Yo peeps!

Well, something that’s not happened since I went to Oz in 2006… that’s right, I’m leaving my department at work! Goodbye Technical Services!

There’s one key difference:

Last time, despite actually leaving the company outright and going to the other side of the world, I came back to the very same department (albeit in a different role). This time I’m permanently leaving the department! *

What’s more is the distance involved in my move. I’m not just going to the other side of the world, oh no: I’m going to the other side…. of the corridor!

I KNOW!

Literally 6 metres from my current desk, the change of environment may be too much for me to take but I’m hoping I’ll be ok. Basically, I’m moving to another department to do some cool stuff for a funky and very useful web based system designed to help our customers. The cool stuff involves Oracle, WebLogic, funky web front end stuff and Linux/Unix. I’m looking forward to it!

Two days to go in TS, then I start next week (as I’m off on a long weekend to go to see Jersey… in Jersey! Sam and Spence from Oz, who’re On Tour at the mo are coming over too so it should be an awesome weekend!).

Right, that’s all really. Just an update from my world.

Toodles,

Pat

* Probably.

YES! That’s right!

That’s right, following my 3 hour lessons in Milton Keynes snowdome, I’ve decided to up the ante a little for the remaining lessons: Jimbo (from work) and myself (and Squage, natch) are heading off to the south of France in just over a week for a week of Snow Boarding fun amoungst beautiful scenery! In the words of Peter Griffin, it’s going to be freakin’ awesome:

The Chalet.

The Resort.

This is the connected (massive) Les Arcs

Fortunately James and I have been down the gym 5 times this week and planning at least 4 next week too, so we’ll be in some kind of fit state to give it a go! I’m still gonna ache like a bastard but you know what: I don’t care. It’s going to be SO worth it.

Expect a full report on my return :-)

On in the mean time, today is the return of the Daily Photo. Today it’s of two stuffed toys on Reg’s desk at work:

Ride ‘em, IUM * Monkey!

Toodles,

Pat

* IUM = Image Utility Model. Basically it’s a printer leasing scheme, but as it’s at my place of work it needs to ensure it’s got a TLA **

** Tasty Lumpy Artichoke

…and it’s off to a great start. Both James and I managed to coordinate efforts to be up and ready at 6:05am for him to give me a lift into the gym for 6:30am.

What a winner! We were impressed that we’d both managed to achieve this, given that the earliest time either of us had been awake for the 2 week preceding had been about 9:30am. And that was early.

Even better still, as the schools are still off the roads were almost empty - so we bombed it in and made it to the gym at bang on 6:30am - just in time for it to open and give us maximum time in there before work!

Just in time for it to open… on a normal day, that is. For it is this, the week starting the 1st of January 2008, that the guys at the gym have decided to open at 9am for the next 3 days.

So that left James and I sitting in his car in the pitch black, dressed in gym kit and (myself anyway) unshaven and messy looking, wondering what the hell we should do now.

Luckily there are showers in our work’s building itself, so we went to the work car park and made our way to the building entrance… only to find that I’d not brought my pass.

A diversion later I got myself signed in, visitor passed up and in the building.

I’m now showered and a bit more alive than at 6:30am… but given that I’m at my desk over an hour before I should technically be starting work, without a pass and feeling rather tired given getting up far earlier than I would’ve if I were just coming into work today, that’s not much consolation.

Things, as D:Ream once rightly pointed out, can only get better.

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2007/09/28/half-workers-snooze-job

(I’m not referring to the snoozing bit, just fyi)

This may come as a surprise to those of you who I’ve not spoken to for a while. I’ve gone back to my former employer.

But wait! Before you say “Hey, what the hell?”, allow me to explain a few things.

Firstly, it’s a good place to work.

One of the things I found through talking to the myriad of people I met on my travels, plus also through speaking to long time friends about their experiences, was that there are plenty of things that my former-sorry, current employer provides and does that exceed many other companies. I’ll not go into details, but I heard plenty of stories from people about their employers that made me think “Jeez, how do they get away with treating their employees like that?”.

Essentially, I’ve been able to get some perspective on it all.

Secondly, I’m viewing this as a positive thing for me.

It’s going to provide me with the funds I need to have a good lifestyle outside work, spend my free time on things I enjoy doing (such as the cartoon bits and pieces, radio stuff etc) with no financial pressures on them, plus save up money for any future plans I might have.

It also means I can start going down the gym with James and Andreas from work. Having people to go with, keep you motivated and help you plan your goals etc is invaluable when it comes to things you don’t necessarily enjoy doing – e.g. running until you think you’re going to die, lifting weights until you think you’re going to die… you get the idea :-)

But, anyway, there we go. I’m back. To a clean desk:

So far it’s been an easy few days, mainly because I’m still waiting on most of my IDs to get sorted out so I can actually start doing anything… but hey, it’s good to see everyone again and I’m looking forward to getting my teeth stuck into the projects I’ve got lined up.

I’m also looking forward to the 28th of September. A.k.a. Payday

Toodles,

Pat