Blogs Away! - Fri 13th January

Hello! Yes, just like the rest of Britain that is going blog crazy, QS News gets in on the act too. According to lastminute.com around 20,000 people are starting up their very own ‘weblog'. Lots of theses ‘early-adapters' create more than one on-line diary, hence close on 85,000 blogs per day are initiated.

At QS News, we ain't no ‘Laggards', we is pushing back the ‘envelope' here! Pioneering and free from ‘Learned Behaviour'! We go against the grain! (We're pretty good at ‘Bull-Sh*t Bingo' too!!)

Yeah, so, may I wish you all a very warm, cheery and hearty welcome to QS News blog! Also a late, but none the less, very sincere, Happy New Year to you all. May your 2006 be peaceful, energising and profitable!

Has Multiplex lost the plot?

Weds 11 January
‘Lost'

Like far too many people in the UK, I was glued to the TV screen last night to witness the final scenes of Channel 4's cult US TV series, ‘Lost'. After six months the end left us clueless to what would happen next. We know that it is not ‘all over now', but we are still none the wiser to why the events to date have occurred.

So similar to the other ‘continuing story' that all us observers of UK construction are also glued to, except still awaiting the final episode; the new Wembley Stadium! (at least Channel 4 could programme in their final episode and let everyone know. Far more than could be said of Wembley's project team)

Yes, ‘Lost' is one l-o-n-g saga of disparate and desperate people, wondering around aimlessly, arguing about their current plight, suffering ‘flash-backs' from their past, all set against an ‘Australian' backdrop. Like I say, so similar to the new Wembley!

So, will they or won't they? Will Wembley be finished in time for the 2006 FA Cup Final? Or is it all part of a grand plan for the ‘Wallabies' to get their own back on our Rugby boys, for taking the World crown away from them on their own Sydney back yard?

Just like ‘Lost', who really knows what will happen at the very end, right here; right now? Answer: No one.

But there will be plenty of people looking on and commenting, eager to find out if the famous Wembleyesque quote "There's people on the pitch, they think Its all Over…", has a new twist. From "it is now!" to "Bugger! We've missed the date again!"

More on the ‘Lost / Wembley' saga to come…lots…

Thus 12 January
You're Dumped!

Strange but true, research shows the 12th January is the day of the year when the majority of people split with their partners. Yep, it's the day we do our dumping, to coin a phrase.

Let's hope this trend does not move to project relationships, the majority of which are tenuous at the best of times!

Let us keep our fingers crossed and hope that the good ‘ol Strategic Forum for Construction can help us all get on far better. Outgoing boss, Peter Rogers, says that the new structure of the organisation should be better suited to dealing with one of the key issues in construction today. That of engendering greater co-operation and integration. Let us all hope so!

Mr. Rogers has been telling anyone who is prepared to listen, for more than 20 years now, that collaboration, blurred organisational demarcation and trust are the way forward.

He is not wrong. He is perfectly correct. Plenty of people have agreed with Mr. Rogers, clever people at that. So why are we still such a fragmented, argumentative and suspicious industry?

More on this and our industry's appalling apathy to change later…

My final thought…

"Without dreams, without risks, only a trivial semblance of living can be achieved."

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Ciao 4 Now!
Elvin