Be Excellent To Each Other

I've asked HR for a copy of my contract. This should be a giggle.

They've sent it here:

Heh.

I'm quite fucking angry now. With work. Not you. Ilike you. You will be spared. Luckily, I have a meeting at 2pm, so people can suffer then.

And calm....

Might arrange to view this. But it is on the wrong side of the valley.

I just ate a whole packet of Fox's Choc Fudge Crunch Creams by dipping them into my coffee and now I feel a bit sick

That looks amazing. What is wrong with that side of the valley?

Can't see the steam trains as well as from the other side I think and uphill on way home from pub.

I think you'll get the evening light, mind you. I might arrange a viewing next week post snow. It has been for sale for a while. MrsA seems to like it. I sut have to clear up this contractual difficulty forst.

Plus you'll have a good excuse to buy a 4x4 for your next car.

Fiat panda!

Be warned. Things didn't end well for the previous owners:

I know that place. It's Wuthering Heights!

HAHAHAHA! A HAHAHAHA!

HR said, earlier:

”Your contract was a temporary contract with no end date”

My contract says

“Your employment is anticipated to be temporary and is expected to last around three months. Your employment will begin on 2nd July 2012”

So which is it?

Clearly what HR said was correct, unless I'm missing something?

I've signed two three month contract extensions. The last one was three months ago.

And a "a temporary contract with no end date" is, frankly, bollocks.

I'm either on a temporary 3 month contract that keeps getting renewed, or I am on a permanent contract with a month's notice.

I thought I was on the former, and have paperwork that suggests this, and thought I was finishing on 31st March.
I shall dig this paperwork out later, as I have signed two 3 month extensions. One at the end of September and one at the end of December.

Yesterday I found out that an old friend died. We grew up together and I was her only contact in her normal life when she ran away to Ireland with her boyfriend (later husband) when she was 17.

Today I found out a newer friend, though one who has supported me over the last few years with love, a kind ear to listen, and yarn at a time when I had none and needed to focus and use my hands, has been approved by the panel at the adoption board by unanimous decision, and will be meeting their three sibling children in just under a month.

Some devastating news and some beautiful news. I feel emotionally drained, though also a bit numb.

Great picture of Samuel Beckett, aged 14:


More photos of famous authors as wee bastards.

Can anyone name a good, fairly cheap record player? I'm after a new one but don't know my arse from my elbow, and don't want to buy something horrendous (potentially damaging, etc) just because it looked like a bargain.

Ed: hmm, internet consensus seems to be that cheaper turntables are best left well alone anyway...

Torygraph to put up a paywall.

We should place bets on how long it is before the Grauniad follows suit.

I looked into this a few months ago - see here.

Been plaything Akumajō Dracula on the Super Famicom* this evening. What a corker of a game.
* aka Super Castlevania IV.

Pro-Ject Debut III

Internet consensus would have you buy this.

And Kern: you're right. Haworth inspired Wuthering Heights.

Had a chat with HR. I said "This is your worldview, and this is mine. Which do you currently think is correct as it cannot be both, or your one?" Waiting to hear back from her manager.

Took my colleague aside and explained the situation. Should be a fun day.

Having my 3rd counselling session with my girlfriend at Relate tonight. The last one seemed to focus largely on what an unreasonable prick I appear to be, so I'm not really relishing tonight's session. Then last night I popped round to my ex's to see Zioette and when I got in, the missus seemed to be spoiling for a fight with me over the whole thing and pointed out how she'd be bringing up with the counsellor tonight about how she's sick of me seeing my ex and how things have got to change, etc. She's also not happy that I was thinking about collecting Zioette from her mum's a little earlier this Friday so I get more time with her over the Easter Weekend. She feels it's unfair, and we should stick to the usual routine so me and her "get a break too". She treats seeing my little girl like some massive chore that has to be done once a fortnight and doesn't seem to understand why I might actually want to see more of her than I already do.

I feel really quite fed up, more than a little bitter, actually kinda angry today. I'm finding it increasingly difficult keeping my cool with customers at work and am having to take little breaks between phone calls lest I tell one of them to go fuck themselves. I really wish I wasn't at work today.

Relationships are meant to be positive things, aren't they? Not things that make you want to curse everybody and everything, right?

Sounds stressy Zio. I think you are pro.

I find they can often be both, Zio.

There's something peculiarly charming about US states still arguing over where their boundaries lie:

'Georgia and Tennessee go to 'war' over water'(Telegraph)

The picture in the article is from Lookout Mountain, one of my favourite places in the South. Happy memories!

Quoted for truth.

I'm having a delightful day at work, where customers are phoning up for support because they don't know how to perform a certain function on their photocopier, so I tell them, and then they tell me that I can't be right, because that's not how they remembered doing it that one time about 6 years ago. At which point I feel like asking them why the fuck they bothered calling, seeing as they apparently know more about the product than I do.

Nearly lunch time. Just got to get to lunch. McDonald's treat day, I think. I've earned it.

You should come to the quiz tonight.

I actually would love to, but obviously I've got to have a counsellor and my girlfriend tell me what a dick I am tonight. Maybe next time?

I'm sure someone could do that for you at the quiz if you asked nicely enough?

It doesn't sound like the counselling is improving things, Zio. Do you feel any differently to how you did before you went to the first session? From the admittedly short description you've given, it seems like Ms Zio is taking this as an opportunity to get her point of view vindicated, rather than to work on things that aren't working well (and it seemed she had previously accepted she was somewhat at fault and had been acting like a dick when it came to your daughter, and is perhaps losing sight of that in the joy of digging the boot in).

Bottom line - is this going to work, given that the major issue was her attitude to Zioette and the fact you have a kid with an ex and she isn't getting past that?

Cheers, throughsilver! This does look pretty ace. Kern's has stolen my heart, though.

Ed: not that I'm a great lover of summer or anything, but man, fuck this country.

We can definitely do that! Just ask APOD.

Good luck with it tonight. Remember that the point of it is to see if it's worth going on with it. Some of the stuff is going to be about her resolving her shitty behaviour, but some of it is going to be stuff about what she sees as a problem between you, and that stuff is unlikely to be much fun for you. Chances are you will both have to make changes if you want to go on together.

I dunno. The bulk of the last session revolved around an argument we'd had about the upcoming Reading festival - we'd originally talked about going, then she turned around and said she wanted to go with a friend instead, but that I could still go along on the provision I brought a friend along to make up the numbers. I thought that was a shit thing for her to do, and it's a position she's not about to budge from. The counsellor agreed with her though and that I should just accept that sometimes friends do come first and there's nothing wrong with an expectation for me to also try to convince one of my friends to come along to to make up numbers and to just accept I can't go if I'm unable to do this for some reason. Which seems fucking bizarre to me, but a Relate counsellor tells me I'm wrong to feel the way I do about it, so what do I know.

We didn't talk about Zioette much at all, other than to briefly gloss over the fact that it's also wrong I visit her at her mum's once or twice a week because I should apparently now have boundaries in place meaning I have the barest minimum to do with Zioette's mum that I can possibly get away with.

I'm always a bright side kinda guy, and want to avoid confrontation and work through issues to make things work.
Also, I never tell people what they should do on the internet, as nobody knows the whole story.

But, in this case, bin it dude, it sounds awful. Get out and do something or someone that makes you happy.

Sadly, I agree. As I've said before, your daughter should be higher on the list than anyone. And to be honest, your girlfriend sounds like a pain in the arse.

I totally agree with this... All of it. That bit about it being "wrong" that you want to spend time with your daughter? That's making me angry just thinking about it.

I have to say, I can't see what you are getting out of this relationship

to everyone above, including me.

Yeah, I mean who wants their kid to grow up knowing their mother and father?

Sounds like that particular Relate counsellor is biased in favour of your girlfriend, to me!

What the fuck? Is the counsellor the mate MrsZ is taking to Reading or something?

Admittedly, you do need to take anything I say with a pinch of "my therapy didn't fix me completely and the last few weeks have been weird ("everything's going great except this tiny thing that still doesn't actually suck! Two days of feeling unable to cope with the world then!")" but that 'therapy' sounds fucked up.

Unless they're telling you an extreme in an attempt to move you somewhere towards the middle ground (see also: "fucked up").

We just replaced our 8 halogens in the kitchen with SimplyLED GU10s. They're ace.

You're a useless prick.

See - I'm great at it.

Seriously though, hope it goes as well, as long as its good for the long-term result, whatever that may be.

Speaking to a help desk earlier

That's a shame Zio, the first appointment sounded so promising. Tonight you could say you want the subject to go back to issues surrounding your daughter as that is a relationship dealbreaker and if that doesn't get resolved festival invites will be a moot point. Good luck!



In our house it's crazy, our little girl turned three on monday and saturday my inlaws came to stay for a week and a half and we've had loads of visitors etc. It's been great fun but also knackering as I've had flu and then my lungs went to pot and I've had two courses of antibiotics and am working on my second course of prednisone. One more working day for me and then easter fun.

Thanks for the thoughts guys. I'm worryingly past caring that much about it though, which I imagine is probably not a good sign.

In slightly nicer news (and in a thinly veiled attempt to steer things away from my relationship woes), I had a recruitment consultant phone me up today about a job that sounds totally my cup of tea, and I'm quite excited about it. I don't actually dislike the job I already have, but the 100-mile round trip commute I do every day is getting old, not to mention really, really expensive. I'm spending about £90 on fuel alone every week, I'd say, without even thinking about the fact I have to service my car every 6 months and all the other costs.

The job in question is field-based, so still a lot of travelling, but that technically doesn't bother me and I quite like the idea of travelling around and dealing with customers face-to-face. The basic salary is more than I'm currently on, they include a car and paid expenses in the package and there are no UK offices to be based from, so 20% of my time would be spent working from home. That, plus the fact it's still a basic Mon-Fri week with no risk of weekend work, would allow me plenty of time to see Zioette and massively help my financial situation at the same time. I'm kinda hopeful about this one.

Just spent the day somewhere where they have what can only be described as a giant modern version of Operation Wolf used for training. Wrap around 180 degree screen, 5.1 sound.

Stick that in an arcade, jazz up the gameplay a bit and you'd have a sure fire winner on your hands.