Penultimate Day

Tomorrow is my last day at work and today I had a presentation by the guys and was given a bottle of Glenfiddich malt whiskey (wonderful stuff). One of the contractors (the ex-marine) didn't seem to realise that a sort of thanks had to be given in return so I struggled to get it out while he prattled to one of the others. I brought in some boxes of mince pies and other tarts which were consumed throughout the day.

None of us did much today. Mostly preparing the factory for shutdown and no lines ran. What a drag. I did bring a load of my tools home to save time tomorrow.

The German engineers found a major problem with some of the computer hardware they are installing so the project will not get completed until next year after it is replaced.

A manager from one of the companies which does contract work for us came in and was shocked that I was being made redundant. He said he talks regularly to companies who complain about a shortage of engineers and took my details to pass on when he gets the chance. Maybe my xmas holiday will turn out to be shorter than I anticipate.

Nearly Xmas

Hope you like the elephant. Congrats to whoever did it but I still don't know who you are.

What a miserable place work is. Night shift has been called off and only a fraction of the normal production was produced today.(Grief, what poor English but you know what I mean).

I hardly did anything and can't really phone up the people I want to arrange job interviews with until I know when I'll finish. A German engineer arrives tomorrow to start up the line we have been upgrading so maybe if all goes well I will finish on Wednesday. The boss finishes on Wednesday so that's also a good clue. I also managed to get my hair cut on the way home tonight so I almost look human again, fit for a job interview anyway.

Our contract welder(ex Royal Marine) seems to relish playing Dueling Banjo's on his phone when in my presence. He'd made the comment that it wouldn't be played down Moss Side, to much hilarity from the others. I'm obviously missing something here because I saw the film Deliverance and enjoyed the tune, still do, and if I wanted to be stupid I'd be making comments about white rustic inbreds. Crazy or what?

Last Full Week

This was probably the last full week at my current company after nearly 6 years. I would guess that next week I will finish on Wednesday after spending Monday and Tuesday just tidying up and odd jobbing as the project nears completion. The main load will be on the electricians to finish the wiring. (There's a joke there somewhere).
The original planned 14 redundancies turned to 16 as the order book continues to collapse and I'm one of them. Of the 16 just one guy decided to appeal and the union shop steward went in to argue his case with management. He won the case and management therefore fired the next guy on their list. It was the shop steward. You just couldn't make this up could you.
I've applied for 3 jobs and registered with 3 agencies and they are all optimistic that that my skills are just what people want out there and promise me a job very quickly. We'll see.

4 Day Week!

Here's another of those brilliant pictures. Click on it to expand, its fabulous.

The recession has finally hit my company. It had to happen sometime as we are heavily linked to the car industry. In January we go on a four day week, which isn't so bad except that we will only get paid for 4 as well. Plus an extra 3 days xmas holiday without pay. Plus a few redundancies! Happy Xmas everyone.