Spending cuts hit Helen Lay Centre

Mother has had some communications with the Helen Lay Centre, and it's bad news. Government spending cuts mean that the centre will close at the end of June, which is at the end of the second of Dad's proposed 3 week stay. What will happen after that? I don't know but it doesn't look good. Mum is at full stretch right now and if she doesn't get respite I fear it'll be the start of end of her. With everyone else out at work I'm at a loss as to what the solution is right now, but one thing is sure, it's no good asking social services to help.

Family

This last weekend John & Angie came up from Colchester to stay with Mum & Dad. John had his mind to demolish the shed ready for a replacement, and we'd organised a skip to be delivered on Friday so that when John arrived he and I got stuck in with Angie keeping the cups of tea coming and binning some of the smaller bits that had to go in the skip. John took the lead and I was his labourer (physical labour is something I'm not used to these days). The short of it was that the shed was demolished, site cleared and prepared ready for a concrete base. Loads of stuff went into the recycle bins but most went into the skip. It was hard work but an enjoyable change from computer key presses which passes as "work" in my world.

On top of that little lot (which took all the afternoon daylight hours) I managed my share of the household chores, washed Sue's car,and mine, and the motorbike, as well as a trip to Pinxton taking the in-laws to buy a replacement mobility scooter for father-in-law - that'll be delivered next Saturday.

Sunday for me was a ride-out with the guys to Brimington sheds. Iffy damp weather tried it's best to put a dampener on proceedings but it was still enjoyable and it turned out that those from "up north" had missed a nice dry day, while those of us from Derby and further south missed out on a serious dousing as the heavens opened and it lashed it down. So light drizzle and rain meant we got off lightly.

Catch-up

Oh dear, I've been neglecting the blog again. Too much to do and not enough time to do it. It's been a mad year so far, especially at work, where I'm spending most of my time as a "Test Analyst" which mainly involves getting thrown in at the deep end and having to work it out for myself. And then the management wonder why there is an increasing number of "incidents" in the production environment. An "employee survey" across the globe of FIS employees has informed the management that satisfaction scores in Leicester are the lowest for all FIS offices, at half the global average of 64%, while another of the offices is the UK topped the satisfaction sutvey with an 86% score. It sent out a powerful message and today our MD walked and the replacement took up the reigns.

Additionally, we've had the usual round of annual performance reviews. Except this year we had to use a new system and nobody had been trained on how to use it, including the reveiwing managers. The best bit is that it has absolutely no bearing on the annual pay review or individual rewards packages, so basically it's a waste of time. Aren't they all?

Anyway, we are seeing some changes supposedly to improve efficiency. Like replacing the kettles in the kitchen with a wall mounted urn. As the water is always hot it means less time spent waiting around in the kitchen. A small but significant measure because it points towards the way the new MD is thinking.