T'eyla Minh

People trying to book their easter / summer leave already has resulted in a massive fuss over nothing.

Last week various people were wandering around checking with the WPO team so they could try and book leave. People have deposits to pay on caravans and holiday cottages which are only available certain times, fair enough. Except unfortunately our line manager is off sick and has been since before Christmas, and apparently nobody is allowed to authorise our leave in her absence.

Actually, it's because they're trying to book EASTER and SUMMER leave, which are notoriously difficult times. Because if it were actually the case that no-one can authorise leave, I wouldn't have come in this morning to discover I can't have the week off in February that I wanted because someone snuck two flex days in when I wasn't looking, thus taking the amount of people off up to three. It's partially my own fault for waiting until this week to book it, but still quite annoying.

As it transpires, I've now had to book it from 9th to 13th March instead, which means that for the entire of March our team is going to be one typist down. Noor is off the first, third and fourth weeks of the month (in the same boat as having lots of leave to use up), and me the second. Hopefully it won't be too horrendously busy and/or stressful, but still, I'd rather not have had to book it off then, as I'd rather have it in February.

It also buggers up the plan I had, which was to book the Sunset Boulevard tickets for 13th February and then have a week off after that (although it was dependent on Paul being able to get the leave also). I need to book the tickets before the end of January to get a special half-price offer, also, so I'd rather the leave situation be sorted first.

The thing which irritates me more, though, is that they're bloody moaning in the first place. I know it must be frustrating when there's only a certain time period in which you can book your precious holiday cottage, but for God's sake, at least you can afford one. I would take whatever days I could damn well get if I could even afford a long sodding weekend somewhere, let alone a whole week. My last proper holiday (by which I mean the hot country, lying on a beach kind) was back when I went to Crete. Annual holidays (even twice a year, in some cases) are a privilege, not a right.

Although if it's this bloody stressful to try and get the time off, it's probably just as well I'm not going anywhere.


In other news, the road through Kings Heath was open and running freely this morning, despite being closed all day yesterday. I imagine they had no choice but to re-open it, or it would cause absolute chaos. Things were bad enough on Saturday, though possibly my experience was somewhat exacerbated by going in and out of Birmingham three times over the course of the day...

Also, I appear to have lost another two pounds, though it's admittedly difficult to tell with our cheap scales. I should really get some digital ones.

Despite bemoaning my failure to keep resolutions, I have a few vaguely achievable plans for this year.

( Which I'm sure you don't care about... )

Gah, it's quiet here today. Just had an email to say our manager is back in tomorrow and will sort the leave out as a matter of urgency, thank goodness. I'm just waiting until it all blows over when it comes to Easter, quite frankly...

I'll do a "2005 in review" post or something resembling one a bit later on, assuming I can remember anything about the year. I might take the time to link to old LJ entries like I did a while ago...

For now, though, a generic update about the Day Today.

I was quite tired this morning. Had quite a strange dream about getting the train to work... I was listening to my MP3 player on the train and nearly missed my stop, and then when I did get off the train there was a ramp from the platfrom up and out through the cemetery (note to self: take camera to get some pictures for deathly_decayed, if this is possible without being arrested). I was trying to get some money out of what I thought was a cash machine, but it turned out that it only dispensed floppy discs and ink cartridges. Quite bizarre, especially considering I managed to forget my debit card this morning...

Having finally got off my fat behind to sort out my bus pass by Direct Debit (why did I not do this before? For some reason, I thought they needed two passport photos, but it turned out they didn't... and then, as it transpired, I found 8 of them in a drawer, presumably done for just such a purpose) I am now considering changing to a Centro Card. I did a few sums this morning, and the basic outcome is this:

• using only the bus to and from work would ordinarily cost me approximately £88.00/month. That doesn't include other journeys. My bus pass is about £35.00/month, thus saving me £53.00/month.
  
• using the bus and train would potentially cost me either £102.00/month (with a return) or £96.00/month (with a single, only going home by train, not to work). That doesn't include random £1.60 fares to/from Bournville. A 3-zone CentroCard is £55.00/month, which saves me £41.00/month.

Definitely worth considering. TWM have already sent me February's card, and I have to give a month's notice, so I should probably sort it out mid-January...

Anyway, enough of the maths. Today, Amanda and Cynthia and both POs are on leave. I've been here since 8.15 this morning (can't do any typing - not that I have much to do - because the P and U drives are offline again...) and Sandra arrived at her usual 9.30, just as I was carrying two reams of paper along the corridor to go upstairs. She asked if I was struggling, but then turned right into the loos rather than, like, helping me.

She then proceeded to take down all of the Christmas decorations other than the stuff in my corner and the tree, which I've since taken down anyway. She even took down the old thank-you cards and postcards from our card-pillar, (except for one, for some reason), and buggered off again at about 11.00. As Paul noted, she apparently only came in to make the office miserable rather than do any work.

(ETA: She's back now. Having a personal phone call, but back nonetheless...)

Despite this, and the fact that I couldn't sleep last night (spent four days with Paul and missed him...) I'm in a surprisingly good mood. Possibly because I found about 50p hidden in my purse, so have enough to go home by train tonight. :)

( Resolutions from 2005 )

Enough of that. I'll make some more when I've done my lowdown. For now, I'd better sign this off and do some more photocopying. Yay, toner.

just so i don't forget them, here are my new year's resolutions, most of which i've thought about for a while, and some off the top of my head:

( i do hereby decree... )

so. there we go. liklihood of my keeping any of them? pretty slim, however, i can but try...