my week

Been busying myself this week. Starting to (gradually) win my battle of the weight. Got weighed at the doctors, and have lost 3kg. The last time I was weighed was before Christmas. I am quite pleased with my (modest) progress
Work has been depressing. We are currently in intense negotiation with the company over drastic cost saving measures.
Some people who are close friends/ work colleagues are retiring/taking redundancy tomorrow. It will be a very poignant day in work .

Pier Head

Had my first opportunity to visit the newly reopened Pier Head yesterday. The amount of open space makes it a very relaxing place to be. I think a lot of people will picnic there in the summer.
At the time of inception, I had mixed views about the Leeds-Liverpool canal link on the artists impressions. I felt it would take the character away from the Pier Head by splitting it in two. I could have not been more wrong. The canal link blends in very well with the Pier Head's surroundings. I am now looking forward to this year's river festival in June, when the narrow boats will, for the first time ever, be able reach the Albert Dock without having to navigate the River Mersey.

Ships on the Mersey

The biggest ship ever to sail up the Mersey arrived last Friday, along with the Royal navy aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal.
Here is a link to the pictures:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/content/image_galleries/09_bw_bauhinia_gallery.shtml?1

more job losses at JLR

Today saw the loss of 450 jobs throughout the Jaguar Land Rover combine. The 450 jobs, equating to a 15% cut, are management/supervisory posts, but any job loss is a family suffering. Tomorrow the management are meeting the unions regarding hourly paid issues. We are not expecting good news, only yet more sweeping job cuts, probably a pro rata 15% cut in the hourly paid workforce.
One things for certain though. I am glad we are riding this recession with a Labour government. They are at least providing initiatives to try to get people jobs, and offering real practical assistance if they cannot find work, (mortgage initiatives etc.) If the Tories were in power, I think very little help would have been forthcoming.

A bad couple of (fraught) days

I have had a couple of fraught days recently.
Bad luck 1: Got up at 5.30am yesterday and discovered my central heating boiler had leaked, (a pipe had burst during the cold spell) and had dripped through the ceiling, ruining my TV in the back room:
Bad luck 2: Discovering my insurance cover for the said boiler (new system-only 5 years old) expired six weeks ago!
Bad Luck 3: Got up at 5.30 this morning for work, and could not find my house or car Keys!! I am very organised, and leave them in the same place at all times. I checked all my coats, retraced my steps of the previous evening, still no keys!! I had to wake David (that went down well) to enquire had he used them for any reason. He had not. He helped me look for them. We looked in all the obvious places: Still no keys!
It was now 6.40 am, and I start work, a 16 mile drive away at 7am.
In a mad moment of inspiration,I decided to check upstairs. I checked under my bed, and lo and behold there were my set of keys!! What had happened the previous evening was I had a plumber round to quote me for the burst pipes. I had my work clothes still on, and, flustered, I had placed my keys in my pocket (highly unusual for me.)
I then got changed, and they must have fell out, and either myself or our dog Toby has accidentally kicked them under the bed.
I departed for work at 6.45, arriving only ten minutes late, as the motorway was empty (and yes I stayed within the speed limits!!)
My life and routine are usually quite well organised, I am not used to disorganisation and stress so early in the day!!
All's well that ends well. I think I have had my three pieces of bad luck, that's enough bad luck for the time being, here's to my big lottery win tomorrow!!!

Positive support from Labour

From today, if you are unfortunate to lose your job, the waiting time before you qualify for means tested benefits has been cut from 39 weeks to 13 weeks.
The upper threshold for receiving help with your mortgage interest has been raised £30,000 to £200,000.
These two things, introduced by a Labour government, will ease the minds of those unfortunate enough to become unemployed.
You would not get help like this from the Tories, you would be left out on a limb, as the record under Thatcher shows!

Back to work on Monday!!!

Back to work next Monday, but I cannot understand why. Nobody can get credit to buy the cars that we build. We will not be producing cars until a week next Thursday, and then only on a permanent day shift.
A single shift pattern is quite simply not economic for a car factory, and we desperately need an upturn to enable us to return to two shifts, however I feel that will be a long way off.
The supply chain is an even worse condition, several of them are already bankrupt with more certain to follow in the coming months.
We at Jaguar land Rover are fortunate in the fact we build for the World market, we don't rely on one territory, however some markets are more important, and the main ones we produced for, the U.S. and Britain, are major victims of the credit crunch, so hopefully some market or other maybe China and Russia and the oil rich Arabian Gulf states will (just about) keep us ticking over. Vauxhall appear in an even worse position than JLR because Vauxhall Ellesmere Port facility only build for the British and European market.
The knock on effect from the car industry failing is the real reason why the industry needs government intervention of some sort. There are close on 600,000 jobs that rely on the motor industry in some form or another in this country alone. Bleak times!!!