Showing posts with label Work. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Work. Show all posts

Monday, 12 December 2011

Some brief cheer on the road to recovery

I'm not the best of patients. The routine of carefully timed taking of tablets/capsules to ensure they are taken on an empty stomach/full stomach/with food doesn't fit in with my often full days.

That isn't a problem for the next week as I'm officially on rest. For the first time in 25 years I have been declared unfit for work and will remain so until I have been reviewed at a clinic later this week. It also means that my plans for pre-Christmas drinks have been put on hold as they interfere with the antibiotics I'm taking (well until Friday at least).

Perhaps that's just as well as I have very little energy and a hangover would probably wipe me out. I can drive for short distances but after taking a trip to the County FA to check on the new referees course, I fell asleep in the chair for an hour while trying to watch The Football League Show I had on Sky+ from Saturday night.

The good news from the course was that 25 new referees successfully completed the course and will be taking the first steps to refereeing in the professional game, once the weather improves and the fields dry out. Now it's time for the school run, to drop off my "Not fit for work" note and to check in with my GP. I hate being ill.

Wednesday, 6 October 2010

Splish splash

It never rains but it pours as just as things begin getting busy in football, work also gets busy too.

Last week saw me at the Referee's Association meeting on Monday where we heard that two County referees have been suspended for not sending in their disciplinary reports. I also had to pass on the news about the breaches of Respect Code of Conduct. It wasn't a jolly meeting.

Tuesday's meeting of the Sunday League Committee became even more sombre as we dealt with clubs who have fielded ineligible players. They were all fined and some were warned they faced point deductions for their actions. Then it was time to discuss the Respect infringements and the committee seemed happy with the course of action suggested.

On Wednesday I had to travel to Leicester for a National team meeting and I also found out I had to visit our office in Newcastle the following Monday to chair a disciplinary hearing. I had a rest of sorts on Thursday and Friday before travelling to Doncaster to undertake another Supply League assessment.

On Sunday tickets went on sale for Glastonbury 2011. I persevered through online difficulties and eventually paid my 2 x £50 deposits and by 10 a.m. I had next summer's festival all planned out. Next I booked my daughter Naomi's tickets for her and then my brother in law Neil's tickets.

In the afternoon, I had booked tickets to the World Curry Festival which was being held in Leeds. Unfortunately as we were walking across the city, the heavens opened and I found out why so many of the league and cup games scheduled for Sunday were called off. There was a river running under the marquee in which the festival was being held. I sampled many things at the festival but the chili jam had to be the hottest and the Bang bang chicken (Japanese curry) was the least tasty (tasted like earth then pepper).

This brought me around to Monday. A stressful day on two fronts. Firstly my new Supervisor was starting to work for me and had to be inducted before being set to work. Secondly, there was the trip to Newcastle which didn't go well for the person involved in the proceedings. Then as I was setting off home, the hammer blow - the main server at work which provided all of my team's work had failed.

I spent all of Tuesday trying to get it repaired as well as repairing my line manager's laptop and then dragging myself to the Respect Code Breaches meeting. These went quite well and I believe all parties left with a better understanding of what is acceptable and unacceptable.

So to today where the drama at work continued but things started getting better. I also confirmed my assessment with the referee for Friday's game at Wakefield as well as receiving a wedding invitation. By coincidence, the last wedding I was invited to was the marriage of Friday's referee ... strange world, isn't it?

Thursday, 3 September 2009

Good timing, bad timing

I was asked to referee a charity game as a replacement for Martin Atkinson of the PGMO. The organiser is an old friend/adversary and we have a healthy respect for each other, so I was pleased to be asked in place of Martin.

I then received notification of a regional meeting at work on the same day and the venue was Livingston, between Edinburgh and Glasgow, a 4-5 hour drive from home. So no chance of doing the game. Then an update from work, the meeting had been postponed so the it's game on. So far, so good ...

The re-arranged date unfortunately clashes with the County FA's seminar for 5-4 promotion candidates. Generally speaking, no attendance means no invitation to the filter fitness test, so no assessments, so no County fitness test, so no promotion! I'm going to wait until I have tried out at the distance before making enquiries about getting away with not going. So next Wednesday's practice run takes on greater significance!