Pete Ryland's Web Log

Merry Christmas! [] (23:39)

Well, I'm not sure how many people will read this, but for what it's worth, I just want to wish everyone a very happy Christmas and very merry new year! I'm off to Morocco tomorrow for two weeks, capping a very travely year, with trips to Portugal, Spain, Australia (twice!), and Japan happening all this year. Next year, I've already booked for a trip to Hong Kong in January and there's a Spring Canada trip on the cards too. I was thinking of heading to Turkey for summer too for two weeks to catch up with Nix again, but we'll see how that pans out.

Congratulations must go to Chizuko and Horms and Susan and Nigga for tying the knot this year! May this be the first of many great years to come for both couples!

Work is going well, and I'm still a Technical Consultant at Tideway Systems as I have been for the last 15 months. It's great fun and I'm visiting many interesting clients in all industries, mostly banking and government.

Anyway, greetings to all, and I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas holiday and a fantabulous new year. I do hope to see you all in 2008. >

It's finally finished [] (20:29)

As some of you already know, I have been getting my bathroom redone. Well, after almost a month, it was finally complete last weekend. So without further ado, here are some photos!

It was a mammoth job, entailing a complete replacement of the whole bathroom, including removing the boiler and the cupboard that contained it, putting in a new boiler in the loft, replacing the floor, most of the walls and some of the ceiling, concealing the piping in the walls and floor, re-tiling, and installing a new shower, sink and toilet. All in all, it has turned out looking quite impressive, perhaps luxurious even.

>

It's official [] (18:13)

A lot of us are getting made redundant. I had my jabs (vaccinations) yesterday at 4pm, then literally had to run back to the office, from Fleet Street to Shaftesbury Avenue, to get back in time for the company meeting in the Blue Room (of Death) where they seem to like holding redundo meetings. Fifteen minutes late, I walked into a room full of very drawn faces, all of which told the story as plain as day. I could only smile as I looked around the room, remembering the times I'd shared over the past two years with my collegues and friends at Accucard/CSL/Lloyds TSB. Two out of four of us sysadmins will be going, so today I'm going to have to campaign for my redundancy since only one of us actually wants to stay, but I am going to propose to them an alternative solution as well which should mean all three of us get to go. About half of the rest of the technology department are going, but the test team will be offered positions in other parts of "Group".

So from here, my plans have changed a little. I'm still heading off to Africa on Friday, but when I get back, Golly will be around, with Nig and Plug to follow four weeks later, and so it looks likely that I can then go with them on their trip around Eruope! That is certain to be a lot of fun, and you can rest assured that pictures will be taken and blog entries will be written.

>

It's all happening [] (14:26)

Well, my new camera arrived today, a new Canon Ixus 700 with underwater case and everything, so you can expect a few photos here soon.

I'm very excited about heading to Africa on Friday. First stop is Jo'burg! I get vaccinations this afternoon at 4:00pm.

Then at 4:30pm, there's a company meeting "regarding the re-alignment of CSL technology with Group IT" so I hope I make it back in time or can at least conference in. We will probably (hopefully) be getting made redundant.

>