Sore
Posted: Wed 11 October, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Getting Organised, Health, Travel, Work-related | 2 Comments »Oh yeah, that was one thing – breaking in new boots.
A few weeks back, I bought some new Cat boots to supplement the use of my normal steel-toecapped things. Up ’til now I’d worn them short-term (i.e. for a couple of hours at a time) on a few occasions, but this week has been the first week of constant wear. I chose this week as I emphatically wasn’t going to be walking serious distances, as the hotel I’m using is effectively just round the corner from the office. But of course there’s still the entire “walking from the station to the office” thing, and I’ve still done a fair amount of walking in them.
And of course they’re not properly broken in yet. So even with doing less walking than usual, the sodding things have rubbed against my heels, and I’ve a (broken) blister about the size of a 50p piece. Which is, needless to say, quite sore.
So yesterday I ended up buying some blister plasters (just to stop the sodding thing getting rubbed all the time) and a couple of pairs of hefty thick socks. And today my feet feel much better, and hopefully the blister will now start to heal up a bit.
And I need to buy a new pair of steel-toecap ones before long too…
Shattered
Posted: Tue 10 October, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »Well, I can honestly say I’m knackered. Somehow the company had managed to rent a fucking huge Toyota Land Cruiser – no idea why, we were expecting a simple estate! And it’s so not the type of vehicle anyone in the group would’ve chosen to drive if they’d been given the choice.
Still, it made the drive fun – and dear God it needed to be – and we made it with no real hassle at all. Some heavy traffic, but nothing that caused us to stop at all – not bad when a large portion of the journey was on the Orbital Car Park (AKA the M25)
The journey back was even better, and we made it in just over three hours, so not bad at all. But of course I’m now utterly knackered.
As for the meeting, it was productive, but in a worrying way, as it ably illustrated just how little the company knew about the CMS project we’re involved in, and how much more we knew about it all than they did. Just a little bit worrying…
Mileage
Posted: Mon 9 October, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »Sometimes I’m just too organised. This week has turned out to be a case in point. Because of the travelling I’m doing, I order my train tickets online, and book accommodation in advance too. To me it just makes sense to be organised on that kind of thing, and it keeps me on top of things.
However, this week we’ve got a meeting down in Poole, with the company that’re supplying the Content Management System for the company. And if I’d been less organised, I’d have been able to work at home on the Monday, travel to Poole from Bracknell on the Tuesday, and not have to be up in Cambridge ’til Wednesday morning. But of course I’d been organised, so I’d got the train tickets booked in advance, and got the hotel for the week sorted too.
Which means that this week I’ll be travelling to Cambridge on Monday, then going with work colleagues down to Poole for the day, then back, and then back to normal work on Wednesday. In short, a fair amount of mileage. I suppose it works out about the same mileage whatever way I do it, but this way will just require all the miles to be in larger dollops.
Should be fun, all the same.
Finished
Posted: Fri 6 October, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Getting Organised, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »Yes, at last, I have left the purgatory known as Travelodge. Never again will I have to darken their door for a long stay. (I may still use one on occasion for overnight stays if I have to, but more than one night? Not a bloody chance)
In fairness to them, one thing that has been good is that they’ve got most of the sound-proofing thing working pretty well. You don’t hear people next door, or above or below. This is a Good Thing. Of course, you still hear people walking past the door, and the fire doors rattle like the Gates of Hell, but there we go. That’s life.
Next week I’m in a posh place, and then back to the original B&B the week after. Suits me.
Holmes Place
Posted: Tue 3 October, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Customer Services, Getting Organised, Travel, Work-related | 21 Comments »Back at the start of the year, we both joined the Holmes Place gym. Not cheap, but at the time it was convenient for where I worked, and easy enough for Herself to get to, so it meant we made good use of it.
Now, though, I’m working in Cambridge, and not going to the gym. Even more relevantly, I couldn’t go to a Holmes Place if I tried, as the nearest one is sixty-fucking-five miles away. So two months ago I tendered my resignation from the club, seeing as I was in an area where they couldn’t provide me with any service, and I refuse to pay £65 per month for something I’m not using. At the start of the membership we’d checked this out, and the guy we signed up through had said that if we did move to an area where they had no services, we’d be able to leave with no problem, even bearing in mind the minimum term of 12 months’ membership.
I got an email from them yesterday…
Holmes Place only offers the opportunity to cancel your members upon completion of the initial core period as outlined in your Membership Agreement, and provided that your membership is up-to-date with all membership subscription payments.
We appreciate that circumstances can change and at Holmes Place we endeavour to be as flexible as possible. Therefore, there are a number of alternative options available to you if you are finding it difficult to visit your club including, transferring your membership to another club to a friend or family member. You can also choose to link your membership to another Club through our Clublink option.
You can also freeze your membership it it is for business, medical, pregnancy or student purposes and if your request is accompanied by supporting documentation. We freeze for a maximum of 3 months.
If you would like to discuss any of these options, or discuss in details the reason why your membership has not been cancelled, please contact the Membership Service Team.
So in short, “you’re going to keep on paying, even though we can’t do anything for you.”
Needless to say, I’m going to be calling them and telling them just exactly how far they can shove their membership. And I’ve cancelled the Direct Debit with the bank too, so the fuckers can’t get any money out of me. Ha.
Off
Posted: Mon 2 October, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Geeky, Getting Organised, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »And now I’m off to check in at the B&B of choice this week (actually, it’s a Travelodge – check me, Mr Glamourous) and hopefully get that bloody USB Freeview DVB thing working.
I may (or may not) write more later. Otherwise it’ll be tomorrow, but I’ll let you all know how it goes.
I bet you can’t wait. </sarcasm>
Pensions?
Posted: Sun 1 October, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »I must be getting old. I’m actually looking into stuff about pensions.
Some of it, admittedly, is down to that oncoming birthday. Thirty-fucking-five. Scary. And yes, I know, it’s not that big a milestone or anything, the next big milestone is in five years time, but I’m already beginning to gear up for it, and I’ve already written (in very vague terms, admittedly) about some of what I’m going to be doing in that time.
Anyway, so yes, I’ve been looking into details about pensions, and stakeholder pensions in particular. The Motley Fool website has proved to be a mine of information about pensions in general and the FSA has some useful decision trees and information too.
So now I just have to do some more checking, and get some information from various providers.
Intellectually I know that it’s a good move, that it’s something I really do need to start looking into. But Jesus, it does make me feel like I’m getting old, when I look at what’s going to be happening, what I might be doing, and where I might be in thirty years time.
Scary stuff indeed.