What next? The Gruffalo joins as Personnel Manager?

If you go to Google Maps and look at the satellite picture of BS8 3RA (or if you've visited, like Dad and Jenny), you'll see that the head office of the company I work for has woodland around three sides of it. (Apparently the house was built by Bristol's first millionaire. Unfortunately, I think he made his money via the slave trade. I haven't yet confirmed this via wikipedia.)

So I'm used to seeing rabbits (there are loads of rabbits) and sometimes deer, either when walking around at lunchtime, or even when driving in.

But yesterday, I was driving out along the road, and saw a couple of cars stopped up ahead. I slowed down and looked at the road, and I saw the most exciting thing ever. The cars had stopped so a momma duck with three ducklings following behind, in a straight line, could cross the road, just like Make Way for Ducklings.

It was the awesomest thing ever.

I think next time I'm out walking near work I'm going to scour the woods, because The Giving Tree must be around somewhere...

SeanSean

It's been a couple of weeks now since I was introduced to SatNav. In those two weeks, I've been to (googlemaps UK at the ready, everybody?): Slough, Plymouth, Exeter, and Mitcheldean in the Forest of Dean, for work and to South Wales for pleasure (to look at motorcycles with Mark).

I used the SatNav on all of these occasions and so far, it's going pretty well. I've tried out Sean, Ken, Kathy (briefly) and Bonnie. They're all quite companionable and it's going to be difficult to choose who I want to spend the rest of my (driving) time with.

Kathy, unfortunately, was in the car when I had a sort of bad driving morning (a bit lost, even with the SatNav, stupid drivers, etc), and I don't like the way she says "roundabout" (which, as you can imagine, she has to say a lot), so I think I'm probably going to leave her in the dust.

Ken is nice and we had a good trip to Plymouth together, but he's just not Aussie enough for me. I don't need Crocodile Dundee, but could do with Baz Luhrmann.

Bonnie is great because she reminds me of home. It's like having a college friend in the car. The best part is that she calls it the "highway" rather than "motorway," which makes me feel cozy and comfortable and brings back memories of roadtrips across the States. One issue is that it makes me feel a bit too nationalistic to go with the American voice. (I guess I could just use it in the privacy of solo drives, and switch over when other people are in the car, but that seems a bit extreme.) The other problem is that she uses the word "rotary" rather than "roundabout" which just sounds goofy to me. And, as mentioned previously, she has to use the word a lot. So I'm not too sure if I can commit to a long-term relationship with her if every other word is going to be jarring.

So that leaves Sean, dear Sean. When I arrived at the meeting in Slough, where I met two of my colleagues, I made some comment about the SatNav. We talked about it for a little bit and it transpired that all three of us, (all women - I don't know if that had anything to do with it) had chosen to be with Sean. I hate playing the favorite, but it looks like it's just the way of the driving world.

At least until Sean Connery decides to license his voice to TomTom. Now THAT's a voice I could commit to.

Driving Miss Bonnie...Sean...Jane...Ken...

I just started my new job (even though I'm still doing elements of the old one, until the project wraps up at the end of March). It kicked off on Friday, but today I had my first official meeting with my new line manager, so today felt more like the first day. I'm excited about it, because there is a lot to do, and it's a completely new role so I'll get to shape it as I go.

But one of the aspects of the job is a decent amount of driving around the region, which a lot of people in the company do. This isn't a big deal, but recently the organization decided to invest in SatNav for everyone. So I got a new TomTom last week, and took it for its first spin today.

The Mazda is getting a tune-up, so Mark and I commuted together this morning in Noddy (the Honda). We knew where we were going, but I wanted to try it out, so I plugged the TomTom into the ligher and fired it up. There was a lot of set up and we soon had to make the biggest decision of all - which voice to use.

I had a listen to each and there were a few contenders. There are a mix of accents to choose from (and languages, if I could use if I could remember any of my high school Spanish, which I don't, unfortunately). There were a couple which I just couldn't imagine listening to for more than the 10 second test message, but there were more viable options than I had expected.

There was Jane, the Brit (very BBC, nice to listen to, doesn't grate on the nerves), Bonnie, the American (not as annoying as the guy American, I don't remember his name, sentimental, reminds me of home), Ken, the Australian (although not as strong an Aussie accent as one could have hoped - I guess they were trying to avoid the "Crocodile Dundee" stereotypes) and Sean, the Irishman (Kathy, the female Irish voice was in there with a chance, but Sean had a more obvious lilt, I think).

It was a tough call, but I went with Sean in the end. There wasn't one with a Scottish accent, which I think probably would have won the day, but Sean is quite nice. I might have to give the others a spin, maybe for a change of pace, or if Sean and I have a falling out.

Tomorrow is going to be the real test, because I have a 2 and a half hour drive to Slough to do, which I'm not exactly looking forward to (you may not know where it is, but it was where the fictional company in the original British version of The Office was located, so make your own conclusions). So we'll see how we do.

It could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.