I sometimes wonder

where all the days go. We have all put in our applications for the new system and, hopefully, we will all get a job out of it. David has signed his voluntary redundancy form so he is now bound to go. We have all, I think, gone for the higher level jobs as well as our own but it will remain to be seen whether we get one. I have been thrashing away at getting my desk clear of logs and have managed to get down to five remaining, only two of which are important enough to need finishing or re-assigning so that's looking good too. Hazels interviews are supposed to be while we are away but her boss isn't too concerned as she is the chair of the panel and she can re-schedule to almost whenever she wants to. I have just installed a speech only version of ooVoo on to my iPod in order to test it out before we go away in case I am able to use it from one of the sites.

Level 38 and approaching 39 rapidly on Blackwood and Bell so I may make level 40 by the time we go away.

The Arduino It! blog has not only passed 1000 hits, it has nearly reached 1100 in the space of just two days. It has also now had 44 countries take a look so I have installed the Google translator on the site to help as much as possible.

That's the way to do it!!!

That should always be said with a swazzle in your mouth, this week we celebrate 350 years of Punch and Judy.

Well, the application is almost ready to submit and we will then see just what happens. I am in the fortunate position of being on holiday when the results are to be processed so I should return to a done deal no matter what the result is for me. Hazel is in the same situation but her result is not as sure as mine, at least I should get something out of this. My colleague David has had his voluntary redundancy accepted so he will be off and away sooner or later. The intriguing thing is that the university seems to suddenly be worried about the numbers wanting to leave and is demanding that they stay on after the end of July. This is despite the claim that anyone who didn't submit a form or apply for VR would be considered to have given notice to quit at that time. The expression, "Cake and eat it" springs to mind. On a lighter note, the extended weekend was good for us. Saturday was spent discussing the applications, Sunday was spent with the family and, especially, looking after Corey whilst Lulu and Ian had an evening off for a change and Monday was our veg out day when I set up and used the system to copy from the Sky HD recorder to the DVD recorder.

Hi ho, hi ho, to make your troubles go................

Filling in application forms for your own job is about as low as you can get, I suspect. I have spent the best part of two days, spread over the week, writing and refining my application form. The process will have been worth it only if I end up with a job at the end of it. The number of lemmings who have opted for voluntary redundancy is now rumoured to be approaching thirty. Whilst this is fine from the point of view that there will be less people going for the available jobs, it also means that a lot of very talented and useful folk will be leaving the university for pastures new. As this will lower the level of talent here for some time, it's not so great. In a way, filling up the form has proved something of an insight for me into my own achievements over the past thirty years or so. I can now look back and see how much I have learnt and how much I have done with a somewhat dispassionate eye. Things which seemed very ordinary at the time now appear to have been extraordinary with hindsight. Running all those tiny radio stations in the 90's was hard work and a lot of fun but now I can look back and see just how much Bob and I acheived in those days when we didn't have the technology to do what is now very commonplace. Some of the things I have done here at the university on the Ratio Project seemed pretty simple at the time but, in retrospect, I did a very good job and sustained a very high level of quality over a long period of time. In fact, I only stopped when I was carted off to hospital with my heart trouble. Even that has a positive spin in some ways. It pushed me into retiring from broadcasting and coming to the university full time for a start. Working here has given me so many skills that are more applicable in the real world and, just as an afterthought, paid me more money than radio ever did.

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.