| Denim, and the pseudo psychological reasons behind my managers being a bunch of utter pillocks |
[May. 8th, 2009|04:42 pm] |
Jeans must really affect a person’s ability to think and act in a professional manner. That’s the only conclusion I can reasonably arrive at.
My company recently instituted a dress code that precludes the wearing of jeans. No other item of clothing is specifically banned, just jeans and other clothing made from denim. What the hell is it about denim that invokes the wrath of over zealous policy makers? I am on one of the management committees of my company, and I argued strongly against the policy; why not leave it up to the discretion of the line managers, as it had previously been? Alas, my argument was overruled at a meeting that I was not even present at (because it was another committee entirely, not because I didn’t attend), so that I was not able to state my case or refute any of the feeble excuses previously put forward by the management to justify the policy. All of which led to me questioning the value of my role in the committee; if I could not influence the policy on in an area so simple yet sensitive to staff, what was the point in me being there? Eventually I decided that I could still probably do more good on the committee than off it, but it was a close thing.
So what can be the possible justification for banning jeans, and jeans alone in this brave new millennium when a pair of jeans can easily set you back as much as a pair of suit trousers? I think that the answer lies in the history of denim. Denim products were initially valued for being sturdy and hard-wearing, and so were historically used by manual labourers, something that has persisted since their adoption into popular culture in the 50s and 60s. It seems to me that the continued negative attitude towards jeans stems from their continued working class associations. Although such an attitude may not present itself conspicuously, the idea of jeans as the dress of social inferiors is still deeply ingrained in our culture, and woe betide anyone that might taint the corporate image that our company directors wish to present by wearing such an article. Seriously guys, GET THE FUCK OVER IT. These days, when a pair of designer jeans will set you back upwards of £150 (although what the difference between those and a pair obtained from Burtons for £30 might be I will never know. But that’s another rant entirely) there is no stigma in wearing denim in most social situations. God I hate pencil pushers. |
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| (no subject) |
[Feb. 19th, 2008|09:53 pm] |
Bloody 4od is being an arse again. I want to watch Skins now goddamnit!
Hmm. Maybe I am being spoiled by the advent of free on demand TV through the internet. Ain't technology grand though?
More Norwich move news; my manager is prepared to release me on the 11th March, and I should be able to take the 1st to 3rd as annual leave, which works out pretty well all things considered. Time for me to get packing! My head is positively swimming with things I need to get sorted out before I leave, not least of which is to get round to all of the Boston crew and say ta ta. Gems and I had dinner with Toppy tonight as she is off to the Philipenes on Friday, so we aren't likely to get another opportunity to see her before we move to Norwich. So much to do and so little time! Better get to it then I suppose... |
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| Valentines day and further Norwich based developments |
[Feb. 15th, 2008|12:11 am] |
Another eventful day. Is it me or does it seem that when things start happening they snowball and pick up pace and when nothing is happening you can't get anything to happen for toffee? Well, enough of pseudo-philosophical observations.
While preparing a stew for tonight I got a phone call from the Norwich team leader. He told me that he would ideally like me to start work in the first week of March, which would fit beautifully with Gems starting her job and us getting the flat. All I have to do now is get my current team leader to agree to release me for that date. Unfortunately my team leader is on annual leave at the moment, and when she gets back on Monday the Norwich guy goes on annual leave until the 26th Feb. But with a bit of luck I can push things forward and make some arrangements myself.
All this means that I am going to be very busy over the next couple of weeks not only preparing for the move but tying up all the loose ends here at work and making sure my opposite number is ready to take over doing things like the finances. To this end I have been staring at housing benefits figures all day and have come to the conclusion that a roomful of trained monkeys would be more efficient than Boston Borough Council. At least the monkeys would get it right by accident some of the time.
I had decided that I wasn't going to do anything for Valentine's day, but having had scant reason to celebrate Feb 14th in the past I decided I would make the most of the opportunity to make a fuss of it. Thus, romantic that I am I headed to Asda during my break and picked up a bottle of cheap bubbly rose and a cuddly toy. Classy ain't I? To complete my demonstration of devotion I headed to the local chinese to pick up a takeout. Gems and I had a lovely evening :-)
Oh, and Gems played me an Alanis Morrissette song with a harmonica bit in it. I said that it didn't sound too hard and she said that if I could learn to play it she would let me play the harmonica around her!!
PS To those of you (everybody I suspect) to whom that made no sense, I have been learning to play the harmonica (badly) and Gems has banned me from playing it near her, likening the sound to nails down a chalkboard. Cheers love. :) |
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| Norwich move update |
[Feb. 13th, 2008|11:28 pm] |
Bloody hell, been a while hasn't it? Thought it was probably about time that I wrote about the move to Norwich, and then started making entries on a regular basis. That way I will be able to get in closer contact with those of you I don't see often, and stay in contact with the Boston lot.
Well, the last few days things on the moving front have moved forward quite quickly. Gems and I went off to Norwich on Monday for house hunting. The first house we saw was absolutely fantastic, with a garden as large as my parent's and a large summerhouse and a workshop at the end of it.
We'd had some trouble getting viewings booked for Monday (apparently letting agents don't like working Mondays any more than anyone else) so we toodled off to Lauren's house. Gems and I ended up getting slightly smashed with Chris and Lauren with the aid of several bottles of mulled wine. Which made getting up on the frosty morning which greeted us on Tuesday all the more difficult.
We spent the rest of Tuesday looking at rental properties, none of which came close to topping the one we'd seen on Monday. Eventually, footsore and tired, we came to the conclusion that the best thing to do would be to get to the letting agent for the house we saw on Monday and apply for it as soon as possible, as it seems like rentals disappear in minutes on the Norwich market. After signing some paperwork and forking over some money (£185 for credit checks my arse, I can do it for nothing online!) they said they would talk to the landlord and then process the application within 5 working days. We got a call this morning saying the landlord had given it the thumbs up to proceed, and the checks were going through. Literally two minutes later Gems got a call from the Glass House in Norwich asking her when she could start working there. As it looks like the contract for the house will be signed on the 1st of March she agreed to start on the 3rd. So it's all go! All that remains is for me to poke St. Matthews into giving me a date for the transfer and we're set!
Norwich here we come!!! |
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| George W is in charge of nuclear weapons on British soil! |
[Jul. 16th, 2007|10:17 pm] |
Am I the only person in the world who didn't know this? That the US owns nuclear missile bases on British soil over which the British people have absolutely no fucking control?
That is absolutely crazy. I was dismayed when an utter retard like Bush was elected by the American public. I was remarkably pissed off when Blair followed Bush like a puppy into Iraq, dragging the British public into a war that we clearly opposed. I was flabbergasted when the American electorate decided to give this complete retard another term in office. He obviously hadn't made quite enough of a balls up of the world in his first few years. The American people, nothing if not fair, decided to give him another bash at it ('aww, bless, he's a little backwards. Let's give him another go'). What really frightens me to death is that this complete moron and religious maniac obviously significantly less intelligent than my king charles spaniels (which have a fondness for chasing car wheels) not only has control of a nuclear arsenal but part of this arsenal is in Britain. Allow me to reiterate, because it bears repeating; if this trigger happy goon decided to launch a nuclear strike against a target he could do so from Britain and there is nothing that we or the British government could do to intervene. I don't for one second think that this is an actual possibility, but the mere fact that it is a possibility is frightening enough. I simply can't get my head around the fact that there are nuclear weapons in Britain not under British authority! Fuck that! |
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| Update ish |
[Jul. 9th, 2007|08:42 pm] |
Ok, so about time I updated, but my life has been such a tangle recently (though not in a bad way) that I really don't know how to begin. So I'm not going to bother. Meh, linear narratives are no fun anyway.
The last couple of days I have been catching up with some old friends. It's been wonderful seeing Aimee back in Boston. I am blessed with an abundance of very special people in my life (special in the non-retarded sense), but of all of them Aimee has been there the longest, and in all fairness probably knows me best. We were at a toddlers group together, went to primary school together, lost contact for a few years and then found each other again through BYTe. Fantastic to see you my dear, and I hope we meet up again ere long!
A very surprising one was finding a Roz again. Again Roz used to be one of my closest friends, but we haven't seen much of each other since I went off to uni. But we've seen each other twice over the past couple of days and I am reminded why we were friends in the first place.
God I feel really out of touch with the wider world right now. Usually I have a far idea of what's going on both nationally and globally, but right now I ain't got a clue. It's like I've been living in my own little bubble world for the past few weeks (albeit a happy bubble world with sunshine and rainbows and cotton wool clouds). It still surprises me when people refer to Tony Blair as the former Prime Minister. May have to pop off to the BBC news page to find out what's going on. |
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| Pointless post! |
[Jun. 17th, 2007|12:21 am] |
Somewhat recovered from the emoness of my last post. Strangely though I still feel an urge to burn incense in my room and write bad blank verse about how much the world sucks by candlelight while listening to bad music (what is it emo types listen to anyway?).
Cool. I have these really powerful magnets and if I put them within about a foot of my monitor it makes pretty rainbow patterns. And then apparently if I put them too close it fucks the monitor up even when I take them away, and then I panic and think I've broken it and turn it off and then back on and then it's all good. Never give Bellys anything with any destructive potential. Although if I do have one talent it is finding the hidden destructive potential of everyday objects simply through fiddling.
There might have been a point to this post when I started, but if there was, I've forgotten it. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 15th, 2007|01:06 pm] |
I have three days off work now and no clear idea of what to do with them. I have about exhausted my tv watching capacity, having seen eight episodes of Battlestar Galactica in the past two days. I really love that show.
I could do some leatherwork, I just got some essentials from LePrevo today. Which reminds me - anyone who is any good at leatherwork I would reccommend going on to LePrevo's special offers page http://www.leprevo.co.uk/offers.html and ordering themselves a 'lucky bag' of their 'horrible' leather, a load of odd prints and colours. I got well over 100 square feet of random leather for £25, most if not all of which is usable for LARP kit. Particular highlights include 2 crocodile skin print sides, one of which is pinky grey, the other of which has a mother-of-pearl sheen to it. Great stuff for demon-skin! Ok, so shiny fire engine red armour anyone?
Somehow I don't feel much like doing any leatherwork though. I don't feel much like doing anything, truth be told. I feel a bit listless and apathetic. I was flicking through 'Sophie's World' by Jostein Gaardner the other day, and came accross a phrase that I believe is a quote of Plato, Aristotle or Socrates (one of the old Greek ones, anyway); 'the only thing we require to be good philosophers is the faculty of wonder'. I've let my faculty for wonder tarnish until the everday world seems full of banalities rather than minor miracles. How do you get the wonder back? |
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| General bitching |
[Jun. 3rd, 2007|09:55 pm] |
So I have more training on Tuesday. This is begining to take the piss a bit. Of the four or five weeks I've worked for this organisation properly I don't think there has been one shift rotation where I haven't had a training day, or an area meeting or whatever. This means that I spend about a quarter of my time doing training, which is sort of getting in the way of actually doing the job.
Damnit. I've just checked, and I have training next week as well. AAARRRRRGHHH!!!! |
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| Extra day off |
[Jun. 1st, 2007|03:18 pm] |
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Have just turned up to work only to be told to bugger off again, I'm not supposed to be in until tomorrow. Winner! Will therefore go sit in the back garden with an iced coffee (or maybe a beer) and my newly acquired Neil Gaiman book and enjoy the glorious sunshine. |
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| So, the GEF |
[May. 29th, 2007|11:53 pm] |
Well, personally I enjoyed the first event of rule 3. Nothing in particular to do with rule 3 itself (although I do love ancestral strike - wooo! enchanted! woo! woooo!) but getting in some good roleplay. Particular highlights in no real order:
1. Establishing that I am not a balance bunny by repeatedly and loudly advocating destroying the Destroyer if we could.
2. Getting chucked headfirst into armourer's guild plot within the first five seconds of joining up (and then getting to whale on some unliving on a linear).
3. Various little bits of trading and diplomacy through the weekend.
4. Getting nymphed
5. Explaining the majority of my character's history to another character for the first time since I started playing Glint three years ago.
6. A three hour long conversation about mating practices that led to me offering Midnight a practical demonstration
OOC stuff was really good as well, with the barbecue being a good laugh, learning Jamie's Daggerboyz song and dance routine, generally relaxing among friends for the first time in a while, and also passing my marshals test, although I'm sure Peter will find ways and means to make me regret that last one. The only major problem was the vicious cold. Like just about everyone else I spent Sunday absolutely shivering my nuts off and not feeling inclined to do anything that involved venturing from the relative shelter of the command tent.
Today I have been mostly tidying up and buying shoes, having destroyed the ones I brought to the GEF (i.e. the only ones I owned). Now I have two pairs of shoes. Winner. Also I have been rotting my mind with TV; was inclined to the opinion of meh about the season finale of Lost, as I have been for most of this season following the very long and decidedly ill-advised hiatus six episodes in. The massively surprising twist in the last episode was not so massively surprising. They'll have to pull their fingers out next season. Still, the 4400 starts soon. |
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| 'Teambuilding'. Hmm |
[May. 8th, 2007|11:50 pm] |
I have an area meeting tomorrow. Bizarrely it is being hosted by Butlins in Skeg. It is going to involve 'teambuilding'. I dread to think what this means. The possibilities I envision are building gigantic stacks of crates or primal screaming in the middle of Butlins. Oh well, at least it's a work day I'm missing for this shite rather than having to do it on one of my days off.
Oh! There is a new comic from that storytelling master of our time Joss Whedon - and it's a Buffy comic! Yes, I know there have been Buffy comics before, but this is Joss Whedon's vision of what season 8 of Buffy would have been if they'd ever made it. Awesome. Have ordered the first three issues from ebay, and if I weren't at work I would be busy staring at my letterbox in anticipation of their arrival. No, really, I would. I need a hobby... |
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| First days in the new job |
[May. 2nd, 2007|11:12 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | At work | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  tired | ] |
Damn, am I ever knackered. It's been a crazy few days. Where to start? Maybe from where I left off last time. As far as the campaign to save BYTe goes, nothing's happening, because according to the theatre director BYTe is not being shut down (despite what the local newspapers might be reporting) there is merely a suspension on new productions while he 'restructures' Blackfriar's finances and applies for new funding. Hmmm... I'm not sure I believe him, mostly due to inside information that suggests otherwise, but we'll see. If anyone's interested, here's what he told me:
( E-mail from the director of Blackfriars )
Yesterday was my first proper shift working over at the Boston St. Matthews house, and it was complete madness. I went in three hours early because I was meeting someone who works for St. Matthews in Spalding, Mick. Mick came to help me start sorting out the paperwork over at the Boston flats, which is in a complete state because there hasn't been anyone working in either the house or the flats other than agency staff (who of course don't know the job properly) since October last year. During this time there were residents popping in and out wanting to pay rentk, buy electric cards and sort out other things. In the end we didn't accomplish much beyond clearing a load of old and unnecessary paperwork out of the office and deciding what we needed to do to bring the paperwork up to speed. It's certainly going to be a long haul.
Then my shift actually officially started, and I had to go over to the Boston house. Now most St. Matthews housing project have both a house, and very close by (in most cases next door) a set of flats. The project worker is responsible for both the house and the flats on the days they work. So in Boston some doughnut decided that they would put the house and the flats on opposite sides of the town. In Boston. Which has the worst traffic (I exaggerate not a bit) of any town I have ever seen. On a bad day it can take 30 minutes to get from the house to the flats. I've got to get my bike fixed up...
Anyway, I went over to the Boston house and sorted out some necessary e-mails and phone calls, then ran around like a headless chicken when I realised that I had to do the shopping for the house and that I would have to cook two meals, one for that night and another for the next (today) because I knew I would be on training in Peterborough. So I did the shopping and cooked two meals, fielding phone calls in between, sorted out the menu for the rest of the week, talked to the residents, filled in some paperwork and ended up finishing my shift half an hour late.
So I rushed over to Peter's, for it was Vampire night. We didn't do much Vampire, but we did sit and chat and have curry. Well, Mike and Gemma and Peter had curry, I had samosas and then stole their leftovers. Scratting for the win! We ended up doing five minutes of Vampire, which is, incidentally, the length of time it takes to cast a mass beguile.
Then it was back to the house for the sleep-in shift, although I did very little in the way of sleeping. The house seems to have exceptionally thin walls, and I could hear just about everything going on. Of course someone decided to start pottering about at five in the morning, which really sucked. I had to be up for 7 for training anyway, and I was all ready to go for when I checked the details of the venue to get the postcode for my sat-nav. Then I realised I had to be there half an hour earlier than I originally thought.
Miraculously I encountered no slow moving farm traffic that I couldn't easily overtake and got there on time. The days training was all about the benefits system, which is more interesting than it sounds, but it was a whole lot of dense information to take in in one day, and by about 3 I had reached my caffiene plateau, that lamentable state achieved only with numerous double espressos where you have to keep drinking coffee just to maintain a semblance of alertness.
I stopped off at my house on the way back to Boston to watch the latest episode of Heroes that I finished downloading onto my computer yesterday. That show is absolutely mindblowing, it keeps getting better! I think I am going to have to watch that one again just to take it all in. Very, very cool.
Since then I have just come back to the Boston house for the sleep-over and to do some paperwork. I wonder if I'll actaully manage to get some sleep tonight?
Oh, did I mention I have to be on shift two hours early tomorrow to meet someone who is coming to sort out the finance paperwork for the house? Not that I mind too much, I'd only be dossing about in the morning anyway if I didn't have work to do. |
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| BYTing off more than I can chew |
[Apr. 29th, 2007|11:21 pm] |
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From the age of eight or nine up until I went off to uni I attended a youth theatre group in Boston called BYTe (Blackfriars Youth Theatre). It's no exageration to say that BYTe had a great deal of influence on the person I am today. More than any other place during my adolescence it was somewhere for a misfit kid to belong. I met people there who are still my nearest and dearest friends despite it being a good five or six years since we went to BYTe together. Blackfriars Arts Centre, which runs and hosts BYTe, is in financial difficulty. It's been having problems for some time, but now they have become quite severe and one of the things that they are going to be cutting in order to save money is BYTe. I don't want to let this happen, so I'm going to be writing to the theatre director and seeing if he will let me help do some fundraising on behalf of BYTe. I have been pretty enthusiastic about this idea over the last few days, formulating several possible approaches such as setting BYTe up as a charity in its own right and applying for Arts Council funding independent of Blackfriars, or running BYTe with volunteers. But today I've been having my doubts; this is out of my league. I've looked at the theory of applying for funding on behalf of charities, but I've never done it. I know a little bit about charity law, but I've never set up a charity before. I'm willing to give this a go but I don't know if the director of the theatre will even meet with me, let alone if I can solve this problem. Honestly, I feel quite intimidated by it. But at the end of the day I want the kids of Boston to have the opportunity that I did. So I'll give it a shot. I don't lose anything by trying, right? |
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| Purposively |
[Mar. 14th, 2007|12:24 am] |
There has been an odd feeling creeping over me during the last couple of days. I have an inkling that this unfamiliar sensation might be purposefulness (is this a word? If not it most certainly should be) a feeling I haven't had in the last year or so, so I can't be absolutely certain. I mostly attribute this feeling to the enjoymetn I've had writing up peoples characters for my Hunter game. Just doing something different I suppose. It's been good and long may it continue.
PS. Is 'purposefulness' a word? The OED says yes! Also 'purposively' meaning 'with a particular purpose' is a word, despite sounding like something my sister would come out with. |
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| (no subject) |
[Mar. 9th, 2007|04:21 pm] |
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Progress. On ringing up the HR lady I was told that she would be arranging for me to do some work shadowing on a casual basis at various St Matthews houses around the county. There are obviously limits to the work I can do before my CRB check comes through (no arguments there, their forst priority has to be the safety of their residents) but I should be getting some work at least and being paid a reasonable wage for it. Better than a kick in the nuts at least. |
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| (no subject) |
[Mar. 9th, 2007|12:03 am] |
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Well, I waited for this phone call today, the one that was supposed to come telling me when I could start work. And I waited, and I waited. When it got to 4.15 and the phone call hadn't come I phoned them, and the HR officer had left the office. I left a message, but I'm beginning to feel like I'm being jerked around here and I'm not liking it too much. |
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| Jobbage |
[Mar. 7th, 2007|02:04 am] |
Only a quick one, as it is late and I must start acclimatising myself to getting up at sensible times in the morning. Why? Soon I will start my shiny new job!
To cut a long story short I have been sitting around with my thumb up my ass for the last couple of months waiting for the all clear to come through from the Criminal Records Bureau so that I could start work. This morning I rang the CRB to find out what was going on with my application, and they told me (after searching several databases) that they had no record of my application for a CRB check. I rang my employer who said that they would check it out. A few hours later, after I'd managed to work myself into a tizzy thinking about spending yet another month at the very least waiting for a new CRB check to come through, the HR officer rang me back and told me that the CRB form I'd sent them was my file, not at the CRB as it should have been. The good news was that she said she'd have a word with the Boston manager and see if I could start work in anticpation of the result. She's going to ring me Thursday and let me know what's going on. Hurrah for me, for soon I shall be working!
Maybe then I can afford to get my car fixed!
Damnit. Too many exclamation marks. Don't you hate it when people do that ?!?! |
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