Mortgage Free - so good they'll do it twice! Wynnvegas aiming for the big house

unhappy_shopper

Hi Billy,

Your designation - Group Head of Business Improvement and Human Resources - is quite good, IMHO. Wish You Continued Success In Your Career Improvement and Growth. :T

Your plans for your OH's birthday is fabulous too. Keep it up.

Froggy-G

Can't believe you are moving to the dark side of management.. I am bitterly disappointed in you..

wynnvegas

Evening All,



What to do with a problem like a newly desolate front garden. Any ideas much appreciated! Thus far we've had fancy pebbles, dwarf conifers, rose bushes and new trees mooted as suggestions for the space. Most recently, a guy suggested filling in the entire slope and giving ourselves a proper front garden which appeals but would be pretty costly. I await the creative replies with hope that one strikes gold!

Cheers,

Billy

Froggy-G

Have you repaired the wobbly concrete slab at the front yet??

Just put up sign: WARNING 'Director' lives here

Froggy

wynnvegas

Hiya TYO,

I've every faith she'll enjoy every bit of it. We're planning a 50 things do for her uncle in April which is coming along nicely. I think Moyra's 30 things have so far amounted to around £400 so not very MSE unfortunately!

Looking forward to the challenge of the new job. I spoke with the Chairman and the MD today so we're going to review progress at the end of the year to see where we are with things and there will be room to push a bit further. Still to have the discussion about money and the like but there's no desperate rush for that as I've already missed the September payroll cutoff. Certainly ;pplomg forward to this new responsibility more than my upcoming glorified bag carrying duties!

Cheers,

Billy

wynnvegas

Thanks US,

I'm quite happy with it as it stands. There's something to having the Director title somewhere down the line but it's much more about the impression on the CV that it sends out. Although it's only a medium sized Company with a turnover under £100m, demonstrating a good level of responsibility and my own drive for improvement should tell all the story it needs to as and when it becomes relevant in future.

Cheers,

Billy

wynnvegas

Tum Kan Chee Froggy,

Isn't all management a dark art!? I'm just going deeper down the rabbit hole...

The slab is not quite fixed but neither is it in any way wobbly! I did manage to howk it up and stick down a good bit of levelled sand. The original offending slab is now perfectly stable but sits about an inch above it's neighbours so I've created a tripping hazard! We've been quoted £350 to get all the slabs cleaned lifted and relaid professionally so we'll get that sorted at some point in the not too distant future.

Cheers,

Billy

abouttimetoo

wynnvegas wrote: »

Hi ATT,

You're entirely right. That the position isn't far off is perfectly good enough for me. I've always been a big fan of EFQM but we're nowhere near ready to accept the requirements of that model in my place just now so we'll kick off with some relatively straightforward Business Process Improvements. Now that I've got a few headline objectives to alert the Board to, everything will flow down appropriately - even if it means me literally standing over people until they've done their necessary part to move the whole thing on!

The £50k is a rough estimate of our contents and various stuff kicking about the house. It's probably pretty conservative but I'm fairly sure Moyra's clothes alone account for a third of that total! We had a wee rummage about the presents cupboard yesterday and were pleased to find we're very nearly covered for Christmas so that's pretty handy. I've got a few things planned for Christmas this year but it's Moyra's 30th next month so everything is being geared toward that at the moment... more on that to follow soon.

You sound like a man with a plan Billy so good luck with that. I'm properly (as you say!) impressed with how organised you are for M's birthday not to mention Christmaa!

wynnvegas wrote: »

Morning All,
Her birthday plans are coming on a treat already. Everyone has clubbed ideas together to get her 30 rubber duck things for her to open at the annual family get together. You would be amazed at what absolute rubbish there is out there for a hoarder of crap / collector. Already, we have shoelaces, bath bombs, candles, coasters, bookmarks, a ring, earrings, hand towelsdart flights, a hot water bottle, wellies, socks, t-shirts, pyjamas and a bizarre assortment of rubber ducks. I was looking for a set of rubber ducks (celebriducks is the official line) based on Bon Jovi (no such luck) ans, bizarrely, found that Job Bon Jovi and his drummer Tico Torres have set up a baby clothing company called Rockstar Baby which, in it's well hidden accessories section, sells a Rockstar Baby Rubber Duck. That one will no doubt take pride of place in the duck infested bathroom. The main thing is that she'll be thrilled with it all.

What she doesn't know yet is that I've done a 30 "Moyra loves" thing to take account of her favourite music, books, films, foods, holidays and lifestyle things that are specific to her. She was complaining tonight that I'm really hard to buy for. Thankfully, the same can't be said of Moyra so there's everything from a puppy birthday card to Dairylea Triangle earrings (the wonders of eBay!) with Steven Tyler's autobiography, new DVDs of The Big Bang Theory and Modern Family, Mitch Benn's Twitter book, Michael McIntyre's autobiography, Bon Jovi Christmas tree baubles, a rare Friends trivia game, a 30th anniversary edition of Rainbow (the TV series, not the band), a fancy Nails Inc nail varnish set, duck toppers for fairy cakes that I'll hace to try and surruptitiously make on the night of the 12th, a new badminton racket and the latest Katy Perry and Lady Gaga CDs (all that being around kids all day seems to have had a very negative effect on her taste in music!) in the middle my best to come up with 30 words that will really hit home for the birthday card and I'll find 30 comic book strips from Calvin and Hobbes that I can attach to each present. I'm contemplating doing a treasure hunt for her where she'll need to find things in a specific order but I've not made my mind up about that yet. I've started on what was going to be stocking fillers but two of the items are rubber duck groups (one set of carolling ducks which she'll get on the 1st to go alongside the manic mood that comes with putting up the Christmas tree and the other being the entire cast of the nativity in rubber duck form which will come out twelve days before Christmas). I'm sure there must be something sacriligious in there but I can't see her caring too much.



Hope everyone is grand and dandy out in the world!

Cheers,

Billy

Speechless, just speechless! Let me clarify that - the first speechless is how considerate you are for M's birthday and the amount of thought and attention you put into it

The second speechless is for the ducks, not that M loves them but that such things are available, who knew!

wynnvegas

Thanks ATT,

I'd love to take more credit for it but it was really an inspired hour followed by a session on eBay and Amazon. More of an excuse for me to create another spreadsheet tab than anything else!!

The ducks are now getting out of hand. Duck #30 is "dead duck" which is intended to bring an end to the collection!

Cheers,

Billy

gallygirl

Am guessing you already have THIS one