January, 2006

The last few days have been a traumatic time for Mr Levee. You may have noticed his absense in blog land. The story is that he managed to throw his back out on Tuesday morning and has been unable to move without excruciating pain ever since.

To make it worse the doctor has warned him to steer clear of computers for at least a week as sitting at the pc will aggravate his condition. Now I know he has had the odd sneaky peek at emails and the like, but by and large he had to find other things to fill his time for the last few days.
You might imagine he would watch and bit of telly or catch up on his reading, but no Mr Levee has spent the last two days flat on his back installing Linux on an old laptop in a bid to gain internet access once more.

The good news is that he has been ordered to take at least a week off work, which if you read his recent post on his current employment situation you will realise is no bad thing!

Friday, January 27th, 2006 // Family Life

Baby D is coming along nicely since his arrival in August. He’s gone through many little phases to get where he is today and now there’s a smiley, giggling wee man living among us.

Except at naptimes.

When the normally amiable fella starts getting tired, he gets cranky. It’s a short jump from cranky to Banshee, let me tell you, and an unpleasant one at that. And being the caring parents we are, we try to soothe him to sleep, rocking him, singing to him, handstands, cartwheels, comedy routines. Tried them all.

On the odd occassion, when Mrs L was busy with the kids, she’d leave the baby on the sofa for a minute, but when she came back she found he’d gone to sleep on his own. So we tried a little experiment. Whenever baby was getting tired we swaddled him, wrapping him up tightly in a blanket with his arms by his sides and setting him down. It’s amazing how quickly he’s got used to this and how easily he now goes to sleep.

It’s certainly better than presevering with soothing him and getting more agitated the angrier he gets, which was terrible and left both of us emotionally shattered. The one thing to be careful of, though is keeping baby on his back. There’s a danger if he’s on his side that he might roll over onto his face.

Saturday, January 21st, 2006 // Family Life

Walking out of work this evening was like being released from prison for a few hours. Today was a hellish day in a fortnight of hellish days.

Here’s the craic: I work as a manager in Belfast. For the past 5-6 years, I’ve had a full-time assistant helping me run IT in a fairly large, often demanding office. My most recent prodigy handed in his notice just before Christmas - a bad time for seeking out replacement staff.

Regardless of the bad timing, we set out to recruit a replacement pretty sharpish. The market was piss-poor and full of graduate CVs with career shopping lists. “Oh, yes, I’m currently studying for my MCSE, CCNA, Cisco, PhD” Of course, they’re hoping you’ll bankroll the expensive training part of this before they move on to pastures new. Sceptical, Levee? You bet.

Things Get Bad

So, my car is in for servicing on Monday a couple of weeks ago. I decide (as a big important manager) to work from home on this day - after all, I have remote access. So, I arrange for my assistant to come in a bit earlier to cover my hours.

To cut a long story short, my superior went bonkers about not being notified in advance. Bizarre. I’ve done this before and it’s never been a problem. In fact, I can work better without interruptions. But on this day I receive one very nasty email.

So nasty, in fact, that I almost flamed back. But Mrs L pinned me down and sedated me before I had a chance to speak my mind. I don’t know what those injections were, but they worked….

On the Friday, I met with said superior and talked this issue out. Mentioned how offended I’d been. Not just about that, but about a number of things including a salary raise request that was blatantly ignored by the firm last year. Left the meeting and felt relieved that I’d gotten my grievances off my chest. And the boss seemed to acknowledge most of my points and seemed determined to address a number of the issues I raised.

Things Get Worse. Much Worse

The weekend passed, and I trotted into work on Monday morning looking forward to meeting a potential candidate for the assistant’s job. We had the meeting, were impressed with the person we saw, little birds twittered on the office windowsills, and all seemed well. Until after lunchtime.

My boss came into my office to see me straight after lunch with a bombshell - we’ve decided not to hire a replacement, says she. As if this wasn’t going to turn my working life upside down! Do the work of two people? WTF? Think of all the money we’ll save - that’s a substantial saving to the company. Oh yeah? Will I be getting my cut in luncheon vouchers, while my hair is falling out with stress?

The more this sank in, the more traumatised I became, the more questions this raised. I stewed over it all night. So did Mrs L. A revelation like this raises so much uncertainty, not just at work, but for the family life too.

I didn’t realise just how much this was affecting me until I got up the next morning. My jaw was killing me. I knew straight away that I’d been grinding my teeth in my sleep. The good wife confirmed this later on with a phone call. Every morning since, I’ve woken up with a throbbing jaw any pro-boxer would be proud of.

What Next?

Well, as you can see, the stress of this job has been having a wearing effect on me for the last few years. I feel like I’ve aged prematurely! Seriously though, the stress of this situation has actually hit me quite hard and I’m (even now) flittering between bouts of uncontrollable rage at this decision and helplessness and just plain upset.

Anyway, folks, there’s no sense complaining. When you’re stuck in this sort of mire, there’s only one way out, and that’s to move on. I’m not going to stay and fight - there are better opportunities out there and given that the New Year has just begun, maybe it’s time for a good ol’ fresh start. We’ll see.

For now, though, it’s back to the prison tomorrow. Good thing the JobFinder’s out on Fridays! If you’ve made it this far, thanks for listening!

Friday, January 20th, 2006 // Family Life

You’ve got to take a look at this!

Back on Sunday evening when I was - ahem - searching for the Girls Aloud website, I came across the most fantastic website in the universe - Stardoll, formerly known as Paperdoll Heaven.

Remember those old magazines where you cut out the figure and then folded the clothes over to dress them? Well, the 2006 equivalent of that. You can take any celebrity you like Britney Spears, Shakira, the female cast of Friends, just about any celebrity you can think of!

So, yeah, that killed off a few hours on Sunday evening. How often do you get to put Angelina Jolie in a wedding dress? Well, voluntarily, without resorting to kidnapping or bribery. Actually, the whole thing’s pretty addictive. Now I know what happened to Avid Merrion.

A word of warning: avoid the Sharon Osbourne doll at all costs!

Tuesday, January 17th, 2006 // Fun Stuff

On to more serious matters for this week’s poll. ‘Big’ Peter Hain’s threatening to crack down on playground politics by taking away our politicians’ pocket money.

What do you folks think? Will a loss of salary sharpen Unionist appetites for a power-sharing executive with Republicans?

I’ll confess to having a quiet smirk at the volley of responses to Hain’s threat/statement. Not sure if it’ll hold water, or if he’ll even act upon it (since he hasn’t given any deadline for progress). However, people need to be aware that there’s currently no penalty for political dithering - these arses could debate until the Apocalypse and still get paid for it. Over to you…..

Sunday, January 15th, 2006 // News & Media, Northern Ireland: Politics

The Belfast Telegraph has kindly recommended Doktor Moog in a recent article. If I’m getting my facts right, this is the same guy responsible for the graphics in the sorely missed Portadown News.

I loved the Doktor’s treatment of the Chronicles of Norn Ironia and his comments on Westlink traffic delays versus political progress. Check it out, although it’s probably old news by now and no-one bothered telling me!

The archive section is brilliant (although the navigation needs work - those pop-up’s are annoying!) and features some of the Doktor’s work from the Portadown News era.

Friday, January 13th, 2006 // Northern Ireland: Politics

Hey! I’d never noticed this before, but vote is an anagram of veto!

Food for thought…..

Friday, January 13th, 2006 // Observations

Consider this post an open letter to the customers of the Sainsbury’s restaurant at Forestside in Belfast on Saturday.

The family had just popped in for a quick bite while we decided what to do for the rest of the day. We were all in mostly good spirits and ready for a good feed, but it was perilously past Jay’s nap-time and he hadn’t slept in the car.

The Rage

As we ushered the kids into Forestside, Jay took a hissy fit because we were guiding him past a guy in a rabbit costume. He wanted to stop. We wanted food. So, as the adults in the group, we overruled him and started to move forward. That’s when the tantrum began in earnest.

He threw himself on the ground, did the kicking and screaming thing, so I let him be for a moment. Knowing that he’s usually fairly agreeable and expecting him to calm down quite quickly. After a minute or so, I picked him up and we moved toward the restaurant, Jay still grumbling and shouting. We manage to place our order and head off to sit down.

No. Jay didn’t want to sit down, he didn’t want to sit in the pram, and he didn’t want to be carried. And he didn’t want to do any of this in THE LOUDEST VOICE POSSIBLE! I tried restraining him, making him sit on a seat, but he got much worse.

The Outrage

Can I tell you something, though? Worse than the nastiness of this tantrum was the sense of utter embarrassment, the unashamed hostility of our fellow diners. Evil glances from old women, cast in our direction, but not brave enough to make eye contact or offer sympathy. Nope, no kindly looks or friendly nods today.

As I wrestled Jay back to the car to calm down, I was still raging at the biddies and - bizarrely - other families who were visibly irritated by our presence.

Are we the only family to have ever suffered an embarrassing public tantrum? When I see folk struggling with their kids in shopping centres, I feel their pain. I know their kid doesn’t want to be dragged around the shops, and nor does the parent. But shopping is a necessity, and children need to learn that sometimes we have to do boring stuff.

Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that the next time you see a parent dealing with a tantrum, try and empathise. Chances are you’ve been there before or you’ll be there one day. Then either mind your own business or give them a sympathetic smile.

Friday, January 13th, 2006 // Family Life

The airline industry will be reeling this evening with the news the Peter Hain has finally and sensibly withdrawn the On The Run legislation. Flights to Ireland are most likely being feverishly cancelled as you read this.

Of course, the motives for doing this are Sinn Fein-led. They got their cake, but just as they were tucking into it, they discovered an extra ingredient that..erm…disagreed with their collective digestive system. “What’s this?” thundered Gerry (presumably) “They’ve slipped in an amnesty for army bollockses! Tony didn’t mention that before…honest…”

Except, of course, they must have known. For one thing, the British Government are many things, but they are not (completely) stupid. Don’t you think the brains at Downing Street might have expected an SF backlash?

Double Standards

Aside from the hilarious PR cock-up, the episode exposed the nasty side of Sinn Fein. All that talk of ’spirit of reconciliation’ turned out to be completely one-sided. You forgive us for past attrocities. We reserve the right to dredge up any event by Loyalist groups or state forces, but just don’t mention the ‘Ra, OK? What happened to the election fodder of “Building An Ireland Of Equals”, Gerry? B.U.L.L.S.H.I.T.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but what differentiates one set of killers from another? I thought we were putting the past behind us, moving on and growing up. The dilemma for Sinn Fein was, do they give up one of their trump cards - state murders of Republicans - to allow ‘the boys’ safe passage home? That must’ve been a hell of a decision to make.

But it’s not over yet. No. Hain thinks this will be back on the agenda as an anomaly that should have been dealt with at the time of the Good Friday Agreement. I don’t. Got the guts to kill for your cause? Then stay behind and take the consequences. Face the families you left bereaved across the courtroom and take the sentence you deserve. Only a coward runs away…why should we turn a blind eye?

Thursday, January 12th, 2006 // Northern Ireland: Politics

Seems the venerable, honorable Reverend Ian Paisley (Senior) has been on tour in East Tennesssee, visiting the Temple Baptist Church.

By the sound of the report it was a rousing affair and he left a great impression on the congregation there. Although with sentiments like It’s a thrilling thing to serve the Lord, it’s no wonder. I’ve never heard practicing Christianity described with such exuberance before!

Anyway, the one statement that really grabbed me was:

“I’m just a plain jailbird out of jail for the time being,” he told the audience.

I know Paisley has been imprisoned in the past - is this a reference to that? Or is it a religious reference? Any thoughts?

Oh, yeah that last link to Paisley’s profile on Wikipedia has an interesting link in the “No Surrender” section about his jail time. Read the line “He was released during a general amnesty for people convicted of political offences.” Now, what was his attitude to the early release of political prisoners?

Wednesday, January 11th, 2006 // Northern Ireland: Politics