Tag: Prince

I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man

17th April 2020 18th April 2020 by Sleeper in , No Comment

It was only last June when her old man ran away.
She couldn’t stop crying cause she knew he was gone to stay.
It was 10:35 on a lonely Friday night.
She was standin’ by the bar,
She was lookin’ alright.
I asked if she wanted to dance;
She said all she wanted was a good man,
And wanted to know if I thought I was qualified.

Wednesday

Slightly less insane day, meeting-wise. First stand up with the newly reformed team took way too long, mostly concentrating on one person who seemed desperate to tell me everything that had happened to his project in the months since he last worked for me. Had a good catch up with the other leads discussing how we’re going to divide up the work that the newly-dissolved team have left behind.

Just one interview today, with the outsourcing company, and unlike the last couple we’ve been sent, this one, while not knowing everything, was competent and obviously had a good understanding of the underlying concepts. Managed to get at least some non-meeting work done for a change, which was refreshing.

After dinner: a bike ride. This one was half an hour at barely above walking pace, mind, because I took Sleeper Jr. along. He had fun, I kept reminding him not to go down the very middle of the road, so we covered a grand total of two miles at a top speed of 8 mph. Was plenty enjoyable nevertheless.

Thursday

A head-exploding-kind-of-day. Everything started well enough, up until the point that we had a meeting about a project delivery for Monday and I was made to look a complete idiot when someone who’d been reassuring me everything was on track stepped up to admit that it in fact wasn’t. Cue crisis meeting, and I went away and created a godawful monster of a Cloud Formation template to create a work around. The workday was capped with a meeting in which nobody (except my boss) agreed with a plan I’d spent the morning drawing up for an accelerated timescale for a project.

This evening I’d originally planned to be out with friends, first trying my hand at axe throwing and then out for dinner. Instead we had to put up with a virtual meet up. Fun, but not quite the same as a nice juicy steak. Crawled into bed late.

Friday

Woke early despite the late finish the day before, then started the workday as I didn’t mean for it to go on: Early, with a meeting! Another one of those days where I didn’t get to spend much time actually doing stuff; meetings about projects, about architecture, about the afternoon’s meetings… Friday’s supposed to be a meeting light day, but it sure as hell didn’t feel like it. The afternoon was mostly taken up by two interviews; the candidates couldn’t have been more different. The first, despite being told that it was OK to say theydn’t know something, waffled and made things up, going on for minutes at a time without saying anything. The second one gave clear, concise answers and wasn’t afraid to admit when we asked a question they didn’t have an answer for. Making a decision on who got invited to the next stage wasn’t exactly taxing.

Today’s been a wet, rainy day, the kind that’s left the kids fractious as they’ve been stuck inside. Hopefully the weather will dry up soon and they can blow off a bit more energy in the garden. Cooked dinner, failed to find the requested bedtime story (Pinocchio) so we fell back to yet another Disney storybook, this time 101 Dalmatians. Found a little time to catch up with some ex-colleagues unexpectedly, which was nice. Finished up the day attempting to get started with X3: Terran Conflict. Think I might stick to the original, even if the graphics are prettier.

Nothing Compares 2 U

26th March 2020 2nd April 2020 by Sleeper in , No Comment

It’s been so lonely without you here;
Like a bird without a song.
Nothing can stop these lonely tears from falling
Tell me baby, where did I go wrong?

Wednesday

Woke up early. Again. This seems to be becoming a habit. One child still snoring, I took the other one downstairs very, very quietly and found cartoons on Disney+ to watch. Tried the new version of Duck Tales, but it’s just lacking… something… compared to the original. Soul, maybe? It’s computer animated rather than hand drawn. We stuck with the late 80s/ early 90s nostalgia ‘toons, at least until the rest of the household emerged at gone 8am, by which point I’d also been horribly organised and put the pork for dinner in the sous vide..

Getting into a routine now; breakfast, head upstairs for meetings, followed by work, followed by more meetings, then lunch, which for a change wasn’t wolfed down in 5 minutes flat.

Back to the office, interviewed one of the candidates from last week for the second time – they’ll be getting an offer from us – and then spent an hour demonstrating to our (supposedly technical) end users how to use the tools I’ve been building for them. That was like pulling teeth. Demonstration was fine, then asked “Any questions?” Silence. Followed by, just after I start to move on. “Actually, what about <X>?”. The “Any further questions?”, silence, and last-minute interruption sequence goes on for more than half an hour.

Cooking dinner at a time that suits both our working hours and the kids’ bedtime is becoming a bit of a chore; people pinging me about work at mealtimes is also unhelpful (to be fair, 1. they’re overseas and 2. I’d usually still be at the office at that time under normal circumstances).

Eventually collapsed onto the sofa at 9pm, way too late to make beer, and watched the final episodes of Parks and Recreation, a series that we were way, way too late coming to.

Thursday

Slept in. No, wait, the other thing. Woke before 6 again. Not much notable about the day other than the boss promises we’ll be done with this project (at least in terms of delivery) by 4pm tomorrow so we can all have a clear weekend. Yeah, right, I’ll believe that when I see it.

Again, managed a leisurely-ish lunch! Just one ping on Slack, which I accidentally ignored because my phone and laptop were both upstairs. Wasn’t massively important anyway, just a question about something I already had in hand. The afternoon was free of interviews for a change (though only because the candidate cancelled on us), so I had a little more time to check in on my team and find out where they’re up to with their work. Good to see some progress on stuff that will turn out to be more important than we’d first envisaged!

Once again, a late dinner, though not as bad as yesterday. Got the brew kit out finally and started to heat the water to strike point around 8pm, setting up by the back door. Was simply in awe of the number of people who stood out on the street (ourselves included) to applaud the NHS efforts, complete with fireworks up the road. I’m usually something of a cynic when it comes to these things; perhaps I should be slightly less so in future. Had a brief chat with our next door neighbours before we went back inside; they’re helping out a local greengrocer they know get produce to those who can’t get out themselves. I’m slightly envious; between the children and the job, I don’t have even the tiniest bit of energy left over to go into helping those less fortunate. I suppose I’m already doing two jobs at once (or at least one and a half) what with the kids.

I haven’t left the house in five days, except for the odd ten minutes in the garden. Tomorrow I need to make time to get out on the bike, one way or another.