…or in my case, let’s stumble around the room with all the grace and co-ordination of a hippo housebrick lump of concrete …err, me! You get the picture. Given enough time, I should be able to master the ‘moon-walk’, the salsa, foxtrot and waltz…but not for a few years yet! Rosi had encouraged us to …
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Category:Personal
Sub-committee Meeting
I travelled down to the BRIT School today to chair our second meeting to plan for the OCA centenary in 2011. I felt it was a very productive meeting, but perhaps I need to allow more time for the fact that most of the group don’t really know each other and they may be holding …
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You dancing? You asking?
Rosi rang to remind us about the new local dance-class – but it had totally slipped our mind. Embarrassingly, Rosi had reminded us a few weeks’ back too! Still, on the positive side, the World is spared (for a week at least) from the man with two left feet and all the rhythm of a …
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Ahh, that’s nice!
I don’t normally cross-post comments from my business blog, but a delegate on one of my recent Workshops was moved to email the client and pass a comment about me: “I would just like to commend Steve Palmer on the course he ran on 9/10th June. I think this was a highly motivational, useful and …
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Walkies – again
This could become a habit – we went out for a walk again tonight! Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love of technology and communication (in all its forms), together with a fondness for the art of writing …
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Walkies!!!
It was such a nice evening, we went for a short walk. Hard to believe it was 8.15pm – beautifully still and quite warm. Beautiful!!! Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love of technology and communication (in all …
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Mr and Mrs Normal…
We both agreed that it feels weird normal weird normal…no..WEIRD with me out earning and Ann at home cooking and cleaning! Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love of technology and communication (in all its forms), together with …
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Ann’s Web-site
I completely revamped Ann’s web-site. You can see it HERE Creating it using Serif‘s WebPlus software made it a breeze to set-up and publish. The whole job took less than 4 hours! Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong …
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Ann’s is redundant
Well, here we are then. After a total of 27 years, 3 months and 7 days of ultra-loyal service, it all ended for Ann today. Next Monday, the new organisational chart will have been air-brushed in, and on paper, it’ll be as though she had never existed. …as many have said before: ‘What price loyalty..?’ …
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Ann’s Redundancy (1 week to go!)
Here we are then, one week closer to ‘the day’. HR have once again shown their complete insensitivity and disorganisation by continuing to ignore all Ann’s request for a meet. Instead, the bland one-size-fits-all letter arrived last Monday reminding Ann that she’s being made redundant (just in case she had forgotten!) and if she doesn’t …
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Learning Network Group Meeting
I took the train down to London today for our regular LNG Meeting. Denise joined me at Bedford and after arriving at St Pancras, we took the short hop on the Tube to the venue. Denise had secured us some free space in an office she’s currently working in. Angela took us through the Trainer …
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Ann’s Redundancy (2 weeks to go!)
Well, it’s been a very stressful week for Ann. Still no reply from HR for her request to sit down with them and discuss her issues! But what really stood out this week was Ann’s meeting with the Employment Law Barrister who she is working with via the Solicitor. Whereas we thought we had an …
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Ann’s Redundancy (3 weeks to go!)
There haven’t been any significant developments at work except her HR representative scheduled a meeting with Ann (at last!) and then, the day before, Ann found out the same HR representative was on holiday!!! On a more positive note, Ann has been busy talking to a head-hunting firm and briefing her solicitor. Steve PalmerI got …
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Ann’s Redundancy (4 weeks to go!)
We’re only four weeks away from Ann leaving and (UNhelpfully) HR are being less than co-operative – just when it matters! Having spent most of my working life in-and-around HR functions, they sometimes just don’t ‘get-it’ – they simply forget who their customers are. In this specific instance, it’s their inaction, indifferent behaviour and their …
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Ann’s away
That’s unusual, Ann is away tonight (in Leicester helping to run a careers event – how ironic!!!) So, that gave me chance to fix her PC that had overheated last week. To make matters worse, on my initial attempt to fix it and whilst trying to clean the fan assembly near the processor, I managed …
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Visit to London
I took the early train to London with Ann this morning. I met up with Anthony from A2O to discuss display stands for the OCA (err, that’s enough abbreviations!). We kicked off early and were finished by 11.15. I then jumped on the Tube and headed for London Bridge to meet Keith from the OCA – …
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The final countdown…?
Dah-Dah-dah-da, Dah-Dah-dah-da-da… Well maybe it’s not so dramatic, but it sometimes feels like it. 27 years’ service and 199% loyalty has counted for nothing when the smelly-stuff-hit-the-fan. Ann has now had her second and final 1-to-1 with her boss – Her last day at work will be 15 May 2009. That means that her last …
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It’s Lent
It’s Lent today – what am I giving up? It’s the 3 Cs… Chips… Chocolate…Ice Cream. So that’s no chocolate-chip ice-cream then!! Let’s see how I get on! Update: 18 March 2009. No problem so far (surprisingly!) Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well …
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Chinese ‘blow-out’ with Jo and Janet
In preparation for giving-up something for the period of Lent, we were invited to Jo and Janet’s for a mega-Chinese meal! I’m aiming to give up chips and ice-cream (and possibly chocolate too) for forty days! (Cue soundtrack from Mission: Impossible!) Ann is giving up wine and chocolate! The Chinese-food was probably the best …
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A Productive Sunday!
We started the day with a bacon sandwich and coffee – perfect! We then caught up with episode two of the excellent Edge of Darkness DVD. It’s amazing how well the plot has stood up to the passage of time. So much stuff from TV in the 80s looks horribly dated crap when watching it …
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Angela’s 60th
Although it was a few weeks ago, some of ‘the old team’ met up in London today to celebrate Angela’s Birthday. We all planned to meet at the Thistle Hotel, Lancaster Gate for a few drinks before heading off for Halepi’s, the Greek restaurant opposite. We used to frequent this restaurant quite often when we …
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Jobs, Jobs
Ann got some disappointing news today. The merchandising job she’d applied didn’t even get her a first interview. The senior manager vacancy got her to first-base (of three) – a case-study exercise, but she got the thanks-but-no-thanks letter today. Personally, I thought the rejection letter was dreadful, straight out of the file marked ‘standard letters …
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Ralph’s Dad
Karen emailed us to let us know that Ralph’s Dad, Doug, had died. We didn’t know him personally, but Ralph had often spoken about him. He would have been 95 this year – a great innings! RIP Doug! Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – …
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Valentine’s Day
I bought Ann a single red-rose on a 1 metre stem from The Red Rose Society. I also bought her some Valentine cards (that I’d sent earlier in the week, but Ann recognised my crappily disguised handwriting) plus two from MoonPig, that had customised covers and insides. Ann bought me a humorous cat book – …
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Learning Network/MoonPig/Case Study
After Thursday’s night’s surprise snow-fall I decided that I wouldn’t travel to London tomorrow for the Learning Network Group meeting. It was a difficult decision as Antoinette was going to be running the session and I was looking forward to it. However, the recent weather conditions made driving a real challenge – even to the …
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Divine Intervention?
Just when we thought that the only option for Ann was to take the redundancy package, she was contacted by a colleague who recommended she apply for a specific senior manager position. Let’s see how it turns out… Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – …
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Gill Washington – RIP
I heard some very sad news today. When we got back from holiday last night there were two messages on my voicemail from Sean, Gill’s partner, asking me to get in touch. I finally managed to call him today and heard that Gill had died of a sudden heart-attack (just over a year ago). I …
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Departmental Restructure
Ann heard today that the company restructure may affect her. Sketchy details at the moment, but not the sort of news we want to hear just before we go on holiday! Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love …
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Cholesterol results
I rang the surgery to get the results of my cholesterol check. Good news!! The figure was 3.1 which is the lowest it’s ever been! ..and definitely on the right side of ‘5’ -the magic number. Maybe the fact that I was on loads of other medication at the time of the blood-test for my …
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Firing on all four…
Well, not quite – I still got the mother-of-all-coughs – but I certainly feel a whole lot better today. I even managed to catch-up with most of the work I’d been too ill to look at last week! The biggest difference is that I feel much more energetic and that period of lethargy has now …
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