Protected: Unexpected Friendships

Some Things Never Change

Office moves or desks moves, at my current employer, I have moved one floor down and desks now three times. My current desk is situated in an extremely open plan office. We have had the partitions lowered to a bear minimum, which will make calls very interesting in the future. The objective to increase collaboration between all members of the Operations team and make us as a department approachable for all sections of the business we support.

A regular occurrence almost four years ago, was being the victim of multiple office pranks by dearest colleague while working at Intel Corporation in Swindon. I tried my best to document each event, to ensure evidence could be provided to HR in time for performance reviews. We have a variety of attempts to disrupt my working day, all of which I took on the chin, in the vain they were attempted. Just a quick recap Eco Warrior was Back In The Office Read(ing) All About It and taking the Action Required. I have also now gone back and added the tag – office prank to better catalog all attempts to sabotage my working space.

You can imagine my surprise to return back to my desk from a meeting to find this – my monitor, keyboard, telephone, mouse mat and phone charger covered in Post-It Notes.

Proud Landing

A last minute change of plan, meant I found myself booking a flight over to Prague for a business trip on Monday returning late Tuesday evening. My last business trip was almost exactly two years ago while working for Microsoft to the capital of Finland. I was travelling to the Czech Republic and unknown to me at the time, Holland would be playing them in European Championship Qualifier but I would be on my flight home as the match kicked off.

There is no greater feeling of pride than watching over the bright lights of the London cityscape as we fly down into Heathrow. We flew over Windsor and my office as we made our final approach to Terminal 3. I struggled to make out the building but I could see the Honda building, which is on junction 7 of the M4 and that gave me bearings to look in the right direction. While this was perhaps not as awe inspiring as my trip two years ago, I still felt an immense pride, a warm feeling of what it means to British. While the union may only exist for another nine days, I cannot let go so easily myself.

Months go past with little activity on the blog. I have to be honest, there has been little, if anything worth capturing in recent months. While a short holiday in Turkey may be worth mentioning, I still need to sort through the six hundred plus photographs, although most have now finally been uploaded to FlickR (although not ready to be shared with the public just yet). Summer and been and gone and as we head into September, life begins to return to normal. The train begins on the long journey to December, the end of the year, Christmas before a new year beckons. Where has 2014 gone? Seems to have passed me by without any such plan…

Women Glow, Men Plunder

Several months ago I was told by my colleague Samantha, that she was off to travel and work in New Zealand. This did not come as a complete surprise, I had noted a guide book to the Southern Hemisphere country on her Instagram feed, several days earlier. She had actually been afraid I might mention something inadvertently at lunchtime, so decided to tell me on a walk to the Manor after lunch one afternoon. Jealous is not the word, I was beyond envious that she was heading off to a completely different continent but most importantly with no coherent plan. It was a leap of faith which many of us fear to take!

Since joining CA, I would have described Sam as the closest friend I have made in the office. Mostly for our shared love for US televisions shows and movies. I mentioned Suits and she re-watched the first series and then watched the second season in almost tandem with me and we spent many a lunch hour discussing Harvey, Mike, Rachel and Louis. This weekend past, she has been binging on Glee (from season one) and I have confirmed privately that I too am a closet GLEEK!

While she would not describe herself as major office personality within our team she was a keen social butterfly, always organising Friday night drinks and other events such as leading our volunteer day! I will miss her warm presence in the office and beaming smile. Although we never directly worked with each other I know she was a dedicated member of the Operations Team.

In the middle of February she was considering starting a blog to record all her adventures and I was pleased to offer my fifty pence of advice! By the end of the weekend, she had started StarTrekkingWithKodakKirky (what a mouthful!!).

I hope Sam will think of me, among others stuck in Ditton Park, Datchet updating reports while she starts a new life Down Under. I wish her the utmost good luck and part of me wishes I could be just as courageous. Maybe in another lifetime!

Rat Running

Being a local Slough boy, I like to think I know the shortcuts around town. Growing up down the road in High Wycombe, I spent many evenings and weekends in the local town of Slough. In particular as there is still no Hindu temple in my home town, this was the closed with a place of worship.

Driving home on Thursday afternoon, I listen to the radio and tend to tart around the stations working my way down from national to local. I switched to Time 106.6 which had a local news bulletin, directly after the main news. Lansdowne Avenue is to be closed to traffic from Monday 13th onwards. This would have an adverse affect on not just my journey to work but general journeys from the flat, to town or the supermarket. While I would never use the road to rat run, it was a useful shortcut to take out the Stoke Poges Lane traffic light crossroads. I just feel residents got annoyed with the amount of traffic and in many cases, people forgot it was a residential area, rather than a main route and never reduced their driving speed.

The impact for me is an additional few minutes on top of my morning commute, which includes a lifetime waiting at the lights at the end of Stoke Poges Lane. The signage went up last week but I did not notice it covered in black bin bags until later this week. How will they police such a closure, I do not know, unless they plan to actually block the road off completely, which is very unlikely. My answer came the next day, when signs were added and the red and white blocks were placed on the road.

Summer Evening At The Races

Believe it or not this was my first time at Royal Windsor Racecourse. My new employers had arranged a social night out and kindly invited me along. (I had been a last minute addition but thankfully they had a few spare spaces.) It bought back memories of going to Newmarket while on placement over ten years ago, when my employer (a medium sized law firm) at the time arranged a similar event. On that occasion it was Jools Holland performing up in the Grandstand but now Toploader in the paddock at the rear. (How the mighty have fallen…)

My colleague, Sam took a quick photograph with her iPhone which I have uploaded to share with everybody on FlickR.

A Fresh Challenge

In your travels across this green and pleasant land, have you noticed office buildings? I am sure you have, we all have. Some are rather iconic, such as Downing Street as an extreme example. Sure this may be a home but it is also the office of the Prime Minister. I, like everybody else, have noticed these landmark buildings but in my case, I have with certain locations, wondered what it would be like to work there. Within a few years I was working in that building, either as an employee or visiting them as a client of my employer.

During my placement year, over a decade ago, I would drive cross country, from High Wycombe to Bedford via Aylesbury. Driving past a listed building just outside the village of Saunderton. I did not know this at the time but it was home of pharmaceutical giant, Janssen-Cilag. I drove past the building almost twice every day and wondered who was based there and what they did. They would move from the site in 2008 but just before hand, I had the opportunity to spend some time there, as they were a client for the agency company I worked for. Mission accomplished to some degree. I just found it fascinating to see a building and then some four years later have the opportunity to see inside.

Over a decade ago, in June 1999, on the day Pav passed his driving test, we drove to Winnersh to the Showcase Cinema to watch Star Wars Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace. Having only had a valid licence for a few hours, we took a wrong turn and ended up on the A329 (M). A dual carriageway motorway for all intent purposes. We have missed the Winnersh turn off we drove down to Thames Valley Park got back on to the A-roads and made our way to the cinema. There would be over twelve years before I would visit TVP again but then for an interview at the Microsoft Campus.

As you drive past High Wycombe (junction four) of the M40 heading north, you will see some white office buildings just after the Asda superstore to your right hand-side. These buildings were originally owned all by Dun & Bradstreet but now there are multiple multinationals based in the complex alongside the original tenant. Just prior to my move to Newbury I was able to visit the offices of Janssen-Cilag, who for many years were part of the larger Johnson and Johnson group. They had sold off their office in Saunderton and relocated to these blush surroundings in Cressex, north of the town. I was lucky to get to have a look around the place on a client visit before moving onto a new job in September 2008.

Eight years ago driving back from Windsor to drop my friend Mel in Langley, we took an alternative route, which including driving over the M4. We drove past Computer Associates building, which I was keen to point out and I did wonder what it would be like to work there. Little did I know some eight years later I would be entering the park as an FTE.

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.