Posted: Wed 12 March, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Change, Depression, Domestic, Sleep - or lack thereof, Work-related |
Every so often, I hit a slump – usually through being overly tired, bored, or just feeling a little bit adrift. Sometimes it’s a combination of all three.
That’s where I am at the moment. There’s a lot going on, and there’s been a lot going on. But right now it’s all a bit Meh, a bit flat.
Tiredness is, I know, the primary trigger on all this. For some reason I’m finding it really hard for my bodyclock to fit the new/current schedule, and I don’t really know why. I’ve had to get up earlier than this for work before, and travelled further. But right now it’s still hitting me like a hammer, and this week has been particularly bad so far. (That’s somewhat related to the chaotic and busy weekend, but it’s not that related – and again, I’ve had far worse/madder ones that haven’t hit me in the same way)
In some ways it almost feels like a throwback to the periods of depression, but I don’t think it actually is depression at the moment. It’s just tired, and a feeling of ‘What’s next?’ that seems to be dragging me down a bit.
I’ll get over it, I’m sure. It’s just that right now it’s what’s happening, and it means things may or may not get updated here. We’ll see.
Posted: Tue 4 March, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: BT, Customer Services, Cynicism, Domestic, Geeky, Own Business, Utilities, Work-related |
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…
Posted: Fri 28 February, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Creativity, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Project 42, Thoughts, Work-related, Writing |
Over the years, I’ve often thought about finding a nice remote cottage, and ending up as a hermit, more or less. Shunning human contact for the most part, and being able to spend the time doing something creative.
Of course, as most of my nature and work is also pretty techie, the idea of a remote cottage in the middle of the moors somewhere is a bit of a stretch, there not being likely to be decent broadband anywhere nearby. If I were primarily doing writing, I could probably do it – but that particular aspect is still very much a pipe dream, albeit one that I’m still working on when I get the chance.
I still like the idea of it though – it’s still something that sticks with me, and even more so when I do travel up to the North-East and North-West, or Somerset/Devon. Maybe one day – depending on how everything else works out.
In the meantime though, it occurs to me that a lot of my current existence is quite hermit-like in many ways. I don’t interact with people around me all that much – I do with colleagues, to a degree, but in general prefer not to – and I’d rather be in my little house and spending time with my own company.
I have enough broadband (although I’d prefer more, but such is life at the moment) so really it’s the best of both worlds. Or at least it is for me – I suspect it would drive most people mental.
Things may change over time – there’s some things I’d like to change, and others I’m not bothered by – but in quite a number of ways, I’m actually really quite content at the moment. It’s a strange state of affairs.
Posted: Thu 27 February, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, Travel, Work-related |
One thing I’m ridiculously bad about doing is taking holidays. I should be better at it, but for a number of reasons I’m just not.
Part of it is that I regard time between contracts as a bit of a holiday. Slightly more stressful holidays (with repeated sending out of CVs etc., and potential interviews) but still, a break from the normality of work. I know it’s not a holiday as such, but in my head it counts.
When I’m in a contract, I’m getting paid on a day rate – which makes a week of holiday an expensive proposition. I know, I can sort out my time/money so I have ‘paid leave’, but it still jars in my head, that I’m not getting paid when I could/should be.
I know I should book breaks – even if it’s “just” when I know a contract is coming to an end, and booking a week or whatever before I start a new one (or even extend the current one) but it’s never a priority in my head, so I don’t bother booking them in.
Finally there’s my own mind-set and cynicism, telling me that I spend my time on my own anyway, and that a holiday would just be more of the same, so what’s the point?
I do plan to get out and do some more ‘holiday’ stuff this year, but sometimes those hurdles feel pretty challenging, almost insurmountable. We’ll just have to see how things work out, I guess.
Posted: Tue 25 February, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: A428, Commuting, Domestic, Driving, Travel, Work-related |
On my commute, there is one road that is always a pain in the tits – the A428 between St Neots and Cambridge. It’s single-carriageway (i.e. one lane in each direction) and thus is the main sticking point on the entire journey (the rest of which is dual-carriageway). Because it’s also the quickest/shortest link from Cambridge to the A1, it’s prone to use by a lot of heavy vehicles – trucks, lorries, and even cranes.
On the journey in this morning, there were a lot of cones by the side of the road, all laid out and ready to be deployed. Oh bollocks.
It turns out (not that you can tell from the Highways Agency website, which is unutterably fucking shit, and a nightmare to get information from) that there’ll be work going on there for the next month. They don’t say what’s going to be done, or whether it’s limited to non-stupid hours (it won’t be) but it may just make the commute a bit more interesting.
I’ll know more tonight once I’ve done the drive home, and see how it all goes. Alternatively, it’s going to be a case of finding alternative routes for the next month…
Posted: Fri 21 February, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Change, Commuting, Domestic, Driving, Insomnia, Sleep - or lack thereof, Travel, Work-related |
At the new contract, my hours are somewhat different to usual. It actually works out pretty well – both for me, and for the business – but it’s rocking my body clock a bit in this first week.
Based in Cambridge, I’m working 7.30 – 3.30. We work with development teams around the East Indies, so when I’m starting work, they’re just finishing – it means we can do meetings without extra hassle. It also means I’m avoiding all the really crap traffic (although this week is somewhat non-standard, as it’s half-term, and I suspect it’ll be a bit different leaving during ‘school run’ hours in the afternoon)
However, starting at 7.30 with a 45-minute commute means I’m leaving the house at 6.30-6.45, and getting up commensurately earlier. It’s not a massive change, but it’s enough that I’ve noticed it this week. I’m sure I’ll get back into the swing of things though.
In fairness, I’ve left home at earlier times than that though, for far longer commutes (in both time and distance) and getting home much later as well – although I have somewhat got out of the habit of those over the last couple of years.
It suits me for now though. I’d rather do 11am-8pm or similar, which would actually suit my body-clock, but that’s not on offer this time round. We’ll see though.
Posted: Fri 14 February, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Interviews, Work-related |
This is becoming all too common. My interview success ratio remains at 100% – in theory it should actually be higher, having had one small contract without even interviewing.
I had a phone interview with a place yesterday, which went well, and was going to be a ‘proper’ interview early next week.
However, they’ve changed their minds, and now I’m doing all the paperwork and instead starting on Monday. And yet again I find myself in the position of going to start a new contract without ever having even met any of the people I’ll be working with.
Speaking to friends and ex-colleagues about it today, I kept on getting told that I’m really lucky. But this seems to be the consistent state of things – which means it can’t just be luck. Can it?