Friday news - a bit late.

Sorry no Friday update but the posts we were trying to publish kept being blocked. Everything seems to be back to normal now though. Anyway, you should all have your copies of CJS Weekly by now – Royal Mail permitting; CJS didn't receive any post over the weekend but it was collected as normal.

Back online, phew

Everything came back online late yesterday. The little man from BT phoned to say he couldn't see any problem with the line but after double checking everything we'd done he said they would check again. Five minutes later red exclamation marks became green ticks and we were online once again. AW discovered that her broadband, which is with Tiscali but goes through the same BT exchange, had also been off for most of the day so it wasn't just us then. CJS Weekly will be uploaded later today as usual.

No Broadband....

eek - We came in this morning and turned on the machinery and were met with a barage of error messages and can't do it messages. Restarted everything, unplugged and replugged the tangle of electric spaghetti and still nothing. BT say it's an 'inexplicable problem' which when we asked for a translation means it's probably at their end rather than ours - phew. It's been passsed to engineers who will report back within four hours which being charitable means by 2pm today.
However, our only connection with cyberspace is now a laptop on a slow dial-up connection. Basic services are running but so much else has ground to halt. AW has just asked, "However, did we manage before the internet?" Oh, I remember those days, it was so much more leisurely and I'm sure we used less paper!

We have owls - aren't we lucky

You may remember last year we told you about our 'daytime owl' who hoots during the day – often at lunchtime. This year it's gone one better and has been visiting us. She (we're sure she's a she!) arrives and sits on the phone wires going to the house next door - a matter of yards from the CJS office window. Some days she turns so her tummy is bathed in the warm sunshine and basks and in the pouring rain she huddles under the eaves in the dry. And then as if daytime visits weren't enough one evening she brought her owlets! None of them were in slightest bit bothered by us, the dogs or even the flash from the camera. To see the results click here.

Weather wins.

Hands down or rather rain down. For the first time in 49 years the CLA Gamefair has been cancelled. This year it was to have been at Harewood House and the CJS staff were looking forward to an outing, although not to the queuing to get there, last time four years ago we joined the queue on the M1 (I've never queued on a motorway before or since). It was a wonderful day out and sparked TB's love of Morgan horses and subsequent purchase of a beautiful colt and breeding of a half Morgan foal. The office dogs got a refresher course on what do on hearing a whistle, we all came home laden with purchases, sore feet, sunburnt and full of our adventures and all we'd seen. We hope the Gamefair will return to the northern half of the country soon. For more information about the cancellation visit: http://www.gamefair.co.uk/news_snippets.php

Friday - at last

We not dropped our new team member in at the deep end but it's been a steep learning curve (for all of us) however poor R is looking a bit bemused I think perhaps we've overloaded her.

But we've all got to the end of the week and the presses are rolling. It's a little one this week – it's been really quiet which is probably a good thing. This week's edition of CJS Weekly is 11 sides containing 64 new paid posts of which 29 were sent direct to CJS. This week we've got a few new advertisers again including a post with Historic Scotland and one with dialogue matters – we've advertised their courses before but this is first time they've been recruiting staff.

More Disruption at Royal Mail

Communication Workers Union has changed the way its members are striking, although each will still only strike for two days the strikes will be in different areas of the country and of the postal system occurring successionally over two weeks from next Wednesday (25/7). Royal Mail understands that our local major sorting office (York) will be affected on Thursday 26th. You can read updates on the situation at: http://www.countryside-jobs.com/CJS_Stuff/royal_mail.htm

Your local paper should be able to tell you what's happening local to you.

New beginnings.

Our new Team Member started yesterday.

What a lot there is to learn! We didn't quite realise what an encyclopaedia of knowledge we've built up and how much there is to say about the way CJS operates. Database syntax, SFL lingo, Cside TLAs and that's before we even think about this huge website.

St Swithin's day.

Sunday was St Swithin's day, which folklore has it that if it rains on St Swithin's day it will rain for the next forty. Well it didn't start raining until lunch time so does that mean 20 days of rain and 20 days dry or perhaps 40 days of drizzle. Watch the weather forecast to find out!

TriskaidekaFRIDAY

We're not bothered about Friday the thirteenth - are you??

So we were left in the dark yesterday. It worked out quite well as we received our first delivery of logs for next winter. No power = no computers so a spot of manual labour was a welcome change although a tonne and half of logs was perhaps a little excessive. Anyway two hours later all stacked and looking smart, the stack is four rows deep. These are mostly ash with some beech and are three-quarters seasoned should be great by October (we really don't want to light the stove before then if we can help it!). Of course we couldn't have managed it without canine assistance, Maia, on the left, and Juno. The shed to the left is where we stash the post until the postie collects - so it's a post box in disguise!!

RM workers on strike again today so your postal copy of CJS Weekly may be delayed and if you didn't receive your copy of CJS Monthly yesterday it will be, hopefully, waiting for you on Monday. CJS Weekly is this week 12 pages containing 81 new paid posts of which 42 were sent direct to CJS including several new advertisers.

No leccy!!

At precisely 09:26 NEDL turned off our electricity. It is to facilitate an upgrade of the local sub-station. How long this will take is at the moment uncertain but the information from NEDL states that the power maybe off from 9am until 4pm. CJS is operating from a couple of different locations keeping the service up and running - BUT we don't have access to the main server, that's housed in the office and consequently is also without power and therefore offline. So apologies if our usual high standard of service falls down a little bit today we should be back to normal tomorrow. Thanks for your patience.

CJS Monthly - July Edition

A bit late but yesterday the July edition of CJS Monthly was completed and was this morning collected by the postie – so RM permitting it should be with you tomorrow. It's already online and the e-minders have been sent.
Tomorrow's the day when we may loose electricity so it's possible our usual service will be disrupted; we'll carry on as normal as far as possible but it means that the online ads may not be updated until late Thursday evening or even Friday morning.

More disruption possible

Sorry, two problems this week.
First on Thursday (12/7/07) NEDL are once again threatening to cut our electricity supply for the day, we'll endeavour to carry on as normal but if they do cut the power we may end up working in several locations and will not have access to our main server.
Second, another postal strike has been confirmed for this coming week, CWU members will walk out at 7pm on Thursday 12 July for 24 hours. Once again this should not hugely affect CJS but if you're sending is job ads by post please ensure they are with us before Thursday. However, the backlog may well delay delivery of CJS Weekly to readers.
To keep up to date please read: http://www.countryside-jobs.com/CJS_Stuff/royal_mail.htm and of course keep up to date here on our blog.

3000 and counting

Monday's edition of CJS Weekly contains the 3000th paid UK post advertised since January.

There's a big, bright light in the sky and the sky's gone a funny colour – I think it's called blue!!
The ground's still wet (and it has rained for over two hours today, still you can't have everything), the garden's awash, the rivers are running but not as high as they were so perhaps an end is in sight – yes, it's called Wimbledon Finals weekend…

It's been a busy week again, we had interviews all day for a new team member on Tuesday and we think we've found a square peg for our square hole so we'll soon be able to ease off a little as our new member learns the ropes. As it's Friday the printers are rolling, Monday's edition is 10 sides long containing 79 new paid vacancies of which 34 were sent direct.

How big is that box?

This morning we received this box from a well known internet shop. It's a bit small for the new printer we thought.

So what's in a box this big….

Yes, one cable that would have fitted into a small padded envelope.

Not good..

Well, it's still raining so no change there then, the grass has not been cut for nearly three weeks because the lawn is awash but it's so wet the grass would appear to have stopped growing.
Bad news – young Bill (the latest addition to the pack of office dogs) has been lame for a few weeks and yesterday he was x-rayed which has shown a deformity to the top of the humerus where it meets the scapula. So it's another two months of restricted exercise – have you tried keeping a seven month old collie pup on restricted exercise? And then if no improvement further investigation.