Sunday, March 28, 2004

My big sister got married :)

The wedding was on Friday and it was lovely. She looked beautiful, the weather was fine and the whole day went without hitch. They wanted a very informal relaxed day and it was just that, a short but perfect service followed by a small reception at their local golf club - lovely food, champagne and wine, dad's speech was lovely and then we partied the night away at a local community center. The girls came down on Thursday for it and they were particularly lovely and endearing and made me feel very proud. D. looked as beautiful as ever and I had the nicest of times, I felt very lucky and happy.

We all, of course, wished mum could have been there; she helped my sis choose her dress and had seen her in it and that was a comfort to us all, but she would have reveled in the day and been so happy and proud to be the brides' mum.





posted by Listener at 9:49 PM

Wednesday, March 24, 2004

Been busy getting ready for my sister's wedding on Friday. The girls are coming down tomorrow - YAY - so am on a half day. hyave just finished tidying their room (we tend to use it as a giant walk in wardrobe when they're not here - heh) and D. baked some muffins. Cool all sorted.
posted by Listener at 9:43 PM

Tuesday, March 23, 2004

I like cricket lots. How cool to see another convincing and fine performance from The English Cricket Team :)
posted by Listener at 2:11 PM

Sunday, March 21, 2004

I don't understand 'puters!!!! lol - I pretend I do but I don't really :o/

My PC has been running real slow of late and some things it used to do it no longer does - I'm puzzled. They're nothing major just little things!!

Am also trying to redsign my site - oh yeah - and have an idea of where I am going but not really wholly sure how to get there :o/

Care of Smeg I have a basic css template that's way neater then mine and am just considering colours and text styles and stuff.
posted by Listener at 3:40 PM


I am distinctly unimpressed with the PC version of iTunes :/
posted by Listener at 2:48 PM

Thursday, March 18, 2004

Am listening to Starsailor - Love Is Here on my mp3 player and had forgotten what a good album it is.

I brought D. a pressie; the Kings Of Leon CD and it rocks too :)

We had a leaving do for a Japanese colleague last night, we went to a Tapas bar in Windsor which was fun. d. and I left them all still drinking at 9 so it'll be interesting to see how everyone is when they get in this morning.

Really really looking forward to the weekend. planning a quiet chilled one, I want to watch the Rugby and do some stuff on the 'puter and maybe go to the cinema :)

posted by Listener at 8:45 AM

Friday, March 12, 2004

Roo posted about her previous jobs....sounded really interesting so....here's my block CV.....

First job was packing the freezer section as a shy, geeky 16 year old. I worked with mainly women who liked to tease me and stuff but all in a nice way and they were a really great crowd to be with. I did this every Saturday, cycling there (about 10 miles) all year round for two years.

Next up a series of summer jobs, one was working in a factory making electrical components. Dead easy but very boring; insert metal into vice, close hatch, wait, repeat. I once sat a machine for three weeks solid making 2cm long connector blocks, about 1500 a day!!! The worst part of the job was the way the day was geared to remind you how slowly time went. Start at 8, 8.30 the radio came on for half an hour till 9. 9.30 the tea breaks started, 4 shift, 10 minutes each, 5 minutes between, start and finished marked by a bell!!! Then it was a drag till 12 when the first of two 40 minute lunch breaks were signaled by the bell. The same in the afternoon, more tea breaks and then half an hour of radio!! Being a student I again got a lot of ribbing and teasing from the regulars but it was an ok group of people. Other summer jobs of note have been building a storage unit (kind of an oversized Meccano set!) and putting the ginger biscuits into pots before entering a machine which squirted orange yoghurt on them (this was a low!!!).

During uni I was sponsored so in summer breaks I worked my round the departments at my sponsor company. Some were really interesting (accounts, marketing) others less so (the metal shop, the wiring line!!). I then worked there for a year and a half after. Its funny that they spent a fair whack putting me through uni but weren't prepared to offer me he kind of work and salary that a graduate could/would/should expect.

Next job I just loved. I worked for a communications consultancy and worked on loads of different projects, all varied and interesting. I worked on various communication projects for London Underground, Docklands Light Railway, Sheffield Supertram and further afield on the The Great Man Made River Project and in Hong Kong, Thailand and Bangladesh (this was the best!!). The work was always varied and interesting, I got lots of trips and days out the office and the people were great fun. But sadly (and again!) they just couldn't offer the salary I thought I was (a) worth and (b) needed to live!!

Next up, my least favourite job, though it started well, working in technical sales for a smallish telecom company. I had high hopes but they were basically a bunch of cowboys trading on a reputation of a few years back that they could no longer sustain. I managed to move on shortly before they went bust though I did have some good times and my colleagues were ok!!

And so to my latest job. I've been in this company 4 years now. The first 18 months I worked on a next generation mobile system for Manx Telecom, it was a complete blast and I discovered what a cool place the Isle of Man was and made a lot of friends and had some good times. The work was interesting and challenging too. The year after that was a bit of a dark age in my career, working a different project and...well it was just bad ....and then I was offered my latest position in a different department managing an operations team. I am enjoying this greatly, I am in charge of people for the first time (challenging to say the least!) but mostly I like the fact that my boss delegates responsibility, defines his expectations and supports me in seeing them through!!! I feel like I am kind of back to the self belief in my abilities and am doing a job which is challenging and rewarding and interesting....like I had before the 'dark age'.
posted by Listener at 10:14 PM


Your Butterfly Tears

I have a words in my head
About a butterfly
And the butterfly tears
That I made you cry

There's a song going round
About the look on your face
And those butterfly tears
That I want to replace

There are words I can hear
About how you should feel
But your butterfly tears
Are all I managed to steal

The song I want most
Is that smile that you wear
For those butterfly tears
Should not have been there

So I want to write down
To set the words free
That your butterfly tears
Were caused by me
posted by Listener at 5:03 PM


You may have seen the undergrad answer to the exam question Is Hell Exothermic on Endothermic but it well worth a re-read......cheers Oxygen-Kiosk for the reminder :)

We had a power cut when we got to work this mornign so everyone was sent home....no lights, no pwoer, no server, no heat. I've come over to our other building mainly because I'm giving D. a lift home....its a bit weird being sat across the office from her as we don't usually see a whole lot of her during the day normally ;-)
posted by Listener at 1:03 PM

Tuesday, March 09, 2004

Its beer night tonight - part-ay at work for someone's birthday......oooooh my liver, ooooh my head.....just thought I'd get it in now :)
posted by Listener at 5:31 PM

Monday, March 08, 2004

I am currently wasting too much time playing The Simpsons: Hit & Run :o/

I told D to never let me get a PS2 or X-Box or computer game but I got this for the girls at Xmas and am addicted......not being terribly good at games its taking rathera long time :o/
posted by Listener at 6:58 PM

Tuesday, March 02, 2004

I just had to post something on 02/03/04 - cool date :)

I missed my blog birthday last friday - 2 years - will have a review soon I guess :)
posted by Listener at 8:42 AM