Feeling pretty run down this week, there has been a cold going run down, so by simply feeling run down, I have probably got off lightly.
At work I have decided to simply concentrate on putting in the hours, rather than getting distracted by lunch-time trips, or heading home early. So I've shifted my default train home to a later one, which along with the feeling a bit run down, means that I've not been out in the garden in the evening, though truth be told, the weather has been pretty dismal.
An interesting week at work, I've had a meeting a day for the past week, and they have all be interesting and useful in their own way. Working through ad hoc meetings, seems a very productive way to progress things, fortunately someone else organised all the meetings this week, so I simply turned up to them, which is a lot less effort. The downside is of course that you still need to prepare for meetings, and follow up on actions arising from them, so simply committing to attend a lot of meetings, is simply avoiding the office, unless you actually do the work before and after. I also seem to be averaging twenty emails a day, many needing a fair bit of work, so I've been playing catch up when I get back to the office. Working longer hours has helped with this though.
Overall I am rather impatient with things, by nature I am an inpatient person, but I figure that God needs impatient people, or nothing would ever get done. I do feel that while other folk are making grand progress with things, I am not making enough progress on the things that I am directly responsible for, but then I exacerbate the problem, by wanting to start on even more new strands of work whenever I create any free time.
All that said, I seem to be getting good feedback, and things are going well, so I suppose I am doing the right stuff, and doing it well.
I also bought another pair of new shoes, in the shoe-shop sale, so in addition to feeling a bit run down, I have mighty tired feet, trying to break in my new shoes. Until the heels get a bit rounded, and the soles lose their slippiness it is heavy going with new shoes, like wearing diving boots. Exacerbated of course, by all the walking to these meetings!
My wife has started college, so we will soon be returning to the world of queues around the computer, while she does her essays, so I suppose I really will need to order a new computer. I think I have more of less decided on a model, but I'm currently swithering on just waiting until OS Leopard comes out in October. However I do wonder what spec of machine it will require to run. From early reports it currently sounds buggy, slow and memory hungry. Obviously TimeMachine is going to use up a lot of hard disk space, and I am bound to need more than a gig of ram to run it, I would have thought.
One option is to just buy now, and get a family pack upgrade to Leopard, but I don't like upgrading the OS on a Mac, as I generally buy with the basic amount of RAM, and upgrading the OS, without upgrading the RAM seems a recipe for problems.
Of course, passing on the currently computer to my girls, still means that I won't be improving my access at all, as I will still have to queue up behind my essay writing wife, to get at the computer in the evening. That said, I don't really see a strong case for buying a laptop at the moment. If I am buying a new computer every year or two, that will just have to suffice.
Autumn is upon us, time to tidy up the garden, the paperwork is also stacking up, and I need to rejig the stuff that I have just dumped up the loft. I would also like to get started on some serious cleaning and maintenance around the house. And of course I really need to make a wardrobe for our bedroom, after last week's trip to IKEA, I have starting to work out some ideas in my head for this, and I might document these as a woodwork project, from concept to design, to final build, over in the Making/Furniture pages.
Friday 31 August 2007
a little drained
Sunday 26 August 2007
this week I won't be writing about
I've done plenty of short blogs posts this week, so I won't bother doing a full diary style round up of what I've been doing, instead letting the "thing" based postings speak for themselves.
However worth noting that I was over at my 'allotment' at my mother-in-law's, and did my harvesting, lifting the garlic and carrots that I had planted.
Also second week in my new office, same job, new boss.
I still reckon that I have an extra hour a day now, that I commute less, and I am determined to use this well. Been spending time in my garden in the evening, which is very therapeutic. Getting through stuff at work, but I'll probably need to get my head down and really get through all the various backlogs of work, that have piled up.
However worth noting that I was over at my 'allotment' at my mother-in-law's, and did my harvesting, lifting the garlic and carrots that I had planted.
Also second week in my new office, same job, new boss.
I still reckon that I have an extra hour a day now, that I commute less, and I am determined to use this well. Been spending time in my garden in the evening, which is very therapeutic. Getting through stuff at work, but I'll probably need to get my head down and really get through all the various backlogs of work, that have piled up.
Saturday 25 August 2007
this is my desk
This is my desk.
Browsing the MacFormat forum, posting on people's desks, I was drawn to a blue lamp in one of the photos. It is one of these things from IKEA that is a sort of lamp, in that it includes small LEDs and you plug it in, but is not exactly a lamp, in that it won't exactly flood the room with light. Anyway desks with computers are all so dull and samey, and it really brightened up a dull corner, and made things look a bit more mysterious and futuristic, so I decided that I wanted one.
So bought one at IKEA yesterday, and here is a photo of my desk. I should point out, that I do share this computer - with everyone else in the house, and they do occasionally leave stuff on the desk, although in fairness most of the junk and clutter belongs to me.
Running through the IT kit
one iMac 17"
one La Cie external drive
one wireless mighty mouse
one Epson colour stylus colour 740
one Ikea Tybble - blue light
other relevant stuff
camera vivitar - vivicam 3105s 3.2 megapixel camera
ipod nano - blue
I bought the camera as it was the cheapest digital camera in the Argos catalogue at the time, and I was not sure whether I would get much use out of it, on the basis that it cost £30 it is pretty good, but I would like to trade up to something a bit better.
On the subject of desks and clutter, worth remembering that this is Al Gore working at his desk !!
Friday 24 August 2007
The romance of maintenance
There is a wonderful line in How Buildings Learn by Stewart Brand,
the romance of maintenance, is that there is no romance to maintenance
I think that we have a different relationship with things now. Traditionally life was all about maintenance, for the very rich, they simply had more people to do the maintenance for them. A great country estate, was a machine to provide a certain lifestyle, with gardeners maintaining a high maintenance image of what the country should be, with housekeepers maintaining the house in all its splendour, with the kitchen staff creating complex and demanding dishes.
These people were never idle, they were always busy, trying to grow pineapples using manure to provide heat, polishing silver cutlery every day, locking doors, lighting lamps, tending fires.
For everyday people there was also a huge amount of maintenance, keeping yourself clean, polishing shoes, ironing shirts, blacking lead, waxing the floor.
The standard notion now is that all this work was drudgery, and we are well rid of it. Even for the very rich, it seems absurd that you would maintain a house, or even a garden in such a labour intensive way. I suppose we view the labour as demeaning, and the tasks as pointless.
We live in a period of temporary abundance. We still enjoy the benefits of cheap oil, which is after all, just that oxymoron of free energy. We have the billions of China slaving away to provide for our every need, regardless of how trivial. All the while we are drowning ourselves in cheap debt, while the more long-sighted minds of the East are slowing becoming our creditors.
We can all recognise, that for something we really like, for something we enjoy owning, maintenance can be a form of veneration, what else is the point of waxing a car each weekend, or polishing shoes daily, or obsessively keeping your garden weed-free. In its way, these things are an expression of your love.
Maintenance need not be mere drudgery, it is only a chore when you see it as pointless and meaningless. I really enjoyed having a wood stove, and although it was vastly more work than just switching on a fire, it was work that I enjoyed. It was tactile, you could smell the ash, and smoke, you took the ash outside where it was cold, and came inside to light the fire, which slowly warmed the house.
We are always looking to impose some meaning onto our lives. In our relationship with our possessions we can simply acquire more and more, better, more impressive possessions, or we can choose sufficient and useful possessions, that we are then commited to look after and maintain, and even to dispose of wisely.
If we are to cope with the coming environmental pressures, then we will need to be prepared to move to a different way of looking at possessions. Rather than simply adding more and more possessions to our lives, endlessly getting rid of the tired and shabby, which they all too quickly become, we need to focus on choosing wisely, and then looking after what we own.
This is not such a different attitude. After all, it is how you would treat people, you don't simply get a flashy wife, then trade up to a new model, you choose wisely, look after and nurture.
Over the past week I have been working in the garden in the evenings, and rather than finding the gardening a chore, as I did when I had to try and squeeze the whole garden into a weekend blitz, whenever the weather was fine, I have really enjoyed it. It is fine to just start in a corner and work through all that needs to be done. Knowing that what does not get done will always get done the following evening. After a day spent at my desk, or sitting on a train, some time alone, pottering in the garden, is precious, all the more precious for being a contrast with whatever else I have been doing.
I suppose that a garden is your little microcosm of what the world could be like, your own private section of some larger perfection, even if the larger perfection just exists in your own mind. There is nothing more natural than to tend your garden, to nurture and maintain.
Having more time to maintain the garden, I now feel less compelled to simply go out and spend money on plants. When you don't have the time, it is tempting to just throw money at something, so that you think you are doing something. Someone who never goes fishing, buying the magazines to read on the train. People who never do any cooking, spending thousands on a kitchen.
There will always be some tasks that you are not good at, have no interest in, do not enjoy. The world should include people who will work for you, nowadays it always seems cheaper to buy new, than to simply maintain, but if we start to make a conscious decision to keep things for the long term, to pay for their upkeep, then the costs, are just the costs. The cheapest way, is not always the best.
Maintenance is an expression of our place in the world, part of our relationship to it, tending and nurturing, like the parent, the gardener or the shepherd. It is the responsibility of ownership, rather than just the selfish pride of it.
the romance of maintenance, is that there is no romance to maintenance
I think that we have a different relationship with things now. Traditionally life was all about maintenance, for the very rich, they simply had more people to do the maintenance for them. A great country estate, was a machine to provide a certain lifestyle, with gardeners maintaining a high maintenance image of what the country should be, with housekeepers maintaining the house in all its splendour, with the kitchen staff creating complex and demanding dishes.
These people were never idle, they were always busy, trying to grow pineapples using manure to provide heat, polishing silver cutlery every day, locking doors, lighting lamps, tending fires.
For everyday people there was also a huge amount of maintenance, keeping yourself clean, polishing shoes, ironing shirts, blacking lead, waxing the floor.
The standard notion now is that all this work was drudgery, and we are well rid of it. Even for the very rich, it seems absurd that you would maintain a house, or even a garden in such a labour intensive way. I suppose we view the labour as demeaning, and the tasks as pointless.
We live in a period of temporary abundance. We still enjoy the benefits of cheap oil, which is after all, just that oxymoron of free energy. We have the billions of China slaving away to provide for our every need, regardless of how trivial. All the while we are drowning ourselves in cheap debt, while the more long-sighted minds of the East are slowing becoming our creditors.
We can all recognise, that for something we really like, for something we enjoy owning, maintenance can be a form of veneration, what else is the point of waxing a car each weekend, or polishing shoes daily, or obsessively keeping your garden weed-free. In its way, these things are an expression of your love.
Maintenance need not be mere drudgery, it is only a chore when you see it as pointless and meaningless. I really enjoyed having a wood stove, and although it was vastly more work than just switching on a fire, it was work that I enjoyed. It was tactile, you could smell the ash, and smoke, you took the ash outside where it was cold, and came inside to light the fire, which slowly warmed the house.
We are always looking to impose some meaning onto our lives. In our relationship with our possessions we can simply acquire more and more, better, more impressive possessions, or we can choose sufficient and useful possessions, that we are then commited to look after and maintain, and even to dispose of wisely.
If we are to cope with the coming environmental pressures, then we will need to be prepared to move to a different way of looking at possessions. Rather than simply adding more and more possessions to our lives, endlessly getting rid of the tired and shabby, which they all too quickly become, we need to focus on choosing wisely, and then looking after what we own.
This is not such a different attitude. After all, it is how you would treat people, you don't simply get a flashy wife, then trade up to a new model, you choose wisely, look after and nurture.
Over the past week I have been working in the garden in the evenings, and rather than finding the gardening a chore, as I did when I had to try and squeeze the whole garden into a weekend blitz, whenever the weather was fine, I have really enjoyed it. It is fine to just start in a corner and work through all that needs to be done. Knowing that what does not get done will always get done the following evening. After a day spent at my desk, or sitting on a train, some time alone, pottering in the garden, is precious, all the more precious for being a contrast with whatever else I have been doing.
I suppose that a garden is your little microcosm of what the world could be like, your own private section of some larger perfection, even if the larger perfection just exists in your own mind. There is nothing more natural than to tend your garden, to nurture and maintain.
Having more time to maintain the garden, I now feel less compelled to simply go out and spend money on plants. When you don't have the time, it is tempting to just throw money at something, so that you think you are doing something. Someone who never goes fishing, buying the magazines to read on the train. People who never do any cooking, spending thousands on a kitchen.
There will always be some tasks that you are not good at, have no interest in, do not enjoy. The world should include people who will work for you, nowadays it always seems cheaper to buy new, than to simply maintain, but if we start to make a conscious decision to keep things for the long term, to pay for their upkeep, then the costs, are just the costs. The cheapest way, is not always the best.
Maintenance is an expression of our place in the world, part of our relationship to it, tending and nurturing, like the parent, the gardener or the shepherd. It is the responsibility of ownership, rather than just the selfish pride of it.
I envied him his shoes
When I was at university, I briefly shared a flat with a friend, Andrew. There was one thing about Andrew that I really rather envied. I envied him his shoes.
I am not by nature a jealous person, there are only a few examples in my life, where I have envied something that someone else has, but then, I envied him his shoes.
He had some proper leather shoes, brogues, or somesuch with leather soles.
Your shoes last such a long time, that once bought they are with you for a very long time. I cannot remember what shoes I did have, I suspect trainers, and polyveldts, etc, which I had had bought for me before I left home. But these shoes looked like proper grown up shoes, shoes that an adult would wear. Shoes that someone respectable would wear. Shoes that you might see Steed of the Avengers in.
So I determined to buy proper leather shoes, and since then, I have. It must be more than twenty years now.
On Thursday I bought myself a pair of new leather brogues, by Loakes, with commando soles. Normally I get shoes with a leather sole, and then have them rehealed, with quartersoles, (rubber heels with metal reinforcement in the corner) and a fresh rubber sole with a metal toe. However my new office has so many tiled floors, it is like doing a tap dance walking about, so I decided probably best to protect the grade A listed floors, and shift onto commando soles.
I enjoy the labour involved in proper shoes, you have to clean and polish them, you have to keep them re-souled periodically. I like that I can wear out a metal heel quite quickly. I like that you have to find a decent shoe repairer, and visiting them regularly you get to know them, carrying on the same conversations over years.
I like the perversity and awkwardness, that when you can buy a pair of shoes for a few pounds, I spend a lot on a good pair, and then pay even more to maintain them over the years.
I like that the shoes are so tough and stiff when you buy them, that you always blister until you break them in.
I like that there is nothing more personal to you, than an old shoe.
I now deliberately keep the same number of shoes, so that if a new pair appears, then I can guilt free get rid of an old pair.
- two pairs of black shoes
- two pairs of brown shoes
- one pair of trainers
- one pair of good hiking boots
- one pair of really clapped out hiking boots, that are fine for gardening
Apparently the shoes I bought were part of a small batch of 50, that the shoe shop had especially commissioned from Loakes as they did not make anything similar, and they had proved exceptionally popular, with me getting one of the last pairs! In addition to sticking to the same type of shoes, I also like to stick to the same shoe shops, nothing flashy, just plain old fashioned shoes.
Sunday 19 August 2007
campus
I've noticed that google and apple refer to their main sites as campuses.
Not offices, not factories, but campuses. The implication that these are places devoted to learning, and teaching, understanding and knowledge, rather than the arcane marshalling of information and making of profit.
Maybe the government should start to run its own campuses, rather than dull worthy offices.
Maybe there is scope for additional rebranding of places, to try and state some subtler truth.
As an aside I really love university towns. There is just a certain buzz about a place, with fresh young people trying to balance who they want to be with who they used to be. People talking excitedly about ideas, when everything really matters that much more.
Not offices, not factories, but campuses. The implication that these are places devoted to learning, and teaching, understanding and knowledge, rather than the arcane marshalling of information and making of profit.
Maybe the government should start to run its own campuses, rather than dull worthy offices.
Maybe there is scope for additional rebranding of places, to try and state some subtler truth.
As an aside I really love university towns. There is just a certain buzz about a place, with fresh young people trying to balance who they want to be with who they used to be. People talking excitedly about ideas, when everything really matters that much more.
SMART SWOT etc
some useful descriptors for SMART I came across recently
simple specific
measurable motivating
agreed achievable
relevant realistic
timebased targeted
and while I am at it,
SWOT = strengths weaknesses opportunities threats
but I'm sure I came across an alternative version with barriers ?
Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Barriers?
my limited research on google did suggest
SOAR
http://www.ncrcrd.iastate.edu/newsletter/Vol28No3-2006/SWOT-SOAR.htm
strengths opportunities aspirations results
simple specific
measurable motivating
agreed achievable
relevant realistic
timebased targeted
and while I am at it,
SWOT = strengths weaknesses opportunities threats
but I'm sure I came across an alternative version with barriers ?
Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Barriers?
my limited research on google did suggest
SOAR
http://www.ncrcrd.iastate.edu/newsletter/Vol28No3-2006/SWOT-SOAR.htm
strengths opportunities aspirations results
Saturday 18 August 2007
my new office has Art Deco influences
All in all a very eventful week.
1 first week at my new office
2 share price volatility
3 lots less travel time
4 held a leaving do for my old colleagues
5 miscellaneous, I want a new computer
1 first week at my new office
I have now gone back to my old office, a few minutes from the railway station, so I no longer need to add a tedious bus journey onto my daily commute. On checking wikipedia, I find that my new office has Art Deco influences, and was completed in 1939, as well as being Category A listed! It is somewhat like being in an episode of Poirot sometimes, although for much of the accommodation, it is rather timeless, - office type accommodation, being as office type accommodation is. Getting used to my new location, and new colleagues, though I had worked with them to some extent in the past.
A little apprehensive to begin with, but now hugely impressed with the move, office, colleagues, work etc. Apart from the commute, I really liked where I was before.
2 share price volatility
the shares of the world seem to have dropped through the floor, with the FTSE even going below 6,000 for a while. I think that this demonstrates why you need a steady head to invest successfully. I took a print off of my share portfolio and the whole portfolio was down 11%, mainly shares I have held for a year, with every single share showing a loss.
Accordingly if I had sold everything the week before, and then bought them again, I could have made a tidy profit. Demonstrating why the shrewd investor always has a time machine. Somewhat galling too, was that I had recently sold off half my stock of a building society and bought shares in 3i, if I had held off the purchase I could have bought much better.
However on reading some articles, and checking my portfolio again, I'm now showing a more modest loss, and 3i, is once again showing a profit. Clearly for the long term switching from a building society to 3i has been a good move.
My most problematic stock has been British Energy, which I have been buying opportunistically when the price has gone down, but to be honest the price is down more than it is up recently, so I am wary of increasing my exposure. It is by any measures a high risk stock, it is not inconceivable that they could fail again, leaving the stock worthless. However they provide a fifth of the UK's electricity, and it is difficult to foresee the UK without nuclear energy for the foreseeable future. I would not buy shares that I felt were unethical, and I do have a green tinge, but I feel that realistically nuclear energy is here for the next thirty years.
3 lots less travel time
as per my new office, I now find myself in the happy position with at least an extra hour to myself each day. I have always told people that I spent three hours a day traveling, but was less sure on the precise split. So I knew that moving to a more central office would make a difference, but was not too sure how much. Based on the past week, I reckon that it must be easily an hour per day that I am saving now. Now I simply get off the train, and arrive at the office ten minutes later, though if I ran it would be quicker. Similarly for coming back, I just leave the office ten minutes before my train leaves, rather than leaving forty minutes before the train leaves, and still missing it sometimes.
Basically I have now lost the bus journey that I used to make, and the connection time and faff, involved. So, for once I seem to be back building up flexi time, have some spare time at lunch, and have a whole extra hour in the evenings. I seem to have more time and energy everywhere. I even managed to spend a couple of hours in the garden during the weekday evenings, something I've not been able to do in years.
Lately, the gardening has been a chore that I have had to squeeze into the weekends, with long grass to cut, and overgrown borders to weed. Being an overdue chore has sucked the pleasure out of it, while being able to simply spend an hour pottering, is much more pleasureable. Being an hour, offers scope for doing something that is a bit of a chore, and something else that seems more fun. That way, neither particularly seems a chore. And to be honest, the evening is much the best time to potter, as it avoids the day time heat.
So this week, I have managed to give my main lawn a much needed mow over, thankfully I have a flymo, so it will cope with grass upto "gosh that needs a cut". Also tidied out my cold frame and started pulling onions and laying them out in the cold frame to dry. Not yet complete with the onion pulling yet, but if the weather is upto it, having some time in the evenings will make a vast difference. Often the problem with jobs is not that you don't like them, it is just that you have too many the same. Accordingly it is nice to spend some time in the garden after a day in the office, or even spend half a day doing the garden, and the balance doing something on the computer.
However now the heavens have opened and rain has stopped play. Yesterday the burns were all swollen, I would not be surprised if there was flooding. Many of the developments round here have been built with sustainable urban drainage systems, which means that a lowered area will fill up with water during periods of prolonged rain, and gradually drain over the following days. I suspect that our heavy clay is part of how this works, clearly it would not work on a light sandy soil. In any event it is quite nice to be plugged into what is happening, to see these ponds created, fill up, and then drain away, as the weather changes.
4 held a leaving do for my old colleagues
in order to catch a few more people, we postponed our leaving do by a week, so we had actually left, but came back with some bottles of wine, to be presented with the usual card and gifts.
I must say that I have been hugely impressed by my old colleagues, I did give the customary speech, which probably included most of what I wanted to say. Of course being introduced by the Unit head, as possessed of a fabulous dry wit, with lots of competing free stand up comedy available at the Fringe, I was under no pressure at all!
I suspect that my management style is Management By Worrying About, and the leaving do was one of those things that I worried about, but on the day it all went well, and it was wonderful to be able to say how much I had enjoyed working with these people. They are friends now, rather than colleagues.
5 miscellaneous, I want a new computer
last week we set up a new desk, with bed above, in my daughters' room. They are still working on tidying the room, it currently being at the "oh my god, this is even worse" stage, which I am advised comes before, the "see it is perfect now" stage.
Megan starts at high school next week, and she was worried about having somewhere to do her homework, so hopefully this desk space will help. I am minded to buy a new computer, that way I could put my current computer up to the girls' room for them to use. Current intention is that although they have a computer in their room, they will not have internet access, they will need to use the computer in the living room to access the internet, something that seems to work better than software based parental controls.
But with Tiger coming out in October, there seems to be very little incentive to buy an iMac before then. Also, I have still not seen a new one in the flesh yet. John Lewis apparently won't get any for another three weeks.
If I was an apple reseller, I would be mighty pee-ed off that you could buy a new iMac at the Apple store now, but were not even getting to see one in the flesh yet. It is after all having stores like John Lewis being willing to sell Apple Macintoshes on the high street, that is helping drive the brand.
I currently have a 17" screen, and would sensibly like to move upto 20", though being immature, the 24" really is very big!
Of course I would also like to be sensible and boost my share portfolio, buy a whizzy digital camera, scanner, etc etc.
1 first week at my new office
2 share price volatility
3 lots less travel time
4 held a leaving do for my old colleagues
5 miscellaneous, I want a new computer
1 first week at my new office
I have now gone back to my old office, a few minutes from the railway station, so I no longer need to add a tedious bus journey onto my daily commute. On checking wikipedia, I find that my new office has Art Deco influences, and was completed in 1939, as well as being Category A listed! It is somewhat like being in an episode of Poirot sometimes, although for much of the accommodation, it is rather timeless, - office type accommodation, being as office type accommodation is. Getting used to my new location, and new colleagues, though I had worked with them to some extent in the past.
A little apprehensive to begin with, but now hugely impressed with the move, office, colleagues, work etc. Apart from the commute, I really liked where I was before.
2 share price volatility
the shares of the world seem to have dropped through the floor, with the FTSE even going below 6,000 for a while. I think that this demonstrates why you need a steady head to invest successfully. I took a print off of my share portfolio and the whole portfolio was down 11%, mainly shares I have held for a year, with every single share showing a loss.
Accordingly if I had sold everything the week before, and then bought them again, I could have made a tidy profit. Demonstrating why the shrewd investor always has a time machine. Somewhat galling too, was that I had recently sold off half my stock of a building society and bought shares in 3i, if I had held off the purchase I could have bought much better.
However on reading some articles, and checking my portfolio again, I'm now showing a more modest loss, and 3i, is once again showing a profit. Clearly for the long term switching from a building society to 3i has been a good move.
My most problematic stock has been British Energy, which I have been buying opportunistically when the price has gone down, but to be honest the price is down more than it is up recently, so I am wary of increasing my exposure. It is by any measures a high risk stock, it is not inconceivable that they could fail again, leaving the stock worthless. However they provide a fifth of the UK's electricity, and it is difficult to foresee the UK without nuclear energy for the foreseeable future. I would not buy shares that I felt were unethical, and I do have a green tinge, but I feel that realistically nuclear energy is here for the next thirty years.
3 lots less travel time
as per my new office, I now find myself in the happy position with at least an extra hour to myself each day. I have always told people that I spent three hours a day traveling, but was less sure on the precise split. So I knew that moving to a more central office would make a difference, but was not too sure how much. Based on the past week, I reckon that it must be easily an hour per day that I am saving now. Now I simply get off the train, and arrive at the office ten minutes later, though if I ran it would be quicker. Similarly for coming back, I just leave the office ten minutes before my train leaves, rather than leaving forty minutes before the train leaves, and still missing it sometimes.
Basically I have now lost the bus journey that I used to make, and the connection time and faff, involved. So, for once I seem to be back building up flexi time, have some spare time at lunch, and have a whole extra hour in the evenings. I seem to have more time and energy everywhere. I even managed to spend a couple of hours in the garden during the weekday evenings, something I've not been able to do in years.
Lately, the gardening has been a chore that I have had to squeeze into the weekends, with long grass to cut, and overgrown borders to weed. Being an overdue chore has sucked the pleasure out of it, while being able to simply spend an hour pottering, is much more pleasureable. Being an hour, offers scope for doing something that is a bit of a chore, and something else that seems more fun. That way, neither particularly seems a chore. And to be honest, the evening is much the best time to potter, as it avoids the day time heat.
So this week, I have managed to give my main lawn a much needed mow over, thankfully I have a flymo, so it will cope with grass upto "gosh that needs a cut". Also tidied out my cold frame and started pulling onions and laying them out in the cold frame to dry. Not yet complete with the onion pulling yet, but if the weather is upto it, having some time in the evenings will make a vast difference. Often the problem with jobs is not that you don't like them, it is just that you have too many the same. Accordingly it is nice to spend some time in the garden after a day in the office, or even spend half a day doing the garden, and the balance doing something on the computer.
However now the heavens have opened and rain has stopped play. Yesterday the burns were all swollen, I would not be surprised if there was flooding. Many of the developments round here have been built with sustainable urban drainage systems, which means that a lowered area will fill up with water during periods of prolonged rain, and gradually drain over the following days. I suspect that our heavy clay is part of how this works, clearly it would not work on a light sandy soil. In any event it is quite nice to be plugged into what is happening, to see these ponds created, fill up, and then drain away, as the weather changes.
4 held a leaving do for my old colleagues
in order to catch a few more people, we postponed our leaving do by a week, so we had actually left, but came back with some bottles of wine, to be presented with the usual card and gifts.
I must say that I have been hugely impressed by my old colleagues, I did give the customary speech, which probably included most of what I wanted to say. Of course being introduced by the Unit head, as possessed of a fabulous dry wit, with lots of competing free stand up comedy available at the Fringe, I was under no pressure at all!
I suspect that my management style is Management By Worrying About, and the leaving do was one of those things that I worried about, but on the day it all went well, and it was wonderful to be able to say how much I had enjoyed working with these people. They are friends now, rather than colleagues.
5 miscellaneous, I want a new computer
last week we set up a new desk, with bed above, in my daughters' room. They are still working on tidying the room, it currently being at the "oh my god, this is even worse" stage, which I am advised comes before, the "see it is perfect now" stage.
Megan starts at high school next week, and she was worried about having somewhere to do her homework, so hopefully this desk space will help. I am minded to buy a new computer, that way I could put my current computer up to the girls' room for them to use. Current intention is that although they have a computer in their room, they will not have internet access, they will need to use the computer in the living room to access the internet, something that seems to work better than software based parental controls.
But with Tiger coming out in October, there seems to be very little incentive to buy an iMac before then. Also, I have still not seen a new one in the flesh yet. John Lewis apparently won't get any for another three weeks.
If I was an apple reseller, I would be mighty pee-ed off that you could buy a new iMac at the Apple store now, but were not even getting to see one in the flesh yet. It is after all having stores like John Lewis being willing to sell Apple Macintoshes on the high street, that is helping drive the brand.
I currently have a 17" screen, and would sensibly like to move upto 20", though being immature, the 24" really is very big!
Of course I would also like to be sensible and boost my share portfolio, buy a whizzy digital camera, scanner, etc etc.
Saturday 11 August 2007
One week in
I have now been back at work for a week.
Various things seem to be going on, not necessarily a bad thing, that is just how things are, it simply makes writing a reasonably complete blog entry more tricky!
1 reflections on what I have done and not done since I got back from holiday
One of my thoughts on returning from my holiday, was that I need to shift over the pattern of my spending. Like everyone, my income is finite, and I want my money to work for me, rather than end up working simply to pay the bills. To that end, I would like to focus my spending on capital items, such as my house, and IT equipment, and a corresponding drop in my spending on more frivolous stuff, in particular, books, magazines, newspapers, and iTunes stuff. Too early to say, but making an explicit decision to do this, and seeing it as a choice that I have made, for positive reasons, sits comfortably with me. One big thing, like the advice to recovering alcoholics, stay out of the pub, if you don't want to drink; is that I need to find stuff to do, that is not just going round shops, seeing stuff that I want to buy.
If we can also do this as a family, it will help.
This is not just a counsel of hair shirts, and lentil porridge, I am keen to buy some new computers, and stuff that really will make a difference to us, while a lot of the impulse purchasing is just nice at the time, but quick forgotten.
Truth be told, I have at least a dozen books, that I have bought, that I have not started, and I can easily enough find more podcasts, than I have time to listen to, so I am not short of reading or listening matter. In terms of entertainment, there is always outdoors stuff like walking the dog, or even bramble picking now that the season is upon us.
In terms of big spending, I think that I have probably broken the back of spending on the garden for a while, what it needs is time to grow now, and some good attention, the house will swallow up some money, but mainly maintenance style attention in due course. Internally I should finish off a wardrobe for my wife, and I would like to put in a wood burning stove, and a revamp of the kitchen would be welcome, even if it is just putting in spot lights.
Top of my thoughts at the moment though, is getting a new computer, more detail at 4 below.
2 considering my share portfolio
Another element of making my money work better for me, is to actually build up some substantial savings behind me. I have a very modest share portfolio, which I derive considerable pleasure from. I think that we all need to be part of the wider society, this takes many forms. For example we should participate in the decisions that affect us, both in the local community and more widely. Investing substantially in shares seems perfectly consistent with this. The factors of production are after all, land labour and capital, and we would be wise to participate in all of these if we can. The idea that we all need to derive all our income purely from paid employment is after all a relatively new one, and might not be one that persists. In the times of Jane Austin, many people lived of un-earned income.
Clearly I will not build up a Warren Buffet style share portfolio in the near future, but I would like to build up what I can, on the basis, that it earns me money, I enjoy it, and it provides a cushion and flexibility for me.
Accordingly I have set up a monthly direct debit for purchasing shares, and I will try and follow my judgement on this a bit more, rather than just letting things happen.
3 being sociable
Another little change in emphasis that I was keen to introduce after my holidays, was to put more emphasis into family and friends, being more proactive in keeping in touch. Actually this is one of those things that really is not a chore, it is more a case of saying to yourself, stop working so hard and enjoy yourself! As with money, my time and attention are finite, and I should consciously decide how to use them.
Accordingly had a lunch at a local restaurant with an old colleague, seeing as I am shifting office. Life has been so manic for the last year that there has been little scope for these little diversions, but they are so enjoyable, and worthwhile on all sorts of levels, that I fully intend to have more lunching !
4 considering a new computer
I had pencilled in to buy a new computer after the holiday, so it is now falling due. I have actually decided that it will be a Mac, but still to fully evolve a decision beyond that.
By process of elimination,
it will need to come in at under £1k,
the girls will get my current computer for their room, the new one will go where the current one is now
I don't have a monitor sitting around, so the mac mini is pretty pricey
I really like having a good screen size, tempted to go up to 20" from my current 17"
so that was all pointing at a new 20" imac possibly spending on some ram, and/or external hard drive for backing up
but of course the new imacs have come out, and now Leopard is due out in October.
So do I go for a new imac, with a shiny 20" screen - some folk don't like the glossy screen, and the design has not just blown me away
or do I wait till Leopard comes out
on balance tending towards waiting till Leopard comes out, but still open to alternative thoughts. I could for example be tempted by a cheap laptop which might well be the machine that I would end up using, if my wife is labouring through a mountain of college work at the main computer.
Decisions decisions.
5 work around the house
I was keen to do all sorts of things, mainly they have not been done, as between work, commuting and sundry necessaries, there is very little time left over.
Not done -
anything in the garden
sending off holiday photos to relatives
To do today -
put up new high riser bed for daughter #1
She is going to high school when school resumes, so needs somewhere to do homework, hence her bed goes up, and voila she has a desk underneath, or viola she has a string instrument underneath. Anyway I'll need to do that today.
Yesterday was largely community council stuff, meeting in the morning, and minutes and displacement activity in the afternoon.
6 changes at work
Hopefully my change in office will help, it should free up an hour of travel time per day, and as I am the worst traveller I know, this has to be good news in terms of my health and energy levels. Not only will my office be more central, handy for the galleries etc, but I no longer need to take an additional bus journey which adds to and complicates my daily commute.
Despite this I have some mixed feelings, I really like my old office, and the people I have been working with feel like friends rather than colleagues.
My stuff is all in crates, and I unpack at my new desk on Monday, but we will pop down to the old office on Friday with some bottles of wine for a celebration, I hope that our paths continue to cross, as they have all been such a pleasure and inspiration.
It is always good to work with people that believe in what they are doing, though it does make me feel the dry impatient technocrat, just wanting to get things done.
The new office looks good, and new colleagues likewise. At the moment I am looking back, thinking of old friends, and wishing they could see how well things are going now.
Various things seem to be going on, not necessarily a bad thing, that is just how things are, it simply makes writing a reasonably complete blog entry more tricky!
1 reflections on what I have done and not done since I got back from holiday
One of my thoughts on returning from my holiday, was that I need to shift over the pattern of my spending. Like everyone, my income is finite, and I want my money to work for me, rather than end up working simply to pay the bills. To that end, I would like to focus my spending on capital items, such as my house, and IT equipment, and a corresponding drop in my spending on more frivolous stuff, in particular, books, magazines, newspapers, and iTunes stuff. Too early to say, but making an explicit decision to do this, and seeing it as a choice that I have made, for positive reasons, sits comfortably with me. One big thing, like the advice to recovering alcoholics, stay out of the pub, if you don't want to drink; is that I need to find stuff to do, that is not just going round shops, seeing stuff that I want to buy.
If we can also do this as a family, it will help.
This is not just a counsel of hair shirts, and lentil porridge, I am keen to buy some new computers, and stuff that really will make a difference to us, while a lot of the impulse purchasing is just nice at the time, but quick forgotten.
Truth be told, I have at least a dozen books, that I have bought, that I have not started, and I can easily enough find more podcasts, than I have time to listen to, so I am not short of reading or listening matter. In terms of entertainment, there is always outdoors stuff like walking the dog, or even bramble picking now that the season is upon us.
In terms of big spending, I think that I have probably broken the back of spending on the garden for a while, what it needs is time to grow now, and some good attention, the house will swallow up some money, but mainly maintenance style attention in due course. Internally I should finish off a wardrobe for my wife, and I would like to put in a wood burning stove, and a revamp of the kitchen would be welcome, even if it is just putting in spot lights.
Top of my thoughts at the moment though, is getting a new computer, more detail at 4 below.
2 considering my share portfolio
Another element of making my money work better for me, is to actually build up some substantial savings behind me. I have a very modest share portfolio, which I derive considerable pleasure from. I think that we all need to be part of the wider society, this takes many forms. For example we should participate in the decisions that affect us, both in the local community and more widely. Investing substantially in shares seems perfectly consistent with this. The factors of production are after all, land labour and capital, and we would be wise to participate in all of these if we can. The idea that we all need to derive all our income purely from paid employment is after all a relatively new one, and might not be one that persists. In the times of Jane Austin, many people lived of un-earned income.
Clearly I will not build up a Warren Buffet style share portfolio in the near future, but I would like to build up what I can, on the basis, that it earns me money, I enjoy it, and it provides a cushion and flexibility for me.
Accordingly I have set up a monthly direct debit for purchasing shares, and I will try and follow my judgement on this a bit more, rather than just letting things happen.
3 being sociable
Another little change in emphasis that I was keen to introduce after my holidays, was to put more emphasis into family and friends, being more proactive in keeping in touch. Actually this is one of those things that really is not a chore, it is more a case of saying to yourself, stop working so hard and enjoy yourself! As with money, my time and attention are finite, and I should consciously decide how to use them.
Accordingly had a lunch at a local restaurant with an old colleague, seeing as I am shifting office. Life has been so manic for the last year that there has been little scope for these little diversions, but they are so enjoyable, and worthwhile on all sorts of levels, that I fully intend to have more lunching !
4 considering a new computer
I had pencilled in to buy a new computer after the holiday, so it is now falling due. I have actually decided that it will be a Mac, but still to fully evolve a decision beyond that.
By process of elimination,
it will need to come in at under £1k,
the girls will get my current computer for their room, the new one will go where the current one is now
I don't have a monitor sitting around, so the mac mini is pretty pricey
I really like having a good screen size, tempted to go up to 20" from my current 17"
so that was all pointing at a new 20" imac possibly spending on some ram, and/or external hard drive for backing up
but of course the new imacs have come out, and now Leopard is due out in October.
So do I go for a new imac, with a shiny 20" screen - some folk don't like the glossy screen, and the design has not just blown me away
or do I wait till Leopard comes out
on balance tending towards waiting till Leopard comes out, but still open to alternative thoughts. I could for example be tempted by a cheap laptop which might well be the machine that I would end up using, if my wife is labouring through a mountain of college work at the main computer.
Decisions decisions.
5 work around the house
I was keen to do all sorts of things, mainly they have not been done, as between work, commuting and sundry necessaries, there is very little time left over.
Not done -
anything in the garden
sending off holiday photos to relatives
To do today -
put up new high riser bed for daughter #1
She is going to high school when school resumes, so needs somewhere to do homework, hence her bed goes up, and voila she has a desk underneath, or viola she has a string instrument underneath. Anyway I'll need to do that today.
Yesterday was largely community council stuff, meeting in the morning, and minutes and displacement activity in the afternoon.
6 changes at work
Hopefully my change in office will help, it should free up an hour of travel time per day, and as I am the worst traveller I know, this has to be good news in terms of my health and energy levels. Not only will my office be more central, handy for the galleries etc, but I no longer need to take an additional bus journey which adds to and complicates my daily commute.
Despite this I have some mixed feelings, I really like my old office, and the people I have been working with feel like friends rather than colleagues.
My stuff is all in crates, and I unpack at my new desk on Monday, but we will pop down to the old office on Friday with some bottles of wine for a celebration, I hope that our paths continue to cross, as they have all been such a pleasure and inspiration.
It is always good to work with people that believe in what they are doing, though it does make me feel the dry impatient technocrat, just wanting to get things done.
The new office looks good, and new colleagues likewise. At the moment I am looking back, thinking of old friends, and wishing they could see how well things are going now.
Saturday 4 August 2007
On returning from holiday
Just some thoughts on getting back from my holiday. Yesterday we drove back from Wales, which is probably too long a drive to be enjoyable, I was pretty green by the end of it, and my wife's leg was beginning to get very locked, as opposed to just a wee bit locked.
I think someone's bum must have gone to sleep, as I think I heard it snoring.
It is strange to come back home after a short break, I have a couple of wind up clocks, one had stopped, my cacti all seemed unphased, but a succulent looked a little parched. The fridge was empty, you could smell the vague dog smell, but he was still at the kennels. A large pile of mail, none of which looked very interesting. About 120 emails, likewise, little of interest there. Outside the garden all seemed equally unphased, the grass has continued its patchy growth in parts, and in general it all looks a bit shaggy and unloved, but basically it is becoming a fertile spot, the spent loganberries falling to the ground, the bramley bent with heavy fruit, the sweetpeas, supplying yards of wonderful colour. The onions plants seem pretty much spent, so I will probably just pull them and weed them at the same time. Overall a bit of attention and the garden should be fine, the basics are all there, stuff seems to be growing, and seems to be happy, so the rest is simply detail. I'm not sure that it will ever be a low maintenance garden, but hopefully not a high maintenance garden either. It is quite flattering that most of the plants in the garden seem to have grown very well in my absence, some even flowering!
I really will need to knuckle down and figure out how to train my loganberries, after a couple of years in the ground, they have started to produce long heavy branches each year, and some proper framework and system is clearly required. I would also like to move the water butt, from where it sits unused next to the shed, closer to the house, and run it from a diverter from our house rainwater gutters. With the slopes in the garden this would work fine. One of the problems with a big plastic water butt, is that it really does need to be sitting on something flat and level, or it will gently fold and collapse. Not so easy in much of my rather lumpy garden!
I had intended to spend half today in the garden, getting it a little tidier, but today would appear to be a day of steady drizzle, so I may need to change my plans! Also on the list for today is picking up our dog from the kennels, as it really takes a dog to make a home!
I took plenty of photos on my holidays, with my ultra cheap digital camera, about a third seem worth keeping, so I'm jolly glad that I did not have to pay to develop them. The photos always seem a bit hit or miss, so I try and take a few of each potential shot, so that hopefully there will be one good one in there. I'll sort out a photo album for this site, and probably write a little more about the holiday.
I really enjoyed the holiday, it is wonderful to be able to spend some time away from the routine hassles, and I just love being in the country. I would like to be able to shift the balance of how I spend my time now, so that I can spend more time outdoors, growing stuff and enjoying.
It was also great to be able to catch up with family members we had not seen in a too long a while.
I think successful rural communities rely on community spirit, whether is it just people using good local shops, keeping their gardens, having time to chat to neighbours, or helping out as volunteers.
Another element of the holiday that I really enjoyed was being able to visit the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth, generally called Mac by the locals. I am always a bit wary of these things, I really like things green, but I don't have much time for the outer green fringes, of knit your own jumper from lentils, and lets listen to gaia's angry whispers. Having said that I do try and listen to everything with an open mind.
Anyway, I really enjoyed looking round CAT, it was really spectacular, and it was great to see how they were managing to apply green principles in an everyday way. Often I feel that the ecology movement can be joyless and worthy, or an expensive affectation, but for me, CAT seemed to strike a pretty good mid-point. I particularly enjoyed looking round what they were doing with the gardens and greenery generally, they seem to be moving along similar lines to myself, and if I say so myself, I think that my garden is slightly ahead of theirs in areas. Much of my planting and choice of plants here has been fairly quixotic, so I was glad to see that in parts it chimed with theirs. I do just love to see bushes and trees with fruit on them.
Also interesting to see how they were working on generating energy, like everything else, generating energy all seems pretty peripheral until you need to start doing it yourself.
There was an excellent book about CAT - although it was 10 years old, it was a wonderful read, I was really sorry to finish it, and I would love to read more in a similar vein. Although there is a lot of focus on green technology and green lifestyles, there seems to be little said or written about more sustainable communities, which is probably an issue that we need to start tackling as a society. how can we reconnect our local communities and give them meaning.
Anyway, to wrap up this little discourse, pulling together these threads, almost as if I had planned it that way,
on returning from my holiday, I recognise the value of much of I am doing already, and would in future like to focus on
spending more time outdoors, and connected with nature
better links with my family and friends
work on strengthening the local community, as it is community that gives life and meaning to our built environment
I think someone's bum must have gone to sleep, as I think I heard it snoring.
It is strange to come back home after a short break, I have a couple of wind up clocks, one had stopped, my cacti all seemed unphased, but a succulent looked a little parched. The fridge was empty, you could smell the vague dog smell, but he was still at the kennels. A large pile of mail, none of which looked very interesting. About 120 emails, likewise, little of interest there. Outside the garden all seemed equally unphased, the grass has continued its patchy growth in parts, and in general it all looks a bit shaggy and unloved, but basically it is becoming a fertile spot, the spent loganberries falling to the ground, the bramley bent with heavy fruit, the sweetpeas, supplying yards of wonderful colour. The onions plants seem pretty much spent, so I will probably just pull them and weed them at the same time. Overall a bit of attention and the garden should be fine, the basics are all there, stuff seems to be growing, and seems to be happy, so the rest is simply detail. I'm not sure that it will ever be a low maintenance garden, but hopefully not a high maintenance garden either. It is quite flattering that most of the plants in the garden seem to have grown very well in my absence, some even flowering!
I really will need to knuckle down and figure out how to train my loganberries, after a couple of years in the ground, they have started to produce long heavy branches each year, and some proper framework and system is clearly required. I would also like to move the water butt, from where it sits unused next to the shed, closer to the house, and run it from a diverter from our house rainwater gutters. With the slopes in the garden this would work fine. One of the problems with a big plastic water butt, is that it really does need to be sitting on something flat and level, or it will gently fold and collapse. Not so easy in much of my rather lumpy garden!
I had intended to spend half today in the garden, getting it a little tidier, but today would appear to be a day of steady drizzle, so I may need to change my plans! Also on the list for today is picking up our dog from the kennels, as it really takes a dog to make a home!
I took plenty of photos on my holidays, with my ultra cheap digital camera, about a third seem worth keeping, so I'm jolly glad that I did not have to pay to develop them. The photos always seem a bit hit or miss, so I try and take a few of each potential shot, so that hopefully there will be one good one in there. I'll sort out a photo album for this site, and probably write a little more about the holiday.
I really enjoyed the holiday, it is wonderful to be able to spend some time away from the routine hassles, and I just love being in the country. I would like to be able to shift the balance of how I spend my time now, so that I can spend more time outdoors, growing stuff and enjoying.
It was also great to be able to catch up with family members we had not seen in a too long a while.
I think successful rural communities rely on community spirit, whether is it just people using good local shops, keeping their gardens, having time to chat to neighbours, or helping out as volunteers.
Another element of the holiday that I really enjoyed was being able to visit the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth, generally called Mac by the locals. I am always a bit wary of these things, I really like things green, but I don't have much time for the outer green fringes, of knit your own jumper from lentils, and lets listen to gaia's angry whispers. Having said that I do try and listen to everything with an open mind.
Anyway, I really enjoyed looking round CAT, it was really spectacular, and it was great to see how they were managing to apply green principles in an everyday way. Often I feel that the ecology movement can be joyless and worthy, or an expensive affectation, but for me, CAT seemed to strike a pretty good mid-point. I particularly enjoyed looking round what they were doing with the gardens and greenery generally, they seem to be moving along similar lines to myself, and if I say so myself, I think that my garden is slightly ahead of theirs in areas. Much of my planting and choice of plants here has been fairly quixotic, so I was glad to see that in parts it chimed with theirs. I do just love to see bushes and trees with fruit on them.
Also interesting to see how they were working on generating energy, like everything else, generating energy all seems pretty peripheral until you need to start doing it yourself.
There was an excellent book about CAT - although it was 10 years old, it was a wonderful read, I was really sorry to finish it, and I would love to read more in a similar vein. Although there is a lot of focus on green technology and green lifestyles, there seems to be little said or written about more sustainable communities, which is probably an issue that we need to start tackling as a society. how can we reconnect our local communities and give them meaning.
Anyway, to wrap up this little discourse, pulling together these threads, almost as if I had planned it that way,
on returning from my holiday, I recognise the value of much of I am doing already, and would in future like to focus on
spending more time outdoors, and connected with nature
better links with my family and friends
work on strengthening the local community, as it is community that gives life and meaning to our built environment
- in more concrete terms,
- look over my finances, to focus on investing prudently, with a view to being able to free up time to do stuff other than just working,
- get an extra computer, which would reduce the family queue to use it,
- consider moving over to a woodburning stove for our living room,
- and for the garden
- sort out the loganberrys
- not feel that routine work is a chore, it is the effort from which all else flows
- consider building in storage for logs etc in the spare space,
- consider collecting rain water,
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)