The Gorse Fox

Mmm... senior moment

noreply@blogger.com (The Gorse Fox) — Thu, 23 May 2013 09:57:54 PDT

Having got the early train with the expectation of working much of the afternoon and early evening from home, the Gorse Fox was pleased to be pulling into Barnham Station on time. Having chatted with the guard on the run in, he wished him a cheery farewell and headed down the the tunnel. As he emerged he went to grab his car keys and that's when it dawned on him that they were tucked in his pocket. The pocket was in his waterproof jacket, and the waterproof jacket was just pulling out of the station en route to Chichester.

GF hurried back and spoke to the station supervisor. He rolled his eyes in a way that needed no additional comment, and then phoned Gary at Chichester. Gary retrieved the jacket and waited on the platform for the Gorse Fox to arrive on the next train.

The extra twenty-five minute round trip had not been part of the plan. But at least he had his car keys and managed to get home.

Doh!

Hybrid day

noreply@blogger.com (The Gorse Fox) — Thu, 23 May 2013 05:36:25 PDT

It was a hybrid day. The first part was spent in town, but changes in the afternoon schedule meant the Gorse Fox could head home and finish working and take calls from Sussex. It also meant that he could work later into the evening without worrying about travel times.

The Gorse Fox had an email complaining that he hadn't attended a call yesterday evening. Fortunately, one of his colleagues had responded on his behalf with great tact. The Gorse Fox was not in such a conciliatory mood and would have sent a stroppy note in return, having little sympathy given that his people had missed every one of the calls the Gorse Fox had set up over the past few weeks.

Earlier bird, still no worm

noreply@blogger.com (The Gorse Fox) — Wed, 22 May 2013 10:28:35 PDT

The Gorse Fox left home earlier. The plan was to get an earlier train so that he could attend a conference call in peace at 0900. The train left on time, arrived on time, but the Gorse Fox had forgotten how long it takes to walk from London Bridge to Starfleet's offices. In the end, he only arrived in the office a few minute earlier than usual.

The bulk of the day was of little note, but mid afternoon the Gorse Fox had to head up to Islington to meet with the client. This turned out to be a very good meeting - and though it over-ran, we managed to achieve a great deal.

The overrunning of the meeting meant that the Gorse Fox missed his usual train home, but only by a few minutes. Next one was scheduled for 30 minutes later, so the impact wasn't too great.

More of the same.

noreply@blogger.com (The Gorse Fox) — Tue, 21 May 2013 10:01:51 PDT

The Gorse Fox started a bit earlier today - he wanted to renew his season ticket, but was stymied by staff sickness and the consequential closed ticket office. Developing a quick Plan B he used the electronic ticketing machines to provide cover for the day and will try again this evening (or tomorrow morning).

The day has been spent either writing documents or turning up for teleconferences only to find that key participants couldn't be bothered to turn up. Now, the odd absence is forgivable but when those people are sitting ten deep in a meeting that only requires a couple of them, then it is unprofessional (and typical of the behaviour of this particular group).

Lots of writing and drawing of diagrams has kept the Gorse Fox busy as the picture he was trying to convey began to clarify in his mind. This was important as it dictates how he will tell the story that explains the overall strategy for the programme.

Back in Town

noreply@blogger.com (The Gorse Fox) — Mon, 20 May 2013 10:19:55 PDT

The Gorse Fox was on the normal train and heading for London. It was the start of another week, this one full of some surprises.

It seems that several of the Gorse Fox's senior colleagues are jumping ship. They have reached the age where they can take early retirement and have leapt at the opportunity. One going would not have been a surprise, but 3 of them is certainly unexpected. Makes you think!

Rest of the day was spent writing or reviewing documents. Not frantically interesting, but food for thought as the Gorse Fox continues to work on some of the high level designs for the current project.

Again

noreply@blogger.com (The Gorse Fox) — Sun, 19 May 2013 10:56:01 PDT

Again it seems that the combination of sun and showers over the past couple of weeks seems to have encouraged the grass to grow. This is not good enough - once cut it should stay neat and tidy until next year. It didn't, and so the Gorse Fox found himself wandering back and forth with a mower for a while this afternoon.

Practice

noreply@blogger.com (The Gorse Fox) — Sun, 19 May 2013 04:09:29 PDT

The experience of building the wardrobe last weekend has obviously paid off. A second wardrobe, of a slightly different design has just been constructed from the flat-pack in under two hours.

Feeling smug.

Clearer

noreply@blogger.com (The Gorse Fox) — Sun, 19 May 2013 01:18:51 PDT

By the end of the day things are clearer.

It started with a quick trip to Chi (as we locals call it) to pick up the new spectacles. The coating on the old pair had broken down and they turned all blotchy in sunlight. The new pair, almost identical to look at, have a new coating and should giver several years of clarity, and respite from bright sunlight. Then on to the Bank, where the deposit for the villa in Thailand was executed, and finally on to the DIY store for some loft boards to provide a basis for some storage in the garage roof space.

We had a viewing at lunch time. Yes, we may have only just moved, but we still have to find a permanent home. This property was back in Angmering. It was superb, but somehow, despite the show-house quality, it didn't quite tick the emotional box that said "This is the one".

Back home, Urban-cub and Pistol Pete arrived to help. The loft boards were fixed and soon there were boxes processing down from the upstairs spare-room and finding their way up in the loft-void in the garage. Some, of course, were to precious or delicate for garage storage, and so Pistol Pete climbed up into the loft and laid the boards that were already in there so that we could pass more boxes and bags up for storage.

By the end the spare room had be cleared and the Gorse Fox could see clearly. Result!

Spoonful

noreply@blogger.com (The Gorse Fox) — Sun, 19 May 2013 05:22:39 PDT

Friday has had the usual distractions of work to fill the first part of the day. The document started yesterday and delayed by GF's writer's block started to take on shape today. Despite severall calls, it turned out to be a good day.

Mid-afternoon GF and the Silver Vixen got in the car and headed for London. It was a potentially awkward time to travel as we had to think about when we would eat, whether we would arrive at the target car park in time to get a space, and whether Friday night traffic into town would be a problem. As it happens we need not have worried about the journey up to town (though the return was another story).

Stopping at Fulham (parking next to the Chelsea Football ground) we went looking for a TGI Fridays that GF had eaten at several years ago. Clearly, GF did not frequent it enough as it has now moved. We stopped at Wagamama's instead and both enjoyed a really good spoonful of rice or noodle dishes.

With an eye to the time we moved on, arriving at the Imperial College car park a few minutes after it opened and in good time to find a parking spot. We then headed to the Royal Albert Hall for the evening's entertainment. After a brief stop at the bar, we made our way in to the main seating area to find that we had superb seats, at the end of a row and with a walkway in front of us - this gave plenty of leg room and ensured we didn't have to keep moving as people came and went.

The support band came on stage and started their brief set. Gary Clark Jr. seemed to have learned his technique listening to the great guitar players of the 60s and 70s and there were echoes of Jimi Hendrix and Pete Green in his style. The Gorse Fox concluded that it was an excellent way to start to the concert and it boded well for the evening.

The intermission provided a few minutes to stretch the legs and grab an ice cream. The GF, however, added to the drama by dropping his wallet - without realising. He then went back to eat the ice cream and wandered off to take photos before a kind couple sitting near by caught his attention and returned the missing item! (You get a nicer class of person at an Eric Clapton concert),

This, of course, brought us on to the main event. At eight-thirty Eric Clapton and his band came on stage and started a two and a quarter hour masterpiece of entertainment. The set had something for everyone - new, old, acoustic, electric, blues, and rock. There tracks from his solo career, from his time with Delaney & Bonny, from his time with John Mayall, and of course from Cream.

The set list included favourites such as: Wonderful Tonight, Crossroads, Sunshine of Your Love, Layla, My Father's Eyes, Black Cat Bone, Cocaine, High Time We Went... and many more. It was a fantastic evening - and one that will be remembered for a long time.

Buzzing with the excitement of the gig we returned to the car. Unfortunately the journey home was significantly prolonged by the closure of the A3 and insufficient prior warning to choose a good alternative - this meant following all the diversions and cutting across country. Never mind, it had been a great evening.

The Bomb Squad

noreply@blogger.com (The Gorse Fox) — Thu, 16 May 2013 11:47:46 PDT

On this anniversary of the Damnbusters Raid, the Gorse Fox thought he should mention a problem that that has been vexing the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox.

It seems that the washing line is sited in such a way as to attract "gifts" from passing birds. Slowly but surely they are depositing the fresh contents of their intestinal tracts on all of the Gorse Fox's clean shirts and have now started to pick on garments belonging to the Silver Vixen.

What we need is a Hawk!

Quieter

noreply@blogger.com (The Gorse Fox) — Thu, 16 May 2013 11:42:40 PDT

It was a quieter day today.

It started, a few minute after the Gorse Fox sat down at the computer, with a knock at the door. A man stood there with a parcel - but the Gorse Fox couldn't remember where he had left his keys last night. So after a few minutes charging round like a headless chicken he finally managed to get the door open and relieve the driver of his delivery. The new ADSL microfilters seem to have been successful as the broadband speed has climbed from 5Mbps to 7Mbps since fitting them.

The Gorse Fox continued working from home and was able to get some real work done between phone calls. Most satisfying.

Workshop

noreply@blogger.com (The Gorse Fox) — Wed, 15 May 2013 10:09:52 PDT

There is a word that can strike fear into the hearts of the design professional, it is "workshop". Worse a workshop at which project planners and managers would be participating. So it was that the Gorse Fox started the day at the Royal Scots Club in a room crammed to the gunwhales with "interested parties". A meeting set up to agree some technical strategies and challenges had been hijacked.

To be fair, much of the day was devoted to the right problems and issues and the Gorse Fox had the chance air the major concern, i.e. its all very fine talking about the various silos of activity, but how do all these activities and the associated components come together and how does data flow between them. It was very clear that there were nearly as many misconceptions and misunderstandings as there were people in the room. The Gorse Fox was being urged to bring the conversations and debates to an end, but he was keen to allow them to finish so that we got all of the issues out on the table and achieved some form of consensus.

By the end of the day the Gorse Fox was quite satisfied with the outcomes, and whilst he had picked up some more actions - they were not unexpected.

He is now sitting in the airport waiting for his flight back to Sussex. Looks like he should be able to work from home for the rest of the week.

On the move, on the network

noreply@blogger.com (The Gorse Fox) — Tue, 14 May 2013 13:38:03 PDT

The Gorse Fox worked at home as planned. The first telecon was at 0800 followed by another at 0900 and so it continued. `there was a break late morning when the Gorse Fox was able to catch up on expenses stretching back to early April.

The Gorse Fox had to prepare some material for tomorrow's workshop and that seemed to stir some debate.

Headed off the Gatwick. From the new house it takes a full hour to get there, but the Gorse Fox did have to adjust his planned route as a result of a road closed off by the police. Gatwick was busy compared to recent trips, but sufficient time had been allowed - even if the plane hadn't been forty minutes late.

Heavy day

noreply@blogger.com (The Gorse Fox) — Mon, 13 May 2013 10:10:41 PDT

The Gorse Fox had a hard day. His bad foot/ankle started to give trouble again during the train ride and he was a pathetic sight as he changed trains as Clapham and as he made his way from Waterloo to the Starfleet office. A couple of ibuprofen seemed to take the edge off it and by lunchtime the problem had resolved itself (again).

Long telecon during the morning triggered another long telecon during the afternoon and that, in its own right, has triggered a trip to Edinburgh tomorrow evening in preparation for a meeting on Wednesday. refuse to waste 4-5 hours on the train as well as travel to Edi tomorrow, so will work from home.

Done

noreply@blogger.com (The Gorse Fox) — Sun, 12 May 2013 11:15:37 PDT

The Gorse Fox has finished the wardrobes. It did mean a little re-engineering was required, but after a little drilling here, and screwing there, the wardrobes and their drawers were completed and the Silver Vixen then started to strip layer after layer of clothes off the bed and hang them (or re-allocate them) to make the best use of space.

Next weekend another wardrobe will succumb to the ministrations of the Gorse Fox and be filled by the Silver Vixen.

Meanwhile time has been spent chatting with Cousteau-cub online and selecting accommodation for the Thailand trip. Finally we selected the villa and separately the Gorse Fox booked the hire car. We are spending a lot of money, but it is our 40th wedding anniversary, almost incorporated Urban-cub's birthday, and should incorporate a repeat blessing of Cousteau-cub and the Coventry Hobbit's wedding vows.

We need a Plan B... or is it E by now?

noreply@blogger.com (The Gorse Fox) — Sat, 11 May 2013 09:50:24 PDT

The phone rang.

It was Helen from the builders of our intended property. She was phoning to tell us that the house we had been waiting for, is no longer going to be built. She had pointed out that there were only 2 of that type scheduled and she had effectively already sold one of them. That held no sway. Head office has decided they don't want our money.

After a year of planning for that house, we now need to consider some other plan.

Pooh!

Two and a half hours

noreply@blogger.com (The Gorse Fox) — Sat, 11 May 2013 09:46:23 PDT

...my foot!

Flat packed wardrobes arrived on Thursday. The Gorse Fox planned to construct them today. As he opened the boxes and checked the contents he was pleased to see that the instructions indicated that it should only take two and half hours to construct. Indeed, as the Gorse Fox is pretty adept with a screwdriver and hammer, he expected to be even quicker.

It is now six hours since he started and there are still four drawers to construct. He has decided, for the sake of his sanity to leave these until the morning.

Two and half hours... and the rest!

Fin de semaine (or whatever)

noreply@blogger.com (The Gorse Fox) — Fri, 10 May 2013 08:45:43 PDT

Well the Gorse Fox is not keen on spending Friday in town, but when the client calls he has to respond. The morning's meeting was very interesting but cut short. Whilst we were discussing his design organisation, and the way his governance works across the lifecycle we were interrupted by a scheduled status call. The call was long, rambling, and immensely frustrating. By the time it was over the Gorse Fox had picked up more actions and lost his joie de vivre.

Back in Starfleet there was another teleconference which got rather fraught and emotional and involved a lot of shouting from the other end of the phone. The Gorse Fox tends not to rise to such displays.

Several calls scheduled for the next hour or two - but it will pass the time on the train.

Fluctuating

noreply@blogger.com (The Gorse Fox) — Thu, 09 May 2013 12:17:48 PDT

Speed of the ADSL link is swinging wildly from about 750Kbps up to 5.9Mbps and back again. Hopefully it will stabilise at the upper end before long.

Surprise

noreply@blogger.com (The Gorse Fox) — Thu, 09 May 2013 07:58:33 PDT

The Gorse Fox heard from BT. Apparently they will not need to visit us in order to activate our line as their records show that there already a line to the house. They only need to activate in the exchange. The Gorse Fox decided to plug in the phones and broadband router in expectation for next week.

Checking that his connection was visible from one room to the main computer GF realised he had an internet connection. Not sure if it will last - but for now he has slow broadband. He won't make a fuss over the speed of the connection until after Tuesday - just in case he is plugged into some old circuit at present. He wonders how long that circuit has been active?

The phone line itself isn't active yet, which is a little confusing.

Help

noreply@blogger.com (The Gorse Fox) — Wed, 08 May 2013 10:06:27 PDT

Well evidently it has come to the notice of the powers-that-be, that the Gorse Fox is completely snowed under. He has been given another colleague to help and it should work out to be a good match. He is very process-driven and orientated towards project management - whereas the Gorse Fox has little interest in those areas. Should work out ok as long as we manage the demarcation between us.

The "engineering diagrams" for a project this size can be troublesome to produce - particularly when everyone wants their say and nobody wants to give you the time to actually have that say. Several half-starts have ended up with rather unsatisfactory outcomes, but some initial work from one of the team provided just the catalyst for the Gorse Fox to wade in and make some significant progress this afternoon.

Most of the Gorse Fox's colleagues are at n event tomorrow - he decided he was far to busy to attend and will either work at home or from Starfleet's Portsmouth office tomorrow.

The Gorse Fox has just realised he hasn't had anything to drink since mid-morning. This may require the intervention of a beer on return to Fontwell.

Back at the keyface

noreply@blogger.com (The Gorse Fox) — Tue, 07 May 2013 09:59:35 PDT

Well, it's not as catchy as coal-face, but for the Gorse Fox it makes a bit more sense. Catching what is now becoming his normal train, the Gorse Fox headed up to the Starfleet offices by the Thames. For some reason the journey seemed a little slower today, but he was still in the office about 2 hours after leaving home.

The day was spent splitting time between writing a short presentation on systems integrators, working out what to delegate, reviewing plans, and setting up meetings for later in the week. Not exactly riveting, but a fruitful day nevertheless. Thursday is looking promising as many of the Gorse Fox's colleagues are at an all day meeting. This should give him a quiet day to make some more progress.

Late in the afternoon the Gorse Fox managed to catch up with one of his team for a coffee and a chat. He's been so busy he has been neglecting his team recently and really must get back to his regular calls.

Bank Holiday

noreply@blogger.com (The Gorse Fox) — Mon, 06 May 2013 12:43:36 PDT

It was a quiet day but that is what Bank Holidays are all about.

Spectacular

noreply@blogger.com (The Gorse Fox) — Mon, 06 May 2013 06:40:00 PDT

The Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen headed for Chichester. The GF needs new glasses so had his eyes tested and selected some new frames. Given that the frames are rimless he struggles to reconcile the final product with the £600 bill.

Booked

noreply@blogger.com (The Gorse Fox) — Sun, 05 May 2013 13:13:05 PDT

Flights booked for holiday in Thailand. It'll be a good summer!