The Green Tortoise

I found this green tortoise amongst the washing that I took out of a machine I was using at our local laundrette. Our washing machine is currently broken and while it's out of action awaiting repair we're having to resort to using the local laundrette.

It's a Dunlop "Tortex" 0.88 mm 'medium' plectrum.
It's slightly used down one side, by maybe a right handed player. [guess]
Does anyone else use this type of plectrum ??? According to the website they're used by everyone, Slash included !!!

Maybe I could get this tortoise to walk around the globe, slowly in tortoise style of course, by passing it on to a guitarist in return for a picture of it being used ???

One of those weeks....

I'll be glad to get to this long Easter weekend for some much needed rest, as I'm feeling more than a little frazzled around the edges after this weeks events.
Already on the agenda was my Mother-in-laws consultation to decide whether or not she has colon cancer. I know there is not much we can do physically, but the emotions are being stretched every which way with natural concern about her health and her long term well-being.

Then on Tuesday I find I'm on the 'at risk' list and stand to loose my job !! Mrs P didn't take the news too well as it just overloaded her already fragile emotional state.
After spending the evening pumping my CV/Resume to the four corners of the Globe, I've had a good response and I'm fairly confident I'll get something soon.

After calming down and starting tea I took a call from Harriet's college, her art teacher informing us that she's been missing from the last eight sessions and did we know about it ???
Harry is in Leeds, staying with her sister, for a Uni' interview, so after several heated calls it turns out that not only has she been missing her art lessons, she's also been kicked off her English course as well !!! When she was kicked off of English she replaced it with another art course to fill up her timetable up and she's missing those lessons too !!!
She's behind on course work on both of her art courses and with her finals in just two weeks she has a lot of work to catch up on. Her art teacher said that he'll still mark her last piece, despite being four weeks late, if she gets it to him next Tuesday.
She's due back from her sisters tonight. I'll pick her up from the airport at about 9:15.
I'm not going to shout and bawl, I just want some answers. Why ???

WOW, what a week !!!

So, I wish all my fellow bloggers a calm, restful and pleasant Easter weekend.
Don't eat too many eggs now !! =:o)

See you next week.

BP.

Tuesday ramblings...

Three short blogs...

1. While DIYing at the weekend I purchased some hinges, three pairs of chromed, 75mm butt's to be precise. After cutting my doors around to take said hinges imagine my dismay at finding the supplied screws just go straight through the holes in the hinge !!! A detour via Homebase last night I complained. Pimply youth said I'll give you a refund if you bring back the hinges. "No... it's the HINGES I wanted !!!". Idiot !!!
I love fitting hinges. It reminds me of my woodworking lessons at school...


2. While browsing the hinges and door fittings I stumbled across a great word... "Escutcheon". Neat eh? It means...

1. Heraldry. A shield or shield-shaped emblem bearing a coat of arms.
2. An ornamental or protective plate, as for a keyhole.
3. Nautical. The plate on the stern of a ship inscribed with the ship's name.

3. My daughter 'C' is in her last year of music college. She has two performances remaining. One in April, one in May. Getting to Leeds is a pain. It's either five hours in a car, an expensive, long and complicated train journey, or a 45 minute flight from our local airport. After much debating we decided to fly. And after a few minutes online at FlyBe we secured flights for £1.43 each. Swiftly followed by booking a £35 room, including breakfast, at the nearby Etap too. Sorted !!! Imagine my horror yesterday when 'C' called to say she's no longer performing in that concert !!! Arrrgggghhhhhh !!!!
Kids eh ??? Who'd have 'em ???

Have a grand day fellow bloggers !!!
Stay dry...

Busy, busy...

No doubt by my total absence of 'bloggage' recently you may have assumed that I've been somewhat busy, and you would have been spot on with that assumption too.
Work is a little crazy right now and it's beginning to get through to me, uncharacteristically rattling the normal calm and poise of yours truly.
With the announcement of more redundancies a few weeks back, I was somewhat buoyed by the possibility that my position appeared to be secured by the fact I was working on some urgent development chips for our Dutch cousins over in Nijmegen, their project team being happy to keep us employed, paid for through their office, to continue their work. The Dutch team we work with came over for a few days last week to meet the Southampton team and 'chat' with the engineers. This was viewed as a 'faces to names' exercise and to cement the team as one unit and confirm all the lines of communication. My 'chat' lasted 90 minutes and went pretty well I thought.
Imagine my dismay last Friday when we were all informed that Nijmegen have decided to pull the plug on the project in Southampton and take back the work to Nijmegen despite them not having the staff or the facilities to complete the work on schedule !! Crazy ??
It turns out that they were making scurrilous efforts to 'cherry pick' certain test engineers from here in Southampton to move over to Holland enabling them to continue the work over there.
So, we're all back in the pot for possible redundancy once again.
Southampton have got rid of so many staff over the last few years that it's difficult to single out any 'weaker' team members for the chop, so it's going to be a close decision, and to be honest, it is making me feel very vulnerable to say the least. I've been in this position far too many times before to think I'm in any way safe from the chop.
I hadn't realised it but the current situation had changed me, for the worse too, my wife politely informing me at the weekend that I'd been a really miserable git and incredibly grumpy recently and that I had appeared to have stopped talking altogether. Something I've not been aware of, I must say, although I admit to having been feeling a little distracted by all the political machinations here at work.
So... time to turn over a new leaf and employ that 'whatever will be, will be' type ethos... After all, it's only a job and I'll be sure to find something else, somewhere, if the worst does come to the worst.
Ciao for now.... (a slightly less screwed up BluePixel)