Guitars and Life

So Son-of-Furtheron is back in the land of male voice choirs etc. - i.e. back in Wales ready for new year at uni - his last!  Yes this time next year I've every confidence he will have a flying first in his undergraduate master in Physics and Space Science...  Yes he does make his old man look like a thick old numpty...  I'm so proud.   Daughter-of-Furtheron is settling into A level studies and is looking at universities that we'll be traipsing around this time next year in preparation for her to apply to.  One finishes and another joins the fray.  Mrs F is settling in with a new year group, new teacher she is working with and two guinea pigs her class has adopted! The trip back to Wales was, almost predictably, met with weather that even Noah would have said "You expect me to go out in that!".  When I fetched S-o-F back at the end of the year we just escaped as floods hit that area - this time it was worse in land and I had to slowly edge throu...

Another blogger sparked off something in me that has really got me thinking... So here I am in the "new" job...  I've put the quotes there as actually I've been here over 10 months now and rapidly it'll be a year so is it still "new"?  It feels it to me.  And there in lies a crux of issues that have been assailing me of late. Let me throw a bunch of things at you... culture, complexity, change, commitment, belonging... A little history lesson.  I worked at the same place from 1991 - 2010 until I was made redundant, something I was happy about at the time, that old place was on a downward spiral and my mojo had decidedly left me and I found myself regularly the harbinger of bad tidings "We tried that three times before and it failed due to a, b, c etc.".   I needed to get out and get a change.  After 7 months not working I got a job with a small consultancy firm - I didn't mind the work and the fact that as a consultant you go into somewh...

This post is about change, fear, anxiety, faith etc. I'm slowly getting into the new job.  It has been an interesting journey so far.  Basically I've been recruited into a new position in the organisation that actually is yet to fully exist.  This is because they are only a certain way through all the proposed changes to the division I'm in and therefore I've joined as head of a group that won't exist until all the changes are completed and that is still a little way off.  So it is a little bit odd at the moment, there is stuff going on in the existing structure which I'm listening to but not actively involved in.  I've been involved in some of the organisational change stuff working with my boss and others on the job descriptions and gradings with HR. Work is beginning to come along that I can pick up on since new stuff, like some bids for new projects don't have an obvious owner other than myself so that is ok. But overall I just feel not quite the...

... and I have more questions than answers unsurprisingly.  Bizarrely I'm also attending a public launch event of an application that has gone "public" that I'm now the "service owner" of which I didn't know what it's acronym stood for 48 hours ago.  Best I keep schtum in front of the media and others and just get introduced to all the right people. One of the funniest things so far is that everytime I venture out of the office onto the street I seem to get asked where something is by one of the newly enrolled students but I'm as lost on the campus as they are... if not more so if my experience yesterday is any guide.  My boss walked with me from point A to point B, I was asking a load of questions of him so didn't take as much notice as I should have anyway... I leave point B with another colleague and head to point C.  Now from point C I needed to get back to point A... simple I thought I knew the direction etc and I exit the door and tur...

Whitesnake?   No that was Here I Go Again... Anyhows...   Last day at work today.  "Hang on" say long term regular reader(s) "thought this had all happened before".  Indeed, last year 7th July, after 19 years and 1 week I left my old job.  After a period as a successful professional musician (i.e. unemployed) I got back into work in Feb this year for a small consultancy an old colleague is now a director of.  I've actually liked the company and the people in the most part but as again the regular reader(s) out there will know I hated the being away from home or massively stupid commutes.   The company was really nice and at the point where I was saying "this just isn't really for me" an assignment came up at my old firm which I've been on for the last 5 months. Now the really sad bit is in Feb this year the company I used to work for decided to close the site with 1000s of jobs being lost.  In it heyday back in the early 2000s you would st...

Bad Company - first album, Moving On one of my favourite tracks of theirs however that isn't the point of this post... I can reveal that the life changing event alluded a post of two back is actually not that interesting... I've got a new job that is all. Just couldn't post that on here until those that needed to be told were told, not that any of them have probably any clue about this blog but I just thought that people needed to be told confidentially first. Anyways all sorted now... I've landed a local - well as local as my old long term job and current assignment - i.e. about 40 mile commute - IT project manager role with a well known and respected company. It'll remove the stress of wondering where the next assignment will be and no longer have to face any weekly or long term working away from home. It isn't that there is any problem with my current employer, nice company, lovely people and interesting work for the most part but I just hated the being...

Hello to anyone still left who can be bothered to drop by to see whether I've fallen completely off the face of the earth or not. Sorry it has been a little ... er .... manic. It is all the new job. I joined on 7th Feb, spent a week in the head office learning about the company, processes, policies etc. On the Thursday of that week I was introduced to a client as a potential for a new assignment and new role they needed. I was accepted for that and so the next week I had two days out and about meeting a few others in the company and finding out about them and what they were doing then on the Wednesday I was straight into the new assignment on a three "bootcamp". I then started the role with the client team on the following Monday. All following so far? You're doing better than me then! That was three weeks ago... only three weeks! The role is officially based in one team at one location but I'm "deployed" to work with another team who are large...

So I've had my first week in paid employment for a long time... I'm shattered! Actually it has been ok, most of the week spent at HQ with HR, Finance etc. learning about the company and the processes etc. I did have a quick outing to a client for them looking at me for a possible assignment and I got that - which is good so soon I'll be earning for the company which is always a good place to get to quickly. I'm out and about next week for the first couple of days to meet others who work for the company and meet them and learn about their experience and current work them I'm off to the client for a 3 day meeting that will kick off my assignment. So sadly I think I will be very very busy so unfortunately I might be less on here and not able to visit all of you so frequently.

I've decided to restart the year. All the snow and hassle with that, getting to work (or not), schools shut, getting my son back to uni etc, the Haitian earthquake - how horrible is that? How it makes you glad of where you live, by total luck of birth pure and simple isn't it, I'm just damn lucky I was born here in the UK. It reminds you so quickly about the fragility of life and of our society doesn't it. If a quake of that size hit a large conurbation in the the UK would it be much different? Might be easier to mobilise relief from closer quarters but frankly when everything you take for granted, food supply, shelter, warmth, clear water is taken away I think we'd easily find ourselves in a similar position. You feel so helpless don't you? I've made a donation via the DEC website but that seems such a small gesture. My personal biggest issue at the moment (which is in the grand scheme of the universe a piddling little trifle) is my job. I just loath it. T...