Nice Sofas and carpet

Well private is a bit different!

The Friday appointment with the consultant went smoothly and quickly. The place was very nice and we didn't have the hour wait like the NHS version. I even think the weather was nicer.

So he gave me the full physical again, basically bending my knee at funny angles until either it went click or started hurting. He said that its definitely a big tear to the cartilage and maybe some damage to the ligament. That means the cartilage is worst than we thought and the ACL is probably better.

The result of all this is two operations; one to cut out the cartilage and then much later one to fix the ligament.

So we fixed up a date for the first op. I will be going to the BUPA Hospital in Harpenden on the 4Th June.

It will be a day case, so no stay over night, but I will get a general anaesthetic while they do the op, which will be keyhole. This should reduce the pain and make the knee move more freely, rather than it locking up and not straightening completely, as it currently does.

I will be out of action for a couple of weeks, afterwards, while the bruising heals. This means that I'm probably going to miss uSwitch's move to the new offices. Hopefully the problems and the chaos will have died down by the time I get back (yeah right).

Ring-a-Round and the NHS side step

I've gone private

Took a bit of phoning around to different secretaries in different hospitals, but I've got an appointment to see Mr Kitson, the consultant, this Friday at 4pm.

It at the same hospital, just a different wing. It had to be the same hospital because though a little slight of hand the records from the scan are available only if you stay at the hospital. It seems that the NHS don't allow you to transfer your records to a private hospital and make you go through the whole process again. Fortunately we may be able to get around this as I'm not moving hospital, just moving within the hospital.

It's call the Elizabeth House wing and according to the official NHS map its just around the back.

So hopefully things will start moving very fast and I will be sort real soon

Meniscus Tear, er that will be bad news then.

Bad news


This whole being injured thing is a very frustrating business I've been putting up with a wobbly knee for about five months now and I just want to be able to walk a bit faster.
The visit was quite frustrating as well with a long wait of over an hour and then about a three minute talk before it was all over again. Many thanks to my Mum for driving me there and waiting with me.


The doctor said that the MRI was inconclusive about the ACL, but showed that there is a meniscus tear Apparently this is the pad between the bones that acts like a shock absorber
He said that I should have a bit of keyhole surgery to cut out the bad bit of the cartilage and so they can put in a camera to have a look at the rest of the knee and work out what state the ACL is in

so I will have to have two lots of surgery and so two lots of recovery.

Checking on the web once I got home, about a meniscus tear, a site said they normally cut out the torn bit as there is no blood flow to that area so no chance of it healing.

So the doctor says we should get me in for an operation. I told him I've sort out some private cover when he started talking about getting me in for the surgery. he gave me the business card of the lead consultant for the clinic a Mr Kitson and said I should ring the number on the card and book an appointment to see him. At which point that ended the NHS' involvement in the process and with it the meeting, he wished me good luck.

back home and I call the number on the card and unsurprisingly I get the answerphone.
so its stop start again as I said very frustrating...

Uncle duties

Great news !

I got a phone call, while at work, from my sister, Claire.
She rang to say I will be wanted for my Uncle duties around about the 25Th Nov as she expecting again

Congratulations to Claire and Ed.
Brilliant News...

Finally!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I got a text this morning from my Mum saying that a letter had arrived from the hospital. Hurrah! so rather than wait until the evening, I rang home and Mum read it out.

I'm off to hospital next monday morning, hopefully to finally find out the damage and some idea of what it will take to get my leg fixed.

Still waiting

Come on, Come on, Come on

Nope still nothing in the post from the NHS, apart from a request for blood. I've got my private medical all sorted, I've even got a card to say I'm a member. All that I need to do now is tell the doctor... So I'm waiting and waiting for the next appointment so I can find out the results of the scan and get some fixin'.

The knee isn't too bad at the moment and I can walk around reasonable well at the minute without my stick. and apart from the odd bit of swelling and locking up it will behave itself so long as I don't try to run or turn quickly.

Oh but I can go biking. Which is great because the weather is good and Watton at Stone is a great place to cycle around with lots of bridleways and country roads.

Insurance final payment

another £959.15 which is a bit closer to what I figured was right

So I got some more money for the Insurance company but in the accompanying letter they said that the calculation for me was correct and that Jason's was wrong. That would make it so that most of the money would have been in the 150 pounds limit and so I would have got next to nothing, making the policy completely unsuitable for the trip. They couldn't really ask Jason for some of the money back so in stead the paid me using the same calculations. so we differ in our payments only due to the cost of the medical bills.

I think the insurance company was completely wrong to promote this policy as suitable for any kind for trip where injury is a possibility. The only thing is had going for it in the end was if the trip got cancelled for any reason, then I would have got a full refund.

I guess that this latest amount is the best I'm going to get out of them without recourse to the law and all I can really do now is make sure no one else has to have this problem.

So I'm going to write Alan at Crystal with the results and suggest to him that they really should not use towergate chase parkinson in future or at least use that policy for that trip.

A bit of Stick

We have just had a pool night at work.



I'm not the greatest player on the planet as was demonstrated by my need not to play any further games after the first round.

During the night and as I've noticed more since, quite a few people have complemented me on my wide range of walking sticks. Trouble is though, I've only got two so I'm not sure what's going on.

One is my Mums (A simple wood stick with a easily gripped handle) from when she injured her leg a while ago. The other is my Dad's from Austria, from when injured his foot on some coral on the Great Barrier Reef, it black wood with lots of cool carvings on it (very voodoo/mojo).

Still I suppose its a talking point and I'm getting a little fed up with the question 'So how long will you be needing the stick for?', as I've still now word from the doctors about my scan results!

Scan Friday

You wouldn't believe how hard it is to stay completely still for twenty minutes!

Friday was my Scan, at long last. So off I went to the MRI department of the same hospital as last time.

When you get there you put all your stuff and valuables into a locker with a metal key! which I had to leave in the lock... as you can't take anything metal into the room!
The machine is a huge (10ft high) cylinder and you lie on a little tray which rises to about 5 feet off the ground, which is a bit high when your leg is tied down, and slides in and out of the machine. I looked like I was in an iron lung with just my head sticking out of one end of the machine.

For the exam you have to stay completely still, otherwise the image it produces is blurred and you have to stay that way for about 20 minutes which so hard. First you lie there and think about moving and then you think about not moving and you get tense. So you have to think about not being tense as that's moving too and you go in circles in you mind;

don't think about moving, think about something else, keep still, don't start laughing, OK think of something serious so you don't laugh, oh no now your tensing up, relax so you don't move, don't think about moving....arrggh!

Another thing I wasn't prepared for was the noise. the 20 minutes it takes is broken down into 2:45-3min chunks or very loud banging and buzzing as the machine works and so you have to wear noise protection.

The hospital was fine, if typical in its confusing amount of corridors and staircases. The staircases featured a lot of rope and netting I guess to stop anymore trying to top themselves. The Psychiatry department is probably on the top floor.

The only thing really annoying about the whole experience was that I won't know the results until I have another meeting with the consultant so I'm waiting for another letter in the post.

3 Times - there and back

A nice sunny Easter weekend. I managed to go out cycling three times. Once around the village, once up onto the ridge to the north, well small hill, and once across to the next village Datchworth via our church.

Very Healthy, and fine so long as I don't need to put my left foot down.

Although I'm a bit sore now! might have to buy a softer seat!!

New Bike

for my knee you understand.

as part of the cycle2work thing I spent my 350 quid voucher at Halfords, not the most helpful people on the planet, and got a mountain bike.

its a GT Aggressor XC.3 I think, well its a hardtail, has shimarno (er!) breaks and its blue! for 299.99 GBP

I also, because it was the Easter weekend, got 50 quids won't of extras thrown in which was every nice. So I got the bike, a BIG lock (weights about half as much as the bike!), lights, some bike clip thingies (suggested by my Dad who knows heaps about cycling) and a suitably odd looking helmet.

So I'm all kitted out for the easter weekend

End of an era

No more Reno or Craig at work

It was a case of a couple of speeches, some silly presents and the usual trip downstairs for a large amount of beer.

Other traditions were held including a caption competition (were a picture (or two in this case) of a person is doctored and a funny caption added and everyone submits them and then they are all voted on by email). I've never actually won this event (we used to do it most Fridays) but I did manage to come third this time.

This of course happened on Thursday due to it being Easter weekend.

No more Julian either, he left a few days earlier quietly with little fuss.

They're back!

From Canada all safe and well. Except, of course, the ones that are staying out there. The word from Bryn is that its been a very successful trip with a pass mark for the level two exam of around 90%.

I'm very glad for them but also a little sad and envious that I wasn't there as well.
Hopefully there's always next year...

£612.95 and the Departure Lounge

No not the final amount for the Comic Relief shave-a-thon (that was around 400 quid if John A ever gets around to collecting it). Its the cost of 4 tickets to this years Leeds music festival.

By a lot of luck I managed to get four tickets (Russ,Vicki,Nick and Myself) after we had given up all hope. All the websites where saying they had all run out. Russ had been trying the night before but they were all overloaded. So we thought it was going to be like last year with the tickets going before you have any real chance to get them. But fortunately I tried again just before lunch time and one of the sites let me thru and buy some.

So far its an interesting line up and should be good

Carling Weekend: Leeds Festival line-up August 24 and 26

Friday, August 24

The Smashing Pumpkins
NIN
Lostprophets
Fall Out Boy
Funeral For A Friend
+44
Klaxons

Saturday, August 25

Razorlight
Kings Of Leon
Interpol
Maximo Park
Ash

Sunday, 26 August

Red Hot Chilli Peppers
Arcade Fire
Bloc Party
Panic! At The Disco
Angels And Airwaves
The View
We Are Scientists

In other news the Company Departure Lounge, what we call it when someone has resigned and is on their notice period, got two shock arrivals.

Reno, who you may remember as the one who bust his arm boarding and Craig the Lord of Dark things musical and Tech support.

Reno is off to a Mortgage company who look after their DBAs (his job) better than here.

Craig on the other hand is one of the handful of original company employees and as such did quite well out of the parent company buying the company and so has decided he can't be bothered working any more and is going off to travel and write scary music.

It's no understatement to say that this place won't be the same without them.

Rose Nose Day

Poor old Simon, one of our Tech guys, Simon has had long hair for four plus years got into a drunken conversation a couple of nights ago and was convinced to have his head shaved for Comic Relief. A major whip round has developed in the office and I think the total is about 905 pounds so far. I think the aim is for about 2500 but its still a good amount of money. I'm giving a half a ton, partly cos it's a good cause and partly cos he does need it cutting! We got the bar downstairs to host the event and even got the company to put something towards it. So it looks like it will be quite a messy night tonight probably all end up on YouTube at some point.

Cash in hand, cash in bank

Well I put the cheque for the amount I did have into the bank so I can at least pay off some of the loan.
Just had a call from Alan he's talked to the insurance company and they said they would compare my claim with Jasons and get back to him. I'm not in any rush but I would like it sorted at some point.

Also its the last day to put my uFlex benefits. I'm going for Private Medical, Personal Pension, Season Ticket loan and the Cycle to work scheme.

The Season ticket loan is after tax, and quite large (plus three grand) as I'm travelling in to London from my Parent's, but interest free.

The Personal Pension is pretty much a continuation of the 8% contribution the company was paying into my scheme before all this flexible stuff started. The two main differences are its paid monthly so if you quit you don't lose back to the last six month payment and two I'm putting extra 3% which will replace the additional payments I was making from my bank account. The advantage of this is that I save the National Insurance Contributions and don't have to do extra paper work to get the tax back.

The Cycle to work scheme lets you save the tax and NI but you have to buy a bike. I my case, with my knee, this isn't as mad an idea as it seems.The knee is fairly stable now and the motion of riding a bike is fairly straight and won't stress the knee too much. And I have to do some exercise because I'm doing zero at the moment. It seems actually to be a bit of a shock to the system, if you suddenly stop being very active (like stop ski every day) you're body can't work out its energy levels very well and it can play havoc with your sleep patterns.

Lunch with a Friend

Jason looks a lot better
he's had the surgery and so has been out of it on drugs for the last couple of days. we had lunch today at Noodle Noodle near Victoria station (good food, big portions). He got his insurance claim but it was for a larger amount that I got around 4500 so I've got to have a word with the Insurance company cos that can't be right, its more that I got and I came back first!

A uFlex update as we are part of a group scheme I can join the Health plan without having to be excluded because of my knee. So I will be able to claim for my treatments. WOW

Welcome back to Customisation

Well its my baby

The Customisation part of uSwitch's system (the part of our website that decides which images and colours to put on our web pages) is has been running fairly trouble free while I've been away, now I'm back its been decided that there were some things that need fixing. So I've been given the tasks of making improvements, well I did help write it in the first place.

I think it was more of a case of them ignoring the issues and hoping I would come back and fix them. It's a bit complicated and I think it scares them.

Actually there is some talk about getting a proper content management system to help with the company's expansion into new countries, so like most things that I every seem to do in the IT business, the work I'm doing may well be binned in a couple of months.

Good News / Bad News (Again!!)

Monday I received some post from Canada and West Byfleet

The tax refund claim for about 60 dollars was successful and I got a cheque in pounds from the Canadian government. Nice!
This was the tax I paid on my skis, poles and helmet.

Also in the post I got a cheque from my Insurance company. However this wasn't as happily accepted.

The Insurance company decided to pay the medical costs in full, including the taxis that I submitted receipts for. They also paid pro-rata for the food, accommodation and flights that I didn't use.

However the Course Fees, Lift Pass, Exam Fees, Heliskiing Trip and Avalanche Course were all included in a section called Inability to Ski. This section has a maximum limit 150 pounds. So this is how much that they offered.

It's a good 2 grand short of what I was expecting.

So I connected Crystal, as it is actually the insurance which is sold with the course and suggested that it isn't right. It looks like they are treating the trip as a simple winter holiday rather than a expensive course.

Now I paid 460 pounds for this Insurance and I would expect it to course slightly more than a normal policy. So Alan at Crystal (Who was very helpful when I had the accident and was sorting out the claim) said if I send him a copy of the letter he would look into it.

so fingers crossed!

otherwise I may have to take Jason's advice and start talking to lawyers.

BTW Jason is in hospital now getting his arm fixed, so good luck to him.

uFlex and the P45

Yeap sure sign I'm back at work the level of important bits of paper increase.

For some reason the HR department send me my P45 to the flat, so first job on Friday was to return part B (the bit you give to your new employer) to the person who had put it into the post in the first place!

Also now I'm back and I don't have to do a probation period I get to join the new flexible benefits package. It still doesn't look like they do sabbaticals, not that I have to do anything about that until this November/December. It's all run from a website call youatwork.co.uk, but it's not working for me so I've no idea what it includes. what I do know is it has a good range of discounts as I'm registered on that site through the University of Leeds. Hopefully I can register twice! or something.

Back to school

It's a slightly strange feeling to be back at work. Just the same as when I went away, well it's only been two months, but some things are completely different.

Some new faces and a few missing friends.

I made quite an entry to the office with a bit of a cheer, a lot of hand shaking and people meerkatting up from behind their monitors all the way down the office.

There are changes to the teams including a new one dedicated to improving the number of customers who complete the energy switching process (I've started calling this project Panic). This is in response to the price cuts in the domestic fuel market which have caused the number of people switching suppliers, and hence our profit, to drop.

I wasn't the only person to be injured apart from Reno who I knew about, he showed me a very impressive Xray pic. There was also Barry (the Marketing director) who has done a similar thing to me but also the other ligaments around the outside and the protective cartilage between the bones. He's going private so should be back on his feet (sorry) in a couple of months.

I must have answered the questions 'What did you do', 'Where you skiing' and 'How long will you be like that, over 30 times. It's nice to get the attention and that everyone cares but...

Also the ever inventive members of the department came up with a huge range of jokes along the lines of; hop-a-long, old man with walking stick, pipes and slippers and the dangers of skiing.

KNEE (MRI) SCAN

I got the letter, I got the letter !!!

oh Friday the 13th April that's not for ages... damn!

well at the least I can now do a bit of planning and book the day off work.

First Class Stamp

Knocked together a CD for Jason who's still in a bit of pain, of all the videos he took while we were in Canada. I posted it off and at the same time post my insurance claim forms.

The process of posting a letter is quite fun at the moment, we go up to the post office anyway to get the newspaper. But its quite the little expedition as my Mum looks after my niece Ivy during the day and so we all go out together. Ivy on her tricycle being pushed by my Mum and me following behind with my walking stick.

Got some news from Canada everyone passed the teaching part of the level one exam. However three; Andy, Jess and Laurie have to retake the skiing/boarding part. So that's mostly great news, 30 odd new qualified instructors with the others due to retake the skiing part soon.

Hot Fuzz

Went to see Hot Fuzz today, the new film by the guys behind 'Shaun of the Dead'. Its really good, very funny and I recommend it everyone to go and see it. We went (my Mum and me) to the Cineworld in Stevenage and watched it in a huge theater with only three other people in the place.

lots of car chases, guns and west country accents.

Quality...

Julian

News from work, Julian my ex team leader has resigned.

For me he has always been one of the problem members of the company and my progress in the company has definitely been effected by him for the negative.

He has been sidelined over resent months, has been demoted down to developer and moved around the department several times. So although he did jump rather being fired he was pushed a bit.

They announced it last Friday but as you can imagine I'm a little out of the loop
my friend Nils told me by email on Monday morning and after some serious msn I got the full sp.

Of course, some people may have found out earlier down the pub, which is the way things normally happen at the Company.

I think even Julian would agree that He's not the most productive IT team player, he is very intelligent and so most of his code is quite hard to understand and he's not the best person at understanding how us mere mortals think. I wish him the best in what ever he plans on doing next.

Forms

An insurance claim is not a simple process. For one the form they send me doesn't really have the sections on it to detail what it is I want to claim. So I'm putting it all in a separate letter. Alan, from Crystal, has been very helpful and has produced a nice break down of the costs which I will forward on to the insurance company. Generally lots of info is required and I'm planning on just sending them as much stuff as possible.

The medical costs worked out as

Transfer to Airport $50.00
Taxi costs (have receipts for) $178.00

Physiotherapist
1st Visit $110.00
2nd Visit $85.00
3rd Visit $85.00

Hospital
1st Visit $489.00
Dr Holmen $205.00
Crutches $29.00
2nd Visit $369.00
Dr Buchco $100.00

A total of $1,700.00 which is about 740 GBP.

Proportion of the trip unused and that I'm claiming a refunds for are

Flight 50.00% Unused
Accommodation 66.67% Unused (56 out of 84 nights)
Food 67.21% Unused (41 out of 61 prepaid meals)
Course Frees 87.50% Unused (42 out of 48 prepaid lessons)
Lift Pass 85.54% Unused (71 out of 83 days unable to Ski)
Exam fees Not Used
First Aid Course Not Used
Avalanche Course Not Used
Heliskiing Trip Not Used
Photographs Not Used

so a total claim is about 5,000 GBP.

I've got lots of invoices and receipts to get together and send off to them making sure of course that we photocopy everything before it goes out, just in case!

Jason, who is also going through this process, is so fed up with it he may well end up suing. He's not mending too well, his arm is starting to feel numb so he's off to see a specialist this Thursday to make sure its nothing serious. Fingers crossed for him.

1st March

Had a phone call from Rich the CTO about when I would be returning to work. Actually it was a whole day of telephone tennis before we managed to talk about 7pm-ish. We agreed I would trying going back to work on the 1st March.

The 1st is a Thursday so I get a couple of days to try and see how easy the commute is before doing a full week which is very sensible.

Getting back to work

Well started think about getting back into coding today in preparation for going back to work.

Not that I've actually got a return date yet (apart from the 2 April date that we set for my return after the whole ski course). But its important to try and get back into the way of thinking that lets you code. Its a lot like doing crossword puzzles, say you don't do one for a couple of months and then sit down and try one, you'll find it much harder than if you had been doing them all the time.

So I downloaded a bunch of web casts and white papers on different things including Agile development, the new Microsoft technologies (.Net3 and .Net3.5), Ajax and Ruby.

I think that these topics should be helpful once I get back to work if only so I know what on Earth the rest of the Developers there are talking about...

nhs waiting...

So I had a appointment at the local hospital (the QE2) for 9:15am on Monday. It was all quite quick, partly I think, because of my Canadian medical notes and I didn't need to have a new set of Xrays done. The time consisted of 30 min's waiting with my Mum and then 3 min's meeting with the consultant while he looked at my leg.

He found a new, quite alarming way of making my knee bend so that it clicked
from this he could tell that there was something wrong with the ACL. he was not sure about the PCL, apparently looking at the other knee I have quite a lot of movement (loose knees?) to start with in my knees and so some of the large range of movement may be natural.

He said he was going to put in a request for an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) which will take three or four weeks to happen and then we'll have another consult to discuss what surgery I need.

It will be surgery as he saw from my Canadian notes (and I told him) about being a ski instructor and he agreed that I would need it fixing completely. apparently if your not too active the advice is to learn to live with it and just have some physio but as I want to be active then its the surgery. Also he said he would put me on the more urgent list so I would be more mobile sooner.

I can actually get around quite well now and only use the brace and a walking stick when I go outside.

When I first got back to my parents I didn't trust my leg to walk up stairs without hanging on to the rail. but now I can do it pretty easily. I'm walking around now with my full weight on it just not quite the full extension. I looks a little like I'm crouching down as I don't fully straighten my leg.

I tried a full walking motion this morning, that is start by putting your heal down leg straight, move your weight onto the leg starting to bend the knee and then move forward until just your toes are touching the ground with you leg behind you and all the weight on the other foot.

The motion is pretty good and I'm happy putting weight on the leg except for the very start of the movement. (warning icky bit coming up) When the leg is completely straight and I try and put weight on it, it isn't stable and tries to bend the wrong way. This is a most unpleasant feeling as you can feel all the different bits of the knee in quite a bit of detail as they rub against each other.

Away he put me on the quick list which means 3-4 weeks for the MRI and then about three months wait for the surgery. He also gave me a sick note to sign me off work for six weeks, which is nice (if a not really any use as I'm unemployed!)

Meanwhile ...

Jason called, he's in a bit less pain and the doctors just have him going to a bit of physio on his arm. He's back at his parents but unlike me isn't finding it much fun as he doesn't get on with them too well. His injury too, has rather screwed up his plans which were 1) to be a snowboard instructor 2) to go out to Oz to stay with his Brother. Adding on top that he works in the building industry (carpenter I think) he's not even able to work. It will be about 3 months before he'll be able to use the arm fully again.

and Finally ...

I also seem to be using the word quite, quite a bit, except of course when I misspell and everything gets low volume...

I'm now a Landlord

Well after not managing to get anyone into my flat all the time I was away in Canada the agents have finally sort it out and managed to rent the flat out at 180p/w
to a Scottish guy called John.

He will be moving in on Friday evening and doesn't mind about the bed.

For those of you that don't know my flat is quite small (its in the docklands so space costs a lot of money) and so the double bed is raised up to make a space underneath for an office.

I just have to pay for a clean up of the flat and for someone to take an inventory of the contents.

I think as soon as I told them to drop the price (just before I flew back), which they had originally at 210p/w, to 190p/w people started to look at it and then it went pretty fast.

I had aimed for 190p/w but its much better to have someone in and paying than it sitting empty.

Now all I have to do is find somewhere for me to live once the knee is better.

Letting Work know

A tricking thing but I had to let everyone know now that I'm back, what's happened and that I'm back in the country.

This broke down into two groups Work and everyone else.

Well everyone else was straight forward about half already knew due to this blog and I sent out a quick email just to let everyone know. I got a lot of very nice emails back from all sorts of different people saying get well soon and we should met up for a drink when I feel up for it.

Work was also fine, a bit more of a shock as not many of them know about the blog. Basically Rich and Rob said they would be quite happy to have me back as soon as I feel up to it.

So it's fine and a weight off my mind.

I'll see what the NHS say about getting an operation and then arrange to go back to work in (hopefully) a couple of weeks when the knee will be more able to cope with travelling into London by train.

Knees, GPs and bits of paper.

Its crazy because I'm at my Parents I can't really go to my own doctor so I wanted to go to the local one that my Parents use. I only wanted a referral to the hospital and didn't want to trouble the GP for anything else (such as drugs).

However the is a rule that GP are not allow to refer temporary visitors (only give them drugs) and they force you to register just to get a referral (and as a result deregister from you own GP). So after some serious form filling in. I get to come back that evening to see the GP and get him to make an appointment at the fracture clinic at the local hospital. The visit with the GP takes about 2mins, half the time it takes to register.

Fortunately I get a phone call fairly quickly saying I have an appointment on Monday at the hospital. They should be able to tell me how long it will take and what can be done about it. This will start the whole waiting list process and hopefully the doctor will be able to answer questions such as what is the length of rehab and more importantly can I ski next year?

Back to Blighty

Well the start of the six nations England v Scotland match was certainly worth travelling through the night all the way from Canada to see.

The trip to the airport was a little strange because just as we got down out of the mountains we left the sunny blue skies and the weather conditions got really bad. most of the way it was a white out with quite a bit of snow falling. So much so the flight was delayed while they had to deice the wings.

The airport was fun mainly because the customs desk is miles from the air canada desk (I had to get my receipts stamped so I can claim the tax back on the stuff I bought). Also we had a little fun with the check in as my medical clearance to fly didn't show up on their system. fortunately I had all the documentation on me and was able to get it sorted that way. They got me a wheel chair and I whizzed through passport control and past the xray machine. They xray my stuff including the crutches but I just was given a quick hand search (ooh missus!). Then they wheeled me up to the exit gate and parked me until it was time for the flight. This was all great but by the time they loaded me onto the plane, I was first on, I was busting for a pee.

The flight was nice, especially as I was in first class. the meals where on proper plates and the wine in real glasses. This was demonstrated by one of the air hostesses when she dropped a couple of glasses and covered the floor in bits of glass. I decided not to take my shoes off for this flight. The seats where nice and big with controls to electronically lift the foot rest and lower the back. The seat also had a built in TV and I watch the film 'The Prestige' (good) and 'The Illusionist' (better) again despite the entertain system crashing a couple of times.

I was struck, while we were coming in to land, by how much I had missed the colour green while I was in Banff. The fields and trees where very colourful in the briliant clear sunshine as southern England was having a very nice day.

At Heathrow I was last off the plane and got another wheel chair ride back out through the special medical and cabin crew gates and out to meet my dad who was waiting out the front.

So it was off back to Watton to catch up with everybody and then off to Ivy's party, which was fun although by that time it was all I could do not to fall asleep.

Times up in Canada

I'm just waiting for the transfer bus to the airport due at 1:30. So Rich and I are watch a last bit of biker build off and sci fi stuff on the TV while I finish packing.

Last night we all had a jolly night out starting with us all going to Mellisa's followed by a quick lesson on ski tuning, then off to the rose and crown, and finally Hoodoo nightclub. the whole thing finished around 2:30 with sitting in the hotel reception watching the more drunk members of the group returning from town. It was nice to see everyone together for one last time.

I was lucky with the ski tuning lesson as they managed to have one of the session before I headed off home. The lesson covered waxing, edging and filling in holes on the underside of the skis. These things repair normal damage to the ski and lets them run faster and make more accurate turns. We got to try out the techniques on a couple of old skis. It should save me some money in the long run as I will be able to do some of the things you would normally need to pay a ski shop to do, to keep my skis in top condition.

Jason

another blow to the IA yesterday

one of my good friends here, Jason, badly dislocated his shoulder while out boarding.
He went off to the hospital and came back with quite an evil looking torture device designed to stop his arm dropping out of its shoulder socket. Unlike me he is in qutie a bit of pain and so we decided we would try quite a lot of alcohol to see if that helped. It did a bit !

so unfortunatly he too will be heading home early.

Final Plans

I'm getting the Air Canada flight on Friday at 17.55

If such things can ever be really well time this flight is. Firstly it lets me have a big night out on Thursday when everyone else can go out as they don't have school on Friday. Secondly I should get back in time on the Saturday to go my niece Ivy's Second Birthday party.

Oh and the start of the Six nations as well!

It's Snowing

I guess the weather has worked out I'm leaving. Since my crash we haven't had much in the way of new snow and the conditions out on the slopes have deteriorated. Not so good for the rest of the group and their skiing but quite good for me as the paths are clear of snow and ice for me to get around without too much trouble.

However today it started snowing as I was coming back from the hospital and everything is starting to get coated in snow. I had decided to walk back for the first time (rather than get a taxi) in order to work my leg out a bit and by the time I got back I was covered from head to toe in snow!

I was at the Hospital in order to pick up my treatment notes and get a letter from the ER doctor saying I'm able to fly home. The Insurance company have sorted out a flight back on Friday but I need the OK from a doctor first. Fortunately the same ER doctor was on duty and so she was able to fill in the required forms. She also checked my knee again to make sure she had made the right diagnosis has the swelling isn't hiding the condition of the knee as much.

The walk back took quite a while as I wasn't rushing. Several different kind local people took pity on me and asked me if I need help or a lift back and one told me all about her daughter who's a ski racing and has just had the same operation. apparently in Canada it can take a year to get the surgery done but when its done the knee is as good as new. I guess it was bit like the people I was talking to outside the restaurant the night before last one of who demonstrated how well the surgery works by jumping up and down on the spot!

A final bit of Physio

A quick final session and a last chance to look at the view out of the window.

This time after a warm up on the cycle machine, he had me doing light walking on a tread mill (keeping my right foot still on the side, just lightly using my left foot)
and using the foot press on the weights machine. the tread mill work was to make my leg remember the correct motion for walking starting by putting the heal down and then moving through to lifting off at the toes. The weight machine was really just more work keeping the muscles working.

While I was there I also asked for a note for the next Physio, for when I get back to the UK.

Pretty Icy Things

On Sunday I traveled up to see the ice sculptures. They were quite something to see with the beatiful view of Lake Louise in the background.



I was completely knackered from all the walking and my arms didn't work too well that evening.

Monday was my Final trip to the Physio and then off on the tour of Lake Louise and the Ice fields with tour guide Hugh.

I learnt the name Banff comes from Banffshire the home of the accountants for the railroad company when the names where being decided for the different slidings on the route to the coast. They where after something better to promote the tourist trade than 'Siding 29'.

Also that Canada is based on native language phase for little village.

I was a good tour if a little long, quite a travel up to the Bow lake at the top of the Bow Valley. Bow Valley is the name for the overall area where Banff and the ski slopes are.

We still got nice weather for sightseeing and photos, no snowing and clear blue skys.

Banff and its wild life

Well I'm not sitting on my laurels here I'm still going to have a bit of the Holiday experience and today it was a sightseeing tour around the area.

The guide/driver was Natalie and we travelled around Banff while getting a taste of its History.

We covered the giant Springs Hotel (very twin peaks), the Banff springs fall(still not quite frozen), Bow Valley, the Hoodoos, the local herd of Elk (a about a hundred of them). Lake Minawhanka (very big frozen three feet thick), the different mountain ranges, the finding of the hot springs (by some rail workers) and its unique type of snail (and all the conservation effort that are happening).

It was a half day tour with not too much walking. I've spent the rest of the day in the pool seeing how much weight I can put on my leg. The answer is a bit, which is good.

More Physio

Yesterday I went back to the Physiotherapists this time for more of a work out.
I was given some light work on the exercise bike and lifting my leg with the aid of an electric muscle stimulator.

Of course I had some more icing and ultrasound.

On the plus side he said that there was some resistance by the ACL so it may not be completely torn.

Dog Sledging

Last time I was in Banff I didn't get the opportunity to try Dog sledging as the weather was so warm that the whole thing had to be cancelled. This time around I've managed it and so completed at least one thing I really wanted to do while I was out here.

The weather was superb for sightseeing. The temperature at about 5 degrees and it was sunny, with crystal clear skies. Great weather for taking picture.

However the weather wasn't so great for the dogs. they are most happy running at around the minus 15 mark and so get quite warm in this sort of weather. They eat and rolled in the snow each time we stopped, but were so happy just to be out running they didn't seem too affected.

The dogs were not like I pictured them, they were lot more like greyhounds and alot more friendly than I thought they would be. They were very well trained and disciplined, with most of them being ex racing team dogs.

I had five dogs called Ellipse, Timer, Tron, Ella and Rebel. with Ellipse and Timer being the lead dogs.

Oh and of course the Musher (driver) who was call Chad.

We ran down and back long the shores of a frozen lake for a 10K loop. we stopped about half way and the more mobile of us went down to stand on the lake. I was able to get down to a nice viewpoint and took a load of pics. While we where there we saw a couple of racing teams practicing out on the ice, they looked like lines of very fast moving ants.

Apart from the difficultly in getting in and out of the sledge, which the drivers were a great help with, it was a brilliant couple of hours and something I would love to try again.

Physio

Another new strange experience this morning, getting some Physio. Not a unpleasant experience and as a work place it has one of the most amazing views out of the office window. The window runs the length of the treatment room and looks out above Banff to the huge range of mountains to the north.

First was the assessment which Kevin the Physiotherapist check to see the damaged and confirmed it was to the ACL (Anterior) but also said it was to the PCL which stops the lower bones moving back. Apparently the way my shin slightly drops when the muscles relax tells him that the is damage to the PCL (Posterior)

Then he used ultrasound to help with the bruising and swelling. It helps move the blood around the knee.

Next some exercises to help keep the muscle tone in the leg. one was to push the knee down and straighten the leg for the muscle on the thigh and the other, with the leg bent push the heal into the mat to work on the hamstring.

Finally he iced the knee to let it recover after the workout.

The whole thing cost me 110 dollars and lasted about an hour.

Next time it should only be 80 dollars as he doesn't have to do the assessment again.

Week Three

Not quite the week three that I had originally planned. For me it has been mostly sitting on my bed watching the Sci-Fi and Discovery channels on TV.

The plan for the week is/was

Monday was a trip back to the hospital again this time to see a Physio and then the Knee surgeon. They concluded they couldn't really tell until the swelling has gone down. The verdict was 'Acute ACL Tear' and instructions were definitely no skiing for 6 week and get the injury re-assessed after 5 weeks. Also I was given the contact details for the main physiotherapist in Banff.

Tuesday nothing much apart from getting in contact with the insurance company, the travel company and anyone else that might help.

Wednesday has been a trip Physio to get a better assessment to my condition

Thursday will a trip out in the morning dog sledging, something I've always wanted to do and a little knee problem shouldn't get in the way of.

Friday will be more Physio in the room with a view.

Next week will be a couple of bus sightseeing tours of the wildlife and the scenery. Also I guess it will also include my farewell meal and my flight home.

BTW the knee doens't really hurt just aches a bit. It hurts lot if I go over on it when I'm not being carefully. Apparently this probally means I've done alot of damage and riped out all the nerve cells. Eek!

Day time TV

Oh man it's enough to drive you nuts. the Canadains/American have the strangest ideas about some thing the are so many adverts and 35 of the 40 channels are complete (and I really do mean it complete and utter) rubbish.

and I had to visit the hospital again this time to get a set of crunches. they cost 30 dollars and the old style with the support under the arms. I understand you don't get this type in the UK anymore as you can damage the nerves under the arms if you don't use them right. I was abley assisted by Kevin and Craig (an expert at knee injuries) to get me there and then off to where everyone else was having dinner.

Hospital

Tango, Bryn and Jess also helped me in the next stage of my (mis)adventures and went with me by taxi to the hospital. I had a bit of fun with the wheelchairs and basically handed over my credit card. It's not at all like the NHS with me being taken in to the exam room quite quickly. This was either because I'm paying for all this or maybe because it was quite quiet. Most of the other people from the first aid post were already here.

Like most hospitals it was a lot of waiting with no trousers on for people got come and twist my knee around to work out what it going on.
They bent the knee this way and that to work out which ligaments were still working and which bits are hurting. then they send me for a load of x-rays to make sure that the bones are OK.

After all that they weren't certain what the total picture was.

Basically they said I've got a torn ACL (anterior cruciate ligament). They said use RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation) and made me an appointment to come back in and see a knee surgeon on Monday.

They sent me off with a knee brace and the guys helped me get up to the Elk and Oarsman for a late evening meal.

So its a quiet rest of the week and weekend watching TV for me.

Rescue

So I'm lying on a steep slope a bit dazed and trying to get into a less painful spot. First to my aid was Bryn, one of other skiers in my group who acted very professionally and took control straight away.

Next along was one of the ski patrol who checked out the situation and called for a rescue sledge in order to get me off the slope. By this time I'm sitting up with Bryn supporting my weight to let me take pressure of my foot. The other members of the group are trying to find another way down, as I'm blocking the route down.

Because we where following the tracks of the instructor, Willie, he had to walk back up from where he stopped. It was a while before Willie got back up to us and then didn't really do much apart from asking me how I felt.

Fortunately the rescue sledge turned up fairly shortly after, being pulled by a paramedic called Matt. He had difficult time getting right to us due to the weight of the sledge and the steepness of the slope. Matt, Bryn and Willie loaded me into the sledge, strapped my leg to a board and covered me in blankets.

Then it was time for my ride down the mountain. Although I had to be injured to take this ride is was quite a bizarre and fun experience. travelling backward at speed approx 30cm off the ground. We whistled down the greenest runs to get back down to the first aid post at the bottom of the slopes. We past one of our groups on the way back and I smiled and waved to them. They all looked a bit confused.

By the time we got to the bottom I was really cold. The problem was travelling at speed you get really chilled if you are just sitting in a sledge rather than using energy and generating heat like while skiing. The rest of group managed to beat us down so I guess we weren't travelling that fast, and waiting for us by the first aid post.

Matt took me inside with Willie to check me over and give us loads of forms to fill in. Inside were a couple of other casualties for the day, including a girl with her arm strapped up and a lady in bed who had done something to her hip. Matt gave me a bag of snow to put on my knee and loosened my boot. By now its getting quite late and the last bus back to Banff would soon be due, so I said I would try to get the bus otherwise it would have cost me at least 700 dollars to get an ambulance back.

I couldn't really walk so I had to be helped to the bus with help from Tango, Bryn and Jess. it took us quite a while but fortunately they waited for us. The guys from my class also sorted out my stuff and put my skis into one of their lockers.

So I travelled back to Banff with a bag of snow on my knee in the front row of the bus wondering how bad it is and was my skiing trip now over.

Disaster

Its one of those pieces of advice that you hear all the time but some times does actually ring true. Be careful of the last run of the day.

Wednesday had been a full days skiing with us covering alot of ground around Lake Louise from the front face of the resort to some of the back runs up at the Larch chair.

We decided to up to top of the world chair one more time and ski back for the end of the day. We had been practicing applying pressure, edge and pivoting in the turn and was following the instructors tracks like we had been doing most of the day.

While doing this I landed badly in a rough steep section and felt a pop in the back of my left knee. I collasped to the ground and stuck my arms out to bring myself to a stop and tried to get into a less painful position.

Week Two

This week instructor is Willie who's French/Canadian. The week is more about getting us to think how we would explain the aspects of skiing to a class. Also the lessons have concentrated on keeping the center of mass low and how this helps improving balance.

We are starting to get some very smooth rhythmic ski out of the group and you can tell we are improving as our skiing is all starting to look similar to one another.

Also the lessons have been about managing the pressure that a skiing applies to a slope during the turn. As the pressure increases near the end of the turn the idea is to lift the skis up so that they take the pressure off and let the turn finish.

The Weather has been clear and mostly sunny so not much more snow but the runs have been well groomed so the skiing is fast.

Bumpers - As recomended by my Parents

We had a big outing to Bumpers resturant on sunday night. Its a steak house at the end of town and they do some very nice steaks. half of the group (we booked for 15 people) had the man mountain cut which is basically a whole roast beef sunday roast joint with chips. I went for a slightly more sensible spencer steak. It was very good and tasty.

Generally speaking the food here in Banff is good with large portions. During the week we get meal tickets which can be used in a number of resturants in town, so we will be experts in eating out in Banff by the time we finish.

D

The Flat pt 2

Well the couple pulled out for unforseen circumstances.
so it still on the market.

Baby its cold outside

MINUS 27 DEGREES

out on the slopes on Thursday.
It wasn't as bad as it sounds the sun was out so it felt warmer. The skiing was good groom runs but because it was so cold the nature of the snow changed and it was actual a lot slower because the grip increased.

It made me think of the polar explorers saying when it got really cold, the problems they had getting the sledges moving and the feeling that they where moving over sandpaper.

As for the cold as long as you keep covered up and not have any exposed skin its fine. We checked for frost nipped noses on regularly and took a couple of hot chocolate (not coffee as caffeine is bad at low temperatures as it makes the blood go from the extremities) breaks so we could warm up.

I actually felt warmer on Thursday at minus 27 than Wednesday at minus 7 because Wednesday was cloudy and snowing rather than clean and sunny Thursday.

D

The Flat

Got the first offer on the flat on Thursday. A couple want to offer 180pw and start on the 20th Jan.

It is advertised at 205pw by the agent which might have been a bit optomistic. I mail them back saying I won't go below 190pw which is what I orginally budgeted for and is about right for the area.

One Week

The first week is over

The week was made up of four days of lessons covering the basics of correct balance in skiing. Balance is made up of four components; laterial, vertical, fore-aft and rotational. move too far out of balance in one of the directions and you can't easily move in one of the others. So we did a series of execises to try and feel the limits of these movements and feel how different movements affect the ability to ski.

Injury list so far is one badly twisted knee and a dislocated shoulder(not as bad as it sounds).

We were split into three groups of skiers (8,8 and 7 people) and two groups of five boarders (5 and 5 people). One boarder, Laurie, because of her shoulder had some private lessons in order to build up her confidence again.

Each week we will get a different instructor and this week he was Jeff (nicknamed Skippy apparently) and he took us for the four days.

for Friday and the rest of the weekend we are expected to revise what we have done in the week and take a rest so as not to get too worn out.

We got a DVD and a text book so lots of useful info

Arrived

Well I'm in Canada. It's Sunday morning and I'm killing a bit of time before we all get on the 10:20 bus up to the slopes. The trip, apart from taking a long time, was fine with us getting into the resort about 5ish.

The group is a fairly mixed bunch, with a full age range from 17 to 50ish. They all seem nice and we've been out for a couple of meals and drinks and everyone is quite chatty and sociable. I'm sharing my room with a snowboarder called Richard. I don't know too much about him yet as he was on a later flight and so actually turned up about midnight, after I had gone to bed. I was so knackered from being up for 24 hours and having had a couple of beers at dinner, that all I could manage to was say hello and fall straight back to sleep again.

One thing that is exactly the same as living in London is the number of Australian and New Zealand accents I've heard since I've got here. Our Rep, Monique (No idea if that's how she spells it) is an Aussie and gave us a huge amount of good info about the place and the things going on.

The guys at work managed a little revenge on Friday, by making me the victim of the weekly caption competition, using a picture from one of our nights out last year. The aim is for people to add their own captions and maybe change the picture a bit using Photoshop. Matt Black sent me a email with the finished pictures. Some of them are quite funny. I'm not yet sure who won yet but I will find out.

So far I'm taking it fairly easy and yesterday was just a bit of shopping and wandering around trying to get the layout of the place sorted. We've been out to a few of the different night spots and places to drink, but as there is such a large selection I don't think will run out any time soon. I spent 900 odd dollars and got myself a pair of B2 Bandit skis. So fully kitted out I had a huge grin on my face walking back from the shops. I'll be trying them for the first time in about two hours. I can't wait.

The conditions are good if a little cold so I'm pack a rucksack full of extra clothes to take out with me today.

Last Day

Well final day here at the Company I'm at someone elses desk with a spare PC as all my stuff has been give to other people. still the new, if temporary desk has got a wicked view of big ben from between two buildings and I'm back in a nice quietish spot. things of note this week included chairing my last senior developers meeting which I've been doing for the last 8 months, despite not been a senior dev and finally getting around to giving out the last of the lego keyrings to simon in IT support cos he took most of Xmas off (and still has a mountain of holiday to use) and hasn't been here.

I've just send out my goodbye email...

From: David Dunhill
Sent: 04 January 2007 14:13
To: Social
Subject: The more it snows...

Well

Its my last day here at jolly old uS****h, in accordance with tradition and because I believe the best way to get through tomorrows nine hour flight to Canada is by being hung over, I'll be heading down to Bar HA HA for a few drinks and to carrying on at some length about how I'm off skiing for months.

I want to wish you all the best of luck and hope to see you all well in a
couple of months.

I'll be contactable on XXX if there's any interesting gossip or you need ask
a question about Customisation (for a very reasonable call out rate).

And just in case I didn't mention it before...

I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !

D

...and now I'm just checking I haven't missed anything I need to sort out and waiting for 5:30 and the pub.

Christmas - Exciting, Exciting, Exciting.

Exciting is my neice Ivy's new word and as it was Christmas, with lots of
new toys, it was definately exciting.
It was a good, if slightly crazy Christmas at my Parents which also included
Rosa my sisters the dog running around and my poor nephew Freddie, feeling
poorly.

I stayed from the Sunday to the Saturday. Getting there a little later than
I planned because I need to get on with packing up my flat.
My Parents brought me back and helped with more packing and stayed the
Saturday night.
We sorted out the storage with Vanguard as soon as i got back 300 pound for
6 months in a huge warehouse which is only a couple of doors up from the
flat.
So it was a case of boxing stuff up, carrying it down to the car and then
driving 50 metres up the road. Russ and Vicky were down to celebrate the new
year and got roped into helping me move the stuff into storage. They were
staying at a Hotel up by Canary Wharf and it was there were we started our
new year celebrations.

Also 8000 pound loan cheque was in the post when I got back to the flat on
the 30Jan. Too late now to order much Canadian Dollars or at least much of a
good deal. I should be alright because I can get money out using my
Nationwide Debt Card without it costing me the extra admin charge for
foreign money.
The only other thing I really had to sort out was to cash in my Oyster
travel card and I did that last night.

So the flat is now empty (with only a couple of bags of stuff to take to
storage tomorrow morning), my accounts are about sorted, my bags are pack
and I've nearly finished my last day at work.
So its time to go and Ivy is right, it is very exciting.

D

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Merry Xmas

Well its the last day of term, time for the jelly, ice cream and playing board games.

People are in aren't really in a work focus way. It's a case of donuts, quizzes and because its my company, trying to get one last emergency fix to live before everyone heads off down the pub and 2pm.

Merry Christmas

D

Loads of insurance

Its a big chunk of change 460 pounds but its an expensive trip and the insurance also covers a Heli-skiing trip, so I had to pay it. I've left it this late waiting for a pay check to cover it as my cash flow is a bit nuts at the moment.

I also plan on getting a helmet as well just to be doubly safe

Busy Day

As well as getting my new job offer a load of other stuff happened yesterday

1) we had the big office move around
I walked into the office and it was complete bedlam. in order to work in a more agile way (agile is a style of project management) we are moving so that the different project teams are closer together and not spread out all over the office.

This meant that I've had to give up my very nice seat in the corner with the great view across london. I'm now at a desk right in the middle of the office with no view and no space. But I don't really care as I'm not here for very many days and its quite likely they will have moved offices by the time they come back.

I do however have a little more simpathly with the guys who were complaining all summer about how rubbish and hot this part of the office is.

2) I got my new ski jacket
Had to go the post depot and sign for it. Its a very nice Helly Hansen Precon Jacket (about £150) specially done for the ski academy with the
logo on the back and front right breast. Should keep me warm on the slopes. So now I'm wearing around the place, basically showing off that I'm off skiing!

3) I got my flight tickets and Itinerary
Funnily enough went I got home this letter about my flight was waiting for me. Now I didn't have to sign for it or anything unlike the jacket!

4) went to check out the storage units
A couple of doors down from my flat in the Vanguard storage unit and so I decided that getting a small unit there would sort out most of my storage issues.

Also I have to work out what to do with the bedding on the Friday morning before I go as I can't really leave it in the flat. This way I can put the last of
my stuff in a bag and drop it off at the depot on my way to the airport.

Its an expensive business, I got quoted 40quid a month for a one metre cubed box. which is the smallest they do. I was already to hire one but they haven't actually built them yet which is a bit of a problem but they said they should be done over Xmas. So hopefully they will have one ready in time. so now that I don't have to ship out my cooking stuff or furniture (leaving it all for the tenants to use) it should just be a half a dozen boxes of book to store.

I have it in Writing!!!!

Yes its true
I've got the fabled bit of paper.
Richard gave it to me yesterday and I've just signed it and returned it to HR
It says I will come back on the 2 April as a Senior Dev on a 23% pay rise. Also
if I'm back promptly I get this years 2 grand bonus which I would have lost out on.
So now quite the sabbatical that I wanted but close enough. Also I don't have to do
a probation period and so it won't hurt my pension too much.

So they were as good as their word and I will look forward to getting back in April.

Bond, Lego men and getting it all in writing

Friday was a busy day

1) It was the company Christmas party
2) I had my final 1-2-1 meeting with Rob

Panic was starting to set in, during the day, I was waiting for a box of 25 assorted Lego keyrings to arrive which I had ordered the day we knew the Redesign drinks where cancelled so they would come in time for the new Redesign drinks night which was on Tuesday. However by Friday I was starting to wonder if they would come at all and I badly wanted to give them out at the Christmas dinner. The day before Gordon and I had worked out which of the different types of Lego man should go to who.

The selection included...

Darth Vader (for Richard), Police Officer, Chewbacca (for Gordon), Viking, Boba Fett, Imperial Royal Guard, Brazil Footballer, Pilot, Doctor, Batman (I took that one), Robin, Joker (for one of the testing guys), Wizard (for Rob),
6 STORMTROOPERS and 6 UK Footballers (for the developers) plus 25 Cowboys from the original order.

So I got them all together each with a little note to say thank you for the hard work on the project and took them with me to the meal.

The meal itself was James Bond themed (so I was in a Black Tie) at London Zoo. It started with drinks in the reptile house. and then onto the main house for the meal. I had a mad dash at the start trying to get all the correct keyrings on the right place settings before the others arrived. I just about made it with just a few cowboys to place as everyone started to enter.

It was great, people would discover the gift on their napkins and everyone said it was cool and thanked me. I got some kind comments about doing it without anyone knowing and the good choices on who got what keyring.

the rest of the evening was good and we went to a casino afterward for some more beers. The evening ended with a few of us hanging around waiting for the tube to open so we could go home. I got in about 6:45am and was asleep by 6:47am.

The 1-2-1 was OK I told Rob about the business not putting anything in writing and said it's just like giving out a job offer so what's the problem. He agreed and said he would get some thing sorted before he left for his holiday. And yes I think he did as Richard said something along those lines while we were out the back of the Xmas party in a big group having a whiskey and a cigar.

Just had a quick Scum

Just had a quick Scum meeting for Richard to say a quick thank you for peoples effort during the redesign project and to give out a few jokey gifts. I got a mirror and a lip balm. The balm because I'm off skiing and the mirror so I can look at my own aspect. An aspect is one of the underlying object in the Customisation system and apparently I keep talking about them.
Other gifts included a guide to being a manager for the test manager Tush, A swear calendar for Owen the lego developer, nice soap for Matt because he goes to the gym alot, a Movie book for Gordon the PM, he's big on Movies and did the Perfect day video for the Quarterly meeting, and Rob got some cigars and a light cos he smokes.

and now we all off down the pub on Richard's Credit Card

Nice...

Fast Delivery

My new laptop arrived Monday in time for me arriving at work. I didn't of course get that much done.

Resignation Letter

Well I'm just about to print it out...

Dear Susie,

Subject: Sabbatical request/Resignation

As required by my contract of employment, I hereby give you notice of my intention to leave my position as Programmer.

I have decided to take up a 3 month Ski Instructor training course in Canada and my only reason for resigning is that uS****h is unable to handle unpaid sabbatical leave.

I wish both you and uS****h every good fortune and I would like to thank you for having me as part of your team. I also look forward to work with you all again in the future should that become possible when I return in April.

Sincerely yours,

David Dunhill
Programmer
uS****h

Credit OK

I got back in contact with the building society as they haven't called me. They said the credit check was fine, they didn't give a reason as to what happened or why there was a problem. So I popped in at lunch time and signed the agreement and it should all be sorted now. I also dropped off my request to them, as mortagage lender, to be allowed to let out my property.

No I'm going to have to sort out all the stuff in my flat and call up a few letting agents.

Computers

I bought a new laptop last night. I was in the office doing my Xmas shopping on line and had a little moment and bought a laptop.

TOSHIBA A100-147 Laptop - TOSHIBA A100-147 INTEL CORE DUO T2050 PROCESSOR 1.6GHz LAPTOP - Intel Core Duo T2050 Processor 1.6GHz

533 MHz FSB
2 MB Cache
1024 MB RAM
60 GB Hard Drive
DVD ReWriter SuperMulti
15.4" Widescreen TruBrite Display
Microsoft Windows Media Center
128mb Intel UMA 945 integrated Graphics
1 year FREE warranty

normal cost £599 at PCWorld
I managed to get a deal for £404

hopefully they won't cancel it and it will be delievered to the office sometime next week.

A frustrating day

A frustrating day. I didn't really notice because I was busy all day but I'm still waiting for things to get resolved.

Firstly I didn't get a call from Nationwide to tell me what the outcome of the loans application is. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Nationwide head office is still working out whether me getting two new credit cards and a current account means that I can't have a loan. I did at least get my credit cards, today the Natwest one and last night the Nationwide one. The activation process where you ring up, is to give them some details and then listen to them trying to sell me payment protection insurance, were almost identical, right down to them asking me to justify why I don't want the insurance.

The second thing I was waiting for was my flat's management company to ring up about a problem with one of the payments I made for my service charge. Basically they lost the payment back in July 2005 and I've been trying to sort it out ever since. But they aren't the most easy company to deal with, what with not answering phones and letters and I only got some response when I mentioned taking them to small claims court. They said the person that would deal with the issue was on holiday and would ring me on Wednesday (when I rang on Monday) but they never did.

Thirdly the merry-go-around that is my job carried on a bit further. I had a meeting with Susie the HR lady, I thought to sort out all the details about coming back. However the meeting was only to sort out my holiday and what date I will be resigning. It works out that if I have 15 days to carry over (19 minus the four I've booked this month) then I can resign on the 26Th Dec and take the days holiday at the end of my time. I asked about the offer from last week about coming back and getting my bonus but she said that it's all on a promise and I would have to start afresh (lose all my benefits) when I got back. She said they won't even put anything in writing. So looks like I'm back at square one again and there's no reason to come back. Rob is away so I can't really talk to him but I'll talk to Richard tomorrow.

Oh and it just so happens to be the two year anniversary of my starting at uS****h. So Nils, Jamie, James and myself went down to bar HA HA for a couple of beers after work to celebrate.

A word about the Music

I made a effort last night to get to the choir practice early last night and got there at just past 7. It normally starts at 7:30 but I wanted to let Joel, the teacher, know how several people in the group feel about this terrible Britten music and I wanted to tell him by himself and not in front of the whole group.
I made the points that its not fun and I don't feel I'm learning much because we are so focused on getting ready for the performance. We spend quite a lot of money on these lessons and expect to get something out of them. Also that the way things are carrying on he is driving people away from the choir.
Joel said he appreciated the feedback and would pass it on to the principal. He said next term he would definitely focus more on the lighter jazzier music and reintroduce some fun into the lessons. Not that I will benefit of course but it seems unfair on Joel not to let him know how things are. We did see some benefit during the lesson as we finished going through the piece early and he went and got some Christmas carol music to finish off this week. I great improvement, I didn't know Good King Wenceslas
had so many verses.

Choir / Detention

I've bunked off two rehearsals for this weekends performance, mainly because that music is so dreadful. Britten's St.Nicholas quiet hard for a tenor (my part) and too high only really using the high notes of the range. I told everyone not to come to the performance, partly because the cost is a whopping nine pound, but mainly because it won't be a very enjoyable experience.

I believe that Joel and the Blackheath Conservatoire have pretty much managed to drive everyone way and won't be back next term. well I won't be back for other reasons anyway. The course is meant to be 'singing with pleasure', I might still ask for my money back.

Getting a loan

Ok so I may have screwed up

I booked an appointment last week at the Nationwide and got talked into getting a new credit card and current account. So today I went to see them with all my documents and bits of paper.

the problem with this is that I applied for a Natwest Credit Card and with the extra credit check. When I tried to get the loan I got refered on my credit check so I've got to wait for the head office to OK the loan.

The Nationwide account and credit card as quite good for travelling as you only pay for the conversion to the new currency and not an extra charge for handling which most others do.

I'm getting a 8 grand loan based on the standard bank rate

my caculation breaks down as:

5 months at £740 = £3700
12 wks at £200 = £2400
and my current account -£2300
which is about £8400

so I'm asking for 8 grand with the three months pay should get me thru.

I figure I have also about one thousand pounds of one off costs
and about £400 to pay for the loan.

on a more positive note the snow reports for Banff are very good...
D

My non promotion

I got promoted today...

well no I didn't but I did have a meeting this morning about what sort of deal I can have to come back after my trip and it included coming in as a senior developer one level above where I am now.

With finally the introduction of the skills matrix in the department, a list of all the permanent member of staff and a rating of how good they are at different skill (both technical and business related), it means that certain people in the department needed promoting. Because they link the relative level of the skills which a new set of pay scales (not something we had before) several people are good enough to be rated in the next level up from the one that they are currently in. So we had three, well deserved, promotions in the department two developers to senior developers and one from junior developer to developer.

For my own position Rob said that I would have been promoted today but as I was leaving the company soon it wouldn't look good for me to get promoted and then to leave straight away. So my promotion will come into effect when I come back. So it meeting next week to iron out the details and get it all in writing.

I believe Rob and Richard did make a special effort to get me a good deal with Andrew the MD. The offer improved from the start of the week in that I will get paid by bonus that I would have lost when I get back in April.

Also I explained in more detail about what it is that I'm actually doing and detailed the benefits the training will have to the company. I said the course also has components of leadership and teacher training both of which I can use at the Company.


So I'm not sure if how much damage financially this will cause me more information next week.

The Deal

We I've just had the meeting and it looks like it will pretty much boil down to what would have happened if I had just resigned.
The offer was to take less time off and keep my job or resign and they 'promise' to take me back afterwards.
So as it's a fix length course the first option is not really an option as they were pretty much only offering to let me take what a have in holiday off and not allow any unpaid time.
So that means I resign can go on my trip but lose my bonuses, a couple of grand, and start again with the company when I come back.

So much for Rob saying on Friday not to worry about it and we can work something out.

The worst kept secret

I've been trying to keep quiet about my trip since I spoke to Rob last but I think I've told about half the work people I've been down the pub with this last week. I keep taking people to one side and spilling the beans. Then making them promise to keep it a secret and act surprised when they find out. Fortunatly I don't have to keep it quite much longer.

Well that's him told

Yeap he had heard that I was wanting to take a sabbatical.

The HR lady (Susie) told my CTO (Richard) and my CTO told my Team Leader (Rob).

He was quite surprised at what I wanted to do and how long I wanted three months so he didn't know any details. He agreed that I wasn't asking for all that much unpaid leave as this years and next years holiday entitlement covers 2 thirds of it.
It was more a chance for me to put my point of view and mention a few thing I wanted them to know

1)I really had nothing from this company in the two years that I have worked here and I want to do something for me. and I feel angry and that the company is just taking advantage of me.
2)I was mainly holding out from telling them, waiting for the company to finally do something about promoting me, paying me a reasonable amount of money and sorting out all the holiday we have left.
3) Don't want to leave the company I want to ask for a sabbatical as I need a break from the less healthy madness that goes on in this company (some grown adults can really act like children when they don't get what they want)

I felt that as we where near the end of one project and before we started the new one this was probably the most suitable time to tell them.

I Rob said fair enough and that I should keep it quiet until he and Richard can sit down and come to a decision about it. He apologise for the promotions thing not being sorted out months ago and said it should be sorted out in the next couple of days. He said the sabbatical issue won't effect it (my major worry in case you hadn't guessed) and that it would be tied to a new skills matrix for the department which has been signed off and will be out soon.

So so far its going quite well, these are decent people and I wasn't expecting to be screwed by them. The problem may come when they have to OK whatever gets sorted with other parts of the company and they limit what we may be able to do.

1-2-1

Well just had a meeting about our holiday and the company are being really helpful and letting us carry over all our holiday as long as we book the three days off over Xmas (which I have already done).

So now I'm just about to going into a 1-2-1 with Rob my team leader and letting the whole secret out of the bag.

my hands are actually shaking...

Lunch

Just been down the Noodle bar for lunch with a couple of the guys I normally go to lunch with. Nice place I had fried pork (char-siu) and noodles with some pineapple juice, lovely. Anyway that's not why I mention this, the reason is that I told them about my plans to go off skiing and then sworn them to secrecy.

Meet the Gang

As part of the intro to the whole holiday thing. Crystal has sent out a email (only those that wanted to) of people's emails that are going on the trip. I've had a couple of mails to the group and so far they seem like at ok bunch of people. A lot seem to have myspace sites set up perhaps I should finally get around to setting up one for myself.

is the cat out of the bag?

had a word with Susie the HR lady about trying to carry over all my remaining holiday into next year (I have 19 days left to take) and use it for my big trip.

We were talking about how they don't normal allow anyone to carry over holiday but then neither do they allow people to take sabbaticals. So she said she would have a few 'off the record' conversations and find out the best step forward from here.
This of course means I'm now looking at the managers I talk to at work think 'are they thinking I'm the one who wants to go on sabbatical.

besides that its very busy at work this week as my Team leader is away and I seem to been nominated to sort out everyones problems. still it's made the week go quickly...

D

Company Halloween Party

We had a top company do last night. the company Halloween party at the crypt in St Martins in the Fields, very spooky. loads of people with some great costumes. I had a good evening and won the award for the scariest costume (see picture below. I'm the one on the left). I won 30 pounds worth of gift vouchers for House of Frazier (I guess to pretty myself up a bit) mainly I think for the wicked contact lenses I had on.

A fair few members of the company where rather late in this morning, the winner being Owen that got in about 11:30am.

Spreading the word of Blog

My friends Colin and Clare and currently away for three weeks travelling around Oz, making life here in London quite quiet (well part from work). I convinced them to make a little blog while they are out there and here's what they have managed so far

http://mort-on-the-move.blogspot.com/

D

Ah a little Flickr

As part of the plan to get mobile and ready for the big trip. I've got myself a two subscription to Flickr so now I should have no troubles taking loads of pics while I'm away, so long as I can find a way to up load them. Here's an example of me from the back catalogue

MCR

I finally got around to checking out the new My Chemical Romance album and video on their website last night, Welcome to the Black Parade. And I've been listening to it for most of the day at work. Not sure about it yet (I figure it's a grower like the last one). Looks from the video for the first single that they have picked up a touch of the Freddie Mercurys. Listen to it Loud!!!

Oh and Russ is going nuts at the moment on my email as NIN have just announced a tour for next year (most of which I'm in Canada for). A very excitable chap indeed.

I checked and MCR also have dates soon but all the ones I can go to have already sold out. I guess I'll just be happy I'm going to the Muse gig in November

Hurrah!

19 Days

That's how much holiday I have left now that additional days for the over time has been added.
Current company rules state that all holiday must be used by the end of the calendar year.
So unless they change it and give me the money or left me carry it over (that would be handy with what I'm planning) I'm not going to be in the office much for the rest of the year!

Project Review

Had a nice little innovation yesterday. A meeting about what we did right and what we did wrong on the project. so we (about a third of the developers) where able to say what went right with the project (scums, working together as a team, the introduction of a wiki) and what went wrong (getting information from the business, had to cut corners due to the deadline, having the sales team keep changing their minds). It's part of the agile developer method and I think it should help in the long run.

Also had a one to one with Richard (the CTO) today and we talked about changes to team structure and he said that there is some of the training budget that he thinks I should have.

Also he hinted at they are planning on introducing more structure into career levels and that it should to my benefit. However he said that the change had to be agreed by the business and so it will be a couple of weeks yet before we have some news.

All positive stuff but I'm running out of time and I am not sure I can wait too much longer.

Live!

It's nearly 3am (ah the KLF) and the site is live...

www.uS****h.com

all the colours are good and the whole thing (mostly) works!

not a bad day; quiet morning, an afternoon picking up leaflets at the Ski show
and a 11pm-3am shift at work.

D

History Blog Entry

http://www.historymatters.org.uk/output/page96.asp

Hi my name is David Dunhill

I'm a white English male, 33 years 5 months 25 days, 5 foot 11 inches, 13 stone and a bit, fitish (go running a couple of times a month) with short blond hair (about 1cm) shaven number 2 at back.

Today I'm wearing blue/grey Salomon trainers, cream Craghopper double layered walking pants, Calvin Klein black boxers, grey socks, blue Abercrombie and Fitch t shirt, blue v neck thin baggy jumper, old denim jacket from Next, Timex Expedition digital watch with compass, bright red Berghaus extrem powder rucksack; containing psp (Wipeout pure racing game), money, book (blood fever by charlie higson), Nike wolly hat, black baseball cap no logo, handkerchief, Bloc sunglasses, umbrella, diary and pen, usb/charger cables for phone, lip balm, keys for home and work, driving glasses, mobile phone with headphones (includes camera and mp3 music player),copy of today's Metro newspaper and my oyster travel card.

and this is how my day went...

Woke at 8:15am with Radio 4 on the radio hearing about the historymatters campaign switched it off when they started talking about stupid politicians again.
Travelled to work across London via a bus and two tube trains. thought about history, stuff I need to do at work, sorting out the details for my weekend away, what I'm going to get people for Xmas and why have purple bins started appearing near home, annoyed by people smoking in the bus queue and slow tourists in Victoria station,
Got to work 9:30 am so late for work (they didn't mind as we've been doing lots of late nights because we have a project deadline on Wednesday night) at a web site company in IT.
First cup of tea 9:40.
Morning was busy sorting out data issues with the project.
Second cup of tea 11:10.
Third cup of tea 12:22.
Lunch 13:30 chicken and Noodle soup, steak and kidney pie both from EAT sandwich shop costing £6.85 eaten at desk.
Fourth cup of tea 14:37.
Afternoon mostly spent talking to business users and developers sorting out last minute problems.
Fifth cupof tea 16:44.
Sixth cup of tea 17:35.
Finished up remaining tasks for the day and left work at 19:20.
Don't think I thought about much on the way home just avoided the free newspapers and read my book.
Home at 20:50 after popping into supermarket to get supper.
Tea was chicken and rice with a bottle of campa viejo rioja 2000.
Played Star Wars Lego on my Xbox for a bit.
Watched stuff recorded on my digital tv recorder; american crime dramas and uk programs about gadgets and cars.
Last cup of tea 22:50 (as you can see I drink alot of tea, so much so, my nickname at work is Tetley).
Packed for friends wedding in Sunderland that I'm going to at the weekend.
Bed at 00:10am.

The Long Day

Well I'm off work the next two days, except for the period 11pm-3am tomorrow night when we go live with the new web site.

So I'm trying to get everything sorted before I leave tonight. We are now in the code freeze (although bits of it have been thawing out all day) and so there's not much to do for the developers. This doesn't apply to me however as lots of little issues seem to be coming from the business which only require small db changes to I've been changing images and switching bit on and off all day.

I was really tired this morning and I'm seriously spaced out now after last nights hard choir lessons trying to get thru the Britten. I'm really starting to hate that man now. That and working the weekend again.

Today is 'One Day in History' blog day were the national archive ask people to describe their day and add it to the archive at British Library's Web Archive in Modern British Collections.
This idea to capture normal life on one day from lots of different view points. A really cool idea, I'll stick my entry up here when I've done it.

D

Crystal's good news / bad news

To go with my good news about the free ticket to the ski show , I got the bad news yesterday.

In the small print for the Holiday I missed the fact that the season ski pass is only for Lake Louise not for all three resorts at Banff. I have the option to 'upgrade' for 260 pounds to the full ticket ski big 3 season pass. B**tards!!

Also since they left it so long to tell me I can't get the early bird deal on the pass and it will cost me 300 dollars extra. OK I can live with the upgrading to the cheaper prices but I don't see why I should pay for their tardiness.

So its pay up or lose two thirds of my holiday.

I believe they call that blackmail

Letter of complaint fired off.

D

1:12:21

Ran the Nike10K at the weekend. OK time 72 minutes. I got a bit bored around 5.5Km and walked between 6K and 7K. Pretty standard for me. Of course I'm a bit stiff now.

I now have a green t-shirt to go with the blue, red and dayglo yellow shirts from previous years.

D

Part two nearly complete

Part two - getting my pension contribution is nearly complete. I just been given the check and will be posting it off to the pension company this weekend. So that should be safe from any consequences.

BTW part one was to book the holiday.

A ski freebie...hurrah!

I got something great in the post last night. A free ticket to the Ski and Snow board show at Olympia.

Problem is its a busy week

Work have asked (or are about too) me to work a night shift on the 18th/19th 4hours 11pm-3am. which may mean I get wed and Thurs off except for the over night bit.

The snowboard show is 18-22nd

I'm off to my friend Julie's wedding in Sunderland on Friday 20th back on the Sunday 22nd (staying with Nick in Leeds)

One problem is that the ski people wanted to meet on the Sat at the show but I won't make it which is a shame because I would like to see what the other people on the course are like.

so I may be able to go on the Wednesday during the day.

Which will be good

Rumours and Hints

Well
It sounds like they have started planning on what will be happening in the department after the big redesign project finishes.

Richard the CTO mention the he knows that I should be official Senior Dev (promoted) and better paid as everyone (who?) agrees that I'm already filling that role in the company.
He had a quick chat with me about the shape of the new teams.

Rob say in the pub the other night about how I'm important to the team and in a Senior position

I was thinking three different things as both these conversations were going on
1) this is all 6 months late
2) I wonder what will happen when I tell them about the skiing
3) I'm still angry about what they did.
4) with this company I'll believe it when I have it in writing.

So things may be happening soon. Fingers crossed
Hopefully before I have to give them the big news.

The factors that are governing that are
1) I don't want them to know until after the (postponed now by about 3 months) review so it won't effect what they say
2) I want my pension check for this half year in the bank so they can't pull a fast one.
3) I have to give them 1 months notice so my absolute deadline is the start of December.

still they are very busy at the minute so I'm not expecting any real news soon...

My dream email

I got the following post

We need your help! Please tell us which new LEGO product ideas you like best. Your feedback will help us to decide which products to offer in the future! Go to the link below and give us your opinions by 8:00 PM Monday, October 2nd Thank you for your help!

I suggested some more Lego game tie-ins like StarWars Lego and try and make Lego that can play mp3s. It's the sort of email you wait your whole life for ;-)