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Okay, a week ago today it was announced that our office is closing down. Funny thing is that nothing is official yet so we haven’t actually had our letter of termination yet – only a note telling us what we are destined to get at the end of the year. (which is quite generous btw…)

So until we get the letter at the start of the 90 day consultation period, it’s all a bit weird – would feel a bit crap if things changed now as I’ve set my mind on leaving now! Morale is a bit low at the moment – not much incentive to really push ourselves, but will hopefully pick up as not sure we could all cope with 38 more weeks of this!

Obviously we have a few newer starts who will probably be leaving before the end – sooner rather than later for some – don’t blame them as there is not much to be gained by them to stay to the end.

Will see how things go.

38 weeks is from this Friday assuming we have to stay until the 31st of December.

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Yelladworks, my current employer is closing it’s Edinburgh office and ‘off-shoring’ all the of its IT to India from the end of the year.

So yes, I have to find something to do from the start of next year. The package should be pretty good since I’ve been there for 11 years so I would be foolish to leave before the end!

Plans are to try and build up some other work in the meantime so it can take over ASAP. Might be the opportunity I need to start working for myself instead of working for ‘the man’. Will miss colleagues at the office – some of whom have been there longer than me. Wonder where we are all going to end up…

Right, getting a bit fed up with this snow nonsense now.

Out of the last 31 journeys to or from work I have been on my bicycle the vast total of 6 trips…

1 bus journey home to make sure I was home in time to pick up Christmas trees.

2 bus journeys to and from the station to get to a train down to our head office in Scarborough.

Which leaves 22 trudges through the snow/slush/ice at about 45 minutes each = 16.5 hours of walking!

Lets see how the rest of this week goes before I’m off for the winterval season.

Typing this in from it as we speak! So far I think it is the bee’s knees. More apps than i could ever need. Gives me the chance to be on the web of an evening when Lorraine is hogging the laptop…

With just less than a fortnight to go until the winter solstice I’m really looking forward to the gradual shift in the length of the day.

Really noticed it this year as I seem to be up and out of the house sometime near the end of lighting up time if I’m running late. The evenings seem to have been dark for ages, but the mornings have just crept up on me.

With less than 7 hours of daylight that equates to more than two thirds of the day in darkness! Can’t imagine what it’s like for them further north with several months of darkness. Probably freak me out!

Finished my 74 ascents of our stairs at work today in our charity effort to climb Everest.

Not too late to donate!

Moving on from tiling/plumbing/painting – tonight Matthew, I am going to be a carpet fitter. (well vinyl)

Flat is coming along nicely, lots of wee finishing jobs to do – screwing things to walls and cleaning up a bit.

Vinyl fitting isn’t as easy as it looks! I think I’ve done a better job of the bathroom with shower/wc/basin to cut round than the big square area of the kitchen! Nice to be doing a cleaner job than sealing or grouting for once…

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Our spare fake tree, with bauble and lights from home.

The wee cardboard box below it is a nativity scene made up of stress balls and so on…

That’s what a trip to Reading on business involves! Everything was pretty much on time – the biggest delay was waiting for the Airport bus from Edinburgh Airport back home!

6 trains you ask? To save the company 50% on the price of BA to Heathrow I ‘Queasy Jetted’ to Stansted. This does mean 1 train from Stansted to Liverpool Street, underground to Paddington, then back on regular train to Reading – and the same again heading home.

Did get a nice night and nosh in the Crowne Plaza, Reading though.

Meeting was delayed by an hour, the others were then 15 minutes late arriving so I had to leave after 1hour 15 minutes!

So to some up…

30mins to the airport

60mins waiting at the airport

75mins flying to Stansted

50mins train from Stansted to Liverpool St

30mins underground Liverpool St to Paddington

26mins train Paddington to Reading

5mins taxi to Crown Plaza

a grand total of 3 hours and 36 minutes on various forms of transport with 1hour (at least waiting around)

Not been inspired to blog much this month. Was laid up with the cold for a couple of days last week leading up to the bank holiday – typical. So Wednesday/Thursday was spend wandering aimlessly about the house mopping at my snotty nose.

Watched lots of episode of Battlestar Galactica on the laptop on Thursday while sitting in bed. Was really gripping – especially if you watch 7 episodes in a row…

By now I’ve watched the first 14 of series 2. Well worth a view if you like decent sci-fi.

Was Lorraine’s birthday sometime prior to the weekend so managed to drag ourselves to Scone Palace [thats pronounced scoon by the way] for a picnic (white peacock photo to follow), then Aberfoyle to the garden centre there, and finally back to the Dominion in Edinburgh for the comfy sofa seats and Spiderman 3.

Lorraine couldn’t avoid catching my cold so she started to feel a bit crap by the end of the weekend.

Monday holiday we eventually found a paving suppliers in Falkirk after driving up and down the same road about 5 times. Google Maps let us down there.

Back to the grind on Tuesday…

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