October

Dominated by work, seconded to the QnO section (Quote and Order) in Capita it saw me back in Meridian Court on The Wyvern, Derby. The section was in a mess after an aborted attempt by management to move the function to Pune, India. The role was to attack the backlog and bring order to the chaos that existed because of the lack of a real propriety tool to do the job. At least it was local and in the main I was left to do whatever I felt I was best spending my time doing, and we got results. I managed to sort out the live requests from the historical stuff, bring filing much more up-to-date (no mean feat as a great proportion of requests/orders had no obvious references assigned to them) as well as handling the Local Government accounts. The backlog has been reduced and while I was reassigned back into project work on the 28th those that now comprise 'the team' are virtually back on top of the workload and back to meeting the sections SLAs.

The recent 'heavy weather' (storms) that were forecast for the UK missed most of the family. Mark & Eleanor now in their new home in Staines had it the worst but have happily reported that they have survived unscathed. Andy & Emma have had little luck in their hunt for a house and those that come up on Oakwood are selling within days and they have missed a number now because they couldn't get in quickly enough to have a viewing. Andy's Integra track day car had total clutch failure on a day at Oulton Park race track and they had to limp it home stuck in 3rd gear with no use of the clutch available to them - they made it. That and a number of other repairs have been made and it is back in good shape. Some bits arrived in the post today so Andy will be bolting those on this week coming but they are upgrades to improve it, not repairs.

Sue's dad has deteriorated considerably over the last couple of weeks, with Parkinsons, Altzheimers and dementia all taking hold at the same time and it is sad to see him in his current state. Additionally the skin cancer on his head has flared up again. I know Sue is deeply affected but she refuses to discuss it much, and this is at a time when she is under immense pressure at her work. Two weeks tomorrow she is doing a sponsored walk with Mark & Eleanor - 17 miles in the Peak District to raise money for Cancer Research and she has got some good sponsorship. She has been doing some preparation by walking to work and back - 4.5 miles each way with work colleagues who are also doing the walk. I just hope the weather is not too unkind to them.