I’ve just got back from a little trip to Paris. I can’t even call it a flying visit because I took the Eurostar again. They are up and running after the fire, but not so frequent and the journe takes even longer. It was another visit to our French offices for a union-related meeting where […]
Entries Tagged as 'Work'
Parisienne Walkways
November 14th, 2008 · Comments Off on Parisienne Walkways · Life, Work
Tags: France·Paris·Photos·Railways·Trade Unions
Picture This
October 3rd, 2008 · Comments Off on Picture This · Technology, Work
Its the big office move for us tomorrow. We pack up all our stuff in crates and then on Monday we turn up at the new building to find the crates next to our new desks. The new buildings have a different door access system so we have to have new security passes to get […]
Movin’ On Up
September 23rd, 2008 · Comments Off on Movin’ On Up · Work
One of the reasons I am not in Manchester enjoying Gordon Brown’s speech with all the other PPCs is a small matter of an office move. The construction of the new buildings has taken several years now: three? four? I’m not sure, but it is a long time. The actual moves of laboratories, workshops, test […]
Tags: Language
Science Friction
August 21st, 2008 · Comments Off on Science Friction · Work
I think I was on the receiving end of one of the best put-downs ever this afternoon, when I went into one of our anorak enclaves to chat with the people whose job it is to actually come up with new ideas, the ones at the sharp end of research & development.
You Build Me Up (To Bring Me Down)
August 1st, 2008 · Comments Off on You Build Me Up (To Bring Me Down) · Life, Work
I couldn’t believe it today. Only a couple of weeks ago we saw the end of a whole week of chaos while the road outside our workplace was dug up and resurfaced. ((Just one side of it))  Today it was down to a single lane while another lot of blokes were digging holes in […]
School’s Out
July 26th, 2008 · Comments Off on School’s Out · Work
School holidays started this week. There is something depressing about continuing to go into work every day when the Mrs. keeps reminding you how she is off for the next five-and-a-half weeks. It would help if she didn’t keep rubbing it in so much. It was already bad enough being there while everyone else in […]
Tags: Holidays·Schooldays
Farnborough 2008
July 20th, 2008 · 10 Comments · Life, Technology, Work
We went off to Farnborough for the air show today. I had not been to one before because, although I like planes, I only really have a casual interest in them and figured that air shows were just for the hardcore aviation enthusiasts. It turns out I got it wrong – anyone can enjoy them, […]
Jargon
July 8th, 2008 · Comments Off on Jargon · Life, Work
How on Earth did the BBC manage to come up with the 50 best (i.e. worst) examples of office-speak or buzzwords without even ‘ping’, ‘helicopter view’ or ‘delta’?  Delta always gets me: I haven’t found a single instance when using the word ‘difference’ wouldn’t do – unless one is actually taking about when a river […]
Tags: Language
Percussive Maintenance
June 27th, 2008 · 2 Comments · Technology, Work
I can’t believe this worked: a colleague had a problem with her TFT monitor today. All the icons on the screen had shadows to the right of them, as did the letters of any text. It was a mess. I tried the reset function on the menu, with no effect. As far as I could […]
Manic Friday
June 21st, 2008 · 1 Comment · Life, Music, Work
It was a bit manic today. Charlie needed to go to hospital to have his hand looked at, but it was a very short-notice appointment. I decided to drop him off there on my way to work, rather than have him take a one-hour bus ride or the train; just to make sure he got […]
