If you've got time, stay and listen to my story...

I think I've known all of you long enough now that you may all remember this incident in September 2008, where my flat got flooded out after heavy rainfall.

( Yeah. Guess what.... )

The summer hols are almost over once more - thank god. It's been trying, as always, and I'll be glad when I no longer need to arrange childcare for Rowan while I'm at work.

He spent the first week camping at Chepstow Racecourse with the St John Ambulance, and he seems to have hated every minute of it. I missed him while he was away, and didn't get anything done that I had planned - I mostly came home from work and crashed out for the evening. I did take the opportunity to go see 'Captain America', though I would have preferred not to go alone. Such is my life, however.

Since he got back, he's spent the first three days of each week at his usual holiday club in a nearby leisure centre, then Thursdays with his grandmother. On Fridays I've been taking him with me to the rehearsals I've been running for the alto section of my choir - though only one or two ever turn up, and they're usually the ones that make the effort to attend the regular rehearsals every week and only need a little bit extra practise. The whole point was for the people who've missed several weeks, or are new, to get the chance to catch up! *sigh* I realise it's not easy for everyone to make it - I get excuses about meetings and team lunches and all sorts - so I try not to let it get to me. It can be hard to reign in my inner Rachel Berry though, when I hear people in my section bemoaning how they 'don't know this one' - they're not even practising at home! *grrr*

Anyway. After the rehearsal is done, Rowan and I go get a bite to eat and spend the afternoon doing something fun. Usually it's the cinema; we've seen 'Harry Potter', 'The Smurfs' (though in 2D - I recommend the 3D as I think we missed out in certain places. Didn't expect to, as most of the 3D in the films I've seen have been shoehorned in) and yesterday we went to see 'Glee In Concert'.

Best. Use. Of. 3D. Ever!

I don't care if anyone's sneering at the screen now, 'cause we went to see that. I loved it, and so did Rowan.

Last Friday I took Rowan swimming - something I haven't done since he was a baby, though he's spent time in the pool over the last couple of years through school. We were in the water for about two and a half hours, and loved every minute of it. He can't actually swim yet, but his confidence in the water is wonderful; we messed around with the floats a lot, pulling each other through the water, and he would cling to my back while I jumped around, both of us laughing like idiots. The last hour or so, we were deep in the middle of the pool - one of the advantages of me being short and him being tall is that we can currently mess around at more or less the same depth - and he was launching himself off my thighs into the water, trying to do somersaults. The only sad thing about it was that they never put the wave machine on the whole time we were there *pout*

The next day, we were joined by Rowan's classmate Lewis, and Lewis's little sister Eryn. Their parents were having to move house - all the way to the other side of the city too, so they've had to change schools.... *sulks* - so we kept Lewis and Eryn entertained for the day. They have four kids in total, the eldest being old enough to help out with the move, but I wouldn't have been able to cope with the toddler as well. Rowan's excitable enough when he has friends around, but when Eryn's around it's like they're a pair of Tazmanian Devils! *laughs* Neither of them were truly naughty, though I had to tell Eryn off more times than I'm used to 'cause she kept running off, and Lewis is always well behaved. We took them bowling down the Bay, which went well, then they cleaned me out on the amusement arcade *sigh* But I think they all had fun, and their Dad came to collect them just as I was dishing up some pasta for their tea. Going to miss having them all around, but hopefully the 'net will help with keeping in touch.

Work's been as dull as ever, and there's less work to go around at the moment too. We get our work allocated to us through an Excel spreadsheet - and hasn't that been a nightmare, having up to thirty people trying to work off the same file simultaneously! - and they've recently started training up previously 'phones-only teams to do some of our work. Which, of course, means there's less for the rest of us... *eyeroll* I really hate coming in of a morning to find maybe an hour and a half's work for me, then have to spend the rest of my - admittedly short - shift trying to locate more. My productivity always seems to suffer when I have to go looking.

There has been a new development, however. They're looking into testing how feasible it would be to have staff working from home. I think the main focus is on 'phones staff, as IT will have to install a system and phone into the work area of whoever tests it, but I emailed the Ops Manager asking whether this would also apply to someone like me since it would be very, very easy to arrange. All I would need would be access to the database software that hold's the policy files, the excel files we work off, and my work email account. I didn't hear back from Wayne, but a couple of days later I'm included in an email to those who have been selected to do the trial! I honestly don't know how well it would work out for me - I don't have a room I can use as an 'office', just a small desk over to the side of the living room where the home PC is. But depending on how they would expect me to organise my work hours, it could make things a lot easier for me regarding childcare - or I could find being at home extremely distracting. I honestly don't know, but it might be fun to find out. Plus attending choir might be a bit of a challenge, since it's a thirty minute bus ride each way. The trial's supposed to be for between four and six months - we'll just have to wait and see.

My new course for the Open University begins in about six weeks! *bites nails* It's a music course, and I've been going through their preparatory programme to revise the music theory I was supposed to have been taught during my GCSEs. As I'm sure you can imagine, the music department in my school wasn't that well funded and it was considered a 'bird course' by five out of the nine pupils in my class. I've been learning how the Sibelius software we've been provided works, mostly by painstakingly typing in scores out of my collection of song books - that is the best fun ever! And it helps cement some of the mechanics of music into my head as I go so it's not a waste of time. I'm really looking forward to the course itself, and once Rowan's back in school I'll have the majority of my Fridays back to get stuck in before it actually starts in October.

We have lots happening in the choir too; Mardis Gras next Saturday, which should be a blast, then we have a gig in London a couple of weeks later!! Just a small one in a hotel in Picadilly, but it has some sort of link to the BAFTAs? *hands* Then at the end of September we're throwing a party at the Tiger Tiger nightclub as a fund-raiser for our album, before we get stuck in to actually making it at the end of October! \O/ I honestly can't wait! We should have the actual discs in our grubby little paws by Christmas!

Okay, so I was sorta told off this week for not updating this thing properly recently. I guess this means I bore you for a bit about what's not been going on around here...

( Cut to save the flists )

My birthday yesterday. Predictably quiet, uneventful day, though the guys at work did decorate my desk for the first time in the seven years I've worked there!

Thank you to everyone who wished me happy birthday, either on LJ or Facebook :-)

Rowan gave me a very cute necklace and earring set, as well as a small cuddly giraffe. :-) Mam took him to ASDA on Saturday morning a couple of weeks ago to pick them out. I had a HMV gift voucher from the guys at work, and some money off my Nan and my Bampy (my brother and sister's grandfather) - I'm thinking of putting that towards getting Band Hero *grins*. Mam and Dad are holding on to a portion of Mam's redundancy payout to cover the deposit for when I find a new place.

Rowan was the one getting all excited about my birthday, as he kept checking how many days there were left and saying how I'd look so beautiful in my pressie *affectionate eyeroll* He's not the best at keeping secrets, not unless it's really important.

Rowan's got himself a project on Berlin to complete in the next three weeks. I'm still trying to figure out exactly what he's supposed to hand in; it can either be a scrapbook, a Word document or a Powerpoint presentation - Rowan wants to do it on Powerpoint, but apparently he's not supposed to stand in front of the class and give a talk :-p I'm trying to help him as best I can without taking over completely, but it's hard to know if I'm pushing too hard and making him do too much... *sigh* I have an assignment of my own due in a couple of weeks too, which doesn't help.

I have been up since 5am, and was at work by 7 in order to catch a coach to Swansea. Today was the annual Staff General Meeting, and since we have now opened a new office in Newport it was being held in three venues; the Swansea Grand Theatre for the Swansea staff, St Davids Hall in Cardiff for my lot, and the Newport Hilton for the Newport people.

So we had to get to the Grand stupid-early in the morning for our soundcheck, then hang around till our spot about an hour into the programme before jumping on the coach back to Cardiff. While waiting, Bridget called the Altos into one of the dressing rooms for one more little rehearsal - which made one of the Sopranos joke that we're like a little club! *laughs* Since the soloist for the first part of the Michael Jackson medley was a Sop - and not in the room at the time - I quickly busked her part so the others could practise properly.

We then drove direct to St Davids Hall (using the rear stage door - which was novel as I've never been up on the roof of the St David's Centre before!) for another soundcheck, followed by more waiting. Suzi, Jo and I went to grab a coffee as a form of 'lunch break', before returning through the stage door that I remember using when I performed there as part of the South Glamorgan County Choir. It was funny heading for the coffee shop, though, as we had to pass all the people lining up to get into the Hall through the regular entrance - those of them who recognised us were all "Where are you going????" *laughs* I think we worried quite a few people!

There was a bit of a problem with the scheduling (these things never run correctly to time - I think the co-ordinator needed lessons off Ianto on how to use his stopwatch! *grin*) so we went on later than we'd expected. Then there was a problem with the coach so we hung around in the roof carpark for quite a while just chilling while we waited for the coach to come back for us.

Then we went to the Hilton outside Newport - which is not somewhere I'd ever been before. It's a bit of a departure singing on a stage in a meeting hall, but it wasn't a large crowd - probably didn't warrant booking The Waterfront just yet. As a result, we had nowhere to wait 'backstage' so we sat around in the lobby chatting. They were running even later than before this time, for some reason, so we had ages to wait. We spent the last half hour in the bar area just outside the conference room, which meant we had to keep very quiet...which is never easy when there's over forty of you! We didn't get out of there till gone 5, which had me worried as I was expecting Rowan back at home anytime after six... He spent the night at his friend's house, and they also collected him from school for me this afternoon.

We got back to the Cardiff office by quarter to six, and Suzi gave me a lift home so I was back in plenty of time for Rowan to get back home. Another friend in the Alto section, Zoe, had already offered me a lift home, but she lives all the way in Cwmbran and Suzi lives just ten minutes from me, so I thanked Zoe for being kind enough to put herself out for me but it made more sense for everyone if I accepted Suzi's offer instead.

On the whole, all three gigs went really well. There was a timing issue with the 'Man In The Mirror' section of the MJ Medley, but there was also a problem with the backing track at the first two gigs. This was fixed by Newport, but we still rushed a little. Had to keep an incredibly close eye on Andrea in order to bring ourselves back from that.

I am now extremely tired, thanks in part to what is for me a very, very early start, and partly from the sheer effort involved in those performances. We have to move a lot during the songs, and the adrenaline rush leaves you absolutely drained afterwards. I loved it though :-)

It's been very busy lately; had an assignment due yesterday for my OU course, and also a gig last night at the Museum of Welsh Life in St Fagans.

I think I royally screwed up the assignment - plus I uploaded it to the server at one minute past midnight. Which is one minute after the twelve hour grace period ends... *sigh* Ah well.

The gig at St Fagans was actually work-related; all the heads of Personnel from all our international ventures had come in to Cardiff for a meet-and-greet type conference, and they'd put on a meal at the Workingmans Club transplanted from its original location in Oakdale to the museum.

So there was I, singing on the stage in the very room where they held that Ball in the Doctor Who two-parter "Human Nature/The Family of Blood" *geeks out*

The gig went well, despite some pretty ropey rehearsals. I think we actually nailed 'Somebody To Love' for the first time in over a year! :-p I could actually hear the harmonies us Altos usually mess up, and we hit the crescendo at the right point - which is almost unprecedented. The audience were whooping and cheering, which was great, and they also started clapping along during the final song (The 'Born Free' medley we took to the Albert Hall) at Andrea's encouragement. This did make things difficult, however, as they were not clapping along with the beat so we had to forcibly tune them out so as to not lose our rhythm.

The real fun came afterwards, when we left the Hall to make our way home. It was around eight thirty by this time, and black as pitch out there. St Fagans is a mostly open-air museum, and we'd made our way to the Hall through a quite well lit, but lengthy path, and we all wanted to take the shorter route back to the main complex. This, however, was not so well lit and they've closed down one of the old houses for renovations, so the regular route was not available - and we couldn't see that in the dark! *laughs* So we ended up heading towards the storage sheds, and had to backtrack to find the temporary path that goes alongside the house. Suzi was, of course, in ridiculously high heels, and Jo and I had to hold her steady as we went over the cobbled path in the dark *giggles*

Then we had to find out how to get back to the carpark. I was somewhere in the middle of the group, so I followed along when they didn't take the normal turning towards to the exit (I've spent many a Saturday at St Fagans with Rowan and Mam - it's free). Of course there was no-one to let us out through the complex, but one of the staff did turn up and point us to the proper exit. I then got myself a little confused and was insisting we were supposed to take the normal exit on the left, past the rest rooms. But in my defence, I couldn't see that the service gate was unlocked! ;-)

Tomorrow, we're attending the funeral of a long-standing member of staff who passed away last week after a battle with cancer. I didn't know her personally, though several people I work or sing with did, and she came to see us when we sang for Tenovus at Llandaff Cathedral. Her family asked if we would attend the funeral in order to boost the sound of the congregation during the hymns, so they wouldn't sound as weak and lacklusture as normal. I feel rather uneasy about attending, as I never met the woman, but I feel like I should anyway as part of the choir. God knows enough of them are going to be bawling their eyes out rather than singing - including George and Andrea. George used to work for the company so she knew the woman, and has taken it quite badly. I don't know if Andrea knew her, but by her own admission she's one of those people who will well up during such an emotional scenario - they had moments just today when we were going over the hymn list to ensure we had some familiarity with them.

All this has meant that we've needed extra rehearsals this week; three in all - one Altos-only practise and a regular rehearsal in preparation for the St Fagans gig, and one today ready for the funeral. So I've been having to work on for the last four days to try and make up for the three hours I've been away from my desk during work time. Wasn't easy, as we ran out of work half an hour before I'd planned to leave on Tuesday, and I left after just an extra half hour yesterday so I could get Rowan from school on time. Leaving an hour later than normal tends to make me just slightly late picking him up, since the whole stupid reshuffle of the bus system, and I was working to a deadline yesterday.

Ugh... I am tired now. Forgot to set the V+ to record last night's NCIS, so I watched them in bed at midnight since I was still awake after trying to finish my assignment. Means I didn't get to sleep till gone 2am - I know, stupid. Ah well...

Today was the annual Staff General Meeting at work. As some of you may recall, I've been taking part in a singing group at work and our first goal (aside from the brief gig we did at the Winter Wonderland at Christmas) was to perform a few songs at the start of it, while people were finding their seats.
( Cutting for length )

Rowan finally succumbed to the family cold at school today - poor love is very pale, and completely not himself. He's barely moved from the sofa all evening, and that's totally not him.

This means it's very unlikely I'll be at work tomorrow, despite the fact it's Dad's day off work. In point of fact, that's going to make things even more unpleasant as Dad's going to be very disgruntled at having company for the second week in a row...*sigh*

He was bad enough on Sunday, when I could do little more than lie prone on the sofa myself.

I don't know how work's going to react, as I'm dealing with a replacement manager (Louise is on maternity leave) and I am supposed to be working all five days. However, they don't pay you when you take a 'Care of Dependant' day anyway.

I'm also a little frustrated as there's a project at work I'm taking part in, and we're supposed to be meeting tomorrow afternoon. I've worked an extra hour and a half this week 'cause it's not entirely work-related and will take up pretty much half my working day, and it didn't look like I was going to be allowed 'time out' to attend. Not that they have much work for me to do these days anyway...

On a positive note, my name got drawn in a competition to win two cinema tickets! You had to not take a single sick day during October to qualify, and the winners were announced during the 'Employee Of The Month' awards meeting this afternoon - I wasn't expecting to win anything, as they always schedule these for times when I'm not in the office anyway, so I had my back to the meeting helping clean up some spilled Sea Monkeys! You can imagine my surprise when my name was called out! Also came this close to winning £80 in the bingo game too! *makes "Rats!" fingersnap*

I was so mad at the end of work today I nearly cried.

About fifteen minutes before my shift ended, my manager handed me the final draft of my Appraisal form for this year. This not only has the comments made by the two of us, but also the department manager - the same guy who thought I was going to spend my M&S vouchers on outfits for my roleplaying :-p

When I read what he wrote, I was stunned. He pretty much stated that I need to buck my act up, not just in my productivity, but in the emails I write to customers and the quality of my work.

WHAT???

Now, my productivity has always been a problem, I won't deny it. But the reason I'm still with the company after five years is because of the high quality of my work. I never get less than ninety-five percent for each piece of work they assess, and I never get any errors registered against me. So how the hell can he say the quality of my work is poor?

I told my manager when I handed the form back that I needed to talk to her about his comments tomorrow. I knew damn well if I tried to address it right then I would end up crying - I may still do tomorrow, but I had to give myself the time to process it.

Oh, and one of my objectives for the coming year is to 'raise my profile' within the team :-p Like hell...

It's been a trying day so far...

Today was the official 'launch day' of the restructure at work, so there was a competition between the Cardiff and Swansea offices to see who could sell the most breakdown cover. As of about three this afternoon, we were winning.

There was also a buffet laid on, and we were allowed to go fetch some food at about quarter past one. I appear to have been the only one on the team not aware of our allotted time, despite it apparently being shouted across the floor most of the morning. When Suzi called over on her way downstairs to get hers, to see if I was coming too, one of the other girls made a quip about being shocked I wasn't the first one through the door!

WTF?

Yes, I enjoy food. My size is proof of that, though I'm hardly morbidly obese, thank you very much! And it may seem like I'm always eating at my desk, but it's harder to judge that when a person's only in for four hours a day. I often walk in with a few odds and ends; some pain au chocolat that are on a 2-for-80p offer in Sainsburys for my breakfast, a bottle (or two if there's a multiby on) of Lucozade and, sometimes whatever I picked up for my lunch. I usually have one pain while I'm waiting for my system to load up and, unless I'm extra hungry, save the second one when the others wander off for their morning break. Today, since my throat's been hurting me, I also picked up a gooseberry fool as I thought it might be a little soothing. As it happens, I'd also forgotten about the buffet, so I'd brought sandwiches and a packet of crisps in with me.

We do often have snack supplies bought with our team fun-money, but we haven't for a while now and I don't raid that very much anyway. One guy on our team was notorious for constantly raiding the cupboard, back when I was only in three days a week, and if anything I used to try and get my fair share! The best stuff was usually gone after a couple of days, anyway.

It just hurts, especially when the person making the remarks has only recently joined the team, having been a phones team supervisor before going on maternity leave. She's made comments about me before, and I'm always stunned because she really doesn't know me!

Gah!

So that had me in a bad mood at work, and then I had to hear all about Rowan acting up at school today and hitting some of his classmates! *scowls* That's not really normal behaviour for him, and his teacher hasn't needed to speak to me about him for months. He can't give me an explanation for his behaviour either. He missed out on going on a nature walk today, having to go sit with the nursery class instead.

We left the school yard on the understanding that he is on punishment this evening, but then he started on at me about going to the cafe for a snack. Even if he'd been an absolute angel today I would still have had to refuse him because I'm short on money right now as there's a bill due in a few days, but he just would not accept this! He created almost constantly, and was practically screaming at me to buy him a drink by the time we got to Tesco to get some supplies for tomorrow's lunches. Then he started claiming he wasn't nagging for a drink to have right then, but for drinks for his lunchbox! I demanded to know what the hell he thought we were in the supermarket for, if not to buy drinks for his lunchbox!

...sometimes, I just don't know.

He's been continuing to play me up since we got home as well, as he's supposed to be cleaning up the bombsite that's supposed to be his room. I think he's going to be cleaning his room every night this week...

Right. Gotta go put some soup on.