Go this Sway

I spent the day learning more about Microsoft Sway for my new role as a Communications Officer at work. Here is what I came up with - an advert for my new Guy N Smith zine. Go this way, as they say, to see my new Guy N Smith book, out August 1st, 2024.

Changes, they say, come in 3's

It really has been a month of change. First we have had a welcome change of government. Then, a change of house as we finally got to move back home after the fire that took place there back in March. And now I have a change in work as I managed to snag this gem of a position:

My day job really has been getting me down lately as repetition really grinds my brain cogs. The thought of sitting down at my office desk and repeating the same mundane tasks every ten minutes makes me want to scream, and I've been using up a lot of annual leave lately just because I wasn't able to face going to work. Regular readers of this blog will know that I have been spending a lot of time recently working on job applications and not that effort has paid off. Now I have a new and challenging role to play in the office as a Communications Officer for the PCS Union I and welcome this fresh experience with open arms 😀

Prep

Half Day But Still in the Office.

Determined to find an alternative position with my employer, I took a half day today, but spent it at the office working on an application for a more appropriate job. 🤞 

This is the Road to Hell

My Diet Begins...

Tuesday. 16 April, 2024

Second day back at work, though an early finish allowed me to do a little extra writing on my next novel, Familiar.

Also, I started my much-needed weightloss program today with an official weigh in. Gonna make it public in the hope it encourages me to make good progress on it. I'm healthy again, and back in work, so should hopefully be a lot more active again. I just have to keep off those addictive crisps!

As I finally left work, I couldn't help but take another Shadowme pic with this interesting shadow:

Sunrise over Swansea

Thursday, 18 January, 2024

The morning sun burnishes the sky whilst the Port Talbot steelworks add to the distant cloud cover

Ubik on Yule

December 22, 2023

The shortest day of the year but no Winter Solstice celebrations this year. When the kids were younger, we used to attend Glastonbury, Stonehenge and Avebury celebration at this time of year. But not today. No, this morning I had to work a half day at the office :(

Heading out to work

The view from my desk at work.

Work wasn't too bad actually, there was quite a nice mood at the office with just a handful of us there. And we were all out of there at 12, when the building was closed. Not quite Christmas for me yet though, as I left work early as I felt ill last Tuesday so I have to make back the hours before the end of the week - So in I go for a 6-1.45 shift tomorrow morning.

When I got home, my new read had been posted through my letterbox - Philip K Dick's Ubik:

This morning`s view from my office work's desk:

Tuesday, December 05, 2023

Nice to see you again :)

Thursday, November 28, 2023

Nice to see this fella again. It's been a while..

 

I Will Miss the Sunrises and Rainbows

 Monday, 27 November, 2023

My team in work are being relocated to a new floor in the New Year. I am gonna miss the views from my current location, and not just the spectacular sunrises. This rainbow lingered for almost half an hour, and grew in intensity with each passing minute.

Loosening the Chains of Office Mundanity (2)

There has been a bit of a change for me, work-wise, starting today. I have started new compressed hours at my day job, meaning I now work four 10-hour days instead of 5 eight hour days a week. This gives me every Wednesday off work :)

This is a very real game-changer for me, addressing my work/home life balance issues, which have been too work-weighted for far too long.  I plan to utilise these freed-up days well, using them to concentrate more on my creative projects, housework and mental well-being. And all that without losing a penny in pay. :)Today, I started work on finally sorting out our attic room, got ahead of schedule in my reading and novel writing, and catalogued these books in my Pixie-Led library:

Oh what a beautiful morning

October 31, 2024

This scene greeted me this morning as I left the office car park and headed in to work:

 

Loosening the Chains of Office Mundanity (1)

Thursday, October 26, 2023

I try to keep talk of my day job to a minimum for several reasons. Firstly, it's not work that I feel particularly passionate about. To my eyes, it is a mundane drain on both my time and my energy - resources I want to spend on my creative output. But I have rent to pay, food to put on the table, two cats and a tortoise to raise and several rather expensive hobbies and interests I like to indulge in. And so I am chained to my office desk, on most weekdays at any rate.

Of course, one of the joys of my secondary creative outlet, photography, is that it teaches the eye and the mind to search out interest even in the most dire of situations and locations.  And securing a window desk in one of my hometown's tallest office blocks, with its unparalleled views over the distant urban countryside, I at least have the pleasure of some cracking sunrises and, at this time of year, the eerie morning mists that shift slowly through the distant valleys.

Trying to make the best out of bad situations, I hope to get at least two books out of my time spent working for 'The Man'. The first could be a series of photographs I grab while at the office. The second is a horror novel that I hope anyone reading these mad scribblings will understand I can't go into any real detail about yet. All I say at this point, and to close this particular blog post, is the above photograph set in motion a rather cool finale to the novel-in-waiting. Watch this space for further info, but don't expect a publication any time before 2025...

Sunrise over Swansea

 Monday, September 25, 2023

A nice start to the work week:

The view from my desk

Friday, September 22, 2023

Difficult to work with this going on outside the office window!

A good thing about my day job

September 18, 2023

I can't complain about the views from the work office window