The Hippest Man In Cabinet

Long story but I would prefer to spare you all the details. I ended up working until gone 11pm in the office on Wednesday night. By the time I got home and started to heat up my food in the microwave, I caught the close of BBC Newsnight. This fabulous mashup video, was used to as the credit role, rather than the standard Newsnight theme.

Sometimes reality is better than fiction. The Chief Whip making a name for himself by annoying the Prime Minister DC and in the process breaking the cardinal rule during cabinet meetings – no mobiles phones allowed. Now the question is, who is the biggest Beyoncé fan – Michael Gove or my dearest friend Harps Virk?

Return Of The Mack

Last year I was lost. Dealing with a number of issues rather than sharing with my nearest and dearest, I withdrew into myself. The cost of this was frayed relationships with some of my closest friends and as you can imagine a heavy price to pay! Towards the back end of last year, I slowly made a return to my social circle. Without wanting to put a number on the length of my absence, there is something unique about reconnecting with old friends. Even after a great deal of time apart, catching up four days before Christmas, it was like I had only seen them a few weeks previously. I suppose that is one of the reasons they are my friends.

Now having jumped from 2010 to 2015 in terms of mobile technology I have joined the youth on WhatsApp. While I flirted with the instant message application previously on my work mobile. (After my serious concerns with security had be appeased). However only after loading the app on my beloved HTC One M8 have I fully been unleashed. From sharing New Year greetings via recorded video with my brother-in-law and his girlfriend Katy, to planning a long weekend break in Bucharest with a group of ex Microsoft colleagues! This is just the start of the Teg renaissance – plenty more to come!

Glee returns for the final time (season six for those whom may have lost count) in four sleeps for us this side of the pond. Years ago, when my wife Michelle was still a big fan of the show I made the comment of when they would cover Take On Me, one of my favourite songs of all time! The second season of the show was airing when I went to see Ending On A High Note, the final a-ha concert outside their native Norway at Wembley Arena in late November 2010. Well they saved the best for last with the 1985 worldwide hit to appear as part of the two hour season premiere. I have watched the sneak preview about three times on our television in sheer anticipation. Bring it on people. Plus Suits returns on January 28th. Who said the first month is the most depressing part of the year!

Welcome to the Future

As a young kid watching Back To The Future Part II at the UCI Wycombe Six with my family back in late 1989, the concept of 2015, seemed so far in the distance. When we are younger, are understanding of time has not quite fully developed and years and decades are difficult to comprehend. (Mainly from the fact we have experienced very few). I believe it is not until we are 13 (or 16) when we start earning that we appreciate that a certain amount of time and effort equates to a lump of sum of money landing in your bank account.

Happy New Year to one and all! Welcome to 2015. The year that promised us so much! Who knows what the future holds, but I intend to buckle up and enjoy the ride. Plenty to get done in the next three sixty four days, most of which will be documented here, along side micro blogging on Twitter, photographs on FlickR, the odd arty image uploaded and filtered on Instagram, plus anything worthy liked over on Tumblr. (I rarely post any original content on the Tumblr platform as I am far too old to be doing such things! I tend to just repost things I like but any suggestions on good sites to follow please get in touch) I have also recently joined Pinterest but not really made use of the social network just yet. I will keep you posted.

Best Wishes for the year ahead, I plan to make much more use of the blog this year, particularly with so many events in the planning already. Including tour of Emirates Stadium, weekend in Bucharest, stag weekend in Hamburg to name just a few.

Annual Report

I should really publish my annual blog review report from JetPack each year, so you can see the most popular posts and comments on my blog. The overall summary is that after a poor six months, the second half of the year I kicked off and started to blog as often as I had when at the peak of my powers back in 2006/7.

Decembeard

Let me take you back just over three years, my first Christmas at Microsoft, I had booked off extended time over the holidays. My last day coincided with the Christmas night out in Reading, Thursday 15th December. It had just panned out that way with the Operations Team going out for a few drinks and exchanging Secret Santa gifts in Yates on Friar Street. It felt good to be working for a team that took these annual traditions seriously, even though I would have preferred the exchange to have taken place in the office. (Who wants to carry around a Christmas gift all night). In any case, it was a double celebration for me as I would not be back in the office until Monday 2nd January 2012. More than two weeks off, I was going to make the most of my time off, including New Year celebrations across the border in Edinburgh.

While trying not to give away too much information about my personal hygiene regime, I tend to shave Monday to Thursday mornings only. Allowing for a more casual rugged looked on Fridays, the dress down day in most modern offices. However, with the extended time off, I decided to stop shaving and for the first time in my life, grow a beard. The results were mixed to say the least. Some people loved it, others (including my dearest wife, not so much).

As if a long weekend break to the Scottish capital was not enough, a few days later I was off on a ski trip to Austria. I have to let you know the response received once I appeared to meet up with the extended group of friends at Gatwick Airport on the Saturday afternoon of our flight. (I had given a lift to Geoff and Foxy). Emily’s direct question to Geoff was, “Who is this tramp you have brought along with you?”. Now I can understand the reason for this negative feedback, their beard was hardly maintained to any satisfactory standard, either by myself or a barber. It had been a spontaneous decision, born out of the fact that I had no need to keep a professional appearance, I would not be at work for over two weeks. I wanted to see what it would be like to have a beard, particularly as my Dad has had a beard of various length over the years. (Quite the fashion statement in the 1970s with his signature long hair, not sure if he was modelling himself on Des O’Connor or somebody else).

The response when back in the office on 16th January was again mixed, with many of my colleagues unable to recognise me under the hairy forest. Some people said it suited me, others were not too sure, preferring the clean smooth Andrew they had grown used to for the past four months. The experiment did not last that long, after five working days in the office, the beard was removed on Sunday 22nd January and in the process, I took five years off my life. The only evidence of the beard was on my train photo pass (which I have kept as a momento) and the photographs taken by my friends on the ski trip in Mayrhofen.

On Thursday last week, as it was the day of our Christmas Lunch at CA, I decided to not shave again and after seven days growth, thought it be good to take before and after photographs and let the blog reading public decide. Should not be hard, as I have about three readers in total.

About two days ago, I had reached the itchy phase and was constantly scratching my face, which is not a great habit to get into, trust me. My ex-MS colleague, Harps had recommended a barbers down Wexham Road that he uses, which would be the best place to go to keep my beard trimmed and tidy. We shall see. I may decide to grow the hair again, later in the year. Although feedback has been mixed, some colleagues love it, other colleagues, friends and even my dearest wife, believe I look much better rocking the clean shaven look. Plus it does make me look younger. Having said that on Friday evening, I was requested ID by the door staff at Browns in Windsor. Now, I know I have baby face features but there is no way I look less than twenty-one, even with the stubble.

Protected: Unexpected Friendships

Mr. Happy

Patience Is A Virtue

In our modern fast pace lives, most people will confess to lacking one finite resource – time. I too, can get caught up in the rat race world of chasing the corporate dollar. However, I do believe that at times it is important to unplug, step back and ignore the shameless marketing that feeds constant and consistent consumerism. A case in point is my mobile phone, the embarrassment, which I refuse to even display on my desk in the office, as heavy as the burden has now become. It was not like this over four years ago on Friday 3rd October 2010 when I eagerly awaited the arrival of not just my first proper smartphone but my first mobile phone not made by Finnish manufacturer – Nokia.

Probably six months into the ownership cycle, I realized that without rooting the device, I was extremely limited on what I would be able to achieve. While at first this was rather disappointing, considering I had placed so much faith into not just a new phone but a new company, they did not live up to my expectations. However I was willing to wait, in an ideal world I would purchase a phone unlocked SIM free and use this on my Vodafone SIM Only Contract, as I would be out of contract by December 2012. I removed all apps from my phone and left it has a mere shell to use for emergency web use (checking football scores via web based BBC Portal) and of course, calls and texts. Without forgetting that it had become the defacto alarm clock. (Who in 2014 uses an alarm clock other than their mobile?). To be frank, I hardly do much of that in any case. People who know me, will testify that I text more than speak on the telephone. I am not a big user of my mobile phone, as usage reports using the Ofcom backed Bill Monitor portal prove, I probably would be better off with a pay as you go option. Most people would have just upgraded to the next available phone when their contract date was up but I decided to wait. I always knew the moment I purchased a phone, either offline or as part of an upgrade, I would be disappointed that I had not waited a little longer for the next model that would be announced literally days later. (As irony has it, the initial specs of the HTC M9 was leaked the following day)

It was probably when the four year old ProPorta shell started to break apart off my HTC Desire, was it time to finally consider an upgrade. That was my mission for the weekend, to get not just a good upgrade but an excellent deal on my next smartphone. I first checked online to see what deals were available, including purchasing the old HTC One M7 in blue on eBay priced around £200. I visited Expansys, which I have tended to religiously visit on an almost a weekly basis to check prices on a range of smartphones. First stop mid morning while in Slough was the Vodafone store, with their Black Friday deals. There was a deal to be had, but I wanted a second opinion. While in Uxbridge, before a trip to the cinema I went to the Vodafone store in intu (formerly Chimes) shopping centre. They had the HTC One M8 in store in grey but were unwilling to offer me the additional employee discount (20%) on top of the Black Friday deal (50%). Even with a request to speak to the manager (only the assistant manager was available) and even when he got off the telephone in the back office, all he did was show a long list of terms from Newbury HQ which basically meant no additional discounts could be applied on top of the Black Friday discount. I left the store disappointed but willing to fight another day back in my home town of Slough.

The Vodafone store in Slough High Street was extremely busy for Sunday lunchtime. Once again I was served by Manpreet. She was patient once again and confirmed the same deal was on offer and even upsold me onto a 4G plan for a few extra pounds a month. I had to take the deal but they only had the HTC One M8 in silver, my heart was set on grey. Probably rather strange for readers to understand, particularly as I will be putting my phone (as I have with all my mobile phones) into a case. The deal was done, the order was processed and I would receive at my office by Tuesday lunchtime.

Deal done, I headed over to the HTC office, which happens be behind the Queensmere and Observatory Shopping Centre. I took a few photos, declaring to HTC and Philip Blair, head of the EMEA business that he and his company have one more chance. If they could call on Iron Man last year to try and rescue their brand, maybe they are worth another roll of the dice. What will probably shock most of you, is that I will probably leave the device boxed up for several days until I get around to unlocking and loading Cyanogenmod with the help of a colleague in the office. If you have waited over 1460.97 days for a brand new phone, what difference will a few more make? Here’s To Change…