A comparably-average Christmas

Well it's all over - always so quick.

The visit to Grandma wasn't too bad actually - she was on quite good form, and only mildly rude and offensive to Dad and Minority groups, so it wasn't too tedious.

Christmas Day itself went well - dinner was delicious (Peking Duck, drunken prawns, crispy beef, crispy wontons, money bags etc etc!) and not much activity was had by all!

My new camera lens is proving to be most excellent, though I think I will need to take both lenses out with me all the time now - more baggage! Asides from that I got exciting things like a torch, pop-up bin and windscreen cloth for my car - whoohoo!

On Boxing Day we went to my Uncle Tim's in Frome, which was ok (sadly better than last year as my cousins weren't there - tis a shame I feel this way...), which was pleasant enough.

I do have to confess to be bored quite a lot of the time this festive period - I need to go back to work I think!

Anyway, we went sales shopping in Salisbury the following day, with the next day given over to walking at Blashford Lakes (trying out my new lens!) and clearing up the Xmas refuse piles!

Today I have just got back from shopping with Hayley, where my objective of buying some more trousers failed spectacularly when I bought some expensive new boots, yet another skirt and yet more jewellery - I think I have some sort of compulsive disease! I most excellent day though, but no more clothes now! Come on Charlotte, you can do it...

Only a few more days until back to work - quite frankly I'm looking forward to it (maybe not the early start...or the late finish....or being in Devizes....or being sat at a desk all day.....)!

It's almost time!

The present pile under the tree is a strong lure, the food preparation for the many Chinese dishes for tomorrow is under way, and we've been raiding the countryside for our table decoration, which can only mean Christmas!

I finished work on Thursday, after very little work was done, and the biodiversity team lost a game of sprout subbuteo to the education team. Every year apparently, the fundraising team put on a load of silly games in their offices, such as the aforementioned sprout-based game, and table football with broken handles - very amusing indeed!

Friday was spent doing the Christmas shop - what horror! And then last night I went out into Salisbury with Hayley's friends again, for an evening of being groped in the chapel by 18 yr-olds - the air was thick with testosterone. Despite this, 'twas a great night, and a good way to see in Christmas Eve. Now I am extremely knackered, which should mean that I can sleep soundly ready for tomorrow morning. But before I get to that stage, I have to go and visit Psycho Grandma - great...

S-L-O-W

Question: How slow is this week going?
Answer: very

The ordeal is made even worse, when there is very little work for me to do. Instead, I am having to resort to tidying my office, something I had planned to do from the offset. The filing is now almost sorted, but the shelves are a whole different story!

Last night was a little soiree held by my parents, consisting of a rolling buffet of food Dad had spent all day cooking - utterly delicious as always. Also present were Carol and Dave (him on top form, a lesson in how to be as offensive as possible, but hilarious nonetheless!), George and Caroline from next door, and Gerry and Jenny Sword from around the corner- great to see them again after all this time. Jo, I do hope they weren't put off any such events in the future by non-PC comments!

Today at work was especially quiet- you do get the feeling that you are the only one there - on the ground floor at least. And normally I have to get someone to move their car so I can go home, but not today.

Come on Christmas- saying that, we spend so much time preparing and waiting for it then it is gone so quickly!

The Countdown Begins

If I hear one more Christmas song I swear I am going to scream...

I do actually like them, but the same CD is constantly played throughout the house, especially when I come home from work, so it is driving me up the wall just slightly.

Anyway, more updates on my exciting life...

This week consisted of trying to find enough work to do (relatively quiet on the planning front at the moment), until Wednesday when it was the Rivermead Xmas Work Party. This is a practical conservation day involving all the staff, apart from the senior management who were on reception all day! It was great fun - I was leading on the bonfires with Sarah, which involved much flapping of cardboard to try and get them going. The potatoes we tried to cook in the embers failed to utterly, so we had to wait another hour, but we didn't mind. The hedgerow some people planted will have to be dug up again, as they planted it on the wrong land (thanks Swindon Borough Council) - somewhat dispiriting.

Then Friday was spent out at Langford Lakes, and touring a few sections of the Wyle as my induction continued - I have now almost finished finding out what other people do!

Last night was the Graduates Christmas Party at Southampton, which was very nice indeed. The entrance had the most enormous and scary Father Christmas ever, with a string quartet to greet us as we walked down the red carpet. We bumped into Leigh (drunk as ever!), Dave (ex-housemate, still the same if you know what I mean...), and Ellie and Rupert from the ES BSc (they graduated a year before me), which was a bit of a surprise.

I am now very knackered, and still haven't had much time to sit down - why is Christmas such a busy non-relaxing time?

Pics!

Blofeld at the WWT Xmas Party.

People's Front of Judea (Rob); Migrating coconut (Alex), dead parrot (Emily)

A few random photos of Chris's 30th

Ooooh, get me with my social life

It all started with my (now ex) boss Amanda's leaving meal in Devizes last Friday, which was a good opportunity to bond with colleagues, and was a very nice evening indeed.

Then on Saturday was the long-awaited Medics Revue: "Hairy Proctor and the Urologist's bone"!!! Not nearly as good as last year (only limited input from my brother this year), but some memorably-disgusting songs!

Following on from that was the work Christmas Party. This year a Bond theme was chosen with hilarious consequences - I'll be putting some pics up shortly.

Friday saw Amanda actually leave, which was very sad, but I've only known her for a short time.

And then last night was the extravaganza that was my Monty Python themed Christmas party of 4 people. A truly pathetic turn out, but we all had great fun. Pics of then going up soon too! Special mention must go to Rob from WWT who only having known me for just over a month came in costume, got slightly sozzled, and proceeded to fall asleep on my sofa! Excellent.

I swear I was still drunk when I got up this morning!

What a weekend

You know when you have everything planned, and you somehow end up on a Sunday evening with a feeling that nothing's been achieved? Well I have had one of those!

I just don't know what I've done with it all. Still, at least it has had a meaningful ending, with Hayley, Claire and I finally finding time to meet up for an extra-long gossip in Salisbury. Rain stopped our walking plans, but we have now thoroughly updated each other on our lives (nice one Hayles), it was so good to be together again, just like old times!

Still some time left to do something constructive...

How times flies passed!

Now in the middle of my fourth week, so much has happened and I've been so busy it's dificult to know where to start!

The late night AGM went really well, and I even got to have a long chat with Chris Packham about the lack of under-25 interest in conservation. Very nice man indeed!

Then I went to Chris from Natural England's birthday do at Jongleurs, which was an amazing night, and so good to see all the old crowd (though Leigh was an exception - naughty!).

Last week saw me continuing to try and keep up with casework, whilst trying to find time to go up to York for the ALGE conference. This was very interesting, and York is beautiful, but the train journey back down was horrendous, as I missed my connection in Bristol and ended up calling my Mum out to collect me as I was stranded! Oh well.

Then on Saturday Jo came back for the weekend, so we all met in town for a good chat and a few drinks. It was cut slightly short, by certain members of the party having a lovers' tiff, but hey!

I've also been going walking with Hayley every Sunday, which is a brilliant chance to exchange gossip. A shame Claire can't join us - she must have so much to talk about - come on Claire!

And so far this week I've been in solid meetings all week, mostly lasting 3 hours and all lasting at least 50% longer than they should. This makes me mad, but I do think that people like meetings, to save them from doing real work - am I alone in this thought?

Finally, it looks fairly likely that I will be getting a Planning Blog for the Trust, so when that's sorted I'll put a link on here for any of you interested. ....Don't all shout at once!

Into my second week already!

Time has gone so quickly, but I'm enjoying every moment. It's so much harder than my previous job, so much more to learn about with the wider remit of the Trust. And because they haven't filled this post for the last 2 months, there is a massive backlog of work to sort out!

The weekend was also busy - on Saturday I went with my family into London for the ICount climate change event in Trafalgar Square. We were actually really disappointed by it- poor publicity from WWF (no big banners with the panda on, though the Trusts had one!), and the presenters were rubbish. The speakers were drowned out by the march, which I have been told was great fun, and it did look amazing, but WWF weren't taking part - again, rubbish!

There were some right weirdos in the crowds though - one woman walking through louding proclaiming the entire event as pointless as God will come along and there will be a second creation, destruction being part of the world apparently. Bizarre.

We got bored and left early, as the power had just cut out (such a shambles) - the lure of retail therapy was too strong I'm afraid! In a way I wished we had stayed, as K T Tunstall and Razorlight were on later, but that's not really the point of the event is it? And only 25000 people turned up, out of a population of 60 million. Hmmm.

So now back to work, with the morning off in preparation for the late night AGM (finishes at 10pm!), and with one of my Childhood idols Chris Packham making a speech, should be an entertaining evening. I am finding myself fitting in here just fine!

First couple of days

So far things have gone well. My boss keeps throwing more stuff at me, which is somewhat overwhelming, but quite a lot of it is really interesting, so I don't really mind!

I've already done one response about the extension of Westbury Quarry, and I'm now going to a meeting in Trowbridge about it next week, which should be cool. Today I've been working on producing some guidance to Local Authorities and Parish Councils on the new NERC Act, and am taking the lead on a big proposal to create a new stretch of canal - not something you find in Hampshire - one of the little differences between the counties!

The people all seem very nice, though there are far too many of them to remember - about 70 in all! I'm also going to the AGM next week, where Chris Packham is the guest speaker - my childhood idol! I know they always wheel him out in Hampshire, but I always miss him, so hopefully this time it will not be the case!

Of course I will keep you posted on all developments re: job!

Last week and new job

My last week at Natural England went very well. I was training up the new RDS people in casework, and getting them to do some responses, and they seemed to enjoy it, though I'm not sure quite how productive they'll be this week!

Friday I went out with Rachel, Val and this RDS person called George to have a look at some casework in action, which was really interesting. Alex had been away all week in the Lakes, so she missed out on the big cake I had bought, which went down a treat when we got back! It was really sad to say goodbye, and some tears were shed, but I will see most of them quite regularly as they are now firm friends.

Friday evening also saw my parents depart for the Cotswolds, so I had the house to myself. I had originally planned a party but no-one could come. Instead, I cooked for Rachel and Grant and Alex, which turned out remarkably well, before watching The Holy Grail - I had carved out a pumpkin as a grail-shaped beacon! It was a thoroughly nice evening and I'm sure we'll do more in the future. I'll see them again in a couple of weeks anyway for Chris's birthday.

So my new job starts tomorrow, and I'm really looking forward to it. How will Wiltshire planning differ from Hampshire? Time will tell...

Update!

Do you remember the WWT malarky? Well the second interview was today, and I felt it didn't go so well. They asked me to prioritise 5 pieces of casework and say what you would include in the response to the top two. I thought I'd done OK until they said that in Wiltshire we do this, here we do this etc etc.

However, despite them saying they would get back to me tomorrow they in fact phoned me at 3pm to say that (fanfare please) I have been offered the post! Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So as of the 30th of Oct (1 week notice - one good thing about being on a temporary contract!) I will be the new Planning and Policy Officer for the Trust! I just can't believe it.

Obviously I will be very sad to leave the wonderful people at NE but the call of a permanent job is too strong...

On another note, Mum and I went down to see the deer on Sunday, but alas the rut had finished. Despite this we did see several fallow deer and one young red deer stag madly thrashing the conifers for a hind, so that was nice.

Oh, and though I'm still doing the training for the new people next week, I have lost two members (one has a broken wrist and the other has been seconded to another department until Xmas) so it all feels slightly pointless, but it will look good on my CV!

November?

Tony said yesterday that Nikki (who I am covering maternity leave for) was coming back in November - needless to say, I was a bit taken aback, when she had said she was going to come back after January.

I asked Russell about it today, who denied all knowledge of 'November', saying Nikki was probably coming back in February, and that he'd have a word with Tony. Tony then came in saying I must have misheard and that he had actually said February - they do sound similar don't they??!!!!!!! So he came out of it making me look like I was stupid - very annoying, but I think he is good at getting out of tight spots untarnished.

On another note, I went to see the red deer rut in the Forest yesterday - amazing! Lots of deer around, some stags with huge antlers and roaring heard in the distance, but I had to leave early. The others came in today saying they had seen stags fighting and mating with hinds - how annoying? It's almost the end of the rut, but hopefully I am going to go back Sunday afternoon for a last look, and now know where to look for next year.

I suppose it's good news

After phoning up WWT to ask once more for feedback from the interview, and once again receiving no reply, Mum phoned me up to say a letter from them had arrived. It turned out that they can't make up their minds, and whilst I am shortlisted, I need to go there once again for a 2.5 - 3 hour 'exercise and debrief'. Those are all the details I have, so I am hanging on in there.

On another completely unrelated note, Goodwood was on last night and I forgot to record it - aaarrrggghhh!

Grrrrrrrrr

I still haven't heard from WWT yet, which is really starting to annoy me. I phoned them up today and left a message, but still no reply. Very frustrating but at least I don't have to worry until at least January, possibly later.

I'm so excited! My parents are going away in a few weeks for the weekend, which means party time! I'm having a Monty Python theme, everyone must be dressed up and I'm not sure what else will be going on, but it will be extremely silly. All my friends - consider yourselves invited (28th from 8).

I'm also a bit worried about the responsibility that comes with being asked to train up the other area team's staff in casework law and processing responses over several days. Interesting....

WWT interview

It went ok, and the atmosphere in the interview was much warmer, but I felt I could have done better on the presentation, fluffing up my first line and maybe going a bit too fast. We'll see. It would be a shame if I didn't get it, as there is scope for me to go out with other members of staff and learn about mitigation etc, which would be really interesting. But it is no longer the end of the world if I don't get it, as I have a few more months with Natural England now.

Goodwood Photos

Mustangs and spitfires; Rowan Atkinson's Jaguar n.o 7; The Sprite!; the car auction; glam cabs; Dad's army; Stirling Moss in his Sprite; wwet racing conditions!

Turn up for the books!

You'll never guess....

I was called into my team leader's office today to be told that my contract had been extended! I will have at least another few months at Natural England, as I will be covering maternity leave. So very good news.

The only thing is I was quite looking forward to handing over all my casework, and I had told everyone that I was leaving, so it is mildly annoying but I am of course extremely pleased! Apparently, my fellow casework team buddies Alex and Rachel had been begging the Deputy Team Leader Russell to let me stay, and they had made a formal request to keep me, which panned out in the end. Talk about leaving it to the last minute!

On a sad note Kate, the Polish receptionist, and Leigh, my fellow casework team buddy, both left today, which was really sad. But we'll all keep in touch of course.

Nope...

...didn't get it.

My concerns over my lack of experience of community work were well-founded. I can accept that, though what I can't accept, and has really gutted me, is she then went on to say that I came over a bit abrupt and loud and that I should 'bear this in mind for future interviews, to tone it down a bit". I was realy upset by this, but the girls in the office have been great, saying that it is their loss, and that it didn't sound like the kind of job I wanted. It does annoy me when we make the effort to apply and go to the interviews, only to find out what the job is really about, i.e. this one was a general dogsbody and mainly organising events and working with communities. Grrr.

So I will be off to the hospital to work for Mum on Tuesday - it's that or unemployment.

Interviews a-plenty!

Off I went to Dorchester for an interview with the Dorset Wildlife Trust as an Assistant Conservation Officer. The interview itself seemed to go ok, though I don't think I'll get it because they kept asking stuff about organising events, working with community groups etc, which I don't have much experience of. A bit annoying as I actually want this job!

I was quite worried about it this morning as I was still really tired from Saturday night/Sunday morning (bed = 3am!), but my mind seemed to just about function. I had a great night, when they eventually arrived (night began 10.30pm!), eventually ending up in the Chapel, which I hadn't been to for ages.