(no subject)

[prepare4trouble]

 Work are moving me back to Hedon branch, but this time they want me to run the place.  I'm aware that this is down to an extreme shortage of staff, the person running that branch is being moved in to town to fill the place of a person who has recently gone on maternity leave, whose job was going to go to somebody else until she announced that she is pregnant again too and will be leaving again soon.  But still, actually running a whole branch.  Me?  I mean, I'm fairly sure I can do it, it's not like I haven't done it for odd days before, but they moved me into town to learn more about the back office role and I haven't really learned very much yet because everything is happening way ahead of schedule.  On the plus side, this is the job I was planning on applying for when one of my colleagues retires in December, which means I'll have a lot of experience of already doing the role when I apply, which is good.  On the negative side, I'm not going to get any more money for taking on a hell of a lot more responsibility.

Well, we'll see how it goes...

It's a shame though, because I've been enjoying cycling to work.  So I got it into my head that I might be able to cycle to Hedon.  It's only about nine miles away, and there is an off road cycle track about half of the way, so since I had a day off today I decided to try it out.  It was pretty good, actually, took just under an hour.  When I drive there, I can do it in about 30 minutes most days, but I have to leave earlier than that in case the traffic is bad, so I wouldn't actually have to leave that much earlier.  It was pretty tiring though, but I guess maybe I just need to build up a bit of stamina.  I probably won't do it every day, but sometimes, definitely.

In other news, the Labour party have decided that Jeremy Corbyn doesn't need any nominations to get onto the ballot in the leadership election, which makes perfect sense, as he is already the leader and someone had just come along and challenged him.  Angela Eagle's supporters aren't happy about it though, because he's way too popular for her to win, who they have had a rule passed than anyone who has joined the party since 12 January this year won't get to vote.  This is because most of those who have signed up recently support Corbyn and signed up in order to vote for him, knowing that someone would try to get rid of him.  This all seems a but underhanded and undemocratic to me.  But there are ways around it, which leaves me wondering whether I should secure my right to vote for him by paying a one off fee of £25 in the two day window they are allowing to join up as a registered supporter (I bet they will 'accidentally' have the site crash to stop people), or by joining an affiliated trade union.

Comments

[stardreamed]

Congrats!! You can do it. If it's maternity leave, it's only a few months, right? (I'm not sure how long people usually get in the UK. Actually, I'm not really sure how it works in the US, either. But, I'm covering some job duties for someone when she goes out on maternity leave, and the projected time period listed wasn't too huge, I think.) If anything, it's a chance to get a feel for the job you want.

9 miles one way?? Wow. You have more stamina than me. LOL. My usual trip is about a 7 mile round trip. And, that takes me about an hour. (Sometimes it's 50 minutes, but I don't know how. I don't think I felt like I was petaling faster those days.) Actually, I wonder if I'm gear shifting efficiently... My bike only really likes gear #7 for some reason. O.o I don't remember that being such a problem with my old bike.

That's a lot of money to register to vote. I haven't done it in a while, but I don't remember ever having to pay.

[prepare4trouble]

This isn't a normal vote in a general election, it is for the leader of one particular party and only that party's members and registered supporters are eligible to vote. I joined a little while ago, but to vote you have to have been a member for 6 months, I you haven't been, you need to register as a supporter and that's what you are paying for. To register to vote ordinarily there is no fee.

Maternity leave is usually a year here, well, I think it's 9 months with most of your normal wage and then it drops to a much lower amount for the last bit if you want to stay off the full year. Any longer and the job doesn't have to take you back. In the US I have a feeling it probably varies from state to state, but I'm sure I read somewhere there is no legal right to paid time off, and if that's the case I'd guess it'd be a lot shorter on average than here because going without your pay check for such a long time isn't an option for most people.

I don't bike long distances very often, but for some reason cycling doesn't tire me out the way other types of exercise does. I can't run for more than a few years without getting out of breath but I can cycle for ages if I keep to a moderate speed. (Going too fast wipes me out though!) I figure I'm running with very bad technique. I've only recently started using gears! On my old bike they didn't work, so I was stuck in the same one the whole time. This new one is so much better, but I'm still really figuring out how to use them effectively. I only really use about four of them at the moment.

[prepare4trouble]

It probably works to my advantage in cycling though that there aren't any hills around here. I'd definitely tire much more easily if I was going up hills, the flyover near my house is bad enough!

[stardreamed]

My usual bike route has some hills (five that stand out in particular), but, the bright side is that you get to coast down them at 15 - 20+ miles an hour. =) Of course, on the return trip, you have to bike up them. One of them in particular is really, really super-steep. I like to challenge myself how far up the hill I can make it before I walk it the rest of the way. The others, most of the time I don't need to walk them, unless my legs are already sore or I've had too long a rest. There is a good chunk of my route that's generally flat, though.

Flyover - is that something to do with an airport?

[stardreamed]

Ah. Gotcha. I've never gotten involved in something like that. My politics are different than the majority of my state (but not my home town), generally, so my vote doesn't count for much on the federal level. It only ever really matters on the state and local level. (Well, in the primary, it could have, but I was already sure which way it was going to go and it did.)

9 months? Wow. Yeah, that can't happen here. From what I know, it's treated like you're out on disability. So, depending on how big your employer is, you get so many weeks before you have to come back. (In CT, I just looked this up - it's between 6 and 16 weeks, depending on the size of your employer, before you have to go back.) And, you have to use your long-term disability insurance to do it. (Some people get an additional second plan that helps bring what you get closer to your usual take-home pay or better.) After I turned 35 and was considered no longer a pregnancy risk, my long term disability insurance rate dropped dramatically. LOL. So, you'd be in charge of the branch for quite a while. Wow.

I haven't done much running lately, but usually I'd always get a stitch in my side. I'm the same way with the cycling. :) And, I'm thinking my gears may be broken or I don't get how to operate the new controls. At least gear 7 isn't too bad. I may need to get it looked at by someone.