John’s Blog

Welcome to my world

I live in London with my two crazy cats, Phil and Grant. This is my online training journal as I will be running the British London 10km in July, and I hope you enjoy your visit!

• Been a bit busy

  Posted on May 1st, 2009 John 2 comments

  So, the new job’s started. A bit of a gentle introduction to the job (well if you count 30 things on your to-do list within 30 minutes of starting quiet!) I get to go jetsetting around the world still … unfortunately nowhere as exotic as Spain anymore. Chesterfield next week (which suits me for visiting the family) and sunny Solihull the week after that. But on the whole I’m enjoying it - it’s a different job entirely and it’s very weird not to be thinking about Helpdesk tickets, moaning customers and service levels.

  And seeing as this is supposed to be my training blog, here’s a training update. I did some gym sessions this week, which went well. My foot seems to be back to normal now so that’s all good too.

  P.S. Have you checked out Walford Web’s new feature - the cast wiki? I’m frantically importing character bios into it, and are up to the surname beginning with V so far. With a bit of luck everything will be imported by Monday. Click here to have a sneak peek!

  Training, Work EastEnders, Gym, Walford Web, Work

• Hero dog

  Posted on April 23rd, 2009 John 2 comments

  Here’s a clip for pet lovers everywhere, and if you’re not I dare you to watch it and not be moved …

  Found Online Dog

• Last day

  Posted on April 22nd, 2009 John 2 comments

  It’s been a funny old day (as Arkwright would have said on Open All Hours). It was my last day in my old job, as I’m off for a couple of days now and start my new role (in the same company) on Monday.

  It’s fair to say that on the one hand I can’t wait to start the new one, but on the other hand I’m bricking it completely. As of Monday I’m responsible for the training, development, resourcing and succession planning for over 900 people! Never done anything like it before so it’ll be interesting times. And I’m not quite sure what I’ve let myself in for, as I received 15 emails in one hit today from my new boss with stuff to look at next week.

  But hey, two days off now … tomorrow’s taken up with a day out at Thorpe Park, and as the weather’s hopefully going to hold out until the weekend I have high hopes that it’ll be a brilliant day out. And if it stays nice I fancy a trip to the seaside, and old haunts so will have to hit Brighton at some point. Call it the calm before the storm …

  Work New job

• Incompetence … thy name is Whipps Cross

  Posted on April 16th, 2009 John No comments

  Whipps Cross Hospital in east London has to be one of the most disorganised showers of shite I’ve ever come across. Unfortunately they’re the nearest hospital within walking distance of my neck of the woods, so they were the natural choice for me when I was diagnosed with diabetes.

  Now if anyone is reading this in the Gillian Hanson Centre at Whipps - the Diabetes unit - you’re great, but how on earth you can cope with everything else around you on day by day basis without going crackers I’ll never know.

  The latest tale of woe is my comedy high blood pressure. The consultant is trying to eliminate causes of my elevated blood pressure (anyone who understands these numbers will be horrified to know that mine sometimes hits 200 over 100 - fortunately not very often and over a day it averages out to 148/90) so wanted me to do 24 hour urine tests, so they can check that out (hmmm that must be a fun job).

  So I dutifully wizz in a big bottle for 2 days (that’s fun, and quite demeaning to have to do by the way), and take the samples back to the hospital for them to analyse … Spin on to yesterday when the results arrived … for ONE of the samples, the other’s got lost, presumably mixed with vodka and turned into a new cocktail down the pub). So I’ve got to do the whole sodding 2 day test all over again.

  Bunch. Of. Arse.

  Footwatch … news on the foot after Tuesday’s exercise is that I can tell I’ve exercised on it, there’s a bit of discomfort but nothing like what it was. I’m going to keep going easy on it and see what happens

  Health Whipps Cross

• Hit the gym

  Posted on April 14th, 2009 John 1 comment

  So, finally, after what seems like weeks and weeks I finally hit the gym today (and had to do that as I’d got a session with Keli, the personal trainer sent up from hell).

  It was the first time running since hurting my foot, and at the time all felt fine. I’m sitting here this evening with aching feet but I’m not sure if that was because of all the exercise. We’ll see how it feels in the morning, and whether I can still walk.

  So … I also learned six new exercises to do, most of which consisted of me looking like a beached whale next to Keli, who looked completely composed throughout all of it. My favourite classy maneouvre had to be squatting down like I was on the toilet while doing bicep curls. Hmmm, what fun.

  Next up will be a gentle run outside tomorrow or Thursday to see if that’s still doable. It’d chuffing well better be …

  And tomorrow’s the day I tell the team at work about “you know what”. Can’t wait for the reaction to that!

  Training Gym

• An Easter of disappointments

  Posted on April 13th, 2009 John 4 comments

  Easter, when you’re a diabetic, isn’t the fun that it was once was. While there’s nothing to stop you eating some chocolate, you can’t eat yourself sick of the stuff anymore (and where’s the fun in that).

  Add other things into the mix, like a friend who comes to visit (and don’t me wrong, I love it when people come to stay, but I love it even more when they leave and I get my house back), having to play nice with ex’s (as they’re friends with that friend) and crap on the telly and it all starts to get a bit pathetic. It’s work tomorrow but I feel like I’ve not had any me time yet!

  But hey, here were my main Easter disappointments.

  The new Doctor Who. It seemed to go for ever and ever and ever, without very much happening in it. About the only good thing to the whole show was Michelle Ryan - she continues to surprise me now that she’s out of EastEnders. But as for the story itself, it was all a bit “bleurgh”. David, your time is up, hurry up and smeg off won’t you, and give the new guy a chance.

  “Smeg off” leads me nicely into Red Dwarf (I could almost be a links writer for a show). If Doctor Who was rubbish, Red Dwarf was an entire landfill full of putrid, rotting, steaming excrement. Question for Dave - or should be the Top Gear Channel? - why did you think resurrecting a show that died several years ago with your low budget would be a good idea? The plot was nothing short of fanwank (google that if you’re not sure what that is) that dragged on for three episodes too many, and it was telling that the shows that followed each new episode usually made me laugh in the first minute.

  Oh well … hopefully my friend goes at lunchtime like he originally said, and that means I can at least try and get out this afternoon and do something by myself, even if it’s just going for a walk. The rest of the week’s fun, doing my team’s appraisals before I leave them, telling my team I’m leaving (can’t wait for that!), and a session at the gym with Keli (which’ll probably be the death of me). Fun, fun fun.

  On Television Doctor Who, Easter, Red Dwarf

• The genius that is Charlie Brooker

  Posted on April 9th, 2009 John No comments

  If you have Freeview, Satellite or Cable you’ll get access to BBC Four, which has to be one of the most deadly dull of channels ever to be invented on the face of the planet. Strange intellectual documentaries, television shows that don’t even make it to BBC Three for goodness’ sake, and Charlie Brooker.

  Charlie has had two series on BBC Four of note - the first, Screenwipe, takes a look at various topics each week (for example, one week he covered advertising, and so on. One of the best he did was about the News). Here’s the first few minutes of it.

  As a bit of a television nerd, it was fantastic to watch, even if just for the old style BBC News titles changed to say Screenwipe. But watch the whole thing and you’ll understand why Charlie’s fantastic and wasted in the hinterlands of BBC Four.

  His new show has gone one better - Newswipe is your guide to the news, aimed at people who can’t be arsed to watch it every day and basically rips news presenters, presentation, and subjects to bits.

  Some of the things he’s put on the show are uncomfortable viewing and scarily accurate. Like the expert who said in the wake of any big shooting story there will usually be another two or three copy cats, so the best thing any news channel could do when something like this happens is to ignore it, or give it the most uninteresting and minimal coverage possible. Of course, our media’s incapable of doing that and made a big deal out of the recent shooting in Germany, which sadly led to more shootings in America shortly afterwards.

  But anyway … unfortunately you’ve missed the first three episodes of Newswipe, but they’ll probably be somewhere on iPlayer or Youtube if you’re determined to find them. Or even watch them on BBC Four - we might even double the number of viewers the channel gets as a whole as a result.

  On Television Charlie Brooker, Newswipe, Screenwipe

• TweetDeck and the rise of Twitter

  Posted on April 6th, 2009 John No comments

  Today’s been pretty rubbish on the work front, going back in the UK after a week working away is never any fun, especially when people fail to appreciate that perhaps you’re going to have to spend a bit of time catching up on the stuff you should have been doing when you were abroad. That probably wins the award for the longest sentence in the world, and hopefully it made sense.

  So … something I want to talk about every now and again is things I love to use that make my life easier.

  TweetDeck is the first entry to the list of things that I find really useful to use. Twitter has really taken off recently amongst my friends (and celebrities that I stalk, such as @CHRISDJMOYLES, @AdamWoodyatt, @Schofe (Philip Schofield), @ThePaulDaniels and so on.

  But the one thing that I find truly aggravating is that I can never keep up to speed with who has said what to whom and when. So enter TweetDeck. TweetDeck is a nice application that runs on your desktop, and you can organise your tweets into different categories, once you’ve got it up and running.

  So now I can see my Friends, @Replies, Direct Messages, Celebrities and All Messages in separate columns. Keeping the Celebrities separate is an important thing to do because they’re even more obsessed about Twittering than normal people (Schofe must own shares in it he goes onand on so much!)

  So if you’re serious about your Tweets, give it a go!

  And nothing on the training front today, was too busy and still resting the foot. However, it’s still fine so I’m going to take my gym stuff in tomorrow and start up again. I’ve got a mate coming down at the weekend who runs marathons, so we’ll go out at some point for a run no doubt and he can support laugh at me.

  Techno TweetDeck

• EastEnders: Good riddance Danielle

  Posted on April 5th, 2009 John 3 comments
  

  Danielle, played by Lauren Crace

  So, this week saw the departure from EastEnders of one Danielle Jones, played by Lauren Crace. Now, before I continue with this post and get lynched no doubt by anyone who stumbles on this blog - this post is not about Lauren Crace’s acting, she was a good actress and I wish her every success in the future. No, this post is all about the STORYLINE (because, remember children, EastEnders is a work of fiction).

  For the last few months we’ve all had to sit through half hour after half hour of much umming and ahhing and knowing looks. In fact, you’d have had to be bloody stupid to have not put two and two together the minute Danielle arrived in Albert Square. Doh … Ronnie’s suddenly got a daughter she gave up for adoption … Duh … woman about that age arrives in Albert Square … Duh … Wonder who she could be?

  Then, probably the most annoying thing about this whole sodding story. The way that tweenies across the country united and latched onto this story like it was a modern day version of Romeo and Juliet (or let’s be more accurate, the new version of Sharon and Dennis). Post after post of interminable crap on our Forums about “When will she tell her? How will she tell her?” Why didn’t they go even further and ask, “What clothes will she be wearing when she tells her? Will she have red sparkly lipstick on?” Good god people. You’ve driven me to distraction.

  And then the ultimate.

  She died! Praise the lord hallelujah. And so the story should have ended at this point. Except it didn’t. The sodding aftermath then brought down Walford Web Forums, Digital Spy and every probably every other website where the words Ronnie and Danielle had appeared at some point in its life. How it didn’t crash the National Grid as everyone went to make a cup of tea I don’t know.

  And now, get this … Fans are petitioning the BBC so that Danielle won’t be dead. For pete’s sake, grow up. It’s a story which has come to its natural conclusion. For me, that conclusion has come five months too late but at least it’s off my screens now.

  Last not least, let’s give Charlie Brooks a medal for coming back as Janine. If I ever meet Janine, which I won’t because EASTENDERS ISN’T REAL, I’d give her £500 myself for bumping Danielle off. You’re a star love, an absolute star.

  On Television EastEnders

• Back to the grind

  Posted on April 3rd, 2009 John 3 comments

  So I’m back in the UK now after a lovely week in Spain. Well … the nights out were lovely (if a tad late - I don’t think I could ever get used to still being eating dinner at midnight too often), and the days were busy but flew by.

  Back this afternoon, courtesy of Easyjet (actually an airline I quite like to fly with - they’re cheap, their planes are new and clean and the crews are very friendly). And of course back to my beautiful boys who have waited patiently all week for me to come home to give them some cuddles. Don’t worry - they’re not abandoned whenever I go away, they have a babysitter who feeds them twice a day and gives them lots of attention.

  So, now it’s the weekend … First on the agenda is recovering from the late nights, second is possibly going for a run (my foot has now stopped hurting for three days straight, but I don’t want to risk thrashing it too much) and third hoping and praying the web server is going to stay up long enough to let obsessive compulsive fans of Danielle whitter on about how much they miss her. Me … if I never need another picture of her again it’ll be too soon.

  Work EastEnders, Spain, Work
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