I love bacon

I love bacon.  I really do. I have a bacon sarnie pretty much ever Saturday and Sunday. I get angry if my bacon is incorrectly prepared.  I am exceptionally fussy about how my bacon is prepared.
I don't know why I love bacon so much. Well, it is truly delicious. An affordable treat. Accessible, yet saved for weekends. It cures a hangover. I've even been known to have a bacon sarnie when I've come home really late and missed dinner.
I'm also rather partial to sausage, but definitely prefer bacon.  Bizarrely, I'm not keen on roast pork. Strange.
So after much chatting with @ailsasuttie and @dougshaw1 on what number of rashers etc make the optimum bacon sarnie, I've decided to let you into the secret of what makes my perfect bacon sarnie.  I'd then like you to comment and put what your perfect bacon sarnie is.  We bacon lovers can try new styles of sarnie, broaden our horizons, or even just turn our noses up at each others (pig) ignorance! This may have been done before, but I've not seen it so I don't care ;-)
So here goes:
EITHER toasted thinly sliced wholemeal bread, mainly cooled but still slightly warm OR really fresh thinly sliced white bread.  But preferably the wholemeal toast.
THREE rashers of smoked back bacon. M&S do a particularly nice one.  It must be lean, ideally with the fat removed
GRILLED (only fried if in a hurry) until lightly crispy.  The texture must have both a slight crunch on bite then be chewy. Anaemic, flabby, unsmoked bacon is my personal food hell.
KETCHUP. Heinz, and plenty of it. Circle the bread twice with a squeezy bottle and that should hit the spot.
SERVE on a slightly warmed plate with a large mug of tea, brewed for c4 minutes, with milk (no sugar)
PREFERABLY this will be consumed whilst still in a nice warm dressing gown.


Doug? Ailsa? I'm counting on your input!


Over to you guys - let me know your bacon heaven

Mommy??!

Everyone I know is having babies, it seems.  And naturally, being 30 and due to wed next year, everyone keeps asking me if I'm going to have kids.
Because of course it is their business.
That aside (park it for another day, Betty!), it is of course something that I think about.  And it's something that I think about in consideration with my career. I love working, improving things, making a difference, making huge changes, challenging what needs to be challenged.  The thought of having a child terrifies me! Will it ruin my career?
One of the people who keeps discussing it with me is a senior manager at work who is amazingly good at what she does.  My current workload has my knees trembling, has me working all hours, I'm not sleeping and I feel sick all the time. And I thrive on being busy! This lady has more responsibility than me and has two children under 8. How the heck is she not insane?!?
Then the thought occured to me: maybe her parenting skills actually make her better at what she does? Maybe she really does know what she can and can't do with her working day - and delegates accordingly? Maybe she instinctivly shows leadership - encouragement and support when needed, and firm direction when required.
What if - gasp - being a parent (I'd say a mum but any father reading this would whinge) - actually improves our performance at work, and therefore our career opportunities??
So what do you reckon, is it time to stock up on pampers, or has sleep deprivation got the better of me?

If I...

If I smiled first thing in the morning...I would not be me
If I made it through the day without teasing my man...I would not be me
If I found my keys on the first attempt
Went camping and didn't break the tent
I would not be me

If I was less stroppy because I cared less...I would not be me
If the children in my family didn't make my heart swell with joy...I would not be me
If I didn't torment my love about the quality of his brews
But quickly relent and state 'I love you'
I would not be me

If I wanted less and worked less and settled for average...I would not be me
If I faced crises with confidence....I would not be me
If I went a whole week without kissing my cats
And calling various people 'twats'
I would not be me

I will not apologise
For being a contradictory
Bag of energy
Wrapped in laziness and half-arsed intentions
I will smile through life and all its confusions
Whilst crying at its injustices
I will love those whom I love and protect them fiercely whenever I can
Whilst giving them wings where I can to fly and be free
And hope that they never feel the fear of inadequacy, or listen when people tell them that they are not good enough, not clever enough, not pretty enough, that the colour of their shirt lets them down
And encourage them to fight when they are pawns the games of others

I will not NOT be me
Even if you're not that keen!

An ethical dilemma

Anyone who is unfortunate enough to follow me on Twitter will know that I've not been having the most fun at work recently.
I'm one of those weird people who genuinely loves their job. I love knowing that the talent that I bring in to the company can and does make a huge difference. I've loved the challenge of setting up our Graduate recruitment. I relish the trauma and insane hours of undertaking an organisational restructure.  So it's not really 'me' to be coming home every night deeply unhappy and ranting.
The main problem is - and I can't go into any details - that something happening at work is going seriously against my personal values.  And this isn't something that's necessarily unethical overall, but something that sits really uncomfortably with me.
I've put myself forward for additional opportunities and something new, and it's bitten me on the behind. I feel trapped, powerless and claustrophobic, and genuinely unable to speak to anyone about it who could make a difference.
I would genuinely love to know if others have found themselves in a situation where their personal values were compromised and what they did about it? Because I have - naturally - started to explore the job market, but equally I resent looking outside of a company that I've loved working at.
What would you do?

Baffled

So it's a Friday night and I'm home with the OH after a stressful week and starting to write a blog post, with no preconceptions about what to write about.
I'm not a prolific blogger and have written about politics, Axl Rose and my Twitter buddies. I'm a fairly prolific Tweeter (not usually in work hours though; no time!) and enjoy reading some blogs from my Twitter buddies.
I freaked out a colleague of mine (who has become a friend actually) in Operations today by sending him a message asking him why he'd been looking at my Linkedin profile.  He hadn't realised it would tell me! He said he wanted to expand his network and had noticed that I've got a fairly decent network, and that I attend interesting events, and how could he improve his Linkedin presence and make good contacts? A fair enough question to be fair! He's often offered me a double vodka for my time and opinion. And I like double vodka very much.
Here's the rub: Twitter is my guilty secret.  I have a couple of 'real world' mates who follow me, but the truth is that my friends don't know that I tweet, and that I'm Betty. It's my therapy.  It's also been a remarkable way of improving my professional network.  However, I like that I tweet under an alias (although a few by now know my 'real' identitfy and I don't especially hide it) because it allows me the privilege of having a work-based rant without compromising my professionalism.
So my friend wants to know how to improve his network. And my truthful answer is to join Twitter!!
Shall I tell him the truth??

Con-dem'd

OK the title may be obvious but after the rare occurance of serious conversation taking place today in my office, I am taking to the internet to personally highlight why I found the result of the vote yesterday so traumatic.  Having witnessed some heated debate on Twitter, I hope that those invoved will read this, and hear a new view on the topic.

In July I had the trauma of turning 30 - shortly followed by the joy of getting engaged to the most wonderful man in the world in August.  I have a fairly good job, we have a heavily mortgaged little house, and two cats.  I graduated from Uni in 2002 with what some would classify as a 'noddy' degree, but going to Uni honestly armed me with many tools and techniques that I use in my role today.

Not being from a rich family, and being the first year of students to have to pay tuition fees, I had to pay some tuition fees and to take out student loans to live.  I worked during all holidays but not during term time, requiring flexibility with my hours due to the nature of the course.  I had some financial support from my Dad, and my Mum struggled to find the money to pay my (reduced thru means testing) tuition fees. I graduated with £11.5k debt of student loans, a £2k overdraft, and having to take out a postgrad loan to put a deposit on a flat to start my first job.  8 years later, I still have £7.5k of student loans to repay, and lose over £200 per month on repayments, plus large chunks of any bonus or backpay.  When I was earning less money, I once paid off only £40 in a year follow interest payments.  I will be paying this back for years. YEARS.

I am trying to save for a wedding. My fiance works in public sector and his employment security is therefore under threat. People are asking us if we are going to have kids. Why? Why would we have kids? We wouldn't get financial support. One of us may be unemployed.  We don't have any family nearby who could support us. We couldn't afford to send them to Uni. What quality of life, what options and freedom, could we offer our kids?

I find it a struggle, psychologically, to reconcile how much money I have paid back to the student loans company. We get told 'the amount taken is so small you don't notice it'.  Do you notice £200 per month?? I sure as heck do.  And this was with a paltry £11.5k of loan debt.  Students moving forward will have the cost of living loan as well as the tuition fees (minimum £6k).  Let's say £11k per annum. How many families can afford to give that to their children?  So a graduate would leave Uni with £33k of debt, all ready to pay back when they're earning £21k p/a. Which will be when??

What kind of government is this? One that saddles these young adults with a life sentence of debt before they've even really started? That decides that education is a privilige of the wealthy, rather than a right of the able?  And to think that my Lib Dem vote actually ended up supporting this sickens me.

Violence is abhorrent and wrong and the scenes yesterday appalled me.  But I can understand why it happened.  We have witnessed hope being taken away from a new generation for no justifiable reason.  This money isn't going to be reinvested in HE.  So our University system will be the most expensive - and yet possibly one of the lowest calibre - in Europe?

I wish I could make millions so that I could set up bursaries for these bright and capable individuals to attend University.  I wish I could take my vote back.  I wish that our MPs really did do what the people who voted for them really wanted.

If you have made it to the end of this post without wanting to call me a 'leftie' then I thank you.  I wanted to share a little bit of my life, my thoughts, in a rare moment of being serious.  I could go on for hours but I shan't.  If you support our students-to-be, please re-tweet, and let's see if between us we can think of what we 'ordinary' people can do to help people get the education they deserve.

Bums and Noses

Ok maybe a childish way to start a post, but for those of you who follow my Twitter you'll know that I was fool enough to fork out money to see Guns n' Roses this week in Manchester. Yes, I know they're past their best, but we saw them about three years ago and they were pretty darned good! So decided to treat ourselves - £50 per ticket!! - on a wet Monday night.

So basically, in a nutshell, we went for a curry, went to the Arena at 8, they were scheduled to be on stage at 8.30 and we expected them on at 9-9.30. Axl Rose, notoriously mature and reliable, is always late on stage.  This we know. It's relatively amusing. And, as my future husband said (in an eerie moment of foresight) "Let him be late; it is all he has left".

He wasn't kidding either. He certainly doesn't have his voice left. But I'm jumping ahead.  The complete prat actually came on stage at 10.40.  We left at around 10.52.

The reasons are many.  But the worst reason, the complete truth, is that I couldn't watch him. It was uncomfortable. It was like watching an aged, fallen beauty get trashed at a party and try to cop off with young handsome men. It was like being in Yates's on a Friday night. It was....just.....horrible.

The problem is that Axl still thinks he is a legend. And he's not. He's an older gentleman. He looks like Obelix. And yet in his deluded mind he is a God.  But his voice has gone. That amazing wonderful voice that horrified our mothers in the 80s and 90s has gone. And he has nothing left. Lacklustre musicians pretending to be Slash. The most entertaining thing was the fat streaker, who they actually let back in after throwing out. Tells a story that does.

I learned a lot on Monday night.  I learned that sometimes in life, you have to accept that your star has fallen. you have to accept to move on and not live in the past.  You have to realise what and who you are and live accordingly.  He could have gotten away with it if he'd sent himself up, had a bit of humour even!! But no.  Mr B's observations were along the lines that he's rich, has all the money in the world, and can do what he wants. Never mind the people who work their arses off to pay £50 to see a washed-up moron try to re-live his youth (hmmm, perhaps not quite over the rage then??).  Mr B thinks that people who are rich, proper rich, have their own rules and their own way of life, and constantly look for ways to torment the underclasses.

I believe in living a long rich and fulfilling life. I also believe in breaking the rules and having fun and being cheeky and disrespectful when required. I also believe that you can't polish a turd.

I broke one of my own rules in the car on the way home, by uttering a phrase that had one of our managers at work said it to me, would have met with my response of " would you like some wine? to go with your cheese?".  I turned to the lovely man next to me, who has never been a rock God and never will be, and was so happy that we'd had the evening together and had this daft experience, and said to him "You know what? I'm far richer than him".

Cheesey and awful? Yes. True and heartfelt.  GOD yes!