SPCK, Jobs and Podcasting

Good news about the USDAW employment tribunal against St Stephen the Great Charitable Trust. 32 workers have had a payout, covering missing wages and other costs. More can be found at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8218413.stm and all the other usual places!

Ivonne didn't get the Bristol job, and has not heard from the other one yet. Imminent plans of a life in the big city are delayed for the moment! Other jobs have been applied for, hopefully she will hear back from some of those soon.

I have been playing with a voice recorder, microphone and editing software with a view to put together some sort of podcast (or podcast segment for someone elses podcast). Had a fun afternoon playing with Audacity, anyone else have any advice of really simple Podcasting tools for the PC?

Off to poker tonight, wish me luck!

10 Things

There has been a lot of work this month, but it has not all been work. Here are 10 other things I have done this month so far.

1. Played poker at the City Gate. I toyed with the idea of giving poker a break as I had not played well since the new year. Last week though I came third (out of about 12) so that has boosted my confidence. Although 3rd is still a wasted fiver it is a lot closer to the elusive tenner and the even more elusive first prize than my previous 3 performances of being last out!

2. Pub quiz at Newton St Cyres. Now that Dennis lives out that way we have been going to the pub quiz each month at the Crown and Sceptre. It is a really friendly, traditional pub. The first Tuesday of each month is Curry and Quiz night. The Curry costs about £6, the quiz about a pound, and drinks bring the total cost up to about a tenner. Both times we have been our team has won a bottle of wine. I will try and get out there with my camera and do a Pub Guide on the place.

3. Met up with ex-SPCK employees. Great to see them all again, and pretty much all the staff (apart from one) came along. Great to see everyone is doing well and planning fun trips and getting new jobs and just generally getting on with life. We referred to the situation with the shops maybe once or twice, but mostly we were just catching up with each other, which was great!

4. Played Mario Kart and unlocked the Mirror Cup. To any non-players this means nothing, but was an exciting event in my life!

5. Went to see the film Milk. It was great to see the story of Harvey Milk told in such a high profile way, and the story is a very important and interesting one, but I could not help feel it rather brushed over some of the interesting themes of the way he approached his politics and a documentary would have told the story in a clearer way (in fact there was a documentary out last year which I must seek out). Still a worthwhile watch though.

6. Watched the original Frost/Nixon Watergate interviews on DVD. After watching the film we were interested to see what they were really like when broadcast, and Dave lent us a DVD of them he bought at the stage show a few years ago. Seeing Frost back then made me realise how great Sheens portrayal of him was, and some of the extras on the DVD confirmed that many of the incidents in the film actually happened.

7. Went out to The Orange Elephant farm shop to get some nice food in the shop and some coffee in the cafe. The newly built shop is really good, but I hope it never becomes as big as Darts Farm which is a bit posh and a bit soulless!

8. Decided I do actually really like the sitcom Not Going Out, and despite thinking it is formulaic and often stupid I still end up laughing loads the whole way through.

9. Booked a holiday cottage in Cornwall. In March we will get getting away for a week in a village near Looe. The plan is to get away from computers and work and Exeter and just slow down and relax. We hope to go to the Eden project at some point too.

10. Took some photos of Exeter today. Needed a bit of air and a wander so took my camera out and wondered about taking random photos.

The first two are peering through the window at the newly restored Mint Priory, I was quite astonished when I looked in, as last time it was an empty shell!





I wont caption these, but see if you know where they are!

Blogs and F1

Well that is the end of the F1 season for another year, It simply could not have been more finely balanced! Enjoyed it very much, and I think it is good to have a British champion once more (although I am much more of a Kubica and Vettel fan).

Sorry for the lack up updates this week, I have been feeling under the weather and having stupidly early nights, have managed to fit in Burn After Reading and the new Bond film, will review them soon, honest...

Looks like I have gained some minor fame this week on the SPCK/SSG blog (http://spckssg.wordpress.com), in fact I watched tonight's grand prix with an ex-manager of the Exeter shop.

Rome - Part Seven - Spanish steps

One of the most famous tourist sites in Rome, in the past you would have picked up a hooker there, or unwittingly been enrolled into the Spanish army, but now is jam packed with people loitering and soaking up the atmosphere.

I was not expecting much, how exciting could steps be? In fact I was really impressed with the elegance and architecture of the whole area. Too busy to be romantic, but certainly has an atmosphere of its own, and from the top of the steps the view is fantastic.



I did mislead Ivonne into believing there was ice cream at the top, an honest mistake, but to be fair we did eat early that day and then find some ice cream after that!



As a vague connection with my last post, my new employer is Spanish, and it looks as though our jobs are safe for the foreseeable future, and in fact exciting new opportunities could develop from the takeover of the savings business - only time will tell! (I am an optimist, as my posts when SPCK was taken over will show (http://www.wibsite.com/wiblog/neil/read.php?19520), sometimes my optimism is misplaced though, lets hope this takeover is a little more positive)

SPCK Bookshop Exeter - R.I.P.

It looks like the shop that I spent many years working in, and was much loved by its staff and customers over the years has finally closed closed down.



Of course it was only a shell of a business in the last few years anyway, with no new stock and terrible mismanagement and sporadic opening hours (and weeks on end of being closed), but still, it is a sad sight to see it stripped bare of stock. I hope my former colleague won't mind me quoting from an email she sent me yesterday (edited to take some names and local context out).

"I saw a notice declaring a Closing Down Sale with an offer of 40% off all stock.
However, whatever staff they had employed were told this morning that the shop was closing today... later there were two men there and cartons (presumably of books) stacked waiting to be loaded. They said they had had instructions to clear everything... the entire stock was being transferred to York."

She goes on to say how upsetting she found the sight, and I have to agree (as I sure you can from the pictures) that seeing the shop looking this way, when it was once a thriving hub of activity in the Cathedral area and wider community in Exeter is very sad.







Of course for many the saga continues, the Brewers (the American brothers who took over the shop from SPCK) have found themselves in court for various reasosn in the UK and in the states, and many former employees lives have been ruined by the actions of their management. You can follow the saga on this blog http://spckssg.wordpress.com/



"...this really looks like the end of the shop."

5 Things on 2 days off

I am on the second of 2 days off work today, I had built up a fair bit of lieu time so booked 2 random days in August off mistakenly thinking the weather would be lovely...

So instead of laying around drinking cider in the sun here are five unrelated things I have been doing and thinking about in the last week.



1. I am getting rather excited about the Olympics, generally I am indifferent about most sport, but this seems an exceptionally large and important event, with all the added side news stories of human rights, smog and drugs. From tomorrow I will be glued to BBC1 and FiveLive.

2. Been watching a few films, Anchorman last night (never seen it before, and although it's very silly it made me laugh lots), some fairly poor Woody Allen efforts, Stardust, and on Sunday night re watched There will be Blood, which is just as good, if not better the second time.



3. Amazon sent me an email this morning telling me about a new book. “As someone who has purchased or rated books by Sophocles, you might like to know his new book will be released on 14 August...” amazing, after 2500 years he is still churning them out!

4. The SPCK bookshops saga rumbles on, I feel that some of the bloggers on this issue are getting a bit obsessed and occasionally silly about the whole matter, but it has been interesting to see that Private Eye magazine have picked up the story (http://spckssg.wordpress.com/2008/08/07/better-than-a-cartoon-private-eye/) and my sense of vanity notes that I got a mention on Phil Grooms blog (http://spckssg.wordpress.com/2008/08/03/sunday-sermon/).

5. Not totally unconnected from the previous point is the fact I have finally booked to go to Greenbelt this year. I was in two minds about going (saving money for the Rome trip being the main concern), but have decided to book it anyway. The year I missed going to Greenbelt felt odd, like I had not had a proper summer, or space to relax with like-minded people. I have also not seen some people for ages, such as Dave and Maddie, Ship of Fools people, Steve and all the other people I bump into year after year. The Wibsite (http://www.wibsite.com) gathering is also always an event to remember.

SPCK Bookshops and The Dark Knight

This is astonishing http://elizaphanian.blogspot.com/2008/07/my-correspondence-with-j-mark-brewer.html

I am beyond comment on this matter, other bloggers are doing a stirling job at exposing the goings on of my ex-employers.

I will though comment on The Dark Knight, the new Batman film from Christopher Nolan. Although not as great as Batman Begins this is a truly great film, and although not a comic geek I was totally drawn into the the world created by this film. The only off putting parts for me was the sonic viewing machine, which just resulted in a few confusing scenes, and the annoying thing Heath Ledger was doing with his tongue.

Former SPCK Bookshops and Blogging

It seems that the saga deepens, my friend Dave has been told by Mark Brewer (current owner of the SPCK bookshops chain, and my former employer) to take down all the posts relating to the former SPCK bookshops on his blog (http://cartoonchurch.com/blog/) or legal action will ensue. The SSG/SPCK blog that I referred to a few weeks ago has also been put into "Red Alert" mode by its caretaker owner. (http://spckssg.wordpress.com/).

This is a sorry state of affairs for all involved, and I feel for Dave who has done a great journalistic job keeping people up to date with the fate of the bookshops (both good and bad developments) to have this added pressure on him at an already busy time at the Lambeth conference (see http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/blog).

It also makes me fearful for the freedom of bloggers who are powerless against the bullying of large companies, or as in this case just someone with more money than them.

For further discussion and opinion see these links:-

The Wardman Wire http://www.mattwardman.com/blog/2008/07/23/my-name-is-dave-walker-people-posting-about-mark-brewers-cease-and-desist-notice/

MadPriest http://revjph.blogspot.com/2008/07/dave-walker-cartoonist-and-martyr.html

Ship of Fools discussion http://forum.ship-of-fools.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=010601;p=5

SPCK Exeter and the rain

Well what a rainy week it has been here in Exeter, bout 1pm on Wednesday there was a downpour that had the drains in the High Street backing up within about 5 minutes. The rain also timed itself perfectly for me going home early on my afternoon off!

I have not been out and about too much this week due to having to save money (a trip to Rome is booked for later in the year and I must ensure I can pay for that, and buy nice food and wine while I am there!), so mostly I have been staying in watching the tennis and motor racing and reading. This does not make for many Exeter things to talk about.

Last Saturday though I did meet up with some of the guys who I used to work with at the former SPCK bookshop in Exeter, 3 previous managers came along as well and we had a nice time catching up with the SPCK news (the Exeter shop is as good as closed now) and what we have been doing since we left. For those interested in what became of the shop there is a blog (http://spckssg.wordpress.com/) that gives up to date news, but warning, some of the commenters are very bitter and it does not make very happy reading!



The next Pub Guide will follow this week, I just need to get some pictures before poker tomorrow night.