Bradford on Avon

A couple of quiet days at work which is good since I slept through the alarm on Friday. It won't be much of a pay packet this week.


Today we went to a little village called Bradford on Avon, which perhaps suprisingly, is on the Avon River upstream from Bath. It used to be called Broad Ford, but the river today was very swollen after the rain and quite dangerous looking. There is lots to see, from the Saxon church to mansions, to a World War II pillbox. It appears that the Avon and the nearby Avon and Kennet Canal formed a defensive line against German advances after Operation Sealion, or would have if that had actually happened.

We had a very nice afternoon tea (lovely cake) in a tea house built in 1675. That's just 33 years younger than Abel Janszoon Tasman's discovery of NZ for the Europeans. All of our european history eclipsed by one tea-house.

By then it had started raining, and of course it was dark anyway by 4:30, so we headed home again. It had been a pleasant outing for all that.



To see more of Bradford on Avon see

http://picasaweb.google.com/Italythenandnow/BradfordOnAvon

So this is Christmas

Well, it has been an interesting Christmas, and far from 'usual'. We began Christmas Eve with a call at 4:47 am to hear that C had gone into hospital A&E with suspected meningitis. She had been sick for a couple of days with bad headaches with violent vomiting but had been given Panadol and told to call again if things got worse. Well they did, and she has been in the backless gown since then. She's had the works - Spinal Tap, CAT scan (no cats found fortunately), blood tests, torso X-Ray, etc. J has been understandably upset given the distance. Fortunately there are plenty of people to look after C: O and his family and Bruce in particular to all of whom we are grateful. The good thing is that in this day of cellphones and email, it was easy to keep in touch - almost as easy as being there, but not quite. J toyed with flying home but Heathrow was fogged in so the gods were against it.

That same day we had another drama outside the building as a man drowned in the harbour - probable suicide. A chap saw him in the water and spoke to him, but he just dived under and never came back up. It reminds us that Christmas is not a great time for many.

It turns out that with mother-in-law B in hospital with a broken leg and father-in-law G visiting for lunch there were three of J's family in on Christmas day. Later I discovered that Dad and M had also been in hospital on Christmas day because M had pulled a muscle playing tennis. That made five! Actually the most amazing thing about Dad's story was that he had been playing tennis - the first sport I'd known him to partake in for what must be 25 years! M is good for him, no doubt at all. They reminded everyone that they would be getting married in April, so it is a shame I am so far away. Sorry Dad and M.

We had a quiet Chrissy. We had splurged on goodies at the supermarket and so had whatever we liked to eat during the day. It was an anti-Christmas Dinner, but pretty relaxed all the same. I rang the family but of course everyone was late so I only got to speak to Steve and Mum. NOONE RANG ME BACK EITHER BUT I'M NOT BITTER. I do realise that phones are a more recent invention in New Zealand and that my family is particularly backward in using them. And heck, what do we have to talk about?

Boxing Day saw another visit to M & T, my friend from work. It was a pleasant evening again. They are both ardent Terry Pratchett fans, and have a large collection of DiscWorld stuff, including a very nice model of the [casts around memory for name of place but finds nothing - Open? Magic? In fact finds very little at all which is frightening] University. (J saves me - the Hidden University.)

It was back to work again today, for me at least. Not much going on, but I have to go since I get no holiday pay as a temp. I spent some of the day writing a letter warning the (nice) landlord that the bastard elctricity company had sent him to the debt collectors. We have been fighting them since moving in and they are a useless bunch. They aren't even our provider so if we hadn't liked the landlord we'd have told them to go screw themselves. The thing is we've told them several times it is our bill, but the value is wrong, and yet still they send it to the landlord and for the same amount. If you pay L232 for 7 months there is no way the other month can be L98! Eejits.

So aside from all this we're OK. We're past the solstice so it will get lighter and brighter from now on. It was even reasonably mild today.

Oh yes, I remember the other thing. C flies in on the 17th (assuming she is well enough) and guess what day the airport workers have decided to strike - yes, of course. And for 48 hours too. We are told that C and O will get as far as Frankfurt then Lufthansa will arrange something if the strike is still on. Ironically one option is to fly them into Bristol, but we've booked to be in London! I guess we'll deal with whatever arises. At least they'll be close.

Work do

We had the Financial Ops lunch yesterday. This is the larger group for which I work, so there were about 100 people there. My table was the rowdiest, although not because of me I have to add. Apparently we racked up a L300 drinks bill, compared to L160 of the next biggest drinkers. One particular person was drinking Baileys and Brandy, as well as wine, so must have been accounted for about L90 on his own. The meal was nice enough - Chinese - and the company convivial. We headed off to the pub across the road to see a pool challenge played out, but I left before it was over. The players can't remember who won anyway. I took the opportunity to get into town and have a look for Js Christmas present, but without any luck. I'll try again on the weekend.

After I got home I was dragged back out in the cold and taken to church. I didn't get struck down, and did enjoy singing carols with the Salvation Army. I had sore vocal chords after so can't have sung enough recently.

Tonight we went to see a light display in town. It was a little underwhelming to begin with, but got better. They had a snowmaker, but a wimpy little one, and 'six of the biggest projectors in the UK'. Eventually the projections became something to be bothered about, but they could have done a lot better. Still, probably expensive, and with no return since it was free. It was bloody cold even though I had thermals on, top and bottom! And still no (natural) snow...

As usual you can see more pics on the web album.

Bloody hell, it's cold

I can't believe it's this cold without snow.

On Saturday we headed off to another foreign country. It was a bit tricky trying to understand the roadsigns but luckily most of the locals seemed to speak English. They even looked like us!

We had decided the Brecon Beacons beckoned so jump-started the car and headed off over the Severn Bridge to a strange new land. Well, not that new. We stopped in a village called Blaenavon (pronounced Llanelli) that has the ruins of an ironworks as its main attraction. It was interesting to see this early industrial revolution site and apparently it was the home of the bessemer (or indirect) reduction method for those of you who are at all interested. But I'll tell you something - it was feckin' cold! It is surrounded by mineworks on all sides and underneath, and close by were forges and steelworks. It has also been used as the site for one of those family-lives-and-works-in-period programmes called The Coal House which will no doubt be on your screens shortly. We have trod those very steps dear reader.

After a pleasant lunch watching Stade Francais (in pink) lose to Cardiff (in Wales), we carried on as we wanted to find a Youth Hostel. We didn't, so carried on to Brecon where we found a B&B. Since it was completely dark by 4.00 we didn't see a hell of a lot, but wandered around the town centre freezing our bits off. There was a brief bit of drama when two very pissed ladies managed to overbalance and hit the deck with a double clunk you could hear from across the road. They both hit their heads on the pavement so assuming they did at all they would have woken up with one heck of a headache each, but which they couldn't blame on the booze.

The B&B was nice enough, with a newly decorated bathroom, but rather flimsy walls. Luckily there were no couples next door. It had been extended from the original house by converting two attached barns, so the floors were higgeldy-piggeldy, and there was a surprisingly long corridor.

On Sunday, after jump-starting the car, we headed back through the Brecons which were a bleak area like the route from Dunedin to Middlemarch. There was evidence of the mining that's gone on for centuries in the form of tailings and ruined buildings. We had hoped to take a scenic train ride but it was a special Santa train that day so no go. We went down the Big Pit and had a good introduction to mining. God, what a job. Our guide was an ex-miner but somewhat less fit than he would have been when working. I thought he was going to have a heart attack then and there. The map of the mine showed roads and galleries going off for miles in all directions so it was pretty amazing. Batteries weren't allowed, so there were no cameras allowed either which was a little disappointing. The Big Pit is no longer worked thanks in part to Maggie, but there is apparently still plenty of coal in it, and fairly clean burning, so maybe when the oil runs out we'll be using it again to run our trains.

We drove through Griffithstown looking for Panteg (pronounced Cardiff) as J thinks her rellies come from there. Turns out Panteg is a steelworks, so we're not sure if we were anywhere even close, but a google seems to suggest Panteg is a suburb of Griffithstown. We should have stopped at the church.

The sun had just gone down as we went back over the border, which is a shame as it would have been quite spectacular from the bridge. It was of course only 4.00 so we got home in plenty of time to relax.

For pics of whales click here, or for our snaps of Wales, click here. Don't forget that if you double-click the images on this page or in the albums you get a full sized pic!

Work is pretty quiet but we've both got work lunches coming up. Two for me and two or more for J. There's already a big tin of chocolates sitting on the desk and apparently another two coming, so my teeth will be rotten by New Year. Perhaps I should have Listerine (tm) chasers after each one?

Col Blimp is refusing to let me have a copy of the invoice in question and I now have to write through his lawyer. What it must be like to have someone else to be unreasonable for you. He really is pathetic, but what can I do?

Have I told you it's feckin' cold? Apparently it was -3 today but take some more away for wind chill factor. J was waiting for a train for an hour+ in about -10 deg!

Hum ho

My assignment was extended so that gives us something to plan around. I asked the agent to ask for a pay rise, but I can't see her trying too hard, as it's probably too easy to just take the cut for doing nothing.

It's Christmas decoration time so the two page Lloyds TSB Health and Safety Guide to Christmas Decorations arrived in our emails. How nice that they care.

The last two reports I've tried running have fallen over, possibly for the same underlying cause, which this time is not me. 8-) Since this leaves me with spare time, I have decided to create a Documentation Guide so that we can improve the standards of our process documentation. Conventions, expectations, hints and tips, etc. Hell, it fills in the day. The trouble is that as fast as they are written, the processes change, sometimes drastically, so part of the Guide will be to manage these changes as well.

The other day I created a macro to copy some cells from one column to another. I then created a button on the spreadsheet and assigned the macro to it. S#!TSTORM! I apologised to my boss for causing a problem but he just said "IT'S NOT A PROBLEM. SOME PEOPLE HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO THAN WORRY ABOUT HARMLESS BUTTONS", in a voice loud enough to carry almost everywhere. I wonder if the worrier got the message? I think he's a good manager from what I've seen of him.

J has started the new school, and is going to get it sorted. She's kind of the Clean-up Guy, like the character in Pulp Fiction. They just sound so disorganised at times, and the Local Education Offices (LEOs) seem incompetent. There's got to be something wrong with the job if two of her assignments have been due to stress leave of the incumbents.

I sent another request to Col Blimp for him to fax through the contract I signed, and CC'd his solicitor. There's probably steam coming out his ears about now, so I'll post his reply if I get one. He'll be tied up trying to find some medals I suppose...

Black Friday

I don't want to talk about it. Oh all right, due to an internal calendar error I turned up at the PRO/NA to find it closed for alterations. Great start to a trip to London. Too late to organise a visit anywhere else, so I had to meet up with J and then followed a day from hell waiting for the shopping to finish. For all that Oxford street is raved about, it seems to be the same shops repeated ad nauseum - there are about 4 Zara's, 3 Bromley & somethings, half-a-dozen Nexts... Anyway, we got to the New Zealand shop - Kiwi Fruits - just before it closed and J now has some Marmite, we shared an L&P, and scoffed a Whittaker's and a Licorice Log. Then we wandered around filling in time until the bus left at 9. I discovered a military bookshop after it closed, so have somewhere to go next visit at least. When we came to take pictures of the street lights it turned out the camera battery was flat so I would have been handicapped at the PRO anyway. We bought a new one and took some pics - see Js site for these. These shots are off my phone, btw.

We waited for the bus and after 9 oclock came and went with no sign of it we were informed the bus-stop had been moved and the bus had gone. 7 people got caught out in the same way so it wasn't just us. The rival company had a delayed sign for their bus but after waiting half an hour it was clear we'd missed that also, so we didn't actually leave London until 11:30, and got home at 2:50.

It ended up a fecking expensive jar of Marmite, and the lights were only average.

Next morning there was a bill for the electricity that the company still hasn't sorted out, so they copped it all. And it's raining...

VC or no VC, that is the question

The value of these medals is as a symbol of an individual's unselfish act on behalf of the country, a value all collectors must recognise, so it is ironic that (it would seem) an unscrupulous collector has made the ultimate in individual selfish acts at the expense of the nation. I think it is a disaster from a cultural perspective.

I saw Col Blimp on a video clip and can't really imagine him deep in the Malayan jungle, but who can tell. It would be sweet if he was directly responsible for the loss and got his arse kicked, but I doubt it. I hope the Trust gets the medals back soon anyway.

Today's news is that the EU is planning to put the kybosh on temping. They say that we poor temps are being used by naughty employers to avoid hiring people full time. I guess we will all be forced to become contractors to get around it.

J got another job today, so she's happy. It's in Bath which is only a dozen miles but took her 45 minutes in the car in early afternoon. Imagine the rush hour!

Long time no write

It's been a while since I updated and that's mainly because little has happened. We've made a few outings of course - to the beach on a freezing day, shopping, the pub. You can see J's page for a description of the beach. Suffice to say it wasn't quite what we were expecting!

Winter has begun. Most of the leaves are gone, and it belted down with rain yesterday. In a scene familiar to some of you I stayed in my dressing gown the entire day.

Today we are off to a meal at a colleague from work's home - the first time we've been invited into an English person's home, if you don't count M.

It's very quiet at work. This month's run was early and went smoothly (and so it should after all the mistakes made the previous two runs), so the bulk of my work is done until the end of December. I've been documenting, helping others where I can, getting the drinks in, and so on but it is going to be a boring month coming up.

Last week they announced a recruitment freeze because of the fall-out from the 'sub-prime' collapse in the US. This has hit J just as she was looking for work, and she had two interviews cancelled. It may mean my assignment doesn't get extended into Jan as well, but since I'm already there I may be OK. LloydsTSB is one of the bigger employers around town, and if the other banks are doing similar it will make finding temp work that much harder. The flip side is that the agents are desperate to get other income so are offering J all sorts of crappy work, presumably so they can get any sort of commission. They certainly don't seem too concerned about her own needs at the moment.

Mum's starting to think about a trip over here next year, and R is doing the same. We hope they will be able to coordinate their efforts, as they can help each other through the hassles that travelling inevitably brings. C's trip is much closer of course, and she (and O) is busy working every hour she can to make up for the unfavourable exchange rate.

JP has sent over his first drafts of the book, so there has been much toing-and-froing over that. There is still a long way to go of course. If any of you know anyone in Washington DC who might have time on his/her hands, we need someone to get into the US archives...

But first we have to survive Christmas. Bah humbug.