Did a bit of Belbin checking - I'm a monitor/evaluator. Then got everything ready for the debrief - I'll be a bit regretful to have finished this current project - it was quick and intensive. I've learned a lot. But, more to the point, I'm off for a whole week on Monday! If things go well, I'll spend a day in Glasgow, mostly queueing for a passport, but I'm sure I can manage to have a bit of fun as well. Got to go swimming tonight, don't really want to, but the fortnight of sumptuous meals is beginning to mean that a bit of exercise is not so much a luxury as a downright necessity!
posted by Dovya R at 8:08 PM : link

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It was on Sky TV last night - terrestial viewers will have to wait until 2 November, apparently. Also, the video footage of Matilda getting mangled and the ref bot getting squashed were edited out. Pity. But Typhoon behaved well, spinning immaculately. I was delighted to see that of the two air cadet operators, one was a girl (half that corps are female, so it's fair enough). Craig Charles was wearing an over the top western type jacket with fringes so long that I don't know what, and tried a bit of heavy gallantry with the girl - and, again to my delight, she was perfectly civil to him, but conveyed (at least to me, a rather biased spectator) that she thought he was way over the hill and should be tottering towards retirement as soon as possible.
posted by Dovya R at 10:48 PM : link

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Tired ... but on holiday next week. Did some research on Singapore Airlines, the subject of my case study. Also went into a video conference and was amused to find that the first thing I did was smooth down my hair and turn to show my best side ... as if anyone cared!
posted by Dovya R at 7:08 PM : link

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Well, it went well. Got them laughing, got applause at the end. However, prettifying the presentation and getting it all together took the best part of Tuesday. I simply pushed my work aside when I came in and concentrated on the presentation. Now all I have to do is rearrange the text a bit to produce a formal report and then it's off to get the research done for quality measurements, the next treat.
posted by Dovya R at 10:19 PM : link

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Rain, rain, rain and rain. And cleaning out (mercifully long disused) gents urinals is not how I get my kicks on a Sunday afternoon. There was a cleaning bee - charming name for a lot of unpleasant work. I went armed with cleaning materials and rubber gloves and lots of large black plastic bags for rubbish. Emptied a box room (the ex-gents), cleaned it (floor, walls, tiles, toilet, washbasin), sat on various blocks of wood which were being sawed to stabilise them, measured up more wood to be made into freestanding containers and realised that since all this had taken 2.5 hours, I was free to go home. So went home and slept. This, of course, has irritating results for my knowledge management study which is being pushed into the last minute - again. I decided that this year I'd pace myself better
posted by Dovya R at 7:35 AM : link

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Jeans for Genes day. Interesting. When sitting at a desk, everyone looked normal - formal suits. When they stood up, there were battered, comfortable, tattered jeans - not. I forgot about it completely, and wore the same suit I normally wear on Fridays, which is traditionally a casual day (short black suit, embroidered with tiny pink flowers).

Went to chocolate soup, which is traditionally where I meet Rab on Friday afternoons, then he goes off with his friends. I was five minutes late; he thought the rendezvous was 30 minutes early; so when we caught up with each other (much later that evening), we were mutually reproachful. Anyway, I sat down to have a cup of soup, seeing as I was there, and someone came up to me to say that, actually, she was sitting at that table. I said ok, fine by me. She hesitated and said she was with someone else. I said, ok, there are three other seats at the table. She hesitated and went off to another table. I was left feeling I'd been rude.

Am worried about my presentation. The material I've prepared is on quality information systems; the rest of the team have prepared material on knowledge management. I knew absolutely nothing about knowledge management until I started reading the papers earlier this evening. Now I have to think really hard about this, when I'd rather be on the web, and drinking an orange Barcadi Breezer.

posted by Dovya R at 12:44 AM : link

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