Like many a man I feel unnaturally called to the world of DIY. There's something in the male chromosome which continually whispers to you 'go on, build something, it'll be fun'. This whispering also seems to grow louder during the summer for some reason - why I'm not quite sure, as it would surely be infinitely more fun to spend the day doing something that a) is enjoyable and b) you're actually good at.
I ended up doing my own bit of DIY today, though in this case it was more a case of a DIY emergency than a yearning to attempt to build some grand, lasting testament to my ability. In short, I had an unfortunate run-in with my bathroom mirror and the lid of the cistern on our toilet.
What started out as a regular early morning teeth-brushing session quickly became a Faulty Towers moment as I turned the mirror to admire my gleaming pearlies. What followed was one of those slow-motion horror moments as the mirror lazily fell off its holder and preceeded to somersault down onto the corner of the cistern lid.
It's fair to say the cistern lid didn't enjoy this one bit as it's once pristeen front corner was castrated in two by the gravity-delirious mirror. Luckily for the lid (but alas not for me), it managed to fire off a brief retaliatory volley before its surrender. The result was a perfect crack across the middle of the mirror as well.
After the initial shock and frankly appalling language, three things happened across the rest of the day to secure the battlefield and then launch a damage limitation exercise. The first was a rapid trip to John Lewis to seek supplies for the evening's repair mission - I know B&Q would have been the logical choice but apparently Oxford Street is not a priority location for them.
The second utilised all of my PR skills as I constructed a blow by blow account of the 'tragic incident' and detailed the plans for a swift, efficient repair. Sadly however, a check of my inbox revealed the worst possible news - the landlady had declared over the weekend that our tri-monthly inspection was due. With this in mind, I bit the bullet and sent the peace treaty email across to her.
Finally came the actual repair job this evening. This was going to be a delicate job and hence I swiftly secured the services of an assistant project manager and materials manager to assist me in my role as chief engineer. Sadly, the assistant proved less than helpful, managing to point out a couple of structural issues ('there's a bit missing there' and 'I don't think you'll ever get it back to how it was') before disappearing off for some frantic last-minute PhD viva revision.
Happily the materials manager revealed some excellent practical skills as well as comforting words and was thus swiftly promoted to deputy chief engineer and project manager (details of his remuneration and performance bonus were sadly unavailable). What followed was intensive, nerve-jangling and at times fraught with danger. But 15 minutes later the project was complete and left to dry, sandwiched in-between Tolkien's masterpiece and Stephen Hawking's creation theory for stability whilst drying.
A report on the review and inspection process will hopefully follow next week, assuming this chief engineer still has a house to live in that is...
Monday 26 April 2010
Friday 23 April 2010
Motherhood
There've been a lot of pregnancies in the office lately, which are always welcome and make for an exciting time. However, the topic of motherhood is something that I'm far from an expert on, and owing to a decision made by a bunch of chromosomes 20-something years ago it's a topic I'm not likely to become intimately equated with anytime soon.
Happily though, there are others out there who have lived through all the ups and downs that pregnancy and motherhood throw up. Zaza's friend, Anna, is one such person and she writes a blog on this very subject (though God knows where she finds the time).
It's far from sweetness and light the whole time, but this entry really summed up for me what I think motherhood is probably all about.
Happily though, there are others out there who have lived through all the ups and downs that pregnancy and motherhood throw up. Zaza's friend, Anna, is one such person and she writes a blog on this very subject (though God knows where she finds the time).
It's far from sweetness and light the whole time, but this entry really summed up for me what I think motherhood is probably all about.
Sunday 18 April 2010
The Leaders' debate
Like 9.4m other people, I sat down on Thursday evening to watch what was billed as an 'historic' first and 'defining' moment by an excited British media - the first debate between the leaders of Britain's three leading political parties as part of the Election campaign.
What happened over the course of 90 minutes of sometimes interesting, often not, debate was either 'truly remarkable' or 'as expected' depending on which source you read. What happened was that the vast majority of 9.4m people sat up and took notice of a bloke called Nick Clegg, probably for the first time.
If you believe one side, then such was the opportunity for a man who normally struggles to get remotely near the front pages, that all he had to do was turn up. If you believe the other, then this was proof that here was a man and a party whose moment has arrived.
Except it hasn't, despite some truly intriguing polls which place Clegg's a stones throw from the lead in the race for No 10. Instead, his party will end up with 100 seats at best. A meagre return for their efforts.
The reason it hasn't is that Britain's seemingly simple electoral system is actually anything but. On paper, it's easy - 650 people who each poll the most votes in their constituencies elected to Parliament. And in practice, that's the case. The problem for the Lib Dems arises because their vote is so evenly spread across the UK. They don't have the industrial north as a heartland, and they don't have the prosperous south as one either.
Instead, they have to scrap and scrape for every single seat, often enduring the frustration of finishing second and walking away with nothing. Small wonder then, that they want electoral reform which would recognise their share of the overall national vote.
So no, the Lib Dems aren't going to be huge winners in this election, despite all their best efforts (and the lamentable efforts of the other two parties). Who are going to be winners though are all the people who despair at the death of politics as a topic of choice amongst the wider electorate.
Walking into the office on Friday morning, it was fantastic to see so many different people talking about the events of the night before. And that's something that carried into this weekend as well as I travelled up to Leicester.
Granted, the people in my office probably don't represent a full cross-section of society. But at least it's a start. Politics just might be becoming something that matters to people again.
What happened over the course of 90 minutes of sometimes interesting, often not, debate was either 'truly remarkable' or 'as expected' depending on which source you read. What happened was that the vast majority of 9.4m people sat up and took notice of a bloke called Nick Clegg, probably for the first time.
If you believe one side, then such was the opportunity for a man who normally struggles to get remotely near the front pages, that all he had to do was turn up. If you believe the other, then this was proof that here was a man and a party whose moment has arrived.
Except it hasn't, despite some truly intriguing polls which place Clegg's a stones throw from the lead in the race for No 10. Instead, his party will end up with 100 seats at best. A meagre return for their efforts.
The reason it hasn't is that Britain's seemingly simple electoral system is actually anything but. On paper, it's easy - 650 people who each poll the most votes in their constituencies elected to Parliament. And in practice, that's the case. The problem for the Lib Dems arises because their vote is so evenly spread across the UK. They don't have the industrial north as a heartland, and they don't have the prosperous south as one either.
Instead, they have to scrap and scrape for every single seat, often enduring the frustration of finishing second and walking away with nothing. Small wonder then, that they want electoral reform which would recognise their share of the overall national vote.
So no, the Lib Dems aren't going to be huge winners in this election, despite all their best efforts (and the lamentable efforts of the other two parties). Who are going to be winners though are all the people who despair at the death of politics as a topic of choice amongst the wider electorate.
Walking into the office on Friday morning, it was fantastic to see so many different people talking about the events of the night before. And that's something that carried into this weekend as well as I travelled up to Leicester.
Granted, the people in my office probably don't represent a full cross-section of society. But at least it's a start. Politics just might be becoming something that matters to people again.
Thursday 1 April 2010
Spring break
Next week will be the first time I've taken any holiday since Christmas and I really couldn't be more ready for it. It's been an incredibly long, tough, intense three months, though it's not been without its joys, particularly on the personal front.
What is certain though is that I'm pretty knackered and have somewhat been lunging for Easter like a sprinter straining everything for the white tape on the line.
There's something else too. I've lost that day to day passion for my job a little bit at present. There are still great moments each week, and I still maintain that any job in which your first task for the day is to read the paper is unbeatable. But I haven't quite been bounding into and around the office with the same gusto of late.
This isn't any great crisis of job quitting proportions but more I suspect a result of the route I've enjoyed over the past two years.
Being on a grad scheme where you rotate through different departments effectively turns your job into a series of sprints. After four sets of sprints I've suddenly entered a marathon, otherwise known as the rest of my career.
Naturally it's going to take a while to get used to this change therefore. And given that I'm writing this whilst sitting on yet another train to Bristol it's fair to say I'm not the best person when it comes to change.
I'm not so naive as to think there are jobs or even careers for life anymore though. I fully recognise that I'm at the start of a very long and hard to predict journey.
One of the consequences of our ever improving life expectancy is a longer working life. That means even more twists, turns and open doors and as far as I'm concerned that's nothing but a brilliant opportunity, both within my current and future jobs.
So I still might not bound into work 10 days from now. But at some point in the near future I know I will.
What is certain though is that I'm pretty knackered and have somewhat been lunging for Easter like a sprinter straining everything for the white tape on the line.
There's something else too. I've lost that day to day passion for my job a little bit at present. There are still great moments each week, and I still maintain that any job in which your first task for the day is to read the paper is unbeatable. But I haven't quite been bounding into and around the office with the same gusto of late.
This isn't any great crisis of job quitting proportions but more I suspect a result of the route I've enjoyed over the past two years.
Being on a grad scheme where you rotate through different departments effectively turns your job into a series of sprints. After four sets of sprints I've suddenly entered a marathon, otherwise known as the rest of my career.
Naturally it's going to take a while to get used to this change therefore. And given that I'm writing this whilst sitting on yet another train to Bristol it's fair to say I'm not the best person when it comes to change.
I'm not so naive as to think there are jobs or even careers for life anymore though. I fully recognise that I'm at the start of a very long and hard to predict journey.
One of the consequences of our ever improving life expectancy is a longer working life. That means even more twists, turns and open doors and as far as I'm concerned that's nothing but a brilliant opportunity, both within my current and future jobs.
So I still might not bound into work 10 days from now. But at some point in the near future I know I will.
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