Lemmings....

Came across this the other day. Adam gave me a few tips....

Contract's up again....

I’m not doing very well with resolutions this year. I resolved to blog more… well that hasn’t happened yet. I also resolved not to stay in my current contract and move somewhere else. Ummm, that didn’t happen either.

I have been contracting now for well over ten years but, due to the rather long contract in the middle, I haven’t really got much experience of the contracting market. I’m not sure I’m cut out for it either. My contract was up at the end of last month and I looked around for another contract – not a pleasant experience.

Agencies never cease to amaze me. They badger you to go for a contract that you don’t really want and they phone you every hour or so. Once you say yes and they submit your CV, if the client doesn’t want to give you an interview you hear absolutely nothing from the agent again. Best buddies one minute, dirt the next. It’s no wonder they have a bad name.

The uncertainty is an issue I haven’t faced much in the past. Domestic arrangements tend to be up in the air ‘cos you don’t know if you will get a contract close by or far away and if you can work from home or not etc. So you don’t know if you will be able to pick up the children from school or not and if not, who will?

Well, in the end I signed up for anther three months where I currently am. This could actually be a problem because I’m committed to not working during July and August because of the Jamboree and that only leaves two months between the end of this new contract and the start of July. Two month contracts aren’t very common. Oh well, we’ll face that one when we reach it.

I have to say that I’m seriously considering going back into permanent employment….

Strong Man....

Our old washing machine had been on its last legs for a while. We eventually replaced it when the bearings went and the spin cycle became a very noisy and slightly scary experience.

The old washing machine was put out in the garden ready for me to take down to the tip. This wasn’t something I was looking forward too because, due to the inclusion of heavy concrete weights to stop the machine jumping around too much whist washing, washing machines are heavy! Single-handedly manhandling a washing machine in and out of a car is not a fun experience.

Today was the window of opportunity to take the washing machine down the tip. Wanting to make things easier for myself, I opened up the washing machine, un-bolted the concrete weights and removed them. I then put the sides back on. This made the whole job more much more manageable and I was able to easily lift the machine into the car, putting the weights in separately.

Down at the tip, as I drove up to the scrap metal skip, I noticed two of the tip employees struggling to lift a washing machine over the barrier and into the skip. I merrily opened up the back of my car, hoisted the washing machine out and carried it to the barrier and threw it over. It was only then that I realised that the employees were staring at me. I didn’t let on that the ballast had been removed and, so as not to ruin the effect, I surreptitiously put the concrete weights into the hard core skip.

Oh the simple things in life. J

Back to Work....

Well, the holidays are over and the children are back at school. Last week I was looking forward to a bit of peace and quiet, but my plans of a life of leisure were scuppered when I got a call from an agent on the Thursday about a ‘local’ assignment. The rate was bad, but I thought I might as well have an interview as I had nothing to loose. I had a telephone interview that day and got offered the job the next - to start the following Monday. The problem was the rate, as it was less than I was getting back in 1996, but the work was what I want to do and the real clincher was that the job is only 12 minutes away from home! Compared to the hour and a half trip to Milton Keynes, it is fantastic. Because of this, I took it for three months and we’ll see where we go from there.

This week has been a bit of a learning curve, trying to get to grips with the new client’s systems. The work challenging and I’m enjoying it. It is good to get some real hard core programming done, rather than the faffing around that went on at the last place. Hopefully this will continue….

Back home....

We are back from out antipodean adventure.

We had a fantastic time. We saw all the sights that we planned to and everything went according to plan. Even all the flights we went on were on time, excluding the final flight from Dubai to Birmingham which was delayed for 20 minutes due to extra security checks. We had no problems with our hand luggage and we were allowed to have it on board – although it was searched and they were very suspicious of a pot of Vegimite that we were bringing back….

Australia was lovely. The place was friendly and relaxed and I can see why people want to emigrate there - although emigration doesn’t appeal to me.

Sydney was a good place to visit for seven days. There was plenty to see and do and Sally’s conference went well. Ularu (Ayre’s Rock) was a very magical place and so was The Great Barrier Reef, but for different reasons. The Rain Forest around Cairns was not as we expected (I didn’t realise they reached down to the coast), but the beaches were. At high tide, I could have thrown a stone from the balcony of our apartment into the sea – it was a hard week that one!

We stayed in Brisbane for four days before flying back, but we could easily have stayed longer. It was more laid back than Sydney and we enjoyed a day at the Warner Brother’s Movie World theme park, just down the coast. Laura wanted to go on all the rides (as many times as possible) but Adam was not so sure and didn’t like getting wet!

As it happens, it was a good time of the year to go. The weather suited us as it was warm but not too hot – better than being here as it turns out. Although it rained a couple of times in Sydney, Brisbane hadn’t had any decent amounts of rain for over 200 days. Also, it was term time for children, so the attractions were reasonably empty.

It was a lovely long break, but by the end of it, it was good to get back. Now all I have to do it get a new contract. I have an interview this afternoon for a SQL Server DBA role, but I’m only doing it as I haven’t had a technical interview for a long time and I could do with some practice. Although the job is closer than the last one, it is only closer by a few miles, the journey will be worse and they work fixed hours – hence the lack of interest in the actual job. Still I said similar things about the last contract and stayed there over nine years….

God given right....

I am being harassed by members of my family. I am currently exercising a God given right to men and I am getting a lot of grief for it. I was expecting a bit of grief from Sally, but the children are hounding me about it more than she is.

We were at a party over the weekend and there were mixed reactions. One wife told her husband that if he did it there would be a divorce, whereas another couple didn’t have a problem with it and the husband had been exercising his right longer than anyone present had known him.

It is a right I generally exercise whilst on holiday, but this time I have been forced to stop exercising my right before I go on holiday next week. Sigh…. By popular demand, sometime over the weekend, I will shave off my beard.

Don’t Believe the Hype…

Not since the early nineties, with The Sisters of Mercy, Vision Thing album, have I waited for a particular album to come out and bought it in its first week of release. I have been waiting since the beginning of the year, when I heard this album was coming out and finally it was released yesterday. I did get a bit of a taster for what was on the album when Muse played at Radio One’s Big Weekend, but yesterday was the first chance to hear the whole album. I was doing the food shopping in Tescos yesterday and a copy of Black Holes & Revelations just happened to fall into the basket.

Well, was it worth the wait… ummm, not sure. My first impression is that musically it is not as dynamic as other albums and it is slightly blander. I have read that for the other albums, Muse restricted themselves to songs they could play easily live and for this album they wrote songs that they wanted to write without restrictions. After listening to the album, I don’t see this at all. Maybe I was believing the hype and expecting more.

Don’t get me wrong, this is a brilliant album and I’ll certainly be playing it a lot. It is just not quite as brilliant as I was hoping it would be.