Rolls-Royce

Visited Rolls-Royce today... Now this is how old engineering companys are... Marble walls and a stained glass window (sadly not allowed cameras on site, as they build classified military jet engines), the security guard could be misunderstood to be a butler. This is how old engineering used to be. Was a good outing. Yet again something we can easily do... Now back to the office to draft up a design.

Kick Ass Karaoke

My sister's always been into singing and acting. In the last few years she's been really into karaoke and now it's a regular wed night event for her and her mates. They're all really good, especilky my sis (which is a given really), but what surprised me was Hayley... She's got a fantastic singing voice... So much so she won the competition last year and got £500 in prize money. I only say suprised because she's normally so quiet... But she's kick ass at karaoke!

Hmm curious

Passed this building on the way into london yesterday. I'm curious as to what it is... me being an engineer.

Cosplayers Love Pocky!

Most people that have read or watched manga/anime have at least heard of Pocky... But cosplayers go mad for it. This girl is cosplaying as one of my favorite characters from Neigima. She'd got the mannerisms down perfect... Or maybe she was just really nervous as she was about to do her first cosplay.

My money's on the latter. Good luck to her tho :-)

Tachikoma salesman

Ghost in the shell is one of my favorite animes... And the tachikoma has gotta be one of the best robots ever... Can't resist the little guys... I've 2 plushie ones, several small plastic ones, and now a airfix kit one.

Your friendly local Pocky dealer

Matt works his magic selling our Pocky to the masses. This is our 2nd day of the hard sell. We're doing ok... It's good to be associated with a company as big as ADV... hopefully this'll be the start of something good :-)

Stickfas Animation

At the expo we're right next to the stickfas people... Oh my god... I've never really thought of doing stop motion animation before (i'm too impatient to move something a tiny amount, take a pic, move it a tiny amount, repeat til done). But wow the kung fu stuff they've made looked fantastic! I'll have to post a video clip on-line

Curse of the Orange Light

Well after 500 odd miles my car still works... but the orange light is back!

Visit to Liverpool was cool, not as constructive as Wales but ho hum, I spoke to an old friend of mine. He's into Anime like me, but in a pure quirk of fate when I met him he was working for BAE Systems a company I was just about to take a Job working for. He's still working there now and as I hadn't seen him in ages I decided to pop along and see him.

Sometimes nothing changes... his house was exactly as I remembered it, his family's hospitality too. Next time I'll have to spend a little more time than just a cup a coffee.

Hopefully tho he'll get some contracts for my company together and we can go on a company paid working lunch! The chances of life being that perfect is slim tho :-) But here's hoping.

Liverpool... test to destruction?

Well off to sunny Liverpool on another site visit for work. Why can't these company's be just around the corner?

The orange light has gone off in my car again, so hopefully this will be a good chance to put it to the test (Hopefully not to destruction) .

For those in the know... not many of you.

For those in the know my life is going through a bit of turmoil at the moment, so not to cause any distress I'll be avoiding purely "personal" entries at the moment.

Normal services will be resumed when my head stops spinning :-)

Broken Girlfriend

For absolutely no reason me and Beckie can fathom Bex threw her back out the other day. I'll have to take her to get repaired as the warranties expired so i can't get a replacement. Ho hum, fiance's are so dear to run aren't they?

Whilst I still have all of my fingers (Bex please don't hurt me) I'd like to say I wouldn't change her for anything and I'm only joking.

Next post is when my fingers/hands have come out of casts :-)

HUGE Forklifts

My first company outing... pretty successfully if I do say so myself. Me the MD, one of my designers (Oooh I like saying that :-) ) and one of the production estimators went all the way to Wales to see a potential customer, It was a really long journey (We left at 4:30 and arrived at about 9:30) .

I knew what the project was about and already laid out a presentation, but I hadn't really given it much thought as to scale (When you look at a design on a screen it's easy to lose all concept of scale) so when I actually saw what it was we were helping make I was shocked... my mental picture of a fork lift is a little gas powered forklift loading pallets in Wickes. These made those look like toys.

These forklifts are designed to lift the containers in docks and stack them 7 high! It weighs 45 Tons. If you can't grasp the scale from the picture look behind the cab, the white bit sticking out the top is in fact a lamp post! Suffice to say my natural manly urge to like big shiny things kicked in.

The presentation went really well, and hopefully we'll be seeing a lot more of this customer, there's lots we can do for them and it'd be a really productive opportunity for both companies.

Journey to Middle Earth (AKA Wales)

Well I'm up at 4:30... this is far too early! Off to Wales now!

Crossed the new Seven Bridge... oh my god why is it so expensive £5.10 (Only into wales mind!), when within easy viewing of this bridge there is a free crossing in the form of the old bridge!



Seriously this guy was the reason that filling with petrol should be part of the driving test. Originally parked at the pump behind he moved forward when he realised he couldn't reach. So he drove forward and moved in about an inch closer, suffice to say this was of great amusement to us as he stretched the pump to reach his tank and fill up, only just tho it must have only been just touching!

Shunt

Somebody ran into the back of me today... I'm not amused :-(

Wales

I've only been to wales once before, that was when I worked with the MoD, I went along with all of the oher apprentices to go on a "team building" exercise. At the time I thought it was hell on earth, trudging up and down welsh mountains with backpacks and cooking food on a portable stove. I'd have much rather been at home with the TV. I look back on it now and realise that it was actually a bloody good laugh and I'd not trade it for anything.

I'm going to be in wales again tomorrow... tho this time no camping, I'm purely there to visit a new customer. It's gonna be a long old drive.

Gig

Went to a blinding gig and saw "cursed as angels" who're the band my sisters boyfriend plays for. I took loads of photo's (see their myspace)... The venue was cool too... Genuine biker pub, this was one of the t-shirts up on the wall... I thought it was apt :-) my ears are still ringing!

Edit:

Their next big gig here:

New Beginnings

Well I've started my new job... and I've been chucked well and truely in the deep end. I tried to hit the ground running... but instead I kinda stumbled and I'm now limping forward... well at least I'm moving eh?

Seriously tho, this is a real big culture shock being "important" from day one. I'm used to gaining respect from people as they realise that the "new boy" isn't totally green, but that takes time. Instead people have assumed right from the moment I walked in the door that I knew everything. Which is extremely scary.

I think I've gotten off to a good start and done all the right things, slowly settling into my new desk (Shame it's not an office, but I understand as only one of the 3 directors actully has an office).

I now have the mamoth task of turning this design office into a productive and coherent entity... sadly it's rather in dissary given they've been without a manager for >6 months now. I only hope I can add my own flair and imagination to this and move this department forward along with the MD's plans.

I think I'm gonna need all my luck to do this!

Old Cinemas

Back when cinemaphotography was new cinema's were grand affairs... On the way home i drive past 3 old cinemas... A Odeon, Coronett and an Empire. They're all beautiful pieces of architecture... Although sadly only the Odeon is still a cinema. The others are now nightclubs.

Last Journeys to London

Well today and tomorrow are my last days going into London as a commuter (Yesterday was my last day on the train). It's kinda sad really, I'm gonna miss the log train and car journeys, they gave me time to relax and think, which I guess is really wierd as most people get stressed out on long journeys. Not me tho, I enjoy them. Driving in today was wierd as I used to do it a couple of months ago, now i'm seeing more intresting things on my way into work, I guess going by train has made me appreciate "staring out the window". Here's a few things I've seen and am curious about:


Here's the Millenium Dome... now the O2 Dome... the rolling stones are playing the grand opening gig





On the way into blackwall tunnel there's this funny little archway just a couple of hundred yards from the tunnel... In the foreground is the height restriction bars, I wonder if the archway originally served the same purpose?





British red cvross building with the obligatory cross on the side




London is full of funny architecture... but this is probably the wierdest. The photo doesn't do it justice, the buildings madeup of a series of wedges and angles, one of the windows runs at such a sharp angle that it cuts through 2 floors of the building... it must be surreal working in it... wonder what the inside is like.




This bridge is really ornate, but what makes it odd isn't that... it's got nothing either side of it... no roads nothing?

Busy Days Ahead

I've got a lot of stuff coming up soon, so hopefully I'll have something a little less mundane to blog about.

I'm off out bowling on Friday with Bex's new work mates so that'll be fun for the both of us, then on Sat I'll be official photographer for Pauls band at the first gig my sisters been to since they got together (Aww). Next week I start my new job so that'll be hectic, the week after I'll be preparing for the Expo in London (More about that later), and after that I'll be driving off to Germany with my dad!

And all in between that I'm gonna try to keep up with blogging (Hopefully adding to my myspace as I doubt my new employer has a filter for that). And getting in some quality gaming/drawing time (Getting back into that after a long lapse)... and of course keeping up with the housework etc.

I need an assistant me thinks... on a maid... or both... or just clones of me to do all the stuff I want/need to do. Well at least I won't be bored!

Hidden Meaning?

I've seen a few posters like this one and I'm ashamed to say I just don't get it? It's an aerial photo of london... Advertising Capital Radio as the "Sound of London" But has it been doctored to show a hidden meaning? Or is it just plain and simply a photo and i'm reading too much into it?

B&Q Monday

Bank holidays... probably one of the last bastions of holidays left in the UK where most people get time off (With the exception of shop workers who voluntarily work and receive 2x pay for the inconvenience). The rest of us get to do anything we like... which in my case ends up being DIY or cleaning up the house. Not that I mind... any chance to be manly with a power tool is good by me.

I just propose that Bank Holidays now be called B&Q days (Which sorta rhymes), as judging by the queues in B&Q every man for miles around ends up being in there on a bank holiday.

"If life was easy it'd be boring"

I've had a difficult decision to make lately... My current job is fine, although the travel is long I actually look forward to it in a weird way... it's a chance to relax and unwind, read or play on my DS/PSP so unlike driving it's not "dead time" to me. However I'd much rather be at home relaxing than on a commuter train. As a result I've been looking for employment elsewhere.

Since I was made redundant back in November last year I have had on and off contact with a company that was offering me a Management position, namely manager of a Design Office. Now I've been pursuing this for some time and mostly thought it would never come to fruition so I looked elsewhere also. I landed an interview with a large multinational company last week and they offered me a position comparable to the one I have now (Just without the commute). Ordinarily I'd accept this offer under the merit of the company alone (One I know and respect)... however, I'm now being offered the management position I'd thought was all but lost to me.

OH DILEMA!

To choose a job of power with a company I know has experienced trouble (To the point of being part of a management buy out), or to choose a mundane job for a company built like a rock?

Unsurprisingly I've been tearing my hair out trying to decide what to do.

I bit the bullet yesterday and accepted the management position, because although I worry about the stability of the company I know I'd never live with myself not knowing what might have been.

I've used it for a while now and it is even more poignant today, and that is my motto:

"If life was easy it'd be boring"

Jay's Garage

As I've said before, because I'm an engineer most people think I'm a mechanic also. My Mum and sister both turn to me and my dad whenever anything mechanical or electrical breaks and needs repairing, with my dad spending the majority of his time in Lowerstoft this means that whenever they have problems they turn to me.

This isn't a bad thing... actually I enjoy being able to help people, especially my friends and family.

My sister Louise came to me the other day with a particularly difficult problem. Her electric window in the car wouldn't close. Lou's not know for her good timing and it was urgent that I fix it... as she was off to wales the following day.

Anyways... after struggling to remove the door panel I had to remove the foam soundproof inner sheet... why on earth it's glued to the door skin everywhere i don't know... we managed to get it off with a few small rips (Oops sorry wib). Once it was off I managed to get to the mechanism... (See 1st photo), now this is where i realised (At 8:30 in the eve) that it wasn't gonna be a quick job as the glass carrier mechanism had snapped in such a way that the window would only go down rather than up (The mechanism has a wire with a solid slug attached that moves the glass up and down, the top restraint had sheared off). Unable to fix it without spending all night on it (Lou wanted to get home too) I sent Louise into the bushes with a hacksaw to get a branch to prop it up. This I wedged into the door (See 2nd photo), sadly it was too short, so as a shim I used her copy of Now Magazine (See 3rd photo). Happy that it'd hold until she could get to a proper garage I put it all back together.

I bet whoever fixes it will die of laughter when they see my "bodge-it-and-scarper" engineering :-)