North of the Stupid Line » Ramblings

Reflection

Rob — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 22:10:04 +0000

Yes I know. I had a blogging spurt recently and then it just went nowhere and I ain’t posted for a few weeks.

There are two reasons for my apparent quietness.

Firstly, Rachel, Corey, Bump and I upped sticks from our 3-bedroom terraced house in Oakdale to a 4-bedroom new-build detached house in Abercarn.

Moving house is something I would not want to repeat. While the move in itself went well, it was a mammoth task as it took 5 trips in a Transit-sized van as well as 4 cars making several trips to move all our stuff, taking up a huge chunk of a day and an hour or so the next.

Needless to say, we love our new home and have been busy ever since putting our stamp on it. It’s so lovely to have the extra room.

The second reason is a shame. Following my post “Are there any Deaf left?”, someone took it upon themselves to contact my employer to complain about some of my comments.

Now, in hindsight I do understand that some of my comments in that post are somewhat controversial and that given my senior management post within RAD, I should have been more mindful of any implications this would have on RAD’s work and in particular the work of my colleagues on the senior management team. Lesson learnt.

What I was rather dismayed about was the fact that my comments about hard of hearing were seen as “discriminatory” and that hard of hearing people should think twice about coming to RAD/me for legal advice. I believe the two things (my views on hard of hearing people belonging to the Deaf community / their right to receive free legal advice) are completely separate. I have and do provide many hard of hearing individuals with legal advice, and have no qualms in doing so. This was rather a wake up call for me, and something I won’t be in a hurry to repeat, given my exposure to the Deaf community and the fact that hard of hearing people can access my services.

It’s a shame that my “voice” has to be stifled somewhat, but you know what? There’s more important things to concern myself with. There’s a lot more I can talk about than not without compromising my position as a senior manager and as a solicitor.

Let’s see what drivel I can come up with, eh?

Twitter and posting

Rob — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 11:48:18 +0000

You’ve probably noticed that for the last four months, the only posts on here have been Twitter Updates. I apologise for the bombardment. I’ve now turned off this feature, as I don’t think it adds anything to NotSL and for those of you already following me on Twitter, I’m sure the duplication is getting on your nerves somewhat!

I’ve been inspired to blog more often by John Walker’s Deaf Capital, as John has already written two posts of really high quality. That’s the kind of thing I want to be producing!

Let’s see how it goes. I’ve posted many times before about resurrecting NotSL with varying degrees of success, but have usually ended up where I stopped posting.

Interviewing skills

Rob — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 22:18:35 +0000

They say that the best way to brush up your interview skills is to grab any opportunity to be involved in the recruitment process, especially on an interview panel.

It really is enlightening. You learn what are considered to be “crap” answers and what recruiters are really looking for in your answers.

I’ve been on an interview panel at least 10 times in the last 8 years, and my interview skills have improved as a result (although I haven’t yet managed to get offered another job!).

So, if you ever get the opportunity, grab it with both hands!

Run! Run! It’s the Invasion of … Work!

Rob — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 08:10:03 +0000

Most of you will be aware that I’m a qualified solicitor specialising in employment and disability discrimination law.

I’m the only solicitor working for RAD at the moment, with a small team of caseworkers. As such this means when I take leave, there’s no one to take up my mantle in my absence. That in turn means I don’t usually get the opportunity to take leave without the inevitable email or deadline that simply can’t wait till I’m back at work, with the result that, you’re right, work invades my leave!

Take Friday as a case in point. I took the day off to drive myself, Rachel and Corey to Ipswich for Fellow Welshman and Suffolk Terp’s (thanks Deafinitely Girly for the anonymising peeps idea!) New Year’s/Engagement/New Job house party.

On Friday morning I was on MSN talking to a client about a Respondent’s draft Chronology and Facts which had been emailed to me around 5pm on Thursday to which a deadline of noon on Friday had been imposed to respond to with any issues, and phoning the Respondent in the same case (via my FT terp on MSN) to chase a response to our without prejudice offer of £15,000, who said they were still awaiting instructions from their client.

In the middle of all that, I had to go to the doctors to make an appointment for Corey, and then take him down for his appointment at 11.20pm. (He had a hyperventilatory infection but is ok now).

Before we left home at 12.20pm for Ipswich, the Respondent replied with a counter offer of £2,500, and I asked my client for his instructions.

By the time we arrived at a services on the M25 at around 3.45pm I still hadn’t received any instructions so chased client who instructed me to make an offer of £10,000. The Respondent then offered £5,000 which was accepted. It was 4.35pm at that point. We then had 25 minutes to agree the COT3 wording and make a full and binding agreement by 5pm so the ACAS Conciliator could inform the Tribunal that the case had been settled and the hearing listed for Monday vacated.

Talk about a stressful 25 minutes, particularly as Respondent threatened to withdraw offer if didn’t settle by 5pm.

All this on my day off!

Yes I know … !

Rob — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 18:15:18 +0000

Yes, I know … I haven’t been blogging much recently.

Yes, I know … I shouldn’t be posting if I’ve got nothing to say.

But I wanted to today! Am in the mood.

So how are my (very few) readers? Anything interesting happening?

No, nor me, except:

Corey is growing up so quickly it’s scary;
Work is as hectic as ever;
Our house has been on the market for almost a year and shows no sign of getting sold;
I’m managing to wake up at 6:45am work days (!);
Blah.

Blah.

Early mornings

Rob — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 06:04:32 +0000

Morning campers!

There’s something about early mornings. Most people aren’t early birds (myself included), but I have to say that when I manage to get my arse in gear and get out of bed before 6am, I feel a rather perverse satisfaction.

Why?

Because the world is lovely and quiet at this time of the morning. There’s a minimal number of people trying to get out and about; very little traffic on the roads; trains tend to be on time (as it’s too early for things to start going wrong); and it still dark (at this time of year anyway).

I sometimes wish I had the energy and inclination to wake up at this time every morning and enjoy a full morning.

But then again, I think I’d rather stay in bed!

The week from hell?

Rob — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 08:26:35 +0000

It’s not quite *that* bad but I think it’s coming rather close for me, Rachel and a number of friends and associates!

Here’s a list of things that have gone wrong this week:

A mega stressful week for me;
JBW’s IBS;
LE only having three hours’ sleep last night;
Corey throwing up all over our bed;
CS’ bike being stolen;
Train problems e.g. delays, cancellations, missing stops altogether (that was me last night!);
Waking up late for work;
Water infections and problems getting an appointment with a GP; and
Looks like I’ll be caught in a rainstorm without an umbrella when I arrive in Cardiff Queen Street!

And it’s only Wednesday! Jeesh!

Life is perfect, or is it?

Rob — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:16:39 +0000

I reach the tender age of 30 this year, and I do think I’m lucky in the sense that my life is perfect. My issue is, is it really that perfect? Should I, at the very least, be thinking that it is perfect?

First of all, how does one define “perfect”? Does it mean perfect as in “I’ve got everything I’ve ever wanted” or does it mean “I have everything ‘normal’ people should have”?

My life is perfect in the sense that I have a gorgeous wife, a smashing little boy, a job that I love (sometimes!) with a bunch of people I’m close to, a nice roof over my head, a fairly new car, and I get pretty much anything I want, when I want it, as I have the financially stability to do so.

However, I still want more (don’t we all?!). I’d love to get a job closer to home to reduce the amount of travelling I do (hey, I’m not getting any younger!), which would give me the added bonus of seeing my little family every single day. I want an Audi TT (preferably brand new!) and a mansion with an indoor swimming pool! At particularly stressful times at work, I want peace and quiet. I want, I want, I want … !

Does the fact that I want more than I already have mean that my life is not perfect after all? Or am I just being greedy?

Yes!

Rob — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 00:26:43 +0000

I’m still around! I know I’ve neglected NOTSL of late, but I do have my reasons!

Will see about posting a little more regularly. Have a few things to get off my chest.

Still alive

Rob — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 18:38:39 +0000

For those of who are wondering, yes, I’m still alive!

I know I’ve been neglecting North of the Stupid Line of late. I don’t really know why. I guess work has just been so overwhelming that I just can’t be bothered to post in the evenings.

There’s not much to report really:

The garage is almost complete; just the roof to go. Will post some pictures fairly soon.
I’ve relaunched Deaf Lawyers UK. If you want to become a lawyer and you’re Deaf, please go have a look, as we really want to get membership going again.
At work, we’ve launched a new webcam advice project across England and Wales to Deaf BSL users who are eligible for legal aid. It’s a brilliant, innovative project which potentially has enormous benefits for the Deaf community; making legal advice accessible to all Deaf BSL and sign language users. We all know how difficult it can be to make service providers, particularly solicitors, to provide BSL to English Interpreters for appointments etc. I will post the press release in a separate post.
I’ve got a new Communication Assistant at work – Lianne Lusty – who will also act as a personal assistant on some things. I’ve got high hopes that she’s going to stop me drowning in work!

More soon.