It’s been a while since my last proper blog post, I guess its down to lack of time, if you like – or at least lack of time to think about things. Being away with work on your own presents you with such pockets of time in which to reflect.
I’m out on the road this week. Covering for a workmate because he’s just become a daddy (awwww). I’m equipped with a rental car, some servers and some UPS’s and rack mount kits. The UPS’s weigh a bloody tonne! – especially when you’ve got to carry one up stairs and through a good hundred meters or so worth of classrooms. I managed to get on site about 30 minutes early which is a good job, it turns out that the guys had to be off for around 3:30 as the place gets locked up fairly sharpish by the caretakers (how I miss working in schools during the 6 week holidays).
Its great to get out from behind the desk and meet the customers face to face – its something I really enjoy doing and I’ve always liked delivering training (I almost went down that route of technical training and I still think from time to time about the possibility of getting into teaching IT), passing on information, knowledge is satisfying. There’s nothing quite like it.
So my rental car – a white Vauxhall Astra Estate. It’s not bad, it’s taking a bit of time to get used to driving a petrol engine again. I can’t believe how fast the tank seems to be emptying – I can see myself filling the thing up 2-3 times this week (I might fill it up tomorrow night when I get home just to be on the safe side as I’ve already used 1/4 of a tank of fuel). Today was the first time I’ve really driven anywhere on my own – especially for work. I’ve driven back from Bridlington a few times and from York plenty of times. This was pretty much a complete first for me though. I really enjoyed it. Aside from my arms hurting (damn that UPS was heavy). It’s amazing just how tiring it is driving from place to place too – it takes a lot of concentration and it can feel quite draining. I’m more tired tonight than I have been for a while. Don’t think I’ll be having all that late a night to be honest.
I’m sat in the Premier Inn now, or rather I’m lying on my bed, propped up with pillows (the chair by the desk isn’t really all that comfortable). It’s only about 1hr 45 from home but since I have another installation less than 3 miles away from here tomorrow it seemed silly to do another 170 miles home and back on top of what I did to get here when for the sake of a hotel room cost I can save some fuel (and some time). I can’t believe how many times I’ve stopped in a hotel with work since the start of the year – it’s fun but its not something I could do week in, week out. It’s nice to know that work have the confidence to send me out to customers to do installs too – it’s also good for them to know that if it comes to it and we need someone to go somewhere in a hurry, I can go.
Today didn’t go too badly, aside from not being able to get something working when it really should have done. I spent a little too much time trying to troubleshoot it rather than just leaving it for us to sort out remotely. Problem is a lot of what I was planning on doing training wise hinged on getting this thing to work. It became apparent that I wasn’t going to be able to get the thing up and running so I had to call it in to support. I then overcompensated by going too deeply into a few bits and pieces but most importantly I left with the customer feeling happy and satisfied with the job.
The hotel is connected to a Beefeater, breakfast tomorrow morning is paid for but Dinner tonight I have to pay for and claim back on expenses. “Table for one?” came the question as I waited patiently by the “wait here to be seated” board. I expressed my embarrassment at having a table for one but she told me they regularly had tables for 1. The glamorous life of a travelling businessmen, eh? Fillet steak was very “meh”. I should have gone for the rack of ribs or the mixed grill, maybe even the burger. Still at least I’m far away enough from the pub for any noise to not reach up here. I mentioned in a tweet it was rather strange to be sat in this restaurant by myself. I kept expecting Sue to walk back in from the toilet or somewhere but she never appeared. I guess I’m used to chatting and making small talk over a meal and when its not there I feel a bit strange. It’s like eating food on my knee at home in front of the TV without the TV and in a large empty restaurant…..so not very like that at all I guess.
I’m glad the install tomorrow is at 9:00 – it gives me plenty of time to get everything working and explain the system to the customer. As long as I don’t encounter any problems tomorrow, things should flow a little more smoothly too. Depending on what time I finish I’ll either head back to the office or head straight back home. I need to pop in either tomorrow afternoon or very early (pre 7:30) Wednesday morning to pick up the gear for the install on Wednesday. The customer has asked for as early a start as possible from around 9:30 so I’m going to aim to get there in good time so we can get started.
The install on Thursday isn’t too far away although theres the potential for a lot of driving as I head down to Birmingham for that installation on Friday. Busy week. Just hope my back holds out with all this lifting and driving :p
Its made me realise just how weird this sort of a job can be in relation to an 8:30-5pm job. As soon as I parked up in the school car park I wolfed down my sandwiches I’d packed this morning and went out to the school. I was about 30 minutes early but I’m glad I was since I encountered a few problems. I didn’t stop until 3:30 and then I drove to the hotel. Makes you realise how lucky you are to have things like lunch breaks in the office and stuff – out here you’re at the mercy of the installations diary and you have to work around that. If you encounter problems it means you might miss lunch, you might not be getting home until later, much later.
I was planning on doing some coding but I just don’t think I have it in me tonight. I just want to lie down and watch a movie – I’ll see if theres anything decent on freeview in a bit, if not I have ghostbusters 1/2 and the back to the future trilogy on my laptop to keep me going.
To sum up – I’m having fun, but sometimes I think this should be a 2-person job (especially with the weight of some of the kit!), though probably more so I have someone to talk to over dinner. Still, I guess the flipside to the table for 1 scenario is the waitress thinking that you and your installation buddy are a couple…..
