Back to work!

So. Here we go again. Back to work!

Mixed feelings about this as I've really enjoyed the last few days spent with close family (getting closer just by being together) and with W & M who I genuinely like) and relaxing at home. The thing is: I also want to get on with the other work I'm paid to do and to go earn some dosh as well as keep up the external social life and brain feeding. Hence the mixed feelings!

I quickly fall into the new pattern. Unfortunately, so does Network Express East Anglia and the Strategic Railway Authority (they both used to be British Rail but the government in their wisdom separated the two and one runs the network and the other looks after the trains and staff - they hide behind each other, point fingers at each other and couldn't run a rave from a Sainsburys pharmacy warehouse). So we passengers get in the way of them providing a good service and we get screwed. I didn't mention: the fares have also gone up. What joy.

At 8.25 they announce that the train is 8 minutes late, this turns out to be 35 mins and then they say that it hasn't and won't leave Liverpool Street. It's cancelled? Not sure. Anyway, it doesn't turn up and they then cancel the next one. I get accosted by a stranger who works at the council and recognises me as a fellow worker. He's got someone to come and pick him up and offers me a lift. Deep Joy. You've got a new friend Sean.

I eventually warm up and in the meantime plough through the emails from the hols. 33 of them. 21 generated by the system telling me that my mailbox is full! And then telling me again and again, et al, because it has put another message in the box. Which idiot dreamed up this system? I think they work for the banks now drawing up the overdraft schemes for students.

It pisses down with rain which starts pouring into the newly refurbished kitchen on the first floor. I'm in charge of the refurb so I go to see what's happening. It's the first time I've had a chance to see this problem which has plagued us since the work has been done. The water pours through the window vents. I get Graham over to have a look and he clambers around the scaffolding. It turns out that the gutters haven't been cleared for the last year and they're overflowing, running down the side of the building and straight into the window vents through the kitchen. He clears the gutters and the problem goes away. Cheapskate facilities management has now cost my project as the redecoration costs will be borne by my project!

Meanwhile, the work on the ICT contract is ticking over. Cherie was stuck in Guernsey cos' of the storms and has only just got back so Trudy and I will pick up the meeting tomorrow with the new contractors and the other councils. We have a mini panic but have a conflab and figure out how we'll handle it.

This is the first time the team has been together since early December. There's some banter but people are busy catching up with work and emails so its all heads down at the moment.