Another weekend over...

Well that's another weekend almost over with again, where does the time go? Managed to get out and do the lawns again, a necessary but rather irritating chore as I hate gardening. It's been pretty wet lately at the weekends and I don't need much of an excuse not to get out there but the downside is with all the rain the damn grass grows for England and so when I do finally get out there it involves more traipsing back and forth to the wheelie bin to empty the grass collector. Still it's done now and I feel better for knowing it'll look passable for another couple of weeks!

After doing the indoor chores like washing and ordering this month's provisions I've finally updated the website with some holiday snaps from LAST year - yeah I know how lazy am I and some other odds and sods. Thought as this year's summer break is looming I had better post some photos of last year's excursion to Ilfracombe. This year we're going stay home and go out for days given that we are hosting a 21st birthday bash for Julia this Autumn. Besides there are some great places locally to visit that we still haven't been to since Julia passed her driving test so now's the time to do that and James is coming out with us again this year and now he also has a set of wheels to his name they can share the driving! I've collected a whole handful of leaflets from the stand at work and so all we need to do is compile a list of places to visit, Groombridge Place Gardens being fairly near the top of that list as Julia and I used to go on the bus when she was younger and so it will be nice to go under our own steam so to speak. Knowing what the weather is usually like over our summer breaks we need to have some indoor plan B's at the ready and I'd like to visit a garden or two just for the sheer pleasure of snapping some wonderful foliage. We've booked a weekend away to visit Longleat Safari Park too and right at the start of our break falls the Kent County Show which I just love so that will be a good way to kick off :-)

Easter Break.

The first break of the year over and done with, gone before you can say Jack Robinson. It was good to be away from work not that we did anything special other than watch all the Harry Potter DVD's and get Julia's car fixed. This time was the water pump so my purse is a little lighter for that though not as expensive as some of the other work, it's been costing us a small fortune so far this year :-( Back at work today and counting down to the next bank holiday weekend. That'll be the May Bank Holiday and we've tickets to the Grand Design exhibition so that should be good. Julia is an avid fan of the tv series so thought we'd check it out as we got an offer on the ticket price from the ideal home exhibition. Might even do the Christmas ideal home exhibition later in the year. Julia is still off uni this week, wish I could've stayed home given that several people are on leave this week so its pretty quiet here in Paradise. And the suns reappeared now that we're back in the office. Typical!

Appraisals, love 'em or hate 'em?

Appraisals, performance reviews, call them what you like, everyone has an opinion on whether they are worthwhile or not. Brought into companies as part of the investors in people scheme which seems to have been created to give employees a warm fuzzy feeling that their welfare is important, the appraisal is either friend or foe. I probably had my first review back in the dim and distant late eighties, early nineties and I failed to find them useful then. They were few and far between and seemed like a tick in the box affair and to my mind nothing has changed since apart from them being more prolific now than ever. For those people who have a career path in mind and want to plot progress and need training and perhaps mentoring and support to get there then they certainly have value. But I'm one of a number of people who just want to do their job with the minimum of fuss, and collect their monthly pay check. How can generating objectives and training for the sake of filling these things in really help me to do my job better? Trouble is they seem to be here to stay so unless I wanna get all stressed out about it then I'm gonna have to bite the bullet and accept that they are part of my working environment. Not an easy task for the non believer in me ;-)

All work and no play

... makes Jack a dull boy as the saying goes. Julia had the day off uni yesterday as her lecturer is ill. Wish I was given the odd day off work for free! Seems like all I do lately is get up, go to work, come home, then dinner, bed and start all over again the next day. Talk about feeling as though one were on a treadmill. Apart from about 8 months when Julia was first born I've been at work and probably like most people I'm sick of the monotony. I find myself longing for the future days of retirement when time will truly be my own, or looking back at the best of my CTS days when work was more bearable and I at least felt like one of the team. Working in a big company sometimes feels as though you've got lost in the noise. Yes there's anonymity to a degree but equally no sense of belonging, of being part of something. Think I should look at persuading someone to pay me to stay home, now that really would be a job worth having!

Snow, crap, snow!

After about 5" snow falling last night I'm hoping against hope that it doesn't hang around all week as the aircon at work has now suffered a major failure :-( It's being fixed as of tomorrow which is better than I expected as thought they would be still getting quotes in, but it'll take 4-5 weeks apparently so not the best thing when it's freezing cold outside and snow everywhere. Stayed in the warm today as I'll have to brave it tomorrow, if I'm lucky enough the bus might still be running, if not it'll be shankies pony all the way with my trekking poles and wellies :-( much to the amusement of the security guards who'll no doubt take the mickey when they see me tomorrow! Couldn't be asked to go out and take photos so snapped a few from the bedroom window and the backdoor, the kids have been sledging all day over the fields though secretly I think the adults had the most fun ;-) them and the dogs enjoying their daily walk in the snow. Some little westie type had to practically leap across the snow as it was up to his little legs bless him! Pity I can't swing a duvet week next week, be good not to be under pressure to get in, I hate worrying about falling over, might have to see what time the bus runs back again assuming that it's running at all into the estate. Definitely should have invested in the spike snow shoes that you see everywhere. At this rate I can't wait for summer to come!

Frozen Paradise

What is it about firms that they buy the cheapest aircon they can lay their grubby little mits on then expect it to work reliably and maintain an ambient temperature all year round. You've guessed it, the office is cold once again, and I'm talking really cold this time. First thing and it's barely above 16°C and is not likely to rise much above 19°C by home time. Funny how it don't fall below the minimum working temperature - not. I mean who else has to wear 2 vests, a long sleeved t-shirt, cardigan and a fleece waistcoat plus leggings under their trousers just to have a fighting chance of keeping warm in the office ;-)