Merry Christmas Everybody!

Happy Christmas from my kitchen table.

It has been a long grim year and I will be delighted to see the back of it. And in about 90 minutes from now work will be over. Nothing left to do but drink beer, go home and start Christmas fun.

Hurrah!

Fancy that!

It's all gone far too far this time

It's been a long time since I've blogged, hasn't it?

That's because it has been a truly SHIT summer. Not weather-wise, that's been glorious - and as I have mentioned, when I've had the heart to blog, I have had some happy days in the sun.

The shit I am talking about is work. Back in April we were rounded up for the Redundancy Talk. At the the time it was handled very badly - and since then things have got much, much worse.

For the last six months intelligent, hard-working and talented friends and colleagues - good, good people - have been losing their jobs - or being put through the wringer to battle to get jobs on even lower salaries than they had before.

The redundancies are over (for now) and we've been left with a structure - and I use the term very loosely - where we are horribly understaffed and many of those who are left are doing jobs they haven't been trained for, under immense pressure.

Unsurprisingly, we now have a very stressed and sick workforce.

There is only so long you can go on, being shat on and watching your friends being shat on before something cracks. The misery of it all broke the heart of one dearly-loved colleague. Literally. He died.

The grief here is like a thick grey jelly.

Here is how I cope with stress:

Hare and Hounds (15)

My Hare and Hounds Project is well into its third year and I must admit it has lapsed somewhat. Well actually quite a lot.

Never mind, yesterday I had a day off work and I got myself back on track with a visit to this Hare & Hounds - in Holcombe. It was lovely!

(Photo from Google Streetview.)

It is a bloody good job that we can have days off, go walking in the woods with friends and visit lovely pubs. Back at work today and it's not so good.

Friends are still losing their jobs and there is an air of despond over us all.

On the bright side, we are no longer buried alive in the office with no windows. We have been moved to a new office with windows - not just any old windows either! We can open these ones, and look out onto the trees in the park.

On the other side of the park is the Irwell - which could be nice, but all week it has stunk of rotting corpses. So there isn't just despond in the air, there is stench and quite a lot of flies too. Puke.

Sometimes open windows aren't such a good thing.

I should have stayed in the pub.

Ashes to Ashes

Last Friday I took the day off work and went to watch Day Two of the Third Test at Old Trafford.

I love cricket. I love the whole mindset of the game. What other sport has meal breaks? What other sport allows you to go home at night, have a sleep and then start again the next day where you left off?

Where else can you play the same match for five days and at the end of it all no-one has won?

Cricket is the epitome of English optimism: what are the chances of even getting five days in a row of nice weather in this country? (Actually pretty good this year.)

Here are some Aussies. They look full of optimism too, don't they?

Sky Cameraman. I reckon he could probably see our house from up there.

It is a long day at the cricket and by the evening session many folk like to create their own entertainment, possibly with a craft activity like this: the Lager Snake:

If you click the image and zoom in you can see what an impressive piece of cooperative teamwork this is, especially when you consider that most of these people had been drinking for about seven hours already, and in theory shouldn't even be able to stand upright.

That's enough hoo-ha for one day. Yesterday I went to the hills:

Bliss.

Half Way

It's the 1st July and we're halfway through the year. Work is still shit, possibly getting shitter. Sorry about the language, but there's no easy way to say it.

Luckily, there is more to life than work. Six months in, and I have walked 1,004 miles so far this year. Here are some photos from about 13 of those miles.

Bleaklow, a couple of weeks ago:

About 2 miles, still in the Longendale Valley. That hill is where I am going.

Going up the hill.

And a bit further.

On the top of Bleaklow there are bits of crashed aeroplanes. This one has been here since 1948.
Even on a sunny day it's spooky.

And strangely sculptural.

Also on the top of Bleaklow, the rocks look like they are kissing each other.

It's not always this gorgeous up here.

The long path down.

Nearly on the ground again.

Walk done; Glossop Station.

I hope you enjoyed that little tour. I might share some other days out with you in the near future.

It's very quiet here. Where's everyone gone?

It's been quite some time since my last post. That's because things here have been grim, very grim indeed.

We are in the midst of another tidal wave of redundancies.

This university is top of Britain's league table for axing staff. When I say 'top' I really mean top. Number One in the whole country. The only other thing we are doing well in is the Bullying & Harassment League.

Can you see a sort of pattern developing here?

When I began this blog in 2009 I thought I'd be discussing literature and libraries and other lovely things, but instead redundancy has been the recurring theme. 

Our library has become a barren and desolate place.

On the plus side, I am off on my holidays for the next two weeks - starting any minute now. Yippee!