A Bad Case Of The Mondays

My alarm goes off every week day morning at 5am sharp. I tend to actually get myself out of bed a few minutes later (sometimes up to ten). On this occasion, I just switched off my mobile phone alarm, rather than hitting the snooze function. (Actually it is a swipe up motion to snooze, swipe down to completely dismiss) I woke up at 5:45am and swore (quietly, so as not to wake my wife) at my DAB digital clock display. I was running late and I knew it! Now, I am sure to many people, 5:45am is probably anything but late, most of you are probably still sound asleep, knowing all too well that you have at least another hour (possibly more) in your warm bed. The concept of 5am probably is never on your radar. As a colleague once said to me, “There is only one five o’ clock in the day and that is hometime!”.

As usual, I rushed to get ready and after a quick breakfast, watching news on television and refreshing both the Metro and Daily Mail apps on my tablet, I went for a shower. I then headed out the door around 6:25am, I knew I was not going to catch my usual 6:35am service. In fact, by the time I walked to the station, I had watched the 6:47am service leave platform four. I had not fancied dashing for the train, when it was highly likely I would miss it. I then had to wait for the 07:04am service, the train I used to catch some two years ago and I believe I last caught this particular service was probably December 2011. As the sun was rising up to my right (the East) I decided to take a photograph with my aged HTC Desire and upload to my Instagram page (once in the office).

The only benefit on this occasion of catching this express service, it was one of the new trains (Adelantes) I took a seat at one of the tables and updated myself on the news via my Nexus 7. An excellent way to kill a train journey, even if it was less than fifteen minutes. However, we were kept waiting outside the station for a while before finally going through to platform nine. I rushed through to the main entrance, I usually skip the escalator and run up the stairs (missing one consecutive step in each stride to ensure speedy ascension). The place was rammed, it was 7:30am and I was in a long queue at the barrier. My season ticket does not scan. This the price I pay for a discount with my employer. The scheme is called Easit yet it is anything but easy! I then came up against some jobs-worth, who failed to believe, when I insisted that my paper season ticket would not scan and insisted I put it through the barrier. When it failed, with the usual “Seek Assistance” message, I smiled, before finally being let out. I knew there was a reason I usually fly through the station at 6:51am. I know, not to be late ever again. I then rushed out to catch my bus, to see it waiting at the stop, as I dashed across the road to the waiting bus, it signalled to leave and departed just as I reached the door. Touché, Stewarts Coaches have a timetable and they were going to stick to it and I have to respect their decision. Ultimately, if I had already been on the bus, I would not have wanted to be delayed while more passengers boarded. I resigned myself to the fact that next bus would be around in just over five minutes. In fact, the driver of the bus, was my usual driver for the 7:00am service (he had completed one circuit in the time it had taken for me to get to the station from Slough).

I settled onto the bus and switched over to the radio. I was ready to begin what would be yet another busy week in the office. Many people wonder why I get into the office before 7:30am each morning. I had answered my own question. Reading Station is quiet, my office is quiet (I am generally the first person to arrive not just in my department but probably the entire building). No further motivation was required, I would never leave the flat late again. The only benefit on this occasion had been the fact I had a meeting with the US team between 4pm and 5pm.

As soon as I was in the office, I put my frustrations onto the interweb, as we all do now. Posting on Twitter the annoyance of getting delayed and turning up at the office almost an hour later than usual. My dear friend Big Chris, responded later that afternoon. He agreed that there seemed no reason for the station to be so busy, the trains had been running without delay. Another of lives great mysteries forever to remain unresolved.

A Blessing In Disguise

Being a creature of habit, any change to my routine can have catastrophic consequences for the rest of my day. On Friday morning at 6:10am, I am usually in a good mood, having that Friday feeling spring in my step. The weekend is so close, you can almost taste it in the cold air of the Bath Road as I make my way down to the station. I am used to the odd train delay on our Victorian railway system but on this occasion, I was at the station much earlier than usual, so I was able to catch a different service, when I discovered my usual train had been cancelled. The only minor inconvenience is having to walk across (or in my case run) the walkway to platform four.

I got to a seat opposite a Sikh gentleman wearing a bright orange hi-vis jacket. Possibly a Network Rail worker, completing the upgrade to Reading Station. He was tired and fell asleep a few times with his head down onto the table infront of him. He woke up to ask me to wake him at Reading, when we stopped at Maidenhead. I forget to mention that this train was the local stopping service to Oxford, but even though it left a few minutes earlier than my usual train, it arrived a few minutes later, as my usual train service is direct! I followed his request and promptly awoke him just as we were going past the TVP buildings into Reading station. However, just prior to this, I realised I had left my train pass at home. It had fallen out of my jacket into my gym bag last night. Great! I would now need to buy a return to Slough. However, not the end of the world but not a great start to my Friday after already having my usual train cancelled. I went up to the barrier, seeing a familiar face whom always lets me through the barrier. Another long story which perhaps does not even need to be blogged but since taking up my company discounted train pass, my train ticket does not work in the electronic barriers. The price you pay for getting a discount on your season ticket, is the inconvenience of having to queue up and show your pass to the station master (how Victorian!). My Friday instantly got better, as I explained I had forgotten my pass, the old chap, just let me through, no questions asked. Could my day get any better? Unbelievably it would!

I text Michelle once I was in the office to get confirmation that my train pass was indeed in my gym bag and once we she had responded via e-mail, I felt much better. I tried to blag a lift from Slough based colleagues but theyw ere not leaving until 5:30pm, over an hour than I intended to leave. Sure enough, I would have to bite the bullet and buy a single to Slough for the handsome sum of eight pounds Sterling. The main thing was I had just misplaced and found my pass, I did not really want to have to request a new pass from the travel team and effectively pay again for three weeks of commuting.

Good news can arrive at any point in the day, for me it arrived at 4pm when my manager asked, “How long until you leave for the week, Andrew?” “About twenty five minutes…” was my reply!

The Power Of The Force

People are often surprised when I explain that I do not own a games console and therefore no longer play any form of video games. Their expectations of me fail to meet the reality and I suppose, being a geek I should have some gaming fetish of some kind. I do not. The days of spending hours, days if not whole weekends glued to a computer game for purely recreational purposes are well behind me. For the record, I was an avid player of Championship Manager. Let me clarify avid, I edited the player database, created myself as a player and took Arsenal on an unbeaten League run, was offered the England job and went on to win the European Championship in 2000 (playing in 1998) with myself scoring one of the four winning goals. There was a time in the mid to late nineties when I flirted with FIFA and shoot em ups, concluding with Return To Castle Wolfenstein in early 2001. The only notable resurgence was during my first year at University when I was given the original GTA to play. Many hours wasted on what at the time was a very simple game but highly addictive.

Personally I am glad those days are behind me and even if I wanted to play games now I would be struggle to find the time in the diary. Plus I know you schedule an hour, before you even glimpse at your watch or the clock, three hours have passed by. In addition to this, is the threat (although she refers to it as a promise) from my beautiful wife that she would rip the games console from the wall and throw it out the window, if she was ever to find me playing video games. (An Xbox 360 is unlikely to survive a four storey drop).

During Britain’s Got Talent last weekend, I watched an advert, which I thought could seriously tempt be back into gamer mode. (Although let the record show I was rarely any good!) We tend to watch Saturday night (and the majority of our television in fact) on a delay. The actual phrase I am well inform from those lovely people at Hummy TV forums is called ‘chase play’. On this occasion it was due to The Voice UK overlapping with the ITV show but in general we prefer to be able to fast forward through the ad breaks. Generally I rarely pay attention to the adverts, even though this is the most expensive slot of the week for advertisers. I stopped and reversed the recording to watch the official Microsoft advert for Stars Wars Kinect. Although this one below is much better!

I want one of those, particularly the limited edition R2D2 console. However I found the price (one morning this week in the Metro) at a staggering £350 which is just too expensive when the standard console is down to just over the one hundred pound mark. Even when you factor in the cost of Kinect and the Star Wars games, you realise how much of the fee must go down to the licence from LucasFilm. Nevertheless, the true power of Kinect is starting to be harnessed. I just love the idea of waving my hands around in my living room like a real Jedi!

The marketing department were well and truly in force at the office this morning and even though I did not get a chance to go and get a photograph with the Stormtroopers myself, Obi-Wan “Ben” Kenobi (actually Ben from IT but you get the Star Wars reference I’m sure!) was able to upload a selection of images to SkyDrive.

How The Other Half Live

Unexpected Departures

Sometimes events consume you to the point that you just have to let them complete their course. There is little that can be done to stop the juggernaut, you just have to grin and bear it. A case in point, is my job. On Tuesday 7th June, I was told by my colleague, Richard that he was leaving. I was gutted to hear this completely unexpected news. This would have a major effect on my workload, while management rushed to find a suitable replacement. In any case, I had already planned for such an eventuality but spending a great deal of time redrafted and updating my CV and posting it on-line to Monster. This was more in hope than in expectation and I did little to actually actively hunt jobs, even after the news had been made public. I had made the decision to see how things panned out with the streamlined reporting team. A new line manager, a fresh start did have some benefits plus the opportunity to once again increase my profile at the firm. A mere eight days after I had been informed of the news of the imminent departure, I received an e-mail about a local position. I replied sending an updated version of my CV and expected to hear little else about it. In fact, while working from home on Friday 24th June, I actually thought it would be worth chasing the agency to confirm my application had been unsuccessful. I did not need to, I got a phone call around 4pm. I had been invited for interview.

In the week leading up the interview I was extremely nervous. This was easily the biggest job interview of my career to date, but also with one of the biggest players in the industry. A company I had dreamed of working for. A dream I could potentially realise, depending on my performance in within a two hour interview. The pressure was on and I felt it. Support from family was extremely important and I owe a great deal to my sister Samantha and my dearest wife to be, Michelle. I knew that if I could get this together, it could be a major turning point not just in my work life but in my home life also. The two hour commute to Swindon could end and I could finally bring balance to my work-life.

I decided to share the news of my interview with only my close family members. There was no need to tweet about such things, particularly as in the past boasting usually turns the outcome out of my favour. I secured the time off work and then prepared for several evenings in the week prior to the interview on Friday 1st July. (I should really mention that I had two phone interviews for another position based in London also but that would really be taking the biscuit. Oh and they were international calls to Switzerland, not easy to conduct an interview when the interviewer keeps dropping in and out due to a bad line).

If I had told you I was nervous that would have been a major understatement. I was a train wreck of anxiety and apprehension knowing how much was at stake that morning. Even the thought of catching Transformers: Dark Of The Moon with my sister, Natalie, later that evening could not take my mind away from the challenge ahead. As I drove from Slough to Reading, a journey I know all to well, I felt positive. Would confidence get me through this alone?

As I left the office and headed to my car, parked in the visitors area, directly opposite the main reception, I took a deep breath and tried to gauge how I had performed. I had completed the Excel test and was confident of a pass mark. The interview itself had been an intense, but informal two hour affair. I learnt more about the corporation setup and how everything fitted together. At one point, I was told that I may not find some aspects of the job that interesting as it involved waiting on ancient Excel add-ins to pull back data. I assured the interviewer that I was a patient individual and happy to investigate ways to improve processes during any downtime while back-end systems update. I think I came across well but you can never tell. I was not sure if I would be successful.

Instead of continuing with any further post interview post mortem, I decided to concentrate on the weekend I had planned ahead. The final movie in the Transformers trilogy and meeting up with my friend Clive in the evening before enjoying a rare quiet weekend at my parents. The verdict would arrive sometime on Monday and I was happy to wait.

I got the phone call I had been waiting for around 1pm, and it was excellent news. I had been offered the job at Microsoft. I was over the moon, quick to share news with my fiancé, Michelle and my immediate family. Around 3pm this afternoon, when my manager arrived back at her desk, I asked for a few minutes to inform her of my news. It was a shock and the thought of my immenient departure did not go down well, particularly as a key figure of the reporting team was leaving by the end of the week. While I have made some great friends here and enjoyed my time working for the biggest microchip manufacturer in the world, it was the right time to move on. Yes, I had achieved a great deal in eighteen months and left somewhat of a legacy, but the long journey and lack of long term career progression were just one of many reasons to move on. I was excited about the new challenge that lie ahead and the fact that I would have so much to learn. Before any of that though, I have a wedding to semi-arrange!

Action Required

I returned to the office to yet again find myself the victim of a prank from my dear colleague, Fred. On this occasion, he had decorated my working area with various empty folders. Even going to the trouble of leaving me a polite note.

A great way to start the month of June. I am sure my line manager asked me later how I felt about the folders left on my desk. I explained to her I was extremely annoyed, particularly as it meant I could not start work for a good fifteen minutes while I moved all this empty folders back onto Fred’s desk to annoy him and cause him an extended delay before he himself could start work. I do not believe he was that bothered though, he had completed yet another successful prank work. I shall have my revenge, particularly as Fred now believes I can only ever be the victim and never the perpetrator!

Extended Lunch Break

It is always reassuring to know that my dearest colleague has a much better work ethic than I do!

Read All About It

I returned to the office this morning after a few days off (two and a half days for the record). With so much to catch up, I thought little that my learned colleague would bother with a prank (although his previous track record would indicator the exact opposite)

As I turned into my cubicle, I noticed instantly the prank. My colleague had gone for maximum exposure this time and it had worked! I laughed and then cursed his name under my breath (there were other people in the office at the time, if I had arrived slightly earlier I would have made the remark outloud.) I got my phone out and took some photos as evidence of the activity and have saved them in my dossier for release at Fred’s next review meeting or one to one. Is that next week?