Long weekend vacation! - that's about the most exciting thing that happened this week.
Monday: AJ called us together for the morning meeting and said he'd decided over the weekend to implement a "ergonomic" policy. He wants us all to rationalize our workstations and ensure we all work according to health and safety regulations. We all should be working in a tidy and dust-free environment, well-lit and with an adequate air supply, and we all have to make sure our chairs are at the right height and our keyboards are placed in front of the monitors too. It sounds as if nobody's told him the Health and Safety inspectors aren't coming until June or July - maybe not until August.
I said maybe I could have a regular desk as I'm still working on the old table from the break room, and AJ said you shouldn't be - you should have a proper desk, and you should have said something earlier. James said well in that case, we haven't got enough overhead lights and AJ said use desklamps as well then. LeeAnn said we don't have any desklamps, so Fiona said shall I order some? AJ shook his head and said no, you've got to do anything you need to in order to comply with the health and safety rules, but we can't spend any money on new furniture or fittings and you'll have to improvise with what we've already got. I said how about me getting a desk then? and AJ said yes, I said you should - find a desk nobody's using and swap your table for it.
He went back in his office, and I said OK, who doesn't use their desk, apart from AJ - I'd have his but it's too big to fit in my office. James said why don't you have Mike's desk, he's hardly ever here. Mike said no I am, and when I am I need it.
I knew AJ saying I could have a real desk was too good to be true. James came over later and said it's OK, I've had a word with LeeAnn and we'll just wait until Mike's out and take his - he won't notice.
I was thinking about the long weekend this afternoon, and what I'd do with it. It's difficult to go down to stay with cousin Elli at the moment because she lives in the country and they've got farms closed up near her. Although the city people say it's OK to go, the country people know it's not. I finally determined to call her tonight and see if she wanted to come up to the city instead.
Tuesday: Called up cousin Elli last night, and she said she'd come up to stay with me instead of me going down to her, so that's OK. I'll have to work out something she might like to do this weekend, or we'll just end up sitting talking. I don't mind, but she might want to get out and do something instead. The good thing is she's like me and doesn't like shopping, so we won't waste time doing that.
AJ came out his office and told us all he's spoken to Head Office and arranged for all staff to go on a forklift awareness training course next week. Someone from the forklift training center's going to be paid to come in and give everybody an hour of instruction to make sure we all know being run over by a forklift might not be too good an idea. Nobody up here's ever played chicken in front of the forklifts anyways as we'd all guessed it might just hurt a little bit if one of them hit us, but AJ nearly got run over last Thursday - and we all can't possibly be trusted to use our common sense if AJ can't, can we?
James said AJ's worried about it costing the company insurance, and I guess that's as good a reason as any to get an hour's kindergarten time. I don't mind.
Wednesday: James came over first thing while I was getting ready to start and said
get everything off your table - LeeAnn's tidying up Mike's desk and we'll help you move it in. I went out to find LeeAnn tidying Mike's desk by just emptying the papers into piles on the floor and taking the drawers out to stack them out the way.
Donna watched to make sure AJ or Andy didn't come in and interrupt while James, LeeAnn and I kidnapped Mike's desk and dragged it over to my office door. Fiona said it won't go in - you'll have to take the legs off. She gave James a screwdriver and said here, it's modular so it should be easy. I said now hold on just a minute, and went in my office to check - it's not just too big to get through the door, it's too big for the space. I wouldn't be able to get the chair in it if we did take the legs off, get it in and reassemble it in there.
We all moved it back to its original spot, and James and I picked up the papers and put them back on the desk top while LeeAnn put the desk drawers back in.
I have to find a smaller desk nobody's using.
The big printer wasn't working after the lunchbreak again. Walked over, pulled Mike's mobile charger, threatened him with LeeAnn, and plugged the printer back in. He didn't complain about it, he was too busy wondering why the Cleaner had moved all the things out his second drawer and put them in his first drawer, and all the things from the first in the third.
Thursday: AJ walked around this afternoon to remind us all there wouldn't be a morning meeting tomorrow or an afternoon meeting at Head Office, as it was Easter Friday and a Bank Holiday, and for everyone to remember they didn't have to come in on Monday as well, as it'll be Easter Monday and a Bank Holiday too.
I don't think anybody had forgotten.
Got home and finished up freshening the spare room for cousin Elli, then tried to figure out if I should get something in to eat or try to prepare something myself. I can't boil water without burning it and Elli can cook real well, so I decided I couldn't kill her the first night and called my local Chinese. I expected her to arrive at half eight so I arranged to collect the order at nine, and it worked out well - she came just after half eight, so she unpacked and settled in while I went to pick up the meal. I didn't really need to in the end as she'd brought a casserole and some fresh baking with her - she's eaten my cooking before.
Friday: Vacation!
I was planning on sleeping in but cousin Elli came in to wake me at seven - I said it's too early still but she told me to get out that bed and get a move on, so I did. I guess it's living in the country that wakes you at dawn, but I've lived in cities for long enough I don't any more. She'd made coffee and cooked bacon for me, so it was worth getting up.
We wasted the morning anyways, then went out to find somewheres for lunch and to hang out for the afternoon. I'd checked ahead to find out if one of the galleries was letting people in, and we went there as she said she'd not been. It was pretty good - better than the Dome. There weren't that many people there though, but still more than there'd been at the Dome too. I said to Elli it was better than the Dome. Elli said standing naked on Dartmoor at four in the morning in the pouring rain is better than the Dome. I said I wouldn't know, I'd not done that - had she actually done that? She said you don't have to do something to know it'd be better. She worried me there for a minute.
It was starting to get busy so we went back to my apartment and ate the casserole she'd brought, watched a couple videos and talked. I said she'd have to get used to city ways and we'd stay up to watch the film on Channel 1, but she was beginning to tire before it began so she went to her room while I stayed up to watch it and then finish this off and post it up. It means she'll be waking me at seven again tomorrow though.
read 01/04/02-06 or read 01/04/16-20 