buying the Saab as a replacement for Mondeo, and it’s done well so far. Handing back the Megane was also an absolute joy
Countless meetings all over the country
Completing my bankruptcy period – it stays on the record for four more years, but it’s discharged now
Being made redundant from the job I started the year with
Going back to contracting and
- getting the first job I applied for – indeed, they offered it to me at the interview, and wanted me to start immediately
- And the second – although it turned out to be shit
- And indeed the third – on that one they offered after phone interview, without even meeting me
Forming my new company, which will start trading from mid-January
Sorting out an ISA savings account – which actually has some money in it!
Continued writing, and getting some ideas out onto keyboard/paper – time will tell how successful that stays
Been able to purchase some stuff I didn’t have in the new house – like a proper bed-frame, etc.
Caught up with friends, some of whom I hadn’t seen in far too long
Attended two weddings – and another one’s already booked for 2014

All told, it’s been pretty busy, somewhat hectic, highly changeable, and not a bad year at all. Sure, things could have been better/smoother, but when all things are considered, I’d say it’s been a positive year.

Extreme Commuting

Posted: Fri 27 December, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Commuting, Driving, News, Travel, Work-related | 2 Comments »

The BBC today has an interesting piece about so-called ‘extreme commuters’ – those who travel more than three hours a day in order to get to/from work.

As regular readers know, I’ve been doing idiot commutes on-and-off for the last twelve years. I do have periods of commute sanity (the current phase has lasted most of the last two years) but I’ve also done plenty of long commutes. My own record has been a train commute on a daily basis from either Manchester to London (and back, of course) or Bath to London. The main section of that was roughly 1.5 hours for the Bath one, or 2ish for the Manchester one, and with additional time at each end for getting door-to-door.

More recently, the two long commutes have been from Suffolk to London, and Suffolk to Luton. The London one was two-and-a-bit hours door-to-door, and the Luton one about 90 mins each way.

What interested me the most (and to some degree defuddled me) was the person commuting by car and train from Trowbridge to Hook. According to the story, that takes 2.5 hours door to door. I’m bemused, because I know that just driving that route takes between 1.25 and 1.5 hours door to door. The train journey takes longer, and also includes two changes of train. Frankly, fuck that for a game of soldiers.

I know there is the minor advantage by train that you can get some stuff done. But for me, I’d rather get in and get the stuff done in the office.

Anyway, it’s an interesting article, but as always you kind of wonder about the decisions people make, and want to know more than is covered in the piece itself.

As for me, well, I’m quite sure that at some point in the coming year I’ll do some kind of daft commute again – although from where I am now, journeys to London etc. are nowhere near as much of a struggle as they were from Norfolk and Suffolk. But there’ll be something daft to do, I’m sure.

Time Out

Posted: Fri 20 December, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2013/14, Business, Domestic, Getting Organised, Health, Own Business, Project 42, Travel, Work-related, Writing | Leave a comment »

From the end of today, I’m finished with work ’til a week on Monday. Ten whole days off.

Of course, being a contractor, it also means I don’t get paid for them – but that would’ve happened for the Wednesday and Thursday anyway.

Besides, for once I don’t mind. I’ve pretty much burned myself out this year – and the last couple of months in particular – so it’s going to be quite nice to have some downtime.

I’ve still got stuff that needs doing – Slab’s booked in for it’s 100,000 mile service on Monday, and Christmas Day on Wednesday with its associated travels – but for the most part it’s going to be time for relaxing a bit, catching up on sleep, and generally sorting my life out a bit.

Should be good – and right now it feels like it’s much needed, a battery recharge before the start of 2014.

Marketing/Branding Bollocks

Posted: Fri 13 December, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Advertising, Charm School, Creativity, Cynicism, Design, Marketing, Sweary, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »

According to this article, Pantone (they’re ‘the colour people, don’t’cha know?) have decreed that this purple is “the colour of 2014”. (And fuck off, Americans, it’s ‘colour’, not bloody ‘color’)

Now, I like purple as much as the next person – I’d go so far as to say it’s probably my favourite colour. But

This is not proper purple. It’s a kind of wanky lilac, at best. Hell, they’ve not even called it Purple – it’s “Radiant Orchid”, which might as well be a name made up by Dulux.
You know, there are people who get paid for coming up with this kind of shit
And there are people whose job it is to come up with names for paints. I truly hope they feel fulfilled and happy in their work. I’d want to be killing people.
How the blue, blazing, fiddly fuck do you have a “colour of the year”, for shit’s sake?

All told it’s just marketing bollocks of the highest order.

Pre-booked

Posted: Tue 10 December, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2013/14, Business, Domestic, Driving, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Gigs, Own Business, Project 42, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Next year is already starting to look busy for me, which is quite fun (and somewhat back to ‘normal’ after a couple of much quieter years)

Right now I’m already booked in for :

At least one meeting in Jan (as well as probably getting a new contract)
Setting up new company / business
Attending an exhibition/conference in Feb
A wedding in Derbyshire in March (not mine, of course!)
One concert in April in London
Two concerts in May – one in London, one in Manchester
A food festival in Manchester in June
Another conference in November (although that’s not yet 100% confirmed)

Of course, that’s not including the usual sociable stuff which’ll definitely involve trips to Manchester, Bristol, Somerset, Kent and others. Plus the other business stuff, work, writing, and a bundle of other bits.

So 2014 is looking nice and quiet…

Staybridge

Posted: Mon 2 December, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Sociable, Travel, Work-related | 2 Comments »

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.

6,500

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 | Leave a comment »

Yes, this is the 6,500^th 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.

Making A Commitment

Posted: Fri 22 November, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Commuting, Driving, M1, M25, People, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »

(No, not that sort of commitment – chiff that!)

Anyway. Having been a contractor for [far too] many years now, I find I still really don’t understand the people who take on a contract that’ll involve a large commute, and then bitch about it, or try and change the pay/conditions of the contract because of that commute. If/when I take on a commute, I know what kind of distance I’m going to be travelling in order to do it. I’ve usually checked out the drive/travel – at worst I’ve a pretty good idea of where I’ll be going, how I’ll do the travel, and what it’s likely to entail.

A current colleague is coming to the office daily from Essex, via the M25. It’s a 70 mile journey each-way, using the M25 and M1, and should take about 90 minutes. I’ve done longer journeys as a commute (both in mileage and travel time) and it’s roughly the same time/distance as I was doing from Suffolk to London a couple of years back. (That was actually a longer one because I then did about 45 mins on Tube travel as well)

At least once a week this colleague bitches about how bad his commute is, how troublesome, and what a nightmare the traffic is. I know he’s tried to get himself paid for travelling time, or reduce his working hours in order to level out the commute time. So far, the company has resisted changing anything, because he knew (or should’ve known) what he was letting himself in for – and I really can’t blame them.

With a contract, if you sign up for it, you should see it out at the terms/rates you agreed. I always do. The only time that changes is if the company is crap, or the conditions are not what you were told at the time. If they’d promised to pay for accommodation or whatever, and then didn’t, that’s a reason to change terms/rates. If the job/place isn’t what was sold at interview, fair enough, change things. If the job is simply not quite what you’d expected, grin and bear it.

Contracts are finite things. I can handle pretty much any commute or working conditions for three or six months. If you can’t, you either a) shouldn’t be contracting, b) should figure out your locations and commutes better, or c) should learn to shut up and put up.

Listing

Posted: Tue 12 November, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2013/14, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Geeky, Getting Organised, Own Business, People, Project 42, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been working a bit more at getting organised, at knowing what needs to be done and getting it done. To this end, I’ve found myself making lists, and being able to cross things off once they’re done – and I’m finding it quite helpful.

Not in an OCD “Got to do it, it’s on the list” way or anything, but just so I’m not storing everything in my head. I’m not usually this organised, but at the moment my head’s full of umpteen bits of random crap, so I’m finding it easier to write down what needs doing, and go from there.

Interestingly (well, to me, anyway) I’m finding it’s actually quite a productive way of doing things, and it’s also quite satisfying to be able to cross through the things that’ve been done.

Whether this development will last or not, only time will tell. But for now it’s working for me, and in a way that to-do list apps and online methods don’t seem to. Weird, but true.

The Coming Year

Posted: Tue 5 November, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2013/14, 42-43, D4D™, Domestic, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Own Business, Project 42, Work-related | Leave a comment »

As is tradition chez D4D™, this is where I list out some of the things I want to do in the coming year. I’ve kind-of nicknamed it “Project 42” this year, for no particularly good reason (other than that it’s the year of being 42 – which, as everyone knows, is also the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything) but it’ll do.

The top two stay the same as last year, but there’s some extras that I want to get done or work on, as well as a bundle of other stuff that’ll come up along the way. Anyway, these are the main bullet points…

Weigh less
Write more
Take the IAM advanced driving test
Sort out my own company again – although there’s a lot that goes into that
From there, develop a couple of business ideas
Keep on rebuilding finances throughout the year.

That’ll do, I think

Having Time

Posted: Tue 8 October, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2012/13, Commuting, Domestic, Driving, Health, Travel, Weigh Less, Weight Loss, Work-related | 2 Comments »

With the job change, I’ve just regained about 2½ hours a day. My commute has gone from 45-50 minutes each way to 20-25, which gives me the best part of an hour straight away. However, I was getting to Cambridge 45-60 minutes early, and leaving 45 minutes late in order to avoid the really slow/shit traffic on the dire sections of road. So that’s another 90-105 mins regained too.

With that time, my primary aim is to get back into doing something healthier, the cycling, maybe some workout stuff as well. That’s the plan, anyway.

However, despite the new workplace being a lot closer, I’m not planning to aim (yet) for cycling to work and back. Even the shortest route is a ten-mile journey, and some of the roads are pretty dodgy. I might explore a bit, see how things, go, but for now that’s firmly in the “see what happens” side of the list.

When all’s said and done, I’m just glad to have the time back, alongside having a better contract that’s making me happier too. I don’t mind idiot commutes (as regular readers know anyway) when it’s a job I’m enjoying, and when I’m happier with how work is coming along. When it’s a shit job though, the crap commute just exacerbates everything, makes me even less happy, knowing that I’m wasting even more time, that the entire thing is just a faff, and one I can’t be arsed with. It also turns out that when I’m down about my work, it also has a lot of knock-on effects on other bits of my life, as well as my self-image/ego/whatever, which I plan to write more about for tomorrow.

More Change

Posted: Mon 7 October, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Commuting, Domestic, Driving, Getting Old(er), Getting Organised, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Following on from last week’s post about change, today is the start of a new job.

The previous contract was OK, but really wasn’t working for me for lots of reasons, mainly related to the work involved. (as I’ve said before, it turns out I really don’t like working with pure data, I find it boring and uninspiring) Coupled to that, I didn’t overly like the company, or the way they did things. The final bit was the commute (and yes, this is me, the King of Idiot Commutes saying this) which just pissed me off. The route from home to Cambridge is just shit at busy times, being all single carriageway, and prone to absolutely solid traffic the entire way along it, so I’ve been leaving home earlier, and leaving work later, spending the ‘spare’ time reading, as the workplace won’t let me do flexi-hours. If the job itself were fun, interesting or challenging, the commute and extra time wouldn’t be an issue. But because the job isn’t/wasn’t fine, that commute just became the final straw.

So anyway, I got a call two weeks ago about a job that was closer to home, much more my type of thing (eCommerce portals, creating stuff from scratch, integration with existing processes, etc etc.) and based in an office on the grounds of one of the local stately homes. Spectacular stuff.

They interviewed me by phone last Monday, and offered me the job by the end of the day. I’m starting today, and I haven’t even met these people yet. That’s kind of scary, but it’s also pretty cool, being hired for my skillset rather than how I look in a suit.

Whatever happens, this means I’m getting back about three hours a day in travel time, getting paid about the same, and getting my life made easier and happier. It really is a no-brainer as far as all that is concerned.

We’ll see how it goes – all I know right now is that I’m just so pleased to be finished with the previous one. And I’ve kept my 100% record on successful interviews for this year, which is even better.

Q4 – Plans

Posted: Tue 1 October, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2012/13, 2013/14, Creativity, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Own Business, Work-related, Writing | Leave a comment »

So here we are, the start of the final quarter of 2013. Where has the year gone? It’s been pretty busy, but hard to believe that we’re already three-quarters of the way through the year.

Anyway, such is life. Onwards and upwards, and all that rot.

The final quarter of my 2013 is going to be used preparing for 2014 – at least that’s the intention so far. Whether or not it happens in the way I hope, well, time will tell.

The main things I want to do are about preparation, about going into 2014 with some finished developments, stuff to build on/from, and see what happens. There’s likely to be a fair dollop of work being done, and it feels like the right time to be doing it.

Along with the new contract, which should take me through to the end of the year, I also want to :

Form up a new limited company for some of the business stuff I’ve got in my head and…
- Write the primary framework for at least one of the ideas
- Write the primary business site to attract attention to the products
- Possibly attend a couple of related exhibitions and trade-shows, in order to drum up some more interest
Also do some maintenance on stuff I’ve inherited (well, been asked to keep on working on) from Previous Employer
Get on with some writing – there’s one idea in particular I want to work on
Continue to work on the losing weight / gaining fitness thing

That’s the ideas, at least. It’s going to be a varied three months, I think, but that’s the basic framework…

B-O-R-E-D

Posted: Wed 11 September, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Business, Geeky, People, Work-related | Leave a comment »

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…

2013 : Final Third

Posted: Mon 2 September, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2012/13, Creativity, Domestic, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Health, Own Business, Web Development, Weigh Less, Weight Loss, Work-related, Write More, Writing | Leave a comment »

So here we are, the start of September. Which means we’re two-thirds of the way through the year. Doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun?

For me, the first two thirds of the year have been more about staying stable, getting stuff done, getting things in place and ready for whatever comes next. It’s been pretty successful: I’ve got through the bankruptcy period,, I’m pretty settled on location and house for the moment, and I’ve changed jobs, with all the fun that entails. (Oh, and got some pretty good contacts and future opportunities from people within ex-employer) It’s looking pretty positive.

But now it’s time to step things up a bit. There are things I want to do, or at least want to start, and see how they work out. The plans and ideas are there, but now it’s implementation time. (Yeah, I know, heard it all before) I’m not saying they’ll all work, I’m not even saying they’ll all get out of the starting gate – but I want to at least try.

For this next period there’s really three main projects going on, alongside the general gradual development/sorting of finances, which is now just an ongoing process. The other three are :

Health / Fitness
Project Development
Writing

Pretty self-explanatory, I think. But a bit more detail…

Health / Fitness

One of the goals for 2013 has been to improve fitness, improve health, and lose weight. So far it’s kind-of happened, but not properly. I’ve been going to the gym, but it’s not really working for me – and even less so when it’s now in the exactly opposite direction to where I’m going for work… So it’s time to rethink (again) and get back into doing something. I’m not yet sure what it’ll be, we’ll see. There’s a couple of ideas, anyway.

Project Development

As always, I’ve got some ideas for some web-based businesses. I think I’ve now got the overall plan, so it’s time to see how things work out. The primary ideas are all based round a particular theme this time, so who knows, it might actually work out. I’m aiming to get the main sections for the first significant project written by the end of the year. Maybe more, with a bit of luck, but I’d like to be ready to get it launched in early 2014 and see where things go from there.

Writing

Similar to the above, I’ve got two ideas that I want to get into some kind of shape over the next four months. I think that’s a reasonable timescale. We’ll see.

So yeah, the next four months ’til the end of the year should be quite interesting. That’s what I’m hoping, anyway…

An Attack of the Insomnia

Posted: Wed 28 August, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Insomnia, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Monday night was one of the worst night’s sleep I’ve had in ages. It may be connected to the new contract starting the next day, but I don’t think that was anything in particular. New contracts don’t usually affect me in that way, and my insomnia appears more to just kick itself up a gear when it’s most inconvenient, rather than in relation to stress and the like.

I’ve written about it before, so I won’t bore with the details. Suffice to say it drives me crackers, but such is life.

My insomnia comes in few different flavours, although obviously all of them share the end result of “bugger all sleep” and “feeling like crap”.

The main version is ‘merely’ disturbed sleep. Sometimes it’s actually disturbed sleep – and just about anything wakes me up/disturbs me at that point. It’s been known to be ticking clocks, snoring cats, mosquitoes, and [something clicking in another room]. The other option – which is admittedly far weirder – is swearing I’ve had a disturbed night, but actually being asleep and dreaming of having disturbed sleep. The end result’s the same, but the latter is definitely far further down the ladder towards lunacy.

On other occasions it’s more about getting to sleep, where my brain simply won’t shut up, and rocks around at about 100mph. (Figuratively speaking, of course) Again, on occasion I can dream that I’m doing this, but it’s more common that I actually am just awake, with a brain bouncing around on weird and stupid thoughts, with no let-up and no chance of getting to sleep.

The third one – much less common – is where I simply can’t get comfortable, and can’t stay still long enough to drop off. There’s no explanation for it, it just drives me crackers.

The worst – and this is the one from Monday night – is where variants two and three combine, at which point it’s almost worth just giving up completely. I can’t get comfortable, my brain won’t shut up, and it’s all just crap. However, it’s also very weird for one reason – at some point, it’ll just stop. I think of it like a game of body Tetris. I have to find the one (sleeping) position that actually works, and the challenge is finding that position. It’s usually only once I’ve completely admitted defeat that it finally happens. And the final choice is always a simple change, but one I haven’t wanted to make. (for whatever reason – usually because I can’t believe something that stupid will be the successful one) Usually it’s occurred when sleeping somewhere new – such as on a friend’s sofa – and then involves merely changing the direction I’m lying in. (i.e. if I’m lying down with my head on the right-hand end of the sofa, I’ll move so it’s on the left-hand end, and go to sleep in minutes)

On Monday it was even simpler. I turned over, and somehow settled into the right position. It was as though my brain and body admitted defeat, and just gave up. I don’t know why, or how – all I know is that it was three a.m., I looked at the clock, said sod it, turned over, and the brain/body relaxed into sleep. That easy.

I hate insomnia when it hits me like that. I can live (to a greater or lesser degree) with the disturbed sleep variety. I can handle (ish) the Racing Brain variant. The Restless Bastard one always gets me, and annoys me more than anything else. The combo of Restless Bastard with Racing Brain is just antisocial and vile.

New Job, New Commute

Posted: Tue 27 August, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Business, Commuting, Domestic, Driving, Getting Old(er), Getting Organised, Public Transport, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »

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.

Wasted Afternoon

Posted: Tue 20 August, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Agency Idiocy, Customer Services, Cynicism, People, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Despite having agreed to a contract, I had one interview that pre-dated that acceptance, and rather than piss people off by saying “I’ve taken a contract, so cancel the interview”, I’d decided to still go. The agency in question have been a ‘mare, asking me no less than three times to confirm that I was going. (and no, they’re not aware of the now existing contract offer) On each occasion I’ve replied to the original interview confirmation, with the relevant agency recipients copied in.

I went to the interview today in the company’s Northampton office, got there in plenty of time, waited outside reading my book (Well, Kindle, but same thing) and went in on time. Only the person I was meant to be seeing wasn’t there. No worries, they said, we’re sure he’s on his way. We’ll call and check.

I waited quarter of an hour, and in that time got a call from the agency. I ignored it – no way am I taking calls while I’m waiting for an interview to start. On this occasion, maybe I should’ve done.

Anyway, the person I’ve been dealing with in the office comes back in, and explains that actually I’m supposed to be meeting them in – um – Coventry. Even better, I’m not the first person this has happened to with this agency, I’m the second. To do it once is a fuck-up. To do it twice is to be a fuckup.

Needless to say, once I got out of the office, I went ballistic at the agency, who really don’t quite know what to do with themselves about it. If it were someone else involved, I’d probably laugh. (And come tomorrow, probably I’ll laugh too)

In the meantime though, it’s been a totally wasted afternoon, and has necessitated a complete reorganisation of the interview – not just day and time, but also location. It’s now on Friday, late afternoon, near Heathrow. Yep, late in the day, just before a Bank Holiday weekend. I suspect I may just be cancelling that one, once all the contract paperwork is through and completed…

Organisational

Posted: Mon 5 August, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2012/13, Bankruptcy, Change, Domestic, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Thoughts, Work-related, Writing | 1 Comment »

This last week has involved getting quite a lot of stuff organised, and it’s felt pretty successful, to be honest.

Among other things, this week I’ve

Sorted out the Car Tax for the next 12 months
Paid a power bill that nPower had totally screwed up (and that’s the subject of an ongoing fight/complaint)
Halved the cost of my car insurance from the start of September (and raised a complaint regarding the amount I’ve been paying for the last six months)
Sent out CVs and organised interviews for the coming week
Organised myself (and a fair amount of my life) for the coming month
Started a couple of new projects, both techie ones and writing ones
Generally sorted out a whole load of things, most of which aren’t overly relevant to D4D™ or worth writing about, but are worthwhile for me to sort out
Even made time for lunch with the parents!

So all told, it’s been a pretty good week. In some ways the last twelve months has felt like being in Limbo, waiting for things to pass/happen, and that’s been OK. But with the changes of the last couple of weeks, as well as things that’ll be coming to pass at the end of this week, it’s now time to get my ass back in gear, and start figuring out what’s next.

Time Out

Posted: Mon 29 April, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Getting Old(er), Getting Organised, Health, London, Own Business, Sleep - or lack thereof, Thoughts, Time, Work-related, Writing | Leave a comment »

This week (and some of next) I’m actually on leave from the job. This is A Very Good Thing.

I don’t have much in the way of plans, the main thing is just Not Working, and taking the much-needed time out.

Of course, there are things I want to do, or at least get onto “paper” and out of my head, but that’s all going to be done on my terms, rather than within the demands of an office.

I’m sure there’ll be a couple of days out and the like along the way, but really the main thing is just time out. It’s been a pretty hectic first third of the year, and the next one isn’t looking like it’ll be any quieter, so downtime is definitely a good plan.

Blessed Relief

Posted: Fri 15 March, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Charity, Cynicism, Domestic, People, Stupidity, Work-related | Leave a comment »

So, today is Comic Relief day (AKA Red Nose Day) – one of those shit fund-raising days that encourage people to be “crazy” and “funny” by getting dressed up and acting like tossbags. “It’s all for charidee, innit?” Fuck off.

For the record, I don’t mind Comic Relief – the charity, not the activity. They do good stuff, both in the UK and everywhere else, and I think that’s good. I just can’t stand the way people go stupid about it. (Let’s be honest, I’m not a fan of people most of the time anyway) It’s always the “I’m mad, me” bell-ends that love it, along with (sometimes) some of the quieter office people who normally don’t say a word, but do something special “for charity” (or out of peer-pressure, I don’t know) At least the quiet ones are amusing to watch, because they’re so mortified and teeth-grindingly awkward about the entire thing.

My main amusement this year has come from the changes at Radio 1. (Yes, I still listen to it, despite the increasing ass-hattery of the presenters) In previous years, Chris Moyles has raised millions of pounds on his show for Comic Relief. Just in 2011, his “longest radio show” raised £2.4million on its own, and there was other stuff that year as well. When he left last year, Comic Relief came in and revealed that Moyles’ show had raised just under £11 million.

This year, the new Breakfast Show presenter did a show yesterday for Comic Relief, and raised … £250,000.

Of course that’s still a decent amount, don’t get me wrong. But he’s all impressed with himself for getting that figure, and I’m thinking “Moyles managed that in about an hour”

So, that’s been amusing.

In the meantime, though, tonight I’ll be avoiding the TV (and any thought of shopping etc. can sod right off) and doing absolutely nothing Comic Relief related. This is A Good Thing.

A drop of blood in a sea of piss

Work

Finances

Creative / Writing

Summary