mr grumpy drives the 14

Had the most hilarious bus ride home courtesy of the driver’s running commentary. That and his bad mood.

After I snappered on the guy behind me did likewise only to be told by the machine he had insufficient funds. He just shrugged and got out his wallet. He really didn’t seem that bothered. Then the driver started up. “bloody ridiculous things, stupid system, they should get rid of it”. The passenger pointed out it was his fault and was trying to hand over his cash. But no, the driver had’t finished “caused nothing but problems from day one” he added.

Doors closed and we drove off. We got to the next stop to find another bus already there, over-filled and taking on passengers. We were the second half-empty bus of two which had started 10 minutes apart and ended up together. “Typical” shouts our bus driver as he pulls up along side, “Thought it would be him, he never knows when  to stop”.

For the rest of the trip he directed his anger at cyclists not peddling fast enough.

pre-warmed veges

Years ago I used to buy my veges from the market on Jacobs Place.  It was a crammed little alley filled with stalls of fresh produce from somewhere up the coast. Chaffers New World didn’t exist so if you didn’t want to head to the ‘burbs the Jacobs Place market was your friend.  Handily the chinese market off Courtenay Place also sold some groceries.

So now we have the Chaffers market on the carpark next to Te Papa on Sunday morings.  Most of it is out in the open.  A few stalls have tents but most leave their veges exposed to the elements.  As we move towards summer it just isn’t that appealing.  To be fair I’ve never made it to the market before 11 and I’m not that impressed. Everything is left to sit and droop and swelter in the sun. I usually make a bee-line for the one stall which puts up tents over the produce but so does everyone else.  Almost all the stalls have the same stuff on offer with only a handful of specialists.

Increasingly I find myself disappointed by the quality of what’s on offer at the market and head across the road to the supermarket. Maybe I just need to get up earlier.

Tis the season

Well, actually it isn’t.  It is the 11 October and already Kirks has the Christmas Shop open. It is just too early, far too early to be dacking the halls. I refuse to put my tree up until 1 December each year. This year I need to buy a new artificial tree too.  My old tree, purhcased from Deka about 14 years ago has seen better times. More decorations are required each year to hide the slightly less covered branches.

I admired some particularly lovely fake Douglas Firs today but I’m not sure I really want to spent $300-$00 on a fake tree which is used for 30 days a year.  The 7 and a half foot tree has 1506 tips – I did wonder if this means it would accommodate the same number of decorations. I’ve been amassing decorations for over 30 years buying the expensive decorations in the 50% off sales after christmas. Now I collect decorations when I travel as well. I know I have lots but even I’d be surprised if I had 1500 already.

Today I may have spent a silly amount on new additions for the tree.  I have simple rules about my decorations. Colour – they must be red, gold, silver or green. I love the colour purple but it has no place on my tree. Decorations must be christmas themed – a stocking shape is fine a stiletto is not.  And you can keep your santas in rugby gear or carrying surfboards to yourself. It may be summer here but I’ll take as many snowflakes as my tree can hold. Anything obviously plastic is banned and I’d prefer not to have any plain round glass balls – they’re so ordinary. Some of my friends have xmas tree decorating parties but I’m afraid there won’t be any of that silliness in my house. I know they’re well intentioned but they’d put the decorations in the wrong place.

a tough choice

I’ve been thinking a bit lately about what annoys me more – badly run meetings or badly managed projects.  I think meetings win given that at the heart of every badly run project you’ll often find a project manager running meetings badly too.

Over the past few years I’ve worked with close to 20 different project managers with anything from 0-30 years experience.  Of all of them, there’s only been one who I thought was truly outstanding. I wish I could figure out how she does it. She somehow inspires you to work like a lunatic for her and you don’t mind doing it.

Almost all the project managers have been the command and control types and I think one of the things which makes Ms Outstanding the way she is, is because she eases off on both. She works as hard as anyone else and always “asks” for things to be done. She negotiates reasonable deadlines with you and for the most part is organised. She also leaves you room to do your bit and report back.

At the other end there’s Ms Micro who spend her time demanding things be done in her timeframe. She tried to own your life and declared her intention to micromanage from the start – I’m so pleased my time with her was brief. We seemed to spend more timemeeting to discuss stuff than actually getting stuff done.

Somewhere in the middle is the task ticker.  I sometimes wonder what’s more important to them – the completion of the project or the ending up with the perfect microsoft project plan.  I’m a “documentation lite” kinda gal and a hulking great project file fills me with dread.

What I can’t figure out are the pretenders. The have project teams and ask for the odd task to be done but mostly meetings are filled with the sound of their own voices telling the rest of the team everything they’ve done in the past week. They’ve done so much of the project work themselves I don’t know why they bother with a team. They’re often completely overworked and stressed but delegation just isn’t in their dictionary.

All of which makes me wonder what kind of PM I am – I do work on the basis that any team can be placated with food and deadlines bore me.  I try to focus on the end goal and deadline and not get too hung up on sticking to milestones along the way. I’m sure that’s a nightmare for those who like to monitor progress.

cold sunshine

Winter is my preferred season.  I like snow and ice and the sparkly magic of it all.  Hail and thunderstorms fascinate me.  And lets face it, how can you not love the chance to wear hats and scarves and gloves. Tis the season for accessories.  Daylight saving starting early doesn’t please me. I’m not sure these extra hours of daylight are much use to us at the moment.  It may be lighter later but it is still cold and it is still raining.

In the morning on my way to work it is almost summer like, I could be wearing sandals and a t-shirt.  In the evenings coming home from work I still need a winter coat, scarf and gloves and most days an umbrella. Of course the thing I hate the most is we have to wait till 9.30 or 10pm for a decent show of fireworks on Nov 5.

history in the making

Asides from the hideous over-used phrase, the One News You Tube Election Debate is an excellent idea. I have no idea why Mark Sainsbury would think this is such a novel way to do things, after all, another election happening somewhere else in the world which is making a much bigger use of user generated content.

In previous elections we’ve had citizen questions filmed on the street by professional teams and nicely edited.  I like the idea of being able to vote on which questions get asked.  One News do say they aren’t making all questions available to vote on so I’m guessing what gets up on the site is moderated.  There are no ranting hateful questions at this point.  Mind you, having your face behind the question must make people think twice about being thoroughly obnoxious. You can’t hide behind an anonymous comment. I do wonder though what the demographic coverage will be like – will they all be younger and tech-savy?

And what amuses me most? Just how happy people are to display the contents of their bedrooms and living rooms.