The first few weeks of retirement have been strange. I really have not had any time to do anything as random people make requests on me to do things for them, thinking that I must have time to fill.
How wrong would they be. The first activity was to try to get insurance for the car. This is not as straight forward as I would have expected due to the fact that I had been driving a Company car for over twelve years and the no claims position was, therefore, somewhat vague. Add to that that the policy was third party and I would have expected a full discount. No, its not as easy as that, they considered all the cosmetic repairs I got done before buying as an 'incident' for goodness sake.
Then there is the 'convictions'. For goodness sake, they are minor traffic offences captured by speed camera's and which make the council a fortune. They don't make somebody a high risk driver just because they have 3 points on their license, and why should insurers count them for five years, when they stay on the license for only three. Somebody is having a giraffe!
I have also read somewhere that they are now going to use the defensive driving course against you in future insurance renewals despite the fact that the police indicate they will not affect your car insurance, when offering them as an option!
Next thing is to sort out new bank accounts and other financial requirements. I did like the look of the Santander 123 account so we have started the ball rolling there. That was complicated by the Council renaming our house from 19 to 21. Proving they are the same property has stretched us too.
Investment rates are also a bit pants, with rates around 3% rapidly being withdrawn. One from Intelligent Finance which is 2.47% came with a note saying it was going down to 1.8% in February. Really not worth the trouble.
I am still working on the Job Seekers allowance but not holding out too much hope, and may have to wedge up with Zopa to get any sort of investment return In the foreseeable future.
Then there is always the ironing, cooking and cleaning to fill in the spare time!!
Wednesday 28 November 2012
Friday 16 November 2012
On the dole
The things one gets to do as a result of being made redundant. Today I spent a few hours in the Birkenhead JobCentre+ offices trying to see what benefits I could get for providing the government of the day with national insurance contributions for the best part of 40 years.
The answer I got was that they don't know!
Initially I filled the online form relating to job seekers allowance in incorrectly, but only, they informed me, to the detriment of myself. That was very considerate of them, so I did not feel hugely frustrated to then fill out the equivalent hardcopy, or some of it.
I should have filled it in as a contribution based claim whereas I had filled it in as an income based claim. With SWMBO working, I was never going to pass that. The first six months contribution based benefits I was told are not means tested.
So the claim was assessed by my new mate Samantha who guided me through the process until she saw that I was already drawing a pension. This was the next problem they indicated I would face when the form went to head office ( well the DWP). They may deem my pension sufficient and consequently exclude me from contribution based job seekers allowance. So when they say it's not means tested, actually it is.
Next problem I faced was the fact that I was out of the Country next week on vacation. They can't pay job seekers allowance while I am not available for work, so, wait for it, the claim will need to be shut down on Sunday and I will have to reapply when I return to the UK, via a rapid reclaim process.
So, getting the allowance may or may not happen, and I should know by the end of the month. If it does, then the hoops I have to jump through are quite extensive. I have to visit the gov.uk website every day looking for opportunities, and write to at least one employer a week. I have to be willing to travel 90 minutes each way to work, and search commercial websites for at least 2 hours a day. Every two weeks I have to go back to the job centre to assess my progress, and sign on.
In one sense I hope they say I can't have it!!!
The answer I got was that they don't know!
Initially I filled the online form relating to job seekers allowance in incorrectly, but only, they informed me, to the detriment of myself. That was very considerate of them, so I did not feel hugely frustrated to then fill out the equivalent hardcopy, or some of it.
I should have filled it in as a contribution based claim whereas I had filled it in as an income based claim. With SWMBO working, I was never going to pass that. The first six months contribution based benefits I was told are not means tested.
So the claim was assessed by my new mate Samantha who guided me through the process until she saw that I was already drawing a pension. This was the next problem they indicated I would face when the form went to head office ( well the DWP). They may deem my pension sufficient and consequently exclude me from contribution based job seekers allowance. So when they say it's not means tested, actually it is.
Next problem I faced was the fact that I was out of the Country next week on vacation. They can't pay job seekers allowance while I am not available for work, so, wait for it, the claim will need to be shut down on Sunday and I will have to reapply when I return to the UK, via a rapid reclaim process.
So, getting the allowance may or may not happen, and I should know by the end of the month. If it does, then the hoops I have to jump through are quite extensive. I have to visit the gov.uk website every day looking for opportunities, and write to at least one employer a week. I have to be willing to travel 90 minutes each way to work, and search commercial websites for at least 2 hours a day. Every two weeks I have to go back to the job centre to assess my progress, and sign on.
In one sense I hope they say I can't have it!!!
Wednesday 14 November 2012
Mud hut medicine
SWMBO has the sound of Swahili about it don't you think?
You may be wondering that is a strange phase with which to open a blog post, however, when you appreciate that SWMBO has just returned from two weeks in Tanzania working for the relief organisation, Bridge2Aid, you will begin to see the relevance.
Twenty two dentists and support staff left London on a torturous journey to Mwanza via Dar Es Salaam. There they stayed in a very pleasant hotel on the banks of Lake Victoria, much like the contestants do before entering the campsite on I'm a Celebrity. The next morning it was off in a truck for three hours to Gita which was to be their home for the next ten days.
Each morning they would get bused to their place of work, and there supervise the extraction of teeth from Tanzanian residents, be they business people, Masi tribesmen or villagers, some of whom had travelled on foot, over 100 kilometres to see the white doctor.
Poverty was endemic, and with Tanzania being one of the poorest African nations, the chances of regular dental treatment rest with the Bridge2 Aid teams providing not only a service, but on the job training for the nationals. Over 800 people were treated while the team was there, all under local anesthetic, on a dining room chair in a mud hut. Some dedication.
The hotel ran out of toilet paper, the power failed regularly and the water supply was intermittent, but the job got done and the volunteers were able to face the return trip, via Kilimanjaro in good spirits knowing that treacle toffee was back on the menu in Tanzania.
You may be wondering that is a strange phase with which to open a blog post, however, when you appreciate that SWMBO has just returned from two weeks in Tanzania working for the relief organisation, Bridge2Aid, you will begin to see the relevance.
Twenty two dentists and support staff left London on a torturous journey to Mwanza via Dar Es Salaam. There they stayed in a very pleasant hotel on the banks of Lake Victoria, much like the contestants do before entering the campsite on I'm a Celebrity. The next morning it was off in a truck for three hours to Gita which was to be their home for the next ten days.
Each morning they would get bused to their place of work, and there supervise the extraction of teeth from Tanzanian residents, be they business people, Masi tribesmen or villagers, some of whom had travelled on foot, over 100 kilometres to see the white doctor.
Poverty was endemic, and with Tanzania being one of the poorest African nations, the chances of regular dental treatment rest with the Bridge2 Aid teams providing not only a service, but on the job training for the nationals. Over 800 people were treated while the team was there, all under local anesthetic, on a dining room chair in a mud hut. Some dedication.
The hotel ran out of toilet paper, the power failed regularly and the water supply was intermittent, but the job got done and the volunteers were able to face the return trip, via Kilimanjaro in good spirits knowing that treacle toffee was back on the menu in Tanzania.
Tuesday 6 November 2012
IBM....eh
I started this blog a few years ago to track my house selling process, and my move up to Scouserland. Today the blog takes on a whole new life, as indeed do I.
Tuesday 6th November is the first day of my non-working life as I formally retire from full time employment. My pension cheque landed in my bank account, I have bought a car and booked a holiday. What more else is there to do?
Well, I think I should document the past 40 years (almost) that I have been working for IBM in the UK.
I got kicked out of college in March 1973. It was one of those Polytechnic places which the labour government were quick to change into new age universities. Ted Heath was Prime Minister, and the World Trade Centre in New York was officially opened. Watergate spelt the end of President Nixon in the USA. After hunting around for a while, I was offered a job with IBM and started on 23rd March. the next day Pink Floyd released Dark Side of the Moon. I was hoping to stay with IBM until 24th March 2013 to get my 40 years in, but unfortunately they had other plans so here I am in leisure land.
So what did I do, and where? I started in the Croydon location as a computer operator, a job I would not get today unless I had 11 A* at GCSE, 4 A's or better at A level, and a 2.1 degree in anything other than Information Technology!! So for me with my 6 'O' levels and two grade E A levels it was a case of right place right time. Indeed had I graduated in 1975 it is likely I would have struggled to get a job in the computer industry, and with Maggie Thatcher becoming Prime Minister the whole environment was about to be a whole lot tougher. A fellow operator, referred to only as 'Figs' to protect his identity, is still a regular drinking mate as is his wife Marian who was also a Croydonian.
Anyway, I pushed on through the ranks as an operator and with another great friend of mine, Mike McBride, we became the pioneers of problem and change management systems and subsequently were at the forefront of service management and ITIL evolution, something which today is a seriously recognised IT qualification.
I then moved to Sudbury Towers to become a lecturer in service management operations and disaster recovery planning, and still have my PA Joyce as a chum to this day. I remember going to her 21st birthday party in The Rising Sun, and she and I went to Hyde Park the night before Charles and Di got married, for the free pop concert.
I then moved to the City of London and Basinghall Street where I was a systems engineering specialist, wow! I transferred with the job when it moved to the spanking new South Bank building next to the Festival Hall in 1985.
It was soon after that that I had the type of move everybody can only dream of. I moved into the Chiswick office, right across the road from where I lived. Oh, the joy of running home to get the washing in when it started to rain!!
When Chiswick closed the staff were moved to Bedfont Lakes, another new location. Michael Heseltine opened it 1995. I remember being there the evening they filmed a scene from Tomorrow Never Dies. I, however went on to manage a group of UNIX nutters in Welwyn Garden City for a number of years, a job I was offered on the beach in Lisbon. If we had only had the vision, E-Bay, Lastminute and Expedia could have all been ours. Trouble was they were so focused on being techie's, growing their beards and comparing sandals, that the opportunity was lost. They were good times in Welwyn, and I must have done something right as one day I was summons to Bedfont.
That summons resulted in a chance to manage the systems management consulting group, a group which included some of the sharpest minds in the Country, and who almost without fail, enjoyed a drink. They have elevated themselves to the high points of the Company, and many remain in regular contact. Our Manchester Christmas party is still one of the highlights of the year.
At the beginning of the 2000's IBM started to rationalise its real estate portfolio, and diminish the community spirit office work generated. I was luck enough, however, to be posted to Knutsford near Manchester, now as a project manager, for a three year project which maintained that community spirit for a bit longer, and also qualified me for the Global Golden Circle award in 2001, an award which took me and SWMBO to Bali for a few days on the Company. That was a real experience.
That project followed on from a stint working for Logica on IBM's behalf and saw me work on-site at GCHQ for 18 months. Other projects took me to Saudi, Turkey and Brazil during a time when it was becoming evident that IBM and I had run our course. That feeling was cemented when a project in Scotland , involving travel to Chicago, went a bit pear shaped and saw me relieved of duties earlier than planned.
I did manage to find a role in the business recovery division at Samspon House, back on South Bank, which got me to where I am today, the irony being that the business director was one of the team I recruited all those years ago in Bedfont Lakes. He did me a good deal and allowed for an honourable exit. After nearly 40 years one would hope for nothing less, but times change and some of my colleagues have not been treated with the dignity they deserved, when they were shown the door.
Undoubtedly the first ten years were the best, parties, after shift booze-up's, 5am tee off times on the golf course after night shift, page 3 girl's and the Youngs 135 Club. The next twenty years can tell a few stories too. Family dinners were riotous, the Christmas dinners were legendary and the work was pretty good too. As for the last ten years, well best forgotten really, after Bali it all went down hill. Remote working, travel restrictions, expense clampdowns and the pension debacle have all lead to the Company being absorbed into the pack. When I first joined it was the leader, and by some way.
Tuesday 6th November is the first day of my non-working life as I formally retire from full time employment. My pension cheque landed in my bank account, I have bought a car and booked a holiday. What more else is there to do?
Well, I think I should document the past 40 years (almost) that I have been working for IBM in the UK.
I got kicked out of college in March 1973. It was one of those Polytechnic places which the labour government were quick to change into new age universities. Ted Heath was Prime Minister, and the World Trade Centre in New York was officially opened. Watergate spelt the end of President Nixon in the USA. After hunting around for a while, I was offered a job with IBM and started on 23rd March. the next day Pink Floyd released Dark Side of the Moon. I was hoping to stay with IBM until 24th March 2013 to get my 40 years in, but unfortunately they had other plans so here I am in leisure land.
So what did I do, and where? I started in the Croydon location as a computer operator, a job I would not get today unless I had 11 A* at GCSE, 4 A's or better at A level, and a 2.1 degree in anything other than Information Technology!! So for me with my 6 'O' levels and two grade E A levels it was a case of right place right time. Indeed had I graduated in 1975 it is likely I would have struggled to get a job in the computer industry, and with Maggie Thatcher becoming Prime Minister the whole environment was about to be a whole lot tougher. A fellow operator, referred to only as 'Figs' to protect his identity, is still a regular drinking mate as is his wife Marian who was also a Croydonian.
Anyway, I pushed on through the ranks as an operator and with another great friend of mine, Mike McBride, we became the pioneers of problem and change management systems and subsequently were at the forefront of service management and ITIL evolution, something which today is a seriously recognised IT qualification.
I then moved to Sudbury Towers to become a lecturer in service management operations and disaster recovery planning, and still have my PA Joyce as a chum to this day. I remember going to her 21st birthday party in The Rising Sun, and she and I went to Hyde Park the night before Charles and Di got married, for the free pop concert.
I then moved to the City of London and Basinghall Street where I was a systems engineering specialist, wow! I transferred with the job when it moved to the spanking new South Bank building next to the Festival Hall in 1985.
It was soon after that that I had the type of move everybody can only dream of. I moved into the Chiswick office, right across the road from where I lived. Oh, the joy of running home to get the washing in when it started to rain!!
When Chiswick closed the staff were moved to Bedfont Lakes, another new location. Michael Heseltine opened it 1995. I remember being there the evening they filmed a scene from Tomorrow Never Dies. I, however went on to manage a group of UNIX nutters in Welwyn Garden City for a number of years, a job I was offered on the beach in Lisbon. If we had only had the vision, E-Bay, Lastminute and Expedia could have all been ours. Trouble was they were so focused on being techie's, growing their beards and comparing sandals, that the opportunity was lost. They were good times in Welwyn, and I must have done something right as one day I was summons to Bedfont.
That summons resulted in a chance to manage the systems management consulting group, a group which included some of the sharpest minds in the Country, and who almost without fail, enjoyed a drink. They have elevated themselves to the high points of the Company, and many remain in regular contact. Our Manchester Christmas party is still one of the highlights of the year.
At the beginning of the 2000's IBM started to rationalise its real estate portfolio, and diminish the community spirit office work generated. I was luck enough, however, to be posted to Knutsford near Manchester, now as a project manager, for a three year project which maintained that community spirit for a bit longer, and also qualified me for the Global Golden Circle award in 2001, an award which took me and SWMBO to Bali for a few days on the Company. That was a real experience.
That project followed on from a stint working for Logica on IBM's behalf and saw me work on-site at GCHQ for 18 months. Other projects took me to Saudi, Turkey and Brazil during a time when it was becoming evident that IBM and I had run our course. That feeling was cemented when a project in Scotland , involving travel to Chicago, went a bit pear shaped and saw me relieved of duties earlier than planned.
I did manage to find a role in the business recovery division at Samspon House, back on South Bank, which got me to where I am today, the irony being that the business director was one of the team I recruited all those years ago in Bedfont Lakes. He did me a good deal and allowed for an honourable exit. After nearly 40 years one would hope for nothing less, but times change and some of my colleagues have not been treated with the dignity they deserved, when they were shown the door.
Undoubtedly the first ten years were the best, parties, after shift booze-up's, 5am tee off times on the golf course after night shift, page 3 girl's and the Youngs 135 Club. The next twenty years can tell a few stories too. Family dinners were riotous, the Christmas dinners were legendary and the work was pretty good too. As for the last ten years, well best forgotten really, after Bali it all went down hill. Remote working, travel restrictions, expense clampdowns and the pension debacle have all lead to the Company being absorbed into the pack. When I first joined it was the leader, and by some way.
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