The TSK and Trep household has gone wireless. Unfortunately the DSL does not stretch as far as the 'pooter on the desktop upstairs.
In the downstairs, the combined distance of the dsl cable, router and router power supply are almost identical to the length of the sofa.
Which is good because the phone socket is at one end of the sofa and te power socket is at the other.
GOOD TECHNOLOGY. SIT!
I fear I am going to have to spend a day moving the pooter to the downstairs or purchase some techy aerial thing for my *oh*so*ancient* 4-year old 'pooter.
They obviously didn't realise the luddite factor of this household when they didnt' think to ask where the pooter is.
Work's laptop's good though. As is 100MBPS
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
Saturday, October 17, 2009
The cloud has lifted
On Wednesday, almost 2 months since they announced the redundancies, I found out that my job was safe... and on Thursday I had an interview.
I went to the interview relaxed and it went well. If I get offered it, I don't know what I will do.
Today is the first time since my last blog I have looked at my home computer with joy - for pleasure, not work.
In the midst of it all, we went here. And it was very fine.
I also completed the 3 peaks in 5 hours and 25 minutes. Not bad for a bird with a cold.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Squeeze
Some women try on their old wedding dress as an excuse for dressing up.
In the absence of anything better to do, as I re-organised all my long garments to one end of the wardrobe this evening, I thought I'd better try on my wetsuit - y'know for the day when I actually decide to do a triathlon again and incase I take up kayaking or windsurfing and just to see how it still fits.
Vital evening entertainment, apparently.
But not so easy to get out of with achey muscles from a National Trophy event.
In the absence of anything better to do, as I re-organised all my long garments to one end of the wardrobe this evening, I thought I'd better try on my wetsuit - y'know for the day when I actually decide to do a triathlon again and incase I take up kayaking or windsurfing and just to see how it still fits.
Vital evening entertainment, apparently.
But not so easy to get out of with achey muscles from a National Trophy event.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Final prep
Next week is the biggie. The Three Peaks has come around again. Last year i had to ride it without my dad for the first time in 6 attempts on account of him getting his face smashed by a curb (couresty of motorist mayhem).
Me, I've been properly concentrating on training - doing specific workouts on the way to work instead of just travelling from A to B. Of course, the training schedule has been shattered by the impending doom of redundancies and the sheer exhaustion which accompanies such uncertainties.
Still, on Saturday I went for a run to see how the knee is doing after I badly burnt the skin on my cables before smashing the knee between the top tube and bars leaving me with lovely purple-dappled bruises both sides of my knee bones. The knee held out for about half an hour of running then I started to limp so I walked back through Wootton Bassett at a moderate pace to get supermarket shopping and pop in to see the pet carere and organise for lenny to be looked after whilst we swan around in Yorkshire for a weekend next week.
As a result of the running, the race in Exeter today went really badly and I was resoundingly last. Appart from being exhausted and ready for a rest week, I was also having issues with breathing on account of the volumes of dust being kicked into the air.
Nervous of taking another spill onto the knee I rode cautiously. Although, as I caught up Gabbie Day (womens winner) and Andy Hargroves (junior winner) in the wood, I guess I wasn't riding that cautiously.
It's frustrating doing a national race at the low point in the training plan. I just have to trust the system that next week's rest will turn out to be everything I hope and that it does the business of leaving me feeling rested and hungry for exertion next week. It sure as hell doesn't feel that way now.
But the three peaks is a personal adventure and the atmosphere on the day is more than the weeks of prep and build-up put together. I need to file today under, "a part of the processes" and arrive at the office tomorrow and declare myself "unflappable".
I fear this is easier said than done but I will persevere.
Me, I've been properly concentrating on training - doing specific workouts on the way to work instead of just travelling from A to B. Of course, the training schedule has been shattered by the impending doom of redundancies and the sheer exhaustion which accompanies such uncertainties.
Still, on Saturday I went for a run to see how the knee is doing after I badly burnt the skin on my cables before smashing the knee between the top tube and bars leaving me with lovely purple-dappled bruises both sides of my knee bones. The knee held out for about half an hour of running then I started to limp so I walked back through Wootton Bassett at a moderate pace to get supermarket shopping and pop in to see the pet carere and organise for lenny to be looked after whilst we swan around in Yorkshire for a weekend next week.
As a result of the running, the race in Exeter today went really badly and I was resoundingly last. Appart from being exhausted and ready for a rest week, I was also having issues with breathing on account of the volumes of dust being kicked into the air.
Nervous of taking another spill onto the knee I rode cautiously. Although, as I caught up Gabbie Day (womens winner) and Andy Hargroves (junior winner) in the wood, I guess I wasn't riding that cautiously.
It's frustrating doing a national race at the low point in the training plan. I just have to trust the system that next week's rest will turn out to be everything I hope and that it does the business of leaving me feeling rested and hungry for exertion next week. It sure as hell doesn't feel that way now.
But the three peaks is a personal adventure and the atmosphere on the day is more than the weeks of prep and build-up put together. I need to file today under, "a part of the processes" and arrive at the office tomorrow and declare myself "unflappable".
I fear this is easier said than done but I will persevere.
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
The waiting game
After two weeks of worrying about my job I was exhausted so I resolved to get on with it and compartmentalise. So I have been training and am just back from a lovely weekend in Wales. OK. It was a weekend in Wales. I got really wet. But TSK and I had fun and snuggled in the Vanu as the rain came down.
Every so often I do a little job hunting just to be on the safe side.
As a pretty respectable member of staff and one who has always seemed to have been quite responsible, valuable and amiable, I feel safe but there's this one chap who has ideas for something big. Something I can't be bothered with. One of these management gurus who puts all his trust in psychometric testing and strategy meetings and things that I generally consider to be a pile of the proverbial bovine stinky stuff. I can't read him, no one can so every so often I leave work at 4, I head home and I job hunt.
And today, a recruitment consultant phoned me back within 1 minute of me hitting the send button. I am tempted by interesting prospects and a move back to the home land, to the real hills of the lakes and the welsh mountains, of Hollyoaks country and IMC and of proper mechanical engineering without any of the civils outsider feelings that accompany my current place of work.
Written French would be a benefit. Mon dieu, je crois que je serai contente.
Every so often I do a little job hunting just to be on the safe side.
As a pretty respectable member of staff and one who has always seemed to have been quite responsible, valuable and amiable, I feel safe but there's this one chap who has ideas for something big. Something I can't be bothered with. One of these management gurus who puts all his trust in psychometric testing and strategy meetings and things that I generally consider to be a pile of the proverbial bovine stinky stuff. I can't read him, no one can so every so often I leave work at 4, I head home and I job hunt.
And today, a recruitment consultant phoned me back within 1 minute of me hitting the send button. I am tempted by interesting prospects and a move back to the home land, to the real hills of the lakes and the welsh mountains, of Hollyoaks country and IMC and of proper mechanical engineering without any of the civils outsider feelings that accompany my current place of work.
Written French would be a benefit. Mon dieu, je crois que je serai contente.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Smug is
Riding home when everyone else is stuck because there was a crash on the motorway.
Even if it is raining
Even if it is raining
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Impending doom
A week ago tomorrow I set out on my ride to work, determined to do as much hill as possible. Considering we spent Saturday climbing all over the Cotswolds and Cheltenham Scar and I ran around the village on Sunday, I rode to work via Broad Town hill then couldn't resist the Hackpen Hill climb past the white pony on the hillside and beyond to Aldbourne and Chiseldon.
I arrived at work at 10am and didn't get to my office until 10:10. Whilst 10am is legal in flexitime rules, 10:10 is officially late and to my horror, my colleagues were standing in groups, discussing the redundancy packages that had been handed out.
Rather than any quick decisions, it seems everyone is subject to abject terror for a two week period whilst the management and staff council consult on how to make the decisions that will lead to numbers of us losing our job - in my department, that's 5 people out of 15.
There's things I can't say about the process just in case anyone's reading but in a battle to ensure I still have a job in a few weeks, training has gone to the wall.
I try to stay positive, I really do but as I sit in my chair after 4 hours of searching the interweb with a dodgy nervy belly, I find it incredibly difficult to motivate myself to go out and bound around the local countryside in any way, shape or form.
I want to go back here.
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