With one thing and another I have been rather busy recently. Christmas preparations are a little behind…

Stage two of our house decoration project was delayed (due to unexpected circumstances) from the expected October schedule until last week. This meant last minute furniture relocation from three rooms in readiness for the decorator to perform his magic. The room where my computer is located needed decorating throughout rather than a refresh that was needed in the other two rooms. The wall colour is much warmer and richer in colour than my photos show.

My computer was temporarily located in the living room which was not ideal for creative thinking (for blogging). Now my computer is back where it belongs, but as you can see the room is a work in progress. New carpet is on order and when Mr C and I have time we will take a trip to our local curtain shop.

But for now we have Christmas cards to make and post, trees to put up, one or two more presents to buy and finish planning our boxing day meal, working around numerous food allergies…

We have a clear desk policy at work which means that every night we tidy our papers into a draw or cabinet. Every evening I store my work papers and work notes in a cabinet near to my desk. A few weeks ago I returned to work after the weekend to find that one of my notebooks had gone missing. This wasn’t terribly important in the great scheme of things, it only contained work jottings to remind me how to do things (process steps).

But where had it gone? I checked through my papers, my drawers, the cabinet where I had placed it, underneath the cabinets and drawers and also the trays of my colleague who files his papers next to mine each evening. I couldn’t find it anywhere.

A colleague double checked and couldn’t find it either. It left me with the disturbing feeling that perhaps I had done something strange with it. After a couple of days I arranged for an email to be sent out building wide to see if anyone had found it. I heard nothing.

Just before lunch time today, my colleague who files his papers next to mine and who also sits next to me exclaimed ‘Oh!! Look what I have found!!’ He was most startled to find my missing notebook in the bottom of his work trays. He was also a bit discomforted because some papers had gone from his bottom tray and that is how he noticed my notebook…

It seems the universe is still up to its tricks…

I planned my morning to make sure I could set off to work a little earlier than usual just in case the man with the stop go signs was controlling the traffic. All was going well but then I heard the sound of ladders outside our house. The window cleaner had arrived early, he doesn’t usually come before I go to work. Shortly after he arrived he knocked on the front door, which I thought was a little odd because he normally arrives and washes all the windows before knocking on the door.

The gate to the side of our house which should have been unlocked for him was locked… I had to go and find the key so that I could unlock the gate for him. Whilst unlocking the padlock to the gate I noticed that that the latch on the gate was not closed, the gate flung open as I unlocked the padlock. I wondered who had left the gate semi closed and locked like that!

I was left feeling hassled by this unwarranted interruption to my early morning schedule. I don’t do mornings at the best of times

I got back on track getting myself sorted out for work and managed to leave for work earlier as I had planned. There was hardly any traffic on the roads and the road that had the temporary traffic control yesterday seemed clear. I was lulled into a false sense of security, I soon realised that the traffic was still being controlled by stop go signs. However the queues were smaller and I didn’t have to wait long. I followed the cars in front and proceeded slowly through the work area. As I was about to turn back onto the normal portion of the road I heard a large metallic ring sound to the rear offside of my car. It was one of those slow motion moments where you assess everything around you whilst still proceeding along your way.

I had slowed down even more whilst this was going on but could see nothing untoward so I accelerated and continued on my way to work. The car felt a little weird to drive and I felt every bump in the road. I could also hear a rhythmic ‘catchink catchink’ sound which sped up the faster I went. I began to wonder if I had a flat tyre, so I proceeded slowly until I was able to pull up to have a look. The tyre was still inflated so I continued the last few yards to my office car park and parked up. I had a closer but rather brief look at the tyre (I didn’t want to be late again) and noticed that there was something lodged in the tread of the tyre.

The whole incident unsettled me (again) and I was feeling out of sorts as I entered the office which wasn’t helped by phone calls, visitors and some of our systems being down as soon as I arrived. One of my colleagues suggested that I check the car out properly at lunchtime to make sure the tyre had not gone down since I left it. I took his advice, the tyre was still inflated but on on closer inspection I realised that a bolt had become embedded in the tyre! I rang Mr C who suggested that rather than me trying to get it fixed today he would change my wheel for the spare when I got home this evening.

I left work earlier than usually so that I didn’t get held up in any traffic which might delay a smooth journey home. Thankfully the roadworks with the stop go signs had finished for the evening so I didn’t have that to endure all over again. Mr C swapped the wheel over and I went for a short drive. My car feels normal again, but I am trying not to think about what tomorrow will bring!

As I left for work this morning it was blustery and chilly but on the plus side the sun was shining. On my journey to work a particularly vibrant rainbow in a strange patch of light caught my eye although sadly I had no time to stop and enjoy it. As I parked my car on arrival at work I noticed another rainbow in front of a rather ominous looking sky. Looking the other way towards my office building the sky was blue with a few light fluffy clouds.

A few minutes into the five minute walk to my office it started to spit with rain. I was wondering if I would make it to the office without getting soaked. The blustery wind meant the use of an umbrella was impossible. Just after the half way point on my walk the winds picked up and so did the rain… The rain then turned to heavy hail and the wind speed picked up even more. A few moments later the wind had picked up such a speed that the hailstones were blowing horizontally.

On the final approach to my office building I had to face into the wind that was increasing in speed. I found it incredibly difficult to walk and had to stop several times partly to avoid being blown off my feet. A few feet away from me a metal fence and signs were blown flat. For a while I turned my back to the wind and took a few paces backwards until I was near enough to the building to be shielded a little from the wind.

As I entered the reception area I was completely out of breath and rather than key in I just plonked my bags on the nearest table to recover. One side of me was soaked and water was streaming down that side of my face, the other side of me was completely dry. My glasses were steamed up and I could just make out two of my colleagues by the reception desk. One of them was most concerned and asked me several times if I was all right. I said I was fine, which I was apart from being a bit winded and half soaked. She organised the other colleague to fetch some tissues so I could dry myself off a bit.

I was conscious of the fact that I was probably looking quite disheveled but when I had caught my breath I entered the office. As I entered one of my colleagues looked up to say hello (as is usual) and gasped loudly ‘Oh Cherie’!! Causing everyone to look round… By the time I got to my desk (which is in the middle of the building) I had caused quite a stir and my immediate team members were chuckling away merrily and I have to admit although I couldn’t see myself I was rather amused too.

As I took my coat off and put my bags under my desk, due to the cold and wet my wedding ring slipped off my finger onto the floor. I picked it up but where was my engagement ring… It wasn’t immediately visible!!! I retraced my steps inside the building (leaving my colleagues searching around my desk area) before returning to empty the contents of my bag. There it was at the bottom which was a relief to me and it saved another of my colleagues who was about to be sent on a mission (not by me) to retrace my steps outside the office.

Entry to work dramas now concluded I quickly made myself more presentable and a colleague provided me with a hot water bottle to dry off the portion of my skirt that was saturated. I would like to say the day got better but unfortunately it was a day of complicated (non routine) work problems to sort out…

The first thing I did when I got home after work was wash my hair and immediately everything felt so much better

On arrival at work this morning I was greeted at the doorway and informed that most of the electrics in the building were not working. Hot and cold water were available and partial lighting in one of the ladies toilet facilities. I was also told that if I was not comfortable with these arrangements I could go to a nearby building to use the facilities there.

We moved office buildings in early 2011 to a building that had been newly refurbished. One of the features was state of the art water boilers for hot drinks. They are billed as having the capacity of providing 200 cups of boiling water per hour. They never quite lived up to expectations and broke down frequently and the temporary alternatives were less than adequate.

The decision was eventually made to provide wall mounted zip boilers in addition to the current facilities. These were fitted over a weekend two weeks ago. They did not get wired up for use that weekend because the electrician had fallen ill. The work was rescheduled for last weekend. The electrician turned up but an unfortunate incident occurred. He dropped his screwdriver shorting out most of the building’s electrical circuits and at the same time gave himself quite a ’shock’. We were informed that the electrician was alright (thank goodness).

The building facilities were back up and running mid morning but the computer systems took a little longer…  And the hot drink facilities are still less than adequate.

After a day like that it was an ideal opportunity to take advantage of the sunny weather and hop on my bicycle to enjoy a relaxing cycle ride. The experimental route I chose was rather overgrown (including lots of brambles and nettles). This was not ideal especially as the pathways are supposed to be part of the local cycle network.  This meant I had to do a lot of walking in addition to the cycling.  On the plus side, at least it gave me a bit of exercise

The bear then proceeded past the window and in through the main entrance to our building.  A few minutes later he walked into the office accompanied by a human carrying a bucket to collect money for the charity ‘Help for Heroes’.  It was only after the arrival of the bear that we received an email advising us to expect his presence in the building.

I invite you to join me at Vision & Verb where I relate the tale of my  unexpected adventure.

Whilst going about my daily business at work I was drawn to look at the dictionary that is stood up next to my in/out/pending trays.  I immediately forgot about it.

When it was lunch time I rustled in my bag and got my lunch time eats out and placed them on the table.  As I did this there was loud banging sort of noise.  It made me turn my head and made a colleague on the next bank of desks to me jump.  The dictionary had fallen on the floor.  I joked we had an office ghost playing around and we had a little chuckle together.  I picked it up and put it back on my desk and we both immediately forgot about it.

During the day I had been trying to phone a colleague, but all I got was an answering machine, I didn’t want to leave a message because the subject needed a conversation.  When I made my first call to that colleague after the lunch time incident there was no dial tone when I picked up my phone receiver!  As I pressed the catch on the phone to try and reset or see if there was a problem, there was a loud bang.  The dictionary had fallen on the floor again!!

That dictionary has been placed like that on my previous desk for 10 months (without incident) and also for the 4 weeks I have been in my current job (without incident).

It reminded me of this:

Speaking of ghosts reminds me of a strange incident at work today.  Both my colleague and I heard the noise of footfall and were aware of a presence behind us.  When we looked there was no-one there…

The dictionary is now placed firmly on it’s side!!

I invite you to join me over at Vision and Verb where today I reminisce about work over the years.