D Pollard

24 – ok?

Could it be that the summer is finally here ? If so, I’m still not going to make it to the track, as the Lotus is back in the garage with it’s nose in the air as I start to repair the damage from a fortnight ago.

To say that I’m mildly annoyed that the BiB haven’t followed up the other car, is somewhat of an understatement. I’m now left out of pocket, without a useable car and will be spending hours / evenings / nights having to repair the damage to the front clam just because someone decided not to stop when they lost parts of their car on the motorway. Hopefully I’ll manage to get the front clam sprayed and refitted within a couple of weeks – but I’ll still think the owner of “S215 HEH” is the biggest twat on the planet – who will hopefully one day die from cancer of the penis.

Anyway – to get me out of the garage for a couple of hours and actually see some of the British summer – here’s a picture of the Vulcan from this weekends airshow at RAF Waddington. It’s probably the last summer this expensive toy will ever see the sky ( in common with my car ! )

A year since being made redundant – and that quick little job to keep me busy before I go back to work is finally nearing completion.

I hate to think how many tonnes of material have been moved over the last 12 months – and I refuse to look at the bank statements to work out how much in materials we’ve used. I do know however, that it is significantly less than paying someone else to do it all.

As the job nears completion, I’ve put up a photo journal of the work along the way.

Yep – where has the time gone ? It seemed like only a week or so since I did my “Life on the Sofa” series of postings, and only last week since I left bezier.

Well I’ve now had three days working for the NHS and my head is full of new stuff. It’s clear that it’s a totally different role and working experience. Commuting by train rather better than sitting in the M62/M1 traffic – which is surprising quiet in the morning, but somewhat busy in the evening. (Castleford really has to be seen to be believed)

The most noticeable difference is Theo when I get home – I think he’s got used to Daddy being at home for a while.

Well I had a very nice letter this morning – so I suppose now is the time to make public what has been known in Private for some time.

After my time off for an operation, I returned back to work at bezier. After only 3 days back (at the end of May) I was asked if I could nip into a quick meeting, only to find the HR director waiting for me. I was put out on gardening leave whilst a consultancy period took place as my role had been identified for redundancy. Well after meetings with HR Directors, ACAS and solicitors, the process ended on the 15th June with me walking away from bezier for good. I’m not saying it was inevitable – but lets just say I filled the car with fuel and took photos of the fuel gauge & odometer before I entered the meeting.

Financially, there was nothing more than statutory offered, which considering my termination date was set a fortnight before my two year point was next to bugger all. Luckily I had a lengthy notice period and payment in lei of notice (Pilon) meant there wasn’t mega-urgent rush to get back to work. Of course, bezier didn’t want me to have the money right away, but spread out over a 3 month period. Thankfully enough there has been a payroll error that has resulted in me getting the money straight away.

Anyway, for the first time in my 39 years of life I got to sign on – Jobseekers allowance and six weeks later, I’ve been paid enough ‘social’ to balance out 1 hours worth of tax (back when I had my own ltd company).

I’ve spent the time since the end of May carefully, balanced between getting those jobs around the home that have been put off due to lack of time – and applying for just about every IT Project Management role in between Leeds and Grimsby. Well I know there is a recession on and loads of unemployment right now, but thankfully my CV was well received and I’ve had a fair few offers of interview.

The interviews were spread across various sectors, but I have been wanting to get back into the public sector – particularly the NHS. That is why despite higher offers and jobs closer to home, I’ve decided to accept a role with the NHS Connecting for Health team in Leeds. It’s actually working for someone who was a colleague of mine back at LeedsMet – only this time he’ll be my boss.

So I’m just waiting for a start date now – whilst Shelley rapidly writes out lists of all the jobs I’ve still got to finish before returning to work.

Standards can be pain when you’re trying to include Flash animation and video.  The forever changing targets of making swf and flv files  fit within the W3C standards meant my offer to update Eric Bartons website ended up taking the whole day.  It had been 3 1/2 years since I last edited Eric’s site – and since then the release Firefox3 and IE8 (as well as the upgrade to Flash 10) meant that my very rusty development skills were put to the test as I performed what was in effect a very minor update to his site.    It may not look any different – but I had to change over 50% of every page.

It reminds me why I stopped doing web development and became an IT Project Manager.

My doctors note ran out over the bank holiday weekend – soI’m cleared to go back to work.  Something I haven’t tried as yet was driving any distance ( for example,  the commute to work or collecting Alex from Northampton ) -  so I jumped in the car today to see how long I could last.

The short answer -  it wasn’t very far at all.   I made it someway to Cadwell Park,  which is about the same distance as my commute – but I do admit to having to stop for a rest on the way. The journey back was worse -  as soon as I hit traffic the constant changing gear soon got to me.  Either way,  I’ll dose myself up with pills tomorrow and hopefully once I’m at my desk,  I won’t have to go anywhere else until hometime.

Well for one,  I can’t believe it’s taken a fortnight to get where I am today.   This was supposed to be like day 3.

I’m up and about at last – but still suffering and lacking in stamina,  but at least I’m not stuck lying down.   It was the mother-in-laws 60th birthday bash over the weekend and I felt a right party pooper having to be sat down carefully.   You would have thought it was my 60th the way I’m moving right now.

There is no doubt I’m going stir crazy from not being out and about.  I’m dying to get back into the swing of things and this is infuriating the hell out of me.  There’s some things I’ve got to remember though -  right now I can’t even touch anywhere below my knees,  let alone put a pair of socks on.   I can’t sit upright in a normal chair without severe pain – and thats sitting still – I can’t imagine what it would be like to try and drive.  I grimace getting in and out of the car when I’m given a lift to the doctors – and don’t even ask about what it’s like going to the toilet.

And then there’s perspective.

My fellow NYLOCer Paul Hogan has announced this week that his recent bouts of illness is the return of  lymphoma.  Paul is going to have to go through hell for the next year during treatment ( and Fiona too for that matter ).   A close family friend in the village has just discovered she’s got cancer and has some heavy chemo work ahead.

So in perspective I should be happy.

So it should have been back to work today,  but still being able to move enough to drive and having enough painkillers inside me to make a race horse sleepy – means I’m still stuck on this damn sofa.   Without a doubt I’m going somewhat stir-crazy already.   I’m fed up with the Discovery Channel – I know now everything about sharks, nazi’s and volcanoes.   What’s worse is that I’ve heard that Andy Walsh (who had his shoulder op on the same day as me) is already back in Wales and drinking Guiness.