She's so...

I'm quite annoyed this morning. No, not quite annoyed - very annoyed. And all my annoyance is directed in one direction, towards one person. Let me explain.

Last week was a difficult one for me, as you'll know if you've read the last couple of entries. between the annual audit and the new computer installation, I've been busy, busy, busy. And, on the whole, most of the rest of the office have been very tolerant. Yes, there have been lots of "I don't like this new Word 2007" type comments, yes, I've been running around trying to solve people's problems, but on the whole, most people have understood that I'm doing my best and they'll have to wait their turn.

But this morning, one of the Fee Earners in the office has returned from holiday and I've had more complaints this morning from her that from anyone else the whole of last week. They have all been the sort of tiddling little settings problems that you always get with new computers, and that everyone else has got too - but for some reason she seems to think that her work is more important that everyone else's. That her computer should have been installed with no problem at all and she should return from holiday and see no difference. But she was one of the people complaining about the old computers that prompted their replacement in the first place. Now, she's demanding that her old PC is plugged back in so she can work like she used to - that would be painfully slowly then, huh? And having to deal with random crashes and what not?

So as you can imagine, I'm annoyed by this. Very annoyed indeed. It's not so much the 'can you come and solve..." that I'm annoyed with - it's the attitude. We're all muddling through at the moment. And with not much work on, it's an ideal time to do it - that's why we picked this period. I'm very tempted to just do as she wants and plug the old PC in say - stuff it, get on with it. It's your loss.

But that wouldn't be terribly professional, now would it.

What a week!

Well, what a week it has been. What a couple of weeks actually. I've been non-stop really since last Wednesday. Even today, when I've been able to get my head down a little bit, I've still not got as much done as I would have liked because other things keep cropping up. I guess it's the nature of management to some extent. Still, it's four o'clock on a Friday afternoon and I'm going to push my office work aside for a bit and after I've finished this blog entry, I'll set about adding to Chloe's Education. It's been very, very frustrating not being able to work on it this past couple of weeks when it's so close to being finished - the first draft is at least. I really want to get this first draft out of my head so I can concentrate on writing a few shorts for a while before tackling something else substantial.

I have had some good news this week. A pay rise. It's not huge, but given the current financial climate, it's a welcome reward for the past few months toil.

and speaking of the current financial climate - how did it get so bad, so quickly. We gone from a booming property market to a dead one. It's so flat I'm stunned. The weekly 'free' (by which I mean we don't pay for it because all the bloody ads inside pay for it instead - hardly any 'news' in it at all) newspaper came yesterday and the property section consisted of seven pages ads for houses. I've known it be approaching fifty pages in the recent past. It's shocking at how fast the market has collapsed in on itself. of course, the media didn't help - all the doom and gloom reporting made things worse. The market relies on how people feel about the market, so if they are being told by everyone on TV, radio and newspapers that things are terrible, they'll believe things are terrible, which will make things terrible.

I genuinely believe that we are talking ourselves into recession.

Still. I've got a pay rise. And it's a great time to buy shares if you're interested in the long haul - which I am.

I'm going to offer you a link to another free story on my website today too.

Sophie is the story of a young man who finds himself falling for the wrong girl - the young woman he's tutoring through her 'A' levels. Enjoy.

Don't forget that Lost & Found and Charlotte's Secret are still available. In fact, if you are quick, you can get Lost & Found from Fictionwise at a discount. Go on - treat yourself.

Mad Few Days

It's been a mad old few days, I can tell you. On Thursday, we, that is to say, I, took delivery of the first batch of replacement PCs for the office network. All shiny, new and super fast. So i spent most of the day unpacking and installing them. Ten in all.

On Friday, the second batch came - another 11. So I was unpacking and installing, as well as running around solving problems on the ten that came in the day before and holding the hands of those people scared to death of Office 2007 because it looks a bit different.

On Saturday, I was back in the office again, supervising the carpet fitters and installing some software that couldn't be done using a clone machine.

today, I've been running around supporting 21 child-like adults who want to know where the print icon has gone and why they can't find their templates. Oh, and I hope you haven't lost my AutoCorrect entries - I reply on AutoCorrect, you know. At the same time, I've been getting ready for tomorrow's annual audit of accounts in line with the Solicitors Accounts rules. Contacting the bank, moving boxes of paperwork and files etc.

On top of that, I've got to run payroll today, tomorrow or Wednesday - or I'll get lynched when no-one gets paid on Friday.

All fun and games really.

Now, do you think I might be able to do some writing tonight?

Cracking on.

Okay, my Google/blogger problems seem to be over. Googlemail is working okay today and I was able to post my missing blog entries to Blogger last night. If this entry posts okay to Blogger, I should be sorted.

I’ve put out a few calls in various forums for link exchanges – I’ll be updating the final page of my new look website over the next week or two – adding links to other people’s sites in return for links to my own. If you are interested, mail me privately and let me know.

I’ve also been cracking on with Chloe’s Education. I’m now into what I believe will be the final chapter. It’s all very exciting. When the first draft is finished, I may ask for a volunteer reader or two to give me some first opinions on it, but I haven’t made my mind up about that yet.

Also, I’m still not completely happy with the title – although I do have a good idea of what I’d like to see on the cover, which makes a change. I’d quite like a catchy, one word title – but I’m damned if I can come up with one.

Ellwood on Lost & Found

Here's what Leigh Ellwood said about Lost & Found on her blog yesterday.

I'm especially excited for Lost & Found, which is a nicely done romance amid the tense drama of anti-war sentiment. It could easily be a television movie with the way the relationships play out in the story. Marc is an excellent writer and I'm really hoping the audience finds this work.

I think that was rather nice of her. Admittidly, Leigh Ellwood also goes by the name Kathryn Lively, and happens to be the Phaze publisher, but that's not the point. Not the point at all.