Monday 28 July 2008

Normal service is resumed

Back at work after my gloriously sunny (well mostly) two weeks holiday. Unsurprisingly nothing much has changed.

I spent the first part of the day wading through the 80 or so emails that had piled up in my inbox (that is after discounting all the newsletters, marketing and other junk). I spent a lot of the rest of the day catching up on projects and even worse arguing with the (still) recalcitrant office equipment. There may now be more of it than ever - but it still takes turns to really annoy me! Plus ça change.

Finally got the scanner that wouldn't scan to actually scan (hurrah). This led to five minutes blissful quiet. Then the main MFD (multi-function device... although I have some unprintable alternatives!) decided not to print. I rang our IT guy and asked if he thought it was coincidental that as one was fixed the other ceased to function. He suggested that I turn it off and on again. Printer back in business. I dropped him an email to let him know that it was fixed, and told him I should have thought of switching it off and on again (we always joke about how this is the only solution offered by helplines). His response, wryly "Trade Secret..."! The office equipment still wasn't done with me though. Some sort of power spike sent the server onto its UPS (unitineruptable power supply) - unfortunately it is extremely interuptable... it overloaded, started emitting a high-pitched wail and switched off the server. At this point (apart form wondering about the alarm) all work in the office stops as nothing works without the server *sigh*. There was another ten minutes holding the server's (metaphorical) hand through the start-up process.

By this point I'm pretty much done with Monday. This is fine as it is now time to go home anyway. Ah, but TfL and the Underground have other ideas. My phone receives a text message from the TfL travel update service. The Jubilee Line is suspended due to faulty communications equipment. Time to take an alternate route home. I walk out of the office into the oven that is Central London (thirty degrees apparently, it felt it). Now I'm thinking that the lack of Jubilee Line is no great loss. I consider (momentarily) walking to Whitehall to get the number 53. I can't be bothered it is just too hot... so I swelter on the number 9 instead, all the way to Trafalgar Square. Eventually I get the 53 and as I'm at the front of the queue (I saw it coming down Great Scotland Yard) I get a seat. Two hours after leaving the office I finally get home.