In the arms of a Tiger

I took this image of our cat Millie last night because I had said to my mother, that the cat sleeps in the arms of the tiger, but she thought I was making it up because she had never seen her do it, even though cat hairs keep congregating around its paws, so now I have proof!!!

I have finally succumbed to this horrible virus that's been going around for the last couple of months.....you know the one, with the chesty, phlegmy lungs and sore throat etc. So I'm in for a few miserable weeks, BOOOOO!

In my performance development review at the end of last year, I said I wouldn't mind doing some form of qualification this year, meaning something like a HNC in Chemical Engineering, which I could carry on and turn into a degree, if I wasn't fed up with it at the end of the first 3 years. So what did my manager put me in for....an NVQ in Business Improvement Techniques! Well, not exactly what I had in mind, but if the company are paying for it, I suppose it will be something I can add to my CV. But I will still be asking to do that HNC! So today meant a late finish, because as well as training a colleage, I had to attend a boring 2 hour meeting with the NVQ people, to discuss what it's all about.

I'm no longer a Subways virgin!

This mark in the back stage area, proves that there is another band called the Strands, somewhere in the universe!

Dean's getting worried and frustrated at the lack of audience!

Setting up!

Two nights out in a row! On Friday I went along to the Lamp with my bro for a few too many beers and games of drunken Pool, and to listen to some live bands. I didn't really want to go out because I was going on a trip to Liverpool on the Saturday night to 'The Cavern Club' to watch 'The Strands' and begin work on filming a rockumentary about the highs and lows of being in a touring, unsigned band! But I promised my friend Jo that I would go to the Lamp with her as she didn't have anyone to go with and really wanted to see the bands.

I awoke the next morning with a fuzzy brain and a dry throat, and wondered how I was going to make it through another evening out. By around 1 o'clock however, I was feeling fine and looked forward to the arrival of the Strands "Mega Bus" which would take us on our journey to the "European city of culture" (at least until midnight that evening, when the title would be handed over to another city)

I had spoken previously to Dean (the singer) at work, about doing a rockumentary, purely for shits and giggles, and he seemed up for it! The trip to the Cavern was largely uneventful until we reached the city center, were John (the drummer) who was driving, decided to ignore the satnav on 3 occasions, meaning lots of wrong turns and confusion, with the air turning blue (mostly by John himself) until the satnav finally corrected Johns errors!

The band set up and did their soundcheck and then we had a few hours to kill, so we took a walk to find something to eat. We walked past a Subway, but the general feeling that a McDonalds or Burger King would be more suited, so I showed the way to the Burger King I usually go to when I visit the Cavern Club, but when we arrived there were about a hundred thousand people in the vicinity, probably to do with the last night of city of culture status, we tried both "eating joints" but the cues were horrendous and we were getting very hungry, so we headed back to Subways, were I had my first ever Subways sandwhich, breaking my Subways virgin status.

Back in the club the first band went on stage to a reasonable audience (they were local lads) they were then were followed by an Italian rock band who were horrendous and managed to clear out most of the people who had hung around, this and the fact that there was a local slimeball promoter running the evening (I say running in the loosest possible sense, because all he did all night was stand at the door to the live music room, like a guard dog, trying to charge £3.50 entry fee, meaning most people turned back and stayed in the front part of the club) so when The Strands came on, they played a blinding set to about 10 people, which is a hard job to do, to capture the presence and spirit of things when your playing to an empty room, but as I was filming the gig they managed to do a respectable job! Luckily, due to my filming duties I had to remain professional and drink very little, but after the gig, I started to feel very tired and looked forward to returning home. The band were extremely disappointed as they had basically paid £70 to the venue, just to play to an empty room. Whilst it was a low for the band and prompted a quiet and reserved ride home, it was good for my film, because as I had said to them, the aim of the film is to get the highs AND lows of touring! The "mega bus" as it turned out, wasn't that mega, because it didn't have a radio and no heating, which meant for a cold ride home, and to add insult to injury, our boiler has broken down meaning a cold bed when I got home! I was home for 2:30am and straight into that cold bed!

Oh yeah and this week, I have mostly been amusing myself by leaving random lines from movies on my friends Facebook pages!

Tough Titty!

Only 3 days into the new working year and it seems some of my colleages have spent an intensive Christmas period preparing for a good irate moan upon their return!
It has been common knowledge for at least 6 months, that when we returned to work this year, at some point we would start working split shifts (6am-2pm and 12pm-8pm) and working regular Saturdays.
So for the last three days, 2 of my colleages have sat in the tea room, moaning and shouting to anyone who will listen and anyone who won't, because management have decided to implement the changes that we knew were coming, and nobody tried to fight.
It states in our contract that they can call upon us anytime between 6am and 12am during weekdays and Saturdays, so as far as I can see, the company is quite within it's right to ask us to do this.
For the last 2 years I have worked on the "shop floor" as one of the grunts, I have worked more then my share of Saturdays as have others in the department, (last year I worked 10 Saturdays whilst most of the others, barr 2 or 3 worked none) but these were always on a voluntary basis! (My feelings were that if I put my hand up and volunteered when it suited me (i.e when I am not going to watch Hull City on a saturday afternoon) then I would be in a good position to say "no ask someone else" when they needed people on days when I was going to the football.
The problem with all this, is that when we all applied for jobs working in this department, we all asked about the working hours and wether we work saturdays, to which the management replied "we only work one shift (6am-2pm) and we never work Saturdays and there are no plans for this to change in the future" so people took the jobs on that basis, as some people have young children and do most activities with them on a Saturday. Other then getting to the football matches I don't have any worries or commitments such as kids.
As it stands, my only veiw on this is "tough titty" to us, but nevertheless, people are looking at bringing in a union rep/solicitor to see where we stand!
On a personal level I'm not entirely bothered about the changes, they won't effect me that much, although my attitude would change if I couldn't get to the football as a result, but feel they would be willing to accomodate me in that respect, but I also feel that we shouldn't let the company walk all over us, with out us putting up any kind of resistance, so if the people want to fight it, then I'm in! Who knows, maybe this could lead me onto fighting my own revolution in the future, just like the great Ernesto 'Che' Guevara! Oh hang on a minute, I've rambled off into Walter Mitty territory, I'll stop now.

Grant's Birthday

The birthday boy, pulling his trademark photo face!

Group hug, from left : Mark, random guy, Grant and Me

It's a thumbs up from Rob!

I ams what I am Olive!

Me looking bemused at Rob's decision to have a glass of Rose in a pub on a Saturday night!

The tale end of a political debate between Rob and Mark, which lasted for hours!

Another thumbs up from Rob!

A pair of metrosexuals?

Mark and Grant, eyeing each other up for a licking!

Went out last night for my friend Grant's birthday, drank loads and have a queezy stomach today as a result! I just had to watch 'Jeff Dunham's very special Christmas show' to make my self laugh and take my mind off my hungover state - 'Acmed The Dead Terrorist' was a good cure, I now feel much better!
My usual cure for a hangover is a big fry-up, but not today! The only thing I could manage to eat was a Pot Noodle!

I have been off work on holiday now for a month, tomorrow I go back to work........I am NOT looking forward to that!

Succumbing to madness

If you were me this Christmas, you probably spent your time;

1. Going on your departments Christmas meal, having a very good time and getting drunk, then inviting yourself to another company's Christmas night out the next evening, and getting not quite as drunk, because your still feeling it from the night before and making a new friend called Amy.

2. Feeling a great sense of injustice at having to spend a cold morning helping your father give the garage a clearout from the massive amount of junk which had built up. None of which, was anything to do with you.

3. Having a lot of quality Me-time, playing a lot of computer games which have built up in recent months, and also watching the DVD movies you like to watch every year at Christmas such as Home Alone and Trading Places.

4. Drinking too much alcohol, eating too many mince pies and chocolate and sleeping in too late, inducing a sense of dread at having to return to work in a week knowing that the alarm will be once again set for 5am.

5. Starting to feel as though your losing your mind, because you want to record music on your PC, but know it is going to be difficult because, what was your computer room/music studio, has been unnessacerily turned into a second living room by your parents meaning you blatantly do not have the room required to work, realising it's reached breaking point and you need to move into a place of your own but knowing you don't have the funds to do so.

6. Spending many hours last night, trying to install a new sound card into your brothers PC, but having the PC laugh at your feeble attempts to make it work! You know you have done everything exactly right, but it's not working, then hours later for no apparent reason it starts to work!

7. Knowing that your driving test is on the 4th February, your spending £160-200 a month on lessons (even though you don't think your eyesight is good enough to pass) and telling your family that Christmas is cancelled this year whilst your paying for driving lessons, and then thinking that you don't really like driving anyway!

8. Telling yourself that you will go back to the gym (that you pay so much money for each month) tomorrow, because your really starting to feel unfit and unhealthy, but knowing that your too lazy to do so.

As I slowly succumb to madness I hope you are having a great Christmas period and have a happy and prosperouse new year!!!

Kenny Giggle Buns

My Christmas holidays started last Friday! I still had loads of holidays left to take so I booked them all of before Christmas, so I'm not back at work until January 5th. My dad decided to take full advantage of this, by asking me to help him spend ALL of my Sunday helping him lay the new Bamboo hard wood flooring in the living room as pictured. I don't think we did a bad job of it considering it was the first time either of us had done anything like this! We started at 9 in the morning and finished at 9 on the evening, so we were pretty tired by the end, our dog Roxy seems to appreciate it!

Tomorrow night I am going to see 'Glasvegas' play at Hull Uni! Looking forward to that, especially as I didn't know they were even playing until my friend Rob texted me and asked if I wanted to go!

Rob has decided to stand as an independent in the next local government elections, so I will soon be helping him to make a short film, which will serve to outline what he stands for and why people should vote for him!

Oh and I have a new nickname, which I received last night whilst playing an online computer game! My online name is K G B 1 9 7 8, and when an American guy asked me if I was Russian, I said no, the KGB is the initials of my name, so he asked me if my name was "Kenny Giggle Buns" to which I burst out laughing, along with 10 other people, and after that I had a number of friend requests because everyone wanted to be friends with a guy like "Kenny Giggle Buns" so there you go, the joys of playing X-Box!

Departmental Politics!

Since I left working in the Laboratories and moved into processing, it has really highlighted what a cesspit of petty behavior, working in the labs really was! The constant need of one-upmanship by fellow co-workers was at times, beyond belief! I am not saying it doesn't happen in processing/manufacturing areas, because it does! I'm sure it happens in all areas of work! But nowhere near the levels I had become accustomed to in a certain QC department where I once worked.
When my sister worked in the same department she was subjected to some victimisation and backstabbing (enough to warrant a career change and become a nurse) and now my brother who works in this department has also just been at the hands of some backstabbing son's of bitches!

Let's remind ourselves what backstabbing is according to it's dictionary definitions:-

To attack (someone) unfairly, especially in an underhand, deceitful manner

treacherous actions or remarks that are likely to cause harm to a person

So two people from his department had words with the boss and said that he (my brother) and two other colleages that he works with are lazy, rude, nasty to people and unhelpful! (all of which, I can personally say, could be directly attributed to one of the people that we suspect, may have reported my brother) The boss raised these issues with my brother and the other two accused, as was his duty as area manager, but knowing my brothers personality, he chose to believe him! As I do, even though he is my brother!

My brother thinks he knows who reported him by eliminating certain persons who were not there at the time or people he would choose to trust, and so managed to narrow it down to the two people he thinks are the culprits, based on character traits and past histories! I guessed who he suspected straight away, but the truth of the matter is that you never really can tell what any of your colleages are thinking and/or plotting behind your back!

I think I know why this has happened, a short time ago, the previous area manger (as useless as she was) took a liking to my brother and he subsequently became her 'blue eyed boy' and could do no wrong, and this new course of backstabbing has come about due to envy, jelousy and a petty, self righteous feeling of giving my brother his 'just deserts' for being favoured by the previous manager!