Moog's meanderings

… Well, I guess that would explain a few things. Does that mean that some other things that are easy for most people seem impossible for me??

I arrived at work yesterday to find that my marg had gone out of the fridge. No marg for my bagel! Not a good start to the day. I had a yoghurt instead and went to the garage across the road mid-morning to get some marg.
I was so gutted. All of last week I had had toast for breakfast because Co-op didn’t have any bagels and I didn’t have a chance to go to any other supermarket to get some. I was really looking forward to my morning bagel.
I realise that it’s a communal fridge, but it’s annoying when people take your stuff. I mean, it wouldn’t have been so bad if someone had used it and left me the rest, but the whole tub – gone!!
*sigh*
Today I am back to my usual habit – arrive at work 7.15ish, log on & check e-mail, ensure no disasters in production, make tea, do breakfast in the canteen (toasted bagel), return to desk and start work for 8am.

Made it to the end of the week (and the fortnight)! Last week (and a bit of the week before) consisted of having Japanese colleagues from our mother company with us. It was interesting, intense, and involved lots of late nights (and a couple of meals out). There was also an Audit. It went reasonably well, but involved lots of stress on my part. Then there was this week, when we were coping with the fall out from the bombshell announcement that the really major project that I’m working on that will secure the future of our manufacturing plant in the medium to long term, that is the be all and end all of the business now needs to start production in August, rather than December. This means that I have 18 months work to do in the next 6 months, rather than the next 12.
I am mildly stressed.
I will be spending the month of April in Japan with a Production Supervisor, some Technicians, some Operators, a translator and a couple of Engineering types. I’m the babysitter Project Manager. Ummmm.
Anyway, I finished at 1.30pm today (technically we all finish at 1pm on Friday*) which is really good going for me. Made it into town in time to get over to M&S to pick up a couple of bra’s – I bought one the other week which is really comfy and lovely, and tried to go on the M&S website to buy a couple more in different colours and get them delivered, but it wasn’t listed. hmph. Anyway, I’m really happy because I walked in and got the right colours in the right size. Then went over to my Alexander lesson, which made me feel much better (have had achey sore joints a lot this week), and picked up Mr Moog on the way home. He in turn had been doing the weekly food shop, so now we’re home and relaxing and haven’t even got the shopping to worry about. Hurrah!
No particular plans for the weekend – Double Hurrah!
Edit 7.10pm: Just realised I forgot to add the bit for the asterisk!!
* It’s good having Friday afternoons off, but I generally end up working them because it’s the only peaceful time to get on with things that need doing. Also, it sounds good on paper, but including finishing at 1pm on Friday the contracted hours are 39 hours / week. I often wonder whether I’d prefer a 9am start and work Friday afternoon…..

I am still here… Just been hurrendously busy at work and doing lots of late evenings. Will update soon (promise). )

Well, I managed to get the paperwork done for 1 out of the 2 Engineering Changes I needed. Had to go to work anyway, and had a hectic afternoon. From work I went to a lovely friend’s flat in Brum. He cooked dinner for me which was wonderful. I skived Japanese, and went home with a pile of paperwork for Change 2. Finished somewhere around midnight.
This may not seem late to many people reading this blog, but my alarm goes off at 6am every day, and I leave the house between 6.30 and 6.45am (depending on how long it takes to make lunch). I am one of those people who really needs 8 hours to function, so 10am is my limit on a ’schoolnight’. Having had a lot less than that on Monday night as well, I was a total wreck today at work. I have also just got home.
I have abandoned my ‘I’ll try to eat better and not just lob a pile of potato wedges in the oven and eat them with a dollop of mayonnaise whenever I am late home – which is most of the time’ pledge and have lobbed a pile of wedges plus two turkey drumsticks (the re-constitued bernard matthews type) in the oven.
Neeeed foooood then sleeeep.

Blargh – just blogged a posting but have managed to lose it before pressing ’save’. I guess that just proves that having a degree in Electronics doesn’t mean anything….
Anyway, I am at home with lots of paperwork spread out on the kitchen table that I need to get sorted before I can go into work today (too many distractions in the plant to get this kind of thing done, and we’re being audited tomorrow). My new boss is a very reasonable guy, which I appreciate.

While I was talking to one of the guys over dinner last night he said something that I thought was worth sharing. He had been to a meeting at work where someone commented that he was coming at the subject with fresh eyes. He pointed out that he was not at all, just coming at it with a different set of pre-conceived ideas.

Yesterday I was in London for one of my monthly Trustee meetings. As always I stayed for some dinner, sneaking out at 9pm to get across London for my train home.
We were actually early into Coventry (which is not unusual on that train) and so the announcement was made that we had to wait 15 minutes for our departure time. I had switched the album on my mp3 player to Graham Kendrick and was enjoying some chilled out moments thinking about the lyrics.
No sooner had the announcement been made that we’d be leaving at 11.12pm, another anouncement was made that no trains were leaving Coventry due to a fatality at Lea Hall (one of the small stations inbetween the airport and Birmingham itself). It’s in these situations you have a flood of mixed emotions – was it an accident or a ‘jumper’? could it be someone I know? general relief that it’s highly unlikely to be.. That Graham Kendrick song that always brings tears to my eyes played on my mp3 player (I’m not copying and pasting the lyrics as the website says you need permission to reproduce them).
It got me thinking a bit about how we become immunised to a greater or lesser extent by the state of the world, the fact that for whatever reason people die every day and we just go on. Which we have to of course, otherwise we wouldn’t live our lives but I feel being completely disaffected removes us from the real things in life. It can be difficult to find meaning in the big things that we do every day, the mundane and the things that stress us out. Projects and deadlines, things that seem so big and important. Promoting Engineering to the wider community, ecouraging kids to study it so that the UK retains the abillity to sustain the economy through the wealth creation of actually designing and producing things. But from the other perspective, all these things are finite and it is the eternal that we should concern ourselves with. It’s difficult to balance and reconcile these views. Should we just give it all up and live the rest of our days in contemplative meditation? What purpose would that serve? It seems to me that it is the way in which we approach the big and mundane things with the eternal in mind that must be the balance for average people like me. I am not really sure how to achieve this on an ongoing basis and apply it to my own life. I think that we do have to find time to be affected by the world around us though, by things that are horrific but which happen every day, as well as the beauty which surrounds us perpetually but which goes unnoticed.. We cannot just accept bad in the world as it is, we need to believe that something better is possible and that God does work through people and is present in alll sitations. Otherwise there’s no hope at all.
May God be with all those who are affected by the death the person killed at Lea Hall last night.

Although my Birthday is not until Wednesday, I am extremely priviledged and have a wonderful family who mave have already managed to take me out twice!!
Last night hubby and I went out for an Italian meal with my brother and his wife. We had a lovely evening and the food was (as always) excellent at Casa Italia.
Today, hubby took me on a mystery trip. He had arranged the whole thing a few months in advance, I was advised to blank out 8th Jan in my diary sometime last November. It was all very exciting!! We had Sunday lunch on a steam train on the Severn Valley Railway from Kidderminster to Bridgnorth. What a wonderful day. It has been cold and a little damp, but the views in Bridgnorth were amazing (note to self: post photo’s to blog later). The journey was extremely comfy, the food was very good and it was rather cool to see clouds of smoke drifting past the windows every now and then and hear the whistle going!
Having taken the vernicular railway to the top of the cliff, we visited the church of St. Mary Magdalene next to the remains of Bridgnorth Castle. It’s a lovely 19c Church, and we were amazed to find that it was open for people to look around. That doesn’t seem to be the case for many Churches these days, which is a shame. We enjoyed a walk around the castle grounds and into the town before taking the steam train back again. What a wonderful surprise and enjoyable day (thanks Mr Moog!!!).

I know it’s been a little while. Things have not really been conducive to blogging over the festive period.
It has been a lovely break though. We went to stay with my parents from Christmas Eve for 4 days. It was a rollercoaster of having different relatives on each day for lunch/cake/dinner and generally enjoying food wine and company. In that time we caught up with my brother+wife, grandad, the vicar+wife who conducted our marriage ceremony, my uncle/aunt/2 cousins and my half-brother/wife/nephew/niece. On 28th Dec we went over to hubby’s grandparents’ house (is this the correct use of the apostrophe, Jack???) and caught up with my in-laws (yes, almost all of them!!!).
We had a couple of days to ourselves after that (very much needed) involving sorting stuff out in the house, shopping, cooking, etc. We had another couple we know locally over for dinner on New Year’s Eve, and generally drank far too much Champagne. A good time was had by all!! On New Year’s Day we got up too late to go to Church, and then both spent the whole day just reading.
Jan 2nd we spent at my brother’s house replacing his bathroom sink. Well, hubby and brother replaced the bathroom sink, sister-in-law and I browsed the new Next Directory, read and generally made tea/coffee on demand.
Tuesday we all flew over to Ireland for Jane’s Funeral (my Godmother). It is the first time that I have met some of my 2nd cousins (Jane was my Dad’s cousin), and pretty much everyone was there. It was a lovely service, and she has been buried in the anglican graveyard next door to her house (which was build on the deconsecrated part of the same gravegard). This morning there was a mass held in her memory at the local Roman Catholic Church where she went fairly regularly as part of a local community group, which was also a lovely service. I was quite moved by the fact that the local Roman Catholic Priest held such a service for her.
Anyway, we’re back home again now. A busy start to 2006 (and even busier to come in the next few weeks). I am glad that the family has got together and had a chance to think on Jane’s life and faith. It’s a good meditative way to go forward.