Right…ramble time! Let me clue you in about all the latest recent events round here on my adventure.
Firstly, work wise and the BigBoss visit: he came, he saw, he conquered. He kicked off his visit by having one-on-one’s with every person here. Shortly after this my friend FatCat resigned. I don’t know how that chat went for it to have that kind of outcome, but I know FatCat’s not been a happy camper for a while now…it wasn’t that much of a surprise. My own one-on-one was relatively painless. I came in, Sparrow and BigBoss were talking amongst themselves about nothing in particular, then they said what they expected of me in future and asked me if I could do it. I said yes, then BigBoss said that I looked kind of nervous. So I answered that I was, however it was the good kind of nervous, and that I realise things had to change and I was ready for change. I could tell that he liked that a lot. So he said that both him and Sparrow felt that I could do it and believed in me and sent me on my way. It was actually a pretty nice chat to be honest - no complaints out of me. 
The next thing he did was rearrange the entire office. From the training we received when we just started I recognise this as a sign of dominance being shown to Sparrow (who did not seem to fussed one way or another…I still think there’s more to this attitude than meets the eye…wtf are you up to lil Sparrow?).
For the rest of the week the BigBoss then showed “special interest” to individual members of the team in turn, some flourishing under it and some wilting under it. We got through it more or less intact, one team member down, one sent home for the day on Friday for an attitude adjustment, one’s email access blocked indefinitely for abuse, and a couple driven to tears or very close to tears during in three days. He’s only leaving on Wednesday and some predict another 1-3 resignations before then. End of June to mid-July Sparrow is off to the Ukraine to go reaffirm his marriage before his Russian in-laws and while he’s gone BigBoss will be ruling the roost. Sparrow joked that he’ll probably come back to an entirely different team altogether! Not really a joking matter, is it? That’s is my f-ing team he’s talking about! I told him I might go too, but I will NOT resign so they’ll have to fire me if they want to get rid of me. Sparrow said we’ll see and started giggling like a schoolgirl. I’ve been through plenty, there is no way that he BiggBoss can crack me in three weeks… nuh-uh! 
(I’ve survived, and at times flourished, in environments much more corporate than this for more than 10 years, three weeks is not enough to crack me I assure you…it does not matter who’s trying).
On Friday I had to make an exception to the exam-no-drinking rule for my team. We took BigBoss to ol’ Buckley’s (the regular Friday haunt of the team) - I swear the barman was just about ready to greet us with tears in his eyes (we’re big spenders and good tippers and we’ve been gone for the last three weeks!). There was ceremony and drinks being bought because of a contest we had at work on Friday - which BigBoss and Sparrow threw with some pretty bizarre point deductions in my team’s favour. It’s a victory I suppose but it would have felt more so if we got it without the weird deductions from the other team’s points! Also, we were playing with one less team member than the other team cause she got sent home (see previous paragraph). ET had to buy me a beer and say some fairly embarrassing stuff as part of the ceremony, which she did like a real trooper! Looks like this will be a weekly thing now and I suspect that at some point in the near future it will be my turn to do the same for her cause she is on fire when it comes to dealing. I’d rather be in her team than against her to be honest, but we don’t always get to pick do we?
We introduced BigBoss to Buckets and got him completely trashed. 
Last time he was here we did it using Buffalo Rules. He says he’s been trying to implement Buffalo in the UK but no one’s having any part in it. Wait till he shows them Buckets! As far as the rules of Buffalo go, it seems that three weeks is just long enough for some people to forget MONTHS of training…two silly buggers ended up having to down Fishbowls and the new girl had to down more than 6 different drinks for Acceptance - all handed to her by the same culprit. ATM was having a blast taking advantage of her trusting nature, shame, poor lamb.
Right…that more or less covers work for the time being (I told you this was going to be a long ramble when I got round to it, didn’t I?).
Home… there are some interesting developments here. Alexander is busy busy busy with the burglar proofing and it should be done some time this week - whoohooo! Snails have infested the garden and one has even infested my bonsai garden…cheeky git! I’ll have none of that…it’s going to relocated to the other side of the fence tomorrow. I don’t care if they chomp the rest of the garden down to twigs but they better stay out of my bonsai garden and my orchids!
The other house-mate, will in future be known as TheLocust. The boy doesn’t seem to be firing on all cylinders at the moment. He’s owes almost every person he knows some cash and we never see him except maybe once a week or so when he swoops in to eat everything that’s not nailed down, tries to borrow more money and the buggers off again. He often gets seen on these once a week drop-ins with some fairly questionable characters, so I’m locking my bedroom door on a semi-permanent basis now. According to Alexander there [may/may not], be a very strong possibility that he’s developed an expensive habit of the sniffing variety. If this is the case I am very sad about it, and I hope he hits bottom soon so that he can turn this shit around. He’s decided that the best way for him to get out of the hole he’s in was to resign from his work and spend his days marketing products and services that no one’s ever heard of before. I don’t know if he’s aware of it but he is rapidly heading for a very unpleasant intervention if he does not start pulling his weight round here.
Mind, body and soul…all present and accounted for. I’m slowly but surely implementing the keys from that book I was telling you about. The first one about spending an hour a day by myself is working just great - makes me feel really calm and centred even when all hell breaks loose round me. The second one about the 5 hours of exercise a week is still taking some getting use to. I have to fit most of than in over weekends because it’s dark when I leave and get back here during the week. The third one is about eating food that is alive and healthy, I feel somewhat like a bunny from all the salad and fruits I’ve been munching this week. Also, can I just say how much I LOVE balsamic vinegar! The fourth one is about constant learning - you’re meant to read at least half an hour of inspirational and constructive stuff a day, I’m up to my ears in that so it’s more a case of limiting myself to half an hour a day - so I can check that off no problem. Next week I’ll implement another two…so far so good.
Studies and exams…two down and four to go. I’m making no predictions whatsoever about the outcomes. I am happy to say that I won’t have to reschedule any of them to go to the UK for training - the company is letting me finish writing first before I go. My next exam is on Wednesday so I suppose now would be a good time to wrap this up and get back to the books, right?
Hope you all have a kick-ass week ahead! Whatever you’re doing - do it with pride, energy, enthusiasm and passion!
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