Today is a little bit of a sad day at work. The organisation I work for is undergoing reorganisation and is preparing for the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) cuts to kick in.
People are moving about, people are leaving of their own accord and some are taking voluntary redundancy too - thankfully, no compulsory redundancies planned. This person works in our administration and is one of life's good people. Helpful, competent, knowledgeable, very personable indeed and smiles a lot - will go the extra mile. At least this person will be staying in the organisation, just moving to another site completely.
The place won't look or feel the same, and not necessarily for this one person leaving, but for the several others as well who have moved on.
People definitely maketh the place.
In my office alone (of four people) one has gone on maternity leave and is unlikely to come back with us as the role has gone and one of my other colleagues retires at the end of next week after 42 years of loyal local government service. Leaving two. The work hasn't gone away - well not yet anyway.
I've moved several times in my career within the organisation through promotions and development and every time you adjust to new people, new surroundings and new challenges, but nothing quite prepares you for the people you don't get to see anymore other than by chance meetings once in a Sheffield flood.
Well the weather has turned again today - rain and strong winds and according to the Met Office, there are some stronger wind warnings for the beginning of the weekend. I bottled out of washing the car by hand (not recommended for automatic car washes according to the handbook) because it was so bitterly cold last weekend. I might miss out this weekend because of the rain.
I feel sorry once more for the folk of west Australia who are now facing 180 miles per hour winds, high seas and driving rain with Cyclone Yasi. I watch that with interest and will send my thoughts to them in my meditation tonight.
By the way, if you are ever feeling the need for some distance healing and positive thoughts sending to you, never hesitate to ask. I doesn't hurt!
My wife said to me today in a reflective mood, "Oh my goodness, my boobs have gone, my stomach has gone, my bum has gone. Tell me something good about my legs."
"Blue goes with everything dear."
I never realised black eyes were so painful!
Chat soon
Ta-ra.
Firstly let me extend a warm welcome to The Weaver of Grass from Leyburn in North Yorkshire as the latest follower of this mundane tuppence worth of tripe and onions. The Weaver is a farmer's wife living on the edge of the Dales and her blog is entertaining, light, informative and full of great local pictures from her part of the world, please visit her blog and enjoy. Welcome ma'am.
Well the weekend is upon us with all sorts of strange things happening in the world outside of this great county. The strange Pastor Terry Jones who has a congregation of thirty in Florida USA has hit world headlines for his perverse threat to symbolically burn the Koran. I heard an interesting debate on BBC Radio 2 this lunchtime on the Jeremy Vine show where two opposing views were heard both supporting him and opposing him. At a time where world peace is in the heart of every right thinking man and woman perhaps Pastor Jones best hang up his cassock or whatever Pastors wear in Florida and retire gracefully and allow the rest of us in the world to try to get along without facing the risk of being plunged into another terrorist war!
I don't know about your part of the world, but autumn seems to have come slightly early here this year. Rain, strong winds and falling leaves are around us here in Yorkshire and I notice a lot of the berries are showing early colour to attract the birds. Is this a sign of a bad winter in front of us? That's what folklore tells us; the truth is that early berries don't signify a bad winter to come but a good spring in the past where flowers weren't killed off by late spring frosts! The picture above in my pyracantha bush in the back garden full of orange berries which the blackbirds particularly love.
Wayne Rooney has allegedly been using call girls and has now asked for privacy following red top tabloid headlines. Well I have always believed that the press are too powerful and clearly the girl(s) in question are motivated, allegedly by the rewards of kiss and tell, but here is someone millions of kids around the world look up to as a success story and a role model, so the one I feel sorry for is not him, but his wife and all his innocent younger supporters who must be totally confused by all this. This is a very sad, sorry story.
Have you noticed that the subject of the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) has suddenly gained momentum in the media. This is the government's announcement in October of what the budget will be for the public sector in the next four years. My area of business has been preparing for between between 15% and 25% of cuts for 18 months, long before the election was called and this is in addition of cuts that were already being planned. The media have come to this very late and frankly have missed a trick to get an accurate measure of public opinion on what these levels of cuts mean in real terms. Watch out for a double dip recession, a couple of million extra on the dole, therefore no income tax being paid, benefits increasing instead of decreasing, no one selling or buying houses because of uncertainty and meanwhile the banks who caused this mess in the first place are making billions in profits - at the public expense. Nice one.
The BBC have a slide show on their BBC news on line website, quote: "From back-garden enthusiasts to professional photographers - the Royal Observatory in Greenwich received hundreds of entries for its 2010 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition." The slide show is of the best photographs and is absolutely magnificent, please take five minutes to sit and relax and watch it.
Scientists have, apparently been analysing the difference between 'bad' dance moves made by blokes and 'good' dance moves in an effort to prove that 'good' dance moves make men more attractive to women. It seems 'good' dance moves give a sub-conscious psychological message to women that men are in good health and are potentially good reproductive material. That's me knackered on all fronts!
Enjoy the weekend (dodging the showers in the UK) and I'll leave you with this news story that's just come in on the wires:
"A lorry carrying hundreds of copies of Roget's Thesaurus has just crashed and overturned on the M1 motorway. The driver is okay, but onlookers were described as, 'stunned, overwhelmed, astonished, gobsmacked, amazed, bewildered and dumbfounded.'"
Chat soon
Ta-ra.
