Oh look, a WordPress editor for my phone…

I guess I’d better resurrect this blog then.

We’re on holiday at the moment, but I’ll put something up in the next week or so.

Goodbye HMV?

I can quite easily accept that I’m probably behind the curve on this one, especially considering the well publicised financial troubles they’ve been in recently (and are indeed still trying to pull themselves out of), but I now have what I consider to be first hand experience of HMV desperately trying to hang on to their business.

Over the last several years I’ve been sad to see several small independent music chains go to the wall, and when Virgin accepted a management buy-out to the Zavvi consortium I remember seeing an interview which plainly said "If Virgin is getting out of this business the alarm bells should be ringing for everyone else", but now I really do think that this time next year HMV will be no more.

Why?

At lunch yesterday I wandered into the Canary Wharf branch of HMV. Last week 1 of the eight aisles was dedicated to technology (headphones, iDevices and docking stations mainly). Today that number has risen to 3, selling various brands of tablets and more of the same old guff as before. What’s worse is that it looks like the Dixons tablet display.

So why will you buy your tablet from HMV?

Well, if you’re like me you won’t, you’ll go in, look at a few models, then go online and save yourself £50.

Cheap music and films at up to £15 is one thing, that’s an impulse buy. Dare I say even a crappy Android tablet for £99 is not?

I think this is a wrong move for HMV, but with the pressure of the Internet and supermarket eating away at the core business they are desperate.

This move is just making a bad situation worse though.

The fate of Virgin/Zavvi, Tower Records and Woolworth’s awaits. Follow the light.

What a shame.

Smokin’ Arses

Roll on July 1st when the smoking ban begins in public places in England and I no longer have to leave a pub stinking like an ashtray.

I absolutely hate smoking, it has too many connections to bad events in my life. As a result I’m acutely aware of a few junctions in my life where the decision I made was either directly because of, or heavily influenced by smoking (relationships I’ve avoided or finished, friends I’ve seen less of and lost contact with, etc.)

Sure I tolerate it most of the time, but as a non smoker I do find it offensive even having to follow somebody down the street breathing in their smoke (I wish it was also banned from public places outdoors too, but I doubt it is).

You may be thinking "It’s up to the individual if they want to smoke" and I couldn’t agree more. The last thing I want to do is enforce my view on everyone else, but by being close to me smoking you are not only forcing your "habit" on me, but also damaging my health at the same time.

Equally I could turn down a relationship with the most perfect girl in the world all because she’s a smoker. The obvious point to this is that she wasn’t really that perfect was she?

Which brings me onto another point: being with a smoker is nasty. You stink. Don’t think we can’t tell when you’re secretly smoking either. It may take a while for us to be sure and make certain we’re reading you right (rather than, for example, finding out you’re drinking far too much cheap coffee at work), but eventually when the time is right the relationship is doomed. Is that too harsh? No. It’s a hundred times easier than watching somebody you care about die slowly and in agony.

Naturally the new laws will be ignored by the retarded few, but hopefully public pressure will win out fairly quickly.

Now if only I had a gun to shoot people driving on mobile phones…

Stag Dos

I spent this weekend on Keith’s stag do (Emma’s Twin’s Fiance) in Romford.

I’ve not been to Romford since I was probably about 4 or so, therefore I don’t remember a thing about the place. But we had a nice couple of pints, a decent curry, and a laugh at the Romford Dog Track.

All in all it’s made a good weekend away, but I’m feeling absolutely rubbish at the moment.

I’d love to show you a couple of photos, but this being a stag do such things are against the law.

Needless to say we didn’t tie him naked to a lamppost, or send him to Scotland asleep on a train.

Actually, I’m happy to say I’ve never actually known anybody have that done to them.

A strip club would have been nice though 😉

Taking Stock…

I don’t know if it’s the effect of being back at work and finding myself with precious little more than a couple of hours to relax every night, the fact I’m getting older, or the fact that I’ve come to realise a few things that I really should have faced up to sooner, but something’s got to give over the next couple of months…

Jesus, that sounds almost like a bad horoscope doesn’t it.

Well I’m not going to comment on the job at the moment, suffice to say it’s not what I expected it to be (or indeed what I believed I was supposed to be doing), but we’ll have to see how things turn out. One thing I have noticed that I was very aware of in UBS is the way an established team almost expect you to learn things via osmosis, like "Why didn’t you run a into b environment so c could be done? Er… probably because I thought I’d done a, wasn’t aware there was a b and also never knew c existed, let alone was a requirement!

WTF?! At least tell me so I stand a bit of a chance.

And don’t tell my you’ve covered other stuff when that’s not the case!

Oh well, I guess it’s just a manifestation of the existing team being so at home with the set-up that they can’t consider a newbie isn’t also up to speed. That I can understand.

Just don’t complain when I do need to be taken through stuff a second time. If you’re going to (inevitably) skim over stuff or go through it rapidly, then of course I’m going to need clarification.

*Sigh*

Well, the first week is over…

And it’s been nothing if not interesting. I’m finding the journey a bit of a drag, it’s about 25 minutes longer than the journey to UBS used to be, and while that’s not much (ok, almost an hour a day so not insignificant I guess) it’s more about the hassel of the additional part.

I started off by going to the interview and on the first day by walking, which from Liverpool Street to the office takes about 25 minutes. This first month however I decided to take some of the pressure off by getting my rail ticket with Zone 1 included, that way I get the choice of taking the bus or tube without worrying about it. I’ve also experimented with a couple of alternative walking routes. So far the walking wins (at least while the weather is good anyway).

The Number 100 bus took about 35 minutes (although most of this was being stuck in traffic at the back of St. Pauls Cathedral (So if I actually got off before then it would probably cut down my walking time a little) while the tube took about as long as walking does this morning, so at least that’s an option in the cold & wet. There’s other bus routes I can try (like the number 23 or 11 that got me back to the station in about 15 minutes tonight) but these routes tend to be super busy in the morning. So it looks like for the most part I’m going to be walking to and from work, but I’ll get an Oyster card for those cold a rainy days, just for some flexibility.

As far as the job goes I’m still settling in at the moment. It’s learning time and I’ve got at least three systems (one of which is written in C#) to get to grips with, so it’s not going to be easy. I’ll have to get back at a later date to report how I’m coping.

That’s if the journey hasn’t killed me first.

I’ve started so…

Well I’ve now done my first two days in the new job, and to be honest I wasn’t impressed yesterday.

Having arrived at the induction at 8:30 the HR department themselves didn’t arrive on time as the girl due to do the presentation was stuck on the train from Brighton. That’s fair enough, but we were greeted by three other people from HR (who other than taking the documentation were doing precious little else) so why one of these couldn’t have stood in is anyones guess…

So we started off with a decent enough presentation from security, an unfortunate necessity considering the current climate, followed by the expected dross from compliance (too basic for those of us that have already encountered such things, and probably too abstract for those in the audience who are new to such things, such is the necessity of the situation I guess).

Finally HR did their stint. Only they didn’t really. HR didn’t actually tell us anything of use, they just basically told the foreign workers to fill in the appropriate form, and then took us down to get our security passes and sent us on our way. There was no mention about what or when we were to complete out registrations online, how to credit cash to our security cards for meals, etc. in the canteen, how or what benefit and pension forms were required to be completed. All in all it was a total waste of time from them.

Rubbish.

So I got my pass (the photo on which makes me look like some kind of a mekon) and walked over to my new office. Things actually started off quite well, my new PC had arrived shorly before I did and after a few calls to the technical support line I was beginning to be set up. Inevitably not everything went according to plan, I have a UNIX login but no password, which despite my follow up emails is still conspicuous by its absence. Oh wel, there’s always a problem, and it’s certainly more organised than UBS were.

As for the job, it’s really a little too early to comment. So far I’m trying to read throgh the documentation and make sense of the system, but that should hopefully improve as time goes on. Certainly some of it seems familiar from previous experience. But it’s a whole new framework that I need to pick up, and that’s where the difficulty will be.

Still, I did manage to meet up with Matt for a beer as he’s only working down the road. So that’s good.

Tomorrow is the day…

Well, it’s Sunday 29th April, meaning tomorrow I start my new position working for JP Morgan after 13 months off.

As I’ve said before, it feels like I’ve only been out for two weeks. At the moment I’m not especially nervous (just a little), but I’m also a little excited at the chance of being given a new start.

I originally intended to stay at my previous company for a considerable time, but due to the fact I became disillusioned with them quite early on, I never really made the progress I should have. Generally I think the team there was great, certainly a bunch of very smart people who it was a pleasure to work alongside. Obviously there were ups and downs with the company, but I think my line manager Tony and project manager Paul were excellent people to work for, (even if they didn’t think I was interested in promotion!!), and others on the team were almost universally good too.

I guess the real problem with UBS were the next level of managers. The trouble is the more you become abstracted from the ground troops (as is necessary when moving through the ranks, that’s what the next level of managers working for you are there for), the more isolated you become. It’s hard (if not impossible) to get around this and is rarely achieved. Of course, it doesn’t help when the feeling in the department is one of self interest and general disdain from the higher ranks (and quotes such as "if he doesn’t like it f*ck him, we’ll get somebody else" don’t really improve morale).

The problem is really one of perception. The bigger picture in the company was one of trying to look out for the lower ranking members of staff, after all if the foot soldiers are unhappy then the very foundations of the company are in trouble. However this only has to hit one loose link in the chain before the message is lost. Looking back I don’t really think it’s a company problem (although I don’t know much about the culture at higher levels), but more down to a couple of individuals with an over inflated self importance, as is usually the case.

Either way I’m glad to be out and hoping upon all hopes that JP Morgan is run in a more friendly manner. Certainly (as you’d expect) the things I’ve been told in the interviews seem to imply this, so I guess only time will tell, but I’m hoping for great things.

And the thing I’m most worried about this very moment?

Trying to remember everyone’s name.

Little things…

One of the things I have especially missed this last year, has been not being able to ask my dad for advice in the garden (amongst other things). Looking back I’ve gone from thinking to myself "I must just call and ask him about this" to now realising straight away that this is no longer possible and just guessing what to do and getting on with it, but not without first giving him a thought each time.

Anyone who knew my father (especially since his retirement) would have know how he was a keen gardener. I especially remember how, when we lived in a little village called Hook, just outside Swindon and Wootton Bassett, he would enter the local flower competitions and regularly come home with a haul of rosettes, especially, as I remember, for his Dahlia and Sweet Peas.

I try my best, but I really don’t know what I’m doing and in some cases end up buying the plants I’ve tried to grow from seed at some garden center or other at some extortionate price. He’s probably turning in his grave as I do this, but it’s his fault since I can’t ask anymore 😉

I guess I’m writing about this now as a couple of really small and insignificant events have happened over the last couple of days.

Firstly, I visited him in the cemetery yesterday, what with it being my last day of freedom before starting work on Monday. Whilst there I removed a dead pot plat somebody had left at the grave (since a similar plant was also on the grave of my grandparents & uncle I assume it was left by one of my other uncles), but kept the pot thinking to myself "That’ll come in useful". When relaying the days events to my mum she casually commented how Dad would do the same thing, which I laughed about at the time.

Earlier today I was also sorting out some stuff in the shed and garage when I came across a box I had obviously taken when sorting out his stuff with my brothers. The box was full of  packets of seeds, some of which were unlabelled (typical of my father – he may recognise the seeds but to me it’s going to be a surprise). I’d forgotten I had this, and since I was in the middle of doing some stuff in the garden it just felt a little poignant.

Time will tell if I ever manage to grow anything from this collection, but I intend to try with at least some things, if not this year then next. Taking into consideration my ability and the age of the seeds, I’m not expecting much to germinate, but I’m hoping at least a few things will. It just seems to make the process a little more special if it does.

If I’m honest, what little I try to do in the garden is probably driven by a desire to honor his memory in a small way, so I guess I should put more effort in and appreciate any success I have.

As a colleague of mine once said: "You can get over what has happened, but it never leaves you".

Well, barring some catastrophe it’s official…

I’ll be starting work for J P Morgan on 30th April 2007.

It’s going to be a bittersweet day, I’ve enjoyed the past year off during which I have not achieved only a little of what I intended. There’s just so much to do out there when you look at it, I could have filled my time twenty times over. Still, it’s been a nice break, and I probably need to get back into the real world.

I’m a little nervous about starting the new job, not because I don’t think I’m up to it, I’m sure after an introductory period I’ll be back in the swing, but more because I’m terrible at remembering names, and they’ll be a lot to remember.

Oh well, I’ve survived before.

I’m actually quite looking forward to it, although I’ll miss being able to hop on the bike and ride down to the river for a nice pint in the sun.

Oh well, I may be able to afford to retire at 70, so I’ll be able to do it then.

Assuming I can still get on a bike that is.

And I’m still alive… 😉