Sad Saturday

Following such a good beginning to the long Easter weekend and celebrations, a firm dampner was put on the whole weekend when one of my choir suddenly passed away. Tony was singing with the choir for the first time, although he had been a friend for a number of years. Larger than life, very generous and always a shade from the edge of risquee, Tony had his own strong personality and we shall all miss him a great deal.

Rest In Peace, Tony.

Good Friday

Every year on Good Friday I take a number of singers to St John Timberhill, Norwich to sing the Passion and Veneration of the Cross. The choir comes together about four or five times a year to sing for services, usually at St Giles-on-the-Hill, Norwich and have become known as the St Giles Singers. This year I was lucky to have four singers (out of the fourteen this year) who had not sung in this service before. I'm not putting all the credit to them, but this year's service was the best we have sung over the six or so years that I have been associated with it (first as singer, then as conductor). It was, indeed, a Good Friday.

Twit, twit, t - who?

Since my last post (hmm again some gap) I have been twittering.
When I started, I thought I'd just let any Tom, Dick or Harry see what I was writing. As time went on, the only people who seemed to want to follow me seemed to want me to look at their tweets and, well, buy something. They were commercial organisations using Twitter as a way of reaching - well - anybody really. I didn't buy anything, turned my twitter account into a private one so prospective followers would need my permission. All went quiet, except that I managed to keep on follower whose identity is completely blank, so I put this down to being a system bug. Well, as an IT professional, of course I would.
Then last week I had two new prospective followers. A BBC Norfolk journalist and a Norfolk hospital. Spot the link? Yes, my resume does say I am in Norfolk, but I think it must be hard to track down information like that at random. My link to a Norwich church seems relevant, but to a hospital?
I'm therefore not sure what makes people - or organisations - try to track people down on Twitter.
I'll still carry on twittering, however!

Hmm ... some missing time

Isn't it odd the way time flies by? I used to have a saying (which I am sure that I stole from somewhere else) that "time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana". Well, I still find this funny. And true. Although I was truly shocked to find how long it was since I last wrote in this blog. Especially now (checks around the corner) I have started Twittering (follow me at here). Well, I now plan to do better. And as I look at my original description and the reason why I would "spend" time here, it becomes more true - next year is my last with the Open University as an undergraduate - I should achieve my BSc (to add to my non-online university BA degree). But what next?

So now they know

... and I should have anticipated the concerns and questions over another layer of management which, to be honest, is really only a means to an end. Anyway, tomorrow the fun starts - I can start doing something!

Tomorrow's the day

Now keep up!

I've got a new job and can't tell anyone because my new team haven't been told. Well, today the current manager of my new team was told and tomorrow, I'll be greatly surprised if he doesn't tell the rest of them. But I still have to wait for my boss (or even his boss) to issue an official notification to make sure that we have done things the "right way".

Still, on the other hand, I didn't want to wander over to the new team (those in the UK, that is) and simply say "Oh, by the way, I'm your new boss". It doesn't quite seem to ring true.

So despite my keenness to get on with things, I am still going to hang back and wait for the official announcement.

... and tomorrow is the day that it should be made.

WWHHOOOOHHAAYY!!

Long day - new job

Yesterday I had a long day.

Up at 04:30, leaving home at 05:15 in order to go to York, where I was offered a new job.

I must comment that I had not applied for a new job, but a new opportunity arose in my team because some additional responsibilities had been brought into the team - needing a manager.

So from Monday I will no longer be a Release Manager, but a Test Environment Support Manager. Nether of these terms will mean much to anybody outside of the IT world, so when asked "what do you do?" I'm still simply an IT Manager. This still means that I manage people and not IT, but the people do different things with the IT.

Oh, and ssssshhhhhh - nobody is supposed to know until Monday, when my new team are told that they have a new manager !