Almost there

Two days to go before I leave BT - I did a horrible calculation earlier: the 11 years I have spent with them represents over 20% of my life which is really really scary!

I am trying to work as normal - handovers seem to be dominating the days - but there is a definite end-of-term feeling that I am experiencing at the moment, with also a massive melancholy of all the times, peoples and events that I have experience.

Fat Git and Baldy, Norman the Storeman (he is a database administrator), Sally M, Rob C, all the Mart[iy]ns, Steve E, SP/IL (you know who you are - early coffees), John B, Fi, JR, Carl etc etc ... (sorry if you aren't named - I haven't forgotten you!)

I have made some very good friends at BT - I suspect that, rather like an army number - my employee's identification number - the gateway to accessing information within the company - will be with me until the day I am in my grave.

But Friday it will be time to go. Norman is coming up divest me of my BT membership - laptop, pass etc and then I will be gone ...

Serious sleaze allegations

Iain Dale is reporting that the Sunday Times has some very serious allegations concerning the behaviour of certain Labour peers.

Oh dear.

New job

In a roller-coaster of a 48 hours I have gone from almost despair to hope... I have been offered a new contract for a big (VERY big) business services company. It's initially for 3 months but it buys time ....

Six Weeks

It is now six weeks since the operation - a magic figure since I am now "allowed" to do all of the things that I was banned from - swimming, driving etc so it is probably as good as time as any to reflect upon the recovery.

Firstly I am walking better than I have for years - the rolling gait that I had previously has completely disappeared - and the limb centre in particular have commented upon the improvement. I am also not walking upon tip-toes either, something I did obviously to ease the pain from the arthritis and I am placing my feet much more squarely upon the ground.

I still have muscle discomfort, which was made worse by the pinging of a tendon (muscle?) a couple of weeks back which caused intense pain for a few days, but to be honest that is now fading from pain to an ache. It is worse when I go from a sitting to a standing position when the pain hits ... start walking and the discomfort vanishes very quickly. Keep going and I am pain free. Walking is bliss - absolutely lovely and (with a stick initially) I have literally walked miles.

I can also (with great care) hop - it sound laughable but when I was younger I could literally imitate Dudley Moore brilliantly (or was it the other way round?) and being able to get to the shower without assistance from crutches or my spare leg is wonderful .

A few downers - I am terrified of kneeling down still - enhanced since the muscle/tendon problem - although its really of standing up I suppose ...

One final thought: the horrible NHS chair that dominates our living room can now go .....

Anybody want a Unix/Linux/Security guy?

I had my contract cancelled last week - 5 months early. To be honest I wasn't expecting for the contract to be renewed in June, not in this current climate, but for it to be cancelled part way through has come as a hell of a shock. I have been assured that it wasn't anything to do with me ("you are a highly regarded part of the team" "Its just a numbers game" etc etc) but after 11 years with the company, knowing that it wasn't your fault doesn't make it any easier.

The job market isn't just dire, it is non-existent for both the contract and permanent positions and I am getting fairly despondent about the future.

I am not in a dying industry - the world revolves around IT and I have kept my skills up to date (clustering, security, virtulisation, web technologies amongst other things ) so it is gutting for this to happen.

Oh well - time to dust of the CV and pray .....

MP's and expenses

I emailed my MP yesterday the following:

"
Dear Michael Foster,
I am writing to you to express my concern at the recent proposal by the Leader of the House that will allow MPs expenses to be claimed without the production of receipts. In no other organisation would this be allowed and since taxpayer funds Parliament it is essential that complete transparency in all financial dealings is present for all MPs.
MPs for various reasons - and for the most part unjustifiably - are held in very low public esteem which means that the risk of that esteem dropping any further is very real.
Please vote against this proposal and show that Parliament does not have rules that would be laughed at if they were in pretty well any other institution - both public and private
Yours sincerely,
"

I am awaiting - probably in vain - for a reply

Update

Incredibly, Gordon Brown has imposed a three line whip on this for Labour MPs. This issue will be used to beat Labour over the head for a very long time. It really is shaming of this government that they are so hell bent to hide their expences.

Update 2

Brown has backed down .... here

Greed and stupidity are not crimes

There has been waves of outrage concerning the way some bankers - in particular Sir Fred Goodwin of the Royal Bank of Scotland - have been able to cause such havoc within the industry whilst at the same time walking away from the wreckage with pensions intact, knighthoods etc etc.

In it most extreme form this outrage (as heard yesterday on the Jeremy Vine show) has including calls for criminal prosecutions to be undertaken ( on what grounds I haven't a clue - for all his faults Goodwin is not a Madoff), his knighthood stripped and so on.

I understand the outrage - lives have been wrecked due to the actions of these people - but the calls for criminal actions are misguided.

If greed and stupidy were criminal then the jails of Britain and the world would be overflowing.