Week of 7th December, 2015

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Monday, 7th December

New fortnight starts today, a 10 shift. So it's mostly shortform material checking, plus own productions, and a little light previewing. And despite the alleged "Thou shalt submit all Christmas promos by 7th December", they're still coming thick-and-fast. But, as usual, the rush tapers off about 6 p.m.

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Tuesday, 8th December

More of the same. Plus e-mail from Steam Dreams, backed up by hard-copy snail-mail letter, reminding us that they have a refund policy if the steam part of one of their excursions is unavailable. For our (cheapest!) fare class, that's UKP10 per head in cash, or a UKP30 per head discount against another trip.

And they will be re-mounting this trip next summer.

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Wednesday, 9th December

It's the $WORKPLACE Christmas 'do' tonight, so I need a haircut. The 'do' is to be held at a bar in Richmond - admission via work-branded door-card lanyards. I have one, somewhere, as part of a Christmas goody-bag, but I don't know where it is. Luckily, such things are available free-for-the-asking, so I collected another and popped it in my pocket yesterday.

To get to Richmond, I can either take the Tube (2 stops beyond where I normally stop) or catch a number 65 bus, either one of which will get me within easy walking distance of the venue. It took GPS assistance on the Nexus to help me find it, but get there I did, at just after 7 p.m.

And like (almost) all such places, the music (sic) is turned up to almost the point of pain. The upstairs bar was marginally quieter, but not all that much. It was better outside on the balcony, among the smokers, because I could hear myself think, and hear other people talking. But it soon got too cold for that, so I was driven back indoors.

I stuck it out until about 9.30, but then I'd had more than a sufficiency of the DJ's choice of music (if DJ there was - I couldn't see anything remotely resembling a music mixing station) and decided to depart. Even after several drinks, the trip home was easy, and I could do my get_iplayer downloads before going to bed.

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Thursday, 10th December

Jenny's Dutch-built bike needs servicing, but the shop where she bought it, and who would normally do the servicing, has closed. Most other bike shops, on being told, "It's a Dutch-built bike", refuse to have anything to do with it, but there's one in Greenford, a few miles away - too far to walk it, of course, so I had to load it into Nyree. Which was a saga - I had to take out 5 child seats, and fold both rows of back seats (Nyree seats up to 7 people) after which I could lift the bike in. And that lifting was none-too-easy - these bikes are built like tanks. But I managed it.

It wasn't a wasted trip - the man in the Greenford shop was quite happy to do the work. But he charges more for Dutch bikes, because they're more complicated, and you have to unscrew more things to get at the works. And he had a few uncomplimentary things to say about the shop that sold this bike to Jenny.

<pause>

I've just got the phone call - bike is finished. Luckily, no parts required, so just the labour charge of UKP45 - ordinary, British-built, bikes cost UKP30 plus parts. I'll go and collect once Jane gets back from the school pickup.

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Friday, 11th December

I must have misheard... Christmas promos are still coming thick and fast. Must be next Monday that they have to be completed by. I thought December 7th was too soon... Would have been nice, but 'twas not to be.

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Saturday, 12th December

The promo deadline must be Monday... there were a couple of Creatives in today - which is normally unheard of. Five Day Weeklings to a man - or, more often, woman. Other than that (and only 16 promos to boot) the day was programme packaging. I did 4 movies and a commercial half-hour. All HD. So all reasonably successful.

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Sunday, 13th December

I'm a glutton for punishment. After my normal ingest shift today, I've taken on a night half-shift, to monitor an overnight sports feed from the left-pondians. I say monitor, because the feed starts during the staff MCR man's rostered hours, so he will set it up.

 
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