Something for the weekend, at the end of June 2011

Well, all I can say is that it started with a drunken discussion on "experiences" with Brad and Angelina, and ended up with me buying 4 tickets for Glastonbury.  This is our story.

We had planned this a long while back, and then a little while back we had to pre-register, which meant uploading a picture of ourselves, which was then validated by the validators, and that then entitled us to go and try and order tickets. 

The lines opened at 9am on Sunday, and we had 2 laptops and 1 phone on the go for several hours.  Brad and Angelina had visitors that weekend, so we did not ring until about 9.45am, to find they had just got up and had not even logged on (not quite true, but why let the truth get in the way of a good story).  Needless to say that a few words of encouragement and they were avidly chasing down a spare slot on the website.

We spent the first 2 hours being told on the phone, but that nasal woman who does the BT messages, that "your call could not be completed", and on the internet that we could not connect to the website. 

After 2 hours on the laptop, we finally refreshed to a message saying we were in a queue.  Every 20 seconds it refreshed.  After just over 1 hour, it finally showed an order screen.  A quick input of our respective registration numbers and 4 tickets were ours.  A quick call to Brad and Angelina and our day could start.

Wow.  We still have slight reservations about childcare, and also about my back sleeping on the floor, but now we have the tickets, we are genuinely excited.  I am already planning my micro-wardrobe which will be based around a pair of para boots and a German army sleeping bag, or a little cotton number with matching gaiters.  Probably.

What's on your mind?

I am an avid ready of Golfy, Bad Man and Stretch*, and have been picking up a common theme amongst them all, a theme that I myself have touched on from time to time.

We are all, as it happens, troopers of Starfleet, aka Dante for Bad Man, so it may well inevitable that common themes will arise when each of us discusses our work.

So, what is the gist of this theme?**  Well, it is all about the "era of change", departing colleagues and friends, and an assessment of the atmosphere amongst those who remain.  I like Bad Man's view that we are now in the era of "initiatives", which is management speak that translates in to trying to make a pint fill a quart pot.  These initiatives will all start "now is the time to regroup, and to work smarter not harder."  I would like to believe this, but as Bad Man succinctly puts it, in an organisation the size of Starfleet/Dante "fundamental change is all but impossible and dilution of ideas and objectives is a fact of life."  Rather well put I think.  And unfortunately that does mean that we can expect to work harder, and probably longer, to fill the gaps left by those who have departed.  We have been urged by our leaders to "not let the service to our customers drop" and having done the maths, the options do seem limited.

So where does this leave those who remain?***  Cynicism could easily set in, apathy may also be just round the corner.  Optimism has a lot to be said for it, and energising one's self to tackle future challenges is definitely a good frame of mind to be in.  Attack is the best form of defense and all that.  However it can sometimes struggle under the torrent of "initiatives". 

For others, it has been a time to ponder "is this it?" and consider whether alternative roles or companies is the way forward.  I fear the losses to troopers may well continue for a good few quarters yet.  Aghh, I am even starting to count normal time in quarters.  

All in all, I am not looking forward to the next year, as we regroup and try to work out how the hell we continue doing what we do with gaps in the organisation.

Well, it was good to get that off my chest.  Not sure it made for much pleasure in the reading, but you know, some days...

On a different tack, some of my group of friends have been discussing the possibility of going to Glastonbury next year.  Traveling light, sharing tents and other logistic-related discussions ensued.  We are all tempted by the Ness (Gavin and Stacey) approach to such things.  "I just take Femiwipes and tic tacs."  Hmmmmmmmmm.

* This is not to say that I am not also an avid reader of Gorse Fox, however he does not tend to discuss these things as much as the other three.

**Should one put a question mark on a rhetorical question?  Not that this is a rhetorical question of course, but I was just wondering.

***I find myself pondering the rhetorical question debate once again.  Isn't that rather interesting.