New beginnings?

I’m not really sure where to start. I can’t even remember where I left it off. So, bear with me till I figure this out. This is the fourth or fifth attempt at beginning to write this. I have even finished two other posts during the last month that I didn’t upload. I don’t really know why. At one hand, I miss writing. At another, I don’t want to write a couple of posts and then fail to continue. Anyway, I will keep on writing and see where this leads.

 Please? Give me a treat or take me for a walk! Anything will do

The thought crossed my mind of leaving blogger and moving to another platform. I could really start fresh and create a site on either tumblr or wordpress. From what I can see though, tumblr is mostly used to share things (images, videos, gifs) and for small posts. I think it’s very easy to use but it has a ‘tweeter’ and pinterest feel to it. Wordpress is something I’d like to investigate. My main problem is of course continuity. I wouldn't like to lose my previous posts and being able to refer to them. Yes, I can simply create simple links to blogger from wordpress, but I’d like to ask you whether there is a way to do something better? Have any of you moved from blogger to wordpress?

Having a coffee with the acropolis as our background.

Generally, we’re all doing great. I started a new job a bit more than a month ago in the City that I really enjoy. I managed to find something that pays better, but demands less. I’m not managing a team anymore which is weird because I kind of miss being part of the decision making team and mentoring people. But I lead a far less stressful life. I no longer spend my working days in long meaningless meetings but still stay long hours and work weekends to keep up with demanding projects. And talking about being underpaid; the role I am now is in theory more junior, but still pays better than before.

JJ was the one that commented the difference the change of jobs did to me. We were in a coffee place where the service wasn't the best and the food we were served was slightly burnt. I didn’t really make a fuss about it. I got slightly annoyed but got over it quite quickly. JJ said that if the same incident happened a couple of weeks earlier, it would have annoyed me much more. I don’t think I had anger management issues, but a stressful work life is definitely reflected on someone’s everyday life. I’m happy to say that I’m in a much happier place now. I feel a bit sorry for JJ having to put up with me, really.

Speaking of which, JJ is doing very well, so does our little Penny. Next month, it will be a whole year that she will be living with us and it’s been amazing. She’s the best dog in the world (yes, the whole world). She’s been so much easier than I feared she would be. We even managed to sort her out during some small holidays we had earlier this year.

Various News Update

It’s been almost a month (minus a days) since I started my new eating habits. It’s been going generally well and it’s been much easier since JJ is doing a diet with me. I’m proud to say that the amount of delicious bad stuff like red meat, bread, cheese, chocolate, fried stuff and sugar I had during that month was kept to an absolute minimum. When you start looking for it, you can see that substances like sugar is basically everywhere! You can’t help it. But at least I've stopped the full fat cappuccinos with extra brown sugar. I used to have 2 to 3 a day. That should count, right? Overall I've lost about 5 kg in the last month, which I have to say I'm quite happy with. Now, my BMI is 24, down from 25.7, although I believe that the whole BMI as an indicator is a bit flawed. And that was only the first month.

On another medical issue, since my half marathon last March I've been having some issues with my right knee. I noticed it during my first recovery run after that race. I went to a physio and he said I have ITBS. It has to do, I assume, with the amount of running I do over tarmac, the sudden increase of mileage and maybe lack of post running stretching. Since then I tried to rest it but had to keep on training since I have another half marathon this Sunday in Hackney (RunHackney). Unfortunately the pain didn't go away and I had to cancel my race for this Sunday. I’m a bit disappointed because I would have ran it with JJ and it would have been great to run between the buildings of London’s Olympic Park. But alas, I won’t. At least I’ll go take photos and cheer for JJ and another friend who’s doing the same race. I’ll try to do it next year. At the moment I’m waiting for NHS to be properly referred to a clinic to get treatment.

So overall I can say that dieting is going great but exercising not so well. At least I still have my personal trainer at the gym.

Not sure about the sun during the English summer, but the rest...

Changing subjects, I can also now say that I became an IT team leader! I used to belong to the team that I now lead, so I have experience of what we do and how. However, I've never had a similar position and it might prove challenging, but at least for the moment it’s going well. Although I have noticed a couple of days ago some grey hair on my ‘fringe’. Could they be new?

Anyway, I’m at the process of recruiting for my old position in the team. That is way more time consuming than I thought it would be, but can at least be fun. I can now easily say how NOT to write a CV. The things I've seen… For example starting your CV by demonstrating your hobbies is not a very good idea! Is that the most important thing you can offer to the role? Especially if your hobbies are online or ‘live’ poker! Yes, these are genuine pastimes (who am I to judge?) but at the same time if they are the first thing I read about you, I can’t help but think ‘possible gambling problem’. At least he didn't add porn or illegally downloading copyrighted material. Adding that you've worked for a serious IT company for only 9 whole days including a weekend, is also not a good personality indicator.

Gay Politics

I work in a relatively big company. Our IT department is more than 100 people and if you add the Business Analysts, Project Managers and other related personnel, my immediate work colleagues are quite a few.  Of course, in this group there’s a number of homosexuals in various degrees of ‘closet-ness’. At first, of course I thought I was the only one. Then I met a couple of more gay people that told me about some other employees of the company. Yes, gossip is a favourite pastime for us as well.

In general, I‘m not overly open about my personal life. There’s an increasing number of colleagues that know about JJ and my life. However, these colleagues are the ones that I’m starting to develop a more friendly relationship with. In a way, I’m trying to keep my personal and professional life apart. I’m not sure why I do that. Especially in large groups, when other people talk about their husbands, wives or children I remain quiet. Would I still do that if I was in a heterosexual relationship? Maybe. And I say maybe because in my previous job I was openly gay. The company was tiny. We were 14 people all of us and I was generally more at ease there, but still didn’t talk about my personal life much. Some of my old colleagues had met JJ, but I still didn't talk much about him.

There are some other factors to consider about my current employment arrangements and secretive attitude. The very first manager I had was a weird character. I know him much better now and I can see his weird (?) sense of humour, but back then, he was intimidating. On my very first day he talked about the gayphone (iPhone to you and me) and about some dykes he used to know. These statements unsettled me and during that first week of employment I remained quiet about my personal life and it’s been like that ever since. I've also seen some backstabbing happening and I refuse to give to anyone any more ammunition.

As I mentioned before, I've now met some gay people in the office. And a couple of them want, in a way, to create a ‘brotherhood’. They want us to start meeting regularly for lunch or after work outings. Just us, the gays. I don’t generally object to that, but to be honest I’m not that eager to do it either. Just because they’re gay, it doesn’t really mean I like all of them. Also, I don’t think that marginalising ourselves like that is a very good thing. I wouldn't like to associate only with Caucasians, or only with males, or only with Greeks, or only with people that like comic books. Yes, it’s nice to have things in common with people you spend time with, but forming a clique is not something I’ll easily encourage.

I've decided to keep an open mind. My concern is the fact that one of the guys eager to create the brotherhood seems a bit sleazy. Maybe it’s just me being paranoid. I might go out with them for a drink or two and see how it goes. Every day lunch break might be a no no though… 

10 random things

• I got an ‘above expectations’ performance on my appraisal yesterday! I was so glad. If only they knew… But if they’re happy, I’m happy. Unless of course they had no expectations whatsoever.
• I was told in the same meeting though that I should speak up more. This is something I've acknowledged and should improve. In very big groups, especially with senior people, I’m not going to easily make a stand and talk / argue. I get nervous, my accent gets worse, I stutter and no one understands me.  Getting to know the people in my new department and getting more experience in the field helps though. And if I start, there is no turning back.
• A work colleague has a ridiculous face tan that he got wearing big goggles while skiing. I’m so jealous, even if I've never been skiing in my life. I prefer summer sports but having a bad face tan in the middle of bad weather season is just so cool.
• Another work colleague changed his work role to a part time position to pursue a career in writing novels. That’s so good for him. I wish I had a talent like that. Especially, when it comes to writing, I would have loved being good at it. I’ve actually read something he’s written and it’s very promising
• Most of the random things I had to use in this list of random points of the day sounded a bit negative, so I’m not going to use them. I need to think of something different instead. My plan of the day is to be positive.
• My next small experiment is to try listening to an audiobook while running. I usually listen to music, but then I end up hating songs I used to like for listening to them too many times while exercising. So, starting with Miranda’s latest book I’ll hit the roads. I needed something not too engaging but rather fun. There’s an app called audible from Amazon with a free 30 days trial. That will give me plenty of time to check this form of running. I wonder how that will go. My concern is that I get too distracted and get hit by a car. I hope not.
• I've also started another personal project. I was thinking that it wouldn't harm acquiring a Microsoft IT certificate (MCSE) based on things I've been doing at work. I’m not entirely convinced that they are worth it and if employers look for them. But my educational background is in engineering and what I’m working on now is IT. Of course having some real job experience counts more, but having a certificate (any certificate) to back that experience wouldn't harm. Also, since I've been learning things on the job from other employees or online (stackoverflow) that doesn't mean I’m learning things properly. Reading a book or two might help me get better understanding.  Acquiring that certificate though means passing 5 different exams. So, that might take a while… 
• Apart from struggling to choose a dog breed, when the time comes, it might be harder to pick a dog name. I assume Darth Vader or Victor von Doom is out of the question?
• My Greek friend was asked at her first day at work if in Greece people speak ‘Arabic’. The person asking the question was surprised to find out that there is a language called ‘Greek’! These stories amuse me so much! 
• What’s been on my mind though the most the last days is the trouble I've been having with my phone. It randomly freezes and I can only restart it to make it come back to life. I've tried formatting it by restoring the factory settings and reinstalling only very few applications. It’s generally more stable now, but it still crashes. That can be very annoying and I haven’t managed to find a proper solution online. Everybody says different things. So, I need to keep on trying different setups to see which one would work.  

Water and dog issues

I was at work and it was early in the morning. Generally, I can’t properly function without a morning cup of coffee. And there are occasions that I don’t even mind that horrible thing that comes out our coffee machine that it calls ‘cappuccino’. Yuck! Anyway, I walked in the kitchen and there was one of our senior accountants. She’s a lovely lady of mid-forties of Indian origin. She’s generally polite and even sent my manager a ‘thank you’ email for some help I had given her in the past, so she’s on my very good side.

However, that morning I saw her pouring water from our cooler in a plastic cup and from there to a bigger half empty bottle. I said my good mornings and looked at her puzzled. She turns around and tells me: ‘I want to see how many cups there are in a big water bottle’! I was speechless! You have a cup with a visible 200ml mark on it and a bottle with another very visible 2 litter mark on it! How many do you think it would take? And she’s supposed to be good with numbers! I didn’t want to make her feel embarrassed so I didn’t say anything and just left. Would you? I did run into her later that day and she happily announced to me that the bottle was able to hold 10 cups of water!!! Imagine that…

On another very different note, there’s been quite a lot of ‘puppy’ talk in my household. I have mentioned it before, but the plan (for now) is to get a dog next year. If you ask me why next year, because it’s someone’s (JJ) big birthday and we need to celebrate with a bang or a woof. He’ll probably kill me if I even mention how old he’s turning. So, since he’s not happy with that number, I know that a dog will definitely make him happy. I couldn’t keep something like that as a surprise, so we have discussed about it.

There are numerous websites on which breed is best for you. There are online quizzes with simple questions to match you with the dog of your dreams. You can select the size of your house / flat / garden, the size of the dog you prefer, how much time you’ll spend grooming it, how active you want it to be, how much time you’ll be spending playing with it, about other pets or children in the household etc etc. Generally, we’d like something small to medium size and not very demanding (we can be selfish like that). I have a day job that keeps me out of the house from around 8am till 6:30pm and JJ has a shift job. So, some weeks he’ll be home in the morning and me in the evening or sometimes we’ll be both gone for hours. Also, I never had a dog, so to be honest I’d like something easily trainable and somewhat independent.

There are times when I feel tired and I wouldn’t like a hyperactive dog in constant need of attention and play. For example they say that Jack Russell Terriers as a breed are supposed to be extremely clever but also very energetic and in constant demand of attention. I’m not entirely sure, but that might cause me a problem. Although to be honest, they are very cute and I wouldn’t mind having one. They look ridiculously adorable. As you can see I’m even beginning to learn breed names and general characteristics.

And of course, there is the matter of personal taste. There are some breeds more appealing to my eyes than others. For example I don’t really like Chihuahuas. Apart from the Jack Russell Terrier I like dogs like the beagles or a cocker spaniel. JJ really likes pugs. All this is theoretical of course. Most likely we’ll pay a shelter a visit and see what’s available. I don’t mind having or not a specific pure breed dog. Having a dog will definitely change our lives, but I believe for the better. Any advice you can give us?

PS. Some of you have amazing cute dogs and I could have stolen some of your pictures, but I decided against it not to do injustice by forgetting some others.

Busy like a f$&£&ng bee

I was told when I joined this team at work, that the period around the mid to end February will be busy! Oh, my… I simply couldn’t imagine how much! Since it is near the end of the financial year, the end of the policy year and the end of the time when all client contracts needs to be renewed, everything is extremely urgent and needs to be done yesterday! It also doesn’t help the fact that my colleague is away in New Zealand somewhere enjoying himself (the bastard) while I’m working extra hours daily under lots of pressure.

Anyway, that’s my:

• small rant for the day
• the main reason I feel constantly exhausted the last weeks
• I haven’t replied to your latest comments
• I haven’t left any comments anywhere else
• Haven’t even finished telling the Athens story…

Is it too late to mention what else happened in Athens now? I don’t know. We’ll see how today post is goes and how much I can go on about other things.

Apart from being extra busy at work, we’ve been busy at home as well. Last weekend I spent it with JJ doing some ‘DIY’ and refurbishing one room of our house. I think I’ve mentioned it before, that an old colleague of mine from uni is coming to London to find a job. So, we decided with JJ to redo what will become for a short period of time her room.

That extra room is a bit dark and cold unfortunately. It had very old fashioned wallpaper and what we feared was growing mould behind the big closet. That’s the wall most exposed to the elements and right next to the old fireplace whose chimney we’re not sure how well sealed it is. So, we’ve decided to empty it from furniture, paint the walls white even over the wallpaper and treat the mouldy wall properly. I have to admit that the room now looks so much better. It’s brighter, more inviting and appealing to a financial Greek female immigrant…

me at work, painting behind the bed

In general, I like doing DIY. It’s a great way to blow off some steam, although it is a bit tiring at the end. I’m not sure what our next project for the house is going to be. I’m pretty sure we’ll find something. There is the idea of actually buying the old place. We’ll see.

The cake I baked for Valentine's. I had to work till 9pm though

I'm planning on doing nothing this weekend. TLC and rest is all I need.

The most hated word in the industry

Working in the IT industry, I know that there is something whispered on the higher floors of a company, that the low level minions should not hear. And that thing is ‘outsourcing’. By that term I don’t mean only hiring one or more contractors to finish a project or help someone’s job. I’m talking about the phenomenon of uprooting a whole team or department and replacing them with cheaper labour in a distant country.  

This trend is not of course something new. I can remember from my early school years, living in the northern part of Greece, small industries moving to the other side of the borders, to Bulgaria, saving millions of that old forgotten (?) currency. I heard conversations after conversations about the bloody taxes imposed by the government that pushed small companies away to a country just a few kilometres away, where labour was cheaper and taxes were lower.

The company I work for at the moment has its headquarters in the UK. There are of course local offices in various corners of the Earth, including the South and South East Asia, which are popular destinations for outsourced IT departments. There are minor helpdesk departments in these offices, but till now they weren’t responsible for anything major. However, there is a new discussion going on in London, about how the non-profitable IT department should improve effectiveness but cut costs at the same time! I really love it when managers and directors become all poetic like that and announce these major ideas!

Anyway, there is a storm brewing. A colleague of mine has already been sent to investigate how and if the company can set up an office of developers somewhere at the Indochinese Peninsula to save some money from hiring developers in the UK. This prospect is scary, since lots of the people I work with will no longer be needed and their cheaper replacements will be easily found. I’m not sure if my position is threatened. I’d like to believe that ‘not yet’. I’m not a full time developer per say. I work in a special division, close to the decision makers of the company here. So, hopefully, I’ll be alright for a year or two? However, there is that can of worms that now opened and the future is unpredictable.

I’m not going to leave you on a pessimistic tone though. It’s Friday after all and I’d like to change the subject and the tone of this post. A few days ago, I had my anniversary with my beloved boyfriend!!! We’ve celebrated three years of happily being together and a bit more of a year of living together! I can’t believe it’s been three years already! Time flies when you’re having fun. He’s my partner in crime, my rock in the storm and best friend. Love you so much ‘JJ’.

Work gossip

In my company, we have male toilets every second floor. There are no urinals, only a couple of cubicles in each floor. What I noticed when I first used them was the fact that there is a mirror above each toilet sit.  The mirrors are quite big and you can’t help but see yourself, full frontal, when standing to do your thing. What’s a bit weird though is the fact that someone complained about these mirrors and had them covered!!! My simple question is why?

Can’t you stand to look at yourself pee? In theory, since you do it standing up, otherwise the mirror wouldn’t really concern you, you watch what you do and hopefully hold it to target the big ‘hole’! So, you are watching anyway! Why are you bothered? Maybe if you’re so insecure for whatever reason about your male parts, maybe the mirror is a good thing and you’ll get more accustomed with what you’ve got. No matter what, try to love your ‘tools’. Is it a religious thing?

I was just curious about it, since someone was really bothered about it that much to go and find the building manager, who had to order coloured sticky paper and cover around 2 dozens of big mirrors during last weekend…

Anyway, that’s my week’s question. Other than that, I’m well. I’ve been extremely busy at work, trying to deal with directors’ demands! Gosh, they can be very spoilt sometimes. They act like small children wanting their ice cream! I demonstrated to a couple of them some new technologies (they are impressive I have to admit) and they want it ‘right NOW’! They’re not even sure what they want, they just ask for things to be done in two weeks! Why is it always two weeks? And it’s not like I don’t have other things to worry about or other directors breathing on my neck. And to close that very boring work topic, there is a difference between meating and meeting, you imbecile, making 10 times the amount of money I’m making and you can’t even use spell checker…

Anyway, that was my small rant for the day. Fortunately, I’m out of the office next week. I’m in training for 5 days and so happy about that!

Accomplishments

It's been hectic the last couple of weeks at work and that's why I've been quiet at the blogosphere. Last week I gave an interview at work and I managed to get a better position in my company. I'll replace a guy that is soon leaving, so I'm joining a different team. However, apart from me another colleague has quit. That means that I have to train a replacement, help my team since we are sort of staff and also get trained in the new position. Juggling many balls at once can be tiring but the occasion is very exciting. I'm so glad I've been given the opportunity of the new placement. I've officially started yesterday but I'm practically between teams.

On a different topic, I've been highly enjoying watching the Olympic Games. I wasn't amazed by the Opening Ceremony. I liked some bits like Bond and the music evolution walk-through but not others. Anyway, that's old news now. Greece managed to get their first medal, in Judo. There might be more to come... Iliadis won Bronze in Judo. That's Iliadis... Woof:

Even if we first invented the Games all these centuries ago, we really can't compete with other counties in medal wining. So, I'm happy with what we can get. :-) Even taking part in semi finals or finals 

The elephant in the room

I work in IT, or ICT as they call it now, since it includes communications as well. It's all very excited (or geeky) I know. My manager has 49 people to report to him. That's quite a group, especially when we occasionally go to the pub. We manage to populate most of the venue we go to and we create quite some noise there. Most of them are really nice people; however I am the only 'gay in the village'! All the rest have girlfriends, fiances or wives that they sometimes bring along or mention quite often. And since we are in IT, the vast majority are male. I think that there are only 3 women in the team. One of which was an old co-worker of mine from my previous job. 

So, in such a heterosexual and geeky group, I was reluctant to talk about 'J', before I tested the waters. However, the very first day I joined, I heard from a team leader of the group a nasty comment about lesbians. It was one of these ridiculously unfunny 'Beavis & Butt head' quality jokes that you hear from a developer with no social skills whatsoever. Some similar stupid jokes were heard during the following months as well. So, I decided against talking about my personal life, especially at the beginning. I wanted to pass my probation period, get to know these people better and then start opening up.

A couple of weeks ago we were again in the pub. After a couple, or more, of drinks they started talking about the only female developer we have to another developer of my age. She wasn't present at that outing and they knew that he was single and they were trying to set him up with her. Apart from me, everybody else taking part in that discussion were either married or engaged. He was being a bit reluctant about her (can't blame him), but it then occurred to me that I was excluded from the available candidates for her. They didn't ask me about my relationship status and they didn't offer to set me up with her. So, I either do look gayer than I thought or the ex-co-worker spilled the beans about me and some people already know.

So, last week, when we were at the pub again, a colleague and his fianc￩, also working on the same company but in a different department, asked me about my holidays. They asked me who I am going with, a girlfriend or friends. My reply was: my boyfriend. Then came that small pause, you know, the few seconds more than normal that it took them to reply something like 'that's nice'! I briefly told them about JJ and mentioned the fact that it's not out in the open yet because of that team leader, I mentioned earlier. Oh, I am going to tell him eventually, just not yet! I was glad I've talked to them even if I now know that a secret known by 3 at least co-workers, is not a secret anymore.

However, even after all this time, there is a small triumphant feeling when successfully coming out to people even if they are simple work colleagues.

Glad this is over

I had quite a difficult week at work and sometimes I wanted to cry like a:

or actually hit somebody! I'm not going to go in details though! I'm so glad it's over. I managed to meet deadlines and keep people happy while juggling lots of balls at the same time.

Anyway, it's the weekend now and the weather in the city is expected to be amazing! So, I plan to get some needed rest, work on my tan and maybe a picnic at a park somewhere around. I'll take some pictures if you want. Enjoy your weekend! I'll be back soon. xxx

TGIF

I’m so happy its Friday today. I had a difficult week but I’m happy it’s over. I mentioned in the past about me being dragged into an intercompany dispute about which technology is better, in terms of outcome and cost, to use in a project. After the third or fourth meeting the high managers decided in our favour! Yay! Congratulations to us. We won! However, that meant that I had to be part of the rival team to show them how to do things our way. Well, they weren’t that happy having me, the enemy, over, taking control of things. So, during the whole week I was based in our other building, in the City area, trying to do my job ignoring the grunts, complaints etc of my ‘lovely’ colleagues. The first couple of days were bad but to be honest the situation improved over time. Now, we are almost done and everybody’s happy. Hopefully next mid-week, I’ll be back to my normal position, in my normal desk.

On the other hand, changing offices wasn’t that bad, but rather enjoyable. I’ve realised that I’m generally adaptable. That’s probably something good I picked up during my army year. I don’t mind getting a new working place. It doesn’t take me long to familiarise myself to the new environment, the new people or surrounding areas of the building to get lunch. I even like the change of scenery once in a while. Getting to the area in the morning rush has been more difficult, but it was fine.

Changing the subject, I’d like to say that I’m beginning to feel we’re very unlucky when it comes to picking concerts we want to go to. First strike was George Michael. We had ordered tickets online for his concert with the London Symphony Orchestra (I think) in Earl’s Court that was supposed to take place in December. Then he went and got pneumonia and the concert got postponed. OK, I have to admit that during his first appearance after the cancelation he did look very sickly and underweight. We had bought tickets online though that were supposed to be delivered two weeks before the concert. The cancelation though was announced before that, so the tickets were never delivered. Hopefully, when the new dates for his concerts will be announced we will get the tickets and everything will be fine. Unfortunately we are a bit worried about this. The website where we bought the tickets hasn’t been too helpful providing information. They barely speak English. We do have confirmation emails. There is also a big ‘if’ though, if we will be able to make the new dates. George posted a couple of very cute pictures by the sea enjoying himself with his boyfriend somewhere in the South Hemisphere recently, so he is recovering quite nicely.

George with the porn star Isaac Mazar on holidays

Second strike was Madonna. Last week, Friday, we bought some not so very cheap tickets to see her live this summer in Hyde Park. I’ve seen her live before and it was always a very nice experience. She puts on quite a good show. From the distance of the stage, the veins in her hands are not visible. She doesn’t look that scary. JJ hasn’t seen her live and he’s quite excited about it. However, not even a week passed and there are articles on the papers on how big concerts in Hyde Park are too noisy for the people living close by. They’d like to cancel all big events taking place there! Hopefully if something like that happens, it will be in force from next year, or Madonna, being the control professional freak she is, will find another big venue to organise her concert. We’ll see.

Learn and grow

January had been a frantic month work wise. We had to close the previous year, setup the new year and create a couple new applications for our teams in the meantime. It’s already almost mid-February and I haven’t been able to catch my breath. Almost all my week days have been filled with some stress and lots of things to do.

In a weird, sadistic way I’m enjoying this. Each day flies by quickly, I’m managing to stabilise my position and make myself known to people higher in the company’s hierarchy. I’m even caught in an intercompany dispute. It’s my team versus another on which technology is better/cheaper etc to use. We’re both working on delivering a similar product that will be offered to a client. The race is not particularly fair against us and there are lots of politics involved but for me it’s a huge learning curve. Never before had I been in a similar situation. My previous company was so small these things would never happen.

Now I can see teams fighting other teams over budgets, betrayals and gossips going around. It’s a bit scary but interesting at the same time. I just hope I grow a thicker skin and don’t lose my integrity. I’m still in a junior position to be of threat to anyone so for the time being I’m not worried about being backstabbed. On a documentary I was watching the other day, a member of staff from the ‘London Underground’ was saying that the most difficult, rude and demanding clients are white, in mid-thirties, wearing an expensive suit.

On a different note, the situation in Greece is getting worse. There are new austerity measures that diminish salaries, minimize pensions and cut budgets for things like the health care and social benefits. There are horror stories on the news of parents abandoning their children at schools because they can’t afford to raise them anymore. There’s a massive wave of neo-homeless people with no substance abuse or psychological problems and well-educated that became homeless only due to financial reasons. Overall the number of homeless people in the country was increased by 25% the last two years. I personally know so many people whose salaries were diminished by 40 – 60% when utility bills, petrol, taxes and transport fairs are higher. I hope for the best, although I can’t be too optimistic.


Have a nice Hump day. The weekend is not too far away. Sorry for the sad news

New Beginnings

After the endings (see previous post) new beginnings commence… I started my new job this Monday!!!

I have to admit that I didn’t sleep that well on Sunday night! It’s not like I was stressed about the job itself, I knew that the first day would be uneventful. However, I had a constant worry about being late! I kept on waking up every hour, an hour and half, startled checking the clock. At the end I arrived well in advance and I had a coffee in a nearby coffee shop.


My first days at work were pretty much as expected. Most of my new colleagues are away on holidays and there are many empty desks at the moment. I’m being told everything I need to know about the systems I’ll be handling. The data stored is related to the finances of the company. There are things and procedures I’m not familiar with but I hope I’ll be fine. I’m not worried about the IT stuff, although the responsibility level has increased since the data is related to lots and lots of thousands of pounds.

My new manager is quite a character. He is fairly short and round with long beard. The only thing missing is an axe and he could play a dwarf at Lord of the Rings. He does swear a lot and is so politically incorrect. The first day he mentioned some stuff to me I would never ever say to a person I first met! Thus, I might need to increase my ‘macho’ level. Maybe start frantically following a soccer team, pick my nose in public once or twice, scratch my balls or spit on the floor! OK, that might be a bit too much… At first I was worried but I saw my younger female colleague telling him off so much, it was quite funny. He even accepts it with a loud laughter. So, hopefully he is a dog who barks but doesn’t bite. I’ll be a bit careful though.


You’ll have to excuse me though because I will be blogging less frequent than before. I can’t type anything while being at work now. I’m in probation period anyway and I have to be extra careful. In addition, while being in the office I am generally more tense than before in an unfamiliar new environment with all this new things to learn. That means that when I get home I feel pretty exhausted and I don’t even turn my PC on.
At least I look good in a suit…

Endings…

Although I had an amazing time on holidays, I’m now back and I have to face reality:

Today is my last day in my (now old) job!
That’s the first job I’ve started after finishing my postgraduate degree in that foreign county I know call home. It was weird cleaning out my desk yesterday. I’ve been in that same job for more than 3.5 years and it’s the very first proper 9 – 5 (approximately) job I ever had. I’ve learnt so much here and I met some wonderful and some not so wonderful people. I believe that I’ll leave with some very good memories.


I remember the first day I arrived at work, in our old building when my company was still a branch of a bigger national. Just before the recession we became independent which was actually perfectly timed. Anyway, I hadn’t asked about the dress code and I arrived in suit and tie. Things here are far less formal and everybody was in jeans. Of course they made fun of me! I had troubles remembering everybody’s names and I mixed a few. I was also too self cautious to do anything like go get a cup of coffee or even go to the toilet. I was such a newbie (understandably). I didn’t know how people in England work.

I was amazed at the way people took their lunch brakes. Everybody simply gets up and leaves, minding their business. At first I found that rude, even if it seems so natural now. The first days I always asked in the open plan office if anybody would like something from outside before getting up to go have my lunch. I was always getting negative replies, so I stopped doing it.

What’s also funny is the day we first went all together to the local pub. I wasn’t still very familiar to the pub culture and I didn’t know the rules. I hadn’t learnt that the most serious work meetings take place in the pub and that you learn so much about your work and colleagues there. I even had my progress meetings there! I didn’t know about the beer rounds and how you never offer money for your drink but instead you offer the next drink round when available! Anyway, during my first visit to the pub with my colleagues I did the moral sin of asking for coffee! Almost everybody was amazed! Being Greek, having a coffee at 5:30 on Friday afternoon seemed normal! I would never do the same mistake…

I am lucky enough that today, my last day, is the day of my company’s ‘Summer Treat’. That means that we’ll all go out and enjoy our day! We’ve planned a visit to the Olympic village to take a tour in the newly built Stadiums and then for dinner. That means that everybody will be there and I don’t have to plan goodbye drinks with possible people not making it.

According to custom, I’ll soon receive a goodbye card, a small gift and a small speech. I hope I don’t get emotional (that will be embarrassing). On Monday morning I have to check in my new job… New rules, new people… How exciting (and stressful)!

The wind of change

As I’ve mentioned before, lots of things are happening in my life, stressful, exciting, life changing things. A fortnight ago, I received a call from an agent. Having no much luck the previous times, I didn’t expect much. I received the call; I talked about the position and agreed to go for it.

The next morning, really early, I met that agent in a nearby train station. He was on his way to work and it was early enough for me to meet him before my work. According to Murphy’s Law something had to go wrong, so his train broke down and he was 45 minutes late! We did meet at the end for a very short period of time but I think that meeting went quite well even if I had an eye at my watch about being late.


That first successful meeting with the agent put me on the right track to get the job. You see, the agent was acting as the company’s HR, screening people. He would put only a handful of people to be interviewed by the company. Funnily enough my relationship with the agent grew in a weird way. At some point we were on the phone 6 to 7 times a day without counting the list of emails. He was sending me emails at 10pm and then sending me a text message at 7:40am to see if I read it! By now, I’ve told him stuff like to drink juices and lots of water when he was feeling under the weather and he was telling me stories about the new trampoline he bought his kids. He was generally putting a lot of pressure on me with all these calls, but at the end it all went well!

Beginning of last week I met with the managers who will be in charge of the new role. The same day I was flying to Greece I met the head of IT and the head of HR! These meetings lasted for more than 1 hour and a half leaving me quite drained from energy. By the time I was rushing to the airport I received the phone call from the agent that I was offered the position!!!!


Excited as I was feeling, I couldn’t but feel stressed about what to say to my current (now ex) company and colleagues. This was the first job I got after finishing my studies in the UK and I’ve been in that position for years. I do need to grow some thicker skin. I know. But it wasn’t very easy for me. I was playing various (bad) scenarios and fictional conversations every day before going to sleep for the last days.

To cut the story short I gave them my letter of resignation this Monday! I first talked to the HR and one of the directors. They were very nice. They expressed their sadness but understood my point of view and the reasons behind my decision. The big boss and one of the directors believe that it was ungrateful of me to leave them and they made it clear. My manager, my director and my colleagues here understand the reasons I had to change roles and some even mentioned they’ll miss me dreadfully.


What I am still waiting for is the confirmation of my references and a medical check by a doctor of the new company. I hope these will be OK otherwise I’ll simply be unemployed at the end of my notice period. I’m now ‘going’ corporate playing with the big boys and new rules. What I like about the new role is that I’ll learn about competitive and new technologies working in a company with prospective. Where I was until now was a small family company with absolutely nowhere to progress using technologies that are already half dead.

I’m very excited about the change.
I’m sad to leave some of my colleagues behind.
I’m stressed about that very first day in my new office.

What comes next is a notice period when I’ll try to close all pending issues I have. I’ll also try to leave specs and documents about things I’ve done in the past and where I’ve saved projects I’ve finished. I’ll try to be extra typical being always on time and willing to do things as normal. I don’t want them to think badly of me now.

In the same time, next week I’m leaving on my pre organised summer holidays. I’ll be gone for 12 days which will be a time to relax, celebrate and catch up with my boyfriend. He’s been a tremendous help and a willing listening ear to my thoughts and problems. I wasn’t always rational but he was there to listen to me patiently.

It’s Friday!

I can’t tell you how happy I am its Friday! The other day, when I uploaded a whining post, I almost did what 'Urspo's Guide to a happy life'* suggested and instead of washing only my face, I took a bath! That doesn’t happen often. I’m usually a shower person since I don’t have the time for long baths, but this time it was much needed. I closed my eyes and sank into quite hot with bubbles water. It was pure bliss. After soaking for almost 20 minutes, I wasn’t even able to cook dinner. I simply collapsed on the sofa. The boyfriend (bless him) got some organic food from ‘Whole Foods Market’ and treated me, instead of me treating him home cooked dinner.


Mostly, the pressure I’ve been having the last days is caused by a new job opportunity I’m chasing. Of course I can’t say much about it but I think it’s going well. I do hate all the lying at my current employers though, trying to steal time for interviews etc. I’m also very lousy at negotiating for money. The agent I’m dealing with is putting way too much pressure on me sending emails and then text messages all the time. I’m currently speaking to him at least 5 times a day. Yesterday, I didn’t hear from him for more than 4 hours and I became very worried that something happened to him.

Anyway, I’ll have more news on that next week. I probably shouldn’t even have mentioned it. I will never underestimate again the power of hot water though…

*If you're not aware of Spo-Reflections, I suggest you do try to find them out.

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On a different but also very happy note, the new issue of ‘Gay Times’ is out and oh boy, there are interesting eye candy in there. There’s an interview by Ben Cohen. I haven’t had the chance to read the article yet but I was very intrigued by the photos. That’s a small sample I found online. There are more in this issue..

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Have an amazing weekend! Weather-wise it will be a bit miserable again but oh well, we’re used to it by now. Enjoy!

Interview update

So, I went for my interview on Friday or let’s say my evaluation day as they call it! It was supposed to last from 9 in the morning till 5 in the afternoon (oh yes, 7 hours with an hour lunch break)!!! I had taken a day off work for that. I lied to them about taking the day off to enjoy the day by doing something different. That wasn’t totally untrue since I did something different but I didn’t really enjoy it.

Before going for the interview, I knew what the company would propose. They offer 10 - 12 weeks professional training and then a placement as an ‘IT Consultant’. The training is offered for free but for two years you would be an employee of that company which would ‘sell’ you as a contractor to clients. They sell you in much higher price than the money you are given but I hoped to be patient for two years to build my CV to the level I wanted. The deal seemed appealing, although I didn’t know the exact terms.

Anyway, I spent Thursday night feeling restless and I did wake up way earlier than I should to get dressed, shave and have plenty of time to arrive there in time. Upon arrival I met the three other candidates / opponents I would have to win / beat / kill over the next couple of hours. I didn’t know how many places were available so I had to be prepared for the worse.

What I wasn’t really prepared was what followed, the presentation of the ‘deal’ between us and the company! The latter wanted its candidates to be 100% flexible, meaning you couldn’t say ‘no’ to a job offering. That meant that you might end up anywhere in the UK (including Northern Ireland of course) working for any possible company. OK, the subject of the actual project would be relevant to the training stream you had chosen but I thought that this would include a huge leap of faith from my part and I was reluctant to say ‘yes’.

In addition to that, the money offered was a joke. They explained that the cost of the training offered is around £20k, which is ridiculous since any Msc in IT in the best universities costs much less. To give you an idea, my MSc in a very good university in London was priced £3.5k in 2007! I can’t believe that the same MSc would cost more than £10k today! Since that training money would at least have to be returned, every candidate would be given a fixed monthly salary which I believed was at least offensive.

At the end of the presentation I decided that the offer was not for me (but for younger totally inexperienced graduates) and I had my doubts of staying for the whole day. However, I couldn’t go back to work to reclaim at least half a day off and I thought that playing along would be a very good practice in being interviewed, so I stayed. I did the group exercise, I stayed for the actual interview, I passed the logic and grammar exams. My younger co candidates were very eager at being accepted although two of them failed and were sent home before the lunch break.

At some point in the afternoon, I started getting tired and I did really badly at the last part of the evaluation day (the technical evaluation). The evaluator was a total ass trying to be very difficult and I kind of lost it not replying to questions that I would normally know. While I’m typing this post an email arrived thanking me for taking part in the process but I didn’t pass to the next level. I’m not bothered at all to be honest. I had already decided not to accept an offer anyway, although it is a nice confidence boost to reject offers instead of being rejected but anyway I do have some other things in mind of what to do next.

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Anyway, that’s what happened on Friday! I’m going to leave you now wishing you a ‘Happy Valentine’s Day’. We decided with JJ not to buy each other any cards, flowers or gifts although I did make desert. We have booked a table in a nice dim sum place and then we'll head back to my place for 'desert'.

I hope it tastes nice. That was my first ever attempt at baking a cake…

Geeky stuff and marble cakes.

I’ve been very busy during and after work lately which explains a bit the lack of blogging. I have a big interview tomorrow. When I say ‘big’, I mean it. It is for a position that I am very interested in which will open lots of doors for me, but it also lasts way too long. I have to be there before 9am and I’m planned to leave after 4:30pm. They call it ‘evaluation day’ and I fear it will be a nightmare.

I’ve been working non stop every evening on a presentation I’ll have to do for them regarding a small applet I’ve programmed myself. I decided to do a simple image viewer. There’s a login screen where the user enters user name and password which is compared to the data stored in a file and a series of images displayed in a separate screen with ‘back’, ‘next’ button etc. It’s not something major, but I believe it to be correct in ‘theory’ which matters. I’ve tried to follow all the rules and regulations of object oriented programming. What worry me most about tomorrow though are silly things like ‘group exercise’! I don’t have any experience in them. Anyway, I hope it’ll be OK.

Staying on the same subject, I’ve ordered my new phone yesterday, renewing my mobile phone contract. OK, it’s not entirely the same subject, although I believe that the programming / geekiness subject might include tech gadgets. Anyway, it only took 3 phone calls, waiting for half an hour for someone to talk to and threatening I’m quitting them. They finally gave me the contract terms I wanted and knew they’d give me. I went for the Nokia N8, which is admittedly not the easiest phone out there with the best operating system but it has an amazing camera (12MP Carl Zeiss optics) and good hardware. I had my eyes on that gadget since September. I’m not that interested about silly billion applications as long as it plays my music.

OK, now I’m changing the subject, Monday’s Valentine’s Day. I’m not a great fan of the day. Last year I didn’t even mention it on my blog. I don’t believe in all the corny gift giving red shaped rituals one has to follow. I don’t like the fact that in a way you’re forced to show your love for someone. I totally prefer unexpected small gestures of someone’s affection than actually being forced to do so. I like receiving and giving flowers and small presents when not expected.

However, I don’t want to sound that obnoxious. I know ‘JJ’ will get me a card, so I’ll get him one too. He has already booked a table for us to go and have dim sum that evening. Just the though of the possible banal decoration of the restaurant is giving me shivers but I promise to keep my mouth shut so that I will not ruin the atmosphere. I’ve done the same for us and I’ve booked Korean bbq the following Saturday. I’m also checking if we’ll manage to go to an exclusive gym to enjoy an indoor heated swimming pool and Jacuzzi.

What I finally think of doing is baking him a cake. I’ve never ever in my life made desert before. I like baking and cooking but I do not generally have a ‘sweet tooth’. When people bring me chocolates, they might stay there unopened for days. I’m still trying to finish a box of really nice milk and almond chocolates I received before Christmas. So, the plan is to actually make something chocolaty from scratch, either a chocolate marble cake or chocolate brownie. I’m checking the ‘BBC good food’ with the label ‘Easy’ next to it. I hope it will look decent and taste nice. I also hope I’ll have fun making it.

Busy like a bee and other microwave stories…

I’ve been amazingly busy the last few days. It’s been really hectic here at work. Lot’s of orders coming and lots of pressure by the directors to bring more income to the company. It’s the same old story where sales people promise anything to the client to make a sale and the technical team has to find a way to deliver. I have to admit I was feeling really low and stressed at the end of last week but I am feeling a lot better now.

I also received some negative replies to job applications which also didn’t help me feel better and that issue last mentioned with ‘JJ’ didn’t help either. We are in a much better place now. We’ve talked about it. He complains that I don’t talk much about how I feel, which is true. I have a way of sulking. I tend to withdraw to myself and keep quiet than actually express my emotions in fear of making the situation worse or hurting someone.

Anyway, I’m feeling much better now. I’ve decided not to let work stuff affect me or my personally life. There is no need to feel so stressed. I can still be poor and happy. At least I still got my current position and even if there is no future in it, it does provide me with what I need. There are so many people in worse place than I am, so I shouldn’t be ungrateful or greedy…

Changing the subject completely, this totally made me laugh yesterday. While doing my normal shopping in my local supermarket, I visited the ‘personal’ section. I was in need of lube and condoms. Don’t ask me why but I go for the ’extra safe’ Durex ones. When I went home, I took my shopping out of my bag and tried to remove the cellophane of the condom box. It’s so much better not to leave that for the last minute. That’s when I saw the super market’s label on it:

‘Security Protected – Please remove before microwave’

At first I was puzzled! Do I have to microwave them? Was I been doing wrong all these years? No one told me that! What’s even worse is the fact that I don’t even have a microwave!!!! Am I not to have sex?

But the almighty Google helped me yet again. After some really weird youtube videos where people blow condoms with hot water and wiki pages on how to use them, I figured out that my supermarket is simply being weird…

If I am completely missing something, please let me know. I've heard of using for example ice cubes in your mouth to give a better 'chilled' bj, but not about cooking / warming up your condoms.

By the way, I had ‘Sainsbury’s’, ‘Durex’ and ‘Google’ grey advertised on my post. Do I get any vouchers?