After 10 months of struggling to get it approved by senior management, today we finally interviewed candidates for the post of I.T. Support Team Leader. 😀

Having someone to manage the first-line support staff and make sure the Helpdesk ticks over efficiently will be a huge help to me. I should now be able to get more involved in technical matters again and keep a closer eye on the systems support team.

Two members of the team applied for this post and both did really well in their applications and interviews. It was a tough decision but I’m happy with the choice we made. It’s just a shame that the unsuccessful applicant will now probably want to move on and will no doubt start looking for work elsewhere. The next few weeks will be interesting. 😕

I’m already finding it difficult to change the way I work and have already caught myself assigning work directly to the Helpdesk team several times. I need to stop doing that and always go via their new manager. I remember how annoying it was when that happened to me when I first got the Team Leader job. 🙄

I must admit it’s nice to be able to delegate jobs knowing – rather than hoping – that they’ll be done without me constantly checking up. 🙂

To cap off a shit week, I missed out on getting tickets for the forthcoming Milan game. 😥

I was supposed to pop down to Old Trafford to buy them on Saturday morning, but I had to come into work and couldn’t get away before the ticket office closed. The same happened again on Sunday but, no problem, the website says Monday will be OK too.

I nipped out of work mid-morning on Monday to get them but, when I got to the ticket office, I could already hear the bloke saying “Sorry, completely sold out” to people in front of me in the queue. I couldn’t believe I was going to miss the biggest game of the season, having bought every single ticket leading up to this game, including crappy League Cup and FA Cup early rounds. 👿

Just as I was about to leave, I heard him say “Oh, we’ve just got these 20 returned tickets back”. Five people ahead of me in the queue – would there be any left by the time I got to the front? 😯

Yes! I managed to get three tickets… but in North Stand Tier 3. I’d rather not bother, thanks very much. It’d be better watching it on TV. I took them anyway and sold them on – at face value – to someone who doesn’t get to go to many matches.

Gutted. 🙁

Edit: If anyone has a spare, please get in touch.

The last 10 days have been a bit of a nightmare at work, hence the lack of blog updates. 🙁

A major problem with the college network was discovered last week. We’ve noticed a few performance issues recently but early last week we got reports that packages were mysteriously closing down for no apparent reason. Upon investigation, it became apparent that we were losing data packets occasionally which was causing brief interruptions and disconnecting users from network drives. 😯

Trying to pinpoint this problem has been a nightmare – partly because there are over 2000 devices and about 40kms of cable/fibre to check; partly because there are dozens of overnight scheduled tasks which can’t be interrupted; partly because there’s only a couple of us prepared to work outside normal hours at short notice. 👿

Having worked long hours last week when the problem first surfaced, I had to come in on Saturday as well. Then, from home on Saturday evening, I realised it was still happening so came in on my own on Sunday. Still not able to fix it completely, I started work at 4:45 on Monday morning too. After a second week of long hours the problem is still not entirely resolved, but it’s acceptable for now. 😕

Fixing this properly is going to mean working outside of regular business hours during half term week. It won’t be optional for those who didn’t volunteer for extra hours this week. And I’ll be on holiday. 😎

I’m shattered though. 😐

We arrived early for tonight’s game but our usual free car parking place was already full to the brim. I had to mount the kerb, park in the bushes and climb out through the passenger side. 👿

Having looked less than impressive against Aston Villa and Middlesborough over the Christmas period, I wondered whether Spurs might cause an upset. With only one fit striker, Alan Smith, available for selection tonight, it was difficult to see where the goals would come from, so I opted for one of William Hill’s strange “how many corners will there be” bets. 😕

Heinze, Ferdinand, Keane and Scholes all did reasonably well but the others were poor. Giggs went off injured early in the first half, replaced by the very-fast-but-very-average David Bellion. Silvestre, Phil Neville and Fletcher gave away posession more times than I cared to count. Smith did OK but needs a partner up front. Ronaldo had one of his off days and, in an odd substitution, was replaced late on by Jonathan Spector, allowing Ferdinand to move up front as a makeshift striker. 🙁

Spurs defended well and barely threatened until the last couple of minutes of the game, when Pedro Mendez tried a lob from virtually the half way line. Carroll fumbled the catch and dropped the ball into his own goal – it was clearly over the line but somehow both match officials failed to see it. 😯

I’m sure they’ll be talking about this one for years to come because it went in United’s favour. Of course they’re quick to forget about the legitimate goal Paul Scholes scored against Porto last year which was ruled out for no reason. Swings and roundabouts. 🙄

Chelsea increased their lead with a win against Middlesborough, but we missed an opportunity to catch up on Arsenal who were held to a draw by City. We’re now 11 points behind Chelsea and I can’t really see them slipping up, so I think we’re playing for second place now. 😐

Edit: There were 10 corners. I’d put a fiver on there being 12 or more. 😥