[OT] End of an era

["Keith Doxey" <ukha@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi All,

Today has been quite an emotional day for me. After 28 years and 218 days,
I
have taken voluntary redundancy from BT and no longer have to spend three
and a half hours a day travelling to and from work. (if anyone used to use
my bt_dot_com email address, phone number or mobile number please dont try
these anymore as I aint there!)

I dont think the full impact has sunk in yet and at my send off this
afternoon I was "blamed" for causing three or four of my
colleagues to
install loads of CAT5 and other associated HA hardware.

Ironically because of the amount of time I was away from home each day and
the fact that any "spare" time I have had has been devoted to
KAT5 means
that I havent done any Home Automation in my own house for almost 4 years
:-(

So what does the future hold ???

I havent got a bloody clue !!

I know that first off I am going to have a rest for a few weeks and spend
time with the family.

I also need to start hunting for a nice new laptop as I was relieved of my
trusty laptop and mobile phone this afternoon and sadly feel like part of
me
is missing.

I also hope to become a more active member of UKHA_D once more as for the
last couple of years I havent really had access to the list during the day
when it is most active and trying to properly read upto 100 messages in an
evening is very difficult. It also often makes it pointless to reply after
10 hours especially when there have been several other replies.

Probably the most dramatic thing I am contemplating is getting fit!
I think that I have been a "big bloke" for far too long and
should now have
the time to lose  a bit of weight. Sitting in a car or at a desk for 12
hours a day doesnt really count as energetic.

I now have the Mk2 KAT5 PCB's designed and tested so will be ordering the
first run of boards next week and I have a company that will assemble them
for me so I can now devote time to getting the switcher finished at last. I
am painfully aware that the switcher is long overdue but it has been
extremely difficult to find the time to work on it. That will now change.

Then it will be time to start thinking about finding a new
"proper" job
because there is still 15 years until I can get my BT pension!

I honestly dont know at the moment if I have made the right decision, only
time will tell, but I do know that the journey to work was taking longer
and
longer each day and all the so called "safety improvements" made
to the dirt
track that is the A12 north of Ipswich have actually made the journey far
more dangerous.

So... the end of one era... the start of the next... looking forward to the
SmartHome show in a few weeks. Anyone got a suggested hotel in the area?

Regards

Keith