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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TV: ‘Ashes to Ashes’ – Series 2, Episode 4
The story: One of Gene Hunt’s past romantic conquests, Jackie Queen, arrives from Manchester to seek help from the police. She is now a journalist and thinks she has a scoop relating to abducted children and their connection with a local business-man. She is also pregnant, and Gene thinks it’s his, adding some tension between …
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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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Cinema: Star Trek
I picked up Jo and Janet and we went to see the new Star Trek at the local Odeon. It wasn’t Ann’s type of film so she stayed at home, cooking. More information here on the film at the IMDB site. Well what can I say? A really superb re-interpretation (or reboot, to use the …
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Lui’s with the Neighbours
We joined Karen Paul, Debbie, Stefan, Rosi and David and headed for Lui’s in Kettering to celebrate in advance, Karen’s Birthday – we haven’t been there as a group since 13 May 2007 – and that was for Karen’s Birthday too! Julie and Tom couldn’t make it. We were a little early for our table …
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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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Lunch with Simon/Trish’s Computer
I drove down to South Mimms to meet up with Simon Herrington. We haven’t seen each other since we worked together on the Nokia project some 8-9 years ago. He hadn’t changed a bit, and it was great to catch-up with all his news (including a new addition to the family – a daughter!) On …
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Lunch with Dave
I drove over to Fosse Park to meet up with Dave Barthorpe. No specific reason apart from a catch-up and a gossip about the state of the profession. Dave also took me through his i-phone – an impressive bit of kit! We decided to eat in the Food Court there and pigged-out on McDonald’s!
TV: ‘Ashes to Ashes’ – Series 2, Episode 3
OK, I hoping for some improvements on last week’s episode – which was definitely lack-lustre. Tonight, we’re three episodes in, so it should be ‘finding its stride’. The problem is, based on the previous two, it doesn’t seem to know whether it’s an eighties police drama or a time-travel mystery – maybe it can be …
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The Great escape (again!)
I discovered Biscuit outside the FRONT door looking confused. ….me too! I guess she must have decided to venture into Karen’s garden from her fave spot on the fence and then got slightly dis-oriented. Just like the first time she did this, on approaching her, she ran back into Karen’s garden, rather than simply return …
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Bank Holiday Weekend at Lee and Bertie’s – Sunday
We woke late (for us) at 7.45 and were surprised by the weather – the forecast had predicted rain but it was brilliant sunshine! I took a shower and then had a light breakfast of brioche and jams with coffee. After breakfast we got ready and that’s when the weather turned, and it started to …
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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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Kitchen Ceiling
Our long-term plan is to modernise the kitchen and utility room. Initially, we’re getting rid of the ‘swirly-plastered’ ceiling and dumping the crappy fluorescent tubes in favour of some modern down-lighters in both the main kitchen area and the utility room. Phase I (Thursday) – Mick, the electrician came round to create the holes and …
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Bank Holiday Weekend at Lee and Bertie’s – Saturday
We left just before 7.30 and had a good run over to L and B’s getting there just before 10am. After tea and coffee, I set about trying to sort out their combi VCR/DVD player. The problem appears to be the picture is far too dark. The problem is intermittent, and I experienced the same …
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Angela for a meal in Peterborough
I drove up to Peterborough to meet up with Angela C. She’s running a Workshop there tomorrow. She doesn’t often get this far north :), so it was good to catch up. We went to Prezzo‘s in Cowgate. It was pretty quiet when we arrived but soon got busy. Food was OK rather then great. …
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Cinema: ‘Wolverine’ (2009)
I met with Jo today to catch the 6.15 performance of ‘X Men Origins: Wolverine‘ at the local Odeon. Starring Hugh Jackman, it’s a prequel to the previous X-Men films and tells of how the character – Logan – becomes Wolverine. The film started much sooner than we expected – around 6.25 – as there …
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StevePalmerAssociates.com – Live
At last, I got around to redoing my business web-site – it was uploaded this morning. If anyone spots any typos or other errors, let me know! https://www.StevePalmerAssociates.com (domain closed after retirement, but cached site is HERE)
TV: ‘Ashes to Ashes’ – Series 2, Episode 2
Episode 2 tonight. Hope it’s as good as the episode 1 last week. So, what was it like? Well, all-in-all, a disappointing lack-lustre episode in my view. Even though the acting was, as always, very good – especially Philip Glenister who IS Gene Hunt and Keeley Hawes in the lead roles, it just felt…well…boring! The …
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Laptop woes/Kitchen ceiling
Julie brought Georgina’s Dell (rather nice pink) laptop round. It’s refusing to accept an installation of the latest free version of AVG. After spending a lot of time clearing out the registry, I tried to reinstall it. After a couple of false-starts, it installed without a problem. I’ve been running various tests on it for …
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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.
The London Marathon 2009
Our good friend Roy, is running in the Marathon this year and our plan was to get some really good pictures of him by placing ourselves at strategic points along the route. We got up early to ensure we were away by 8.15. It looked like it would be a fine day for the Marathon …
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Meal with Mick and Jane
We met up with Mick and Jane for a meal at the Benefield Wheatsheaf in err… Upper Benefield. It was a nice location, perhaps a bit remote, but the interior and exterior looked good. The Bar was empty when we arrived and the bar-tender made us feel very welcome. Jane and Mick arrived slightly late …
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Family get-together
We set off for Mum’s quite early – 7.30am! – in order to get to hers for around 9.15 (our best journey for ages). She’s got some problems with her bank account and we’ve promised to take her into Bromley to get it sorted out. The mission to the Nationwide appeared to be successful, and …
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Kitchen Ceiling
Mick and Nathan popped round to sus-out the work needed to replaster the ceiling and replace the lights in the kitchen and utility room. Work starts next week. Thanks to Val and David for the inspiration!!
Ford Mondeo – 1 year today!
The year has really flown – much like the car – I can’t believe I’ve had the car a year. I’ve covered 18720 miles and every single one of them has been a pleasure. I’ve been especially impressed with the fuel consumption. It’s never dropped below 35mpg, and in a few cases, it’s been up …
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TV: ‘Ashes to Ashes’ – Series 2, Episode 1
Tonight at 9pm sees the return of BBC’s series ‘Ashes to Ashes‘. It’s been hyped quite a bit over the past three weeks including a new BBC ident showing a short scene of the team driving the Audi Quattro down a street and a couple of series-trailers featuring a police raid in a London disco. …
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Cats in, Clock up
We took the cats over to Patsy‘s for their normal ‘six-weekly bath-and-brush-up’. Bon-Bon (being white) was certainly in need of a wash – it looked like she’s been head-butting piles of mud (she probably had!) At last, the conditions were right (a lovely warm day) to put up our new garden clock. Our previous attempt …
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David and Val’s for Dinner
We went round to David and Val’s tonight for Dinner. The food as always, was SUPERB. Tonight, we were treated to melt-in-the-mouth steak casserole followed by Ann’s delicious marmalade and banana bread and butter pudding with custard. Great grub – we were stuffed. After the meal, we watched ‘Lions for Lambs’ starring Tom Cruise, Meryl …
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It’s a warm one!
What a beautiful day here! It must be the nicest so far this year. It wasn’t particularly warm – maybe 18-19 degrees, but the sun was out and it was dry. Ann spent most of the day in the garden, whilst I….didn’t, apart from mowing the lawns (which look really good, thanks to Andy at …
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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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