It's taken me a long time to get round to saying this... but I'm back in Southend having lost my job. The company I was working for, A1 Fasteners in Eastleigh, 'released' me at the end of my 3 month trial period. Their reason - I was lacking the knowledge and skills they required for the future of the company!?! So, having worked in the same industry for 17 or 18 years that was a bit of a surprise. But, the real reason they 'let me go' isn't something they'd willingly discuss with any of their customers. The real reason was in fact, that I'd put getting goods to a customer on time first - before making a profit. I'd actually made a loss on the order! Yes, to prevent a customer losing a contract, I was losing the company £80.

When the higher powers were discussing it with me and why I'd done it, I never mentioned all the orders that I had made a profit on. Not even the order for £2100 that I made about £700 profit on! I didn't even mention the hours and hours of work I'd saved them on labels for Knorr-Bremse kits. They were actually photocopying A4 cad drawings on to A4 sized sticky labels by the 100's, then cutting out a small box of info from the middle of the page to stick on the kit packages. Whereas I just edited them with Paintshop Pro, imported them into Illustrator and converted them into PDF files that could be printed directly on a roll of labels. No waste paper and no time spent cutting them out, it took me about 5 minutes to create each label and they were printed at about a label/second. And once the label was created as a PDF all they have to do is print them off - as many as they want in next to no-time

As it happened, I was already thinking about looking for another job as I was sick to death of having to 'mis-inform' customers about why they hadn't received their deliveries. But I was hoping to last long enough to get relocated to the area and then start looking.

If you happen to be an A1 Fasteners, Croma Industrial or Gluelines customer and you are reading this, then good luck. You might want to ask them why most of the old A1 Fasteners staff left? Or why some staff are working a 55 hour week? Or why you never get what you want when you want it?
Remember - there are plenty of other fasteners companies in the area!

The Olympics

I've got to say, the opening ceremony to the Olympics was absolutely amazing. The sport side of it I find totally boring but hey, at least the football season has begun LOL. When we host the Olympics in 2012, we are going to have to come up with a hell of a show to beat the Chinese - and somehow I just don't see it happening, do you? In fact, it'll be bloody amazing if we even get everything ready on time when you think about how late Wembley Stadium was.

Other Stuff

Firstly, a BIG thank you to Carl & Karen for putting me up and putting up with me for 3 months.
Secondly, a BIG hello to everyone who has joined the Canute Facebook group and to those likely to be attending the Canute Reunion at the Firehouse Pub, also to the old rockers in Recluse who look likely to be doing the gig there.
Lastly... I'LL BE BACK!

This is the second weekend in a row that I've come back to Southend to see the wife and kids. Last weekend wasn't particularly eventful - just a nice quiet weekend with a 2 1/2 hour drive there and back to Southampton.

But this weekend has been quite interesting. Firstly, I didn't realise until Friday that it was Southend Airshow. So I expected to be able to get some good photos or video of the various planes flying over the seafront. It's generally quite good because the view from our balcony allows us to see most of the action without having to struggle through the massive crowds. Needn't have worried too much this year though, Sunday ended after about 5 displays due to low cloud. Though we did get to see the Red Arrows first. Worse still, today being bank holiday Monday, we had typical bank holiday weather which left the skies empty of everything but rain.

Nevermind', I said to the wife, 'Peppa Pig is at the Victoria shopping centre and the kids will love that!'. So off we went, did a bit of shopping then decided to hang about and see if we could see Peppa Pig. Sure enough, after about fifteen minutes of waiting, I spotted Peppa Pig and George upstairs, or at least, 2 people wearing Peppa and George suits!
Both myself and another dad, watching these people wearing great big pig outfits and heading towards the escalators, were hoping that they would end up tumbling down the escalators, nut the spoilsports decided to use the lift instead.

Anyhow, it wasn't long before these big pigs were surrounded by a hoard of young excited kids, ours included. I took some photos and the wife, armed with her new mobile phone, took photos and video clips. Our kids excitedly wandered back and forth between Peppa and George. When the wife started videoing it on her phone, I didn't realise she was doing it and better still, we didn't realise what she would capture. My son certainly didn't realise what was going to be caught on video and neither did Peppa Pig.

As the above headline suggests, yes... Peppa Pig HIT my son! He grabbed hold of this giant Peppa Pigs nose and pulled it downward and received a smack around the head! I was gob-smacked. I saw it but the wife, still videoing on her phone didn't notice. When I told her she burst out laughing in disbelief! So here it is, the moment my son was assaulted by a childrens TV character....

(watch carefully, Peppa is behind George and he is the boy in the red and blue t-shirt)

Well, hopefully this is my last post as a resident of Southend-on-Sea. I'm moving down to Totton, Southampton, tomorrow. I didn't expect to be doing a post here as my computer has been playing up... freezing for no apparent reason, but it's been fine all day today. The wife is now moaning that I'm spending time posting this instead of spending time with her LOL!

It is gonna be weird being away from the wife and kids for a few months, but hopefully it will all be worthwhile in the end. Just got to find somewhere to live now.

So, farewell and good riddance Southend... I won't miss it one little bit!

The end is nigh... one of those sayings that people have ridiculed for years. I don't even think there are any people walking around with signs saying that anymore. It's just too ridiculous to be true... isn't it?

Maybe? Or maybe not?
But I think I might be the first of a new breed of doom mongers. An internet doom monger. I'm starting to believe the end IS nigh!

I'm not talking about a massive meteorite hitting the earth and causing a global catastrophe or anything like that.
No, I'm talking about something a lot more realistic. Something a lot more disturbing in many ways.

I'm talking about the end of Civilisation as we know it!

The way things are going at the moment with global warming (whether it's a man made problem OR a natural occurrence), which is affecting food supplies and causing shortages in basic staple products, which in turn leads to an increase in food prices, which in turn leads to higher wage demands, which in turn leads to price increases for other products. And they are just small parts of the chain reaction.

Then there is the situation with oil.  The worlds oil supplies are running low and it's only a matter of time before we run out completely. But regardless of that, the price of oil keeps rising and rising and that also affects the prices of transport, heating, food and virtually every other consumer product. Again, this also leads to a demand for higher wages. And with banks refusing to lend money because of the global economy situation being so bad, it's only a matter of time before things start to turn very ugly.

When I say 'ugly' I mean:
War - countries may go to war to attempt to secure valuable resources (water, oil, wheat, rice etc.).
Civil War - one part of a country might start fighting another for resources.
Rebellion - the man in the street is getting more annoyed. Put enough of them together, make them angry enough by not giving them enough cheap food, housing, clothing, security etc., and that's where we're headed. Those who remember the riots in the 70's & 80's will know how quickly these things can spread.

It may sound like madness. But in psychology there is a well known theory called 'Maslow's hierarchy of needs' (click the red writing for more details). It explains the  basic needs that every human requires for a happy, fulfilled life. You start taking away the basic needs like food, water, shelter, heating, clothing etc., and the human race as a whole will turn against those it sees as being responsible.

Unless something is done, and soon, to turn the tide of unhappiness that is spreading through our country and other countries worldwide, then the human race has a very bleak future. It may not be 'just around the corner' yet, but it's something we are well on the road to.

Can you imagine life without cars, computers, the internet, TV, electricity, heating, lighting and many of the other luxuries we have now. Think about it... and think about what life was like in the dark ages.

That's where we're headed!