Up And Running

Phew! Got paid. That's a relief. Now that the systems are in place I can finally relax. The freelance thing is up and running. Timescales on the current project are very tight so some overtime may be required in the next few weeks. Which is nice.

The Dell laptop got picked up the other day and I'm waiting for my refund to come through . Then I have to get me a machine to work on. Can't stop thinking about a Mac-based solution. It would be so cool. Jacq thinks I should get a PC to keep work and play separate. But I want to combine them more. Surely getting an Intel Mac running Boot Camp means I get two machines?

Looking forward to the weekend. Jacq gets her car tomorrow. Going to see Cars at some point.

Also, I've signed up for duty on the September Flickrmeet at Artsfest. Seems like we could get some sort of official status. Cool.

Second Week Still Hot

Weather is still uncomfortably hot in my second week as freelance. Got my timesheets in Monday morning and hoping for my first payment this Friday. Should also get my last Siemens payment at the same time which will be nice.

The bad news dropped on Monday that Siemens have pulled the plug on the sale and are closing the Coventry and Winchester offices by September. Seems like I got out just in time. What a mess has been made of a perfect decent business. They failed to run it well and they couldn't even sell it properly. That's if they were ever serious about selling it in the first place. I can't understand what they did, and I will never forgive them.

A redundancy payout may have been a nice little bung but I wouldn't want to be looking for work at the same time as everybody else. Plus the extra money I will have made by getting out early probably comes to a similar ammount. So all in all I'm better off out and a lot less stressed.

And talking of stress, it seems that Phil had a bad day yesterday prepping his kit for a 3 week holiday in France. The clutch failing on his motor must have been an absolute disaster. I do hope his recovery plans have worked today and he's safely on his way.

Jacq is looking forward to picking up her car on Saturday. Then the summer holidays will really start for her and the kids. At the moment they are staying in the house hiding from the sun and trying to keep cool.

Just spoke with Mike who's on the number 7 bus on his way to visit his mum. Now he's back from a few days away and I'm back in Bearwood full time, I hope we can catch up soon. And by catch up, I obviously mean crack open a few cold ones and shoot the shit. It's well overdue.

Pebbles

Freshly bathed and super cute!

Breaking Up For The Summer

Got to the end of the first week as a freelancer and the kids broke up for the summer holidays. By the Friday I got into some code which helped pass the time. My new laptop arrived on the Friday and first impressions were great. Unfortunately a closer inspection on Saturday morning revealed a very poor screen display which was very dissappointing. I checked on some forums and found it was a common complaint. I'm afraid it's going back to Dell and I'm back at square one. What I'd REALLY like is Jacqs MacBook. It would be so cool to use that. I could boot into XP to run programming packages and take the risk of usb-to-serial interfaces working. I wonder...

Away from work and computer stuff, it's been a lovely weekend although Dylan has been a bit poorly today. We gave Pebbles a bath and lots of hugs after. This afternoon we went out to a Nissan dealership to check out Micras. Suprise, suprise, we ended up buying one! It wasn't a planned purchase so it may appear to be a rash decision. But there's a logic to it. We got a 2 year old motor for half its list price and only a bit more than we were planning on spending on a much older one. We should be picking it up next week which gives Jacq and the kids complete freedom to make the most of the six weeks holidays.

The Hottest Day On Record?

It's supposed to be the hottest day on record today. That's what I've been told. We shall see. Yesterday was a scorcher, not helped by the closure of the motorway making the journey home murder. I'm working at the offices of my first client as a freelance engineer. The place and the people seem ok, which is nice. Although they could do with air conditioning in the building! But in the new freelance mindset, it doesn't really matter what the place is like. All that matters is getting my hours in and getting paid. No other mental baggage involved.

I've even restarted my meditation practise as I had let it drop during the last few weeks of working in Winchester. Hotel life plus changing jobs did not provide a conducive atmosphere. Now all of that is behind me and I'm moving on to pastures serene, I'm ready to restart mindfulness.

Leaving

So Friday I left Siemens. In the end I was glad to get away. No regrets at all. Even a last stroll around the building couldn't bring up any real nostalgia. I was looking forward more to seeing the lads at the traditional lunchtime leaving drink. There weren't many in the office today for a start and a few had to get off home. So the few that came had drinks bought and we took a table outside. Thankfully very soon after the boys arrived. Phil, Dan and John, fantastic to see them. Took them inside to buy a drink and the talk was all about payday. Text messages displayed. Dan suggested a money fight! Adrian popped in to say hello which was nice of him as he'd been at a funeral that morning. Finally Steve turned up on his way back from Milton Keynes. Good to see him again and bring him up to speed with the decline of the office. And by 2:00PM I was on my way home.

Done.

Picture Note: Check the photos above, taken with my nice new phone. Notice anything about them? The only people smiling in them DON'T work for Siemens anymore!!

Last Few Days

My last day tomorrow at Siemens. I've been clearing out stuff from the office over the last few days and occasionally remembering some good times during the last eight years. Throwing out stuff like eight diaries can make you do stuff like that. But in general I don't as nostalgic as I thought I would. That has got to be because so many others are leaving around the same time as me and my real mates have already left. I thought of doing the lunchtime walk today one last time but in the end realised that it's not the same without the entertaining chat. Even when we were just bitching over the same old topics, it was always fun.

Leaving this place and moving on is so much easier because keeping the network together is so much easier than in previous times. Email, blogs, texts, etc. are invaluable. The contracting thing would be much scarier were it undertaken in isolation. The good comms provides real support.

Flickrmeet

Yellow,
Photo by Aeioux.

A walkabout in Birmingham with a bunch of Flickr people. Most enjoyable it was. It's been a long long time since I walked about taking pictures purely for the art of it. Got me looking at my surroundings again with a fresh eye. Aeioux took this picture and I reckon it must have the only one he took where I wasn't smilling like a fool. Thanks for not making me look a fool Aeioux. He seemed like an interesting character who's into loads of creative stuff. And here's me moaning constantly about getting a creative moment to myself. Must try harder. Roll on the next Flickrmeet.

Susans Wedding

Saturday was my cousin Susans wedding day. We went up to Manchester for it and Mike kept an eye on Pebbles. It was very nice to see people who I haven't seen for ten years or more. Everyone looked well and seemed to be having a great day. Our kids didn't enjoy it much and in retrospect maybe it would have been better to have gone without them. Still, Susan had a great day and that's what really matters.

Working At Home

Worked at home yesterday and will do again today. The reason for this is combination of roadworks on the motorway and the current heatwave. Sitting in my non-air-conditioned car in a traffic jam on the M6 really seems to hightlight the utter futility and stupidity of the daily grind. Much smarter to just stay at home, keep cool, do a bit of work.

Wilting In The Heat

It's SO very hot! It's every door and window of the house wide open type heat. Too hot to do stuff. I was working at the Coventry office today and the lunchtime walk with Adrian was ill-advised. I felt awful afterwards. Clothes drenched in sweat and eyes on fire from hay-fever.

Yesterday (Sunday) was just as uncomfortable. Plans to go to the local Harborne Festival were shelved and we just flopped in the shade of the house. Saturday was nicer. Dylan had his friend Mitchell to play after swimming. In the afternoon we went over to Theresas for Lucys 8th birthday. Me and the Steves endured the England v Portugal match with much shouting at the TV involved. As is traditional, we lost on penalties and like times before, I couldn't watch. Hanging out in the garden was fun with the kids playing various water games and Pebbles running around exploring their huge garden. At one point I took a number of shots for a composite of everyone just sitting around. I've just got the basic layout done in Photoshop so far but I hope to do some detailed editing to get the kind of effects that Panoramatic gets in flickr.

Spidey Is Back!

Joy, oh joy! The teaser trailer for Spiderman 3 is out! Watch it here. It's a teaser, but you do see quite a few clips. As always, it made me want to weep. Tobey Maguire is so perfect as Peter Parker he gives it a real emotional centre for me. A new Spidey movie. Fantastic. Can't wait. You can keep your Superman. (Although the new trailer for that looks pretty neat and we WILL be going to see it.)

They Started It

Bit of a gap since my last post and not much of a reason why. Been down in Winchester again this week for 3 days. The work was dull, I didn't have really that much to do. Trapper's last night on Tuesday and we watched the England v Sweden match at the Irish pub. Good atmosphere. Suffered a bit the next morning in the workshop. Human again by lunchtime.

Back in Coventry office Thursday. Spent most of it sorting stuff out of my desk and brought another boot-full home. The word went round that the project has been delayed until next April. This has been by far the worst project I've ever been associated with. The areas I've been involved with have been OK but as a whole, it just doesn't work. Although there have been technical challenges, I think clarity and communication of design from the front would have helped overcome most issues. The fact that a number of us on the team have put in our notice must have contributed to it's demise and if that causes the upper management some discomfort then I'm fine with that. After all, in playground-speak, 'they started it'.

On Wednesday our MacBook was delivered. What a beauty it is. Still getting used to the OS regarding installing applications and the like. Well impressed with the interface. Last night, showing my Dad the machine, we popped a DVD in and Jacq got the remote out for the first time. This launched the Front Row interface and I was knocked out. The browsing of movie trailers was fantastic. Really focuses the user on content rather than the technology involved.
Mom said he should get one for his birthday and I agree. He won't of course.

Worked from home Friday. Hope I can do a few more days at home during my notice. Don't suppose it will be an option when contracting.

Secure The Future

What's really great about putting your notice in is that you are immediately immune to all the rubbish you had stressing about prior to handing it in. In one action I went from not knowing what I will be doing in a months time (and who I'll be working for) to knowing exactly what I'll be doing. Sometimes you just have to secure your own future.

Sorted.

When I got back from site tonight, as well as a house full of people, I had all the paperwork associated with my freelance career. Some interesting reading for the weekend. I definitely prefer the term 'freelance' to 'contractor', it's got a better ring to it.

Still managing to ignore the barrage of repellent mediocrity that is Big Brother. I'm so not interested in that crap. My new headphones with their 6m lead are keeping me insulated from the hideous television. Listening to Richard H Kirk's 'The Number Of Magic' brings back memories of 'ambient' club nights in the mid-nineties.

Mad Day Anniversary

Tuesday was a mad day. What started out as a day booked off as holiday to spend time with my wife on our ten year anniversary turned into a day where we hardly spent any quality time together.

Things got off to a bad start actually the night before as Harriet developed tummy pains and we spent a couple of hours down in A&E getting her checked out. It turned out to be nothing. When we got home at 5:00AM Jacq said she'd been up with the dog crying while we were out. Not the best of starts. Knackered.

Jacq took Dylan to school while Harriet slept. Got a call from a company that Trapper had given me the nod about the day before. They were interested in my CV so I arranged to go see them in Stafford later that day at 4:00PM. I then went off for a couple of fillings and came back with a frozen lop-sided mouth which made Harriet laugh. Soon after we took Pebbles off to the vets for her first jab. The vet seemed pleased with her general health and condition.

Time then to head up the M6 a bit to Stafford and have an interview. It's been a while since having one of those. Seemed like a decent place. Offered a position there and then. Opened ended contract. Just the job. The journey both ways seemed fine. No worse than the trip to Coventry for sure. Think it could happen if the contactor side of things can be setup. Gosh. That all happened a bit quick.

Back home I continued building a new PC for Duggo. Bit of a mad rush. Stopped for a balti with t'wife. A brief moment together. Then back onto finishing off the PC. Delivered it to their house about 9:30PM and then dashed back home to catch Lost.

What a day.

Ten years. Blimey. It's gone quick.

Notice

Today I handed my notice in. What a relief. After weeks and weeks of trying to second-guess my future, I've gone ahead and secured it for myself. Sod 'em.

So goodbye to the long term plans and hello to the glorious uncertainty of contracting. Bring on the big wages!

Pebbles

Here she is! It's Pebbles! She is lots of fun and LOTS of work. She's charmed the kids and almost driven the wife to distraction. She is such a little cutie. We love her to bits.

Back From Holiday

It's been nearly a week since we came back from our holiday at Center Parcs and it feels like ages ago. We had a great week. The weather was kind and we found that we really enjoyed it. The kids raed it better than a 'normal' holiday. It was nice to be riding around on a bike. First time for years. Simple pleasures.

Sunshine Casts It's Spell

Lovely weather cast a beautiful spell over this weekend and even the normal routine events seemed to be slightly more enjoyable than normal somehow. Coming out of the house on Saturday morning into warm sunlight was a great start. With me wearing shorts we all walked down to the swimming baths. The kids did great.

In the afternoon we worked and played in the garden. Paul and Lyn popped in for tea and a chat about being self-employed. Interesting stuff he had to say but I think I'll stick with the umbrella company approach when I finally go contracting. They said they'll be over next weekend to have a cuddle of the pup when she arrives.

Sunday we shopped at Merry Hill for some holiday food and a bit of reading material. Jacq picked up Douglas Coupland's latest, jPod. We love Doug! I'm going to be sneaking a peak at this book while were away for sure.

Rest of day spent packing and organising for going away tomorrow to Center Parcs. The hallway is jam-packed with stuff ready to load into the car in the morning. How come there's so much stuff?! We're only away for 4 nights! I hope I can fit it all in.

Work, Work, Work (Nearly Finished)

Coming towards the end of what is possibly my last week in Winchester. I've been quite busy trying to help out with various tasks. Slow compiles drag out the process painfully. It won't be a quick getaway tomorrow as I don't want to leave things unfinished and drop others in it next week. But what a joy it will be to be home at the start of a weeks holiday.