Perfectly Vocal

Just The Two of Us

I am loving Just The Two of Us on BBC1.  But there's no justice.  Jocelyn and Matt have been voted off, whilst the awful Jo and Chris got top marks tonight.  I must be getting old.  Daughter #3 feels Chris has been rightfully allowed to stay as he is "well fit".  Ah right, a worthy reason in a singing competition. In fact, being "well fit" seems justification for any manner of crimes in daughter #3's opinion. 

(I do know Penny Smith can't sing, but my justification is she's aware of it and hugely entertaining).

Noggin, Marina and Sylvia

It was my friend D's birthday yesterday, so we planned a night out on the town.  I arrived around 5pm and D cooked a wonderful paella, which we ate with a bottle of our favourite - Mateus Rose.  We then rushed upstairs to have a bath (not together!) and get ready, exchanging gossip and hopes for the evening ahead - full of promise.  The phone rang and it was our friend A, at the airport, just landed, back from skiing in France - he would join us in an hour, he said.  Horror! Our girls' night out had been hijacked, and even worse, three is definitely a crowd!  Thinking on our feet, we rang another single male friend, N.  Oh yes, he was keen to come along, and we arranged to meet in the pub at 10pm.  The Mateus was sliding down nicely, A arrived and we called a taxi, braving the icy cold wind and got to the pub on time to find N standing at the bar in his combat trousers and an old t-shirt.  A had a three day growth of stubble and old jeans and jumper.  D and I were dressed ready for Studio 54.  They were all grungy - we were all disco.  The wine was working, the boys were downing pints, and somehow we never left the pub.  We spent the evening drinking awful wine and discussing the merits of Noggin The Nog and Aqua Marina (with a brief detour into the life and death of Sylvia Plath).  A and N insisted the reason they couldn't marry younger women was because they wouldn't be able to relate to Noggin and Marina, who was apparently the first love of every man over the age of 40 (and yes, the fact that she was mute did add to her appeal).  D and I rather think that younger women might not be attracted to men who are fascinated by Noggin and Marina.  D and I think we may re-run the girls night out next week.  We've decided that every day should be a special occasion and every weekend a celebration.

Vive La Difference!

It's ok.  Following yesterday's post, I've just found out that in our working environment the fact that I am endlessly frustrated by my colleague's way of working is allowed.  These differences don't need to be addressed because they have a name now. My colleague and I are working with Constructive Tension.

Don't go wasting my time

I'm just wondering why people spend so much time trying to get out of doing the most straightforward and simple jobs, that just require them to sit down and concentrate for 20 minutes or so.  One of my colleagues spends enormous amounts of time and energy thinking up and making excuses as to why something can't be done, instead of spending half the time just getting on with it.  This wouldn't be so bad if she was an island, but her procrastination is a thief of my time.

We are where we are

Despite hours of working overtime, much bullying and cajoling, encouraging, bribery, corruption and downright bossiness, the project I'm working on is in dire straights.  The software isn't ready, or "fit for purpose", we're weeks behind on migrating the data into the system ready for use and those of us working on the ground looked to the project managers for solutions.  Stupid really, why did we ever think they might have any?  "We are where we are" they say sagely.  This seems to me to be a good way of blocking any criticism, diverting the "I told you so's" and generally not allowing any post mortem as to why we're in the mess we're in.  "We don't seem to be getting anywhere, so we'll close the meeting" they say, when we attempt to imply that we had seen this coming.  I'm not a project manager, but I think sometimes it's a good thing to let people have their say, even if it doesn't get us anywhere.  Sometimes it's good to let people let off steam.  It's therapeutic, clears the air and lets people move forward.  To be told the meeting is closed and the project managers are "taking the problem offline" doesn't help those of us who feel frustrated, annoyed and more importantly, those of us whose workload will be affected by decisions taken "offline".  "We are where we are" is why "we won't get where we should be going by the time we should be getting there".

Today's Motto

Sometimes - something just strikes a chord.