Off to sunnier climes

Yeh, right. Sunny climes, that'll be England alright. Anyway, I'll be sure to have my sunglasses ready for the dazzling sun as me and junior land in Heathrow later today. Yep, a lads weekender (actually just over 3 weeks), the boys are off to hunt while the women stay at home. I'm going to be checking things out a little bit to see if Blighty is still worth the effort. Not sure this is the right time of the year to be doing this, but timing-wise, everything has fallen into place at the Israel end (give or take a botch job by the Ministry of Interior's amazingly crap online passport service, which managed to postpone this trip by a week or two), so...

Going to miss juniorette like crazy, maybe even the missus, but also looking forward to some time away from the Holy Land. Should help me sort my head out, maybe once and for all. Either that or it's a labotomy.

So take care me lovelies, I'll probably be tweeting and igoogling quite a bit, so if you get lonely over here you know where to find me...

Waltzing Bashilda

Managed to squeeze a viewing of Waltz with Bashir into my busy schedule today. A great movie, and considering I don't usually enjoy Israeli movies, that's a big compliment. I loved the animation, the soundtrack, the story. Not a surprise that this has won a Golden Globe already and is tipped for Oscar stardom. Go see.

Isn't this supposed to be pink?

So got my dismissal papers on Thursday. I was extremely disappointed that they weren't pink, as sayeth the legend. But, of course, not exactly unexpected. I even had a "hearing" where I got to say what I wanted. I didn't dish the dirt too heavily, but threw a barb or two at my immediate boss. And if my immediate boss thinks I really give a shit about his hard times (oh dear, you've been demoted to 60%), he really hasn't learnt a thing about me over the last year and a bit. And fuck those illusions of solidarity - who are you trying to kid? I know he shmoozed and bullshitted his way into keeping some sort of a position at Open Spacey because it's waaaaay too comfortable for him to give up...and I also know that he's totally looking out for himself in other ways, fuck the underlings...

Anyway, I'm just waiting for my passport from the Israeli Ministry of Interior to arrive and then me and junior are off to Blighty for some footie and chocolate and beer. And to check a few things out. But more of that later. In the meantime, it's down the gym again and again, footie on the TV, beer...oh dear, I can sense a pattern forming!

Gooners in training...

"Don't worry bruv. It's all gonna come good, promise! And so what if we don't win anything for a few years? Just 5 more years and you'll be legible for the schoolboys innit, and we've all seen you volley my Dora dolly behind the sofa countless times, so, come on bruv, keep it together... Hang on, what's that in your ear? Bamba? Daddy? Daddy, I want Bamba! Dadddddy, I want Bambaaaaa!"

And now, the time has come...

So, the credit crunch has come to roost round my way. Kind of indirectly, but in the last few days, very expected.

After rumours spread by washerwomen (largely my direct boss, the rumour mongerer supreme) that Open Spacey was about to go belly up, a hastily arranged meeting yesterday surprised most of us. The company was selling out to an American company with much deeper pockets, but, unfortunately a few people were probably not needed. Namely the Technical Writing department, me and my boss, plus maybe another one or two.

Another meeting today, filled with ultimate management speak bullshit, informed me that my chances of staying employed with this new company are 60-40 against. Now, I'm no manager, but isn't that one hell of a pep talk! Keeping me motivated to the very last...fuck 'em.

I'm not upset by this move although I was hoping I'd still have a job for the next 2-3 months while I head over to England for a quick trip. But I'm amazingly positive, the missus was a bit shocked when I told her last night but soon saw that everything will work out.

If it does mean the end, which I'm entirely convinced it does, I'm sure something else will turn up. I also have the school where I can take over more teaching, a semi-regular freelance gig etc. Let's face it, there are people in far worse situations than mine.

Viva la anglosaxy!

Twittering on

Wow, was that really my first beer of 2009 this afternoon? Holy Moses...

So, in my attempts at taking over the Inter world, I've gone and got twittered. I'm not sure of the benefits and have a feeling it's just another time waster, but it's one of those tools that you have to try, especially if you're trying to get the word out on the Web. Quite interesting that you can come across the tweets of people like John Cleese and Jonathan Ross (presuming they're kosher, innit).

So, if any of you out there are twittering on and feel like following my escapades, feel free to click on the Twitter icon below. I promise to reciprocate. Maybe.