Friday 26 February 2016

Packing two suitcases

So having had another really good sleep (categorised by falling asleep at 10pm and waking at 3am) and feeling rested I'm packing....one suitcase to take home with clothes to wash and another to take to the next hotel with all my 'other' stuff in it. 

Some might say I don't travel lightly....geeez! 

Tuesday 23 February 2016

It's becoming a habit

Says she who is not being forced to work from home late into the night and weekends.  Though to be fair I have only done a hour or so this weekend but it has put me on the back foot for tomorrow. 

Why am I on the back foot? Well, because I still need to finish a revised Pricing Proposal excel spreadsheet off ready for QA and 2 bridging tools, the latter of which, for those uninitiated of you, is a tool that drops a load of data from a load of spreadsheets into one spreadsheet and populates a ton of tables and graphs that said spreadsheet already holds as blank templates.  Which, of course, saves a ton of time than collating it all inidividually but I still don't have time for the fiddliness of repeatedly telling it 9 times which spreadsheets I want it to drop into the file and then rename all the columns and then do that twice.....breathe.

And I would be at that all day, without the 2-3 hour planning session I have tomorrow for the next 3 cohorts of bids (32 contracts in total over the next 4 months....because we don't do anything simply).

So on a train tomorrow at 6am I will start my first bridging tool and then I can get those over to my boss so he can be analysing them while I hold the planning meeting, then I will update the Pricing Proposal and then have everyone urgently QA it....wait, that means I will be updating that on the train too....so I can finalise the document and get it out to the bidders.

Can you see me drawing up the project plan late into tomorrow night?  Yes, me too.  Oh well, it keeps me out of mischief.

Have a great week everyone.

 

Sunday 21 February 2016

Orange is the new black

So I didn't have Netflix.  I didn't want Netflix. I didn't want to have to pay more money to watch films and programmes I don't really have the time to watch.  I heard about Orange Is The New Black was brilliant many times.  I still wasn't getting Netflix.

Then I started working on a major procurement at work, delivering 34 contracts in 6 months. I am working away from home more than I am at home.  Freeview is rubbish and the only thing most hotels offer as daily viewing. 

I figured I get a month free with Netflix.  I did a advantage / disadvantage list in my head and figured I could watch Orange Is The New Black on my tablet in a month sat in a hotel room most of the time.

I watched 2 episodes and I was hooked.  I laughed at the prisoners antics, I sat in shock at some of them.  I loved every minute of every episode.  I watched episodes regularly until 2 - 3 am in the morning every night. 

I even managed to go over my data allowance last month because I was insistent I wanted to watch it in a hotel without great reception so used my phone as a mini hot spot - don't do that, it eats the data allowance like you would not believe!

I quickly whizzed through series 1 and 2.  I loved series 3.  I was ready to watch series 4 and there isn't one.  I was gutted.  I am hoping they do more episodes.

So I had to watch something else.  I'm half way through Making A Murderer.  I'm guessing some people are seeing a theme....

Anyhoo, get Netflix for a month free of charge and watch Orange is the New Black - you will love it!

 

Saturday 20 February 2016

Ribenaisms - May 2013

I have been told on more than many an occasion that I use the silliest phrases ever and randomly spout what is in my head at the time and honestly if you could see all the tiny aliens bouncing around my head then you would realise just how much rubbish I can spout and why.

I thought it might be an idea to try and log at least some of my Ribenaisms over the past few months, hopefully what will be, your entertainment.

  • "When Hubby's hair grows it resembles a furry golf ball."
    • Hubby: Really, a furry golf ball?  So pray tell me, what does a furry golf ball look like and what would it's use be?
  • "Oh look!  C has a fridge exactly the same as ours!"
    • Hubby: Really?  Not a freezer then?
    • Me: No a freezer!  Oh, did I say fridge?
    • Hubby: Yes 
    • Me: Well, it began with an F.
    • Hubby: (Walks away shaking his head)
  • "Dada da dada PUPPY POWER!" (anytime I manage to solve a problem I have been trying to solve)
  • "I didn't forget the handwash when I came upstairs!  I have remembered it but just left it on the table downstairs."
  • "I may have to investigate prices for garden sliders at lunch time."
    • Hubby: For what?
    • Me: Price and delivery time of course!
    • Hubby: Nooooooooooooo, you barm pot!  I mean what are they and why do we need them?
    • Me (thinking he was being forgetful as I clearly told him about them at the weekend when sat in the sun in C's garden): They are a garden swing but not on a swing, they are a rocker. Oh wait, I meant glider not slider.
    • Hubby: (No response, just a knowing look) 
  • While watching a game show:
    • Me: The young bloke may well be quite intelligent but sitting with his mouth open catching fish through most of it sure makes him look the opposite
    • Hubby: Do you mean 'with his mouth open catching flies' by any chance?
    • Me: Oh yes.....
  • While driving and discussing why Beautiful B when out a different security gate on the left rather than the one nearest our front door (on the right):
    • Me: I guess it makes sense for her to go out the left one as it is nearest to Preston Old Road which will get her to the hospital quicker than going out the right one nearest the front gate.
    • Hubby (when we got to the end of the road):  Why are you turning left when we need to turn right to get to work?
    • Me:  Oh, it is because I was talking about Beautiful B going out of the gate on the left.
    • Hubby:  That makes sense then.....(while rolling his eyes)
  • While replacing the sheets and duvet cover on our bed after coming upstairs and putting a brand new sheet down ready for use:
    • Me: Now where have I put that sheet?!  I only put it down 1 minute ago.
    • Hubby:  You mean this one? (as he reaches for the sheet I had balance on the fan no more than a minute before).
  • On answering an email to one of my work colleagues on Friday and then receiving another email from him:
    • Colleague: Aren't you supposed to be off work today?
    • Me: (Having furiously checked the team's work calendar on line and realising I had booked the day off 2 weeks ago......) Yes, but I needed to make sure that I did not have to re-allocate a tele-conference next week for my project.
    • Colleague: You are too dedicated.
    • Me: Nooooooo.  Just didn't want to have to sort it out on Tuesday and risk people's calendars getting booked up by then.  Now I am going to QA my daughter's latest assignment.
There are more.....and there are bound to be even more by the end of the day....



Friday 19 February 2016

It's been such a long time

So hi there!

It's been so long.  I'm not the only one that wanders around busy as a bee thinking I must find time to do a,b,c am I?  I know I'm not - stupid question.  Anyway that's what happened.

Work got busy, not as busy as it is now - it's none stop with 12 hours days at least and I am away from home more than I am at home.  Hubby is living a student life while I am away. 

You know when you call your Hubby from a hotel room and have a conversation about the day and you get to....

Me:      What did you have for dinner?
Hubby: Nuggets.
Me:      What did you have with the nuggets?
Hubby: More nuggets.
Me:      Please tell me you didn't just eat nuggets. (incredulous)
Hubby: Yep.  I couldn't be bothered making anything to go with them.

Now, at Christmas we always buy some party food and we had bought a huge bag of chicken nuggets and by huge I mean huge and we had about half of the bag left. So the rest of the conversation went like this:

Me:      You ate the whole bag of the popcorn chicken nuggets in one go?!!!!1
Hubby: No (laughing) I had the bag of turkey nuggets.  I was duped.
Me:      Please explain....
Hubby: There were only 22 and there should have been 24.
Me:      Seriously you ate 22 nuggets in one go....

Apparently they were tasty.

So this week I was away with work again and he had more nuggets, a different brand and chicken this time not turkey.  The packet said there were 25 nuggets and there were actually 26 nuggets so now he says he is just owed 1 nugget.

At least shopping will be easy this week - 2 bags of nuggets, 1 chicken, 1 turkey and 2 pizzas.  The man is going to have a heart attack by the time he is 50.