The Civils Side of Life

Before I went away for my holiday in France, I had noticed the release of WordPress 2.8 . Being the kind of geek that likes to keep all his software up-to-date and running the latest version, I knew this was a job for me to tackle as soon as I returned home. Somehow I was able to find time during the seemingly endless laundry and holiday clutter to upgrade my blog.

I know WordPress is very simple to self install on the initial setup and I am also aware that the upgrade, although simple in itself, can throw up some issues if you don’t keep track of what you do. This in mind I made sure I had backups of all my data and read through all the upgrade guides. Within 30 minutes everything was completed and looking rather swish, another upgrade completed without incident.

Well, not quite…

When I tried to log in to my admin panel the following day I was greeted by a “500 Internal Server Error“. Initial I thought my host was just having a tough time and I should be patient, after nearly a day of the same thing I reached out to the World in search of a cure. It quickly became apparent that mine was not a lone case. Thankfully after finding the ‘official’ support thread I was able to track down a rather useful post by Glenn Reffin over at the Redcentaur Blog that helped me both troubleshoot and fix my own blog and regain access to my admin panel.

As with all things computers you should always keep a safe copy of your data and be prepared to do a little research when things do go fully to plan. Stay clam, try not to blame everyone else around you! With WordPress specifically, disable your plugins and themes should you have a problem and activate them one-by-one to determine if any are causing conflicts.

If your lucky everything will go smoothly and you’ll never have to troubleshoot a thing.

For the first time this year I’m able to find some time to get away from work and spend an extend vacation with family and loved ones. For a few moments it looked as though I had ruined it all before we had even got into our journey. I cleverly managed to leave my hand luggage, including passport, on the train we took to the airport.

• Designer sunglasses… £12
• Daring low cut swimwear… £25
• Missing my flight & flying via Lyon… £540
• Spending time away from work… Priceless

I’d like to thank all the hard working staff at London Midland Trains and the efficient crews of Air France, without who I wouldn’t have been able to join up with everyone, albeit a few hours late.

When we start a new contract I often get the job of confirming the data handed to us by the client. In most cases this involves me carrying out a survey of the site as it exists before we begin work. This can then be compared with the survey commissioned by the client and if things agree (in most cases they do) we can get to work knowing that no surprises are ahead of us.

When the contract involves a substantial amount of earthworks, moving material around site, I have to carry out a second survey after the earthworks are complete. This second survey proves that we have placed the material in the correct areas and to the required levels. It also enables us to calculate a total volume of material moved, with this figure being used when applying for payment.

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