It's been a bit meeting-heavy today, though one of them was to bid adieu to the project manager who's been moved to another team, so that one was OK 
Immediately after that, lunch was chicken and barley soup with wholemeal bread
And then immediately into another meeting, which lasted nearly two hours
A very weird thing happened in that one though. The replacement project manager (who also approves my timesheets, so a Very Important Person) is going back to Poland for a couple of weeks for a holiday with her family. (Incidentally, it amuses me how many of the people on this UK Gov project aren't actually from the UK; but I digress.) She'd brought in another project manager (also from the consultancy who are my actual client) to cover for her during that time, so she's also been sitting in on things yesterday and today.
Halfway through the long meeting, the regular project manager had to interrupt to tell us that the temporary project manager has been rejected for the (minimal) security clearance required for the job
Turns out she spent more than six consecutive months abroad within the last three years, and the security people say that she therefore needs a police check from the country she was living in before she can be approved. (This has happened before, and it's not as if it's because these people were in Libya or North Korea or something; the last time, it was because they'd been living in Japan.)
The thing is, she was supposed to be covering for two weeks, and she moved back to the UK two years and fifty weeks ago; so in two weeks, she won't need that extra check. But for the sake of those two weeks, she does; and guess how long it would take to get the check done? Two weeks!
And she's a UK citizen too.
It's a shame really as she seemed OK, but what can you do; security people gonna secure
Anyway, after that was all done and I was able to settle back to work properly, I had a sudden moment of insight about something I've been racking my brain over for a fortnight. I quickly implemented it (it was only five or six lines once I realised what to do) and created some tests (which took longer and are longer) and it works!
Immediately after that, lunch was chicken and barley soup with wholemeal bread
And then immediately into another meeting, which lasted nearly two hours
A very weird thing happened in that one though. The replacement project manager (who also approves my timesheets, so a Very Important Person) is going back to Poland for a couple of weeks for a holiday with her family. (Incidentally, it amuses me how many of the people on this UK Gov project aren't actually from the UK; but I digress.) She'd brought in another project manager (also from the consultancy who are my actual client) to cover for her during that time, so she's also been sitting in on things yesterday and today.
Halfway through the long meeting, the regular project manager had to interrupt to tell us that the temporary project manager has been rejected for the (minimal) security clearance required for the job
Turns out she spent more than six consecutive months abroad within the last three years, and the security people say that she therefore needs a police check from the country she was living in before she can be approved. (This has happened before, and it's not as if it's because these people were in Libya or North Korea or something; the last time, it was because they'd been living in Japan.)
The thing is, she was supposed to be covering for two weeks, and she moved back to the UK two years and fifty weeks ago; so in two weeks, she won't need that extra check. But for the sake of those two weeks, she does; and guess how long it would take to get the check done? Two weeks!
And she's a UK citizen too.
It's a shame really as she seemed OK, but what can you do; security people gonna secure
Anyway, after that was all done and I was able to settle back to work properly, I had a sudden moment of insight about something I've been racking my brain over for a fortnight. I quickly implemented it (it was only five or six lines once I realised what to do) and created some tests (which took longer and are longer) and it works!
, not reading 
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