Friday 12 November 2010

Sick days

Thanks to the people in the office who get the vomiting and diarrhoea bug, then only take the one day off sick, I had a dreadful night on Wednesday, and have had to have a couple of days off. Having eaten nothing for a day, I wonder how many days I might be able to go without food. On the good side, I was looking to lose a little weight.
At the hospital they have a policy where you are not allowed back until 48 hours after your last episode. Explaining this to Ned, he asked what I meant by an episode. I wonder if he thought I was talking about TV programmes?

Wednesday 10 November 2010

Expecting

I was discussing with Clive what he thought we should do with the £50 that Mark had won on our Premium Bond syndicate. Of course most people think we should throw it all away on the lottery, which is why we started the Premium Bond syndicate in the first place.

Then he told me that he was now an expectant father. Unfortunately he is no longer with the lady in question, but seems a bit more involved than Jason was. I suppose it helps if you are told before the baby is born. There are a few ladies up our end of the office who have just gone off on maternity leave, all of which we have tried to get involved in the baby naming process. I thought Clive might be a bit more amenable to giving his son the middle name "Danger"; but he didn't seem keen.

Tuesday 9 November 2010

Clive's birthday again

I went down in the lift with the guys in the lift for breakfast and they asked if I was going out on Friday for Clive's birthday. This was the first I'd heard of this:
Me: "Where you going then?"
Hiten: "Somewhere over Bristol."
Me: "What? why so far? He always goes to weird, out of the way places. Is
it because he has to go places where nobody knows him?"
Chris: "Yes, he's banned from anywhere close by."

Monday 8 November 2010

Takeover

I got a bit of a shock in the middle of the morning when one of the big bosses arrived side-by-side with our boss, asking if we could gather everybody up the one end of the office. Apparently, some of the papers over the weekend were speculating that the company was going to be taken over. Basically the boss came in to talk to everyone about the speculation, even though he knew nothing about it at all. All this was supposed to set our minds at rest. He asked if anyone had any questions and confirmed that nobdy knows what is happening, and there will be a bit more news on Wednesday. They would have done better to wait until there was some solid news before they got everybody talking.

Sunday 7 November 2010

BBC News Strike


I was very surprised on Friday and Saturday to see a range of completely strange/new faces on BBC's Breakfast, due to the BBC reporter's strike. I did wonder why, if the regular presenters are on strike due to a greivance about their pensions, why weren't this other bunch also on strike? I imagined the regular presenters sitting at home shouting "scab" at the telly all day. Then on the local news they had dragged out a very old political correspondant with a big mole on the side of his face, which really didn't help my concentration.

Wednesday 3 November 2010

Junior volunteers II

I saw Junior's lady friend at the coffee machine this morning and asked her what had gone on yesterday about the film crew. She told me that they didn't actually turn up in the end. However Junior had been expecting them, and had even had a shave that morning to prepare. I asked if someone was providing a script or if he was supposed to write something. She had asked him the same thing, and because he wasn't tearing his hair out trying to think of what to say, she thought that they knew what they wanted him to say. He had told her that he wouldn't say anything on camera that he didn't agree with.

Big bang

One of the girls in the office was leaving yesterday to go on maternity leave. They had put out streamers and balloons around her desk, and did a small presentation around 11.30, to hand over the proceeds of the office whip-round and leaving card.
She went home about 1.00pm.


Then Sue, her team leader, decided she would tidy up. I noticed out of the corner of my eye that she was clearing up all the streamers, then saw her un-tie all the balloons then carry them into the corridor with her big pair of scissors.

A few moments later there was a bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, as she burst the balloons; as if she had taken someone out into the corridor and shot them. Everyone looked round, then were still looking around as Sue walked back in with the remains of the balloons, smiling.

Tuesday 2 November 2010

Junior volunteers

Out of the blue last week I got an e-mail, the day before a workshop at the local hotel, saying something like "Thank you for volunteering to stand up in the middle of the presentation, when asked, to demonstrate the 16 people per year from the company who are injured at work."


I don't know who put my name forward, and it was no big deal in the scheme of things. I did feel a little annoyed that I wasn't asked; just volunteered by somebody. And which bugger picked me out of the 200 people or so that went to the workshop?


Anyway, I was quite amused this morning when Junior came down the office complaining. He had been volunteered by the boss to be involved with a camera-crew who were on their way, supposedly to make a video about "Diversity" within the company. He was hoping someone was going to volunteer to go on camera and speak about the subject. Of course nobody did, and I'm not too sure who actually took part in the film in the end.

I did warn him though that his small-checked, black and white shirt was going to cause strobing.



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