I've been surprised by the number of people I've seen in various forms of wheelchairs since I arrived; I don't recall seeing anywhere near the same amount in Stockport, though that possibly has to do with the amount of hills. All the buses are designed for easy wheelchair access - there's a couple of rows of seats at the front that fold away to allow wheelchairs or pushchairs room, and as well as suspension designed to lower the bus, they all also have a ramp that folds out - I think buses in the UK have that, but I've never seen them being used.
But even so, I saw something unique; I've seen all sorts of mobility scooters, electric ones and ones that need pushing. But I've never before seen a mobility Segway.
Sunday, 24 June 2012
Thursday, 21 June 2012
Blech
I've had a fairly cruddy day. Feel free to skip the following rant....
For one thing, it's hot out; darned hot. It was 36 degrees when I left work, so if you're wondering where the British summer went, it's over here, ganging up with the Canadian one. Bear in mind that that's just from the sun - the humidity is also through the roof, and that's adding around another 6 degrees. Did I mention that the apartment has now air conditioning? You might want to bear that in mind if you're thinking of visiting during the summer.
When I got into work, I found an email sent by the boss last night. There was an important client coming in for a meeting, and he wanted me and a couple of other people to sit in on it, and asked that we dress appropriately. Given that the normal dress code involves a tee and jeans, well....
I was somewhat annoyed by this - he sent an email at 8:30 last night, and the first I knew about it was the following morning. So I had to come home and change - it took a couple of hours, all told, as I'm reliant on the bus. And I'm pretty sure he knew earlier than 8:30 last night that this meeting was happening today.
But that's not even the worst part; when the meeting came, he didn't even ask me to sit in. That was really quite frustrating, and it's not even the first time - the same client came in for a look round last week, and he asked everyone dress smartly for the day. Well - he asked everyone _else_ - I found out because I heard a couple of colleagues talking about it. There was a meeting a couple of weeks back that everyone else was asked to, too - I admit that I still might not be able to make any actual contribution to what they were discussing, but it would be nice to be asked along. I'm not going to learn anything if I'm not there, and it would also help me feel part of the team.
I'm stuck in an office by myself, and it does tend to isolate me quite a lot from the other staff; and having the boss ignore me really doesn't help my morale. There are a few other things, too - it takes a week for me to get paid, though the record is a little under a fortnight. Apparently in that case, I'd sent it to the wrong person in the admin team. But instead of talking to his colleague sat at the next desk, or emailing me to let me know that, he just ignored it.
The boss also has the habit of making me responsible for things, but not actually telling me about it. More than once, I've had someone calling me because they're having problems with something, and I have literally no idea who the person is, or what they're talking about. So I'm called by someone I've never heard of before, asking why a website I know nothing about isn't working. That's in no way stressful.
I was initially taken on in mid-March to do some work in removing an administration system from a content management system. I estimated that there's about a month's worth of work to do. It's now three months later, and I've still not finished it. That's due in no small part to the boss' habit of asking me to do something now please, because it's more urgent - today was the first time in a couple of weeks that I actually had the time to sit down and look at it; and I'd no sooner loaded up the file I wanted to look at before he was asking me to make a couple of amendments to the front page of the website, which took me the rest of the day. (I do wonder why he didn't ask whoever designed it to do the updates. That said, the code is poor enough that whoever designed it shouldn't be allowed near computers.)
So I'm quite hacked off at the moment. I'm wondering if I should start looking for work elsewhere....
For one thing, it's hot out; darned hot. It was 36 degrees when I left work, so if you're wondering where the British summer went, it's over here, ganging up with the Canadian one. Bear in mind that that's just from the sun - the humidity is also through the roof, and that's adding around another 6 degrees. Did I mention that the apartment has now air conditioning? You might want to bear that in mind if you're thinking of visiting during the summer.
When I got into work, I found an email sent by the boss last night. There was an important client coming in for a meeting, and he wanted me and a couple of other people to sit in on it, and asked that we dress appropriately. Given that the normal dress code involves a tee and jeans, well....
I was somewhat annoyed by this - he sent an email at 8:30 last night, and the first I knew about it was the following morning. So I had to come home and change - it took a couple of hours, all told, as I'm reliant on the bus. And I'm pretty sure he knew earlier than 8:30 last night that this meeting was happening today.
But that's not even the worst part; when the meeting came, he didn't even ask me to sit in. That was really quite frustrating, and it's not even the first time - the same client came in for a look round last week, and he asked everyone dress smartly for the day. Well - he asked everyone _else_ - I found out because I heard a couple of colleagues talking about it. There was a meeting a couple of weeks back that everyone else was asked to, too - I admit that I still might not be able to make any actual contribution to what they were discussing, but it would be nice to be asked along. I'm not going to learn anything if I'm not there, and it would also help me feel part of the team.
I'm stuck in an office by myself, and it does tend to isolate me quite a lot from the other staff; and having the boss ignore me really doesn't help my morale. There are a few other things, too - it takes a week for me to get paid, though the record is a little under a fortnight. Apparently in that case, I'd sent it to the wrong person in the admin team. But instead of talking to his colleague sat at the next desk, or emailing me to let me know that, he just ignored it.
The boss also has the habit of making me responsible for things, but not actually telling me about it. More than once, I've had someone calling me because they're having problems with something, and I have literally no idea who the person is, or what they're talking about. So I'm called by someone I've never heard of before, asking why a website I know nothing about isn't working. That's in no way stressful.
I was initially taken on in mid-March to do some work in removing an administration system from a content management system. I estimated that there's about a month's worth of work to do. It's now three months later, and I've still not finished it. That's due in no small part to the boss' habit of asking me to do something now please, because it's more urgent - today was the first time in a couple of weeks that I actually had the time to sit down and look at it; and I'd no sooner loaded up the file I wanted to look at before he was asking me to make a couple of amendments to the front page of the website, which took me the rest of the day. (I do wonder why he didn't ask whoever designed it to do the updates. That said, the code is poor enough that whoever designed it shouldn't be allowed near computers.)
So I'm quite hacked off at the moment. I'm wondering if I should start looking for work elsewhere....
Sunday, 10 June 2012
Another season of pub quiz over
Well, we've completed the third season of the local pub quiz - it's been my Sunday evening activity since September, more or less. The questions are put together by the presenter, and he's taking the summer off to recharge his batteries, so he can come up with even more questions come next autumn; or fall as they call it over here.
We've done quite well, really. There are a couple of teams who do very well indeed, so we're normally coming in around third or fourth place, and we generally have fun. Today, for example, I was mortified to discover that I couldn't remember the three green squares on a British Monopoly board (well, technically I couldn't remember two of them.) But it was amusing, and I shall definitely miss it until it starts up again in September.
But my Sunday evenings won't be totally empty - I do still have reading group, though that's just once per month. Maybe I should look for a new hobby.....
We've done quite well, really. There are a couple of teams who do very well indeed, so we're normally coming in around third or fourth place, and we generally have fun. Today, for example, I was mortified to discover that I couldn't remember the three green squares on a British Monopoly board (well, technically I couldn't remember two of them.) But it was amusing, and I shall definitely miss it until it starts up again in September.
But my Sunday evenings won't be totally empty - I do still have reading group, though that's just once per month. Maybe I should look for a new hobby.....
Sunday, 3 June 2012
So that was spring
I'm partly glad that the recent overly hot weather has come to an end. 36 degrees is, I think, a little too warm for my frail UK constitution, and did I mention that the apartment doesn't have air conditioning? But it's been replaced with quite a lot of rain, alas, and the rain we're getting is quite spectacular; I've seen it coming down hard enough that it's bouncing a foot up when it hits.
Luckily, being British, I've been prepared, and always carry my umbrella with me. I've managed to avoid getting splashed by passing traffic, too, which is especially impressive considering how few sidewalks there are in this area. There's also some pretty impressive footage of the rain overloading the local drainage systems, to the point where they've had to stop people using the subway in Toronto (or possibly Montreal) due to localised flooding.
I think we've got another week or so of mixed weather forecast, before it warms up again. Hopefully this time it'll warm up slowly enough that I get a chance to get used to it.... I'm also looking forward to being able to take the bike into work, too - I think that that should take about half the time of the bus journey, but I don't feel like risking it while there's still a good chance I'll end up getting soaked on the way home....
Luckily, being British, I've been prepared, and always carry my umbrella with me. I've managed to avoid getting splashed by passing traffic, too, which is especially impressive considering how few sidewalks there are in this area. There's also some pretty impressive footage of the rain overloading the local drainage systems, to the point where they've had to stop people using the subway in Toronto (or possibly Montreal) due to localised flooding.
I think we've got another week or so of mixed weather forecast, before it warms up again. Hopefully this time it'll warm up slowly enough that I get a chance to get used to it.... I'm also looking forward to being able to take the bike into work, too - I think that that should take about half the time of the bus journey, but I don't feel like risking it while there's still a good chance I'll end up getting soaked on the way home....
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