Blimey, it’s nearly the end of March already; January and February vanished in a blur of work and house move related stuff. A single post in February, the lowest monthly output in more than five years of blogging, is the evidence that I had to prioritise other things over writing. This month is only just about seeing a return to form.
Outside of work, my existence has been focused upon DIY and hassling the builder of our new home to fulfil its snagging obligations.
A Six Nations Confession
This year, I only watched about five minutes of the rugby tournament in total before the England Ireland game. In previous years I would have watched every game, perhaps with the exception of France/Italy. Typically the first match I watched in its entirety, was the only one England lost - and with it the dream of a consecutive grand slam. I don’t mind admitting that I was a bit cross about that.
Vive La Vauxhall
The news that Vauxhall/Opel is to be sold to Peugeot Citroen bothers me a lot too. When GM flogs its European operations to the French, I wonder how long the brands will continue operate. Regardless of production plants and jobs in the UK (though much risk must exist for both), why would PSA continue to operate/market Vauxhall and Opel distinctly?
The prospect that the Vauxhall brand could disappear fills me with woe. And even if it survives as a marque, would it just become a Peugeot in different clothing?
Political Bollocks
The Brexit and Scottish independence shenanigans are another source of frustration. If we were going to have another referendum, why on earth would it be to re-debate the Scottish question? Given all the shit since the country voted to leave the EU, in my mind the only referendum worth re-doing would have been that one. The questioning something along the lines of “given all that you now know and all the nonsense you have had to put up with since, would you vote in the same way again?”
But with Article 50 triggered today, it’s all a bit academic.
F1 2017
The new Formula One season is now underway and I spent the winter looking forward to the start of it. I paid attention all through pre-season testing, read every BBC News F1 related article and kept up with the qualifying in Oz.
But the actual Australian Grand Prix took place on Mother’s Day and that meant that I didn’t get to see it. The highlights on Channel 4 were shown across Sunday lunch with the extended family.
The new house thing means that the only broadband we have is limited to not-enough-a-month (so no streaming media and parental controlled downloading more generally) and so three days on, the race has still not been experienced. But I already know that Hamilton lost so a little of the motivation to catch up has gone.
March The Salesforce Be With You
In work terms, this month has been gobbled up in relentless database and data manipulation tasks. Bearing in mind that I am a communications man at heart (and by long experience) you might be surprised (sometimes I am) to know that these days I spend much of my time manipulating Excel spreadsheets and moving data in and out of a system called Salesforce. March saw me merge the data from two distinct Salesforce databases into one and, whilst that doesn’t sound complicated in a sentence, believe me it took up hours and hours of my time in terms of database configuration, data downloading, data formatting, data mapping, testing, staged uploading, duplicate record management, system reporting, new user set ups, user training etc.
This kind of work requires absolute attention to detail because cocking it up would be a disaster. For your lead generation to work, you need to have the right contacts associated with the right accounts and the right activities associated with the right contacts and the right opportunities associated with the right companies and contacts. It doesn’t sound exciting and believe me it isn’t. In fact it’s dull and stressful and I am certain that my eyesight has deteriorated this month because of all the screen work. I’ll be relying on the force (think Star Wars) going forwards…
…or maybe just some glasses from Specsavers.
Was it that bad?
No of course not. But thanks for bearing with me whilst I got the above off my chest – it was fun for me to share.
Here’s some good stuff.
And I am sure that April will be awesome, watch this space.
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Outside of work, my existence has been focused upon DIY and hassling the builder of our new home to fulfil its snagging obligations.
A Six Nations Confession
This year, I only watched about five minutes of the rugby tournament in total before the England Ireland game. In previous years I would have watched every game, perhaps with the exception of France/Italy. Typically the first match I watched in its entirety, was the only one England lost - and with it the dream of a consecutive grand slam. I don’t mind admitting that I was a bit cross about that.
Vive La Vauxhall
The news that Vauxhall/Opel is to be sold to Peugeot Citroen bothers me a lot too. When GM flogs its European operations to the French, I wonder how long the brands will continue operate. Regardless of production plants and jobs in the UK (though much risk must exist for both), why would PSA continue to operate/market Vauxhall and Opel distinctly?
The prospect that the Vauxhall brand could disappear fills me with woe. And even if it survives as a marque, would it just become a Peugeot in different clothing?
Political Bollocks
The Brexit and Scottish independence shenanigans are another source of frustration. If we were going to have another referendum, why on earth would it be to re-debate the Scottish question? Given all the shit since the country voted to leave the EU, in my mind the only referendum worth re-doing would have been that one. The questioning something along the lines of “given all that you now know and all the nonsense you have had to put up with since, would you vote in the same way again?”
But with Article 50 triggered today, it’s all a bit academic.
F1 2017
The new Formula One season is now underway and I spent the winter looking forward to the start of it. I paid attention all through pre-season testing, read every BBC News F1 related article and kept up with the qualifying in Oz.
But the actual Australian Grand Prix took place on Mother’s Day and that meant that I didn’t get to see it. The highlights on Channel 4 were shown across Sunday lunch with the extended family.
The new house thing means that the only broadband we have is limited to not-enough-a-month (so no streaming media and parental controlled downloading more generally) and so three days on, the race has still not been experienced. But I already know that Hamilton lost so a little of the motivation to catch up has gone.
March The Salesforce Be With You
In work terms, this month has been gobbled up in relentless database and data manipulation tasks. Bearing in mind that I am a communications man at heart (and by long experience) you might be surprised (sometimes I am) to know that these days I spend much of my time manipulating Excel spreadsheets and moving data in and out of a system called Salesforce. March saw me merge the data from two distinct Salesforce databases into one and, whilst that doesn’t sound complicated in a sentence, believe me it took up hours and hours of my time in terms of database configuration, data downloading, data formatting, data mapping, testing, staged uploading, duplicate record management, system reporting, new user set ups, user training etc.
This kind of work requires absolute attention to detail because cocking it up would be a disaster. For your lead generation to work, you need to have the right contacts associated with the right accounts and the right activities associated with the right contacts and the right opportunities associated with the right companies and contacts. It doesn’t sound exciting and believe me it isn’t. In fact it’s dull and stressful and I am certain that my eyesight has deteriorated this month because of all the screen work. I’ll be relying on the force (think Star Wars) going forwards…
…or maybe just some glasses from Specsavers.
Was it that bad?
No of course not. But thanks for bearing with me whilst I got the above off my chest – it was fun for me to share.
Here’s some good stuff.
- Top Gear is back (and it’s better)
- The clocks have changed so we get more daylight
- I have managed to get out running again
- I finally acquired a second-hand CD copy of “Forked Tongues” by Desert Storm without having to extend my mortgage (thank you Amazon)
And I am sure that April will be awesome, watch this space.
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