A first

Well, for the first time in my working life I have been fired! And for thinking too much, or not being able to stop thinking if that's any different. Basically they introduced targets that could only be met by turning your brain off and getting into a 'zone' and I just couldn't do it. I explained this to them and suggested to the boss that they could find some thinking work for me, as it isn't that I don't want to work, just I can't do their mindless stuff. Sadly he said they didn't have any work that involved thinking, and it turns out he had already made the call to the agent, but didn't mention this face to face. (Ironically a large part of the development of the mindless process was my doing which bit me in the arse severely. 8-) ) I've been called into the agency tomorrow morning. It's odd to have finished up this way because I feel I contributed far more than expected for most of the time. And it is not good timing of course, with three weeks to go and J not working either. But shit happens.

Other plans have changed also, and seem to be changing every day. We have had to can the Italy holiday, and will be returning to the UK as soon as the house-sit is done. We'll get established in the next place (Leeds/York unless something else comes up job-wise before then) then I'll leave J at home while I go to Italy to get the necessary pictures to finish off the book. Not how we planned the year, but needs must, as they say.

I got a nibble about guiding a group of Canadians around Cassino. I am just scoping their needs before deciding whether I can do it, but the opportunity is quite exciting.

We spent the last two weekends watching Scotland losing in the 6 Nations. Not at the grounds of course, but in a comfy pub. Amazing how people can arrive after kick-off and expect a prime view. I was constantly having to move people away from in front of our seats, only to see Scotland drop the ball time after time...

London

So we got out of London just in time, in more ways than one...

We took a sleeper train to London which proved an extremely good way of doing the trip. One arrives refreshed and ready to face the day, while avoiding one night's expensive accommodation in the city. J got a really good deal on it which made it even better.

Saturday was spent at the National Archives before booking in to our hotel way on the other side of town. The Jubilee line and the Docklands Light Rail were closed on the weekend so it felt as if the whole area had been cut off, but a bus got us where we needed to be. The hotel was average but a pretty good deal pricewise. On Sunday we had a look around Canary Wharf which was almost unrecognisable from when I was there 17 years ago. Still a bit sterile in the way of a financial centre, but softening over time. I guess there are a lot of worried people there on work days.

Monday and Tuesday were spent back at the NA, with J providing stirling secretarial services. She was getting through the photocopying faster than I could feed her stuff to copy. She managed the odd search for her family while I caught up though. She was sick on Wednesday while I was at the IWM for a day, but joined me for the next two days.

We caught up with RH and D for dinner in Brick Lane. The Indian meal was really good value, and the area interesting. R & D are counting down the days, having booked to go home in June. Probably good timing with the economy as it is. R's job might be in jeopardy anyway as the company he works for is talking of making 1000 redundant, with temps probably the first to go.

We took Saturday off and had a look around Greenwich. It's a lovely place to be in the summertime. Cutty Sark was under wraps after its disastrous fire, but we went to the observatory and straddled the Greenwich Meridian. I've now been on both 0 and 180 (Fiji) and crossed the equator several times. Just the poles to go...

Getting from our hotel to Victoria took longer than expected so we missed our Stansted shuttle. Fortunately we made the next one with about two minutes to spare. It then took an hour to drive back to a block from our hotel on the way to the airport. We arrived there with only 30 minutes to spare before the flight left and security took forever so we had to run for the plane. Too many 'only justs' for my liking but it all ended happily. On the way from Edinburgh airport I made us take the #35 because it goes past our door. What I didn't realise is that it does so at the wrong end of a loop that takes it to what felt like every bus-stop in town. It'd be OK for town to airport, but not airport to town again.

On the subject of airport security I have to say that Osama and his ilk have caused so much cumulative stress and disruption just by forcing these ridiculous checks on us that they've won that particular battle even if far less obvious that 9/11. Nearly everyone had to remove shoes and belts on this trip through the scanners, and I was nearly held up for my tooth floss/pick. And is there any real increase in security? Only the dumbest of terrorists would be caught by these checks. Anyway...

On Sunday a cold blast from Siberia hit England and today it visited bonny Scotland. We got snow most of the day, but it didn't settle for long in town.

Work has instituted daily targets which is worrying some of my workmates. I did some figures today:
We have 59,000 work-orders to process. Let's round that up for convenience to 60,000. That means if we shave a minute off each work-order's processing time we save 60,000 person-minutes, or 1000 person-hours or L10,000! Put another way, that's L166.67 per person-second. I reckon the team should be given an all-up sum then find our own way to save time in the processing. First thing I'd do is hire an SQL guru...

For even more pics of London follow this link.