Changeable
Posted: Sat 11 March, 2017 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Business, Domestic, Films, Getting Old(er), Getting Organised, Seeing Films, Sociable, Stupidity, Theatre, Travel, Work-related | 1 Comment »The last couple of weeks – and the coming one – have been… chaotic, to say the least. I’m used to this in general, but it’s felt like it’s been even more frenetic than usual this month, and there’ve been a lot of contributory factors that have all conspired to make it so.
Work-wise, I’ve been ending up on-site at least twice a week, rather than the usual one day a week, and that’s just disturbed things a bit. Usually I can take my work laptop on-site on a Monday, and then leave it in my own office for the rest of the week, rather than constantly lugging it around. This month though it’s been on-site, in-office, on-site, in-office etc. etc.
Around the work stuff, there’s been a lot of other bits going on, with stuff in London on some evenings, as well as other social stuff and going to the cinema. And it all adds up.
For example, this week has involved…
- Monday – on site
- Tuesday – working from home, then going to London to Mere in the evening.
- Wednesday – in office
- Thursday – on site, then seeing Kong: Skull Island in the evening
- Friday – in office
- And then just my usual idiocy in the coming weekend, another trip to London to see friends, and a social-and-food even locally on Sunday
Next week is no different really, including two London trips to the theatre, as well as all the usual work. I’m vaguely hopeful that I won’t be on-site more than once, but I’ll only find that out during the week.
Once next week is done, I’m hoping that things will be a bit quieter again. That’s certainly the plan – if nothing else, I need some downtime – but we’ll see how it goes. In fairness, I can handle the multiple days on-site or I can handle the other stuff – it’s just when it’s both things at once that it gets somewhat harder to deal with.
Beginnings
Posted: Wed 4 January, 2017 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2016/17, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Health, Own Business, Resolutions, Single Life, Thoughts, Weight Loss, Work-related | Leave a comment »The first week of the year’s started well so far, with a fair amount of preparation being done for the rest of the year.
Among other things, I’ve signed myself up for a couple of training programmes for more technical stuff, as well as laying out some plans and concepts for the main development things I want to work on this year. I’m currently hoping to have got at least one of them launched by the end of January, so I can see how it develops.
Along the way, I’ve figured out a couple of starting points for writing as well, which may or may not work out.
So it’s all a bit promising for now. We’ll see how it works out.
And not to be ignored, I’ve also started work on losing some of the weight I put on over December. It’s safe to say, I’m not overly happy with how much got put on (although I’m not back to where I started this time in 2016, so it could be worse) in the space of a month, but as we’re now back to a point where I can (and will) eat more sensibly again, it should all work out OK in the end.
Onwards and upwards, and all that piss.
2016/17 – What’s Next? The Coming Year
Posted: Sat 5 November, 2016 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2016/17, Bankruptcy, Change, Do More, Domestic, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Health, Own Business, Rebuilding, Thoughts, Travel, Weigh Less, Work-related, Write More, Writing | Leave a comment »As usual, following on from my posts about what’s happened over the last year, it’s time to think about – and write about – what I want to do over the coming year.
Similar to last year, I’m going to keep it fairly simple and open, rather than being too detailed. I’ve got better details in my head, but they’re not going to be written down.
The basic goals are going to be :
- Continue rebuilding the finances, and keep boosting the savings
- Exercise, improve health, lose weight
- Complete September’s walking marathon – ideally in under seven hours. (My target is more ambitious than that, but I’ll be happy with 7 hours)
- Write more. (And ideally complete/publish some)
- Do more of the ideas around my own business
- Get out less. Ideally, some kind of middle-ground between being ultra-quiet/sensible, and the idiocy of the last year
- Look more at some political ideas, and see how that goes. (This one’s the random ‘maybe’ one, I don’ tknow if anything will happen with it or not)
I could go into more detail – although that’s handled more in my notebook of to-do lists and ideas – but for now this’ll cover things.
On first viewings, it should be an interesting year.
A busy week
Posted: Thu 8 September, 2016 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2015/16, D4D™, Do More, Domestic, Driving, Films, Food, London, Media, Own Business, Single Life, Sociable, Solo Dining, Thoughts, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »Suddenly, it’s a week since I last updated anything here – and there’s a good reason (or ten) for that.
Mainly, the good reason is that I’ve been sodding busy.
Since last I wrote here, there’s been (in no particular order)
- Driving to Marlow for a late lunch at the Hand and Flowers
- Driving to London (Saturday at ungodly o’clock)
- Visiting Meatopia – on the Saturday, along with several friends
- Seeing The The’s “Infected” film at the ICA in London on the Saturday evening
- Staying overnight in London
- Visiting Meatopia on the Sunday, just me, but ended up meeting several other people, as well as starting some business discussions (Win!)
- Driving home from London, having walked 20 miles over the two days
- A vaguely normal Monday, with added shopping and faffery
- A normal Tuesday working, then meeting friends and going to the cinema to see Hell or High Water – heartily recommended
- A semi-standard Wednesday, and then cinema to see Morgan – also recommended, for different reasons, and thoughts on both films will follow
- And tonight, being at the Milton Keynes Geek Night, just to top things off.
So yes, not much going on at all.
It’s been pretty positive all round, but it has left me feeling like a stunned monkey. So there’ll be more writing as and when I get round to it. I’m back in London this weekend, but look like having one day that’s (currently) quiet, so that’s at least vaguely promising…
Resilient – or Not
Posted: Wed 27 July, 2016 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Customer Services, Cynicism, Laziness, Own Business, People, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »Over recent weeks, I’ve been having dealings with a number of companies I don’t usually deal with. There’s probably more on those to come, once the issues are sorted, but what’s struck me initially is just how ill-prepared they are for anything going wrong.
I’m not talking (necessarily) at the whole ‘disaster recovery’ level, where the business will die if it doesn’t have backups and a spare data-suite etc. hanging around on the off-chance. This is more at the customer level, but (to my mind) no less important for all that.
In three different cases over the last couple of months, I’ve been promised call-backs from various people, all of which haven’t happened. The excuses differ, but basically come down to “the person who organised that was away and no-one else knew anything about it“. Now, I get it, stuff happens: people go on leave, get ill, or change jobs. (And sometimes all three) But that lack of handover, lack of communication, lack of back-up procedures and so on, is a worry.
What would have happened if – for example – I were a customer, wanting a quote or whatever, and expecting a response that doesn’t happen? Or when complaints are waiting to be handled, because the only person who knows about it has chuffed off somewhere?
For my own business and work, I make sure my end client always has access to a copy of the stuff I’m writing and doing. They get to see what’s changed, and can see that work’s being done, even if not necessarily the details and the ins-and-outs of the code. But they have access – so that if I get hit by a bus tomorrow, or go off with some kind of long-term illness (or any of the other options) then they can carry on. I don’t kill their businesses by being unwell, or dying.
In this age of technology, it’s not even that difficult. Calendars and emails can be shared, and accessed by colleagues (assuming the procedures are in place) when the owners are away. Out-of-office notifications can be set at the server level by IT if they’re made aware someone’s long-term ill etc., and emails can be auto-forwarded to someone else if the original person leaves.
It’s not at all difficult – but it still seems to be too much effort for any number of companies and organisations to set up. Lowest common denominators, and all that.
Planning Stuff
Posted: Sat 9 July, 2016 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2015/16, 2016/17, D4D™, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Single Life, Sociable, Thoughts, Travel, Work-related, Writing | Leave a comment »As well as slowing down a bit for the second half of 2016, I’m also starting to plan stuff where possible for the first half of 2017. For me, that’s scarily organised.
Part of it is looking at stuff I want to do – and places I want to go – and starting to put things in place for those to happen. I’ve got a couple of breaks booked for the second half of 2016, a week in Cornwall at the end of September, and a weekend in Dorset at the end of October (in which I’m hoping to break the back of some writing ideas – that’s the current plan, anyway) but I’m also looking at what I want to do in 2017, and starting to book it up where/when I can.
So far, that’s looking like a long weekend down around Bath and Bristol (an area I like, don’t know enough about, and want to know more) and potentially a week each in Lake District and somewhere in the North-East. I may do something abroad as well, but we’ll see.
I’m also looking at things I don’t want to carry on – in particular the restaurant project I’ve been doing this year, with at least one Michelin-starred place per month for the year, part of my whole thing about eating alone. I’m still really enjoying it for this year, and I’ve no intention of giving it up completely – but it might go down to a quarterly thing, rather than monthly.
There’s a bundle of other stuff getting prepared for next year – but not stuff I’m going to write about just yet. Most of this is just in the contemplating and planning stages, rather than actually happening, but I’m going to spend time this year sorting out next.
Which, for me, is disgustingly organised…
Slowing Down
Posted: Thu 7 July, 2016 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2015/16, D4D™, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Single Life, Thoughts, Travel, Work-related, Writing | Leave a comment »The first half of this year has been particularly barmy, and has felt close to non-stop. It’s safe to say, there’s been a lot of life going on! I haven’t written here about a lot of it, because while it’s been fun, it hasn’t been massively newsworthy – but I think even here it’s been fairly clear that I’ve been doing a lot.
All told, there was only one event/thing that I wanted to do that I didn’t get to do – and that was more from an overdose of sanity and reality than any form of timing clash – and that was that climb up the Gherkin.
However, as a result of it all, I’m pretty wiped out – so the plan for the second half of the year is for me to slow down a bit.
I’ve still got loads planned, but I do intend to also have some more peaceable weekends, ones where I’m not all over the country and generally running round like a pillock. I know that September is insanely busy, so I’m definitely going to pad out the weeks either side of it.
There’s a lot of other stuff I want to do as well, which is part of why I’m trying to settle a bit and not be covering the country quite as much as I have been.
That’s the plan, anyway. Whether it’ll happen like that, only time will tell.