Off to the states tomorrow

Very few blog entries recently and that's because of two things. One, I've been feeling very under the weather recently. Thought I might be a bit down after the redundancy thing but I don't really think its that. I think it's been some sort of bug. Two, lack of blog entries has been due to the fact that we have been getting ready for our last minute trip to the states.

I didn't tell you about that, did I? Well, we decided to book the flight last Friday so it's been a real last minute thing. We are flying into LAX tomorrow and should be in our hire car by about 3PM. We'll trog down to the beach (in an attempt to stay awake) and then have an early night. Thursday morning we'll be awake before dawn (because of jet lag) and on the road to Las Vegas. We hope to arrive there by lunchtime and we'll probably get some lunch at the Luxor before checking into our hotel, the Aladdin.

I've been to LV once before and really loved it. There's internet access at the hotel apparently so hope to post some more when we're over there.

I wish I could post pictures on our blog.

A lack of printer

There are two of us at home right now and we have two PCs – but no printer. This is a real problem. You just don’t realise how lucky you are in an office when you’ll think nothing of sending a 30 page document to print, read through it, make a few amendments and print it off again. Doesn’t sound very environmentally friendly but it is a damn sight easier on the eyesight. Job hunting is hard enought without having to do everything on-screen.

Yesterday we ordered a new PC (including printer) from Dell. Trouble is, it will take up to 10 working days to be delivered. I am not sure if my eyes can last that long.

Fed up

I’m fed up with my blog. The problem is, I don’t know how to write it. But, since the only way to figure that out is to keep trying, I’m not going to be giving up just yet. In reality, my fed-up-ness is spreading outside the realms of my blog. I am feeling really pissed off about how I was treated in work and I think that I would have a legitimate case to say that I had been dismissed rather than being made redundant but, to be honest, I was a bit fed up there anyway. That’s a lot of fed-up-ness all round, I realise.

Yesterday we re-arranged the lounge. We’ve moved the settee to where the telly is and vice versa and moved my black hi-fi stand upstairs. That means that the only hi-fi equipment we’ve got downstairs is my pride and joy CD player and my pride and joy amp. In case your wondering, my pride and joy speakers are at my mum’s and I am using an old pair of Royd Eden speakers in the lounge. The speaker substitution was a concession to my wife a long time ago. This is what happens when you get married. But I’m glad that we got married and I’m even glad that had to concede even more bachelor-hi-fi-ground yesterday because the living room does look a lot nicer now.

As well as rearranging the lounge we had a long chat about something that we should have had a long chat about a long time ago. I won’t tell you what it is because it was one of those life secrets that you don’t dish out lightly. But I think that it will change our relationship for the better. It’s a bit like re-arranging the lounge: things look a lot better now but it means even more compromise and change on my part.

Code 10/2

Friday and I’m officially unemployed so went to the job centre today. It wasn’t a depressing a place as some job centres but all the same, its not a place in which you’d want to spend too much time. I don’t think they’ll have any part to play in finding me work (unless I want to learn to drive a fork lift) but they should pay my National Insurance and might even give us a bit of money. Interestingly, just round the corner from the job centre is a telecoms consultancy. What a strange thing to find in a little town like Chepstow.

My body clock is programmed to wake early. When I was in work I used to leave the house before 7 AM every week day and, I must admit, it is a welcome change not to have to get on the road at such an unpleasant hour. I would like to keep my body clock programming however and use the time to do things. Apart from the obvious, like job hunting, I have lots of business books I’d like to read. I’ve just skim read “The de Bono Code book” by Edward de Bono. In this book, de Bono proposes a new “add-on pack” to the language. If everyone on this planet thought like de Bono this idea would stand half a chance of catching on. But, given that they don’t I think that the idea has little merit. If anyone apart from de Bono had written this I’m sure it would have been rejected by every publishing house on earth. Maybe he was just floating an idea. I’ve just checked the book: although he proposes many different codes for labelling information he doesn’t have a code for information that is “idea floating”. I think that demonstrates that the complexity of life can’t be encoded in this way. By the way, in the book, de Bono says (although in not so many words) that anyone who thinks the book is rubbish has a rubbish intellect. Does that make me thick? Despite the fact that de Bono is a internationally renowned author and I’m an out of work blogger, I don’t think so. A nice try though, Mr. de Bono.

What a strange day

Yesterday was a very strange day. I woke up after having a bit of a sleepless night and it was very strange not to have to jump out of bed at 6:30. Went into work and had a brief chat with the HR director. Then went to my desk to collect my belongings and chatted to some people on the way. That cheered me up. There are some people there who were sorry to see me go. Then back to the HR directors office to collect a letter. And that was that.

I’d just received notification the day before that my MBA dissertation had been bound and was ready to be picked up so I drove straight over to the business school. I was very impressed with the binding and my dissertation looked great. I had a quick flick through the pages and it seemed like a different life/different world. I’ve been so immersed in the project I’ve been managing that I’d forgotten about all the other stuff I learned on my MBA. That made me feel better too. I stopped in to see my dissertation supervisor and, as luck would have it, also bumped into my ex-supervisor. They both asked what I was working as and both times I told them that I had just been made redundant. They work in a university – I don’t think they have redundancies there – and so they seemed to be unable to grasp what it means at a personal level.

So where do I go from here? Both my wife and myself are unemployed now and we have decided that we will start job hunting on Monday. We have also vowed that we will use this time to best advantage and have vowed that we will go to the gym every day and eat healthily.

I weighed myself yesterday. I am 72kg. I’d like to get down to 66.

I've been made redundant

I’ve just been made redundant. Or rather I was made redundant at about 2:30 this afternoon. It was a bit of a surprise! I'll post something in a while. Don't really know what to write for now.

The last day

We’re still on holiday – but only just. Today is our last day and we need to get on the road and check how our cats have done without us. One always lives outside and she’s got a kennel. We put down lots of food for her when we go away. The other lives a more conventional life in that he lives in the house during the day (mainly asleep) and is then forcibly ejected during the night. He’s got a cat flap to let him in to the kitchen (where his food is) but he’s not that bright and we can’t be sure he’ll use it. But, at heart, they’re wild animals and so I’m sure they’re fine – at the very worst just a bit hungry.

I have been haunted by thoughts of work for the past few days. That’s a shame but it hasn’t affected the holiday too much. My wife gave up work last week and has no such worries. I think her body is winding down from being at work “standby status” to being on holiday “no worries” status. That’s not to say that she is stressed by work – its just that when you finish working your body decides that it’s going to take lots of down time. That’s why she’s still in bed at 8:30AM and I’m up and about writing my blog.

So, why am I writing this blog? Good question, I’m going away to think about it…

Padstow and Boscastle

We’re still on holiday! Yippee. And it’s a rainy Monday morning. So by rights I should stay in bed feeling smug about all those poor commuters pouring down the M32 but my body clock obviously knew it was a Monday and turfed me out of bed long before my long suffering wife.

Today was Padstow day. Rick Stein owns half of Padstow, apparently. He’s got his orginal restaurant, a cookery school, a bistro, a café, and a fish and chip shop on the quay. I think he might also be considering a Rick Stein Roadside kebab van. We studied the menus on all his establishments and, after careful consideration of the prices, settled on his fish and chip shop. It may have been the cheapest but it still wasn’t cheap. Twenty quid for fish and chips for two. But it was the best fish and chips I have ever had. We had Gurnard and Hake.

Afternoon was Boscastle. This is the town that was flooded in August 2004 with 50 cars and 6 buildings being washed into the sea. Nineteen months later on and its nearly back to what it was. The tourist office is still in a portakabin, there’s a lot of building work going on but the tourist shops seem to be fully stocked with Cornish fudge and cream teas. And for some reason, there’s a museum of Witchcraft. And a couple of other pagan looking shops… And the locals seemed to have cloven hooves instead of feet...

Wide Mouths

We're on holiday! We've rented a lovely cottage near Bude. We arrived yesterday under overcast skies and this morning woke up to blustery rain. So after lounging in bed we lounged for a bit longer in our PJs nursing our coffees but, finally, decided to pull on our waterproofs and walking boots to venture outside. We trudged through mud and water down to the beach where it was windy and cold and so, feeling like we'd earned a drink we went into the Bay View Inn.

Any place of refuge that stops my ears from stinging and allows feeling to return to my cheeks has got to be good - but a plate of mussels as a starter and then a full-on Sunday roast (beef and yorkshire pudding) raised the experience to the sublime. How much does sublime cost? I guess its not subject to an RRP but according to the bill, my glass of Pinot Noir was six quid. Just for a glass. Isn’t that just too much to pay? Just why is it that that restaurant wine is soo expensive in the UK. Any ideas? Despite that, the BVI is definitely recommended if you are anywhere near Widemouth.