T'eyla Minh

There is a serious shitstorm approaching in the next couple of days at work and it's far too long and complicated to condense into a tweet-thread, so unfortunately I'll have to post about it here. I didn't want my first post of 2019 to be a work rant but here we are...

( Can I retire yet? )

TL;DR: we suck at implementing changes in a stress-free and seamless manner and I am tired.

In more positive news, I really want to do a celebratory post about Farscape turning 20 (even though that makes me feel So Old), which I will probably create on Facebook in the first instance and then maybe copy over here as well. Watch this and that and all the spaces. (If I'm not dead by then from sheer incompentence.)

I am still two write-ups behind, despite having promised myself I'd get them done this weekend. Am busy tonight and also Wednesday (meal for Jade's 21st) so hopefully on Thursday I might get at least one of them done.

Anyway, last night was the long-awaited Easter special of Jonathan Creek, namely "The Clue of the Savant's Thumb". I really wish it had been on Sunday night instead so I'd have a day to recover - as it stands, I didn't get to bed until gone midnight last night thanks to obsessively refreshing both Twitter and Tumblr for fan reactions, and even then did not get to sleep until nearly two.

I probably shouldn't be abusing New Job's technology to be doing LJ entries, but as it's quiet and nobody is looking (shhhh!) I shall at least try and get some of this nonsense out of my head before I attempt (and doubtless fail) to sleep tonight. (Entry also finished at home much later.)

Because seriously, I need to vent this. cloudsinvenice and thefleshfailure may both wish to wait until after they've watched before clicking the cut...

( The Clue of the Savant's Thumb - quite obviously, contains SPOILERS and copious amounts of CAPSLOCK ABUSE. )

I hope the three episodes being filmed in the autumn are better - or that Renwick falls out with Sarah Alexander and finds some way to write her character out like everyone else. :P

Okay, hopefully now I've vented that I will actually get some sleep tonight. SO TIRED.

This morning I had one of those terrifying, synchronistic moments where my MP3-player gave me a song that was so poignantly accurate I simply had to vent it. Obviously, the manner in which I vented it was tweeting commoncomitatus (who is on holiday, which only makes it worse that I felt the need to destroy her brain with it, too - but yay for modern technology not leaving me in fandomic limbo!) telling her to Google the lyrics in light of the piece of fic I sent her last night.

And then, of course, all the people on the bus think I'm a weirdo for trying not to laugh at my phone.

The song is P!nk's "True Love" (from her new album - click the link for bonus Lily Allen!). The fandom, obviously, is Jonathan Creek. The worst part is the last time the song rolled around (because my MP3-playlist is alphabetical) I struggled to think of a 'ship to which it could relate. Then this morning I nearly facepalmed from obviousness.

( Fics are progressing... )

TL;DR: FANDOM FLAIL RARRRR.

Coming out of the cut for this. cloudsinvenice, when are you good to start the joint re-watch? GETTING ANTSY OMG. It occurs to me I've not re-watched them on the MAHOOSIVE telly yet either (other than occasional glimpses on Watch when it's on), so coupling that with the fact the PS3 upscales the DVD's, I'm even more excited. :D

That being said - anyone else care to join us in the Grand Jonathan Creek Watchathon? (I still need to download "The Grinning Man" and "The Judas Tree", but frankly everything after series 3 is moot anyway. I need to re-watch both series 4 and the recent specials for context and research purposes, but nonetheless I do not relish the idea of suffering through those six episodes of Carla. Meh.)

Anyway, whenever the re-watch starts I'll announce it, and anyone with access to episodes is free to join the fun. :)

RIGHT THEN. I'm now not doing anything this weekend except a ridiculously hard concert in a place that's almost impossible to get to if it rains (i.e Worcester) so I'm going to attempt (being the operative word) to get the Fandom for February meme under my belt. If only because I intended to do Movies for May and can't if the Fandom meme is still outstanding. Also I have two of these posts already mostly written up, which was done before I fell out with February and gave up on it. :P

Also Paul is having a games night (I cooked a chilli - OM NOM NOM) so I can't watch the Giles+Sue Royal Wedding (though, yeah, WTF is up with the no advertising, Beeb?! I only found out via Twitter that it was tonight.)

Okay, without further ado, here is the first catch-up post. I might post another one later. We'll see.

( Day 19 )

LONG CATCH-UP IS LONG. Thankfully I wrote most of that at work back on 19th February. :P

Yesterday's stupidity continues...

In the midst of moaning about fee earners' bad dictation yesterday, Forgetful quoted an example of one particular legal assistant, who dictated that she required a Form 1.

A Form 1, I should explain, is basically a one-sheet consent form which is signed by the parties to a case, enabling the Applicant (usually us) to renew an Interim Care Order (so called because it only lasts a month each time) by writing to the Court, rather than having to hear the matter each time.

We type enough of these that, in any case, she should know what the precedent number is. And even if she doesn't, we have a list of all the precedents to hand, both hard and electronic copies.

She brought this up with the legal assistant in question, who was under the (admittedly wrong) assumption that it was "automatic". We're still not quite sure what she thought would happen, though initially it was thought that the digital dictation system would work in partnership with the case management system (i.e. IKEN) and open up the correct precedent at the same time as opening the dictation. Given the issues with IKEN, I can understand why this clearly isn't the case. I assume the legal assistant thought this was the process, or alternatively that we simply typed 'Form 1' into IKEN to get the precedent.

Anyway, Forgetful brought the legal assistant over to her desk to demonstrate the problem of not quoting the precedent number and merely requesting a 'form 1', by showing her "how many documents come up when you type in Form 1".

I tried this myself earlier, just out of interest. Guess how many documents come up.

Go on, guess.

( I'm going to cut this because it's just too bloody brilliant. )

I think Forgetful has achieved her quota of fail for the entire year in one single meeting.

In other news, earlier on I held open the door for Arsey (he was right behind me so I couldn't exactly let it go in his face, tempting though it was) and he actually thanked me. Maybe he's finally got over himself. We can only hope.

Electrics are back on, lift is functioning, heating is (just about) working, though the radiators are lukewarm and they're going to call the engineer out again just to double-check things are actually okay...

...but it did take me an hour and a half to get to work.

Okay. I admit that this more snow than most of us under the age of 30 have ever seen in our lifetimes here in Britain, but... come on! It's been snowing on and off for about three weeks solid, and when it hasn't been snowing there've been sheets of ice everywhere isntead, so why the panic like it's something new? Gah.

I know we're running out of grit and the roads are treacherous and blah blah blah. But the roads would be less dangerous if there weren't so many idiot drivers around making them dangerous.

Anyway, that's enough on that. I know that my opinions on this are unpopular. :P

( Another potentially unpopular opinion )

I wrote down the basic points of my epic dream last night so will attempt to type it up again later on, assuming I can get home tonight without having to walk. It wasn't so much a lengthy dream, or even particularly involved / plot-driven, it was just very detailed and intricate in terms of its atmosphere. So, watch this space.

I also need to update about the weekend just gone...

On Friday night Lisa decided to cook for us, which effectively ended our what-to-have-for-tea conundrum. She made beef curry with wild rice and naan bread, which was very nice indeed. We then stayed downstairs in the warm and had a few drinks (Lisa and Paul considerably more than me and Pete [Lisa's bloke]) before finally going back upstairs at about 2.30am!

On getting home Friday night we realised that the bath contained a pool of water, there being a blockage. So the majority of Saturday was spent attempting to unblock the bath.

( Epic Tale of Unblockage )

On Sunday, due to losing most of Saturday, we did absolutely nothing. :P

And this week, obviously, has been a constant stream of building-related woes. It feels like I've been back at work for months, and it's only been a week and a half. Bloody weather.

( Saturday = FAIL )

Sunday was sedate by comparison. The usual. EastEnders and embroidery. We also investigated the new bargain shop at the end of our road, which isn't as bad as anticipated - lots of good deals on all sorts of things, including sweets, so we've been ridiculously unhealthy all weekend. Meh.

Today I had my follow-up appointment at the hospital and everything is fine so I've been discharged. Trying to get to work through Bristol Road traffic wasn't so much fun (probably should have gotten the train, really) and I finally got in at 10.15 or thereabouts. We have been ridiculously understaffed all day (so what else is new - where the bloody hell is everyone?!) and helping out the other side AGAIN. Noor, who normally stays late on Mondays, had to go at 3.30, and I went at 4.00. Fuck it, I've had enough of being the only one willing to stay late, quite frankly. Sandra and Joy were both in anyway, they can do some work for a change.

Cleaning the bathroom on my return home has clearly not mellowed me, sorry. :P

*goes away*

Journal re-tagging continues. On looking at the list, I have one thing to say:

"God GOD, that's a lot of shake fandoms!" :P

Was just in Tesco because I figured I would fare better getting a pumpkin now instead of later. Considering there were three left, turns out that may well be true. Anyway, it reminded me of when I was in there the other day and the entry I was going to do on getting home...

Periodically, the Tesco Metro in town decide to reverse their escalators, presumably to save on belt wear or whatever. Anyway, this decidedly simple action is enough to make ordinarily intelligent (at least, one assumes) people into blathering idiots.

I understand that we get used to things being a certain way, and when that changes it is quite confusing. But that isn't any excuse for the common sense lapse which results in the following:

Pushing past other shoppers who are coming off an escalator which is going DOWN, only to then attempt to go UP on the same escalator because it was that way around the other week, and then look surprised when it's not any more. You'd think the people coming OFF THE ESCALATOR would be enough of a tip-off...

People are weird.

Okay. So I send this email, right? It's from one of our Solicitors to various people in the Press Office to do with this Order we're trying to serve on local newspapers to stop them writing about a case. Anyway. The details aren't that important.

The Solicitor the email is from only works Monday to Wednesday. Last night she took the draft email home to check the recipients and then came back to me this morning by telephone to confirm them. So I sent the email.

The following should be noted: there is a nicely visible, non-occluded box just next to the To and CC/BCC fields stating "Please reply to [name of Solicitor]". (This unfortunately does not create an automatic "replyto:" or my life would be a lot easier; instead it relies on the recipient to read and comprehend the message and insert a different name to mine after they hit 'Reply'. Nonetheless, it's clearly visible. Not secretly hidden or subtle.)

In addition, there is a line in the email which states, "In my absence, please fee free to contact [Senior Solicitor] or [Principal Solicitor]".

So what do they do?

Frelling well ring me, that's what.

I don't even know how they got my number, as the call didn't come through the switchboad but directly to me.

I even said to the person, "I am just a WPO" but he carried on waffling on. Eventually, I just told him, "Put everything you just said into an email and send it to [Solicitor]", which he said he would do, but given he continued talking even after I implied I couldn't talk to him I doubt the email will get where it's supposed to go.

I mean, seriously: how difficult is it to read simple instructions? I could forgive missing the little box, and I've had enough emails-intended-for-Solicitors to forward on in my time (it amuses me when they don't even think to CC the Solicitor into the email either; do they think it will magically appear in their inbox, or that I am their Seekrit Identitee?), but manging not to ring either of the two people who could actually have taken the call? Meh.

I got used to random calls in Child Prtoection because it was easy enough to blag my way through them. I was perceptive and knew where people were, case details, random helpful bits of information. Attempting to blag my way through a Legal call? No way. Not going to try.

For the sake of my sanity: READ THINGS PROPERLY.

---

In other news: last night I finished chapter five of "Strange Glue" with some Daniel/Alexis-type silliness. Their conversation turned out to be a lot easier than I was anticipating, but probably only because they're forced to be nice to each other instead of sniping. Nevertheless, I will tweak it tonight and type up what I wrote of chapter six so that I can get that finished and get back to regular updates, hopefully. At this rate, it'll be Christmas again before I finish it. Which would be apt, but still... if nothing else I could try and get it finished in time for the fic timeline to coincide with real life. After the Christmas section is done it skips ahead a few months for the final chapter...

Apart from the above annoyance, today is a lot calmer as regards work. Which luckily means people are leaving me alone and not stealing my work. (Although Sandra has developed a new annoying trait of taking a piece of work first thing in the morning from the night before, and booking it in under yesterday's date. We're meant to start a new page for each new day, and anything which comes in after 5.15 [or 4.15 on Friday] gets booked in as coming in at 8.45 the morning after. It's a minor annoyance, but I'm a stickler for rules and it messes my book up. :P)

I'm going to get a clock CD/radio for the bedroom from Argos later. I barely listen to the radio any more (need an MP3-er which has a tuner, I think) despite the stereo being tuned to every station you could ever want, and need to get back into the habit. Also, the only CD player we have in the bedroom currently is a walkman attached to some really old speakers (the kind which plug into a headphone jack and don't require any power), so it would be nice to have a proper one in there...

Aside from that, the weather has taken a turn for the worst again. Was that Spring, then?

I knew there was something else I meant to post about: this piece of stupidity which I am currently hoping to resolve:

Fact:I am going to a wedding on Monday.

Fact: The wedding is taking place in a hotel somewhere outside of Manchester. I live in Birmingham. I do not drive.

Conclusion the First: I will have to travel to said hotel using public transport: two trains and a taxi.

Conclusion the Second, via Conclusion the First above: I do not want to travel in the clothes I will wear to the wedding. I do not want to attend the wedding in the clothes in which I am travelling. They are two separate things. Therefore, I will need time to change.

Fact: The wedding starts at 2.30pm. We are staying in the same hotel where the wedding is taking place. The letter from the hotel confirming our room booking politely informs us that we cannot check in until 2.30pm. When the wedding starts.

Conclusion the Third: Um?

Yeah. The hotel are dumb. They are hosting (for want of a better word) the wedding, which starts at 2.30, and will not let the guests book in until that time. And they don't seem to think there is any kind of flaw in this plan.

Lisa noticed this before we did, so with any luck we can resolve it. It's just... THE STUPID KILLS ME. Nearly every single hotel I have ever stayed in has a 12.00pm check-in time. (We also have to check out again by 10.30 the next morning. AFTER A WEDDING. WHERE THERE WILL BE BOOZE AND DRUNKEN PEOPLE WHO WILL NOT GO TO BED UNTIL 5.00AM!)

Well, they certainly won't be getting any wedding business off me. Weddings are quite stressful enough, without the added hassle of messing your guests around. I suppose we'll have to eat our meal within 15 minutes or lose our table or something equally ridiculous, or not be allowed to stay up past 11.00pm celebrating in case we disturb other guests.

*rolls eyes*

I'll be glad when April is over.