Pah! Kids today...don't know they're born

"In my day we used to walk to school, 15 miles in the snow, barefoot and with an anvil strapped to our back."

We've been suffering from server problems at work for the last couple of days. No email. No internet. No nothing. (No email days are obviously not a new thing but I don't think I've heard of many companies that have them here in the UK? On purpose at least.)

As I'm sitting on the edge of my desk thinking about getting something done which doesn't involve technology the age-old question popped into my head "how did we manage without computers?".

I started blogging (and therefore was first really aware of the wonderful world of the world wide web) when I was...er... maybe 18 and I remember that I got my first computer (Commodore 64 if you must know) when I must have been about 6. That means that for nearly 20 years, people have have easy access to some form of computer. That scares me.

Do you think life BC (before computers) was less frantic, less stressful, more interactive? It's so easy nowadays to ping off a quick email to someone you've never met and work on a project together without even talking to each other. Blackberries and mobiles mean my boss has access to me all day, every day (that is if I didn't turn the damn thing off).

Just for one day I'd like to spend the time without a computer, without a phone, without the television and just have a bit of peace and quiet. I could actually... talk to someone... finish reading that damn book I started ages ago...

Of course, knowing my luck, the day I choose to be incommunicado will be the day that Rupert Penry-Jones dumps his exceptionally beautiful and lovely wife and puts out an all-broadcast plea for me to whisk him away into the sunset.

A (possible scary) blast from the past

Things are a tad manic at work at the moment so I've got very little time to write anything constructive/interesting (plus ca change some might say!)

However, the other day I went for a trial with the regional team and I randomly bumped into someone I used to share a house with at Uni. At Uni we actively avoided each other. I thought she was a little strange* and she probably thought I was a little mad. Hey-ho.

Imagine my shock when I saw her again, after 5 years, in charge of the team I wanted to join. Scary. Not just scary but it led me to think... does this mean I have to be nice to everyone, just in case, someday in the future, they might wield some power over me?

The morally sound part of me whispers "actually, you should probably be nice to everyone, and not just because you don't know what will happen in the future."

The realistic part of me shouts "oh, come on. There are going to be people out there you just don't like. If you're nice to them, that just makes you a two faced wotsit. Don't bother. Everything will work out in the end."

Does it make me a bad person if sometimes, just occassionally, I'm not nice to someone. I don't think so. I suppose we'll see if I get my comeuppance later in the week. She's supposed to call me and tell me whether I've made the squad or not.


*Yes, the same one I mentioned here

Today I am mostly:

• pushing the envelope (literally) as I stuff 300 christmas cards and nurse my paper cuts
• dreaming of Kenya and the lovely weather I've just left behind
• wondering whether I've got enough Christmas presents and whether I should go out and buy more on Saturday
• cursing my generosity - what made me invite 4 people round for Sunday lunch?
• collecting people's addresses so next year I can be one of those organised people I hate and send out a load of Christmas cards - it also makes me feel a tad grown up...
• procrastinating - can you tell?

Miss Cow had a semi-liquid lunch.

As such, am feeling a bit squiffy and so probably won't post until sober once more.

My trip away was lovely. It was cold (boy was it cold) but it was so nice to discover a new town.

I've never been to Switzerland before. On the way over in the plane I was desperately brushing up on my French, hoping against hope that I wouldn't bump into a German or Italian Swiss.

"Bonjour madame"
"Je voudrais..."
" Deux biers s'il vous plait" etc

I really could have done with our favourite translator there. Maybe I could have squeezed her into my suitcase and then dragged her around after me on a short lead. (Oh alright, I would have given her a long lead. Otherwise she'd start complaining about "lead rights" or somesuch nonsense with fellow bloggers.)

But it really was beautiful there.

The town seems to be broken in two. At the top, lovely old buildings with a real "Europe" feel about them. From the balcony of the hotel, houses and buildings sweep before you with the solid bookstop of the Alps on the horizon. At the bottom of the town it was more modern, industrial. Space age buildings holding secret conferences with each other. Vast numbers of yachts nudging each other aside sceaming "look at me! look at me! I'm the most expensive."

The people are lovely. Considering they have to pay 50 odd francs for a bottle of Swiss wine (that's about £25, fact fans) and they can only shop in a Co-op, they're suprisingly cheerful. It must be all that electricity whizzing about.

Even the robbers are polite. Tap-tapping away on the Blackberry on my way to a meeting (yes I know, how corporate of me!) I felt a nudge. I looked down to see someone's hand in my bag. "Oi" quoth I (in my "I've got an English degree don't'cha know?" way)

"Ah! Pardon madame!" (I'm a "mademoiselle" actually monsieur) and with that he gave me a shifty look and hopped off the bus. Très charmant!

I was just dozing off when I hear "ooo, look at that!" from N. Somewhere half way down the M40 it felt a little bit more Christmassy as excitable snow flurried its way amongst the almost-stationary cars.

As we reached London, the snow turned to rain.

Switzerland today for a couple of days. Keep yourself occupied, won't you.

My my, who would have thought.

I am here. I am writing. I am still alive.

Several months have passed, I realise. Several million things have happened in that time. I suppose I might have to update.

1. I've moved into a new house, in a new part of town, with the old boyfriend(old in the sense of time, not age - he'd not be too happy if I spread rumours about his geriatric credentials). One day I might put some pictures up of the new abode. Chez nutty is very much a des-res (mainly because it's about 2 mins walk from our local) but it has a slight problem with its heating. It doesn't have any.

2. I have a new job (hoorah!) The old job was just getting a bit too much to be honest. Lack of money, too much responsibility, no respect. Pah - there's only so long you can deal with that grinding you down every day. So in the end, I decided to go. Great decision. I now work for "Big multi-national company". Sooo different to the last place. We get free coffee here. The strange thing is, since HQ is abroad (and all the internet servers are therefore routed abroad) I'm currently trying to blog in a German blogger. Makes saving posts/adding pictures/knowing what the hell I'm supposed to be doing a little difficult.

3. Dammit. They're making me work!

The times they are a changin'

But I can't say too much about it though yet, so I won't.

Hope you don't mind too much :)

I've had a headache now for three days.

I'm also re-writing my CV.

Does this tell you how the promotion is going?

Now I'm a manager, I'm far too busy and important to blog.