Life, Death and Video Cameras

So the training course was pretty much what I expected; about 30% interesting and 70% incomprehensible gibberish about financial procedures. There was a bit of a cock-up first thing when I took an £11 taxi ride (not a cheap/short one by Bristol standards!) to the address I had been given only to find that the course was actually taking place round the corner from my hotel. Still I got to see a bit of the local environs and they were beautiful; a very green and pleasant land.

Yesterday was hectic as I had catching up to do and my boss was working from home (which equates to me having to field twice as many inane queries from staff who feel they are too important to call the Helpdesk to be told to reboot their machine.) The day finished nicely though as I met up with Rob S for dinner and a few beers on the riverside. Plenty of catching up to do; I had last seen him a year ago in Folkestone for his leaving drinks when he left Saga. Since then, he’s had three different jobs (and only one of those changes was his choice!) and is now working for one of Ford’s subcontractors. Doesn’t sound like he’s having the best time in the world though as, just like a Microsoft Training Course scenario, his team is responsible for just one specialist area of network support and the lines of demarcation are dogmatically guarded. I wish I had the budget to employ him as he’d be a huge asset to the company if he’d be prepared to work in the city.

Today will hopefully be a more orderly and proactive day (which I think will make a total of one day this week.) Tonight though we are off to see the musical Avenue Q; a somewhat satirical, adult variation on the Sesame Street theme, which has done very well in New York. Then tomorrow, I’m on a train to my parents’ place to help them out with more IT issues.

It’s Dave Schofield’s funeral today. Pete, his ex, had been messaging me with various details during the week as I had hoped to attend, but I had to tell him last night that I wasn’t going to make it. While I feel like I ought to pay my respects as a friend, the truth is we haven’t been close friends in a long time and it would screw up so many other things to go up to Yorkshire today. Actually, now I come to think about it, my guilt is really about not telling Pete I wasn’t coming before now, as I’d worked out on Monday that I couldn’t do it but never got round to replying to his text messages. So I’ll probably take a contemplative moment around 11 o’clock and then get on with my day (all the while hoping that more than just his sister and ex-boyfriend turned up to the funeral – ah, there you go; more guilt!)

Anyway, in the meantime, I seem to be fighting a cold; I’ve had a sore throat for the last few days (which didn’t seem to be improved any by the beer last night), my nose keeps filling up and I’m feeling generally run-down. So I’m munching Vitamin C tablets, keeping my fluids up, taking it as easy as I can and eating heartily. Keep your fingers crossed.

The video camera I bought Brett for his birthday arrived yesterday, so there was some mucking about with it last night, but I am quite gutted that I’m going to be out tonight and gone all weekend when there is a new gadget to be played with – not to mention the video editing software I bought to go with it! Instead, I’m going to be configuring email for my folks and re-writing Chorus election procedures on the train. Grrr!

Ok, so that’s it for now. This was meant to be a brief recap of the last few days, but it seems that quite a lot has happened after all. Oh well. Later.