Brushing off cobwebs...

Oh my word. A year and a half has passed since my last blog post. I'm not going to rattle on about what's happened in that time, suffice to say I moved in with the wonderful Richard last year and we're bloomin' marvellous. :D

In more timely news, I've made a new year's resolution in response to the increasingly apparent fact that I HAVE TOO MUCH STUFF. I've always known this, but in my post-Christmas sales binge I realised that I had run out of space to store the beautiful things that I'd bought. Therefore I decided to get rid of more stuff and buy less by making the following resolution.

I hereby promise that for every item of clothing I buy in the year 2009 I will have to have thrown out, sold or given away THREE garments.

There, I've announced it on the interwebs - I've got to stick to it! And there are some provisos too, I must dispose of the outgoing items BEFORE receiving anything new, single socks don't count as a garment, etc. I think I might set out the full rules in a separate post in the near future, but until then... Wish me luck!

New Home, New Start

As I mentioned in an earlier blog entry, I'd found a potential new flat in the block next-door to my old one. All went fine with the sign up and I got the keys on the 16th of May, but it took me a bit of time to move in. This was partly due to the fact I only had a camping mattress and fold-up chair as furniture, which, combined with the bare walls and scant possessions made it feel immensely depressing.

Last weekend however I got a sofa and a bed moved in so I'm now living there properly and it's going well. I've not *quite* moved out all my rubbish from the old flat, and in some cases it's difficult to remember what's mine and what's Dan's, but we're getting there. I got a bit emotional last night about the whole thing, sat in our old kitchen which I was attempting to clear at 11.30 at night. I think I was mainly exhausted and hungry (I'd not had time to make myself any dinner) but it certainly felt very sad and somewhat lonely too.

However, looking to the positives, I'm in a lovely flat, planning what to put where and sorting through a whole load of belongings that I've not touched in ages. I'm planning a big clear out soon, so charity shops and car boots everywhere should watch out! Hopefully sorting my possessions should also give me a bit of an emotional clear out too. We'll see.

Anyway, here for your perusal are some pictures of my lovely new flat taken by the letting agent. Don't worry, it's looking slightly less bare now! Keep an ear to the ground for housewarming type events too :)

Living room

Kitchen

Bedroom

Election Frustration

How the hell am I supposed to make an informed decision about who to vote for in our local council elections when I've had ONE piece of post from a political party this year? I have 6 candidates to chose from, Labour (current councillor), LibDem (runner up last time), Conservative, Green, AGS and *spits* BNP, and only one of them has bothered to make any contact with me.

A cursory search on the Internet for information about each of the candidates or the parties plans for my area has been so frustrating I had to rant about it here to let off steam. I've even got to the point where I'm thinking of going round to each of their houses and demanding that they explain themselves to me. That'd be interesting. Maybe I could get a TV crew to film it... hmmm...

Anyway, my gold start for effort goes to the AGS (Alliance for Green Socialism), who were the only party to put a flyer through my door and are certainly the most visible presence in the area, putting up little signs on sticks on all the grass verges they can find. I can't help but think that this isn't very green-minded, but I imagine the sticks were from replanted forests, the card was recycled and they were all printed with vegetable based inks ;)

So, rant over, but I'm still left with no idea who to vote for.

Not on "The Other Side" yet...

... but I'm slowly sorting things out.

I know some of you roughly guessed what has happened and thanks to y'all for being so patient with me. For those that I haven't managed to speak to in person, my cryptic message was to do with Dan and I splitting up. I'm not going to go into why and how, but I'm pretty sure I made the right decision and although we're still friends it's been a tough few weeks.

However now things are getting on track, especially now I've found a flat (almost next door to where I am now) and am in the first stages of signing up for it. I think if it all goes to plan it'll be my first proper step of moving on.

I'll let you know how it's going.

*Quiet Time*

I'm not going to be quite myself for a bit. Please will you leave me to it, I'll come round in my own sweet time. No questions, no "OMG are you alright?" alarmist texts... Thanks.

All I keep thinking is that if it was the right thing to do, why does it hurt so much?

See you on the other side.

My new job

I know I should go on about how much I'm enjoying my new job, not least because that *is* what I'm doing, however I'm motivated to write today for the opposite reason. I'm several weeks in now and today has been the worse one yet. This is not to say that I want to give up and go back to Help Desk, just that today has been especially difficult. There are several reasons for this.

• We had a break in. Well, 2 windows were smashed in our training rooms, meaning I had to deal with Estates and Security as well as a unsolicited visit from my line manager 3 levels up who wanted to see what all the fuss was about. All this on top of the day-to-day course bookings and admin to do, such as...
• Rescheduling a course because one of our trainers wanted to go to the funeral of a collegue. All fair enough, but trying to rearrange the course for another date was SO frustrating, mainly down to one woman who "didn't work afternoons" and "was on annual leave" on every other bloomin' day I suggested. I gave up in the end and have resolved to get onto it tomorrow morning. However...
• Tomorrow is the Suppliers Exhibition for which we have to provide both a poster and handouts to promote our warez (intentional spelling - no letters please). The former had been left with a member of the Media Services graphics team who had gone on holiday so I had to correct the fault myself and pester the print team to get me a proof and print it in time for the exhibition. As for the latter I had to muddle something together from various sources and get it approved by my boss, which wasn't easy because...
• My boss has been off all day, which is great for him, but when there's no one to run things by and you're in the office on your own, you can feel a bit lost.

The final reason why today has been tough is because I'm ill. I've a cold and have generated a whole load of aches and pains as a result of going to a "Hat Night" party at Terrence's on Saturday. It was a good party, but the drink and the insufficient sleep that made it good have made me feel physically and mentally sluggish today.

However despite all these trials and tribulations of a hard day at work, I feel like I have actually made a contribution to the workplace in a way that I didn't most days on Help Desk. I suppose that is the ultimate difference between my new and old workplace. Whereas before I got on with my job and got my buzz from who I worked with, now I get a buzz from the challenges I get doing my job. I will always miss the Help Desk boys and the times my face ached from laughing so much, but that wasn't going to last for ever as people move on and times change.

So, in sum, I'm enjoying my job, but today was a bitch :)

P.S. Got my Glastonbury ticket confirmation through! Sunday morning at Terrence's involved quite a bit of RSI from pressing refresh and redial keys, but eventually we got them all. Sold out in 90 minutes, but I could have told them that.

All new...

So, here we are in the new Google Blogger. Looks pretty similar, just a few additional features are evident so far.

Anyway, to test, here's couple of photos of things that happened this month.

Maxine's birthday in Bourbon.

The Massive night out in Cheltenham (Accommodation courtesy of Siy).

Any other news? Oh yeah! I went for 2 interviews this month, both in ISS. The first (Help Desk Senior person) I didn't get, but on reflection I'm glad Fred got it, as I was then able to get the second one, in the Training team. So, from next week I'll be in the ISS Training Support Officer with my own phone number, projects and, more importantly, my own desk! I can't wait!

So, new job and a new Google blog... I wonder what else might change?

[edited to make pics work]

End of an Era

Jeez, is there nothing safe from the unstoppable force that is Google?

As much as I see them as being a rather jolly bunch of characters, the more stuff they start taking over, the less wholesome they feel. There is some part of me that can't get away from the notion that power corrupts.

Anyway, I hope they continue to be a nice fluffy company that wants to make useful and good quality resources for the good of the universe. Especially as I'm about upgrade my Blogger account to their Googley alternative.

So it's goodbye for now. I'll see you on the other side...