Marshland

A lot has happened since I made the last post - A new job, a recent holiday and saying goodbye to a loved toy…

I am now the Senior Development Manager at Pattonair in Derby. Quite a bit of work, but very interesting - thankfully my boss is the right kind of guy to help me get more business orientated and the atmosphere in the team is pretty good. I even have a few minions to boss about (when they let me!).

Sold the Lotus in January - very sad about that, I miss it loads. Though the Summer being crappy weather has made that easier! Needed the cash to pay off some wedding debts though…

The big recent thing was the Olympics trip! Fantastic - got to see the Womens Pole Value world record broken up close in the Birds Nest!

Went to Hethel in Norfolk yesterday to visit the Lotus factory. The reason for this was that it was their 40th anniversary of being there. After a long drive down camera infested roads (and a Sat Nav that took me to a closed road) we made it there and were quite impressed with everything Lotus had laid on.

We could pretty much wander anywhere in the factory and see displays on the design, manufacture & testing of the cars. A lot of stalls and cars on display, as well as a chance to be driven around the test track in one of the meaty Exiges by a professional driver. Lots of tyre smoke, and a very long queue.

Had a good time and added some more pictures to the gallery.

Just added a couple more photo galleries - Cuba (from 2004, got there just as the US invaded Iraq!) and China, which is an old gallery reformatted for the new wordpress photo plugin. Enjoy..

I’ve been busy adding a decent gallery plugin to the site. As a result of this I now have a load of wedding photos for your perusal. I’ll be adding in my old photos again soon, but they are missing for now due to the upgrade.

Official photos will be posted as soon as I get them!

Well, the wedding took place, and we all had a really good time. I’m not quite recovered yet, as the inlaws are still here, but will be gone on Saturday when I can just veg out for a full day afterwards…

I haven’t got all the photos yet, but here are a few early ones…

More to follow…

I’ve got to show this picture of my niece GeGe (pronounced GoaGoa) after she has just pigged out on a Ben & Jerries chocolate ice cream…

I’d never have believed how much mess she could make… :)

Working away in the new contract with a few bites for future work turning up…

Yings parents are also here, so I’m picking up bits of Chinese (they don’t speak English!) . Also here is Yings 4 year old niece - she’s a sweety but can be a bit of a handful when you get back from work and just want to slob out. So far I haven’t succeeded in achieving that, but I have been to the playground in Bramcote park!

Ying is still making her wedding dress and its coming along quite nicely. I have no idea about how she’s doing it so I just look in from time to time to make sure she’s doing ok…

Well, I took the contract job, as with a wedding coming up I needed the money! On the plus side, because I got another job so quickly I’m getting twice the money this month… that really helps paying off some wedding costs, so I’m counting this as a blessing in disguise.

So, the new job is at the University of Nottingham writing software to generate automated contracts. Fiddley, but not difficult, and I get to do it my way, and not as someone else has designed it. On the whole not too bad!

Well, in less than a week I’ve been put on gardening leave, had an interview and now been offered a contract… Its a choice between taking this and going for a
position at a sister company of the place I was at.

Only problem is, I’m not guaranteed to get the sister job, and as the wedding is soon, I’m screwed if I turn down the contract and then don’t get the other position…

Decisions decisions…

Well, there I was, all ready to put in all the events that happen and then this happens..

I get a letter from work telling me that I need to attend a meeting on Tuesday with some other members of staff. ‘Oh Dear’ goes my head. It was well founded - due to the company (MidlandHR) expanding a bit too soon and projected sales not taking off as expected, I and several others are now in a ‘Consultancy’ period. Basically a small period before we get the official boot. I’m surprisingly upbeat about this. Especially after talking to a load of job agencies telling me that my skills are in demand and I won’t have a problem getting work, and possibly more money!