What I've been doing

[wellinghall]

Well, I don't seem to have done anything in particular this week, but at the same time I've been pretty busy. Work has, of course, taken up a reasonable chunk of that time, with two meetings on Thursday, and a five-hour one with my dotted line boss from Preston on Friday - that left me feeling pretty drained, I can tell you.

The weekend seems to have brought with it its usual crop of chores, if not more than usual - the washing, in particular had mounded up.

I've done some reading this week - PG Wodehouse (A Pelican at Blandings) and Oscar Wilde (The Picture of Dorian Gray). Yesterday, I watched Queen's Greatest Video Hits, Volume 1, and in the evening (after the appalling Doctor Who) we watched Buster Keaton in The Navigator. Dinner itself was nice - the main course was spaghetti bolognese (sans tomatoes, due to my dicky tummy), followed by an absolutely delicious blackberry pie. And for breakfast we had blueberry muffins, with fresh orange juice today :-)

I sold some of the things that I put up on eBay - enough to make an awkwardly large stack to take round to the post office - but some didn't sell, including a few of the lots that I thought would be snapped up. I'll take some more photos later today, then re-list them.

One thing we have been doing is planning our trip to Orkney in September. Although we haven't actually booked anything yet, we are planning to fly from Luton to Aberdeen, then take the ferry to Orkney, and do the same coming back down. After a night in Kirkwall (because the ferry doesn't get in until 11), we'll be flying on to North Ronaldsay for a couple of days, to watch birds; then fly back to the Mainland (ie the main island), and stop at Woodwick House in Evie for a week and a half.

We're also going to Swaffham in Norfolk in July, for our tenth wedding anniversary. And now I'd better get off, as I've phone calls to make.

Comments

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

Blackberry pie... I'm jealous. (Orkney sounds nice too.)

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

The pie was delicious - I gobbled my large-ish portion down in record time, but Creatrix noticed when I tried to swipe hers :-(

Orkney is incredible. The nicest place I've been to - for friendliness, scenery, food & drink, history & archaeology, wildlife ... I'd move there like a shot, if there was a hope of a half-way decent-paying job.

[miss-next.livejournal.com]

sir_dave knows quite a lot about the folklore of Orkney, but he hasn't yet had the chance to go. Can one fly to the main island, or is the ferry the only way? I think he'd be interested to know.

Wodehouse and Wilde - now there's a splendidly balanced contrast for a weekend. I've read The Picture of Dorian Gray and also most of Wodehouse's work, but I don't specifically recall the title you mentioned, so it may be one I've missed.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

There are multifarious ways to get to Orkney. You can fly there from Wick, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness or Aberdeen. You can sail from Aberdeen, Scrabster (neat Thurso), Gills Bay (near John o'Groats) or John o'Groats - and this last one connects with a bus from Inverness.

The flights are expensive, cos they are all low-passenger-numbers. The ferries are variously cheap, especially if you go by foot, and / or don't have a cabin.

Feel free to pass this on sir_dave; I'd be happy to talk to him directly.

[miss-next.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I shall let him know all that - I'm sure he will find it a great help. :-)

[tovaglia.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this update. Hearing about other people's holiday plans encourages me to plan mine too!

What's a dotted line boss?

[begemotr.livejournal.com]

An absolutely delicious blackberry pie sounds absolutely delicious!

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Well, you, know, I'd say it was ... absolutely delicious.

The left-overs were pretty good last night, too, when we had them after our roast partridge :-)

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

No problem - I'm always happy to talk about Orkney :-)

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

My real boss works in the same office as me, and is my boss for all administrative purposes - formal reporting lines, appraisals, hiring and firing (if it ever comes to that!) She is the one I discuss my week-to-week and month-to-month work with, and who (if there's any conflict) is ultimately responsible for setting my priorities.

However, for actuarial reporting, I report into the group actuary (I would capitalise it as Group Actuary, except that isn't his formal job title), who works in Preston (whereas I work in Luton). He is the one who makes decisions on actuarial matters (except that a lot of them are actually made by the finance director, and some by the AFH - see below for more on this).

Decisions on actuarial matters regarding the statutory valuation are actually made by the AFH, or Actuarial Function Holder, who is an external consultant. He is another sort of dotted line boss.

Does all this seem complicated, and rather unsatisfactory? Then you know how I feel!

[tovaglia.livejournal.com]

That does sound complicated. So.... you have a line manager who is in charge of you, and also you have some other bigwigs elsewhere in the company who make more strategic decisions using information you help to provide?

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

That's quite a good summary.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

A Pelican at Blandings is a rather late (1969), and relatively minor, novel set in (and you won't be surprised to read this) Blandings Castle. To give you some idea of the plot, Lord Emsworth is worried about his pig, there are two impostors at the castle, and the course of young love is not running smoothly :-)