Office blog

[freedom]

Friday 25th August 2006

Today was rather quiet in the office, but there were signs of feverish activity the previous night.

The Others have been and moved their stuff around, taking more of it away. This has enabled me to hover underneath it, which I will do when I get out of this intercafe.

The rats have fouled the post room again. I have been promised that poison is on order.

A few days ago I sealed the larger two bullet holes in my main office with cardboard. I think these could be draughty in the winter. I will buy some expanding foam spray stuff later for the deeper holes.

My JSA benefit has just come through, and I am relieved there is enough both to buy food *and* pay the license (rent) this month.

Edits: Typo fix and adding this "edits" note.

[Ben]

Don't poison the rats! They are like people - just trying to get by!

[freedom]

Actually I think they're quite cute - but not in my offices!
If they'd just leave the place alone that would be fine, but they won't and there's no way of telling us that apart from laying down poison.

Last night I got fed up with needing a machete to get to work through the weeds along the pavement in one town centre street.
So I borrowed some shears and hacked my way through - no more walking in the road from now on!
Then I realised I had only converted a barrage problem into a carpet problem, and bagged up the foilage. That took four sacks.
I have a new brown bin (compostables) at home, so I trolleyed that lot there, but other people at home had saved up their garden waste for the bin too, and so it look's like I will be spending tuesday shredding, to compact it all in.

[Ben]

This reminds me. I have been thinking about attacking the neighbours' leylandii hedge from our side. I think the neighbour would come and bring his scaffolding and industrial hedge-fighting tools if he thought I wanted him too. But being curmudgeonly and inadequate, I will have a go at the huge hedge with a small pair of loppers. This is my rather inadequate way of telling him that I don't like his hedge. If I let him come over to our garden and let him trim it, then I am complicit in its upkeep.

Oh dear.

[freedom]

Tuesday 29th August 2006

Private overgrowth is a different matter, probably a different communications matter: We used to have a natural buffer zone of hedging and trees fencing our little patch of gardens (and neighbouring gardens) off from the BP/Tescos and the side road.
Then the neighbour decided, without asking anyone, that he was being selfish having such a huge barrier, and removed it.
Before anyone could get a handle on things, fir-tree-owning neighbours had followed suit, and now we are all rather exposed.

I have noticed that remains of the bushes near the office, on the other side of their fence, have their trunks right next to it, which mean's I can get my four-foot-long secateurs that-look-like-boltcutters in there, and timmmmbberrr!...
Meanwhile, everyone is still avoiding the now-clear path simply because they're so used to doing so. I may have to put some signs up...

My boss turned up for her service visit today, in her underwear, as usual. 'Something to do with the hot weather, I think. Anyway, I now have permission to use the foam filler, and the Daily Mail printed my letter (Monday 28th, page 47), an answer to a question about the earliest website.

[freedom]

Friday 1st September 2006

Spent most of Wednesday shredding. Eventually, it all fitted in' the bin.


(Click on image for fullsize photo)

I have decided to wait until most of the flowers have gone from the tree-weeds before felling them.


We have several types of waste disposal bin now.
(Not counting the bugged variety my brown bins now are, "to prevent theft". And who steal's wheelie bins, anyway?)

The (original) green ones are for ordinary "brown" household waste, the brown ones are for rottable "black" stuff, and the black boxes are for manufactured "green" recyclables.

Some Pubs have extra bins for "white" glass, these are blue.
There are differently-marked blue bins for different colours of glass, white, brown, or green, which are still white in blue.
"Blue" Trade waste from shops and offices goes' in white sacks.

Waste Terms table:

Code: Select all

Brown  Ordinary waste, "yuck" colour.
Black  Compostable matter, rotten colour.
Green  Recyclable tins, small amounts of glass, paper, etc.
        "Green" after the political party.
White  Glass. Nearest to transparent.
Blue  Trade waste. An alternative to brown, like with the new
       mains wiring colours for the colour-blind.


Bin Type table:

Code: Select all

Type Colour -> Bin Colour
(Residential)
Brown -> Green
Black -> Brown
Green -> Black
(Trade)
White -> Blue
Blue -> White


There are heavy fines for putting the wrong type of waste in a bin.
This is probably why they are trying to confuse us.


In a similar vein a few months ago, the council told us it was decriminalising parking, and fired all the traffic wardens. Then it said it was taking responsibility for that, and has just hired them again, this time on commission-based pay.

They told us how inconsiderate it was for us to park in the street, and why that justified heavy fines. Parking on double lines lines 'particularly bad, they said.

No problem, this is a semirural area, and there are hardly any lines around here, or at least there weren't until last week. Next week the council start's handing out fines. Lines are being painted everywhere: In quiet residential streets where we all have to park and nobody mind's, over junctions where you can't park anyway, in the park, in the car park, etc.

Some police tell me that parking of double yellow lines isn't illegal anyway, and treble yellows are the creatures you have to watch out for. They told me this to justify their parking on them, not to reassure, but still (useful).

A few days ago, the police parked on double yellows on a sharp corner (next to the gun shop "it's beind you!") on a dangerous junction with a central road, so they could write a ticket (not their job now) for some hapless bod parking on (new) lines further up the street in a non-dangerous position.

- * -

On hearing of my letter-writing exploits, one of The Others mentioned that his sister is a travel writer for the Daily Mail.

The rat poison is now in place.

[freedom]

Saturday 2nd August 2006

'Applied the expanding foam in the office this evening.

Instructions said only half-fill, but the voids are huge, so I 90%-filled, so it expands inward as well as outward. After all, what's the worst that can happen?


Yesterday, I packed this week's deliveries for despatch, revealing my own order for the office kitchen area.

It's called "Antibacterial Tea Towel Spray", which I think is only useful in office kitchens. We need all the hygiene hints we get get, 'round here.

[Ben]

Is that wall-cavity insulation you are doing there, freedom?

[freedom]

Monday 4th August 2006

Label read's "Homebase Expanding Foam Filler":

• Seal's gaps and cracks and fill's cavities
• Extra-strong bond on many materials.
• Insulate's against heat and noise.

(Need's water to cure, clean spills with acetone.)

It's not the type that people use to insulate their homes between double wall, if that's what you mean.

The warnings on the can turned out to be slightly overcautious.

The hardened product has the resistance of polysterene, and is fast and easy to slice flat. Infact it is not really wear-resistant, and I may have to apply a harder surface-filler over the top of wall-repairs.


My boss called around again, this time not wearing her underwear.
No, that doesn't sound right: What I meant was she wasn't dressed in only her underwear like last time.

Sales are down, and I'm goning have to work extra-hard this week.


Electon leaflets are dropping through the door: After a boundary change (in 2009) we're due to get the first rural black MP in Chippenham. You know the one, first black farmer, wear's a cowboy hat, 'TV show about Birmingham lads in Devon. He seem's to think it'll be straight out of the pages of Country Life, but he's picked the wrong town. He want's Cheltenham, not Chippenham. I worry he'll find it more like Blazing Saddles.

[freedom]

Wednesday 6th August 2006

I had a busy day yesterday, and a busier one laid out today. Last night, someone deadlocked me out of the house, and I had yo sleep on the office floor. Not happy.

[freedom]

Friday 8th August

Two days ago, we found a dead rat three feet from where I had been sleeping! It was a foot long (8" body + 4" tail).

All the rat and bullet holes and spare pipes have now been sealed, and there have been no fresh droppings.

Slight trouble on my Betterware pages with massive upgrades and a server swap.

Slight hangover after socialising, which I had put off for far too long.

[freedom]

Someday 11th September 2006

I'm glad I'm not superstitious:

• I started work on 06/06/06.
• It's Week 13 now.
• Today is a Friday. (Edit: No it isn't, it's a Monday!!)
• Today, September 11th, is the service visit from my boss.

'Slept at the office again last night, but only for two hours, and not because I was locked out, just to briefly refresh after I worked until four-thirty in the morning, catching up. I have decided not to sleep until early evening, to save time: I have an early start and lots of preparation and typing to do; they might as well flow together.
(If I catnapped at home, I'd fall into a deep sleep and go straight through my available two hours. But the office floor is too uncomfortable for that.)

As I neared home, the big chicken at the end of the street started crowing for all it was worth. I waved my hand near it, but that just made it try to bite me, instead of shutting-up. It distracted it abit, though. Where's a manic with a air rifle when you need one?

[freedom]

Tuesday 12th September 2006

My forum (not randomandtwisted) now has one of The Others as a moderator, although it was only this afternoon that I was able to get online to upgrade him to mod status.

Forgetting this is a "Club Night", I was eating at my desk, when someone walked in, put down a bucket, switched on a little torch, and crawled under my desk. 'Looking for rats, apparently.

Shortly after this, went out to attend to a customer, and found I was walking on broken glass. Someone upstairs had opened a window, and it had dropped out of it's frame, showering the front doorway with glass.

On my way home, someone passed me on an articulated motorised skateboard. I dunno what one of those is called, but it's impossible to run someone over; you'd fall off and then the cutout'd go. -So it's a good safe alternative to minimotos, and too new to be banned. I expect the police'll announce a pointless crackdown shortly, nonetheless.

[moog]

And the obligatory Daily Mail headline: "Are motorised skateboards harming our children?"

[freedom]

Tuesday 20th September 2006

The Others found the dead-rat smell in the storeroom was infact a dead mouse. Great: Now they're bringing their friends in with them.


Sunday 24th September 2006


Brought a secondhand PC for �65. Not bad.
'Got one of The Others to truck it round, set up from leaving the office to returning and switched on, about three quarters of an hour.

The Seller say's it has a clean install of pirated XP, so I'll have to buy a copy of XP for six month's time, when it all clog's up, and to avoid hypocrisy, of course. I'll put on Red Squirrel for test purposes, and the full package of Virtual Acorn when I have some spare cash. I'll do that at the next trade show.

The mouse is a three-button type, which the RISC OS emulator will need, but it slid over my desk without rolling, so I taped a folded sheet of A4 down as a mat, and that work's very well.


Monday 25th September 2006

Added the data I need to the PC. Found that my memory stick doesn't work with it, but then my memory stick doesn't work with many machines. I think this is a problem with the peripheral, rather than the main machine. I will get the local computer shop to have a look at it, and possibly buy a replacement from them.

The keyboard has problem: The spacebar is rickety, but I can learn to hit the right spot, and the arrow keys don't work, so I'll keep Num Lock off.


Edit: MsWord autodate invasion.