35

35 appears to be the age at which your coupley friends no longer want to hang out with you if you’re single and your single friends no longer want to hang out with you if you live with your parents…

New Bike

it’s been 2 months since my last bike was killed by a white van driver.
the other party has admitted liability and my insurer has paid me and waived my excess, but the other insurance company are delaying things their end. so currently i still have an open claim, my no claims discount has not yet been reinstated and i have no bike.

this last bit has been bugging me for a while now and finally i have given in and started looking at bikes with a view to buying one, even though at the moment it will have to sit in the garage until my no claims is restored.

over the last year i have been scrimping and saving to go on holiday and to buy things that i want, but don’t really need, so thankfully i have some money in the bank. add to this the insurance money and i have enough money to afford something pretty reasonable.

what I'm looking for;

1. Comfort on the motorway
2. better handling than my last bike
3. the same or more power than my last bike
4. it’s got to look cool

i think i might have found all that in the Suzuki SV1000

as such, i have put down a deposit on a 2007 SV1000 Classic, just like the picture above

off on Saturday for a test ride and i have a sneaky suspicion that i will be riding it home too (on 1 day insurance from www.flexirider.co.uk)

Even More T-shirts

i went to the British Superbikes heat at Silverstone.

there was a stunt show where i took this photo (and many more)…

thought it would be rude not to turn it into a t-shirt or two…

 

T-Shirts

been designing again

there was a promotional tie in with Cartoon Network where you could use images from Samurai Jack…

(click on the picture to view products)

off

i was knocked off my bike by a white van driver who reversed into me "sorry mate i didn't see you"
he slowed (i assumed) for the speed bump with zebra crossing on top ahead, then came to a stop (i thought he'd seen someone going to cross or something), so rather than overtake, i stopped too.
next thing i know he's put the van into reverse and floored it! there was about 3 metres between us, but the speed he moved and the fact i was stationary meant i could do nothing but sound the horn.
as soon as he hit, i jumped off and ran round to make him stop.
apparently he'd missed his turning and was reversing back to it.
he didn't use indicators to show his intention to stop, or hazards, or anything.

the bike has mostly cosmetic damage, but the right foot peg snapped off and the mud guard is smashed.
i think there's some front end damage too as the gap between front wheel and belly pan is only about 1 centimetre and the brake fluid reservoir clashes with the fairing.

we exchanged details and as it was a company van, the company want to go through insurance.
the insurance company recovered the bike to my home and now want to take the bike away for assessment.
the rep at the insurance company told me they're already considering writing the bike off as a total loss, before they've even looked at it!

more photos here (clicky)

I Kissed a Girl, and I Liked It…

but I'm not sure she did…

apparently letting my hair down this last weekend was exactly what the doctor ordered.

2-for-1 cocktails on Saturday night and then a staff party at my local on Sunday which saw me drinking until after 4am may sound a bit much and seeing as how my hangover lasted all of Monday, probably was a bit much, but it was worth it.

the highlight and most bizarre moment of the weekend happened on Sunday night when out of the blue one of the barmaids (who I rather like) kissed me! and not just a peck on the cheek, I'm talking full on tonsil hockey
then she cried.
then she left.

so I did what any good Christian would, I stayed at the party and got hammered!

that was the first proper kiss I've had in about 2 years and definitely the first time ever my kissing prowess has reduced a woman to tears…

yet I don’t feel bad about it. I've spoken to her since and her response was along the lines of “sorry, I do that when I'm drunk”. I'm just pleased that in the right light, with beer goggles on, an attractive girl found me attractive, even if it was just for a few minutes.

Oh yeah, I've still got it, sort of.

Respect

Respect is something in short supply at work, especially when it comes to management and if they don’t start showing me some pretty soon, then they’re going to have a rough ride on their hands!

in the past i have kept my head down and just done what I've been asked to do. this has included frequent last minute shift changes and even painting and decorating when I've been supposed to be taking it easy because of my bad back. it’s this last request which caused me to begin losing respect for my Station Officer (SO).

so why now have i decided to stand my ground?
the introduction of Dual ECA crews was a big issue for me, basically it means that there are 2 non-clinicians on an emergency ambulance, doing pretty much all font line ambulance work. the crux of it is that it’s ambulancing on the cheap, except that we cannot currently fill our current front line rotas, so our reliance on private ambulance providers will increase.
there are other issues here, such as clinical safety, but the essence is that it’s a bad idea and no front line staff want it.
management on the other hand want it to such an extent that that they’ve publicly threatened the jobs of any ECAs who refuse to do it and the unions supported the management. so i left Unison.
i hasten to add that whilst i (along with many others) publicly objected to the Dual ECA scheme, i at no point refused to do it.

so last week i found out that i am being moved off the rota line which i have been on for the last 2 years and moved onto the Dual ECA line. i found this out from a fellow ECA, not my station officer, not the scheduling department, one of my direct peers. i found out just 9 days before the change.

so much for Agenda for Change (the regulations by which all NHS staff work) which states in Annex G Section 2;

in line with good working practices, employers should ensure that staff are given adequate time to be made aware of their working patterns, as a guide, at least four weeks before they become operational.

to complicate matters further, my soon to be crewmate is on leave for that first week and checking the rota boards showed that week to unplanned for me.

as i was on nights, i wrote a heart felt email (actually i sent the third draft as the first two were so angry I'd probably have been sacked) to my SO and the Scheduling department asking what my shifts were for that week and explaining that for reasons of parental care, i really need to know my shifts as far in advance as possible.

the first reply came from my SO and consisted of the most patronising email i have ever read. it basically congratulated me on my promotion to Dual ECA and consisted of nothing helpful whatsoever.

the second reply came from Scheduling and just contained my logon for the new Scheduling computer system.
dutifully i logged on to the new system, only to discover that with just 7 days to go, i still had the first week unallocated!

so once again i had to ask for my shifts and finally i receive them with just 6 days to go. at the same time however, i also get a note to say that my latest request for annual leave has been rejected. that means the last 6 requests in a row have been rejected and all the dates i actually want are unavailable. so i ask Scheduling to do what they used to do and just allocate me my remaining leave (approximately 4.5 weeks worth) and in return i get a snooty email stating that it is not their responsibility and that i need to apply through the proper channels and if i didn’t i would lose my leave.

so i did. i filled in an annual leave request form for every week remaining this year, then shuffled them…

now i have to see my SO at my “earliest convenience”. that should be an interesting chat!