Mark Dalton

Well, this week has been really busy and as I was Duty Manager last weekend, very long. So today I have opted for a quiet R&R day. I had a really long lay in, not getting up until 12:00 followed by a very late breakfast. Now I am just lounging on the sofa watching old films and surfing the web.

Tomorrow I have set aside to get on with some house stuff and the weekly shop, but other than that I am going to get on with some paperwork. I have been good recently and with the improvements I have made in my workflow the task is now very simple and quick.

I also have Monday off, but am not sure what I am going to do yet but I suspect it will involve a walk and a few beers

Well a little while ago I was contacted by Schmap an online guide/map site, asking if they could use a picture I took at the Southampton Boat Show in September 2008.

Well they emailed me this week to say that they had used it and that it could be seen at there site here.

The Original photo can be seen over on Flickr by following this Link.

Okay so we had a great dinner at Mum and Dad’s for Katrina’s birthday, but despite taking my camera I completely forgot to take any photo’s.

Last week was a busy week in the office as everything is now really getting back up to speed after the Christmas holidays. Friday we had an all day off site meeting to review the projects that are taking place in 2009 and firm out the delivery details.

Saturday Mum, Dad, and I ventured off to the Vue cinema in Basingstoke to see Slumdog Millionaire. The film is a story an Indian Tea Boy that win’s the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, and more specifically the story of how he got to be on the show and go on to win.

It’s an extremely good film, and I would highly recommend it to anybody. For me the filming reminded me a lot of my time in India, and my trip to Mumbia.

Sunday was a day to catch up with paper work, an area that I have been neglecting recently. It was a productive day however and now I am up to date. I also got to work on my workflow a little bit, and for those that don’t understand what I am talking about when I talk about workflow I am talking about how I handle and process paperwork.

I used to like most other people action inbound paperwork and then simply file it in a traditional filing cabinet. Well, I moved on to scanning the paperwork and digitally storing it before shredding it. This meant that I could lose the unsightly filing cabinet. Well this weekend I took that a step further integrating it with how I handle my personal finances and how I capture the resulting actions, especially the repetitive ones. I also managed as an output to translate that into a system to track and identify tasks relating to my personal goals. I still have a bit of work to do on this, but once I have it all clear in my mind I’ll write it all up for those that are interested.

So the first week back at work after the Christmas break and boy was it hard work, even if I did only do four days. Last Sunday I was a good boy and went to bed at a quite respectable 23:00 but didn’t sleep particularly well at all waking up at 02:00, 04:00, 05:00, and eventually at 06:00 when the alarm went off. Of course when the alarm went off the last thing I wanted to do was get up. I forced myself out of bed however and got ready for work. It wasn’t until I had showered and dressed that I opened the curtains to see about an inch of snow covering everything. As I opened the front door the coldness hit be like a freight train. As quickly as I could I got in the car and fired up the heating. The car was frozen solid and it was a good 5 minutes before I could reverse out of the drive way and make my way to the station. Standing on the platform as the wind howled, I suddenly found myself thinking back to my time in India.

Monday was probably the hardest day in the office as no matter how much I tried I just couldn’t get back into the swing of things and found that my mind kept wandering. The rest of the week was pretty much the same, not wanting to get up, cold platforms, and general apathy but thankfully Thursday was the end of the week for me as I had booked Friday off.

Now normally a day’s leave is a good thing, but Friday was a sad day as I said goodbye to the Jaguar. It’s a decision that I have been mulling over for the last 6 months but an inevitable one nonetheless. I simply am not doing the mileage to warrant the running costs of the Jag and the with the type of journeys that I do am not getting the mileage, which hurts when you’re paying over £1 a ltr.

However the pain was eased today when I picked up my new VW Golf. I have always wanted one and don’t really know why I brought the Jag when I did, but thats life I guess. I brought a 2.0 TDI GT Sport and I must say having taken it for a good spin today that its quick. It’s not a Jag, but is very comfortable and as it’s considerably lighter than the Jag feels a lot more responsive.

Tomorrow I am off to Mum & Dad’s for a Birthday dinner for Katrina. More tomorrow, with photo’s!