Monday 30 April 2007

Building the Bed!

Ikea delivered the bed in the end yesterday. Unfortunately our delivery slot was "between 4 and 7". Still, that gave plenty of time to dismantle the old bed, re-arrange some furniture and hoover the carpet. Building the bed took quite a while... It had a lot of screws and dowels, and it was all quite complicated! But, finally, the room was back together, and all the junk stored under the bed was back in place. Hurrah!!! The matress is a bit firmer than the old one, but this seems to be a good thing, as for the first time in ages I woke up not feeling stiff and old!

Molly is enjoying summer, and has taken to sitting in my chair on the deck. She does this all of her own accord, as a) its a comfy place for a cat to sit and b) it provides an excellent view of the whole garden.


Molly in her chair.

Rich told me that the picture I posted of Jaws yeserday did not fully illustrate his enormous size, so here is a photo of him with a regular sized goldfish.

Sunday 29 April 2007

New Bed

So, after seven years our cheap Ikea bed is pretty much ready to retire. When we bought it we got the cheapest frame in the store and the cheapest matress to go with it. The matress got replaced about three or four years ago by a slightly more expensive one (not from Ikea) which has now pretty much also had it. So, this meant we needed to take a trip to Ikea. Rich had to come with me as I told him I wouldn't be able to manage the bed boxes by myself (and I was right!). So, I managed to leave work early-ish on Friday (it was half five, which isn't bad as we are supposed to finish at half four on Fridays). Off we went to Ikea. We found the bed department, and found the bed that I had picked out in the catalogue (that's right, Rich didn't get any choice) and of course you have to go to the desk to get a print out of the bits that you need. Which we did. We got into the market hall to pick out an undersheet (which you have to get as Ikea beds aren't the same size as anybody else's beds!) before I realised that the display model which we had the parts for wasn't the actual size that we wanted. D'oh! Back to beds to do the order over. Lucky that a different assistant was at the desk!

Then off to the warehouse to collect the parts. Which was fine until we got to the matress pad which was "temporarily oversold" (why can't they just say "out of stock"?) and then, even worse, the matress was out of stock too! Trauma. Ikea charge for delivery, so I didn't really want to go back another time for the matress, so we ended up getting the most expensive matress that Ikea do! I suppose it will be worth it in the long run!

Had an amusing experience on the way home from work on Friday. I still had my stick as my legs were still a bit wobbly, and I was standing on the tube which was really crowded, and nobody was offering me a seat (my pet peeve, not being offered a seat on public transport when I'm out with my walking stick). Anyhow. This woman got on the stop after me, and shoved past (almost knocking me over, but hey) and positioned herself right in the alley so she'd get a seat if anyone got off. Which they did at the next stop, and she raced for that seat! Anyway, I got a seat a couple of stops later, so that was fine. But I noticed that when she got off (same stop as me) her backside was covered in chewing gum which somebody had left on the seat that she was so determined to get. Karma? I think so!

Our office is going to be like a ghost-town on Monday. The two partners are both out - one on holiday, one on a course. One other colleague is on leave... me and my assistant are out at a meeting all morning... it will be quiet.

I was very happy to see yesterday that the tadpoles in our garden pond are really getting big and fat now! Soon they will be turning into tiny frogs! I saw a big frog in the 'frog pond' last night. The frog pond is a small pond away from the fish pond which gets totally colonised by frogs and toads in the summer. I do like frogs, and we sure have a lot of them every year!

Here are some photos of the wildlife in my garden!



This is Jaws. He's the biggest fish in our fish pond!



This is King Frog. He was the biggest, most colourful, and most photographed frog in the frog pond last year!



This is one of the baby foxes, taken a few years ago now, so he's probably one of the grown up foxes now!

Friday 27 April 2007

Another one bites the dust!

Happy to say that is another week done with! It's all been quite busy. Was very happy to discover this afternoon that my client doesn't want the cost until Tuesday morning... which give the outstanding prices time to come back. Good stuff.

My boss just raced off to get to the airport... happy to report to us that the Jubilee Line wasn't reporting any delays. So, that means he has jinxed it for the rest of us!!!

I'm off too in a moment. Rich and I are going to Ikea to get a new bed. The bed we have now came from Ikea about 6 and a half years ago. It was the cheapest that could be got. It is now starting to show it's age... every time I get in or out of bed there are most alarming creaking noises! It's like sleeping on a 15th Century ship with all the creaking timber!

The strangeset thing. I laddered my tights this morning, so had to pop out to Boots at lunchtime to get some more. The cardboard insert which the tights wrap around in the packet had INSTRUCTIONS for putting on a pair of tights. What is the world coming to!

Looking forward to a fairly quiet weekend this weekend. No football to go to... as Charlton are playing away to Blackburn. I feel guilty for not going as over 6,000 people are... the club are laying on free/subsidised travel. They had better win, that is all I can say!

Talking about rubbish sport... the Yankees are languishing at the bottom of the AL East, after failing to score against Toronto last night. I always maintain that April doesn't matter, and it is where you are in October that counts... but it sill sucks that the table is upside down!

Everything normal

The Google crisis is over! Hurrah! At 8:30 this morning my personalised home page returned to its former glory. All is right with the internet.

And apparently now we are all going out for beer (well not beer for me as I don't drink on Friday).

Thursday 26 April 2007

Disaster!

My personalised Google homepage has vanished! Totally disasterous... I practically run my internet day with it, and now it is all gone.

Have to go now and research the possible fixes!

Tuesday 24 April 2007

Phew!

Nothing is working today.

I overslept this morning (most unfortunately as I wanted to get to the office extra early). Reason - my alarm clock failed to go off. Not that I snoozed it, you can't do that with my Lumie alarm clock. Just failed to go off. I actually managed to get to work within an hour of having got out of bed (unbelievable!).

Now two of the computers aren't working. In a most suspicious manner. They log on (just about) and they can see the network drives - but (big but) they have no connection beyond that. No email, no internet. If you 'ping' the router you get 4 lost packets. Why? All the other computers (seven of them) are working. Impossible. Can't fix them... which is even more annoying!

The senior partner is visiting today, which necessitates a big tidy up. We suddenly realised that the two uplighters in reception were out and reception was shrouded in gloom. I was turning off the power at the plug whilst my colleague changed the bulb. I had to make the obvious joke "How many QS's does it take to change a lightbulb?"

I read in the Metro this morning that there are £65million of lost pennies floating around the country (this is since the penny was introduced in 1971). Enough to circle the earth four times... several thousand elephants worth. Apparently the English are too embarrassed to stop and pick them up if they see them in the street... I'm not, finders keepers... and on the basis of this, I could soon be a millionaire!!!

On my favourite topic of TfL... they are about to begin refurbishment of the Jubilee Line escalators at Green Park. I'm sure that this will cause chaos. There will be no 'down' to the Jubilee line in the mornings and the only interchange will be via the hefty hike that is the Piccadilly Line interchange. Ah well. It shouldn't affect me, so that's fine.

The endless billing is almost at an end. I have just about finished (I hope). However, the back-log of neglected jobs that has stacked up in the meantime is quite terrifying!!! Roll on May Day Bank Holiday!

Monday 23 April 2007

Another Monday

I had meant to get to work really early this morning. Having given up and gone home on Friday night without having finished what I needed to do I really needed the early start. The Jubilee Line, however, had other ideas! Although the PA system at North Greenwich claimed a good service was operating I got down to the platform to find a total scrum... the first train hardly let on any passengers at all, it was already so full. Fortunately I managed to squeeze onto the next one.It was nearly 10 to 8 by the time I arrived at the office, which was not nearly as early as I had planned. Then, of course, I had to go out to a meeting. As usual I forgot that Holborn can be reached directly from Green Park on the Piccadilly line. As usual I took the Victoria Line to Oxford Circus and changed for the Central Line. Bad idea in morning rush hour. Lucky I had left plenty of time. Managed not to make the same mistake coming back!!!

The meeting went on for two hours, which meant it was lunchtime (pretty much) by the time I got back here. Oh dear. Half the day gone already, and I have accomplished nothing!!!

On a more positive note, the marathon inspired me so much yesterday that I have decided that I would like to run the marathon. (Pause for everyone who has ever met me to fall about laughing). I'm quite serious in this aspiration, and I think that I could do it too! Notwithstanding the occasion at school where we were taking a mandatory test in our PE (Phys.Ed.) class... I was walking around the running track (I seem to recollect that we were required to complete 800m) and the teacher asked me in exasperation if I ever ran "Only if I'm about to miss a bus" I replied. Still, with the right food and the right training I think that I could become a runner!

My cat Molly continues are feud with the neighbouring cats. She chased her arch-rival the black and white cat out of the garden yesterday evening. This would have been more impressive if the cat hadn't been practically out of the garden already at the time!!! She spent the rest of the evening sitting on a large pile of dirt keeping an eye over her domain!

Anyhow. Apparently lunch is over before it is begun today, as I'm getting pressured for all sorts of figures on all sorts of jobs (none of which I have).

Sunday 22 April 2007

Marathon passed

Just over an hour later the runners have passed. We're just after the two mile marker, so some of them are already getting quite tired! A big well done to all the runners - to all the Bens, Lucies, Tims, Julies and all the others whose names I never saw. Nearly everybody seemed to be running for something. I saw at least 20 people running for the MS Society (go guys!) and heaps of other charities too. We had Wombles, Star Wars, Elvis, several Rhinos, and goodness knows what else. One of my favourite moments was two ladies who passed us just after a chap in an ostrich suit, overhead to say "that ostrich has passed us three times now"!

Now we wait for the roads to re-open!!!

Welcome to Marathon

It's the 22nd April which means that it is the London Marathon. Every year we have to make sure we aren't doing anything this Sunday as our house is marooned in an island surrounded by Marathon routes. You cannot get out in any direction until around lunchtime. I shall be off outside soon to watch as the main race has just started up on Blackheath. More later!

Friday 20 April 2007

Long Journey

So, yesterday was my monthly visit to Worcester. For various reasons (none of them very exciting) I decided that I would drive instead of getting the train. In retrospect this was an extremely stupid idea. Having previously established that my geography sucks, and having only recently discovered where on the map Worcester is, I had to completely rely on the AA route-finder to get me there. Apart from various traffic jams the journey didn't go too badly. Until I got lost on the M42. The directions told me to take junction 4A sign-posted M5... I passed junction 5, then junction 4 and then junction 3A.... so I turned round and went back. Still no 4A... so I turned back around and kept on going towards Birmingham (having previously established that Worcester is near Birmingham). Junction 3, Junction 2, Junction 1 - oh dear, I'm thinking I'm lost. And then, out of nowhere, Junction 4A. How?! Why?!

Coming back was even worse. I got lost in a series of mini-roundabouts and ended up on the M5 heading to Bristol! Ended up going cross country to Cheltenham and Oxford before eventually coming South on the M4... which lands me on TOTALLY the wrong side of London at M25 Jct17!!! It would have been quickest to go counter-clockwise home, but the traffic dissuaded me from this course of action... so I decided to re-trace my morning route back to the M11 and junction 27. Until the traffic reports started telling me about accidents and long delays from Jct29. I stopped at South Mimms (where I had, coincidentally filled up with fuel that morning) and rang my Dad to ask for advice! He said to go South on the A1 and go either through London or round the North Circular. I never found the North Circular, but I do know my way around London (the only place where I DO have a sense of direction!)... so at 8pm I was one block from my office and I finally headed home down the 53 bus route!!! I'm not taking any more journeys into the unknown unless I get Sat-Nav. The stress is just too great!

The avoidance of Junction 27 turned out to be a good thing... they had to shut the motorway from 27 in both directions as there was a horse got loose! The mind boggles.

For those people who don't live in London (or even England) - a word about the M25. The M25 is a motorway which encircles London (apart from a small gap on the East side for the Thames crossing of the Dartford Tunnel and the QE2 bridge. The road is 117 miles long, has 31 junctions and took 9 years to construct (in sections). It is the butt of many jokes, as traffic is extremely congested around much of the motorway (despite numerous widening efforts, and variable speed limits, etc.). My favourite M25 tale is from a book called "Good Omens" by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman where the M25 is formed in a demonic sigil and traffic on the motorway "acts like water on a prayer wheel". That would explain a great deal!

The eight or so hours I spent in the car did give me ample opportunity to listen to talk radio, which amused me for some time. I like BBC Radio London (until I get out of range) and then BBC Radio Five. However, I was pretty fed up with the day's news by the time I got home last night!

It's quiet in the office today as the Partners are off at head office for the "Partners Meeting" and the rest of us are frantically trying to get our Bill completed. I guess you have to be careful what you wish for... a while back I expressed the view that "we never go to measure anything properly any more" and then this billing lands in our office which wants to be measured to SMM7. As I observed to the office at large, I'd been done by now if it wasn't for SMM7!!!

For those who don't know (and probably don't care either) SMM7 is the Standard Method of Measurement (Seventh Edition). It is the rules followed for the measurement of construction works. The theory being that if you measure to SMM7 everybody knows exactly what is included and how. Sadly it requires large amounts of co-ordinated information from the design team - which you rarely get!

Now I've finished boring everybody, I'm getting back to work.

Wednesday 18 April 2007

Internet and WILFING

I first got to know the internet 13 years ago... back in 1994 when I first started at University. Before that I don't think that I even knew such a thing existed! I took to it like a duck to water.

The first computer we ever had was an Atari. Not so much a computer as a glorified games console. There was a slot in the keyboard to place cartridges (which they had just stopped selling when we bought the computer) and no hard disc drive... the computer used a tape drive! The Atari didn't last long, due to extremely limited functionality, although I did get my first taste of programming. Next machine was before Windows even existed! It was billed as "IBM compatible" and ran an OS which looked like Windows but was called GEM. The entire contents of that computer would have fitted into half a modern day directory!

There were a series of further similar machines... sometimes bought new and sometimes inherited from my Grandfather, who was by far the most computer literate member of our family!!!

Computers barely registered at school. There was a 'computer room' which had a total of about a dozen machines (not even enough to take a class) which we used mostly to play text adventures in our lunch breaks. Does anyone even play text adventures anymore?!

So - fast foward to University. My first (and as it turned out only) year at RHUL... beautiful campus University with pretty much 24-hour access to the computer centre. Oh the times I had! My friends would often call me an anorak... the hours I'd spend wandering the net, or talking to people via Telnet. Do people even use Telnet anymore?!

Its hard to believe that the sophisticated Internet of today is the same place. The browser crashes that would plague any session... the painfully slow download times, and images that 'dithered'.

What made me think of it was visiting the webpages of my Alma Maters (I went to Greenwich after RHUL). Amazing compared to how I remembered them (although not surpristing in the 10 or so years that has passed)!

My favourite thing about the internet, though, is the random browsing... or surfing if you will. I like to follow links after links until you forgot where you were going or why you had come in the first place! I thought I was the only one, but not, apparently, as I read in the paper the other day it is called WILFING.... "What was I Looking For?"!

Mind the Gap

Nope, not talking about the London Underground... its the Generation Gap that is worrying me today. I have noticed recently that the thing that seems to most characterize the difference between my parent's generation and my own is mobile phones (technology in general, but most noticably mobile phones).

Most of my friends are never without their mobile phone... they certainly NEVER switch them off. I have noticed that my mother never switches hers on! She will turn it on to make a call and then switch it back off again. Hardly the point! The most annoying thing of all is that she doesn't even have voicemail... so you can't leave a message to let her know that you called. *sigh*

So, absolutely nothing exciting has been happening to me. Too busy frantically working away to get much else done. This is a shame, as Spring has arrived in London. The parks will be full of new life... probably baby animals as well as the sprouting trees! I'm sure that the urban-foxes that live in our garden will be expanding their family again soon. I went out onto the deck the other night to find a fox sitting by the fish pond... not at all startled to see me. Probably trying to figure out how to catch fish through the netting!

I did hear a most alarming news report the other evening on the local radio. Westminster City Council are fed up with all the rubbish casued by the free evening papers... and are going to ban them if they don't clean up their act. This would be very sad as they amuse me all the way home, and mean that I don't have to spend 50p on the Evening Standard! I keep meaning to write to the letters page in the London Lite (which is from the same people who bring you the Metro every morning) and tell them that they should make their distributors stay out later. If you are late leaving and there are any distrubtors left they are always from the London Paper. Missed opportunity Lite guys! I don't like the London Paper as much as it has peculiar font, and the ink comes off on your fingers!

Tuesday 17 April 2007

It's all about manners

There are many things in life which annoy me (ask anyone who knows me!). I have come to the conclusion that a lot of them are simply down to bad manners.

Example 1: I went to Sainsbury's last night as the meat I had for dinner had gone off, and I really (really) wanted lamb for tea. So I decided to 'pop' to the Supermarket and at the same time do the weekly shop (as I know that work this week will be beyond mental). It was quite busy (at around 8:45pm) and there were a few people queueing at each check out. I joined one that appeared to have a reasonably competent operator and people without too much shopping... and whilst we queued the girl who was one from the front wandered off. The customer being served paid for her shopping and left, and the checkout came to a halt as the owner of the next goods had, simply, vanished. She evetually reappeared (with the bottle of mouthwash she had clearly forgotten)... but not a single apology to the two people (not very patiently) waiting in the queue. Absolute bad manners to a) walk off in the first place and b) fail to apologise.

Example 2: This morning on the way to work I was confronted by yet more examples of this complete and utter disregard for anyone else. Having finally managed to navigate the East Greenwich Roadworks on the bus we turned into the road running down towards the tunnel approach only to find it chock-full of traffic - obviously some problem in the tunnel was backing up the traffic. First instance of lack of manners, the van who pulled into the bus lane as he was obviously far too important to queue... not so bad as it didn't really affect anybody (except him if he gets a £60 fine for contravening the bus lane, ha ha!). Next instance - not observing the box junction. I don't know if these are a global phenomenon in case they are not here is how it works... a box is painted on the road, hatched in yellow. The rule is that you do not enter the box unless your exit is clear. This is designed to keep traffic flowing at jucntions (generally signal controlled). There are several of these are around the slip road onto the tunnel approach... if they are not observed the traffic basically gridlocks, as nobody can move when the lights are green as they are blocked by traffic from the phase that has just turned red! The traffic, of course, stopped. Bah!

Example 3: the whole of London's commuting population which refuses (despite years and years of public service tannoy annoucements) to let customers off the train first! It is such a fight every morning!

Well, that is my whinge for the day. Got back to work this morning after my long weekend to find my desk was refreshingly as tidy as I had left it. Futher, no urgent items requiring my attention had come to light, so I only have the impossibly long 'to do' list from last week, instead of the extend version!

Sunday 15 April 2007

HTML Hell and so on

The advent of our new computer has brought many trials and tribulations... not least of which is the demise of FrontPage. I've been using FrontPage to do my web pages since I started with programming, pretty much. It had just the right balance of WYSISYG and html. Sadly FrontPage was discontinued in 2003. That didn't matter until now... however, our new "Student and Home" version of Office 2007 is the most basic you can get (also by several hundred pounds the cheapest) but there is only Word, Excel and Powerpoint. Nothing for making webpages. So we went in search of new programmes on Download.com. Filtered by licence (free) and OS (Vista) there wasn't much choice... and certainly nothing with the functionality I require. So... I've had to bite the bullet and use Dreamweaver, which has been sitting untouched on our computer since we got it several years ago. Cannot complain about any lack of functionality, however, it sure is intimidating. I guess I'll get there in the end though!

Just waiting for the Grand Prix now (only about four hours away) - and then I think it will back to my games consoles... have been playing the Da Vinci code this week after nearly a years break!!!

Theee Yankees Wiiin!

After 13 innings of play the Yankees win... Giambi homer in the top of the 13th! Way to go! No pitchers left now... but anyway!

It's outta here!

Top of the 13th homerun Giambi!!!

Bad Baseball

Uh-oh. 11th inning. Yankees are out of pichers. Mo is pitching a non-save... as there is nobody else. Go to get this game over, even if we lose!

Hurrah for Firefox

Eventually found the link for Game Day Audio - and of course Firefox knows the log-in. So... top of the 10th... bases loaded (they walked Abreu) and Alex is up to bat. And guess what... he's either villan or hero. Not the hero so much right now. Bases loaded and he pops out. Bah! Off to the bottom of the 10th... not sure my nerves can take it! And, uh-oh, Farnsworth is pitching. Off to get a coffee or tea to steady my nerves

Silly AM

Wow! It's been a long time since I've been on the Net at this time of night (morning)!!! Usually if I wake up in the middle of the night I turn over and go back to sleep... or maybe read a book until I fall asleep with my head in the pages!

Yesterday we went to a wedding (in Ipswich). It was a civil ceremony... can you believe the first time I've ever been to a wedding that wasn't in a church! Decided for me that I do want to get married in church... it just doesn't seem right not having the words of the service! But, I guess if you sang in a church choir (as I did) and went to several weddings a Saturday through the summer (as I did) that probably would be the case. It was a really nice day... it was Rich's friends getting married... but I get on well with all his mates, and it was really fun to catch up.

The downside was that it was a nearly two hour drive each way between London and Ipswich... so by the time we got home (about half seven) I was exhausted and had to go to bed. It's the only aspect of having MS that I don't seem to be able to get by, and doesn't seem to be helped by any medication - doing something really simple for more time than is normal REALLY wipes me out... usually it is travelling... especially if I'm driving! The problem is, unless I'm actually feeling unwell, I just can't sleep for more than around seven hours at a go anymore! So, having gone to bed at half eight last night I woke up again around three! And here we are, wandering the web in the small wee hours!

I had the day off work on Friday (and again on Monday). Long weekend for wedding recovery, and also leave to use up! I decided to go get my hair done on Friday. I've found more than a few grey hairs over the last few weeks, and got totally paranoid about it! I decided that grey would show less with blonde hair than brown, so my hair changed colour again!

The Yankees are still playing baseball, as we speak. Extra innings (again) - tied at three and just started into the top of the tenth. If I knew how it worked I'd listen to it on the radio - must pay more attention! Still - have got CBSs Game Centre which is something. It is quite confusing though, as whatever NASN are showing is still in the Eight inning!! Could be good. Jorge and Jeter are on base and Abreu is up to bat - c'mon! Throwing error by the A's - but who cares. As long as we don't lose and land bottom of the AL East! Enough from Abreu get Jorge home should be enough... but if Jeter gets home too that should win the game. Here's hoping!

Wednesday 11 April 2007

What a lot of noise

It's got to that time of year, already, where the central heating in the building isn't turned off even though the weather is quite mild. Even with all the radiators in the office switched off it is still far too hot! This means having the windows open in order that we don't melt... not the day for it today. At least two buildings in the street are undergoing renovation work at the moment, one of which currently has a very efficient human chain removing the rubbish to the lorry parked outside (hope they've got a permit for that otherwise the parking warden will be there momentarily). In addition to the demolishing, drilling, banging and disposing racket going on there was some sort of demonstration going on. Could just see some people with loudspeakers when I leaned out the window... couldn't really hear what they were shouting about as the loudspeakers were distorting their message! I think that they were outside one of the (many) airlines in Mayfair. They kept it up for a good half hour before they eventually stopped. Presumably the Police finally moved them on! I'm all for free speech... but not a top volume outside my office!!!

We've just been having discussion in our office of the London Transport system. The newest member of staff is from South Africa, and finds the whole London experience quite different. Today's question was (after a long debate about the best way to get to Regent's Park) - do they ever turn the heating off in the Underground? Oh yes, we assured her, when it gets to about June I'm sure they'll get around to it!

I was interested to read an article in the newspapers this week about a survey taken of Londoners seven months after the 7/7 bombings. 11% of respondents were 'substantially stressed' and 43% thought that their lives were in danger. I was pleased to find out that I wasn't the only one. It took me a year after the events before I could manage to get on the underground again. Even now, I don't think I'll ever be entirely comfortable with the underground again.

Conversation in the office has now moved on to the cost of socks! We were discussing the price of the shops in Mayfair and the fact that you could buy a pair of socks in Prada (or Gucci, or one of those) for £30. The South-African pointed out that she bought 6 pairs in the supermarket for £2 - and that they would probably last longer! I agreed with her. I pointed out if you spent £30 on a pair of socks you'd probably only be able to afford one pair, which you'd then have to wash every day... and they would soon wear out. I've found with clothes, unlike with moisturiser, that cost doesn't always equate to quality!!!

So, I have to go back to report compilation - having finished writing the thing I've now got to copy letters and so forth to go into seven appendices, in three copies... I'm not even thinking about how much paper that is!!! Oh yes, and my futile efforts to cross things off my 'to do' list. I write one at the beginning of every week.. I used to do one every day - but I kept finding entries which said "see Monday" so I decided that one a week would probably suffice. Does that mean I never get anything done?!

Nothing much on TV tonight until Desperate Housewives at 11pm. Oh well. I'd tell you how good Life on Mars was, but you might not have watched it last night and might be saving your videotape for tonight, so I'll save that for another day!

Tuesday 10 April 2007

It's not really Monday

The worst thing in the world is going back to work after the Bank Holiday. Especially the Easter Holiday when it's twice as long! The only good thing is that it is one day nearer to the end of the week. Two days for me as I've Friday off... we're off to a wedding on Saturday (not ours!).

The morning has been most traumatic. My inbox was full of email that needed dealing with... my Monday (read Tuesday) morning to-do list was about three times as long as normal. I practised my excellent organisational skills by dealing with the items that I could actually finish and tick-off the list. Thus by-passing the usual procrastination and actually getting things done!!! Unprecedented.

I was very upset last night that when it came to watching the taped TV there was no Numb3rs. ITV ditched it in honour of the Bank Holiday! Bah! However, another superb episode of Prison Break (with a toally rocking ending) and of course Heroes did go a long way to making up for it.

Not that I watch too much TV (well, it has been said) but tonight is the series finale of Life on Mars (series finale... forever finale). Truly superb. It was quite funny at lunch with my friends yesterday, we were discussing pregnancy scans and whether our parents had undergone such technology - and my friend Rich and I both simultaneously referenced last week's episode where the girl is having a scan and saying that she's one of the first in Manchester to have one. Thus, we came to the conclusion, depending on how modern the hospitals were our parents might have had such things - as we know Life on Mars is 1973! Yes, I know, it's only fiction... but we reckon they must be a bit historically accurate, eh?!

Ok. 2 o'clock already. Back to work!

Monday 9 April 2007

It's been a while

It's been a while since last I was here. My friends (hi guys) were giving me heaps for being so remiss today! Work has been crazy (poor excuse, but true) and then our computer died. RIP 'Harry'. Yep, all computers in our house have names. Sensible names. The first computer was called 'Sammy' as it had a Samsung monitor. Then came 'LT' who is a lap-top (geddit, Lap Top!) - then was 'Harry' who was a Hewlett Packard... 'HP' - Harry Potter... sad, I know. The new computer is called 'Q' as it is a Compaq... which ends with 'Q'. Invention ran out.

Anyhow. Back to the computer which died. He had a critical CPU failure, and rather than replacing the CPU and other associated bits we just got a new computer. Big time upgrade. More memory, more RAM, better processor (Dual Core - wow!). However, the new computer had to be set up etc. etc. which I leave to Rich as he is much better than these things than me! All running smoothly now. Extremely traumatic though as the new computer runs Windows Vista and Office 07. Going to take some getting used to - I may need to find a support group! LOL!

So - Bank Holiday weekend. What a relief. I really needed the break. Friday was devoted to shopping. I got up early to go the supermarket - and finally decided to eschew Asda in favour of Sainsbury. My long held belief was that Sainsbury added 30% to my bill. Not true - in fact some things are cheaper than Asda! Asda and I have been falling out for some time now... mostly because I go late in the evening (this will be an upcoming test for Sainsbury) and the shelves are always empty. What is the point in being open 24/7 if you have nothing to sell! Also my meat kept going off... and other minor but sustained annoyances (ceasing to stock lines I buy was another big one). So I decided to defect. Sainsbury's is a pleasure. The award winning Greenwich Peninsular store. Very 'Eco-friendly'. Wider aisles (emptier of people)... fully stocked shelves... we'll have to see if it is as good when it isn't 8am on Good Friday!

Had a few other errands to run... including the purchase of the ill-fated water-cooler, which after flushing through yada-yada-yada then leaked... right above the power cable. Deadly. So that went back to the shop! Did get a new electric toothbrush with my Boots points though (I love getting Boots points, they stock up so easily) - got it home to discover it wanted a shaver-plug... which our Victorian house doesn't have! Now need an adaptor. Even more annoying there was a picture on the side of the box showing that it needed a shaver plug, and I just didn't notice! Friday evening we went to the pub up the Village to watch the football. Was hoping for a nice Charlton thrashing of Man City - sadly managed only a draw - which is better than a defeat I suppose.

So that was Friday. Saturday morning was more shopping and the afternoon I spent some quality time with my Xbox. Finished off the last Spyro game and moved back to Sonic Heroes... which for some reason I find very difficult. Was surprised to note that the only games that I have finished are on the Xbox... which is my newest console!!! Fable (the reason I bought the Xbox), Tomb Raider (the last one) and Spyro. Went back to playing the Da Vinci code... which I then remembered why I hadn't touched it in nearly a year. Way too hard! I only like the games that are for "3+".

Sunday just vanished in a puff of smoke... although I didn't get up until gone 11! We watched to Grand Prix on tape... started exciting - but rather dropped off. Was very dissapointed that the promised rain did not materialise!!! Got an early night as was strangely tired after doing nothing all day!

Today I went down to Kent to see some friends (big wave to the Tonbridge Posse, I know you are reading... I dedicate this blog to you!). We had a very nice lunch in an Italian restaurant and as I nod to my diet I managed not to order a pizza, yay me! Lunch was over all to soon... and I decided to drop by my folks on the way home as I was almost passing. Mum was visiting Dad in the hopsital, but Granny and my uncle were there. Granny opened the door and stared at me for a few seconds before her brain connected and realised it was me! I guess you had to be there.

Massive traffic issues coming home. Doubled the time of the journey and got back too late to make it to the ground for kick-off (was too hungry anyway). So - that is my Bank Holiday. I'm depressed to go back to work now, as I gave in to curiosity and had to see what emails I had gotten at work over the last four days... depressingly far too many that need action for my liking. Only got three days this week as well, as another long weekend next week to allow for the ensuing exhaustion of having to drive to Ipswich for a wedding!

Well - back to the TV and my extremely comy sofa now. Just tried out my nearly-mother-in-laws new exercise machine and managed half a kilometer (how far is that in real distance) before sliding off in a sweaty heap! Time to enjoy the last few hours of this holiday weekend!