If Music Be

Archive for January, 2009

Today I am feeling…really, really tired. Physically shattered. Thank goodness I have the day off tomorrow

This week…I have made house decisions and am awaiting paperwork

By next week…I will have paid a lot of money out

Did you know…On this day in 1845 – The Raven, a narrative poem by poet Edgar Allan Poe about a talking raven’s mysterious visit to a distraught lover, was first published in the New York Evening Mirror.

Miscellaneous other things include…my bloody office plants keep dying

Search Terms of the week this week are…shameless plug, Obama at the inauguration, children swearing, da204 trio

Blog of the week is Catwalk Queen

and Finally

Among the most spectacular communal events are the dragon and lion dances which are performed to the sound of gongs and drums as they parade through the streets and reach up to take red money packets and fruit and vegetables which are hung from shops in the hope of good fortune. The celebrations end with the Lantern Festival when, traditionally, children parade through the streets with lighted lanterns.

Thanks to Celtic Buffy for turning me on to this site from which I found I am an Earth Horse. Here’s what that means for me:

Horse people have a balance of the best kind of qualities. Have you ever seen a wild horse on the beach, with flying mane and flaring nostrils, every muscle bursting with life and je ne sais quois? Without a doubt, the Horse is the standard for grace, strength, rhythm and nobility. They have an amazing capacity for hard work. As a result, they know great success and financial security in their lifetimes. Often quite ostentatious, they enjoy being with large crowds and always seek out the grand and magnificent. They need people and have a weakness for those of the opposite sex. You can often find Horses at concerts, music festivals, and the Super Bowls of life.

With head held high, the mighty Earth Horse never has to apologize, never has the pangs of a guilty conscience gnawing away the very soul. The life of the Earth Horse passes all scrutiny. Earth Horses are elegant, spirited, and adventurous creatures. Poetry in motion! Earth Horses are among the most generous and caring of friends, tolerant of their friends’ shortcomings, never judging, never showing cynicism. They blend the right balance of sympathy and empathy. As faithful and unwavering as the Horses are in their devotion to friends, it is important to tell you that they are never weaklings or martyrs. Their inherent dignity and pride demand honor and admiration. Earth Horses appreciate the good things of life and because of their dedication to their careers, have the financial resources to keep life on a steady keel. When it comes to Love & Relationships, life for the Earth Horse is exceedingly sad and dreary without love. The Earth Horse will go the extra length to please their partners. They love wild and romantic weekends and traditional whisperings of sweet nothings. They pass a happy life, their blood coursing with life bursting cadence.

Famous Horse People: Duke of Windsor, Princess Margaret, Billy Graham, Igor Stravinsky, Bertrand Russell, Joseph Haydn, Barbra Streisand, Nelson Mandela, Anwar Sadat, Neil Armstrong

*****

I would love to think this is me, I certainly recognise a lot of the qualities I would like to think I had.

Tell me what your sign is and if you think it’s accurate…please x

Saturday dawned bright and clear. I threw myself into the car and chucked myself down the motorway to the STB’s house. We were off out for the day to visit Warwick Castle (to save you looking if you don’t know here’s what Wiki says about it).

Warwick Castle is a medieval shell keep castle in Warwick, the county town of Warwickshire, England. It sits on a cliff overlooking a bend in the River Avon. Warwick Castle was built by William the Conqueror in 1068 within or adjacent to Anglo-Saxon burh of Warwick. It was used as a fortification until the early 17th century, when Sir Fulke Greville converted it to a country house. It was owned by the Greville family, who became earls of Warwick in 1759, until 1978.
From 1088, the castle traditionally belonged to the Earl of Warwick, and it served as a symbol of his power. The castle was taken in 1153 by Henry of Anjou, later Henry II, when the Countess of Warwick was tricked into handing over the castle. It was again briefly lost in 1264, following a surprise attack during the Second Barons’ War. It has been used to hold prisoners, including some from the Battle of Poitiers in the 14th century. Under the ownership of Richard Neville – also known as “Warwick the Kingmaker” – Warwick Castle was used in the 15th century to imprison the English king, Edward IV. Warwick Castle has been compared with Windsor Castle in terms of scale, cost, and status.
Since its construction in the 11th century, the castle has undergone structural changes with additions of towers and redesigned residential buildings. Originally a wooden motte-and-bailey, it was rebuilt as a stone shell keep in the 12th century. Repairs were necessary at various times due to slighting in battle and general decay. When Fulke Greville gained ownership in 1604, the castle was in ruins; he spent £20,000 (about £3,000,000 or $6,000,000 in 2007) on restoration work. In the 17th century the grounds were turned into a garden. Warwick Castle was purchased by The Tussauds Group in 1978 and opened as a tourist attraction. It is protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument and a Grade I listed building. The castle is a popular tourist attraction and features one of the world’s largest siege engines. It is the subject of several paintings and drawings by the 18th-century Italian master Antonio Canaletto

It was a lovely day, even though we went in winter when there was less taking place than in the holiday season, we still found lots to see and do. Because the weather was nice we spent a while sitting on one of the benches overlooking the river, chatting inconsequentially about the world and things. The evening was spent eating and chatting and generally relaxing in front of the TV before an early night and lots of sleep.
Yesterday I came home again and did the usually weekend chores, shopping and cleaning before watching the opening episodes of the new season of Supernatural. All in all a lovely weekend and a happy and relaxed me…until I got to work today of course and found out that the offsider is even more unprofessional than I thought before. More on that when I have a resolution to tell you about

No weight loss this week but 5 gym visits (6 if you include today) so i’m no bothered. My clothes are already fitting better again and i’m really pleased with progress.

OBviously i would have liked a bigger loss but it can’t be helped.

I know I know, it’s been 2 days and I promised an update on what’s bugging me at work.

Better late than never though I suppose.

I’ve talked about my work situation many times (click the ‘work’ category if you want to read them all) but here’s a quick recap.

Last summer the offsider decided he was bored working where he was and took an opportunity to move to a different part of the organisation. This opportunity included a 3 week fully paid training course in Reading to enable him to work on the new project/department.

That left me running my application solo, which was fine with me. I got a fair amount of changes made, got things running efficiently with who does what etc and everything was ticking over fine.

Then after about 2 months of half and half working (which he wasn’t actually doing, he was just staying in my office and reading the internet all day) the offsider decided that he wanted to come back to my application full time because he didn’t like the other place (he told me it was because no-one talked to him or made his coffee).

(ok that was a bit of a long recap but keeping you up to speed and all that, here’s the new developments)

December rolls around and he officially gets moved into my team so for the first time in the 15 months I have worked here we have the same manager.

He asks for and is given no work from me. Suddenly he’s always ‘busy’ and going off to meetings that I don’t get told about. He’s taking work on from customers without it going through the right processes. He sends me (grudgingly) a report for management every week that lists ‘achievements and accolades’. Basically it’s a list of people who work was completed for in the week.

The first 2 weeks of this he is sending me information about things I had no idea he was doing, and should have been involved in. then he starts going out to meetings I know nothing about. I tell my manager who is well aware of the issues and he calls a meeting.

Trying to make it subtle we discuss logging all work, being transparent, knowing where each other are, being able to provide cover. Things seem to be looking up a little as the next day he tells me he’s going to a meeting (although doesn’t tell me what happened or what it was about).

My manager speaks to me about workload and knowing who’s doing what and I advise him to speak to our project manager about the increasing work load that is going to happen in the next 2.5 months.

Yesterday he takes a day off because he can’t get a babysitter for his daughter and my manager approaches me to let me know that out Ops Manager needs someone to go over to the department that the offsider trained for and didn’t like. So about 20 minutes ago, off he went. I asked him as he was leaving how long it was for and was told ‘indefinitely but I’ll be back as soon as I can be’

Karma is a BITCH!