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.