Teetering on the brink

NeverendingDMP

Congratulations to you both on the finalised exam results!!

Cherryfudge

I read about the potential BA role with fascination - perhaps Duolingo could feature your job as a new language, as it sounds like it to me!   But I think I get the gist of it: if you are going to move forward in this employment, this is probably as good an option as you are likely to see in the foreseeable future. 

Congratulations to your DD - fantastic news! And doubly great as you get the refund and all of a sudden the money takes a big jump forwards.

Does your Olio day have to be the same day every week? If you tried eight days or ten days, would that enable you to eat through more, or would you be short of things to base your meals round? The longer time could also take the pressure off if it's an effort to go out for items in the evening.

EatingBeans

Haha Thanks for the perfect summation of my long winded job situation! Sometimes I forget that there is another world outside and people wont understand what I am babbling on about. 😬

Olio-wise, a set day is good for me purely down to the fact that the late night runs disturbs my sleep. I had thought about going every two weeks but I just don’t have the freezer space and things that cannot be frozen have to be used up quickly. So I just need to be a bit more selective. It’s fine though - I am sure it will still be worth it and the pick ups are fairly close. That said, I have booked to pick up a few cookies, donuts, bread and tomatoes this morning from my favourite FWH. dd2 is really struggling to adjust to A level life as just going back to college is a lot after such a long time off. I thought a bit of free sugar might cheer her up. Just going for a couple of things is not great economically speaking but I have to go out for diesel anyway and this particular FWH is only a mile from my house so doesn’t really cost a lot in fuel to get there. 

hatch_five

EatingBeans said:

Honestly, I know I hate being a standard Business Analyst as I hate even the idea of documenting every last little requirement up front. It is literally the opposite I what I advocate on a daily basis - i.e. leave all the detail to the last responsible moment because you know what, change is inevitable! I really am better suited to promoting Agile. But, the reality is there are so few positions above me in the agile space where I work and I know full well that any that do come up will go to externals, so I have to either leave or consider a different role if I want to move up. In an ideal world I would hop to being a Product Manager but I know that I need to go up a level first, and realistically a Business Analyst role is a better fit than a Delivery Manager, albeit both should work as a stepping stone. I have been asking around a bit today and I know there is a push from management to encourage the new project to use at least part agile methods in its delivery, but I also know the Delivery Manager is pushing back and dead set against. That might give me an advantage as it might be viewed that I can effectively act as Scrum Master as well as BA and convert them from the inside (they’ve asked me to do this to a team before). Added to which, the project is looking at a Research Admin system and an integration with a finance system. As it happens, I spent 10years working in finance, and my very last role just so happens to have been working in the very Research admin/finance team that would be the key stakeholders for this work. So basically, if I don’t get this role there is something very off! And, I suppose if I have to be a BA for something, this project would probably be the least painful option. 

Your comment about a Research Admin system made me smile- looked after PhD student admin for several years and we spent the whole time pushing for a better way of managing research students that a mixture of SITS, Skillsforge and dodgy Excel Spreadsheets- got nowhere, we kept getting told it would be looked at, but nothing ever happened. I was involved in the procurement of a Course Management system, which took years, was massively over budget and the system we finally got (CourseLoop) was so clunky no academics would use it and admin cursed it (nothing like what we had scoped for). Now at another institution and running into the same problems with introducing Aptem for apprenticeship management- I have come to the conclusion that nearly all HE institutions are just really bad at getting systems that actually come in on time, on budget and work! Good Luck..... 

EatingBeans

Haha, sounds about right @hatch_five you are totally on the money! 

When I first started in the HE project world I was invited to a getting to know you meeting where we where put into breakout rooms, and one of the questions was “who has been on a project that delivered something that no-one ended up using?” Literally everyone else put their hand up and I just sat there aghast! The idea that people spend all the time and effort only to deliver something so unfit for purpose that it does not get used was a totally alien concept to me. Like at some point it must have been obvious that something was seriously wrong, so why did they ALL keep going?! 🤦‍♀️ Hence my love for introducing Agile and stressing the need for regular feedback from stakeholders. Fail Fast guys, don’t keep spending millions on something you know wont work! 😂

So yeah, I know the new project will likely be “challenging” (aka a car crash), but I am still a tiny be optimistic that I might be able to help even if it is just a little bit. 

I don’t know a great deal about Aptem for apprenticeships but I have heard it can also be rather… ahem, “challenging”, to implement. 😬 Good luck to you too! 😁

EatingBeans

Well, another day spent checking out another uni today. This time Uni of Nottingham. Conclusion… it will probably end up being dd1’s first choice! Worlds apart from York - the only negative in my book is that the campus is a bit hilly in places. The course is spot on, they have lots of opportunities in terms of placements, study abroad/learn a language/spend an extra year doing computer science or AI etc etc. Just a totally different offering and even getting totally drenched running between things (without coats!), didn’t spoil the mood. Manchester is going to have its work cut out to beat that! 

One downside to spending literally all day at the uni is that I had to give in and buy food. I am fast realising that to really check out a uni it is also part of the deal to eat there, so I definitely need to include a meal allowance in next month’s budget for this. 😕 Still, at least I am not paying for the petrol! 😁

Thankfully we have a couple of week’s before Manchester, and Warwick has been wiped off the list without even visiting. Oddly, dd1 is now considering adding Liverpool to the mix, but lord knows why after today. I swear she just enjoys touring the country! 🤣

As much as I like being nosy and seeing different uni’s, I did struggle a bit today as I somehow hurt my back in bed last night. Bending my chin towards my chest, or bending over in the middle, or indeed lifting my knees up even slightly, all result in searing pain in the middle of my back. Combined with my Trigeminal Neuralgia which was zapping my face, my dodgy knee and achilles tendinopathy, I must have really looked a sight trying to ‘move hurriedly’ (the word ‘run’ would be overselling it), through the torrential rain. I enjoyed the day, but I am also super glad to be home. Thankfully dd1 was happy to drive both ways today as I just couldn’t. 

I do feel that at 43 I really should not feel quite so broken. It was a big reminder that I really do need to lose weight as I feel like my body is just under too much strain, but I have been very distracted with things this week and I don’t feel like I have made any progress in that regard sadly. 

But, I did at least sell a pair of boots on ebay today, so not all is lost! 🙂

EatingBeans

Far smaller Olio haul this evening. Partly because I decided to only pick up items from two of the three FWH’s that regularly post on a Saturday night, but also because I was more selective on account of no freezer space, and overall there was just a lot less posted, plus I received no random add-ons. Amazingly, I requested one bag of salad leaves and I actually got one packet (rather than a carrier bag full). 👍

Definitely still worth the trip though! 

The funny thing is the dogs have already cottoned on to these late night food collections, because as soon as I come in the door they are up prancing on their toes waiting to be fed something tasty! lol

StardewValley

Hey EatingBeans, I'm brand new to the forum and still learning the ropes but just wanted to pop in a message to say that I've read your diary from start to finish over the past 2 days and really am in awe of your determination. The love you have for your girls shines through every post. I just had my first baby in May and I hope he and I can share a similar relationship when he grows up.

Enjoying your food collections - you've convinced me to look into Olio. It's a struggle to keep my calories up while breastfeeding. Eyeing up your cheese and garlic flatbread in particular - yum!

Thank you for providing my reading material while I endure the night feeds.
Please keep them coming

x Star

EatingBeans

Hi @StardewValley welcome to the forum! 

Thank you for your very kind words, and congrats on your new addition! It feels like an eternity since mine were that small, and yet at the same time also feels like 5 minutes. They grow SO fast! 

Olio is really great but it appears to be touch and go depending on where you live. Fingers crossed for you that you find a few Food Waste Heros near where you live. 🤞

EatingBeans

Jobs for today are:
1, Fix heating
2, Get at least all the priority clothes washed for the week
3, Package up boots sold on ebay ready to post tomorrow
4, Write job application

What I want to do is just start with the job application but I know I will always find something to tinker with it so I had to start with the others things first or I know they wont get done. 

Dishwasher loaded and on this morning (still absolutely LOVING having a dishwasher back in my life! 😍), I sorted all my dirty washing into piles based not only on colour but also on ‘priority’ vs ‘it can wait’ items. Without a tumble drier I am limited by the amount of indoor drying space so I need to be sure I do everything for work first. I put the first load in and set the timer for it to start once the dishwasher is done. The gap possibly isn’t necessary but if on at the same time they would both be drawing a large amount of electricity through the same double socket and I get a bit paranoid about it being a fire risk. The important bit in my book is it will start automatically once the other machine is finished, so I don’t have to remember to go back (otherwise I am likely to forget). 

Next, I moved on to fixing the heating. Now I should say, I absolutely adore my Tado heating controls (when they work), and spent far too many hours/days/weeks of my life researching what would be best for me prior to purchasing. I even went as far as sourcing part of my controls from Germany just to be sure I got the one that can modulate the boiler - something the UK version does not do (at least they didn’t when I bought it, not sure about now). The reason I went to such lengths is because my Trigeminal Neuralgia is sensitive to even a slight bit of cool air, so I have to have a firm control over the temperature in each part of my house, and tbf I usually do. Unfortunately, due to a combination of my laziness not replacing batteries when I should have, a certain Little Cat who has worked out how to turn a radiator up whenever she wants, and the fact that it has been summer so there was previously no urgency to resolve the issue, I have now reached the point where fixing the heating has to take priority over everything today, including the application. 😕

So, after about an hour taking all the Thermostatic Radiator Valves (the bit attached to the radiator that you turn to adjust the temperature), on and off a few times, and batteries replaced all round, I turned my attention to the slightly broken one that I had left next to the radiator that the cat likes to control.

She’s a clever little thing and she has a cat radiator bed attached to the radiator which she loves to sleep in, so given that the TVRs make a small noise and light up when they come on, she soon learnt to rub the controls with face until it made the noise and the temperature turns up! Thankfully, Tado has a child lock feature in the app to stop manual adjustments, but it doesn’t stop her trying and she’d popped off part of the fitting. I had left the parts all next to the radiator whilst I went to fix the others, only to return and find a piece missing! I thought I was going mad until I remembered Little Cat also loves to run off with things. It’s almost like she knew that without the piece that particular radiator would come on full blast whenever any of the other radiators called for heat! Naughty Little Cat! Cue, hunting around the house for a small bit of plastic that could literally be anywhere a cat could put it! 🤦‍♀️ 

A good half an hour later I found the missing piece under a desk, and thankfully managed to put it all back together. A few rounds of testing later and I think it is all now up and running again! 🎉 It does of course mean my energy bill will now be going up, but thankfully I have a little bit saved just for this purpose in my designated energy current account, so it shouldn’t hit me quite as hard. 

Next step, lunch - sausages in finger rolls thanks to Olio. 😁