06/10/2007 by Mark.Whalley.

As I have said before, the boat was bought to primarily serve one purpose; to provide accommodation for me when working away from home as a contractor. When originally purchased, I was based in Kingswinford – right in the heart of the Birmingham Canal Navigation (BCN) and with superb connecting canals to other parts of the country. When I took the contract at Rolls-Royce (Derby), finding Sawley Marina just 7 miles from the offices of Rolls-Royce could not have been planned any better.

As part of the negotiations of accepting the post with Ingres, it was agreed that I would be based at home. However, there would be times when I would need to visit client sites throughout EMEA and attend meetings and courses at Ingres’ UK offices in Slough.

The good news was that being based at home would entitle me to claim expenses when visiting client sites and the Slough office :-).  After considering the cost of hotels in and around Slough and the cost of keeping the boat (moorings, BW license, insurance, fuel, BSS etc), based on a single day per week occupancy on average, it worked out cheaper to keep the boat. Thus we agreed to keep the boat, and for as long as we could find a suitable mooring, would commence the move from Sawley.

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05/10/2007 by Mark.Whalley.

Having worked with the Ingres Relational Database Management System (www.ingres.com)   for over 15 years, initially whilst at the University of Wales in Swansea (www.swansea.ac.uk) and latterly as an independent consultant with Northern Electric and Gas / RWE npower (www.npower.com) and in early 2007 with Rolls-Royce (www.rolls-royce.com) in Derby, when I discovered that Ingres were looking for an additional member to join their Premium Services Team, my CV was taken off the shelf, polished and sent off to them.

My decision to apply for the post came around the time I had left RWE npower (after being with them for 10 years) and had decided to take a short break before looking for a new contract. Within days of starting my sabbatical, I was approached by an agent enquiring if I would be interested in a contract with Rolls-Royce in Derby. It was whilst waiting the for my MoD Security Clearance to come through (nearly three months!) that I applied for the post with Ingres.  Eventually my Security Clearance came through and I started working at R-R towards the end of April 2007. Over the coming months I settled in and thoroughly enjoyed the work at R-R, typically travelling from home to Derby on a Monday morning and returning on Friday afternoon. Within a few weeks I managed to bring the working week down to four days by working long (10-11 hour) days Monday through to Thursday which made the weekends seem far more pleasant and less rushed.

With so much work to do at R-R, travelling back and fore each week and the birth of our first grandchild Nia (subject of another blog posting) I put my application to Ingres at the back of my mind. Then in mid August, I received an email from Wouter Keyser (Director of Premium Services at Ingres) inviting me to an interview!

Needless to say, to be given the chance to work for the company whose products I have used intensively for the majority of my working life was an opportunity I was not going to let pass me by.

After attending an interview with Wouter and Sean Paton (one of the Premium Services Team Leaders) at the end of August, I was offered the post and started work on Monday 5th November.

Posted in Sawley to Packet Boat, Moving to Moorings | No Comments »