Small improvements?

A couple of hitches today.

The most obvious being that, having finished today's magazine at around 4.45, it was un-finished for us by one client slip-up and one Sales slip-up.

The former was due to a lack of communication between two business partners, the latter due to a cross-sale that went unsupervised while the Salesperson in question was sick and off work.

Tsk.

Still, we only ended up staying about 10 minutes late... even if that was, technically, 50 minutes later than we finished. And, hey, any waiting around after 5.30 on press day now costs the sales team in question £50 per head in Production.

The thing that really bugged me was the self-congratulatory conversations going on between the members of the sales team, who sit pretty much right behind me thanks to this damned silly open plan office. "I think we've done really well this month," is becoming their monthly mantra... They may have been better than average last month but, this time, having had an extra week to sell and dropping 24 pages (including 4 pages of Editorial which had already been set because the Editor got her work through on time) to give themselves a manageable target, they were still selling on press day. Even the Classified team did better (though they confessed that might be partially because the new girl has inherited one of the most organised folders we have).

I'm sorry, I just cannot congratulate them for this continual mediocrity. Honestly, how can they be proud of themselves when their magazine is 24 pages lighter than predicted (according to the new predictions which take the flagging economy into account), following 5 weeks of selling time, when they'd normally have 4... Though, technically, that's 5 weeks of selling time when it should be 3, as they're meant to close a full week before we go to press.

In other news, my flat has new windows. Unfortunately one will have to be replaced in due course because the glaziers 'forgot' to install the extractor fan in the kitchen window.

I'm basically livid, because they did such a good job with the windows in my parents' house and yet this '2-day job' turned into a 2 and a half day job which still isn't finished.

At least the kitchen still seems under control. Measurements were checked. Example handles were passed to my mother for approval by me. Images of a slight redesign have been emailed to me.

On another subject, can anyone tell me what the hell was going on in the Olympics (Paralympics, specifically) handover ceremony? Did Lord Nelson really play guitar, or did I imagine that? Seriously, three words sprang to mind: sweet monkey jeebus.

And, come on Mr Johnson, would it really have hurt to tidy yourself up a bit? Maybe do up the buttons on your jacket? Just one, perhaps? It honestly would make you look (slightly) less like an Orang-Utan.

Edit: OK... My PC really is worrying me. Before making this post, all my browsers crashed. I tried to restart and it didn't even finish shutting down, let alone get to restarting. I turned off the power, waited, turned on again... nothing.

So I pulled the power lead out and tried again, with some success... and I was able to make the first draft of this post.

But then I shut down, plugged back in and restarted... Only to find I'd lost my modem. For the umpteenth time.

Reinstalling it seems to have worked (as usual), but this is really starting to annoy me. I have now backed up what I consider to be my most important data... And I think it's time to seriously consider a Mac. Almost.