In my last post I was writing about my grandmother, and about her being in hospital.
It was a sort of tribute.
Well the moment I hit the post button on my phone to send my blog I got a phone call from my father to say my grandmother had passed away.
It was really strange that I was writing about her life and posting it as that happened.
Well since then lost of other things have happened too!
In January I was told that my job in Network Rail had, had its end day brought forward from September to June.
So I had to start job hunting.
I had lots of internal interviews but non lead to a job.
Then late April I was called for an interview with a company called Carillian Plc.
It was for a Document Controller, but when I was at the interview I discover that it was also for the senior role if Documentation Manager.
Anyway to cut a long story short I was provisionally offered a role and that it was the Documentation Manager the senior role!!!
As I had told the person who had interviewed me I was going on holiday the week after the interview they felt it was fair to advise me of the offer so I could think about it while I was away.
This now leads me to my holiday.
This year my May holiday took me to Portugal and it's capital Lisbon.
I decided not to stay in the city centre but along the coast in Estriol. It was great decision but it was only on the first two days that it was got enough to sit on the beach. The only problem was I chose to explore the area and also go into Lisbon's city centre.
That meant I missed the the sun.
The rest of the week there was more like a traditional April here in England where when it's sunny it's warm but when the clouds come over it got windy and cold.
Lisbon is a great city. There was far to much to see in the trip I made, and I will have to stay there again.
If you was to make that trip I would recommend people to stay in town of cascais as it has far more to it than Estriol.
I also upgraded the standard of hotel to a 4star rating as I would normally stay in a 3 star and was picked up at the airport.
While in Lisbon I saw the castle, the old port, the cathedral and went on about 5 different sightseeing busses.
Now the sight seeing busses was a god thing as one of the routes they ran started in Cascais into Lisbon City. So I caught that.
It turns out that some of the key government departments are on the road Estroil.
When I returned from Lisbon to London and returned to work I was called into a meeting with my manager Mat Lettman.
It was to tell me that network rail wanted to re-extend my redundancy date to the 30th September!
I was asked to think about it and report back to Mat if I wanted to stay on.
Then during my second week back in the office I received the official offer of employment with Carillian.
Well due to the lack of job offers at Network Rail I chose Carillian.
Now that reminds me!!!!
Just before my trip to Lisbon I had attended a job interview within network rail for a Document Controller. The role was within a new project relating to traffic management.
I was rejected. I was told that I did not have the management experience as they were looking for People with management skills.
I was also told that, "I was the strongest person for the role"!
A week later the job was re advertised and there was no changes to the job description to show that they wanted a manager.
So it was one of the key moments that lead me to take redundancy as I had seen it happen to 4 other people I had know working in the company, all of whom had lots of experience.
It actually worried me as Network Rail seems to want to get in lots of graduates who have no knowledge of the railway and get rid of staff who had 10 years or more experience.
There was a numerous occasions where a colleague and myself have had to sit with managers explaining to them why things had to be done in certain ways due to the lack of knowledge, and could lead to key things going wrong.
Well that now leads me to Carillian plc.
So far the job has felt like an up hill battle.
Like all new jobs it's getting used to processes and systems.
Then there is getting used to the people.
Ignacio is my boss, and he is a great person. He was the guy who interviewed me. He is Spanish. He loves morocco and surfing. Ignacio is one of 4 design managers.
Then there is Richard he is a manager but thinks he should be the boss of the document control team.
I will be honest he is a nice guy too, and has taught me lots.
Richard looks after the Asset Information team and deals with project handover.
Then there is Jas. he is a perfectionist. If something is not done his way then it's not good enough.
Unfortunately he has found lots of fault with me, but I have tried to please him by complying with his requests.
I have also learnt how little, a former manager who I now knows could sell you a penny and make you believe you bought a million pounds, taught me in the way of teaching others.
This manager seemed kind hearted but now I believe he held people back so he would look always good at what he was doing! The reason I say that is because when it came to the crunch I knew far less than I thought and it was in all the areas the my old manager taught me.
Well in September I went to cyprus. It is the furthest east I have travelled.
When I went there I started to read a book about the Byzantium Empire and when I hit the chapters about the church and where the basic Christian doctoring was written and decided upon, I was happy to find it was written in Cyprus.
While there I visited an abandoned Ancient Greek City (I think it's called Salamis)
which was then occupied by the Romans and was the city where Saint Paul and Saint Barnabas preached. I did not know that Saint Barnabas was stoned to death by the people of Salamis until after my trip there.
For the history I will have to research the island more.
So what else has happened?
Well in the last year I have met lots of new friends and also found some old friends.
I also lost some friends too.
I discovered the App called Skout where I could chat to people around the world.
It's has been quiet cool I have met some great people and some strange people.
But there I one special person who I met and she knows who she is. "The Pirate Princess" who stole my heart. I plan that sometime soon I will meet her.
Right at this very moment I am traveling the London Underground and this train is so full. It's standing room only but not much more people can get on the train.
This year the underground - which is the oldest in the world hit 150 years old. To commemorate this milestone Transport for London ran steam engine pulled carriages on the Metropolitan Line this is because Metropolitan Line was the first line to be built. When it was first built it ran from Paddington to Aldgate, then over time new tunnels were built and in the early 1900's linked together to form the circle and also the district lines. During the building of the Metropolitan Line the people building the tunnel hit the river fleet which brought about the deaths of a lot of people and the flooding of the new tunnels.
I hear that rumours say that London is the most tunnelled under city in the world. I don't know how true this is?
Well my travels home take far longer that they ever did before due to the fact I live in Essex and work totally on the west side of London. Infact on a good day it takes 2 hours!
I don't mind the travelling as I sit back and relax. Some days I read and other days I listen to music. While today I write!
Well the Christmas season is upon us, and I will use this point to sign off.
I hope you all have a great Christmas and of you do not believe in Christmas I hope that you have great holidays.
All the best for 2014.
J
