A couple of contrasting photos taken from our lounge window a couple of days apart.

I didn’t realise that I’d framed the shots almost identically until I put them into this post. It’s a view we still haven’t tired of. There are coots, cormorants, swans and ducks which all visit the dock.

We saw a fox running along the dockside footpath past our window a few nights ago, and this morning his footprints were clearly visible in the snow.

Last Thursday, the company that I work for, Mistral Internet, was sold to Kingston Communications. I’m pretty positive about the change, as I think Mistral had reached the point where it was difficult to grow without more significant investment.

It’s all business as usual for the time being, and I’m hoping that this take-over proceeds without the pain of the last one I was involved in. We’ve met some of the management of our new business unit and they seem like reasonable and friendly people who recognise the value of the business they’ve bought.

I only became a permanent member of staff on 1st January, previously I’d been a contractor, so it’s all come fairly quickly. Not as quickly as it has for my colleague, Ealing Comedy, who only went “permie” on Thursday!

(The “White Phone Box” stuff is a reference to Kingston Communications’ origin as part of Hull City Council who operated the city’s own phone system, which used white phone boxes instead of the red ones used by the Post Office and later British Telecom.)