Ball Family Oscars (Boscars)
Dream Jobs
Tw@ Parking Pass
Tory erosion of the minimum wage
Day 8 of (Bob) Dylan
Our new baby, Dylan ball is on Day 8 post partum. Nice. Its been a roller coaster ride for @elizabeth and her breasts. (this is the point when my dad stops reading...bye dad). Liz is giving a really good run at Breastfeeding this time and I am ever so proud of her. She is knackered and undergoing amusing cognitive fail due to sleep deprivation. Yesterday she happily handed me my dessert, a bowl of meringue, cream and strawberry's. She and the swarm love that dessert... I however, have not ever eaten strawberry's, except once when I tried one and spat it out, in front of her, in 12 years of marriage and 15 years of being together. When I pointed this out to her she looked confused and said she thought I had always eaten them.... its funny how <4 hours sleep a night for 10 days can really screw with your perception of the world... just look at Lady Thatcher and the destruction of UK industry....
So anyway, I have decided to nick-name the new boy Bob. This is because my friend Stu Love often called his cousin James Robert Williams "Jimbobwilly"... as a result of that cool abbreviate I often called my son Thomas "TomBob", even though his middle name is not Robert. I really don;t fancy abbreviating Dylan to Dyl...or Dill...I have debating nominating Donald as his middle name - so we can call him Dildo...but Liz's not buying that for a second. So I might settle on Robert as a middle name, so the Bob Dylan reference makes Bob his legitimate nickname.
Dream Jobs
Today I turned down a dream job. I have had 1st and 2nd interviews at an engineering company doing tech work, and i was offered the job on Friday (they described me as the "outstanding candidate"). It was more money than I was on at DMU, high promotional prospects, ok hours, decent pension and medical, and most importantly work I would have enjoyed with some cool people. But I turned it down. I think I might be mad. 12 months ago it would have been a dream opportunity, to move from academia into industry....especially industrial with promotional options which could have lead to directorship in the next 4 years and options like working in Portland, Oregon or one of 15 other USA locations..... One reason why I took the Voluntary redundancy at DMU was that it'd put some money in the bank for me and let me have more of a consultancy lifestyle, hopefully earning near to what I was on as PAYE, but paying less tax (Dividends at 20% instead of PAYE Tax & N.I. at 40%) as a Ltd company - and spending more time at home with my family.
Having been off now on paternity leave for over a week, I have certainly come to value the potential freedom and enjoyment of being at home in the day, seeing my kids and wife more, and spending more time in natural daylight. I have really bonded heavily with Emily over this last month, she doesn't just run past me shouting mummy any more if she needs something... she seems to consider me a useful parent too now, which makes me happy. I have other job options, but I hope I get to spend more time with my wife and kids. This is why I am slightly torn in half by the opportunity to have an interview for another job for which I would have to work away from home mon-thurs...trading my family time short-term for big bucks, but becoming a weekend dad.
Not even heard if i have got the interview for that, so we'll cross that bridge if and when we come to it.
On now to the Boscars (- or Ball family oscars).
I need to put out a few thank you's to people for the help they have given the me, Liz and the swarm over the last few years.
- The biggest shout goes to mum and Rod, because without them we would have really struggled.. They help with the school run, and always have milk.
- Liz's mum Jenny ( and her husband peter) also helps a lot and is good for bouncing HE idea's and career decisions off.
- My dad's also good for career and 'tech' talk, so thanks to you guys loads for all that you do to help the swarm in its first shaky steps to world domination.
- Get well soon Anne, if you are reading this still from your hospital bed in Belgium, best wishes and our thoughts are with you.
- The Widwives, one trainee in particular, and the ladies that came to our house when liz was struggling... those ladies do a very important job in society and i wish them all well.
- DMU colleagues - thanks you guys for being so supportive of my decision to swan off and leave you all holding the broken pieces of the processes and systems i have been supporting ( mostly atlas style) for that last 12 years. I wish you all the best, particularly ISAS, BSG and QL support team-mates who have stretched, challenged, supported and shaped my skills, knowledges, techniques and opinions for the last 1/3rd of my life! I hope you all get something good and satisfying out of the new order, or out of your redundancy, may you all get what you wish for.
- I'd like to thanks everyone who commented or "liked" my facebook marathon of updates during the course of Liz's labour. 3&1/2 years ago when we had Emily, I had neither an internet phone or a facebook account and the whole process of the labour experience was a very lonely thing for Liz and I. This time, for Dylans birth, with facebook and my N900, I kept the world thoroughly up to date on the rate of contractions, Liz's cervical dilation, and how we were feeling, and as a result we got a constant stream of jokey / supportive comments, requests for pics and information and it really bouyed us up and kept us going...between contractions Liz occasionally enjoyed being read some of the best bits.
- On the job front, My friend Matt is deserving of a golden Boscar envelope because in his own way he has helped to set me free from my old career and given me a chance to try something new. To a lesser extent so has my friend Nige. Check out both their music projects on their reverb nations...well worth a listen
TW@ Pass
Firstly, what's going on with the people who park on the school run ignorantly or antisocially just to get 10 yards closer to school, for example parking over people's drives or in the Yellow "school no parking" zone.... I propose some kind of name and shame sticker campaign, provisionally named "TW@ Pass" - Which could be designed, distributed, and stuck onto their vehicles every-time they are spotted performing such misdemeanour's. There's a dad on the nursery run who regularly drives right up to the school gates and parks in the Yellow zone rather than normal spots for parking 20-50 yards further up the road.
Tory Erosion of the minimum wage....
Just when you thought the TORY's had copped enough of a facefull of backlash over their devious NHS refroms, one of them comes out with a ludicrous IDEA to wave minimum wage for disabled people to help them get jobs . At least the government stepped out and refused to back him up..eroding the minimum wage....so you can pay your immigrant philipino pool cleaner£1 an hour to fish champagne glasses out of the filter? Suit you sir..
No comments:
Post a Comment