Winter camp

I'm on JLGB Winter Camp. For the first time ever we've got Internet access and Computers to use if we don't have a laptop. Of course it's fairly slow but better than nothing. Camp is also a day longer this year as it started on Boxing Day and finishes as normal on New Year's Day.

Of course there's also the tiredness, I've got roughly 5 hours sleep a night and for the first time in 11 Winter Camps I actually grabbed a few hours of sleep during the day.

It's also freezing (literally) outside. with a frost on the ground every morning.

I'm posting because two reminded me within one hour that i hadn't posted in months, thanks Jason and Robert. I'm not making a New Year's Resolution to post more frequently as these tend to fall by the wayside, the only one I ever kept was a resolution to not restarting smoking. As I'd already quit it wasn't that hard to keep.

As you can see it's ridiculously early (or late) depending on how you look at it, so I'll post agin after Camp possibly with some photos.

Let it Snow, let it snow, let it snow

I seem to post about the weather too often, but it's still October and there was about two inches (five centimetres) of Snow in London last night. I can't remember the last time it snowed in October never mind about settling.

I was a fairly heavy snow shower with large flakes but it seemed to take next to no time to settle, even about 8 p.m. the kids in the flat on the Ground floor were already having a snowball fight in their garden. The view from my flat about 8.15 a.m. today (29th October 2008).

Of course it made my walk down to the station this morning lethal with compacted snow having turned to ice and necessitating extreme caution. At least this time I didn't fall over which has happened the last three times it has snowed and settled.

the holidays

It's the time of year when the Jewish Holidays are upon us again.

This year is particularly bad because they all occur mid-week (normally at least one day out of seven is a weekend).

I took Monday off as I was invited out for the first night to friends in Brighton so I went down on Sunday instead of working half-day on Monday. That wasn't too bad as I stayed with my parents and my sister also came down for a night. Managed to sort my parent's computer for them (again!) and add some old photos to my Facebook page (I don't have a scanner at home, my parents do).

Got teh next day coming up on Thursday and have been pressured into going to a Synagogue the night before, which I avoid like the plague wherever possible (I don't mind services on JLGB camp but this service goes on for hours and it's all in Hebrew). Will put my foot down about next year.

Team GB at the Olympics

I've been watching the Olympics avidly (although not to the point of staying up all night to catch some events live).

Well with just over a week gone we are third in the medal table (and considering that the two countries ahead of us have at least 10 times our population that's good). It bodes well for London 2012.

I'm even more pleased we're ahead of the Aussies as there's nothing more satisfying than us Poms beating them. They may have won more medals than us but the table is based on number of golds and we're still ahead there and we get the chance to further the gap on Monday when we take on Denmark for the Gold in the team pursuit where we broke the World record today.

The BBC was scraping the bottom of the barrel today saying that Phelps would be 7th in the table if he was a country and would viewers like to send in their ideas for his flag. I hope that most of us are adults not five years old.

Cinema first

I went to the Cinema over the weekend to see Mamma Mia with a mate. Fairly enjoyable film although some of the actors were not that good singers. It is the first time that I have ever experienced applause in a cinema.

Look out for the cameos by some member's of the original group.

Travelling in and Murphy's law

I was running particularly late this morning and of course things started to go wrong: I had to wait for a train for some time where I get on (longer than normal), then when I changed they'd just suspended that line so I had to walk uphill for a few minutes to get a bus. After getting off the bus at the stop nearest to work it started to rain heavily resulting in the fact that I was fairly wet by the time I got to work. In all what should be a journey of one hour had turned into a 1 hour 45 minute journey.

It reminded me of Murphy's law:

Murphy's Law, often rendered as "If anything can go wrong, it will." was named after Captain Edward A. Murphy, an engineer. It seems rather negative but in fact it's a central tenet of "defensive design" a design methodology in which engineers attempt to make idiot-proof systems.

Here, along with Murphy's formulation, are seven other classic Murphyisms:

• If anything can go wrong, it will. (Murphy's Law)
• If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong.
• If anything just cannot go wrong, it will anyway.
• If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which something can go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared for, will promptly develop.
• Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.
• If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.
• Nature always sides with the hidden flaw.
• Whatever has happened wrong, is bound to happen again .... maybe even worse.

O'Toole's Commentary on Murphy's Law

Murphy might seem like a bit of a pessimist with his "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong." But O'Toole's Commentary on Murphy's Law observes that, in fact, Murphy was an Optimist.

Salute to Israel

Incredibly tiring weekend. It was Brigade's London Parade for Awards followed by the Salute to Israel parade as part of the 60th Birthday of Israel celebrations, we marched from Piccadily (near Green Park Tube station) past Piccadilly Circus to Trafalgar Square. Due to the crowds in the square we finished in Whitehall Place after which we could visit the Square which was packed.

I was with Juniors (8-11 year olds) and this is the view back over their heads:

We also had lots of parents helping out, some can be seen above, as well as uniformed staff. The route was packed with crowds (mostly supportive) and the square was just a wave of Israeli and British flags:

Unfortunately, the Parade moved slowly and most of us were dressed in shirts and sweatshirts, combined with the fact that it was an extremely warm day with direct sunshine. We insisted the children took their sweatshirts off as they are still very young and we didn't want them collapsing, in the end only two of them felt even slightly ill and they were fine, thanks to the helpers providing water and a first-aider on the scene.

The weekend

Just had an extremely hectic weekend. Sunday was my mum's 60th Birthday and my dad had arranged a surprise party for her. As far as my mum was concerned she was meeting my sister and I for a meal. She later than on the way she thought that there may have been two other couples but not over 30 people.

I had to get up early as I had to pick up my great-aunt (in East London) and get her to the venue (near Windsor). No problem, I actually made extremely good time and was there over an hour before the time the taxi was booked for.

This is a view of the room when it was in use.

It was a good day but very, very tiring.

Moved

I've moved to the flexible workspace, I managed to get a permanent desk which is by the window and not directly under a fluorescent light. I couldn't bring my phone with me but I could bring my headset and the new phones have volume control so maybe it will be OK.

I still think that the Flexible workspace hasn't been designed with any thinking in the terms of reasonable adjustments/special needs but I'll have to see how good/bad it is after a few weeks.

Moving

On the move again, but thankfully just work moves this time. Due to cuts in the number of people working for my Government Department, due to both cuts generally and the split of the Department, I've moved from my building to the main building.

Although I'm at a traditional desk at the moment, I'm due to move up to the Flexible workspace by the end of June. Flexible means sitting where there are spaces (within your team) when you get in.

I have a number of problems with the Flexible workspace :

1. I have a number of specialist pieces of software, I've been offered a laptop just for work as I have one for working at home but unfortunately one of my pieces of software tends to crash laptops.

2. Due to being slightly deaf I have a specialist phone but I may not be able to take it with me.

3. My deafness gets worse with fluorescent lights, but there is no option to turn them off above my desk (as I have at the moment).

The Department seems yet to realise that Flexible working is not suitable for everybody and those that have certain specific requirements have not been suitably catered for.

Boris wins

The London Mayoral Elections were held two days ago and the results were announced yesterday evening. The Conservative candidate Boris Johnson MP was elected as Mayor of London for the next four years. He's going to get global coverage at the Olympic and Paralympic games when as Mayor of London he accepts the handover from the Mayor of Beijing.

Whereas he has a reputation of gaffes and pretending to be a buffoon he has run a gaffe-free campaign and I truly believe he will do a good job as Mayor.

As Richard Barnbrook has only been elected as a London Assembly member he can't do too much as the London Assembly is only there to keep a check on the Mayor. However, if I had my way I'd line all BNP members and their supporters against a wall and shoot them. Racism should NEVER be acceptable in politics in the UK.

The Labour party got a real kicking nationwide losing over 300 councillors, time for Gordon to go? It is ridiculous that the Prime Minister's decisions in most areas do not affect his own constituents.

Spring is here!

Spring officially started on Good Friday (21st March). We've had a mild winter with no snow.

However, this was the view from my lounge window on Sunday (23rd March):

Fun and games

Had a major disaster recently, my computer died, it was fairly old so not totally unexpected . Now fortunately all my important files, music, video, etc are kept on a detachable hard drive so I don't lose them (some are irreplaceable). But the annoying thing is that most of my programs are on my hard drive including all my e-mails. Really need a computer expert which I am most definitely not.

Ordered a new computer from Dell, like the fact that I can specify what I want rather than relying on the retailer to be selling what I want. I've decided to go with Open Source software for my office applications, although Works comes with the machines it's not compatible with MS Office whereas Open Office is. I'll also be downloading FireFox as I find it better then Internet Explorer. Not sure what's out there but for the most common applications I feel better with Open Source.

Long time

I've just been so busy and knackered recently that I've had little time or inclination to post.

Firstly, I've started with a new JLGB Company, finally moved to Southgate Company. A nice group of children but very young in general. Whereas in London I've always had one or two sergeants, we've got no kids 14 or over. They're generally well-behaved but fairly noisy.

I'm doing some work away from my normal stuff for a few weeks so I am in a different building which is actually further away from my normal place.

I've got an assessment day coming up fo the Fast Stream so I'm sort of nervous but hopefully I'll post more afterwards (it's on Monday).

United Nations hypocrisy

A speech given at the UN Human Rights Council exposing its hypocrisy. See it here on YouTube.

This version incorporates those comments that were deemed "admissible".

Long time

Somebody pointed out to me recently that I hadn't posted for a while so I decided that it was necessary to try and get back to posting regularly.

Since I moved into my flat, I've been kitting it out with all the necessities - mainly kitchen equipment.

Anyway, the first people I decided to entertain were my parents. I didn't got to them for the Christmas Break this year so they came up on Boxing day (for non-Brits - Boxing day is the 26th December normally) as I'd had Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off it was easy to prepare, I cooked a whole chicken, roast potatoes and vegetables and bough a melon for Hors d'œuvre, and bought a cake for dessert. My mum also brought mince pies.

I'd also bought a bottle of my favourite wine and I finally got to use my dining table properly. Tea/Supper was at my sisters.

Early the next morning it was off to JLGB Senior Winter Camp (for the ninth year in a row). The coach was due at 8.30 a.m. However, it was due to leave Gants Hill (Ilford) at 8.00 a.m. so 8.30 a.m. was extremely optimistic, I was extremely surprised when it turned up just 15 minutes late.

This year I didn't have a Platoon, I was awards officer so I could have a lie-in most mornings. The first morning I was on duty at 7.15 a.m. for four hours but this wasn't a problem.

This camp had two memorable things - first was the Fire alarm that went off once the kids were in bed. Second was the number of staff - well over 70 which was a first at least in my memory for a Winter camp. It was the largest Winter Camp for 15 years with over 250 people.

My role really came into it's own on the last day, unfortunately, I woke up, rushed to the toilet and promptly threw up. I'd come down with the Norovirus along with a few other members of staff and some of the children. I never had it formally diagnosed but I had all the symptoms. I fortunately seemed to have a fairly good time but other people were far worse than I was. I had to work that day so after getting a little more sleep, I got up and started to collate the scores. I also had to go through the nominations for Camp Awards with The Adjutant.

After the Mess (Staff) Dinner I went straight back to bed and slept right through the New Year. Last time I was not awake for the New Year was probably over 20 years ago. However, I needed the sleep.

I was still ill on New Year's Day but the symptoms were lessening. I took the day off to camp off (as normal) but went in on the third of January. Once in work I discovered that the advice after suffering with the virus is to leave 48 hours between the end of symptoms and working which I had not.

I finally started work properly this week and tonight I start with a new Brigade company at Southgate. It is slightly amusing because my first company in London was Southgate Juniors. I moved because:

a) Hendon Bugle Band had more staff than it needed and I was sometimes not needed,
b) Southgate Company is understaffed for the number of children it currently has
c) Southgate Company also has a relatively inexperienced officer so I'm there to provide extra support