After all, garden sheds are supposed to be a bit messy, aren’t they?

Currently I work a number of days on and a number of days off.

Don’t get me wrong, when I work, the days can be pretty long and I work (on every second week a Wednesday) every Thursday, Friday and Saturday. It’s actually quite good on my days off as it gives me chance to do stuff.

It can be really good, but there are times when I get bored.

Fine, we all get bored, but I don’t get bored that often, so when I do, I feel that I am letting myself down for getting bored in the first place.

Normally when I do get bored I will go out for a walk and enjoy nature and the fantastic scenery or I’ll work in the garden. If the weather is bad I usually have enough to do inside to keep me occupied.

I may also read, write, watch television or DVDs. I may listen to music, the radio or audio books. All of which keeps my mind occupied. Sometimes though, I need something else to get the ‘little grey cells’ agitated.

It was on one of these ‘a bit bored’ days that I was tidying up the garden shed when I came upon something I thought would alleviate the boredom. After all, garden sheds are supposed to be a bit messy, aren’t they? And this one will stay messy for a wee bit longer.

What did I find? You are asking. Well’ I’ll tell you.

I found a mould kit that allows you to make a plaster cast footballer.

You’re not that impressed are you? Well, maybe not, but it was the most exciting thing in the shed. And I knew it would help me out of the shallow rut I was about to get myself into.

The rest of this blog (when I get around to it) will be about my progress and success (or not) in creating a 15cm (150mm/6 inch) tall plaster cast footballer. And then deciding in what colours I would paint him. It may not be literary brilliance or indeed a riveting read, but at least it stopped me from having to vacuum the living room, the downstairs hall, the downstairs toilet and the hall stair carpet. 

To be continued... 

Looking before I leap. Even without knowing where I'm leaping. Episode Two... A New Hope.

A long, long, time ago… in a factory far, far away…

To re-cap…

“To be honest I am overwhelmed by the amount of work involved in this role. The number of tasks involved is pretty high and I feel it might have been better getting someone who was already familiar with the job, for example one of the existing trainers and replacing them with someone from the production area, or spread the work load between the other trainers, to slot into the job rather than bringing someone fresh into the role with little or no knowledge of the way things are done.”

On Friday afternoon I had a meeting with my manager.

Although my work has been good so far she feels that they are putting me under too much of a work load, especially with all the new starts coming in over the next few months and the new procedure updates.

So the plan is that they will be spreading the work load between the other trainers.  She thinks it would be better for me and fairer on me if I returned to my original work area next week, but has asked if I would help out Monday and Tuesday (1000 to 1800) of this week. I will then return to ‘my team’ on Wednesday, working Thursday, Friday and Saturday (0600 - 1600).

To be honest, I have no problem with doing this. 

And to be more honest, it is a bit of a relief.

Thank you for listening.

Looking before I leap. Even without knowing where I'm leaping.

About a week ago I was asked to go along to an interview at my work. An in-house position had come up and they wanted to know if I was interested. 

Why not. What had I to lose?

As it turns out, I got the job. 

The full aspects of the job had not been explained to me, because if they had I would probably not have applied.

To be honest I am overwhelmed by the amount of work involved in this role. The number of tasks involved is pretty high and I feel it might have been better getting someone who was already familiar with the job, for example one of the existing trainers and replacing them with someone from the production area, or spread the work load between the other trainers, to slot into the job rather than bringing someone fresh into the role with little or no knowledge of the way things are done.

I actually feel it was unfair on both me and the company to put me into this position.  I also believe there are a very large number of new starts coming into the company, which increases the pressure on who is taking on this role.

Also, the person training me was only available for 8 ½ days before she went off on maternity leave. She has been in the role for over three years. I feel that the time scale was ridiculously short to learn even half of what was required.

I expected a number of administrative tasks, yes, but not to the extent that I have discovered I have to carry out.

Next week I will tell you more about what happened today. But until then…

Now Pay attention... 007

A few weeks ago I heard on the radio news, it was BBC Radio 4 news so it must be true, that Russia and Ukraine were having a bit of an argument over, of all things… cheese.

Now, the Russian ‘Bear’ has every right to disrespect another countries dairy based food products, but I don’t think it’s worth getting hot and bothered about. Also, I think it would be a rubbish plot for a James Bond movie.

I mean, can you imagine ‘M’ sending 007 on his mission to infiltrate the cheese production facilities of the Eastern Bloc in order to save English Cheddar? Nah… it would never work. Then I started thinking, ‘What if key words in Bond movies were replaced by a cheese related word?’

So, in order to unburden my mind of the idea, I have put them in the following list as per the movies in order to let you see the kind of random thoughts that occur in my random mind.

• Doctor Cheese
• From Russia With Cheese
• Cheesefinger (which sounds rather icky)
• Cheeseball (or perhaps) Thundercheese
• You Only Cheese Twice (or perhaps) You Only Live Cheese
• On Her Majesty’s Cheesy Service
• Cheeses Are Forever
• Live and Let Cheese
• The Man With the Golden Cheese
• The Cheese Who Loved Me (which sounds wrong on several levels)
• Cheeseraker
• For Your Cheese Only
• Octocheesy (there is another option on that, but it just sounded rude)
• Never Say Cheese Again (okay, it’s not in the official Bond canon, but…)
• A View to a Cheese
• The Living Cheeselights
• Licence to Cheese
• Golden Cheese
• Cheese Never Dies (or perhaps) Tomorrow Never Cheese
• The Cheese is Not Enough
• Cheese Another Day (or perhaps) Die Another Cheese
• Cheese Royale
• A Quantum of Cheese

And last but not least, as it is still in production

• Cheese Fall

My New Year Resolution

Is it too late to say, Happy New Year?

Naw... so, Happy New Year.

About 10 years ago I made a New Year Resolution, and that was... never to make a new year resolution ever again. And, I have to say, in those 10 years I never have. See, I do have willpower.

However, I would like to say to everyone who has set out to make a life changing decision, good luck to you and I wish you all the best. In the meantime, I am going to stick to mine

"...what other ways can you sell me on joining Twitter?"

War!

What is it good for?

Absolutely nothin', say it again...

But what about Twitter? Ah, now that is a different story.

I was, I admit very reluctant to join Twitter. I had no idea what I was going to do with it, or indeed use it for. It was pointed out to me that I could find things out. 

Well, surely I could do that with Google?

Okay, maybe I could, but would I get it directly from the horses mouth so to speak? Well, no.

So I asked my friend, who goes by the name of Kemocs on Twitter, what other ways can you sell me on joining Twitter?

"Well, you like science don't you?"

"Yes."

"Would you like to see tweets directly from astronauts on-board the international space station? Or what Professor Brian Cox is up to?"

"You like stuff like Spaced and Star Trek and things with Stephen Fry, right?"

"I am intrigued. Sell me more."

So he did.

Not only did I see information and stories from people in science, the public eye and everywhere else, I also got in touch with and communicated with people I would probably never meet in 'real-life'.

I will name names.  Helen from France, Dr Watsonette, Judy, Jamie Mahoney, Claire Hammond, Nancy Scott, Elaine Wedgewood, Hope (you know who you are), Mrs Robinson (Here's to you Mrs Robinson...), the wonderful Wendy who has taught me more about autism than could possibly ever imagine, Tracey B (cupcake), SadieX with her extremely interesting  and incredibly complicated life, Sharon J, Seaside Sophist and many many more.

I have 'spoken' to friends I know and friends I hope I have made on Twitter. I have responded to and chatted with people like Robin Ince (if you don't know who he is, shame on you. Have you never listened to The Infinite Monkey Cage on BBC Radio 4? He has done lots of other stuff, but as the ranting science novice. he is tremendous).

Others I have been luckily enough to converse with are Barnaby Edwards, the utterly brilliant Clive Merrison (the greatest radio Sherlock Holmes ever), Reece Shearsmith (The League of Gentlemen) as well as Geek Gods Jason Bradbury and Jon Bentley from the Gadget Show, as well as many others.

I try not to bore people too much with my tweets. I try to be supportive and funny and kind. I try to reply as honestly as I can with my tweets and I hope that comes across.

I did not join a social network to be abusive and anti-social. That's not the point. I cannot understand why people do that, do not be anti-social on a social network, it's not nice.

Something else that has happened to me since joining Twitter, and I am so glad it did, was finding and old and very dear friend. I cannot believe I have found her again, and I am so pleased that I have. Hello again Jinty. May we never go that length of time again without talking.

Okay, enough of my ranting. As I say, I try not to bore, but I just wanted to say, I'm glad I made the 'step' and joined. To all my fellow Tweeters, thanks.

There's somethin' happenin' here...

There's something happening here,

What it is ain't exactly clear,

There's a man with a bun over there,

Telling me I got to beware,

I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound...

Woah! "There's a man with a bun over there?" A BUN?

Yes I mean a bun. A cake, a pastry, the small, usually sweet, breaded hand-sized or smaller, domed in shape, with a flat bottom tempting edible object found in bakers.


Why do I mention this? Well because over the last year or so these little but delicious items have been creeping into my system like sugar and dough based ninjas and making my waist size increase.

It has taken me a bit of time to notice, but they have done it. How do I know? Well the trousers/jeans that I wear are a bit tighter than usual and the holes in my belt are steadily getting wider apart. 


If I don't get to grips with these delightful little fat inducers, they may take over my body.


If I am successful, I will let you know. If I am not, I will float above you like a Graf Zepplin.


Have bun... erm, I mean fun.