Regular Run

Distance: 3.15 miles
Time: 36 minutes

Myself and Mandy went out for the regular dinner time run today, not that I've ran it regularly recently. The time is slower than normal but neither of us were at our fittest. I will be running it again on Friday. After another couple of times around we are supposed to be running it in reverse.

Work, thinking and life in general

It felt much better to be back in Durham today, after 3 working days in Teesside!

I've been frustrated over the whole merger our unit has been going through. This is the second of the 2 things I was waiting for to see how it was handled and if it was done right I would stay. So far it is a fucking shambles. Still waiting for someone to actually speak to me, what was even more frustrating was when I was in Teesside and they were called to see how everything was and told them they had spoke to me. The only conversation I have had was 20 seconds on the way to setup something and was told we would have a conversation later. It's hard when I'm in Teesside 2 days and often out and management is also out the office a lot. I have plenty of things I have concerns over and am becoming more and more frustrated with there being no one at a senior level to be able to ask or address my concerns to.

My walk along Redcar sea front on Monday has just thrown more things into my mind and from thinking things through now. There are far too many things in life to DO, SEE & EXPERIENCE to be wasting what short time we have sitting at a desk feeling FRUSTRATED, HASSLED, STRESSED and recently MISERABLE. Its just a fucking bastard that I need money to do them. I can't get out of my mind how much I would love to walk around the mountains and hills of Wales, Northern England and of course Scotland. If I won money that's exactly what I would want to do, nevermind the fast cars and exotic holidays (for now anyway).

For some reson whenever I hear Dire Straits - Fade to Black it really makes me think. For some strange reason it's one of my favourite and most played songs. Totally different to most Dire Straits songs (listening to it now).

The songs I have in the playlist are:
George Michael - You Have Been Loved
Bryan Adams - I'm Ready
Dire Straits - Fade To Black
Nina Simone - Feeling Good

All 4 songs are excellent quite calming and good thinking songs, Nina Simone is probably the odd one out.

I can see my mind is jumping about again (back to usual).

I started making a list on Monday night of things I would like to do (yes another list). It's getting very long, yet I want to do all of them. I couldn't do all of them over the next year due to money and time. I won't post the full list yet because I haven't finished and I guess there are sub lists of stuff like a list of walks I want to do.

• Climbing
• Swimming
• Ice Skating
• Horse Riding
• Kayaking
• Boxing
• Cycle Coast to Coast
• Skiing
• Snowboarding
• Coasteering
• Paint Balling
• Bungee Jump

That's a sample from it, but a lot more on the list already.

I wonder how much money I would need to walk from Wales to Scotland taking in Snowdon, Scafell Pike and Ben Nevis along the way and how much time. I need to do something that'll push me physically and mentally and is a bit different. Plenty of people walk all 3 in 24 hours but they don't actually walk between them. I'm sure some people must walk it but obviously over several weeks. An inspiration to me would be the "Two Fit Ladies" who walked 1521 miles around the coast of Scotland in 81 days to raise money for Save The Children. Just realised that one of their Surnames was Horner (no relation as far as I know).

I have a friend who has a seriously ill member of their family, this is making me think all the more about how we waste our lives. Yet what do I do about it, other than going to a few concerts and entering a run. It's nothing, we are all capable of so much more, nearly all of us go about our daily lives going to work and back home and doing the house work and watching TV. There must be more to life than this, I've said many times I want to look back and feel I've had a memorable life. Not someone who dies having done nothing and no ones misses them.


I think too much!!!

Relaxing To Music

Yesterday I had another day of hassle working in Teesside and decided that when I got home I just wanted to relax and listen to music. I decided to listen to The Beatles - Love. I'd already listened to it in stops and starts but put my big DJ style headphones on and laid back and lost myself in the music. It's a fantastic album, some of the highlights were the songs I normally didn't like too much (Benefit of Mr Kite, Back in the USSR). Worth doing the same as me and just immerse yourself in the album.

I then went to bed just after 10 and slept straight through until the morning and managed to spend the night not thinking about everything or at least not things that were upsetting or glum.

Listening to..

Below are some of the albums I've been listening to since my last music post. I've listened to quite a few others as well. I normally post all the covers to go with them but feeling too lazy tonight, but have still rated the ones I can remember.


The Beatles - Love ****
Oasis - Stop The Clocks *****
U2 - U218 ***
Sugababes - Overloaded: The Singles Collection ***
George Michael - Twenty Five ****
Muse - Black Holes & Revelations ****
Muse - Absolution ***
Air - Moon Safari *****
The Long Blondes - Someone To Drive You Home ***
All Saints - Studio 1 **
Muse - Origin of Symmetry ****
Oasis - Definitely Maybe *****
Jamiroquai - High Times ****
Moby - Go - The Very Best Of Moby ****
The Beatles - 1 *****
The Beatles - Abbey Road ****
Iron Maiden - Best Of The Beast *****

There seems to be lots of compilation albums out at the moment because of Xmas probably. The best of the compilations I've listened to has to be Oasis - Stop The Clocks, there isn't a bad song on the album. The All Saints album I forced myself to listen to, but I was very bored with it. The new Beatles album "Love" is quite good, its a part mashup, part remix of many songs. They do sound a lot clearer. I intend to lay back and listen to it again and it may move up to 5 stars rather than just 4.

Mobile Phone

I have been looking at new phones. My contract expires in January, Orange have already been on the phone trying to get me to take a new contract but their offers were rubbish. My phone broke 2 days after they rang. I have an Orange SPV C600 and the main menu button stopped working. Which means I can't unlock it, nevermind do anything else. So I have gone back to my SPV C500 which is actually a better phone (the keys work anyway).

I have been looking at all the offers from the different companies and I have always avoided Three because their coverage was always rubbish but it now appears they are as good as the others. I then noticed that from next month they are lauching X-Series which is like unlimited broadband for phones and comes with some useful programs like Orb, Slingbox, Yahoo & Google among others. At the moment there is no indication on price, it will be announced on the 1st December. Only 2 phones will be supported initially but I quite like the look of the Nokia N73 after a lot of research, takes good photos and can use my existing 500MB MiniSD card. It may become my new phone on Three if the price is OK and they will transfer my mobile number?

Redcar

I was at Redcar today to setup some computers for work in a new Police station but when I got there they had decided to move to another room and our comms line had been installed in the old room. Anyway I had to wait for the Police Comms person who took ages to arrive then to do anything. While he was doing some other stuff I went for my dinner in Redcar and walked along the front. The guy had said he was going to be 2 hours and I was gonna take a 2 hour lunch and not have full lunches for the next couple of days then I realised I was owed about 9 dinner hours while working in Teesside anyway. In the end I had just over an hour anyway, so didn't really matter because I got a call to say he had returned.

I had a really nice walk along the front in Redcar and along the beach. I ended up walking quite a long way, only about 3 mile but its what I had time for in an hour. The map below shows where I went, I only got to walk a short way along the beach because I was rushing back to the car to get back to the Police Station.

Distance: 3 miles
Time: 1 hour

Below are some pictures I took with my phone while walking, they are shite quality because its with my old phone :-(







I intended to take some pictures when on the front with the arcades and boats but as I said above I ended up rushing back which I hadn't expected to be doing.

When I was walking along the front the tractors that towed the boats in were lined up and there was one waiting for the boat to come in. There was another fisherman selling the fish from his boat as he gutted and cleaned the fish while they waited. I hadn't seen this for nearly 20 years, didn't even realise they still did it, was good to see. If I'd had more time I would of taken some pictures (although shit quality like above).

I really enjoyed the walk and again made me think what am I doing working in offices and dealing with other peoples shit. When I have had 2 really nice walks in the last 3 days. I want to be out enjoying the outdoors, maybe I'd of thought different if it was raining!

The afternoon in the Police Station wasn't quite so bad I managed to finally get the computers setup although still had to wait for the Comms guy to patch things in 1 at a time, he took ages. I could of re-patched everything he did in 5 minutes, it took him over an hour. I ended up helping the staff carry boxes and Police IT equipment while I was waiting.

Most Downloaded Videos

I was just reading an article on the BBC News site about the most downloaded videos. I had seen most of them before but thought I would post them below:

1. Star Wars Kid

2. Numa Numa

3. One Night In Paris

4. Kylie Minogue for Agent Provocateur

5. The Exploding Whale

6. John West Salmon Bear Fight

6. Trojan Games
8. Kolla2001

9. AfroNinja

10. The Shining Redux



I'm afraid that link to One Night In Paris isn't the real one, gotta keep this site kind of family friendly. The videos whould probably look better smaller but can't be bothered to mess about.

Casino Royale

Casino Royale: I went to see this on Wednesday. I'm a Bond fan anyway, so unless it was really bad I was always going to enjoy it. Yet it was excellent, it's the best bond movie since Goldeneye and it's better than that. A lot of people slated Daniel Craig but he seems to fit in the role perfectly.

This movie is a lot more grown up than the other Bond films and more violent but its not over the top it's probably what was was always missing in the past. People died too easily in past films or were dispensed with far too easy.

Anyway I gave it 9 out of 10 but was very tempted to give it 10.

Romaldkirk & Cotherstone Walk

Distance: 6 miles
Time: 2 hours 10 minutes

Today I went for a walk with my parents using a route from a walking magazine. The route is shown on the map above from Romaldkirk to Cotherstone and back to Romaldkirk. It's a nice walk which I found easy and there isn't much gradient to climb or descend.

There are some gorgeous old houses along the route, a couple can be seen in the pictures below. I wish I had done this walk about 4-6 weeks ago before all the leaves had fell off the trees. It would look stunning with all the autumn leaves on the trees.

I must be getting fitter because I found this very easy while my mother was out of breath at times.

(Above) My Mam jumping over a stream

(Above) River Tees near Cotherstone

(Above) Parents stopping for Dinner, don't know how my dad got so muddy

(Above) Bridge over the River Balder

(Above) Doe Park

(Above) Balder Grange opposite

(Above) Balder Viaduct

(Above) Returning to Romaldkirk village green

Muse

Me and Tony went to watch Muse at Newcastle Arena tonight, that was when Tony was eventually was ready. He had been locked out of the house and left his key, we eventually got there at about 7:20.

Unfortunately we had seating tickets near the back, we listened to some of the support act (The Noisettes) but the womens voice began to get on our nerves so we went back into the foyer and got a drink.

We went back in at about 9 and sat in our seats, I had mentioned about jumping the barrier and going into the standing part. When Muse started a few people did exactly that. So me and Tony jumped the barrier but a woman security person shouted us and made us go back out. Yet when we walked back out the gate we were given a standing ticket each by one of the other security people. He hadn't realised we had jumped the barrier. So we just walked out and came in another door right near the front and handed over the ticket we had just been given. So we ended up quite close to the front.

It was good night, they sound exactly the same live as on the album, which is a good thing. I enjoyed it and pleased I saw them live but not sure I would be bothered about seeing them again. Unless part of a festival.

Weekend

I went out with Jay on Friday afternoon, we met up in Crook Club. We had quite a lot to drink and had a good laugh. Jay ended up doing the caterpiller in the pizza shop with everyone in the pub opposite watching. I then did a head stand in the middle of another pub (for charity).

Then things become a bit hazy, I ended up going to West Auckland to meet up with a lass. I spent the night there. I had the great idea of walking home the following morning, its about 9 miles. About 4 miles or so into the walk it started to pour down. I carried on through Witton-le-Wear, trying to phone a taxi but got no answer. I eventually decided to ring the brother in law and he came and picked me up.

I just hung around the house watching things I had recorded for the rest of Saturday.

Then today I haven't done much other than go to the Arnison Centre for a present for my Mam, its her birthday tomorrow. I ended up buying some more jean and a jumper from Next. Hardly ever buy any clothes until I have to.

I'm off to the Arena to watch Muse so I better get dressed and go and pick Tony up from Bearpark.

Langdale Pikes

Distance: 6.33 miles
Time: 4 hours 30

I went for a walk in the Lake District at Langdale Pikes with Julie who I used to work with 10 years ago. She hasn't done much walking, so wasn't sure how she would do. I marked out a route that was probably too demanding for a first walk in the lakes. I had intended to take in 5 Wainwrights.

Walking up to Stickle Tarn took its toll on Julie and her legs were hurting by then but we carried on up to Sergeant Man, but decided not to continue up to High Raise. The weather was very bad as well, high winds and we had rain, sleet, snow and hail. So we headed over to Thunacar Knott and decided that it was best to head back. We went back down via Thorn Crag.

Julie said she enjoyed it, which I was surprised about because it was wild on the top.

I would like to go back again in the future to take in all the Wainwrights in the area to tick off my list.

Adopt-A-Path

Distance: 4.3 miles

Today Mike Knipe called at mine from Durham Voluntary Countryside Rangers and took me on the above walk while explaining what I need to do when I adopt a path or paths. It is very straight forward and exactly what I expected. The only bit I didn't realise is that they only ask you 2 walk the path twice a year. Mike explained this is because they pay travel expenses and couldn't afford it if you were out every week. It doesn't bother me as I probably wouldn't claim unless going completely out of my way.

When I got talking to Mike, he was really interesting and he did loads of walking (he is retired). I realised he read the same walking websites as me. When I got back I did a quick search and found he does a lot on www.g04awalk.com. Here's one of his articles, with a little picture.

He got talking about the TGO challenge and how he had done it a few times and was hoping to do it again next year, if he got a place. I had looked at this myself but wouldn't until I have done plenty of multi-day hikes on my own first. I will set it as an aim for 2008 (planning already).

I enjoyed the walk and especially listening to Mike and his stories, once I have done a couple of wild camps on my own (probably next year). I will certainly think about going to a Outdoors Magic meet and hopefully meet some more similar people.

wont go away

i wanted to take this week to forget about work but unfortunately with
receiving my pay review letter today i can now think of little else.

over the last 6 months i have experienced quite a few highs by doing
things i have enjoyed. yet at the same time i have experienced some
very dark days. all the dark days have been caused by work and there
is no getting away from the fact that this job makes me angry,
irritated, frustrated and upset to varying degrees. what angers me the
most is that it could be so different it could be interesting,
educational, progressive and fulfilling. i want to want to go to work,
instead of dreading what crap is gonna happen next.and what
information is being withheld today that will make your life more
difficult and frustrating tomorrow.

i have been trying to stay positive while others around me in both
offices have been negative but after the information in the post today
how can i still be positive. i seem to be swimming upstream in a flood
with my arms tied behind my back with someone throwing stuff at me.
i'm still trying and haven't completely given in just yet. one final
thing to go, the merger. yet i hear tonight the hr lady who's top
priority it is, is on holiday for 2 weeks. she is entitled to her
holiday but surely someone else should be working on it while she is
away rather than having to wait for her return before anything starts
to happen.

i am trying to put all my moaning down on here now, so hopefully i can
forget about work for the next 5 days until after my holiday!

i think i will see about starting boxing next week and see how well i
can stay in control. need some sort of release...

Fishing

I spent the day fishing a couple of miles from Bedale with my dad and uncle. You can see where I was fishing on the map above, the blue arrow shows the lakes.

I caught 8 fish I think, 5 Carp and 3 roach. So I had a good day :-)

Common Carp

Faithless

I have just booked up to see Faithless in March next year, this will probably be the last thing I will be booking for a while, unless something special comes along.

I need to save some money after not getting much of a pay rise :-(

The Aviator

The Aviator: I wanted to watch this when it was on at the pictures but never got there. Then I heard a few negative reviews and that it was very long. So I never got around to watching it until today.

It was a good film but I felt a bit disappointed and wanted know more about Howard Hughes. I'm not quite sure DiCaprio was the right choice for lead, although he gave quite a good performance.

I gave it 7 out of 10.

All Over

I've been all over the place today and not been entirely succesfull. I drove to the Tees Barrage to see about Canoe lessons, I could of just rang but wanted to have a look. I spoke to someone there who told me they don't normally start running lessons until March because they are regulated and not allowed because of water temperature at this time of year. He said that this year in January one of the clubs ran some lessons in a swimming pool first. So basically that's me out of luck with canoing or kayaking for now.

I then drove up the A19 to Sunderland to have a look at Sunderland Wall and see about a taster lesson. I am booked in for Friday morning 11, I may of been able to do it today but just asked for another day.

On my way back I drove past Penshaw Monument, so decided to pull in and walk up the Monument. I ended almost jogging up. I walked around the moument looking at the view in each direction then walked back down again. It's a shame I didn't have my camera, there was a good view today.

Once back in the car I drove back towards Chester-le-Street and jumped on the A1 and back off again at Durham, so I could call in at Tesco for some meat and bread buns for sandwiches. Before I went in Tesco I quickly walked around Suite Centre just to see of they had any cheap seats, but they didn't really have any. Before I bought the stuff for me sandwiches I went to the cafe in Tesco for something to eat. I got 2 sausages, chips and beans which I was charged £1.60. The drink cost me 90p and the sauce 15p.

Once I'd finished in Tesco I drove back home via the back roads from Brancepeth.

Job Evaluation

I haven't wrote anything about this until now because I wanted to calm down a bit. In fact I think I will go and get a cup of hot chocolate before I start!

Cup of Hot Chocolate in hand :-)

The results of the Job Evaluation were finally sent out to staff, I haven't received mine yet because I was working in Teesside on Friday and mine has gone to Durham. Even though they were sent out from Teesside, while I was there.

I asked someone to open mine and I was told what it said. I have been paid the minimum they had to pay me, which is around £700 extra a year, which is a complete joke. I can't blame the people who did the job matching because they can only go off the information they are given. I can blame HR for having a completely inaccurate Job description which I have highlighted in the past.

A few weeks ago I said I had 2 things I was waiting for before I made a decision on whether I stay or leave. This is the first and that's 1 point to leaving, if the merger is as fucked up then that will be the second and I am not sticking around. I went against everything I believe in by apologising for something I didn't do a few weeks ago. So I'm not hanging around to be treated like shit if the merger is done wrong as well. It will be a shame because there is plenty of potential for an interesting job to develop but from everything else that has happened in relation to HR the last couple of months, I have absolutely no faith what-so-ever.

On Friday I was thinking what is easier making an appeal or writing a resignation letter, obviously the second. But I will wait to see how much the merger is messed up before making my final decision!

I am sorting plenty of things in my personal life and feeling happier in general, I just wish work was the same. It is totally getting me down and everyone else I work with because of uncertainty. I am trying to be positive but everyone else complaining is having a negative impact on me :-(

Holiday for Planning

This week is more about planning my next year as well as doing some hopefully interesting stuff where I can fit it in. I was hoping to do some work around the house but not sure when I'm gonna get chance to do that.

I am always planning stuff on here and making lists, looking back at the lists from earlier in they year I have done many of them. There are some big holes like Classical Music and theatre/musicals. I am very tempted to go and see Chicago this week even if I have to go on my own. I can't really afford it but what the hell, anything could happen next week so "LIVE FOR TODAY".

Below are some of the things I am planning, many are already added to my Calendar. This is quite a big list already. I have wasted far too much time already so am on a bit of a mission. If I complete these I will be fit as hell and I'm determined enough to. I have quite a few more ideas but wrote these yesterday and thought I would jsut copy and paste them in :-)

Walks
West Highland Way
Ben Nevis via CMD Arete
Mt. Snowdon
Ill Belle
Scafell & Scafell Pike
North Yorkshire 3 Peaks Challenge

Runs
Great North Run
Raby 10K
Blaydon Race
Redcar Half Marathon
Beamish Tram Challenge

Cycling
Downhill Mountain Biking - Fort William
Cycle the Coast to Coast

Other
CANADA
Learn to Climb
Learn to Canoe/Kayak
Learn to Hore Ride
Motorbike Lessons
Learn to Ski/Snowboard
Ice Climb (Xscape)
Fishing
Shooting

Canada

My flights to Canada for me and Kay are booked :-)

We are flying July 5th 2007 from Newcastle and Returning on July 18th. We have only booked the flights so far, but will hopefully book the initial accommodation soon. I am really looking forward to it, just wish it wasn't so long until July.

We are flying from Newcastle to Toronto and will be going to Niagara Falls and we are thinking about Ottawa as well but so far haven't really planned any of our Itinerary.

So 1 thing is booked for next year or 2 if I include INXS but better not mention that!

Events This Year

I have mentioned before that I had been to see a few things or am going to be. I was tidying up and came across some of the tickets and stuff from this year, so as sad as I am I thought I'd take a photo.


There are 14 things in the picture but I should have a couple more around somewhere and there are lots of other things that I wouldn't have tickets from, like walking Ben Nevis and walking some of the Pennine Way, Crinkle Crags, etc..

From Top Left: Boxing in Glasgow, Robbie Williams, The Subways, Hi-Fi North, Ross Noble, Muse, Guns N Roses, Bon Jovi, Kasabian, Dirty Pretty Things, Newcastle match, Basement Jaxx, Leeds Festival wrist band & Great North Run Medal.

Next year I want more. I'm never satisfied but at least this year I have plenty of things to remember and lots of memories and it isn't over yet. 4 of those tickets are still to be used in the next 5 weeks.

I wrote in someones birthday card a couple of weeks ago about how many things we'd done in the last 6 months and that we would do even more in the next year. Since then they have stopped speaking to me, but I'm carrying on organising stuff on my own. Life is far too short and too much to do to waste it. I will never understand women!

Week Off

I'm now on holiday for a week, I say a holiday but really it's just a week off work. I don't want it to be uneventful, so thinking of a few things!

Work has been a bit shit this week and especially disappointing on Friday (got to be joking), but will write about that in a different post. So I want to do some stuff to take my mind off anything to do with work.

The only thing I had planned before today was for walking in the Lake District on Thursday. I'm going with Julie who I used to work in Bishop Auckland 10 years ago. This is the route I'm doing, although may modify it slightly.

Today I haven't done much after getting out of bed after 11, even then only after a phone call. My dad drilled a hole in the wall to put a hook up for my washing line, he did it because he had the hook, I just let him get on with it. We then went down my sisters to watch the Newcastle match, don't know why we bother.

I got a call regarding my volunteering, I had emailed explaining that I was having problems making the working parties. I could of gone today but was knackered and I have my own garden to do nevermind doing ground clearance somewhere else. Anyway in my email I asked if I could switch to adopting a path then I could do it whenever I liked. So a guy called me today so he could do an introduction with me. He is meeting me on Wednesday morning and we will walk around some of the paths in Roddymoor, while he explains what I need to do :-)

Tomorrow night a mate is coming over and hopefully I will be booking my flights to Canada, the rest of the day I will be doinf house work and if the weather isn't too bad I will go out for a run (need some fresh air and exercise).

I have been browsing the internet looking at Sunderland Climbing Wall and the Tees Barage to learn to canoe/kayak. I am hoping to do both of those this week. I need to ring up and find out when I can book in for the taster sessions, both are quite cheap (just as well). While I was searching I saw some guy trying to tackle Cauldron Snout (nutter).

I would like to walk Scafell & Scafell Pike but need some reasonable weather for them or wont see a thing. I have also marked a route out around Buttermere going up 5/7 Wainrights, including Hay Stacks and Red Pike. The only problem with these is the weather and how much its gonna cost me in Petrol.

I have jobs to do around the house, painting, gardening and lots of other little jobs. I need to sort out exactly what I'm doing each day but don't want to spend the whole week in the house. I could go fishing on Tuesday with my dad and uncle. Thinking about it I could drive to Darlington on monday morning and buy a fishing permit and maggots, then drive along the A66 to the Tees Barage and see wat it's like and enquire about learning. I think its 12:30 when you can start on the water on Monday (tidal), then after going there drive up the A19 to Sunderland and have a look at the Sunderland Wall and see if I can book some training.

Planning

I sent this last night from my phone but hasn't appeared yet, so copied it from my mail!

i have spent the last couple of hours adding things to my google
calendar for next year or penciling them in if thats still the correct
term to use.

i have added my canada trip in and have narrowed the dates down to the
beginning of July. looking at the prices of flights it would mean
departing either the 28th June or i think it was the 5th June if
that's a week later. then returning 2 weeks later. the prices start
increasing after that.

besides for canada i have added in several races, including the great
north run, blaydon race, raby 10k, beamish tram challenge and Redcar
half marathon. i don't think i will be able to make all of them
because of other things but would like to do the 2 half marathons and
at least 1 of the other 3.

i also added a couple of other things like a show at the newcastle
theatre royal and the whole leeds festival weekend.

i have added a week in may to walk the west highland way or another
long distance path that would take a week. i haven't booked anything
at all yet and somethings others may want to go too but just jotted
then down while i was thinking about them.

i have all the other walks i want to do to add in yet as well. i
downloaded an overlay for memory map tonight which shows all the
wainwrights on the map and then i can mark when i've done them. if you
don't know what a wainwright is google it.

so this year hasn't even finished and already i in starting to plan
all sorts for next year!

ah Egypt, would love to go there but wont be able to afford that as
well as Canada. unfortunately it will probably have to wait until 2008
:-(

i'm planning stuff for next year yet haven't planned next week when
i'm off except for one day.

Nildram = Shit

I have been using Nildram as my ISP since I moved to my own house, previously I used Zen who were fantastic but had introduced a more strict usage limit for new customers. I decided to go with Nildram because they had no usage limit outside of peak hours. Yet in reality I have downloaded nowhere near any limit in an entire month anyway.

Since June I was over billed for 3 months for a static IP, after several complaints I finally got refunded. Then they said I hadn't paid for the static IP in June yet they had over billed me for it for the 3 months following.

It appeared I had finally sorted out all the billing but then from last Friday I kept having intermittent problems accessing websites. I would eventually be sent to: http://194.74.65.98/index.html
This makes it sound like a BT problem but I never had the time to investigate further. This has kept happening intermittently ever since. I started to think it could be a problem with the DNS servers when the fault arose again tonight, yet my FTP download continued to work. I rang Customer Support who told me to write in the IP addresses of the DNS servers to my router rather than obtaining them automatically. I did this but the problem persisted. I decided to have a look on ADLS Guide at the ISP forums and in the Nildram one there were several people complaining about the same problem.

I decided to use OpenDNS servers instead and so far have no more problems and websites appear to be loading more quickly too.

If I have any more problems I am moving back to Zen.

Moaned at

One final post. I got moaned at again when I booked some tickets and didn't for another friend. I'm not even gonna bother to explain the current situation, reminds me of when I was a kid and my best mate (Jay) and me were playing on the field and Jay went over to talk to another friend so I went over as well. We were all talking away and the subject must of changed to something I was more interested in. I turned around and Jay had disappeared, so went down his house and got told off by his mother for leaving him for another friend.

It appeared I could only have one friend or the other gets upset if they get excluded. We were about 8 or 9 at the time. I am now 27 and things are still the same (not with me and Jay). I don't intend to offend anyone and when people do it to me I don't think anything of it. I obviously have no feelings and am heartless, as I was also told during the day on Friday.

The story of me and Jay has always stuck in my mind (he wouldn't remember it). I still to this day have no idea what I did wrong, as he went over to see the friend and has done this hundreds of time over the years leaving me on my own, yet on that rare occassion I did it!

I can be insensitive and don't always think but most of the time I just don't understand people.

Work

On Friday I was in a meeting at work to tell us more details regarding my units merger with Teesside. The Teesside staff came up to Durham for the meeting.

We were shown the new structure and how the remaining staff fitted into it. There were some shocks for almost everyone, some people were left speechless probably because they were shocked. I felt sorry for some of the people because it almost appeared from the job titles that they were being demoted. More than one person has commented today that the meeting was quite badily handled. Not a lot phases me these days and am learning to try to take a step back and take it in.

Several people were clearly angry and upset and understandibly so!

I am being made an equal IT Officer which I guess is a promotion in title. Although none of the HR stuff like job descriptions or salaries have even been looked at yet and wont be until the current job evaluation letters are sent out (sometime this week), so it is hard to really know what any of the jobs are or how much you are valued.

I have a few concerns regarding myself, I still have to go to Teesside at least 2 days a week. Worryingly Teesside were praised for not doing development work and said it was better than how Durham created their own solutions. Teesside just made do with existing systems. I don't think this was by choice but because they didn't have the resources or maybe the skills to create their own solutions. This is very worrying because this is one of the things we are good at and it makes me question how much the person really knows about what and why we have done some of the things we have. Many of the units skills are under utilised already and if we are to be discouraged from any future development then life is going to be extremely boring for many members of the unit. It will also make peoples jobs harder because information wont be as easily available in the future.

From previously reading the national IT Job profiles I would of thought that the 2 current IT staff (myself included) would fit more into the IT Specialist role rather than IT Officers. The job I am presuming will be very varied because of having to cover a large number of IT equipment, users and sites over 2 areas with different systems and structures.

I have other concerns but not going to write them on here, many may be sorted out when one day HR starts working on it, slightly late when I've already working in Teesside for over a month.

I wont mention the other staff here because I know a number of them have large concerns but not fair for me to air them.

One thing that did seem apparent is how much of our time we are expected to be in Teesside when from the start we were told Durham is the base. Today as an example I could of done everything I did today from Durham other than change the backup tapes, which anyone could of done. Instead they will have to pay my petrol costs and parking fee which will be a minimum of £17.50 (more if at Teesside rates), they could of saved that. That's another concern what is going to happen with the new role am I expected to go to Teesside and pay for all fuel and parking myself because it would be a new role and be there from 8:30 to 5?

Today I set off at 7:30 which is earlier than when going to Durham and arrived in the office at around about 9. Yet I had broken the speed limit several times and rushed from the car park and practically ran up the stairs to try to see how soon I could get there. I couldn't afford to keep driving like that, petrol costs too much and knowing my look I'd get done for speeding. In comparison on the rare occassion I've set off at 7:30 I have been in work at Durham before 8 at about 7:50 of just after.

Think I will lie back and think some of the stuff through, with being away at the weekend I haven't really had much chance to take it all in.

boxing

I haven't posted much again over the last week other than one very short post when on my way to Glasgow. I was on my way to watch a mate box, I'm pleased to say he won, the fight went the distance. He easily won but in my opinion looked far from impressive and stood off and watched far too much. If he fights Lenny Dawes again he needs to do more than he did on Saturday.

Before and after the fight we had a few drinks in Glasgow, after the fight all of us ended up in a pub around the corner. Where there was Karaoke on and several of the lads got up as usual. I didn't inflict myself on anyone, luckily for them!

I did end up with a couple of glasses of champagne to celebrate the win.

on the way

i'm on the way to glasgow to watch the boxing. i am writing this more
to take my mind off wanting if toilet less than 5 minutes after
leaving the service station. the lager is going straight through me.
there is 80 miles to go before we get to glasgow :-(