Iain wins the raffle

I had a little bit of good fortune today - I won a digital photo frame in a draw at Bolton University! It's not often I win anything and Bolton Uni isn't one of my regular haunts, so I'd better explain...

Through work I'd gone along Bolton University to listen to a talk by Professor John Seddon, who is an occupational psychologist specialising in business management and systems design. Sounds quite heavy, but this stuff is related to the kinds of problems we find ourselves dealing with at work. Seddon is very forthright in his views and pulls no punches, being fiercely critical of most of today's management fads, arguing that a target driven culture drives the wrong behaviours and ends up making the customer's experience worse rather than better. Whether or not you agree with his views, he is a very engaging speaker and his anecdotes and stories are amusing and compelling.

Of course, the real reason why he was in Bolton was to promote his new book, 'Systems Thinking in the Public Sector', which admittedly isn't the sort of reading you'd normally find in my bookcase.

When we arrived at the University, we were asked if we'd each mind handing over a business card. Out of our group, not one of us had a card with us, so I fished around on my wallet and found an old dog-eared one which hadn't seen the light for a good while (not many things in my wallet do). As this was the only way to save the embarrassment of our group, it would have to do, so I dropped it off and thought nothing more of it.

After the talk had finished, Seddon was up at the front signing books for those who had decided to make a purchase, when the head of the business school announced there was a free prize draw from all the business cards handed in. Based on the return from our group I had to be in with a chance, but even so I was more than surprised when my name was called out! Unfortunately there was no 'no publicity' box to tick, so to collect my prize I had to go to the front of the lecture theatre to be presented with it and have my photo taken to boot.

The prize itself was wrapped up like a Christmas present, so it was only when I got back to the office that I could take a look. For a while I've been toying with the idea of getting a digital photo frame anyway, so this has certainly made the day worthwhile.

PS: There's something different about this picture - can you guess what it is?

Supergrounds, the Video: Can you guess what it is yet?

Whilst we were painting the wall at the school the other week, I made an effort to take several pictures at regular intervals throughout the day, with the aim of stiching them together as a short animation. I thought this would be fairly easy, but it turned out to be much more difficult than painting the design on the wall in the first place...

First of all Photoshop isn't at all straightforward when you're attempting something new. The first task was to line up the pictures fairly closely so that when they're stacked up together they run together smoothly (not easy). Then the second problem is how to convert your finished picture stack into a video format (the options for this are not where you'd expect to find them).

After much nashing of teeth and muttering of non-standard English words and phrases, I finally had a working video file which I was quite pleased about. But can I get it onto Blogger? - can I *********. I've tried for several days now and each time the video appears in my preview screen but when I publish to the web, all I see is an empty placeholder.

Eventually I found a post on a help site which suggests a fix - publishing the page containing the video clip whilst in 'compose' view rather than HTML view, and amazingly this has worked!

So, after all that effort, enjoy!
(you'd better)

PS: Although it looks like the three girls are doing all the work, that's only because I'm behind the camera briefly for just enough time to take each picture. You wouldn't believe how hard I was working in between shots. Honest. No really.

Erin Goes Home

Erin went back home today - her proper home that is. Her stay with us officially came to an end on Wednesday when our neighbours returned from their holiday, however when she's in town, she's never far away from our door and she's been popping in regularly ever since.

Anyhow, she belongs to our neighbours' daughter, so earlier this evening it was time to go in the cat basket and head for home. Of course, whilst they were out looking for her, there she was in our house reclining on the chair without a care in the world!

It was my last chance to snap her for a while, so I had to move fast with the camera, but the results were worth it!

We'll miss her, although not being woken at four in the morning will be a relief.

Process Excellence Awards

This isn't intended to be a blog about work, but the team I work with regularly push the boundaries in what we do, so when we achieve something notable then I'm proud to record it here.

We design, build and maintain process diagrams which we publish online across the organisation and over the years we have been recognised quite a few times for the innovative approach we take and the quality of the work we do. The team have become used to awards ceremonies, and in recent years we have reached the finals of the National Business Awards and been winners at the ISTC (Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators) Awards.

This evening we attended the Process Excellence Awards, where we were in the running for the 'Best Project Contributing to Innovation' award, up against Scottish Power and Whirlpool Europe. Whilst unfortunately we didn't win the prize, it didn't stop us having a good time.

From l-r: Mark, Ian L, Alison, Jenny, Nigel, Chris, Richard, Louise, Me, Ian C

David Kirk

Today was a sad day. David had been ill for some time before passing away on April 4 and today was his funeral.

David and I grew up together, we went to the same primary school and our parents have been friends for well over 40 years.

Our thoughts and sympathies go out to David's family and loved ones.

Escape from the Pampered Chef

We went to the Lakes today to visit Julie and Stewart who live in a fantastic farmhouse set in gorgeous countryside in the Lake District. Wendy, a long-standing friend of Julie from their university days was visiting with her family and had arranged a 'Pampered Chef' party, which involved demonstrating a variety of useful cooking gadgets and then eating the results (washed down with plenty of wine it seemed).

With lots of people descending on the house for this cooking fest, the fathers amongst us disappeared with the kids to an activity centre in Kendal, leaving the three non-dads to find a different escape route: taking the dogs for a walk instead. Although the weather was decidedly iffy, the rain held off and we had a very enjoyable walk, ending rather predictably in the local pub, the Masons Arms.

Carole had been surprisingly restrained and didn't even spend enough to qualify for a free gift, which is perhaps as well as there isn't any room in our kitchen for more equipment.

It was great to see everyone again and to catch up with people we don't see as often as we ought to - all in all a great day.

Supergrounds Day

Today was very different to my normal working day as I'd volunteered to help in a 'Supergrounds' project at a local school. This is an initiative devised and supported my employers, RBS, to help improve school playgrounds and their surroundings, and is of course a very worthy cause. My colleagues and I were all keen to do our bit, so early this morning twelve of us met up at a local primary school to complete a variety of manual jobs.

There were four of us in my group, and our task was to paint a mountain scene onto a rather large 'climbing wall' in the main playground. We had our design ready (thanks to Michael for this) - we just now had to replicate it on a 9m by 3m brick wall. Not an easy task, especially in the pouring rain, but thankfully the wall was sheltered a little and the paint stayed relatively dry even if we didn't.

The first task was to chalk an outline of the design on the wall, so Jenny and I made an early start on this before the others in the team and before the children arrived. This didn't take too long, but even so, when we'd finished with the chalk we turned round to find what felt like 200 children staring at us and wondering what on earth we were doing!

We were well looked after by the school with bacon & sausage barms provided in the morning, a school dinner (chicken and chips for me!) and regular brews throughout the day (of course). At each break-time, there were always plenty of children gathered round to inspect what we were doing - one boy in particular, who'd be about 9 or 10 seemed to be talking with some authority, much more than the others, and when he saw the puzzled look on my face said "I am on the school council, you know!"

By the time the children were leaving at the end of the day, we'd managed to finish our work of art and the children and teachers were all delighted with what we'd done. There were other teams from RBS working at the school, who spent the day in the gardens planting trees and wooden planters, building and planting raised beds, returfing and building a nectar garden. Although we were all thoroughly soaked, it was a very enjoyable and rewarding day, even if we were tired by the end. Thanks to all involved in organising the event. For more information about Supergrounds, click: RBS Supergrounds

We have a lodger!

We have a lodger staying with us at the moment, Erin the cat. Erin's owners are away for a few days and it was difficult to get her in a cattery at short notice, so we were asked if we'd look after her. She often visits us anyway, so she's in familiar surroundings and judging by the picture, she's certainly made herself at home!

She didn't cause us too much trouble last night - we left her to sleep on her cushion and we didn't hear from her until 5:30 this morning when she was meow-ing outside our bedroom door. Foolishly I let her in, only to find she jumped on the bed and sat right on my chest with a wet nose in my face, purring for Britain!

Apart from this she's no trouble and good company, so we're happy to have her, so long as I can get some sleep!

This one's a better portrait:

Ready Steady Cook!

Been mucking about with Photoshop tonight and stumbled across some old pictures of some well known chefs I took at the Good Food Show in Birmingham just over a year ago. I'm not saying they're good pictures, but none of them have done too badly since these pictures were taken, have they??
;-)

Blues Brothers come to town

We were off to a show last night as the Blues Brothers were in town at King George's Hall. Carole was quite excited as she's never seen the film (can you believe that??). The show was very entertaining and the backing band fantastic, especially the lead guitarist who was superb.

The two main characters were in good form and belted out all the songs from the film and several other soul classics too. They were both full of energy on stage and Elwood was terrific on the blues harp. He was stood by the merchandise desk on the way out and someone suggested it wasn't him playing, so he did a quick solo to us for good measure.

Can't fault the show, but the only disappointment was the size of the audience as only 500 or so turned up, but those who were there (some of whom were dressed for the occasion) thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Didn't get any decent shots on the night, so this morning I gathered a few things together on a Blues Brothers theme and took a few still life photos instead. Did I say whether I was one of those who dressed up??

Project Africa update

Carole's quiz for Project Africa (see earlier post here) generated a grand total of £94.50 from our colleagues and friends in the office, which we were delighted with.

Thanks to everyone who took part.