MassiveMTBer (Don't ever stop.)

My pedal yesterday was a giggle, my mate rocked up with his Ebay Carrerra, which has an excellent frame, but dodgy forks and drivetrain. But after a half an hour of fettling by yours truly his bike was ready for its first foray onto the trails, and my mates first dirt encounter in a good few years.

A water stop at the highest point of the route above Stourbridge but that was after dodging the cross country runners from the local school. Well I say runners, they were mostly walking.

Then a battle with the mud, but after the obligatory puncture on my mates bike.

A whizz around the bridleways by Belbroughton then a tremendous downhill back into Hagley.

The skies were starting to look threatening just as we got to the Cafe for a bacon Buttie, then the heavens opened. We were inside, the bikes were outside!

A good couple of hours out and my mate wants to do it again next week!

Oh, and Happy Birthday to me…

Out on a MTB ride with a mate today. Hopefully that will give me the kick up the arse I need and drag me out of this slough of despond.

Really struggling at the moment. Lethargy has sunk in with the eating and excercise. I know, I know, I know. I can hear you all chuntering away!

You’re disappointed, I’m disappointed (read angry), I am telling myself all the right things but studiously ignoring everything I’m saying.

The only thing I’m not letting slide is the job hunting. I physically can’t do any more than I’m doing. I know it’s early days, but no-one is beating a path to my door at the moment and this is worrying. There is a deadline to get work before me and my family have some seriously life changing (not in a good way) decsicions to make.

But this shouldn’t be affecting my food or excercise. What is the matter with me? As I’ve said before I’m certain this is a sympton of some sort of eating/lethargy mental illness. Here I am starting to do negative stuff to myself, in full knowledge I shouldn’t be doing it and yet I still am.

Get a fucking grip you twat!

A week has now passed since I became surplus to requirements.

My mate successfully finished the job in the kitchen yesterday, but effectively cost me a whole day. Bless him he can talk! What should have been a 30 minute job turned, as I knew it would, into a 4 hour reminisce.

It’s wee weeing down today here in Hagley so it’ll be a day in chasing jobs via phone and the internet.

Bit of a change in plan, no pedal today, everything is loaded prepped and ready to go though.

But I have my mate coming today round to do some work on the kitchen that he started the week before everything went Pete Tong.

I have already had a little pedal though, Dan to school on the bikes dodging the WAGS in their Chelsea Tractors.

Weather is pants today, I’ll be out with the family & Hounds for a local bimble soon.

It feels funny, to quote the Late Great Douglas Adams, “The long, dark teatime of the Soul” approaches and I am not dreading it. That’d be lack of work tomorrow then.

Not that the lack of work (money) isn’t filling me with a different trepidation…

Boy did I steam into the job hunting yesterday, I’ve a massive list of every agency I spoke to, every job I applied for and all of my contacts who I chased.

Why would I keep a list?

Well apart from an ability to keep track of where I am with the hunt, it is a requirement of the Job Seekers allowance benefit (Dole) to prove you are actively seeking work.

You have to do a minimum of 3 things a week to look for work. They say look at the local paper, look on the jobsite at DirectGov.com, or phone an agency etc.

The record sheet they have given me to prove my job hunting intent is now nearly full of things I’ve done. Which to be fair is irrelevant as they have told me they’ll take your word for it anyway and not check any of it! Bizzare!

My head was spinning with it yesterday so Wifey has ordered me to take a couple of days out next week for some me time. Who am I to argue with Wifey?

I’ll do a map recce today and look for a new route to do on Monday or Tuesday. I enjoy map recces almost as much as the actual pedal!

More looking for work admin,  Rock and Roll.

After signing on yesterday, did the registering on the Job Sites thing.

I’ve taken Dan to school on the bikes and now into some house admin and general chasing around. I’ll get my road bike cleaned too.

I’m not usually given to foresight and unusually correct type predictions, to use a Rugby cliche, I tend to play what’s in front me and not worry or think too much of what lies ahead of that.

But yesterday’s post about work and not liking it and having a “reassessment” could not have been more prescient.

I got in as usual around 0545hrs, did my usual ablute then started work after my usual quick post commute blog.

Then at 0900hrs my Panasonic equivalent rocked up from Cardiff as expected, promptly took me into the meeting room and told me my role was being absorbed into the Panasonic behemoth and my services were no longer required. He emphasised this was not performance related then told me to leave site immediately.

I said my goodbyes to my colleagues of 10 years, grabbed my kit into a box, threw it into a colleagues car along with my bike and was given a lift home.

That was it, 10 years of my life over without so much as a thank you, not that I expected one.

I actually think my friends there were more shocked than me, I was the busiest bloke there and had more work than I could handle. I am sure it made the other people there very nervous as to their eventual fate in their new Panasonic family.

But onwards and upwards, this has given me pause to think about my future (after signing on again today), I was certainly not happy with the way our once small friendly family firm was changing into a ruthless friendless intimidated faceless monster.

Management by intimidation seems to be the norm these days, although my immediate Panasonic Peers were very nice helpful people, they were clearly working their days away in abject fear of their big bosses. That wasn’t for me and I could not have seen me standing for it. I feel I would have left eventually anyway in an atmosphere like that.

So watch this space Gentle Reader.