Friday 5 April 2013

Pay and Display

Dropped into Model Zone at lunchtime and found this low relief OO scale multi-storey car park for just £24.99, down from it's more usual RRP of around fifty smackers. A good price for bringing a multi-dimentional aspect to the Winter of 79 urban battlefield. Being OO scale, it's also very suitable for 15mm modern and post apocalypse games as well.

 Back in the office, we had the first quiet day since 4th Feb, allowing me plenty of mental space to umm and ahh about whether I should buy it. With no word about the job that I was interviewed for last week,  I thought 'F. it!' So I swooped on MZ on the way to the station and stuck the multi-storey on the credit card. And why not. Great way to reboot inner city W'79.

Obviously exuding self congratulation about my purchase, I got to the station with only a couple of minutes to spare. The train was 90% full, but I made it into a seat next to D. a fellow daily commuter. I  had helped her out earlier in the week when she was struggling to complete an ISO 9001 multiple choice questionnaire. As a thanks for getting all the questions right for her, she gave me her email and offered to pass on my CV to the oil company she recruits for. Just can't beat good karma can you.

If you are a Geezers fan, remember that a multi-storey, only a bit taller than this model of course, played an important role in the 1970's classic gangster movie Get Carter, where Michael Caine kills Bryan Mosley, aka Alf Roberts by throwing him off the roof of the Trinity Car Park in Gatehead. 

Cheers
Mark

Tuesday 2 April 2013

Hurry Up and Wait

March was mad. No other word to describe it, simply mad. 

Heather's had her op and I'm glad to say that it went much smoother than anticipated, though not without some angst courtesy of the NHS.She's up and about and going a bit stir crazy. So I for one am definitely looking forward to her getting back to work.

In my own workplace we had Internal Audit review my project. Both the auditors were very pleasant and a pleasure to work with. It goes without saying that it was time consuming and stressful given that deliverables still have to be met. I have to take my hat off to my team for stepping up to the mark and managing a very difficult time in the rollout without me, for best part of three weeks.

Also had an interview for a new job.  Don't think I shone at all in front of the panel as I had a couple memory blanks. One of the aftermaths of my neuro episode. two years ago now. Impenetrable black holes in my memory. But equally it has been a stressful month with higher things to concern myself with about and that morning I came in to meet a maelstrom of panic about a technical issue that in the end turned out to be nothing to do with my project.

I will will admit that my performance or lack of worried me over the weekend that the same may happen again in future interview situations, sowing doubt and a little despair for 24 hours or so, but glad to say I'm over that - I've learnt from it - and maybe it's happened for a reason - now let's move on.

March has also been a druich month. Snow practically every day.  The good thing to come out of that is that I could easily envision the Battle of the Bulge being fought in the fields and hills around me and consequently was able to round out my Battle of the Bulge collection with some cheap purchases made on eBay.  And of course a large number of the German items (sans snow) are perfect for Berlin too!

Got a train to catch.

Cheers
Mark