Sunday 15th December 2024

Christmas wrapping.

So, another quiet day with not much planned.

Up at half seven, get up and have coffee, before having breakfast and more coffee.

We have just about bought all the presents, and Jools is the chief wrapper, so I stay out of the way so not to distract.

Once they were done, we went to see Jen, but she was out, and nothing much else we needed to do, so we came back for early lunch of bacon butties and more brews.

The day can be divided by before the knock and after the knock.

There was a fest of football on TV, so I watch the first half of the M23 Derby between Brighton and Palace, which Palace were leading 2-0 at half time.

Norwich were on TV as well, kicking off at three, and so just after kick off is when the knock came.

It was Steve, next door, did I want to go round to watch the game?

I did, and I'll bring a bottle of beer. A big bottle of beer, the magnum of Chimay Grande Reserve.

It was a bugger to pour, but Steve got it open and poured. We went to watch the paused game, and City score almost straight away.

Yay.

But, didn't build on that, and in the second half Burnley level and in the last ten minutes score a winner.

By this time we had drained the Chimay, and Steve opened the magnum of Bush Christmas beer I bought them, and through the Manc derby we drained that too.

By which point, not much made sense, but we did watch amazed as Uts level on 88 minutes, then score a fine winner to inflict another defeat of Citeh.

A bottle of Delirium Christmas each, and i wander back home for supper of pork pie, then head to bed at half seven.

I sleep well.

Saturday 14th December 2024

Another weekend where we planned to go to Hastings, and then changed our minds.

Not that the weather was bad, just didn't seem like a good idea at this time of year, just didn't feel like going.

Instead we would do chores.

Of course, we went to Tesco, got lots of stuff, though nothing really outrageous other than a cheap bottle of rum and a box of wine. But still came to £252!

We came back home, unpacked and had breakfast.

The morning was filled with cooking. Batch cooking.

First up was a huge pot of ragu, for which I remembered to get ingredients for.

So, peeled onions, chopped carrots and celery, then fried them in some olive oil before adding the meat, passata, puree and water, then let simmer for four hours, so it's all a delicious sludge.

Sludge isn't be best word, clearly.

Whilst that was cooking, I then did a pan of jambalaya, which is quicker and easier.

It all smelt so good that we decided to have jambalaya for lunch, with some wine.

Even if I nearly forgot to add the shrimp, it came out glorious, and was a fine meal, if meant I slept through a lot of the football, at least the first half in which Liverpool went 1-0 down and had a player sent off.

The sun actually came out, so I went into the garden to snap some lichen, though the shots in shade came out best.

Go figure.

Liverpool came from behind twice to draw with Fulham 2-2, then there was more football with Forest beating Villa.

Not much for a Saturday, but sometimes you just need to chill.

Friday 13th December 2024

And to Friday.

Half of the company was taking either a long weekend, or their Christmas vacation had already begun.

I had a few things to do, three meetings this morning. One the presentation of last week's audit findings, and then two follow up meetings.

Audits are all well and good, but any findings need addressing, and there is the bandwidth of usual work would be taken up with any such actions, and so any chance of getting out of doing them is a plea worth making.

I get up at quarter to six. Jools has yoga, so is dressed and drinking her tea. And she has made my coffee, which I drink while checking on the world.

In a word: we're screwed.

Once she leaves for the Oddfellows Club, which is where the classes are now, so I can then deal with the bins and other assorted bird-related tasks.

Its going to be another dull and cloudy day. Its been six days since we last saw the sun or blue sky, and it all seems so dreary.

I prepare for the first meeting: the presentation, which goes as expected, but we hold firm, so now they have time to come up with evidence to contradict any of the findings.

The next two are not so bad, as its mostly coaching on what we want them auditees to do. And I guess that by the end of the decade we might just get there.

We shall see.

I have databases to update, two formal letters to send out. And I am done.

I go for a shower and shave, and once all clean and shorn, the world and life seems better.

I have fried cottage pie for lunch.

Yes, fried.

Potato and ground beef go crispy. And takes a few minutes.

I clear away the computer, wash the dishes and am done. So spend the afternoon writing and watching stuff on YouTube.

I gamble early in the music quiz, and fail big time. Not End of the Century but was Combat Rock.

Sigh.

After supper we have coffee and panettone. And then there is football, while temperature falls outside.

There is a promise we might see the sun on Saturday. We shall see.

Friday was the earliest the sun sets this winter. Days will get shorter until the 21st, but sunset will come later each day.

We'll take any small victory at this time of the year.

I sip rum whilst watching the footy.

Lost in translation.

The end is nigh

If you missed it, on Monday I gave notice to my employer that I would be retiring at the end of Q1 next year.

We have been thinking about it for some time, of course, and the meeting with the advisor last week just cemented it.

There are many reasons for retiring, apart from the fact we can. But to sum it up, I amworn out, this has been a tough year, one that started well, ended well, but included a mini-breakdown in August, and my soon to be ex-boss of accusing me of insubordination.

As I said in a meeting, if I wanted to be insubordinate, there would be no doubt, rather to make some shit up that she did.

That manager was so well experienced, and should have been a great fit and come with new ideas. She did come with new ideas, but all of them hers and shit. We are unpicking her mistakes on a daily basis.

When I requested to move departments, HR focussed on my mental health instead. That was the meeting with the accusation of insubordination and "doxens of other examples".

In fact I use some of her improvement suggestions now, and they really do work, but that were a few tweaks here and there. She tried to fix something that wasn't broken, and when we said otherwise, we were either ignored or browbeaten.

And, all of us tried to point out where she was going wrong, and that no manager above her would even care if she was doinf 16 hour days and working all over weekend.

But she kept going.

Maybe it was the lack of sleep and being weary from work and family life, or a life spent battling to get where she did.

She is gone. We have a new manager who has so much other stuff to do, I have not spoken to him since mylast day in Aarhus two weeks back. But the fight has worn me out, and I don't want to fight any more.

There are other reasons at work, which I can't go into, but the knowledge is like huge weights I carry around. Its a huge responsibility, and for responsibility the company can't actually express in ways that would increase our pay or corporate level.

We do our job, and the machine goes on.

I called it a meat grinder, because it takes fresh meat in and crushes us, us people, and leave us broken. I spoke to two friends this week, onw of whom is medicating with wine, who are on the edge.



We are just collateral damage.

I feel we have won the game. Worked hard, served my country, saved, bought a house, paid it off, and now we get to do as we please. It sounds like winning to me.

No one has tried to talk me out of it, so far. And to do so, pay would have to pretty much double, and with other demands, that they could never meet, it aint gonna happen.

So, one more day before Christmas, then about sixy or so in the new year, and then, the rest of our lives.

Thursday 12th December 2024

Its not beginning to feel anything like Christmas.

And yet, it comes.

So, we make the best of it.

A lot is done, though we're not trimming again this year. I asked Jools, and she wasn't keen. Neither am I, so we will put up cards as we get them, and in fact, it was on the 12th that we received our first cards.

I guess I only just sent ours, so it goes.

Jools took the day off to use the hours she had accumulated after working after a serious incident at work, but would make sure we was out of the house most of the day, going shopping, swimming and then an extra bit of splashing (aquacsise).

I carried on working, finalising my audit report from last week, ready for the closing meeting on Friday.

Outside it was another dull and grey day, no sun seen, so after putting the bird food out, I make a brew and breakfast and get down to work.

We have a virtual coffee morning with our colleagues in India, there are just five of us now after resignations caused by our previous manager, so we catch up and talk of our plans for Christmas and the New Year.

There is some Christmas in Chennai, and one has Christian friends, but they like the decorating and fake snow.

Its rainy season, with temperatures a chilly twenty degrees C, so feels almost like Christmas.

Jools comes back at just before one with fresh rolls, into which she slices the leftover kofkes and makes a brew as I talk to a colleague and hear her recount the pressures and stress she is under.

I listen, but there is nothing I can do.

Just after three we go out. We were going to visit both Sandwich and Deal, so I could take some night shots, so I drove us along the Eastry by-pass in the gathering gloom, we have to wait at the level crossing, then park behind the Guildhall.

We walk round for half an hour as darkness ends the blue hour, I take a few shots, but not as good as I had hoped.

We go back to the car, then drive to Deal, but find it barely four, so we go to The Green Berry for a drink, where I knew they had Harvey's Old Ale on barrel.

Traffic not too heavy, so we got to park outside the pub in Walmer. The landlord, Chris, is another Norwich fan, so we swap views while he pours me a pint.

Old is so good, I have a second, and I confide in Jools that I really wasn't that hungry, so didn't feel I needed a curry. And neither did she.

So we drove back home. Jools did, and once home I defrosted two tubs of jambalaya, warm them and serve some twenty minutes after we got in.

Just right.

I listen to Rangers v Spurs while drinking black cherry flavoured rum.

Can confirm, was good.

Wednesday 11th December 2024

Days to do are getting few.

Is what we used to say in the military as our detachment or time in mob was getting close to being done.

We would create what was known as a chuff chart, a chart counting the days when your time was done.

I have done one for work.

There are three days left to do this year, and about twenty or so each of the first three months of the year.

Call it seventy for cash.

Getting few.

Tuesday night I wrote Christmas cards, and so on Wednesday afternoon I walked to the box on Collingwood to post them, though someone has bought the house on the corner, and the hedge that the box used to poke out is now gone, so the box is out in the open.

And then there's work.

There are tasks to be done before work ends for the year Monday evening, so I arrange some final meetings, and send out mails.

Outside its another dull and grey day, with 100% cloud cover, and the cloud being low and dark. There is little daylight, and so the table lamp stays on all day once again.

The cats sleep, I work, and the central heating fires up meaning the cats snuggle up tighter.

There are no words I can use to describe how dull and repetitive days become, so you'll have to take my work for whatever I did, it took me all day to do.

And some three in the afternoon I had done it, or as much as I was willing.

Dinner was Carbonara, so I made some garlic butter to put in the ciabatta I got the weekend, that would be bakes, and the butter melt and soak into the slices.

Once Jools was back, I boil the water for the pasta, mix the sauce with eggs and cheese, but the bread into bake once I had inserted slices of the butter in. Bring it all together.

And Mama Mia, it was wonderful. If a lot.

But even if I say so, I'm getting pretty good at this cooking lark.

There is football in the evening, more Champions League, where Citeh lose 2-0 in Turin to the Old Lady.

I laugh, and go to bed.

Tuesday 10th December 2024

It is Tuesday. I have a week to go before Christmas holidays begin, and I have enough work to keep me occupied, and then some. I sleep poorly, my brain waking me up at quarter past four, and only letting me back to sleep just before I was due to get up. I slept to ten past six, at which point Jools wakes me, and so begin the usual tasks before I can start work.

I have an audit report to write, and then other audits to follow up on, and then there is the usual monster that is travel expenses, which I might save for next Monday, the last day of the year.

The day is another dull, grey and cold day, no sunshine seen, and as we approach the shortest day of the year, the table lamp burned bright all day beside my computer screen.

I drink my coffee, check the world via the BBC website and see its as screwed as it ever has been.

We go on.

Not much to report really. No news from our new manager about any plans for this year or next, and nothing from HR either about my retirement.

We go on.

Lunch was taken late, due to meetings; oatcakes with butter and marmalade, which is always surprisingly filly and yet tasty.

We are yet to receive a Christmas card, and for the last two days the postman hasn't called. I think back to my parents and the 150 plus cards they used to get every year.

I finish work at three, have a shower and feel much better.

By four its really dark. The light just fades and then its evening and then night.

We are emptying the freezer, and we found a half pound chunk of roast beef, so I mince that up and make a cottage pie, making a jus from some frozen fruit and lamb stock. Topped with cheesy mashed potato and served with Boston baked beans.

All ready for when Jools gets home, and enough for lunch for one of us later in the week.

Hearty and tasty.

For the evening there is football: Norwich on the tellybox at Portsmouth, so I watch that whilst listening to the Champions League. City draw 0-0, which is, well, average to be honest.