Week of 14th August 2000

Last Week

Monday, 14th August

The first of the latest batch of freelance shifts, an 07:30 start in Central London. The Tube service is good enough to make the trip easy, since it's outside rush-hour, and the trains aren't full.

It was a fairly busy day, mostly small, annoying things - finger trouble in the main. A lot of my log entries ended with "Advice given. Left working satis." which is fairly standard jargon for 'this is how you do it... Get it? Got it? Good!'

Back to Daynotes


Tuesday, 15th August

I moved the modem 'phone socket into the shack today, in between chasing around getting quotes for car insurance - Jane's car comes up for renewal in a couple of weeks' time, so it's worth checking the going rates.

Of course, when you try 'phoning for a quote, the 'phone slave then finds that the 'computer is slow today, it won't give me a quote. Can I call you back?'

Back to Daynotes


Wednesday, 16th August

Got the return 'phone call this morning - significantly cheaper for the same cover. It's a special deal, negotiated by the NCMA for its members. Mind you, even without the special deal, they're cheaper than my present insurers. I may have to switch Peanut's insurance as well - even UK10 per month is to the good at present.


There's still no news about the MCR job. Unless they get their finger out, I'll not be able to rejoin them until the end of September, given that the contractual notice period is a month, although I've gained the impression that this may not be enforced - but who knows? I must bear in mind the unwritten motto of the building - 'Haven't you heard? It's all been changed...'


Of course, just to tease us, comes now news that there's another channel (that's nine) starting up in October. This one will run all language dubbed content, not text subtitles, so we've got to get plenty of material prepared for dubbing ASAP. Problem is, the dubbing houses only work with analogue videotape, and we now prefer digital. This means that we'll have to copy the dubbed master back to DigiBeta when it returns - that's an analogue generation I (at least) would prefer to avoid. I wonder if we could get an audio tape back, and lay the dubbed track back ourselves?

Mark you, this would involve buying a suitable tape deck, and synchronising electronics - none of which we have, so that's capital expenditure, which is anathema to the bean-counters who run the company. They understand money, I understand technology. It is very rare for the two types of expertise to meet in one person.

Back to Daynotes


Thursday, 17th August

Well, my boss shares my opinions about analogue tapes. He's making noises about getting the language dub tracks back on DAT audio tapes, with timecode, and laying the dubbed track back to a DigiBeta transmission copy - this doubles the work, but we can keep the quality up.


I finally managed to get through to my (now former) car insurance broker to cancel the renewal of that policy. The new deal is significantly cheaper for very little less cover, so it's all to the good.

I stress finally, because even before 9 a.m. the automated answering service was saying 'the queue is more than 5 minutes long' or words to that effect, plus comments about 'your call is important to us' and 'our advisers do know you are on the line', repeated ad nauseam. This is probably the result of understaffing in their call centre, and is another reason why I wanted a change.

Back to Daynotes


Friday, 18th August

The taps in the shower room in the loft have taken it into their head to leak like.. well, taps. They will need replacing, especially since we now have metered water and pay for actual usage, rather than a lump sum, based on the (so-called) rateable value of the house. It's all another ploy to screw more money out of the occupiers.

I also checked on the current status of our mortgages, and found that we can save money on repayments by switching mortgage 'products' (don't you love the marketing jargon). It seems that our building society is introducing a new 'product' for existing borrowers - a 2% discount on the standard variable interest rate, guaranteed for 2 years - all for the effort of signing a form - no other change. Wonderful, isn't it? If I hadn't asked, I'm sure they wouldn't have told me about this.

Back to Daynotes


Saturday, 19th August

Last night's update was posted via the newly moved 'phone socket, the first time I've used it in earnest. The only question now is whether the ringer will work - must try an incoming call, since this is also my fax line (when the computer is connected, of course!)


Another freelance shift today - nice and quiet, except for one panic, which had an effect on transmission. A VTR failed to play, leaving black to air until the transmission controller noticed it. This was, I think, a tape-related fault (the problem has occurred before) I had to recover the tape and play it in another machine - not difficult when you know how. The total outage was about 2 minutes 30 sec, which may not seem like much, but it's an age in television.


Sarah is off for her Duke of Edinburgh Award assessment in the Cheviot hills today. The assessment actually starts next Wednesday, but travel and final preparation on site will take up the rest of the time until then.

I'll follow next weekend, and collect her from the expedition base camp for our week's holiday.

Back to Daynotes


Sunday, 20th August

Another freelance shift, again nice and quiet, just the way I like them!

Back to Daynotes

Next Week