Aha!!!

Its a nice morning so maybe I will finally get that bloomin hedge chopped down a bit. think I will make a start on it when I get back from taking the lovely G to the station for the 7.38 to Edinburgh.............

Listening to............Thin Lizzie, Dancing in the Moonlight

Switzerland 2009

Hi there blog

As promised some photos of our recent holiday in Switzerland. we stayed with G's aunt and uncle near Schaffhausen but did a fair bit of travel as we had passes for free travel on trains, buses, boats and cable cars. These are just some memories........

Listening to........ Polo Hoffer..... Giggerich

No Surprise.......

Oh aye, I never gave you the update on my appeal.

As forecast the original decision was upheld as right and fair.

ARE YOU JOKING.......DONT YOU SPEAK ENGLISH........DID YOU ACTUALLY LISTEN TO A BLOODY WORD I SAID?

Well of course they must have. And they are entitled to make their own decision. So the company is acting in a fair and reasonable way making you redundant when they dont consult with you about the situation or the process, when they brief you on what will happen not consult about the situation, when they arrange meetings and dont advise you to have representation and when they tell you on day one of the consultation that you are out of a job and two days later give you a formal letter saying there are risks of redundancy. And its also fair not to tell you what the selection criteria is or how it is scored and to put into your selection form that you have delivered your role below average but are still a green performer. And obviously its fair to use a dept team ranking that has allegedly been put together by 5 managers, 3 of whom have never been in any of your projects, or any of your colleagues, or to retain two staff who have never yet delivered a project on their own, or to deny that geography is a factor and yet retain a perfect geographical split. And its highly reasonable when they say they have consulted with representatives but wont advise who the representatives are or the content of the consultation.

I'm glad they think thats reasonable. My lawyer thinks I have a reasonable case too. so I now have to appeal the appeal and go through it all again with yet another suit from the company who will no doubt regurgitate the same corporate platitudes and the same old decision. I cant tell you how frustrating that is. I can't believe either that I have spent 32 years of my bloody life working for a shower like that. Thats multi national corporations for you I guess.

I am not lying down on this. I have always trusted my instincts and judgement and I wont be treated in this way, being swatted like an annoying little flea.

So I will go on with the appeals charade while I lodge the tribunal claim.

AAARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Listening to - the sound of blood pumping in my ears!!!!

A blustery day.

Been on my own today: the lovely G at work and out in the evening and the weather has been dour. Cold and wet with the rain driven across the garden by a strong wind. The skies have been sullen, dark grey and the day has seemed like one long cold evening. When I was young and living on the west coast I would have called it "dreich" and pronounced it "dreech" with the ch like in loch.
I had planned to be out in the garden almost all day. The hedges at front and back of the house have been left so long they are almost out of control and I am going to have to be ruthless when cutting them back. My fault of course, I have left them too long. My excuse was that there were several nests in the hedges, sparrows, blackbirds and a beautiful thrush with its ermine chest, and I wanted to wait until all the eggs had hatched and the chicks were properly fledged and away. I should in all honesty have done it before we went on holiday but of course I didn't and by the time we came back it had become a daunting task.
The front hedge is about 30m long and about 2m high and 1m deep, the back about half the length but almost another metre high. So I have been procastinating, prioritising other easier jobs ahead of it and now on the day I had cleared the decks to get it done I am forced to sit inside and look at them from the window, the wind pushing them to and fro as if showing me again how big the job is going to be. Its not nice to be mocked by a hedge you know. Not funny. The wind almost cracks as it whips across the patio doors in the kitchen where I am sitting just now. It sounds like thunder at times.
In an hour and a half I will be at the local station to pick up G, who has already sent me a text to say she is a bit squiffy thanks to the cocktails she and her pals have downed. It doesnt feel like a cocktail day to me though. This is a day for a whisky. Or rather this is a day for a malt, maybe a nice soft speyside to warm the mouth and stoke the inner furnace a little, or a nice salty iodine rich Islay malt like Ardbeg or Bruichladdich with the tang of the sea and echoes of cold nights kept at arms length by a good fire and a comfy chair. I'm out of my personal favourite Talisker at the moment with its peat rich scent,sharply tangy bite in the throat and its long spicy finish so I think it will be a speyside. Islay malts seem too much like a concession to winter for this time of the year, at least in my present mood this evening.
Ach, thats the phone. Back in a mo............

G has called to say she is on her way to the station in Edinburgh. She has had a couple of nice cocktails based on one of her favourite drinks. Krupnik is a Polish vodka flavoured with honey and she has just described a Krupnik and pear cocktail and another honey and cinammon concoction, so I suppose I can see at least the latter being ok for a night like this although she says that in Edinburgh even though its raining its warm and there isn't a bit of wind with the flags all hanging limp on the flagpoles. What a difference a few miles makes eh?

I haven't eaten since lunchtime when I decided to have the lamb curry I had made last night and boxed up into the fridge. It felt like the right thing for today but I didn't bother with rice, just a small supermarket naan bread that I found at the bottom of the freezer and heated in the oven to use to soak up the spicy meaty juices at the bottom of the dish. Nothing special, just lamb and loads of onions cooked slowly until it was all meltingly tender and dark with spice and heat. It certainly hit the spot but was more than I would normally have for lunch so it has been enough for the rest of the day, especially since it rendered me comatose for a snoozable post lunchtime hour and the fact that I have been a completely lazy git today.

Now though I'm looking forward to G coming home, a nice cuddle and the malt that has been teasing my tastebuds memory for the last couple of hours or so.

listening to............. Evanescence, Tourniquet

see you later..............

The appeal

Hi there ma wee blog.

Today I attended my appeal hearing for my claim of unfair dismissal. I claim that my redundancy was unfair due to an unfair selection process and also seperately that the normal stated company process for making people redundant wasn't followed properly.

So today I got to sit down with one of the company directors and lay out my case in detail. I started talking at 9am and stopped at 11.50am. I got what I wanted: to sit down with the company and explain exactly what I feel they got wrong. To show and explain the evidence I believe supports my case and to be questioned about what I believe should have happened. I took my time, and carefully went over everything I had prepared and at the end of it the director thought that there as enough concerns to go and speak to the people involved in the process to check my claims. So the hearing is adjourned and we will reconvene next week when I will get to hear what they have to say and continue arguing my case. Then once the discussion is over I should get a decision from the company whether they believe I am correct in what I say and what they are prepared to do about it.

They can do several things I suppose: offer me my job or an alternative job back, buy me off or tell me I'm wrong and to go away, in which case I will then take them to an unfair dismissal tribunal to get an independant decision on the case.

But for now I'm content. I got to get someone senior from the company in front of me and I got to tell him exactly how I feel about the way I have been treated and what I feel has been done wrong and to explain exactly how I feel it should have been handled. It felt great. It was cathartic. It was healing and it was bloody long overdue. So, I made the most of it. I said exactly what I had prepared, what it feels like to be done over in such a shoddy underhand way and to have your livelihood taken away from you in a moment. I cant forecast what result I will get out of it but my expectations are low and I told him that. If I have already been treated in an unfair way and the appeal is part of the same process, why should I feel that this will be any different. He seemed shocked that I felt that way but why shouldn't I. What are the chances of him bucking back against the company with all the corporate ramifications for similar situations in the future? Not bloody much I would say. Not unless he absolutely has to.

For now its enough. Lets let it play out and see how it falls.

As one of my heroes would say " The game is afoot!"

Track of the day "Flowerdale" by Philip Spark.

Oh by the way. If you're interested go to you tube and look up ' great cornet solo' and look for Flowerdale by Philip Spark to hear a beautiful rendering of the solo by Yorkshire Building Society Band.

The picture is of the inside of Lincoln Cathedral. Its near where Dad was based in the war and was held in great affection by him and others of Bomber Command. Its an enormous landmark and he always said he felt safe when he could see it again.

see you soon..........

So long Paw and thanks for all the fish!

Hi there my wee blog. Not posted for a bit. Been away for a couple of weeks on holiday in Switzerland. Great to see the extended family again, to leave our cares and woes behind for a while and to see the lovely G unwind and step back into speaking the language again.
What a magical place it is. Once more we can come back with hearts full of memories and smiles and our batteries charged for another dose of real life. We did lots of travelling with our pre paid travel passes which meant free travel on trains, trams, buses and boats and most of the cable cars too.

I'll post some photos of the holiday soon but today my heart is full of thoughts of Mum and Dad as my side of the family got together yesterday to scatter their ashes. Dad died a couple of months ago aged 83 and we hadn't yet, for many reasons, let go of Mums ashes after she died nearly 2 years ago. Uncle Bill, Dads twin, had come up from down south to stay with Aunt Helen, the youngest sister, for a short holiday and therefore we thought it would be right to bring forward the tentative arrangements my brother Gordon and I had made so that Uncle Bill could play a part too. Dads older sister May was 86 yesterday but is too frail to make he journey from Moray.

As per Mum and Dads' wishes we took half of their ashes and scattered them at Glen Trool in the spot where for many years they went with their caravan. The campsite, next to Loch Trool has been closed for a few years now but we were all able to all get to the spot. No mean feat for Aunt Helen who is 80 or Uncle Bill at 83. So at their spot we scattered their ashes which we had mixed together and gave a short prayer of thanks. Then we walked down to the side of the loch to their favourite spot which they would visit every evening, weather permitting. Its the site of a fallen tree, down more than 30 years now, where the uprooted base and the fallen corpse of the tree have managed to survive and also to throw out new growth, with new branches sprouting out vertically from the prone position of the main tree. Its a lovely spot, right next to the edge of the loch.

{ Dad would have said "at the water lip" with the A flattened to sound like "waa-ter". God I miss his voice! Thinking of how he would have said that made me hear him just now } and the view is quite serene, quite lovely. We took a few photos, or rather Aunt Helen did as she was the only one who thought to bring a camera.

After a while, and having been fiercely attacked by the famed Scottish 'midges' we moved on and prepared to release the rest of Dads ashes. { We are keeping the remaining portion of Mums so that her last surviving sister can be with us when we scatter her final portion of ashes over her Mum and Dads grave}

We drove for an hour back towards home, and stopped for a family dinner at the Hollybush inn, which was one of Dads favourite restaurants. The meal as usual was great and after dinner we drove the last few miles to Gadgirth at Annbank, where Bill and Dad, and indeed the rest of the siblings, had been born and brought up. The twins had always been fascinated by water, prompted no doubt by the river which flowed at the back of the row of four 'room and kitchen' houses. So it was to the bridge at Gadgirth that we went to scatter the last of the ashes.

We went down to the side of the water where uncle Bill said a short prayer and we put the ashes into the water. A grey smudge floated off downstream, and as this happened I noticed the dust which the air had caught was going upstream. As I watched it go, low over the water I felt peaceful, as if I was getting a visual message that as the body goes in one direction the spirit is free to go in another.

Daft I know, but it felt comforting.

I looked back at the spot where the ashes had been tipped in and I saw that there was a lot of ash lying on the river bed and again, I felt comforted as if I was being shown that part of Paw would always be there on that bend of the river he knew so well, and in the very spot where Bill and he often played as kids. I looked back upstream for the small cloud of dust but it had disappeared.

It felt good, and I smiled.

There were of course a few tears shed among us but in a few moments we had begun to reminisce about Paw and his early days here on the water, living at Gadgirth and working at Crawfordson, the local farm. The boys had done this from age about 11 or so and continued to do work for the farm for several years being paid in kind by the farmer. No doubt what they brought home helped the family survive and it also gave them a taste of work and in both of them, a life long respect for nature and farming. Uncle Bill shared a few stories and quite naturally I began to look about the shingle beach on the rivers edge and picked a stone to skim over the water. Soon we were all looking for stones and had a great time and a good laugh for 5 or 10 minutes as we skimmed stones just like the boys had done there so many years before. I'm sure anyone passing would have thought we were daft. 6 grown ups between the ages of 40 and 83 skimming stones, shouting and laughing like loons in the evening sun. It was a good end.

All too soon G and I had to leave as we had a 2 hour drive back across country. G had a headache and was soon asleep in the car which left me to think of Paw as I drove home past so many of the places connected with him. The evening light was stunning and the journey seemed like minutes instead of hours. I found myself looking around as I drove in absolute awe of the beauty that lay all around on the journey back home. Even Glasgow, which only Weegies can surely think of as beautiful made me look and appreciate that it may not be the dour dismal place I always feel it to be.

Maybe Paw was a passenger too, he always made me look at things differently.

So long Paw, and thanks for all the fish......................

"Though your soul may set in darkness

it will rise in perfect light

For you loved the stars too fondly

To be anxious of the night. "

All in all, a good day.

Listening to........ Horse, " The first time ever I saw your face"

The photos are of operation Manna - a food drop into Nazi occupied Holland in April 1945. Dad, who was a tail gunner in a Lancaster, took part in this and was so proud to have been able to drop life rather than destruction out of the plane. In one of the quirks of life, one of the people in the Hague who watched the lancasters flying in very slowly and at zero feet to drop the food and who ran to gather it would become the father of a boy who in turn would become a university chum of my older brother and this earlier connection would only be discovered when the two fathers met in the 1970's several years after their sons had become firm friends.

see you soon...........................

Technical problems and an appeal

Hullo ma wee blog,

I have been off line due a computer problem. I was listening to the radio on BBC i- player the other morning when the player just packed in, followed a split second later by the whole laptop shutting down, and when I tried to restart it I got the lights coming on and then another shutdown. This repeated every time I tried to start up and it took me a couple of days to get the numbers and info for the help desk, but once I eventually managed to get a hold of them, I was up and running again in a couple of minutes. Thanks to the guys at the help desk for that!

So, what else has been happening. Well, I have decided to appeal against my redundancy. I have used the company appeal process as I was within the window of opportunity to use that but I have also been speaking to a solicitor, funded by the redundancy insurance, to assess the strength of my case, should I need to go beyond the appeal and take my case to an industrial tribunal.

I received confirmation that a solicitor had been appointed by the insurance company yesterday and the lovely G, who knows about these things through her work in Edinburgh, says that the firm appointed is the top dog firm for employment law in Edinburgh. She was well impressed with the insurance company as it must be costing an arm and a leg. Her company wont use these guys as they cant afford them. I must say it makes me feel much better knowing that I will have some credible back up and not some little back street operator who is not going to do the business for me.

I am waiting confirmation from them that they have had a chance to look over the documentation I sent them, and they accept the grounds for my appeal, which is that a fair and open process has not been followed, and that the selection criteria was again too subjective to be fair and open. _ I was part of a team of 30 people that have been treated in 3 different ways at one time - some were taken to the office and told they were being made redundant and should go home and not come back to work. They were given some extra cash to sign an agreement giving up their right to appeal. Some, me included, were taken elsewhere and seen one to one and told we were being made redundant but the company would try to redeploy as we had skills and experience they wanted to keep and the rest were all seen together and told that everyone else was out but they were safe. As we were a high performing team, we were pretty much all green performers so I feel there should have been a transparent means of selection. We should all have been displaced and told what was happening, what the criteria was and the selection criteria applied and then made redundant accordingly. My selection criteria comments when I saw them are basically a concoction of one person written to read in a particular way. I feel I can disprove more than half of them and argue against most of the rest. I'm gutted to have to do this after 30 years working for the company, but if they think I'm just going to roll over and take it without a fight they can think again.

I don't know what I will get out of it as the redundancy is pretty much the max any tribunal can award, but I am not prepared to be treated dishonestly by one person in the company and I'm pissed off that the company don't have any checks or balances in place to make sure its all above board. Ach, at the end of it I know that the company is only interested in getting the numbers down to the wanted levels as fast as possible and they are willing to wait and see what kind of issues pop out of the woodwork, and if nothing does, so much the better.

What I want to achieve is making them agree that its all been a badly managed load of bollocks process and they cant prove their comments in the selection criteria. I hope that rather than go to tribunal they will make a further cash offer to boost the redundancy fund. What I don't want is to be offered my job back as I know I couldn't go back and work for someone who clearly doesn't want me to be part of his team and is prepared to lie to get what he wants. I need to be able to score a line under this and walk away with my head high.

If anyone reads this, take one thing from it. Redundancy insurance might be expensive but its an absolute life saver in a situation like this. G and I would be in a hell of a different place if we didn't have it. No matter how good a redundancy package is, the money will soon go if you have mortgage, credit card bills etc coming out of it every month. As it is the money from the insurance will more than cover all of the bills so I can take time,especially now when there are not so many good jobs around, to find a job that will give us the money again that we need and more importantly, that I really want to do.

I feel better having got this off my chest tonight.

Listening to...........Sting, "Englishman in New York"

See you later................

Guess we'll find out one way or the other shortly