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 :-(

Ross Noble

I went to see Ross Noble at Newcastle City Hall tonight and he was excellent. I can't remember laughing so much for years. He must be one of the best stand up comedians. He seems to make everything up as he goes along rather than having a set routine. My neck and chest was hurting from constantly laughing, it was just as well there was an interval so I could recover.

It would be interesting to go back another night and see if it was completely different or if it did have the same material.

Anyway it was an excellent night :-)