It's been raining all night and everything has that damp, dark feeling about it ( well, it is 5am ).
I slept quite badly because I'd made the mistake of buying a Margherita Pizza from the CO-OP ( special Offer ) - which just turned out to be a brightly painted pizza base. I went to bed at exactly 11.30 ( I'd been working late ) and as soon as I turned the lights out - the scratching in the office started - so I got up, turned the office light on and shut the door on it. I'm pretty sure it's all my fault as I've been feeding the birds all through the cold snap by putting seed and food on the kitchen roof - adjacent to the office - and that's why they have found their way in. I was awoken again at exactly 5 mins to 5am by more scratching, however... the office door was open and the light out. Either I have ghosts, burglars or 6 feet rats who are ecologically minded.
I'm having trouble writing this, my dyslexia seems really bad this morning - although oddly enough, I've been doing huge amounts of writing recently - often for 4 or 5 hours at a time and after a while I seem to make fewer mistakes.... cured by admin....
Now't on the news - unless you are tenterhooks waiting for the announcement that KatieJordanVice is divorcing this weeks husband, the little tease was supposed to make a statement to the worlds press last night - but has gone strangely quiet. There was an advertorial on the telly when I flicked it on ( looking for news 24 ) for something to do with golf called a 'Pitch Master' - I thought he said 'Bitch Master' and rushed to find my bank card.
I've just been reading an article about the closure of libraries and what a disaster it is for the community involved, and another about the closure of 20 HMV shops and many commentators telling how their visits to music stores when young was life changing and affirming in the same way as libraries. I don't go into my local HMV because IT'S TOO BLOODY BUSY. HMV have no competition on the high street now, if they can't make that work they deserve to be shot. BBC Radio 6 music do a regular piece when they interview independent record shop owners all over the country by phone and they all seem pretty happy. These things are cyclical. The Library really is an essential part of the community - but needs investment and careful nurturing to keep pace with what society needs - same with music store. The internet isn't killing culture, lack of imagination is. You can't actually use the library at college because it's packed to the gills with students and the librarians are run off their feet. We have something called Athens which is an online ( paid ) subscription where we can search and read any publication in the last 100 years in real text - it's fantastic, but getting students to use it is very hard because it's not visual - it's all words. I touched on this yesterday on the blog I write for my students with this very interesting article.
I'm going to lunch today at the college restaurant - it's a brand new teaching restaurant and looks very flash - quite looking forward to it. I'm working on a Bar / Restaurant project at the moment so I might as well get myself 'into the zone'.
The woman on News24 appears to be wearing a blue body bag.
2 comments:
If it wasn't for the job losses, I'd love to see HMV go under. It's run by bastards.
Five years ago I was happily running a branch of Ottakar's, which was a great company to work for. Then HMV made a hostile bid for the business, eventually bought us and converted every shop into a Waterstone's.
The working culture completely changed. Suddenly, my opinion was of no value and my only role was to ensure that every head office initiative was implemented properly. I even had planograms telling me where to put the books, as if I couldn't be trusted to know my local market.
The crunch came when I was instructed to see that an underperforming member of staff was "managed out of the business". He was a man in his 50s and yes, he was pretty crap, but I knew that he was doing his best. He'd had a breakdown a few years earlier and I felt that a three-month period of disciplinary action would push him over the edge.
I was effectively told: "If you won't manage him out of the business, we'll manage you out of the business."
I decided to manage myself out of the business, on my terms, not HMVs. As a result, I received over three months pay without doing a stroke of work.
Three years on, I have a much better job and HMV is in danger of going under. How things change.
I 'feel your pain' re HMV - been there in other organisations.
Mind you, I can make a planogram for the kitchen cupboards or to organise the draw I keep pencils in.... no wonder I'm still single...
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