It always gives me pleasure when I get the opportunity to wind up people in the business (not my department of course!) with legitimate cause.

My mission today was to visit one of the business units with a view to printer rationalisation. The business is way over subscribed on printers and in an effort to save costs and standardise on a particular manufacturer we are talking to the business about their requirements. So, the conversation today went something like this:

Me: Hi! yay, happy me! I want to talk to you about printers.
Manager: Okay, what about them?
Me: Well, I want to take some away from you.
Manager: [slaps forehead] You are f***ing kidding!
Me: Nope.
Manager: [huffs and puffs] I’ll f***ing tell you how many f***ing printers you can take off us! None!
Me: fnar fnar…

I asked the manager to accompany me into the main office area. I pointed around the office.

Me: That one’s dead, so’s that one, that one and that one. There’s nine printers in the office for seventeen staff and four of ‘em are dead.
Manager: …
Office Worker: [Pointing elsewhere] So’s that one!

After the manager had calmed down we discussed requirements and possibilities. The manager flounced, yes flounced back into his office leaving me to do my job.

Oh what a fun afternoon!

By the way - I must apologise, I have been snowed under this week and haven’t had time to write the next article for Beginner Photography. Guess you’ve got another week to work on your photos!

In an attempt to re-jig the blog I thought I’d start a new thing. I’ve called it “My Week In View” and I will try and talk about a few of the “interesting” things I’ve done each day since the last edition. I want to run it from Wednesday to Tuesday which will give me time to recover from stupid weekend activities that I get up to, process any photos that I might take and formulate a decent post rather than rushing it which is what I normally do. So:

Wednesday 14 May 2008

After discovering that we only had 4 days until the annual London To Brighton Mini Run the Mini Club had a bit of a panic to get the go-kart ready. With Cookie Monster (Mark) we built a frame round an old (small) tractor that had no engine. In a little over 3 hours we built the frame to make the go-kart look like a Cadbury’s Miniature Heroes box and then covered the frame with hardboard from the local hardware store. Mark went on to paint the box with blue house emulsion and eventually got a load of decals to stick on it on Thursday/Friday.

The Go-kart:

Yes, that is me in the silly trousers looking like I’m not doing anything!

Thursday 15th

Having returned to Scouting last July with 1st Warsash Sea Scouts, tonight was the first time we got on the water this year. Although, got “on” isn’t quite right. More like got “in”. Tonight was all about safety, a swim test (to prove confidence) and how to right a capsized boat. Being 5′ 11″ and 17 stone righting the capsized dinghy (a Wayfarer) wasn’t difficult, although some of the 10 and small 11 year old Scouts found it a struggle! The swim test was far more taxing. Although I had a wetsuit and buoyancy aid, it didn’t really stop the shock of The Hamble being bloody cold. The only advice I was given before setting off was “if you get any water in your mouth, don’t forget to chew before you swallow”. Chew? Too busy coughing because of the salt! It’s the first time I’ve been in or near the Solent for around 20 years! Really looking forward to next week - we get to put sails on the boats!

Friday 16th

Thank god! I skyved the afternoon (officially of couse) and sat playing on the computer for most of it. I might have monged and watched TV too. It was an immemorable day.

Saturday 17th

Today started with a trip to Gunwharf for a spot of shopping before collapsing on the floor in front of the TV to watch a football match. Hey - what can I say. We won. That puts us into Europe next year. That’ll do. Glad I wasn’t in Portsmouth the afternoon though. Apparently there were 60,000 drunk people on Southsea Common watching the game on a big screen. In prep for L2B I washed the Mini. Fun huh!

Sunday 18th

If I ever suggest that we meet at 0630 to go to a Mini show, somebody shoot me. To be ready in time we were up at 0530. That’s just obscene. By the time we got to Brighton for L2B (we didn’t do the run, just the club stand on Madeira Drive) I was in a foul mood. One that didn’t really lift until lunchtime when I’d had tea and forgotten why I was grumpy. When I have processed the photos from the event I will put a post up on Mini Mini Mini. Mini Club in the evening and then collecting my dogs from my parents meant that we didn’t get into bed until gone 11pm. One damned long day. Bring on next year!

Monday 19th

Ah shit. It’s work again. And to top it all I was on the early shift (0730 start). Thank god that meant I could finish at 1530. A trucker friend of mine was in the area on Monday night so a quick trip to Portsmouth was in order so that we could catch up for the evening. Nice to see him, but as per usual he ended up stealing one of my MP3 compilation CDs. Means I’ve got to re-burn it for me now. Git!

Tuesday 20th

Whilst Tuesday wasn’t an early start like Sunday, I was still on the early shift which meant 0730. During the day the work network crashed. I had to leave at 1530 but went back to work to help bring the network back up. We managed to unpatch and re-patch only the required network ports in our switch as well as change the blade cards in the Black Diamond, but in doing so it meant I didn’t leave work until 7.45pm. Home, food, sleep went the rest of the day.

So, any comments on the style of the post? Interesting? Boring? let me know!