Eye on the ball lads!

Reading through my posts, I am reminded that this is a diary and I must use it as such. A few things have happened on one of my other blogs that I simply haven't mentioned here because the thing was documented anyway. That attitude is wrong, this is the diary and it should be here as well.

On Arduino It!, the number of hits is rising rapidly as is the number of interested countries. As I write, there have been 925 hits on the site since the middle of January with 42 countries represented. This is not a terrific number compared to some commercial sites but, for a limited interest blog with no publicity, I think that's pretty dam' good. The spin off Google code site is having a slower growth but is still gathering hits as we go along. Very soon, I should receive a couple of non robotic boards that may prove to be a bit of a breakthrough for both the Arduino and the blog. We shall see.

The're dropping like flies!

The number of people opting for voluntary redundancy seems to be accelerating. Even the younger members of my team are either determined to take it or are very seriously considering it. Hazel and I seem to be in a dwindling minority who genuinely want to continue working at the university. The axe seems to be falling all around us as well as on our own jobs currently. The latest casualty would appear to be the postal service. They recently won a national award for efficiency and accuracy and now they are to be cut in half.

Russ has had yet another week from hell with a third trip to A & E last weekend. The problem seems to be not so much that he has to go in but the complete lack of organisation he finds whilst there. Sending someone home and not informing them until after their bed has been assigned to someone else seems to be a bit of a liberty to say the least. The small, one man oven cleaning service arrived on time, cleaned the oven and departed with the quoted cost in his pocket. He was happy, I was happy and the oven sparkles. Why is it that he can get it so right but much bigger businesses seem to get it so wrong? Talking about you British Gas.

Where did it all go?

I have been working hard and attending various training-type sessions related to the imminent changes within the university and, suddenly, eleven days have gone by. The whole uni is throbbing with concern about it and many - most - are worried. A large number of close colleagues are actively investigating  taking voluntary redundancy and some have already applied.  Whilst I don't feel this is appropriate to me, I can, in most cases, understand why they are taking that stance. In my case my position will, almost certainly, change for the better unless I am actually made redundant. Even then I will only be 10% down on my lump sum which is not that high anyway so I feel I have nothing to lose and plenty to gain. The whole scheme seems to be favouring my strengths and could well put me into a stronger position than I am now so I will be moving to the new system with a broad grin on my face. My only sadness will be losing some very good colleagues.

What a difference ten days make.........

We have just had a very nice break away from it all and feel much better now. I managed a few days with Russ and we did sophisticated stuff like visiting the Roman palace at Fishbourne and eating a Chinese meal each evening for three days. Yum! Other than that, we just sat and talked, it was a brilliant break.

Hazel visited Sally and, finally, saw "The Mousetrap" and also went to a 50s diner.