I'm still here....

....though of course a lot of my energy this last week is being taken up with the continuing job saga.

This weeks developments and the presentation today of the job description for the role they would like to redeploy me to means I am now 99 to 100% certain that I am going to proceed with the personal grievance.

I have a final meeting next week with HR to advise them of my decision between the low status job offer or redundancy, and of course I am entitled to take a support person with me. I do wish I could take this lovely specimen with me.

I do want to say a HUGE thank you to all my friends on the ground here who have been helping and supporting me, and for the kind words of support from those in cyber land. I will of course blog with more detail once the legal process is underway.

Almost....but not quite

I've blogged before about the sanitising of Butch in the American media, and yes go and look at that link because it's got that image on it of a drool worthy specimen of butch.

The American media portrays Ellen de Generes as butch but in my world the response to that is, "I don't think so!". I have however just come across the image below, which, though I still don't class it as butch, is far enough into my specialist area of androgyny that I am almost swooning.

Now if Covergirl used images like that for their advertising campaign I could possibly ponder being swayed from my usual k.d.lang promoted M.A.C product.

Silver Lining

Of course totally focusing on the positives and also to prove I'm real woman, the current stress and ill health that has incurred means I am now at goal weight and still dropping. For any prospective dinner dates this means I will eat the full three courses, then probably want some truffles and liqueurs to finish off with.

Still no news on the "redundancy" as all the key players have been off site this week. I however have my first job interview tomorrow, and should hear next week on the other 2 positions I have applied for.

Positive chant, chant , chant.

Silence

Well advanced silence really, and the reason being that I am currently fighting for my job. Senior Management (aka The Bully) has decided my position is superfluous and is trying to dis establish my role. Which leaves me wondering why I regularly work over 50 hours a week, and 6 day weeks to manage events, generate lashings of revenue and return business, when apparently I am just not needed.

The whole process has been handled appallingly and in a manner that has created maximum humiliation for me.

I am currently waiting for a call from an employment lawyer to decide whether to proceed with a personal grievance claim, however in the meantime find myself fighting for a job in a place I now no longer want to be. I also find I am dealing with odd feelings of concern, knowing that my already overworked staff will somehow have to absorb all my workload into the 10 hour days thay already do.

I am reaching deep into the pool of positive affirmations and the strange hum you can hear is the constant chanting. I am also grateful that I am a waxer and not a shaver.

....almost forgot

With my bewilderment over the interconnection of friends, I forgot to say (skite, gloat, show off) that I broke the 10k mark on the road over the weekend.

Mapmyrun.com puts my route as 10.35k, the child says it's 12k, so I'm going in the middle and saying it's 11k. If I get a chance this coming extra long weekend I will drive it and see what the car odometer says.

Of course I am well pleased that I've passed a benchmark distance, and finally can see that the glittering prize of the half marathon is actually attainable.

Little Drummer Boy, I had a steroid shot into my shoulder yesterday, so hopefully in another week I should be back to my shoulder and bicep mission. I desperately need to, my biceps are fading, whimper.

Small Incestuous World

As I was pottering through my day yesterday I got some texts from SweetJane, was nice to chatter as it had been a few months. Later in the evening when I was clearing all those pesky facebook notifications from my email I thought I'd write on her wall to say nice chatting, and also to pointedly mention her Father and attempt to guilt her into getting her arse back down this end of the planet.

When I logged in and went to her page the first thing I saw was "SweetJane is now friends with International Lesbian". I immediately checked International Lesbians page and sure enough SweetJane is showing as a mutual friend. I am confused and very intrigued as to how they know each other, as the only people they have in common are myself and Ms Gotlucky.

SweetJane has been back home in the UK for around 6 to 7 years and I didn't meet International Lesbian until August year, and likewise it will be even longer since Ms Gotlucky has seen SweetJane and though she has known International Lesbian slightly longer than I, I still can't see any connection through there. (for those of you who are unfamiliar with Ms Gotlucky and International Lesbian, I can't be bothered linking, just use that little search box up the top left there to find the background story)

So I have messaged and emailed to find the answer, though I do think it's either just further proof of the small incestuous world we live in, or that hot women will naturally seek each other out. Hurry up and wake up HK and UK and switch ya bloody computers on.

Tax Cuts

I had forgotten about the new tax cuts, I guess I had just assumed that as they are usually so minuscule one barely notices them so I hadn't got excited about it at all.

I've just had a look at this weeks payslip and I now see that it is actually a noticeable amount, and works out to a six pack of my favourite beer and a game of pool.

On my current economy that equates to my weeks entertainment budget.

Quaking in Fear

The Cactus is in town again and of course we will catch up for all the off line gossip.

My liver is trembling in fear at the mere thought.

The Duffy Review

We had a great night, but the consensus overall was odd, very odd. Fabulous fabulous seats and well worth the exorbitant amounts of loot we paid as they were centre front, couldn't have been better.

Duffy's voice is amazing, the power of it is stunning, but the whole show came over as very odd, and it really was just Duffy singing the album and not a lot more. The sound problems during one song didn't help, and her strange outfit added to the oddness. She only really connected with the audience on the last track "Mercy" when she finally got people out of their seats, but then she is so young, working the crowd is still a work in progress. The show as it is really needs to performed in an intimate lounge bar environment to fully capture the feel.

I think a large contributing factor to the oddness was her band, who are all hot tight musicians but there was no feel, no vibe and came across as "yawn, here we go again". Plus the fact the the support act Nathan King was H..O..T.. and the vibe of their performance totally eclipsed that of the Duffy show. During their second to last tune the drummer had a "moment", the whole audience got the vibe, and it was so cool to see the band acknowledging that amongst themselves and saluting the drummer.

Post show discussion agreed that yes we'll see her again, but in 10 years time when her voice and performance have matured, but also we agreed that what would be good to see together would be the two Aimy's - Duffy and Winehouse - the black and white of new hot voices. I do think Duffy's show would have been far hotter had she had Winehouses band playing.

Bliss Overlaod # 2

After five and a half months of waiting it's finally Duffy day, bliss. And yes of course I've been gloating loudly to all and sundry over the intervening months about the proximity of my seats to the stage.

Mr Grumpy is not at work today either so all in all the day is shaping up well.