Well, it feels like I’m going to have a very strange 48 hours in my life shortly. It started today really – I had quite a bit of work to do at the office, yet hardly managed to get a thing done: it didn’t help with my boss having to work from home because of the snow (and hence there was a higher than normal level of emails flying backwards and forwards). I felt knackered at the end of the day and was sooo glad he allowed us all to go home at 4.30pm to make sure we got home safely.
Insurance
Got home and then tried to sort out my life insurance. My old policy is nearly being cancelled as the bank account that was used to collect the premiums no longer exists and I had a letter asking me to contact my insurer. The letter said “Please call between 8.30am and 8pm”, but try calling and their answering system says “Office is only open between 9am and 6pm”: gee, brilliant for us working types!
Anyway, since I finished work early, I tried to give them a call. First person I spoke to told me that the policy had been cancelled, that I needed to fill in a direct debit form AND a medical form and that the 2 missing payments would be taken via direct debit: which she couldn’t set up on the phone. I wasn’t happy with that, so I called straight back and then “played dumb” on their automated call management system (i.e. didn’t press any buttons). Spoke to another woman who told me the policy was still active, but that I needed to send in a cheque to cover the 3 missing payments and that I only needed to fill in the direct debit form. But, alas, she couldn’t set up the mandate over the telephone (which makes them just about the only company that I deal with that cannot do this!). I’m sure if I call back a third time, I’ll get a different answer.
Speed Dating
After that, I watched a film and then decided to give “K” a call (K is a girl I met from speed-dating last Wednesday: yes, I’ve gone back to When The Music Stops twice more now 😉 ). We did match as friends on the night, but she hadn’t responded to my text messages I sent on Friday so I thought a follow up call to ensure I had the correct number was in order. I spoke briefly to her, she says she remembers me, and that she’ll try and give me a call back tomorrow. Fingers crossed, but I’m not getting my hopes up. I am meant to be writing a letter to “S” (who I met on the first night I went speed dating) enclosing a picture, but for various reasons, I’m unsure whether to or not…
Family
I then decided to give my parents a call to see how they were – I spoke to my Dad and he was very abrupt and “cold” with me which is unusual. I think it may be because I didn’t help send him an email last Thursday (half an hour after I had got to sleep: plus I had no way of telling exactly what his problem is and I just can’t diagnose “family internet problems” remotely), but it could be all manner of things. Tried giving my Mother a call but she couldn’t talk as she was trying to get the car defrosted so that she could drive home.
Ex-partner
Then, for some strange reason, I decided to call 1471 and find out who was the last person to call me. Was a bit surprised to find there was a call at 10am this morning from a mobile number I didn’t know, so I called it back. The bloke that answered said (over the crying of a baby) he wasn’t sure why I would have received the call and that it could have been his girlfriend, but I said it was probably a wrong number. Hung up and then I though occurred to me. I sent a text message back saying basically “Are you my ex and my ex’s new partner? If so, how’s the baby? etc etc” and lo and behold – it was! Talk about a fluke (I hardly bother checking 1471 for the last called number, let alone bothering to call it back)! He says he’s going to get her to text me as soon as she can, but I’m hoping we’ll be able to meet up and see how each other are doing after nearly two and a half years (plus I’d like to see her baby too!).
Open University
Oh – and starting tomorrow evening, I’m going back to be loike educated. I’ve enrolled on two courses with the Open University (T171: “You, Your Computer and the Net” and M150 “Data, Computing and Information” counting towards a BSc (Honours) Information Technology and Computing) and we’ve got a tutorial meeting in Leicester City at 7pm.
More work stuff
Finally, if all the above isn’t enough to fry my brain about thinking about possibilities, I’ve also got to be prepared for a slight change in working conditions on Friday (basically, the company I work for is splitting into two distinct and separate companies – one concentrating on web hosting and the other on search engine placement) and, consequently, I’ve got to revise all of our websites, automated emails, billing systems etc etc to reflect the new companies name and company number, reflect the new company name customers will be billed under and then change our prices (as the “old” company is VAT registered and the “new” one isn’t). I’ll also take the chance to upgrade our billing system and a few other things at this point. Plus I’ve got to do a review of a few search engine placement clients who aren’t quite performing as well as we/I like (such as they’ve got less than 5 number 1 positions on Google on an international basis: which, at the moment, can be a bit hard to check as Google is really playing up and being awkward – so much so, I’m practically on the brink of selecting another search engine as my personal preference), plus we’ve got two new products launching shortly plus I’ve got all my “normal stuff” to do, plus I’ll hopefully have the information from around 3 clients that I’ve been waiting on the last fortnight to do some work.
Home stuff
I also need to get the house tidied again, in the last fortnight it’s really gone to pot! Upgrade various bits on my own web server, get “Zaphod” up and running again (I’ve pulled the network and power leads from that machine as I needed them for testing other machines) so I can move 80Gb of data across and generally sort my home life out. And, once all that’s done, I should be in a position to get my blog (and Guess That Movie AND “Project B”) back in order and running on a timely basis.
I’ve also had an invitation to go around BT Tower in London in February. This is the “nerve centre” of BT’s telecommunications network in the UK and it’s been closed to the public as long as I can remember (I think they closed the “revolving restaurant” back in the early 1980’s due to terrorist risks). I’ve got an invite giving me the security “low-down” (what I need to bring to be authorised) etc etc, and I would really like to go and see the place – but it’s a case of fitting things into my schedule. It doesn’t really help it being on a Wednesday (which means I’ll have to take a day off work and travel peak-rate on a train to London).
Conclusion
With all the above going around in my head, do not be surprised if I have a mini-mental breakdown shortly 😉 I did actually think of emailing my boss to ask if I could have tomorrow off (as I’ve just got the feeling all the above will go “t-ts up”), but it’ll be pointless as it’ll just be delaying events and put me further behind.