Startled rabbits

I felt, yesterday morning, a bit like a rabbit in headlights. So much to do, so much to get out the way of, and yet I just stared at it. I managed to focus eventually, but I think that's the taste of the week. Busy busy busy, with a huge towering onslaught ready to sweep me away at any point.

Anyway, enough of that. The weekend. 'Twas good. Succinct enough? Ok, a bit more detail...

Three of our friends visited over the weekend. 2 blokes I've known since we were knee high to grasshoppers, and the fiancee of one of them whom we've known since they met. They arrived late on Friday, so after a quick drink (tea / water) we called it a day, and went to bed.

Saturday, with a forecast of rain, saw me wanting to BBQ. Good job it was a nice day! We went down to a local wooded playground for my daughter in the morning, and let her run off some energy. We'd gone through our usual stranger routine in the morning, (no eye contact, play with her toys) and the trust continued to grow at the park. When we got back the three of us men set about building the BBQ. Much primordial grunting ensued, and congratulations when we created fire! A couple of bottles of wine, many sausages, and a whole farms worth of chicken legs followed. in the evening we went to the pub and chatted about stuff. As always.

Sunday saw bacon sandwiches and a trip to another park. Ice creams in the sun followed a stroll around a lake. Little one got to play on the swings and have a snack. Once we got back we had a bolognaise and then they had to go.

A mad rush of shopping vacuuming and washing ensued, and by the time we went to bed we were pretty much sorted and ready for the week. (The last lot of washing was done yesterday, so it'll all be dry and put away by tonight).

We sat down in the evening and watched 'Son of Rambow'. A relaxing way to finish a pleasant weekend.

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Quick one

The usual Monday morning problem of too many feeds and not enough time has left me with 6 minutes to blog. Not enough time to do justice to the weekend, so I won't.

I'm tired, but no more than usual. Rain through the night disturbed me, and I'm not 100% in the health department. Nothing worrying, just worn down malaise. A holiday will help. Luckily I have one of them coming up soon.

Work beckons. A slightly easier week (I hope) before a 3 day weekend. My parents are visiting, and we have a party for my wife's Mum's birthday, and her wedding anniversary. Should be busy!

I may write about the weekend later, but, as always when I say that, it'll probably be tomorrow.

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Friday again. Already?

Another week rolls to a close and I'm knackered before the final day begins.

My daughter woke, crying, at about 01:20, and needed settling. 2 minutes of soothing and stroking sorted her out; my sleep pattern was shot.

An hour or so later my wife was talking to my daughter asking her to settle down. I sat up and patiently explained that our daughter was asleep in another room.

3 something saw a toilet call. A true sign I'm not sleeping well. I have to be really light to allow my body to wake me up (or for my body to even consider waking me up!)

Slightly later I had my, now common, breathing problems, so woke up and sucked on the inhaler.

Then the alarm went off.

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Today sees a production issue with one of my systems, the usual scattering of meetings, and the need to create a couple of reports. Roll on tomorrow I say.

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Public service announcement

There are only 132 days until Christmas. Time to put the sprouts on.

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Thursday again

On the plus side, I got up on time, I made the train, and I'll be at work on time. However, it's Thursday. I'm knackered anyway, but with a late night and a less than stellar sleep I'm feeling even worse than usual.

Thankfully, I only have numerous meetings, several deadlines, and countless responsibilities. So no worries there then.

Mental note to self: get more sleep.

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A marvellous tale

The sun had breached the dawn an hour previously and was rising through the firmament as our noble adventurer climbed to the platform. The sky was crystal clear and azure blue, and Steve knew it was going to be a good day.

"The next train on platform 2 is formed of 8 carriages" announced the tannoy. "Fair enough" thought Steve as he strolled towards the opposite end of the platform 200 metres away. "The train now approaching platform 2..." Has only 4 carriages and has stopped 100 metres away. "Bugger" thought Steve as he hurried to the train.

A few minutes later the carriage was crammed as everyone from the final stop decided to get on at the same door, the easy door, the door that didn't involve any walking; even though they could get on quicker and have more space if they just walked 6 metres to the next door. Steve silently despaired and went back to reading the news and nightly e-mails.

In less than 5 minutes the train arrived at it's final destination and disgorged it's contents. Steve, due to superior positioning and readiness, was first off and away. Avoiding the crush behind him he made his way to the stairs, and over to the main platforms awaiting the fast trains to London. There would be 2 to choose from, however, Steve knew from previous scouting missions that only the 07:18 would have a buffet car. He awaited its arrival on platform 8.

Presently the leviathan arrived. Growling and straining the beast pulled up to the platform and opened it's doors. A few passengers disembarked, a large number entered. Steve knew the route well, and made his way to his familiar spot at the end of the serving bench. Settling in, he removed his glasses and engaged his blackberry. The last 12 hours of news and views around the world were viewed and processed. A few points were clarified with searches on the internet, but, in general, the next 27 minutes passed quickly and uneventfully.

In, what appeared to be, a short time the high speed train came to a halt at the terminus. Hundreds of people made their move to the exit. Steve, amongst 20 others exited the first class carriage near the front of the train and made his way to the ticket gates.

As he approached he removed his ticket wallet from his jacket and prepared to present it's contents to the inspector. A mere formality, Steve was waived through and, returning the ticket to his pocket, made his way across the concourse to the steps into the underground.

Having passed through the next checkpoint and made his way through a myriad of twisting passageways and lengthy elevators he came to his preferred spot on the platform. A few seconds later the tube train arrived, Steve entered, took up his usual spot at the opposite doors, removed his blackberry, and started to compose a blog entry...

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It was a dark and stormy night...

Ok, it was a mild and wet Tuesday morning. In August(!) I got soaked as I made my way from the car to the shelter point on the platform. I may as well have just showered with my clothes on. Once there, and stuck, they then announce that the train is 10 minutes late. It arrives, eventually, and we move on.

At my interchange there is a train waiting. Great, I'll only have lost 2 minutes. As I approach, the announcement goes out to inform us the train is bust and no longer for public use. Everyone gets off. The next train arrives 7 minutes later; I didn't even contemplate getting on it. I get the next one. Now 13 minutes late.

Slow running to Paddington gets me here a further 7 minutes late, but at least I'm on my way. Did I mention I was busy this morning and could have done with every second. I have a course all morning ('Presenting with Impact'), but sent out a couple of Management reports last night. (Late last night. Sorry honey (Side note, I have the best, most understanding wife ever!)) I could really have done with 25 minutes to check things over before I sit in a classroom all morning. Oh well, they'd better be right!

Not much on the news front, got home, put little one down, produced reports, ate, bed. It's an exciting life!

The Jubilee line rolls on, and another day at work beckons.

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Back to the daily grind

I enjoyed a three days off this weekend. Friday was especially good. It was my wife's birthday, and as a treat she went off for a day of pampering in a spa. This left Daddy and Baby alone for the whole day.

In the morning I took her to 'Whoosh', a soft pay area for younger kids. We played for ages on a bouncy castle, and climbed, crawled, and slid our way around the rest of the place. After some food and drink, we went home to some more food and drink, then I took her upstairs. By the time I'd changed her she was pointing at the bed and making 'wanting' noises. She went straight to sleep! She was completely out of it when my wife popped home to give me a hand putting her down.

I got her up a couple of hours later, and we went into town. I had a look for a top for my wife, and a t-shirt for me, but no luck. I got some felt tips for my daughter. We then went and got some new inserts for me to try and correct my feet problems. These ones lift my big toe instead of rolling my heel. Finally we got some champagne and chocolate for my wife (just the essentials), and went home. She was in bed 45 minutes early.

Saturday saw us popping to Reading. Still no luck on the top and t-shirt front. An early nap for my daughter (still tired from the day before, and she had woken at 06:30 for some reason). In the afternoon my wife and I took turns at different supermarkets, and we played with little one too. Another early bed, we actually managed to see a movie 2 nights in a row!

Sunday morning we were up early again, and straight out. We went to a wooded play area called 'The Lookout' where babe swung, and spun, and toddled her way to tiredness. She was down for a nap outstandingly early. I took the opportunity to try and get a couple of things from Toys 'r' us and Argos, but was frustrated by both. Then five items from the supermarket too me to 3 supermarkets! (and one of the items was wrong after all that!)

Sunday afternoon I cooked a dinner (after my fantastic wife prepared all the veg whilst I was out) which we ate as a family, started building my BBQ, played with my daughter, bathed her, and got her down 40 minutes early. We took the chance to get out in the garden in the early evening and get an acer re-potted, followed by a clean up in the kitchen, a episode of Battlestar Gallactica, and bed.

Now a full, busy week stretches out in front of me. We've got some friends popping down at the end of it though, so something to look forward to. Reports and meetings this morning. Joy.

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A tired man writes...

Finding it hard to come up with a compelling topic to write about this morning. My feet (well, foot) hurts too much.

My second sports massage seemed to go well, I could feel the muscles loosening up as the massage continued. I then went home got changed and went to see Batman.

The film was good, if a bit too dark in my opinion for a 12A rating, but slightly too long.

As I got up to leave my feet and ankles refused to work properly, not hurting per se, just unwilling to bend. Things had eased up enough by the time we got to the car.

This morning, my left foot hurts. With or without weight on it, the back of my arch is hurting.

I'm off work tomorrow. It's my wife's birthday, so I'm spending quality time with Baba whilst Mama has a well deserved, relaxing spa day. I'll phone my chiropodist today and see if I can pop in tomorrow and pick up the orthotics she was supposed to be getting to me weeks ago.
The first weekend of BBQ ownership approaches, but the weather looks typically grim, so it may just get assembled, and not actually used.

It should be an easier weekend on the whole. The main jobs are ticked off, and whilst there are always things to do, hopefully jobs won't be the focus of the weekend.

Off to another busy one.

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Wednesday hits again, but I'm already over the hump

With a short week this week Wednesday doesn't hold quite it's usual dread. It's still a busy day, with far too many meetings; but today and Thursday take me to the long weekend.

News today reports that China have banned the waving of flags from nations not represented at the Olympics. That'll stop the Scottish supporting Andy Murray as anything other than British! It'll also stop anyone waving a Tibetan flag (the actual purpose of the ruling). I'm waiting for the moment during these games where China is suddenly embarrassed into doing something rash. Something with global repercussions. They're not used to global scrutiny, and they're used to getting their way. An interesting combination.

I've got a seat this morning on the tube. In a carriage with only 6 people standing. The temperature is almost pleasant! We arrive at Waterloo in a minute though, so all that will change.

My blackberry is semi behaving itself now. If I reboot it of a morning all the buttons work. If I don't, it starts playing up again overnight. I can get a new one in December, so I just need to persevere until then.

Wow, we emptied the platform at Waterloo, no one was left waiting, and we're still not even close to full. I guess everyone's gone on holiday.

I'm just waffling now, so time to sign off. Going to see Batman tonight, that'll be good. Other than that, one more journey to work to go this week.

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Reprimands

I got a little, light hearted telling off last night for, once again (apparently), making it sound like I do all the work around the house. I don't. However, this is "Steve's Thoughts", not "The jobs Steve and Laura did over the weekend"!

In the interests of fairness, my wife did lots too, most of which she did whilst looking after our daughter. She's great.

Happy now babe? (I'll be in trouble now for sure)

Other than that you can blame me for the weather. Our BBQ was delivered yesterday. It hasn't stopped raining since. In fact, it started drizzling the second I completed the payment.

What else. Hmm. Last night consisted of putting little one down, sorting and cleaning the kitchen, dismantling the gazebo, chasing down slugs, and doing the ironing. My wife went to the cinema and say 'Mamma Mia' for the third time. (I'm definitely in trouble now ;) )

The busy days continue. Many meetings today, and a number of reports and responses to make. Maybe if they made hours 100 minutes long...
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Productivity and reward

A busy weekend was had by all.

I managed what must be the ultimate payback from those loyalty systems this weekend. I walked into Argos, gave the teller the number for a forty inch full HD TV, handed over my nectar card and that was that. Brand new telly, delivered in under 21 days, no money down, none to pay. I now have enough on my card to buy a sandwich. Maybe.

We were in Guildford at the time looking for some paints for my daughter's play house, (The selection of paints for exterior use in B and Q seems to extend to red, blue and white) and came away with a few samples.

The afternoon of Saturday was a pleasant time of cleaning the bathroom, tidying up, and sorting things out.

Yesterday we went to a local woodland based activity centre where my daughter got a chance to climb, swing and spin before we went for a pleasant, if short, walk in the woods in the drizzle. Little one fell asleep on the way home, and was down and in her cot for midday. Unheard of.

As soon as we got back I loaded the car up for the tip and got rid of a load of stuff that's been cluttering up the garage. A quick food shop on the way home was followed with a full vacuum of the car. My wife is out tonight watching 'Mamma Mia' for the third time(!), and is doing the driving, so at least she won't be ashamed of the state of the car.

The rest of the day was paperwork. A huge pile of stuff was sorted, filed, and dealt with. I now have a large pile of things in my pocket that need paying in, or sending off. My inbox, however, is empty.

Now, if only my e-mail inbox at work was the same.

Relaxation last night as we near the end of season 2 of Battlestar Galactica was followed by some watering (pots only, the rest of the garden was wet enough), and bed.

Short week this week as I have Friday off, some busy days in between though.

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Egg meet face

Last night my blackberry messed up!

I updated the OS on my blackberry a couple of days ago in an attempt to fix my trackball issues (it didn't), and one of the fallouts from that was the removal of all my account details from the various apps on the handset. So over the last couple of days I've been putting everything back. Last night was the turn of my sync software.

As I've gone into previously I have a convoluted system for keeping my calendars in sync between work, google, and the blackberry. The crux of this solution is the sync software on the blackberry. I looked up and re-input my account details for the sync, and hit go. I only expected a couple of updates as I hadn't been out for too long, and I hadn't had that many meeting invites.

What actually happened was a large number of existing meetings somehow got hijacked by my handset, it gave ownership of other peoples meetings to my gmail account, and then sent them invites to their own meetings. In some cases it invited all the invitees too!

The first thing I knew about it was the twenty off out of office replies my gmail account got. The next was the head of IT Production declining his own meeting from two days ago with a puzzled comment.

I feel today could be fun.

In other news, it's Friday, I'm tired, the weekend begins in a few hours. There are many jobs to do. Woo.

Anyone know where I can find a nice big hole to open up beneath me and swallow me up?

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I just can't seem to do Thursdays

Mid week comes and goes, but it is Thursday mornings that are always the hardest for me. 3 days of early mornings / late nights behind me, any rest from the weekend has been used. Reserves are low. Couple this with no early meetings and dragging my butt out of bed becomes nearly impossible.

I managed it in the end, and the day began. The descent to the weekend continues. 1 meeting today, and an afternoon of training. No meetings tomorrow (allowing me to do some actual work!); and then we're done.

Maybe I should just take Thursdays off.

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Half way. Is the glass empty or full?

Mid way into the week, and hopefully an easy slide to the weekend. I have a huge back log of e-mails to go through, and some other paperwork to bring up to date; but with less meetings (including none on Friday yet) I may get up to date.

I went for a sport massage yesterday evening. On top of all the problems with my feet (or maybe as a result of them) all the muscles in my legs are *extremely* tight. So I have a number of sessions booked so they can be pushed, prodded, and generally loosened up. Yesterday's session ached, but wasn't as painful as I'd expected. It's probably too early to say whether it made a difference.

Otherwise, life carries on. Little one slept better last night. The lack of sauna-like conditions helped. Other than that, nothing major to report. Onwards to the weekend!

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And they're off...

2days in, and I've got a seat from the start of the journey both days. Must be the summer holidays. Also, as there are less than ten people standing in the whole carriage, the temperature is reasonable too. That won't last.

The huge amount of rain last night took the edge off the temperature, and the family managed to sleep through. Personally, I'm feeling a bit dead this morning. The weekend is catching up.

Our friends coming to visit have postponed for a couple of weekends which has helped relieve the pressure to get everything straightened out. This means we can use this weekend to clear the garage and get the house sorted after a couple of weekends in the garden.

Had a nice doze on the tube. Makes a change!

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Monday morning issues

Having blackberry problems this morning, so typing this is an exercise in patience. When I hit select I get 'uo' when I hit back I get 'hl'. Not very helpful. Everything else works, so I'm working around the issue. The thing was fine yesterday, and then I put it down and came back to check it 3 hours later where it started doing this. I've rebooted it twice, but to no avail.

Anyway, minor technical problemets aside, we finally got our third and final 6ft by 6ft piece of trellis fully stained. I'll fit it inplace tonight and complete our screening. The playhouse is also complete (bar a couple of wobbly windows), so a productive weekend all round

Unfortunately, since we started doing the trellis we've had an extra pole and 2ft section inserted, and had some horizontal trellis fitted to the wall of the house, and in the conservatory. So our adventures in staining are not quite at an end.

The 'shock' headline in the Metro this morning is, "Human sewage used for cereals". I have to say, my first thought was, "People will do anything to avoid eating muesli."

Another week begins. This is the first one of many without my right hand girl as she's off on secondment in South Africa. I know I, and the team, will cope, but I'd rather we didn't have to!

Other than that, many meetings (though hopefully less than last week), and the usual problems and issues are bound to crop up, but nothing major. We have some friends visiting this weekend, so that's to look forward to. A saturday of wine and bbq would be nice. Hope the weather's up to it.

Speaking of the weather, who turned the heat up. Last night was the hottest, most humid, and yet stillest night yet. Even when we were woken at 5:11 (apologies for the stupid number I've just found out my zero is also playing up, it types 'yi' or ')I' depending on how I select it!) It still hadn't cooled down much. It's all a bit much really. We're British, there must be someone to complain to!

Right, enough waffling! I'll have nothing to write about the rest of the week at this rate! Time for the day to begin. Good start so far, I've got a seat on the tube!

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That Friday feeling

Tired and late this morning. I didn't get home until 20:30 last night, and hit the wrong button on the alarm this morning.

Problems with one of the systems I look after kept me working late, and there are accusations of inaccuracies in a report I didn't generate (and wouldn't have generated) that was based on data I provided for a completely different purpose.

On top of all that, my deputy / right hand girl is off to South Africa for 3 months on secondment.

With all that, there isn't much else I can think of.
The weekend will be busy, and followed by another busy week, so no respite there.

However, the wonky roof on our daughters playhouse was fixed yesterday, and as a bonus they gabled (is that a word?) and felted it too, so all that remains is the windows which helps greatly.

If the weather holds the final trellis panel can finally be stained and fitted, and another couple of large jobs can be ticked off.

Time to go, still a while to travel, but I need to get my head in the right space. Bring on the weekend, busy as it may be.

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Why bother?

By the time I got on my second train today I might as well have not bothered dryin off after my shower. Having the shower itself seemed almost as pointless. It's hot, humid, and I'm tired. It's going to be a good day!

The heat and humidity is wearing down my household. The house retains so much heat, and the lack of breeze at the moment is making some rooms, including my daughters, a bit sauna like. Poor little mite is often covered in sweat when we check on her.

To add insult to injury, heathrow decided to land planes from the West this morning, that means every plane about to enter final approachflies slowly over the south side of our house turning north, and then east as they fly back north of our house. Yes, they're quite high up, but the still air, the slow speed, and the frequency makes sleeping difficult, and returning to sleep once awake nearly impossible.

Now, what else can I whinge about? Probably plenty, but I won't.

Topical news question given the sentencing of the canoe fraud case. Why on earth did he return to the UK and kick this off? If he'd remained in Panama, and stuck to the plan their wouldn't have been any issues. Why the daft amnesia tale? I just don't get it. Even if the tale had worked the insurance money would have had to be returned and they'd have lost out financially.

Right, I'm now 90 degrees, squashed, and 12 minutes from work. I love my life.

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Another day...

Inspiration has gone AWOL this morning. Hump day has arrived, and with it 5 and a half hours of meetings. That's a big hump! Can't say I'm looking forward to it, but I'm sure I'll claw back some time along the way.

Thinking about life choices at the moment. Where do I want to be in 1, 2, 3 years time? What's the next step. I always thought a technical person would be a good manager. I've had those who don't understand what I'm saying and that's useless. However, maybe it's not as clear cut. Engineers, technical people are used to building systems. We define every aspect of them. We know everything about them. We revel in the details, the control. I'm slowly realising that managers have no control. Power, and decision making is not control.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a detail man. Organised, and in control. The question is, can I learn to relinquish that control? To stop being the engineer and become the manager. I hope so, and I'm beginning to formulate a way of doing it. Only question remains, is it what I want to do? Does it lead to somewhere I want to be?

Only time will tell.

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Is it really only Tuesday?

I feel like most of the week should be behind me by now and I've only done one day! Oh dear!

I'm definitely growing old and out of touch. The Dr. Horrible (if you don't know what I'm talking about, don't worry, it's finished) thing last week would have been something I knew about pre-event in the past. I'd have been the one spreading the word. As it was, I found out about it on Saturday, read that it finished on Sunday on the Sunday itself, and finally watched it all at going on 10 at night.

I still got there. I still have my ear to the ground, but I am slowly slipping out of touch.

Tired this morning, but not 'tired to the bone' yet. It's getting to the point where I dream about early nights and long lie-ins. Sad isn't it!?

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I'm back...

And it's like I was never away!

Reasonable start; overslept by 9 minutes, had to run for the train. Made it, and it was as over crowded a journey as ever. Standout moment: the buffet girl asking this whale of a bloke to stand elsewhere as people couldn't get past him.

Rammed platform on the bakerloo due to a defective train. I've now transferred to the circle and am on my way again.

So, 10 days off. I don't feel anymore rested than when I left, but I think I probably am. Work stresses never left, and the forced detatchment probably caused as much stress as it avoided. Of the 2 jobs I wanted to get done, the majority of the playhouse is built, however one of the roof panels has been built incorrectly, so that's on hold until a replacement is sourced. The trellis remains unpainted.

We had a good trip to my parents allowing us to catch up with my grandparents too. Little one was very well behaved. Even with a cold she was great around my family, and not too clingey at all.
The rest of the week has been jobs, shopping, walks, and not much sleep. Our poor bunny seems to be getting the last of her molars (thankfully her last teeth), and is waking in the night. She's quickly calmed, but the disruption is playing hell with our energy levels.

So that's it. A quick break, and we're back commuting. Like all these things, it's like I was never away.

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Time off

Today is the last working day for me for the next 10 days, but I'm not ready to relax just yet. I have a feeling that today will be hectic and busy with all those last minute problems cropping up as they always do just before you leave for a while.

I always find that your last day before a holiday puts you so far beyond that it takes a good 2 or 3 days to recover. The flip side of the holiday is always so busy too that by 10am you may as well have not been away.

Still, this time tomorrow I'll have got a bit more sleep than usual, and aim to be waiting for a new iPhone to replace the one my wife shattered after dropping it on the floor one too many times. After that we'll be off up the country at some point during the day to visit my parents for a few days.

Once we get home it's a combination of jobs and relaxation. Hopefully those last couple of big jobs will get completed, and all those little niggling jobs can also get done. That, more than anything, will allow me to relax.

Posting will obviously be sporadic for a short while. I'm trying to persuade my wife to do a guest post, and I may get some down time where I feel I have something to write. However, don't expect much until a week on Monday (all 3 of you you read this thing that is!)

Au revoir. Or as Arnie said, "I'll be back!"

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Mid-week malaise

I've been working hard to put up some longer posts here recently, but today I'm struggling.

Although, technically, today is mid way through the week, this week is a short one for me as I have Friday off. As a result I'm having 5 days of meetings in 4. This combined with reports week, a DR paperwork exercise to tick some boxes, the mid-year appraisals to do, and a large number of new people in the team depriving me of system knowledge is causing me a bit of a headache!

Time for a holiday. Oh! Look at that! I'm off Friday and all next week. No blackberry (at least no work e-mails), no forwarded phone. Peace and quiet for a few days. Hopefully get the 2 major jobs finished in the garden, and a myriad of small tasks done in the house. Along with some much needed relaxation time.

Last post of the week tomorrow.

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On being wonderful

The, so far, untold story of Friday night (scroll down for a recap on stupidity) is the wonderfulness of my wife.

To start with she was having a hell of a day with our little bundle of joy, but declined my offer to come home, and said I should go out, she'd be fine.

A couple of text messages through the evening indicated things hadn't got much better, but that my darling daughter did go to sleep once she finally got there.

The first time I spoke to her was just after 11 to appraise her of my travel plans. She was only concerned for me, wondering if I'd make a connection, worried about me doing something daft (like walking home from the station), offering to bundle little one into the car and come and meet me. I re-assured her I would be fine, the train may let me make my connection, and no matter which station I ended up at I'd get a cab home.

She rang me as I got on the train, again worried about my well-being. We discussed contingency plans. Again she offered to come and get me. Those without kids won't quite understand the magnitude of this offer. To willingly put yourself through waking the babe is a generous offer indeed. Satisfied that I wasn't going to try walking 5 miles or anything equally silly we rang off again.

The next time she rung me was after midnight. It was during this call that I had the dawning realisation that things weren't going to plan. I should have been home by now, not still on a train. There were no recriminations, just a calm, worried concern for myself.

I rang her back after consulting my GPS to confirm the bad news. Still no anger. In fact, she was finding it quite amusing; in a worried, concerned sort of way.

We spoke again outside the station. My wife had de-camped bed and moved to the computer from where she was looking for options for me. Luckily for me, I found a hotel quick enough, and left her as I rang the night bell.

We spoke again once I got to my room. She'd found me a couple of other nearby options in case this one hadn't worked out. However, now assured I was safe and well, we said goodnight and put the phones down.

I probably got more sleep than my wife as I immediately dropped off into my usual, earthquakes wouldn't wake me, state, whilst she was wide awake and worried about me.

Getting home the next day, there was no hostility; even when I revealed I had a hangover. Throughout the was just loveliness and concern. And something to take the piss out of for many years to come!

My wife's wonderful. I love her very much.

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On good times, stupidity, and the excellence of backup plans

Friday night was a good time. I haven't been out and relaxed for a whole evening for some time. I had slightly too much to drink, but didn't do anything stupider than boring a group of Mums with baby talk.

Mindfull of my travel restrictions, I left the group at 22:10, leaving myself, I thought, plenty of time to catch to 23:00 train, and the 23:42 interchange. Minor problem; there is no 23:00. Having never left travelling so late before I had no idea of the timetables. Had to go for the 23:21 to Slough, Reading and Oxford. One extra stop, not too bad. Timings would be interesting for the interchange, but worst comes to the worst I could always get a taxi.

I'd spoken to my darling wife at this point, and appraised her of the situation, with rough timings. I got on the train, and promptly fell asleep.

I was woken by my phone ringing. It was my wife. Slightly disoriented, I answered. She asked where I was, I hadn't a clue. I asked the time, 00:15. That wasn't possible. Even with a stop at Slough the train should have been in at midnight. I was suddenly aware that no one was sitting around me, and realisation began to dawn. I disconnected, and checked the GPS. We were approaching Oxford!

Long story short (too late), I rang back, explained, sorted a hotel out near the station, and travelled home the next morning.

Saturday saw the conquering of a minor hangover with some work in the garden. I dug out and compressed the ground for my daughter's playhouse. I then started levelling the ground, but ran out of sand and time. It looked like a storm was coming, so I used the remaining time to lower our cheap gazebo, and sacure some of the more fragile plants.

Sunday was rain. Out went the planned erection of the playhouse. Instead I emptied, cleaned, tidied and sorted the conservatory. Changing it from the semi storage cupboard it had become into a useable space. My daughter has a playdate with 2 little friends today, so I put down an alphabet playmat, and some crawling toys we had got for the garden; now they have somewhere to play.

The weekend finished with ironing and a clean of the kitchen.

Quick rant on the farce that is London Transport this morning. I arrive at Paddington to be told there are sever delays on the Jubillee, so a stay on the Barkerloo, and change at Oxford Circus (reminders of Friday night), I take the long walk to the Central, and the hot train to Bank. Most of the way through the 6 mile underground hike they announce that there are no DLR services to reduce the risk of overcrowding! They suggest I either get the Central line to Stratford(!) And pick up the DLR from there, or the Northern line to London Bridge, to get the Jubillee. Can anyone see the problems with these suggestions? So I pick the more likely. I now find myself at London Bridge, waiting for severely delayed trains on the Jubillee line, with a huge crowd of people in front and around me doing the same.

Sometimes I really wonder why?!

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Another Friday, another week

Time keeps ticking by. Where do the weeks go? It seems only yesterday I had over 100 days on my homepage countdown until my wife's birthday. Now there's about a month.

On the health side of things, my wheezing has completely cleared up. Thankfully. As have my itchy eyes. I'm still sneezing quite a bit, but the levels of irritation have dropped substantially. If I could now work out what caused all the problems. Fore-warned is fore-armed.

Everything seems to be slowly coming together. Our garden is looking good; and, with some good weather this weekend will have a playhouse in it by Monday. After months of decorating work all the rooms are starting to look tidy; which in turn makes them easier to clean (if we're given the time!). I was looking round our kitchen last night just before bed, and then went through to the dining room, and finally the lounge, and I thought, "It probably was worth it."

Out tonight after work. It'll be good to get out and relax a bit. Next week is report week and I'm only here 4 days, so it'll be compressed and stressy. Off for a week and a day at the end of it though.

Slowly feeling a little less tired. I'm not getting any more sleep, but what I'm getting seems to be doing the job. It certainly makes a difference when the little one sleeps through to a reasonable hour. My poor, long suffering wife could do with more rest though. Our darling daughter may be an angel through the night, but she's certainly making up for it during the day. Very clingy at the moment, and that headstrong Nixon attitude is coming to the fore. Tantrums at 16 months, boy are we looking forward to the 2's!

That about wraps it up I think. Just over 10 minutes away from work; the tube is not too busy this morning. Fallout from a desk move awaits me. Shouldn't be too bad. Then, preperation for next weeks reports, e-mails, and the inevitable meetings. Then fun. Woo.

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Afternoon posts

I may as well accept it. Writing in the afternoon just doesn't work for me. I have my RSS feeds, a free paper, and a hot carriage to deal with. This on top of a full day just doesn't present a good state of mind when it comes to composing posts.

Left late today. Thankfully the meeting and discussions that led to this were productive. Got to the train to find it rammed with no buffet car to lean in. However, on arrival at my interchange I found that my normal train was heavily delayed and I ended up catching it anyway. So, whilst late, I'm no later than I would have been!

Yay.

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No post

Worked from home yesterday, so too many RSS feeds this morning. Now at work. More later...

Maybe.

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What's up?

So, here I am, Tuesday morning, up with the alarm (no snooze button this morning!), feeling pretty chipper. On my way to work, rammed into a train, looking out the window at a gorgeous day in the making.

Had a reasonable kip last night. Not long enough, but deep. Feeling reasonably refreshed.

To make up for yesterday (and Friday), here's a bit of an update.

Thursday night was a celebration for the go-live of a work project. The first part of the evening was in a bar with a couple of workmates, and was a good laugh. The second part was the party, and the food was good. I left at 21:30, and got home at 23:30.

A little tired on Friday, but none the worse for wear, the day passed uneventfully enough, and the weekend was upon us.

I decided to sleep in the back room Friday and Saturday to try and give my wife some decent sleep to help her catch up, so I was awake quite early Saturday. Read for a while before getting little one up and sorting her and a few jobs downstairs out. Off then for a haircut, almost 2 hours of my life wasted waiting for a slot as staff kept taking breaks leaving, essentially, one person to deal with the 8 people ahead of me.

With that ordeal over, there was a quick shopping trip, then the rest of the day was spent sanding trellis. A fun passtime.

Sunday was more of the same, but by the end of the day my wife and I had sanded and stained all of the framework and 2 of the 3 trellis inserts. This leaves us with a couple of hours work needed this weekend to get the final insert done, and we'll be finished!

Yesterday we both hurt!

During all of this there has been plenty of little one time. She's wandering around like a good 'un. Last night she opened one of her books and, pointing, said "Elephant". She was right, it was.

So that's about all at the moment. I feel there is a rant in me somewhere, but it can't formulate itself just yet, so something to look forward to there.

Off now to enjoy the sight of the beautiful weather from my sealed office building. Joy.

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Monday again. Already?

Running late. Train full of young school kids. Signalling problems, so off to the central line. Then DLR, then work. Tired, oh so tired this morning. Tired in the bone.

Managed to get all our trellis sanded and stained this weekend, but now we're paying for it.

Need rest. I'll post something on the way home if I can get a coherent thought together!

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The post after the night before

Send paracetamol. And water.

Not really. I'm tired, as always, but fine. A fun time was had, the early part of the evening was better than the latter, but it was all good. Nice food, tapas, good company. Then a long journey home, and not enough sleep.

Another week draws to a close, a weekend in the garden, for a change, beckons.

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On life outside work

I was talking the other day to someone I work with and mentioned that I would love to run a windsurfing school during the day, and a bar by night. Putting aside the logistics of the fantasy for now, the question she asked was, "You windsurf?" It struck me that some people don't know me, even though they know me!

So, yes, I windsurf. (Bloggers note: when I say I do these things, they are on hold whilst my daughter gets a bit older. In my mind I still do them, and the fact that I haven't actually practiced any of them in over 3 years is irrelevant.) I own a short(ish) 285, and enjoy nothing more than hooking in, and shooting across the water.

I also kayak. I have a BCU 4 star, used to teach, and got to division 3 in the british white water slalom league. Of the 2, I most enjoy windsurfing, but the sheer frightening joy of shooting over a grade 4 rapid and living takes some beating!

On dry land I mountaineer. I have climbed Kilimanjaro, numerous alps, walked the haute route from Chamonix to Zermett, climed in south and north America, and walked the highest 14 mountains in Wales, and the highest 100 (except Pillar rock) in the Lakes.

I also climb, and am comfortable leading VS outdoors, and 5C, E1 indoors (6A, HVS is also OK) (I know most of you won't know what that means, suffice to say it's not the hardest, but it's not that easy!)

In my spare time (!) I play guitar and keyboards (not at the same time), and have played numerous times live with the accompanyment of some fantastic female singers.

Finally I enjoy a large range of computer games, and watching movies from an extensive selection.

At various times I have run (4 half marathons so far, and an off road tri-athlon), and mountain biked; however, I think these come more under exercise than hobbies!

So there you go, genius computer geek, and outdoor sports freak all in one!

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Post without a clever title

Feeling contemplative this morning. A little down. Can't put my finger on it, and I'm sure it'll pass quickly enough.

We got to bed at an almost reasonable hour, but the 03:15 botty call put paid to a good nights sleep. The wake up call at 05:00 didn't help much either. I slept in a bit, but not enough.

I need a holiday. I can feel it. I've always thrived under stress, but stress when you have to get other people to do the work whilst still being accountable is a different kettle of fish. Stress where I can't do anything to directly resolve it is taking it's toll. I need a break. And some sleep; but not as much as I did, the weekend helped.

Anyhow, enough of this. Time to kick in to life. I need some suggestions. TV shows worth watching. We're just starting Battlestar Gallactica season 2, but I have an issue with the second disk, so we're stuck for a while. I did download Dexter, but that only lasted 7 minutes before it was turned off. Ugly Betty and Bones are due for release in September, Lost is December. We need something to fill the gap. Any suggestions?

Other than that, work continues in our garden, the end is distant, but in sight. The interior is on hold briefly, but it too is soon to be finished. Then all we have to do is keep everything clean, tidy and maintained!

Work approacheth, and another day of meetings, decisions, and justifications beckons. Fun.

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Monday morning, and away we go!

Another week begins. For once I don't feel too bad. Twice this weekend we managed to sleep until 09:30. Three times this weekend we turned the lights off just before midnight. We seem to have lost the ability to go to bed at a reasonable hour. Thankfully, babe is understanding and let's us sleep in.

I'm still waking in the early hours of the morning with problems breathing. Nothing too worrying, but enough to rouse me. This morning it was 05:00, which is, at least, an hour later than usual. I sorted myself out, and went back to sleep. I woke at the normal time feeling quite good. Makes a change.

As I'm under orders not to blog about my journey, I won't complain about the shambles that is public transport this morning. Suffice to say I'm on a bus. It's that bad.

I was going to blog about stuff this morning, but my mind is rather distracted, so I'll leave it there. I'll think about an update later.

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In closing

The week draws to a close, but I know it's going to go out with a fight.

I've got issues to deal with at work (although I have the bare bones of a plan there is still the human factor to deal with), other issues at work (more meetings, more e-mails, I can see this one spiraling out of control), and my breathing is playing up.

Hayfever has never really bothered me, but this year it is. My eyes itch constantly (except for about 10 minutes after I use eye drops), I sneeze constantly, and I am forever blowing my nose. This has been going on for a month now, and I'm sick of it.

Recently, it has added a dry cough, and a whole heap of wheezing to it's bag of tricks. This is not just annoying, but worrying too. And last night it interrupted not just my sleep, but my wifes. This will not do. Time to see someone about it.

Problem is, I don't know what's causing it. There are obviously no animals in the house (ankle biters aside!), and the amount of pollen on the underground, and in our air conditioned building at work doesn't warrant the reactions I'm having. It seems to get worse at 18:00 every night whether I'm at home or on a train, and is always better in a morning, almost non existant in the afternoon. In short, it's not behaving like any other reaction I've had before.

So, good luck to the Docs on tracking this one down!

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On something other than trains

I've been told! "No more boring posts about your boring journey. There's only one thing worse than a commuter journey, and that's reading about a commuter journey. Now stop it!"

So, where does that leave me? Stuck underground, racking my brains for something to write about.

Right then, kids! They're great. Convinced? Ok, well...

When I ring home I can here my daughter in the background saying, "Dada". She does this everytime the phone rings.

When I get home she'll turn to me, then give me a big grin, a "Dada", and a demand for a cuddle.

When I'm holding her she'll turn and give me a kiss.

If I say "Cutie pie" she'll pinch my cheek and give it a wobble.

I've taught her how to do 'raspberries'. She does them all the time on Mummy.

When I kiss her goodnight she waves.

When I leave the room she'll crane round to see where I've gone.

When it's bedtime she'll knock on the wall so I come and get her.

After bathtimes the first thing we'll do is sit down with her wrapped in a towel. She'll cuddle up to me every time, looking up at my face.

The best game in the world is whatever Daddy's doing now.

When she's upset, only a cuddle from Daddy will do. (Ok, Mummy cuddles work as well)

Everyday she discovers new things, and always wants to share them with me.

One day I'll get to watch Star Wars with her.

She'll probably like Jar Jar.

She makes it all worthwhile, and between her and my wife I have something to look forward to at the end of every day.


If you're not convinced now, then you'd just have to see her, see the happiness in her, and experience one of those selfless cuddles.

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Spaced

Walking around in a daze this morning. Not feeling tired per se, just not exactly connecting with planet earth.

Potential problems travelling in (yet another signal failure) were brilliantly averted when a train that usually terminates at my station was pushed into service as a fast train to London. This has got to be the only time ever that everyone from my station has managed to get a seat on a London commuter train.

Now at a complete loss for what to write. Certainly can't do a piece on why kids are great any justice, so that'll have to wait.

Also can't concentrate as the driver of the tube insists on telling us over and over again that this is a peak time service, it may be subject to delays, however we can help; by standing behind the yellow line and letting people off before we board. The next station is x you can do a, b, c. Please stand clear of the doors. And so on. He hasn't shut up for longer than 10 seconds so far. He's apologising for an inconvienience that we aren't experiencing now. The only thing I want him to apologise for is not shutting up, followed by him shutting up.

Anyway, another day, another set of meetings.

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Monday morning

The usual large number of RSS feeds this morning have left me close to my destination again with little time to write.

One of my friends told me that reading this blog reminds him daily why he doesn't want kids! I'll try and answer that one tomorrow.

In completely unrelated news, I have a stinking headache this morning, and am really tired.

Had a good weekend. A productive saturday saw me getting my rear damper fixed on the car, and then wiring the entire garden to allow plants to grow. Sunday was quiet and enjoyable. A walk to the corner shop with my daughter, a trip to the park, a home cooked sunday dinner, a trip out to a garden, and finally a relaxing movie with my wife.

Now it's Monday, and commuting is as much fun as always. Can't seem to maintain focus yet today; I keep thinking it's afternoon already, and getting out of tube trains expecting to see the sun. Fairly easy day thankfully. I'm sure I'll get it together soon.

Time to stop rambling. Work approacheth.

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Late running

When you forget to set an alarm, and you're really tired, you're body doesn't wake you at 06:23 naturally. Strange that. Thankfully, my wife does set an alarm (for a slightly later time than mine however) otherwise I'd still be asleep now.

Once I had got up, and made my way out, I got to my interchange with the trains. Nicely timed, (ok, complete chance) I walked down the stairs as a train arrived. Making my way to the platform, just as the door stopped, I was asked by the platform staff if I was travelling first class. Now, 2 things should be noted at this point:

1. There are constant announcements played over the tannoy telling customers to use all available doors when trying to board a train.

2. The carriage I was trying to board is the buffet car (I've mentioned before about leaning on the buffet on the journey). This car only has 1 door, the other side of the carriage has a door shape, but it doesn't open.

I said no to the guy, and explained I was going to the buffet. He then wouldn't let me on the train saying that I would have to use one of the standard class doors.

A point about the platform. The entrance, and main length of the platform leads people to a certain point. This happens to be about equal distance between the first and second doors into standard class. When a train arrives, 50% of people go for each of these doors. The door he was pointing me at was the first of these. It was surrounded by lots of people. The door I was at had me.

Not wanting an arguement I walked to the other door, waited so I could actually board, and then walked back through to the carriage I had wanted.

The story would end here; however, as the train was about to leave one of the first class stewards walked through to the buffet furious. He started complaining to the buffet girl that the platform attendant was out of order and incredibly rude. That he wasn't letting people on the train was just ridiculous. A woman beside me agreed with him, and I spoke up too (with my all doors argument). The steward was so annoyed he gave us free drinks. That'll show 'em!

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Lighter post? No suggestions.

I left it yesterday promising a lighter post, and asking for suggestions. How many did I get? None. Oh well.

So, apart from complaining about being tired, and having a headache that won't quit, what could I write about?

I could explore the possibility that Igglepiggle and Upsy Daisy are seeing each other; however, they clearly are, and most of you won't know what I'm talking about. (If you plan to have kids I suggest you find out.)

That's all folks. Now packed on a tube. Picked a quick breather to type this bit, but will lose the space again in a minute.

Want something better, let me know.

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Trains

In the course of my daily commute I use 8 trains. 4 above ground, 4 below. Yesterday, 5 of them ran slow (left on time, arrived late) and 1 was cancelled completely (thankfully the other company that uses the line decided to stop at my station, so I was only delayed 22 minutes).

In a seperate post by a friend of mine in Japan at the minute, he describes trains there as leaving on time, and arriving on time. To the minute. As the norm. If you have only 12 minutes to interchange after a 2 hour journey, you don't worry. You will have 12 minutes. Simple. Can't see anyone planning a journey that way here. (Or if they do, I can't see it working out that way!)

Why can't we do things right in this country. The news is predicting (usual FUD probably) that oil *could* hit $250 a barrel in 18 months. This won't double the price at the pump, but it'll have a significant impact. More people will start to question car ownership, and car journeys. Given that our public transport infrastructure is already over capacity, and has been woefully underfunded for many years, what do "they" expect to happen. (They in this case is anyone who could be doing something about this. Government, rail bosses, network rail.)

At present, I can only guarantee a seat for myself on the 2 short overground trips I make. These journeys are 9 minutes, so I don't usually bother. I can sometimes get a seat on the short underground trip in the morning. This journey is 4 minutes, I don't bother. On all 4 of my longer journeys (around 25 to 30 minutes each) I have no expectations of a seat at all. Getting one on the tube is sheer luck. I won't get one on the train. Neither will dozens of others. These trains are already over capacity. The usual notice in the morning is, "This train is reported full and standing."

In related news, my feet are killing me. They really hurt at the moment. Time for more action around my insoles and supports I think.

Something a bit lighter tomorrow I think. Any suggestions?

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What do I do?

For years the answer I've given to the question "What do you do for a living?" Has been "I design computer systems."

This answer has served me well. "I work in I.T." was too vague and left me open to all sorts of support type questions. "I'm a technical architect" would be met with blank stares.

Obviously most people probably thought I worked out where all the bits went inside a computer, but, in my mind, the answer cover n-teir architecture, AD/LDAP design, message queuing, load balancing, cluster design, and all the other stuff I did.

Now, however, I'm a bit stuck. Most people haven't got the fogiest idea what 'Capacity Management' is; and, while I do get involved in database design, I wouldn't list it as a primary function of my job.

"I'm an Associate Director", or "I'm a head of department" don't really give people any information.

I could go to the functional, "I ensure that the companies computers are utilised as well as they can", or, "I'm in charge of measuring and increasing the utilisation of the companies computers." However, this doesn't really work for me as there is so much more to it.

"I'm in charge of the team looking after all the operational data in the company, and ..." It gets a bit waffly after that.

So, what do I do? I'm in charge of a operational database tracking all the companies assets and how they are attributed to the various parts of the organisation. I'm in charge of the current and historic reporting on the data. I run the capacity management systems within the company, and report on the utilisation of all the systems. I drive initiatives to increase the utilisation in line with company and industry targets. I am also the 'service owner' for the performance management tool we use, and am the person responsible for prioritising the development of the tool, and steering it's technical direction.

Now, can anyone put all that into a layman friendly sentence?

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3 lights and a lot of wiring

Busy weekend. Busier than originally planned. My parents arrived Friday, and we had a nice evening catching up. Saturday saw a day of jobs. Planting, grass cutting, putting up wire around the garden for plants of climb on, more planting, ironing, some tidying up, and a collapse!

Thankfully it was a nice day, and the various jobs passed pleasantly enough. Sunday we started off taking it easy. We had decided to visit a garden, and then go for lunch in a nice pub nearby. That was scuppered by the garden not being open! So we went for a quick walk by the river, and an early lunch. It's fortunate that we did as it was too hot for little one, and she was a bit grouchy.

When we got home, more jobs. Quite sedate this time though; lights in the hallway and landing. Easy enough, and much better looking than bare bulbs (even if they are energy saving ones). An easy tea, and a movie (cloverfield) followed.

Bed, sleep, work.

My wonderful wife and Dad have today finished all the planting, and my parents should be just about home now. I thank them again for all their help.

Now all we need is lights for the bathrooms and study, some carpet, and some wood(ish) flooring and we'll be finished!

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128 RSS feeds!

That's why there is no post this morning. 128 feeds, and I'm at work already (still 2 to read). Guess that's what happens when you have a busy weekend.

More later. (Probably).

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Slow morning

It's going slowly this morning. The first train was delayed 14 minutes, the second has taken 10 minutes to finally get up to full speed. I can feel it's going to be one of those days.

Apologies for the 2 short posts this week, it's been rather hectic at home and at work. Preperations for my parents coming, some bits and pieces being done to the house; combined with a big presentation at work, and some reports that needed sending out, and then chasing for actioning.

However my parents arrive today, the presentation was yesterday, and today is the deadline for actions. So by this evening I can move on and worry about something else. (Probably the result of the actions I get back today!)

My lovely daughter is now choosing to walk for herself. Up until now she's walked if stood up and encouraged, but reverted to crawling if she actually wanted to go somewhere. Now she'll quite happily set off on 2 feet if, for example, she was already stood up at the coffee table. Next step is for her to choose to stand up and walk, rather than stay down and crawl.

Can't seem to stop sneezing at the moment. My eyes are iching most of the time too. I've never had this much trouble with hayfever before. I know I'm a bit run down at the minute which can't be helping, but this is getting annoying.

Oh well, finally made London. Another day begins.

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Cannot compute

Presentation and problems this morning. I'm on 10 e-mails so far, and I haven't even hit London yet. As such, can't think of much else. Need to get my head straight for 9. Fun day ahead; I can tell.

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No post

So there was no post this morning. That's because I overslept, and spent the journey in writing mails and preparing for work. As penance I've worked late tonight, and will probably miss all the Daddy/ daughter time.

Better time keeping tomorrow, I'm presenting to lots of people at 9 am!

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Tired, wet and miserable

Well, 2 out of 3 ain't bad.

It's definitely wet this morning, and whilst it was nice to lie in bed listening to the rain, it was less pleasant to walk to the train in it.

I didn't get the best of night's sleep. The cold I'm keeping at bay plays havoc with my nose at night. My daughter also woke a couple of times with night terrors, but settled again immediately.

And that's it. I'm knackered and slightly damp. Time for a holiday I feel!

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Quick one

It's taken me a long time to catch up on all my RSS feeds this morning, so I'm nearly at work already. Trains have been absolutely useless today, so I'm about 45 minutes later than I should have been. Not a good start. I had some funny observations, and a weekend update planned, but there just isn't time. London bridge already.

Quickly, the weekend was one long sanding and staining epic, and still isn't finished. The important bit is done, but I have about 40 foot of wood left to sand and stain, and that doesn't include the posts. It'll get done eventually though.

The house didn't get the clean it deserved, so that gets bumped to nights this week. I'll be glad when Friday arrives, and with it my parents; as, by that point, it'll be too late to do anything about any remaining problems! Thankfully it's not too bad, we did manage a quick vacuum, and to clean the kitchen. With the important bits of the garden done, we can concentrate on the house this week. I know my poor, long suffering wife will be doing everything she can during little one's nap time.

Right, I've got 2 minutes left, and then a fun packed, full day. What joy!

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Up and about

Up early this morning to get the alloys on my wife's car replaced and shiny. This will be followed by a full day of gardens, tidying, and cleaning. First stop is the garden centre for some soil, then the lawn, the polishing, the vacuuming. The list goes on.

Paused now for a nice breakie in Morrisons. The calm before the storm.

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That Friday feeling

Another week rolls to a close. It may have been a 4 day week, but it seems longer. Of course that's the last 4 day week until August (unless I take time off); back to a full 5 days next week.

We have a full weekend of jobs planned, both inside and out, so I hope the weather is reasonable for at least part of the time.

With any luck, by the end of the weekend we should be all clean and tidy in the house for the first time. Not to give the impression that we live in a pig sty, but we've been having work done in the house pretty much since we moved in, and as a result things get put in convienient places, not necessarily the right ones. We're just about tidy, and a clean on top should bring the place up to scratch.

Other than that, life continues on. We got little one down easier last night, and she slept through. We didn't do quite so well, but I feel I got a decent sleep, or as decent as it could be.

The tube rumbles on. I've finally got a better place to stand (no chance of a seat), so I can type with two hands again. Not that I have much to say.

There was a balled pair of socks on the station platform this morning. How does someone get to the point where they can drop a sock ball whilst walking up a platform? Surely they would have been in a bag or rucksack. Wouldn't they have been zipped in? It's the little things that worry me!

I'm not mad.

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An evening

I travel home by 2 tubes, 2 trains, and a car, arriving back home at 18:30. In the house there are kisses for my wife and daughter, and a quick catch up on a day in the life of a 16 month year old, then it's upstairs to get changed.

Once changed, I log onto the computer; however, almost as soon as I hit return to complete the logon I'm asked to run the bath. Off to the bathroom it is, hot tap fully on, cold half way, bath thermometer placed in tub. Then back quickly to the computer to enter a couple more passwords and get the system ready for action. No time to do anything though as it's back to the bath to turn the taps off.

Little one is now upstairs, and I take over. Undressing and disposing the nappy (thankfully empty) is first, then a carry through to the bathroom. We like a little wiggle at this point, being held upright and tilted from side to side before being plonked in the bath.

Bathtime itself is a fun affair! Splashes and giggles, penguins and boats. We always finish with some Johnson's bedtime bath, a quick tidy up, plug removal, and a scoop up into the air. "Kicky kickys" are followed by a wrap in a nice big, warm towel, and a carry through to the nursery for some cuddles.

As soon as I sit down, the hand is extricated from the towel and the middle 2 fingers placed in my daughters mouth, she then tilts over and snuggles into my shoulder. I give her a combination of cuddles and toweling until she's dry, then just some cuddles. At some point she'll sit up, look at me, and then give me a kiss. We'll then play a game of pointing at the things Daddy says, "Daddy's nose", "Daddy's eyebrow". We also play "cutie pie", if I say those words she'll give my cheek a wobble, and I'll do the same to her in return.

Eventually she's had enough of all that so I take her over to the changing table. First things first, nappy! A liberal dosing of sudacrem, and then a nappy; followed quickly by a pair of pyjama bottoms so she doesn't take the nappy off. Next up is moisturiser, so I sit her up and apply E45 or Oilatum to her back and belly, and then her face. The cream soaks in very quickly, so this is followed by her pyjama top before she's transferred to the cot.

Once she's stood up and settled I go and get the toothbrush ready before lifting her back out, sitting down with her on my knee, moving one arm down and to the side of me, and taking hold of the other hand. Teeth cleaning can now commence. I'll spare you the details. Little one is transferred to the cot, and Mummy called.

Mummy makes herself comfortable and prepares for feeding, the duvet is placed on her knee, and then baby is placed on duvet and snuggles up. I tidy up anything that needs sorting, put on some jungle sounds, kiss baba goodnight, and make a quiet exit.

I get 5 to 10 minutes of computer time, a quick check of mail, facebook, and a website that wouldn't open on the blackberry. It's then back to the nursery to lift up babe, make sure Mummy gets a kiss on the nose, and then into the cot. Blankets are placed, 'Bear bear' is handed to the awaiting owner, then there is a quiet exit.

My wife and I finally say hello, then I get ready to go out for a run. As I'm about to leave, there are murmurings from the nursery; nothing loud yet, but definitely there. I head out.

20 minutes later I'm back, and baba is sitting on Mummy's knee in the nursery. I head up, strip off my running gear, and before my shower get some "white sauce" (rice milk, but don't use the 'm' word), water, and margerined bread. A quick shower later I'm wrapped in a towel and cuddling babe to allow Mummy to escape. Baba is then re-placed in the cot, jungle noises restarted, and lots of re-assurance given before I leave.

A couple of minutes later I'm downstairs in a towelling robe, and we're discussing dinner. A couple of minutes later, I'm left with instructions to peel and boil some marrow (5 minutes, no more), and my wife is back up giving some cuddles.

I sort out the marrow and watch the last 5 minutes of Furturerama before taking it off the boil and draining it. I tidy up the kitchen, and then all the toys lying around in the lounge before sitting down and flicking through the TV channels.

Presently my wife arrives. Apparently, you hollow out marrow *before* boiling it. You live and learn. No harm though, the marrow is still hollowable, so I sort that out, pack them with mince, and put them in the oven.

20 minutes later (at about 10 pm) it's dinner time. We compliment dinner with some 'Doctor Who'. 28 minutes in (Sky plus tells you this when you pause, I'm not actually sad enough to make note of the exact running time) there's a cry from above. Off goes Mummy, I tidy up.

Washing up done, dishwasher on, benches wiped, I've just sat down again when I'm rejoined by my wife. We watch the end of 'Doctor Who', get a glass of water, turn out all the lights (and the TV), lock up, and head upstairs. The computer is shut down, we both get ready for bed, I pop into the nursery to ensure my daughter is still covered and comfortable, then we finally flop into bed, say good night, and go to sleep.

We're woken at 03:49 so I can go and give another cuddle (bad dream, doesn't take long for breathing to slow and I can put her back in the cot), before crashing until the 06:23 alarm rudely wakes me again.


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Twitter

I use twitter via google talk to set my facebook status. For those that can't follow the last sentence, apologies; I'll talk about something else in a minutes. Since last week, it hasn't been working. I finally gave up and logged onto the twitter site, and in small text it told me that the functionality was switched off. This, aparently, was due to a bug in the jabber api, was now resolved, and the services were slowly being returned to operational. That message was from Friday. It's now Wednesday and it still doesn't work. No more official updates, no eta, it just doesn't work.

When so many people rely on a system, even if that system is free, shouldn't there be a duty of care to ensure that the system is available? A service level agreement between the user and the developers. We'll continue to use this great service, tell our friends, drive traffic, you just keep it running. Ok?

Or, does the fact that it's free mean that we have no say in this, it's stuffed, it'll be back when we can be bothered, just wait patiently and shut up?

Just letting the user know what's wrong, and a rough idea of when it'll be fixed would be a start.

In other news, my daughter learnt, at the weekend, how to go from sitting to standing without pulling herself up with external aids. Walking also continues to improve. Whilst wobbly, she can move around the house quite easily.

We finished staining our trellis at the weekend, now all we need to do is re-stains the screening trellis ash black instead of green. A fun job for the weekend. As long as it's dry.

Slowly we are tidying, sorting and cleaning the house after our decorating epic. It's good to be able to walk into a room, and see things as they should be.

Finally, I'm feeling the hostile stares of the people around me (not really, everyone is too engrossed with blackberries, papers, and books). I got onto the jubilee line, and, amazingly, there was a seat. I headed straight for it, and got there first. As I was about to sit down a woman approached, we made brief eye contact, and then I sat down. She looks as fit and active as me, certainly not old or pregnant. So, tough. My feet hurt, and I'm having a seat. She got her own at the next stop anyway.

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Why?

Why must the flipping trains only run every 30 minutes.

Why must they shut their doors and leave the platform seconds before they are due to arrive?

Why must I forget to move the car seat until the morning when I'm in a hurry?

Why am I stood on a platform at 06:45?

Why?

All I wanted was to get in early to catch up on a few things.

Give myself a fighting chance on the rest of the day.

Why did I bother?

Why?
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Deep questions

In answer to a request, today we ponder 2 of the trickiest questions ever asked:

Are Bert and Ernie more than just friends?
Why does bungle go to be in pyjamas, but walks around naked all day?

Where to start on these thorny issues? Bert and Ernie, 2 likely lads having some fun, the bed sharing a sign of the poverty they live in. Always dressed in the same clothes (always clean, the pride is there), rarely leaving the house, these two make the best of their situation. Government hand outs for muppets don't meet the needs of the individual, and employment opportunities are scarce, but they do the best they can.

Bungle, and his pyjamas, is an easier question. Bungle is a bear, they don't require clothes, they carry their own fur coat with them at all times. He chooses to wear pyjamas simply for the comfort factor. Cotton next to fur in between cotton sheets. Lovely.

Hope that helped clear these issues up. Any more difficult questions, drop me a note, or leave them in the comments.

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A bit like my mind!

So far the only topics I have come up with are:

Water butts, and the amount of water we are using every evening to water the garden (about 50 litres)

Me, sleeping in the spare room last night, and my daughter NOT waking us at 5am for once.

A rant over immigration / emmigration. Apparently, 1.2 million people have become citizens of the UK since labour came to power. Some quarters are picking this up as a shocking statistic, and going through the usual hyperbole. Seperatly reported is the statement that 2 million people have emmigrated in the last 10 years. Now, combine the 2 stories in any number of interesting combinations to back up the arguement of your choice. Isn't news paper writing fun.

So, given that those are less than stellar thoughts, I reckon I'll leave them out.

Along with another complaint about the mis-representation of the bill to change the law around IVF. Apparently "Fathers are no longer important". Hmm, nice shock headline, but complete rubbish. The wording of the guidlines given to clinics has been modified to ask them to consider the child's environment when couples go for IVF, and to ensure there is a stable family unit to provide for them. All this does is make it simpler for same sex couples to have children (specifically lesbian couples, as gay couples weren't exactly short of a father!) Arguement against this bill comes down to a single point. You don't believe that 2 women can raise a child without a man. Well I'm not going into that one, but I do know some traditional couples that aren't doing that well with one!

As you can see, I'm not going to write anything today. Maybe I'll come up with something tomorrow.

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At a loss

So much got cleared up and resolved yesterday that I'm at a loss today on what to write about.

There was the guy on the train this morning playing his music so loud, whilst studiously reading the paper, that he couldn't hear, or see, the several people asking him, politely, to get out of the way.

Or there is my daughter's built in alarm clock that seems to have got stuck at 5am.

My health update:
Chcoclate - nil
Coke - nil
Exercise - 1 mile run

Erm, other than that... Hmm, not much. I'll try and do something interesting today.

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Slow running - a metaphor?

Line side equipment failure caused our train to switch to the relief line where we were stuck behind 2 stopping services. There we were a fast train, built for 100+ mph running through stations at crawling speed.

Is this a reflection of my life? A fast track system shunted into the slow lane, stuck behind those who dither and stop?

Probably not.

My poor, long suffering wife has to endure me tossing, turning, twitching, squeaking and snoring at night. She invariably drags herself off to the guest room to get some kip, but this causes problems of its own. The room doesn't get very dark, and by 05:30 is often too bright to sleep.

I do what I can. I slept in the guest room Friday and Saturday nights, and had the yawns to prove it. However, during the week I need the shower room, so waking is inevitable (however, thinking about it now, that's no different to us sharing a room).

All of this addresses the symptoms however, not the cause. Essentially, I've grown a gut, turned into a slob, and got myself a stressful life.

Self help books say that identifying and recognising a problem is the biggest part of solving said problem. Good, job done!

So, what can I really do? Well, this weekend I only had one can of coke per day. So far today (because so much has passed!) I haven't had any. The plan is to not have any all day, nor tomorrow, etc. Gut solved. Everything else eaten is fairly balanced, the occasional choccy bar goes hand in hand with the coke, so stop one, you stop both.

Next step is exercise. I used to run. Now I pro-nate, have bad knees, and get out of breath running upstairs. Solve the gut, solve some of these other problems. I have the shoes for the pro-nateing, I have the support for the knee. Out of breath is just out of shape, hard work fixes that. That's the easy bit!

Now to find the time. Do I get up earlier (current alarm is 06:23)? Not without going to bed much earlier! Can I fit it in in the evening? Maybe. That's what I think needs to be done. If I get home, change into running kit whilst running the bath, bathe my daughter, cuddles and drying, nappy, dressed, teeth cleaned, hand off and out it might work. If I hand off earlier in the process it might work better. Worries here are down to tea time for my daughter being over early enough to ensure bath time at an early hour. Also, preperation and cooking time for dinner needs to be factored in.

I don't know how it'll work until we start I guess. Only thing I can guarantee is that something needs to change. Stay tuned and I'm bound to update.

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My Mother was a taylor, my Father was a smith

When I was a younger man, I played the guitar. Not so much these days, the closest I came recently was the one and only go I've had on guitar hero! However, my youth say much guitar playing. Those were the days of the mighty Ph7!

It started in school, I was talking to a friend one day (I believe we were queueing to watch a school "talent show"), and he mentioned his guitar playing, and before long we were talking about forming a band. We knew a drummer (without a drumkit), and I got a bass. We were away. Over time I traded the bass for a guitar, passing the bass duties to another friend making us a 4 piece.

We started on covers, "Highway to Hell", "Another Brick in the Wall (part 2)", amongst others, before moving into writing are own. Some of the greatest unheard songs of our time were created! Our grand finale was at a birthday of a friend of ours. His house had a large cellar into which a large number of us piled, and 2 or 3 of our year's bands played. Our version of "The Ace of Spades" is still talked about today.

As for the titleof this post, one of the songs we used to play was "House of the rising sun", and whilst transcribing the line "My Mother was a tailor" I spelt it wrong. This, obviously, led to the version above and much hilarity.

Upon leaving school, I tried a couple of times to form a band at uni, but nothing came of it. Not living on campus, and therefore not having access to a drumkit put a hold on things. I still played a lot, but only to taped recordings, or straight off sheet music.

It was a couple of years later, at work, I got talking to one of the helpdesk girls on a night out, and she mentioned that she sang, and was interested in performing. We got together, with another friend of hers who also sang, and I started transcribing music for just an acoustic guitar and singer. We were pretty good. We played a couple of bars at open mike nights, and generally had a good time.

Fast forward another couple of years, and I've moved to St. Albans, met up with another singer, transcribed a couple of her songs, and am playing a mixture of covers and original songs at the various pubs and open mike nights around Hertfordshire.

Then I moved to Newcastle, met my wife, and became far too busy to find the time to play.

I was driving to the station this morning, and "Save Tonight" came on the radio. As this was one of the songs we performed, and a personal favourite that I haven't heard for a while, it brought a smile to my face. I now have a hankering to do our version of "(Hit me) Baby, One More Time" just once more!

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Canary wharf

I went out yesterday evening on a scavenger hunt. Walking 3.5 miles around where I work answering various trivia questions about the area.

It was an absolutely perfect evening, and we partook of a couple of bars on the way; sitting in the sun, watching the world go by.

At the end, we all met in a pub on the very outskirts of the wharf and enjoyed a BBQ, drinks, and some socialising. All very enjoyable.

Unfortunately, due to my travel constraints, I couldn't stay late, and left around 9:20. As I walked back to the tube it was early twilight, all the lights were on, and it was reasonably quiet (as quiet as I've seen the wharf get). I passed through a park at the west end of the wharf, and it struck me. This is a really great place. It's tidy, clean, well laid out, well maintained. Clearly someone thought about these things when designing it. As I walked through the park, 1 canada square was framed perfectly in front of me, the other buildings framing that. Everything was carefully lit, and clearly set to look good. I exited onto a tree lined boulevard before making my way past limestone buildings and on down to the tube. The open spaces in front of the tube allowing a great view of all the surrounding towering buildings. All of the buildings are distinctive in some way, colours, frosting, shape and style all come together to create this place I work in.

I believe I'm quite lucky.

The mood was kind of ruined when I got back to Reading and found no train, and a delay of 57 minutes. I gave up, got a bus part way, and walked the rest. Finally got to bed at 12:30. Strangely, I'm a bit tired today.

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Trains and hayfever

I could rant about trains that don't arrive on time causing you to miss your interchange and forcing you to sit around for 25 minutes as a result. But I won't. There isn't much point. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It's annoying when it happens, but I rarely think about it when it doesn't.

Also, hayfever. Annoying. You would have thought that by now, as a species, we would have evolved away the sneezing attacks we get from pollen. It happens every year, there must be some form of immunity we could have built up over generations and passed along.

Thankfully it seems to be subsiding as the week progresses.

Speaking of which, I had Monday off, did a 14.5 hour day yesterday, and am now knackered. It's only Wednesday. Roll on the weekend. Oh, and cooler nights so I can shut the window and not get woken by birdsong at 04:00!

Oh well, another day, another set of meetings.

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New visitors

I sent out an e-mail yesterday evening to a reasonably large amount of people pointing them here. Only now is that decision registering. Some of them may actually read this!

Until now only 9 distinct people have read this. 3 of them are me, 2 are my wife, 2 are at work, which only leaves 2 people really reading this thing. That's such a small number it had really registered. I was only really writing for my own benefit, as it was something that seemed to need doing. I think that I shall just set aside the numbers and carry on oblivious. (At least until the number of comments goes up! (Doube bracket! Apologies about the comments, you need a gmail account to leave one. Stops me getting loads of spam))

I'm up and travelling particularly early today. I was sent an agenda yesterday for a cross department meeting today, only to find out that I'm speaking. It's at 10, so I'm going in for 8 to get some slides together and prepare a presentation. Fun.

I had an enjoyable 3 day weekend, cracking off a few jobs. The new trellis was stained front and back on Saturday, and the last of our current plants potted last night. So, for the time being at least, the garden is complete. I got the table and chairs out for the first time, and we enjoyed breakfasts and lunches on the patio. Our one tree providing some nice cover in the morning, the parasol doing the job the rest of the day.

Our daughter continues to be cute, wandering around the garden with her trolley, occassionally stopping to wave goodbye before heading off to another part of the garden.

The computer hardly got turned on this weekend, but I did use the new micro keyboard at one point. It worked great, and the extra desk space sparkled whilst I used it! (I know, it's a keyboard, I'll shut up about it one day.)

Other than that, 05:59 is far too early to get up, but the tube is a little emptier 30 minutes early; so maybe it's not all bad.

Now, a day avoiding google analytics so I don't see the one off blip in visits!

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Another 3 day weekend

I've took Monday off, so I have another long weekend to look forward to. Hopefully this one will be slightly quieter than the last, and there will be a little bit of downtime.

There are still jobs to do; we're having some trellis put up at the moment, so we're hoping to put some protection on that. We've got a stone bench to put in place, and the usual housework to get done. All in all, busy, but hopefully do-able with some r+r.

Other than that, it's too hot for a suit on the tube, so I'm just going to read the paper and hope the journey ends soon.

One final note, I've been asked (yes, someone reads this thing!) To post the link to the daily dilbert without all that flash rubbish. http://www.dilbert.com/fast Hope that helps.

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Aid to Burma

There is obviously a large amount of news at the moment about Burma, and the aftermath of the cyclone. When there were reports of the tsunami on boxing day a couple of years ago I didn't think twice about giving some money. When it comes to Burma, I'm pausing.

It's not that I don't think they need it, nor that I'm hard hearted; it's down to the fact that I'm not sure they'll get it.

Burma is ruled by a military junta, a corrupt and self-serving regime who have, so far, denied access to all western aid organisations. The call, so far, is, "Send us money, and we'll make sure it goes to the right place." Now, call my cynical, but that doesn't fill me with confidence. The military junta have already shown, in recent, and not so recent, history, that they prefer a contolled population over a happy one. They have also been known not to invest in the people, and to divert public funds for their own purposes.

So, the moral and right thing to do is help, but if you can't be sure (I realise you can never be *sure* your money is going to the right place, but in this instance, I believe it is more likely not to) that your donation will be used to help people, what should you do?

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So many half formed posts, so little to write

I have to give an important presentation today which is kind of overwhelming my mind. So every time I try to think of something to write, it kind of forms, and is then moved aside by the thought of presenting again.

I'm not worried per se, I know my subject matter, and it's only 10 minutes. It's an update on a situation, not a request nor a radical new idea. However, the audience is made up of fairly important people, and the update is not terribly good news!

I suppose I'm lucky in a way. Coming up through the realms of support I was always the one to attend to the director level problems, providing support for various business systems to the MD and others. The one thing this taught me is that they are just human too. Also, they never know as much as me when it comes to technology. Their job is budgets, stats, finances, mine is technology. I'll just need to bear in mind that I'm right, the data is right, and I know what I'm talking about.

So, that out the way, my little keyboard will arrive today, and another piece of valuable real estate on the desk will be cleared. I'm excited in the way only a geek could be!

Four day week, 50% through (counting get ups), with another 3 day weekend to look forward to (I've took Monday off). Doing ok so far with the getting up, but it's beginning to hurt again.

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Busy bank holiday weekend

Short of listing the huge amount of jobs done over the weekend I don't think I can convey just how much was done. However, lists are boring, so I won't.

Our garden is looking much better, everything that currently needed planting has been planted, the lawn is edged with wooden borders, and cut too! It all looks very good. I can hold my head up amongst the other neighbourhood men, and scowl at those with inferior gardens!

I also managed to clear the majority of junk out of my garage, so negotiating from the front to the back is no longer a treacherous death trap. Still some tidying work to be done here, but the overall effect is good so far. 2 of the bookcases in the garage got moved to the shed allowing for more storage options in there, and a clearer floor space in the garage.

Also achieved was a complete re-arrangement of the study, the old server monitor is gone, the 2 widescreen monitors setup properly, all the other electrical stuff tidyied up, and all the paperwork sorted out and filed. The end result is an area much more condusive to work. There are still 3 crates to sort out, and the bookshelves need going through and clearing, but all in all it was a worthwhile exercise.

I've also ordered a mini keyboard for the server. I only use the keyboard for startup and shutdown, and when it's broke (rarely), so having a whole keyboard sitting on the desk seemed wasteful. Out it goes, and a little USB keyboard can sit on top of the server for those rare occasions when it's needed. One more bit of desk real estate reclaimed.

Plenty other jobs have been achieved, but those are the major items. I've taken next Monday off too, so hopefully a few more jobs can get knocked off, and I can have a little time to enjoy the fruits of my labours!

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Techie update 2 (last one, promise)

It's all finally fixed. Turns out that the aspect ratio is calculated using tcprobe which is part of transcode. Transcode is compiled to use imagemagick libraries for speed, and was dependant on libMagick9. When I upgraded to imagemagick 6.4.0 the library became libMagick10 and the dependancy failed. One quick recompile later and the problem was resolved.

As a bonus, the -e errors I was getting were down to variables not being grepped from the tcprobe output, so the recompile fixed those too and the whole script is back to full function.

I now promise to blog about something else!

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Techie update

(As I know my wife can hardly wait!)

I finally solved the problem I wrote about yesterday. Turned out to be a catalogue of errors.

First, the configure script for imagemagick hard codes the line 'result_ghostscript_font_dir='none'.

It was also missing some double quotes around the point where it sets the variable to display on the next line. Turns out it was working anyway, just not telling me it had found the right directory.

The script I use to convert files into DVDs was still telling me that I had no ghostscript font support. Turns out it uses 'convert -list type' to determine fonts, in 6.4.0 this functionality has been moved to 'convert -list font'.

One final correction was needed, once the output of 'convert -list font' has been read it gets the locations of an xml file, the format of this has changed (I guess), so an awk was needed to get the correct output from the file.

I still have problems with the script not inputting aspect ratio into the final xml sheet, and a number of -e errors relating to echo statements, but things work enough to allow me to create DVDs again.

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2 monitors

I've bought myself a second monitor for home. I now have 2 20 inch widescreen displays sat next to each other (rather messily at the minute) on my desk.

The plan now is to remove my small 17 inch monitor, and plug the server into one of the spare ports on the 20 inch ones. I can then tidy up the various router, switches, and other bits of various stuff, and ultimately claim some space back on the desk itself.

Even I was surprised at how easy it was to setup. I plugged the monitor in whilst booted up and logged on, opened 'Monitor and display', ticked the box to indicate a 2nd monitor, selected the drop down to choose I wanted 2 desktops, not one stretched across the screen, chose my monitor type from the drop down (it was listed, something that has *never* happened under windows), clicked ok, logged out, chose restart x sever (not the box, just the window manager), eh voila! It all worked. I'd made a minor error by plugging the left one into the right socket and vice versa, but rather than fix that I just entered 'Monitor and display' again and dragged the second screen to the left of the first. Another logoff, restart, logon, and the problem was resolved.

I've done 2nd monitors for a while at work, and to acheive the same functionality I've always had to install manufacturers software. On linux all of this was built into the OS. There was no command line hacking of config files (I've done that in the past, but there was no need this time), nothing to install, it just worked. As it's meant to.

Now I just need the weekend to tidy up and get everything in its new place.

Seperately, and to show the flip side of linux, I'm struggling with a piece of software called imagemagick. I've had problems with this software before, but managed to get it sorted (although I can't remember how). I have a script that executes a number of tasks to automate turning media files into DVDs. One of the things it does is create the menus, for which it needs imagemagick to input the text. When I upgraded the other day to kubuntu 8.04 my version of imagemagick was overwritten with one not compiled to use ghostscript fonts (key for creating text). Not a problem I thought, so I downloaded the code for imagemagick, made sure the ghostscript fonts were where it expected them to be, and ran configure. It comes back with ghostscript fonts - none.

It doesn't matter what I do here, I can add a parameter to the program specifically telling it where the fonts are, it doesn't make the slightest bit of difference. The code always comes back with ghostscript fonts - none. I've even stepped through the relevant bit of configure line by line, and it works! However, somewhere between finding the fonts and getting to the end it breaks, and will not compile with ghostscript fonts. This is not making me happy. There has to be a bug somewhere, but I can't find it, and until I have a moment of brilliance, I can't make any new DVDs.

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Not much happening

I haven't got much to write about today. Uneventful journies and too many meetings have sapped my creative process.

One things that I do have to put down is how brilliant my wife has been recently. Running around to garden centres, digging, planting, re-potting. At the weekend, I may have dug the trench and removed the earth, but it was my wife who humped the top soil into place and did the planting. Since then she has re-potted a number of our existing plants, and yesterday helped our hired gardener dig 2 new beds, and transplant a bush from pot to earth. I look forward to getting home every evening just to see what new garden features we'll have today.

I'm off to physio this evening for a second session on my foot. Ever since I got orthotics to correct my pro-nateing the muscle at the back of my arch won't stop hurting. I'm sure it's something to do with the inserts rucking up my sock, but as long as they can get it to stop hurting I'll be happy.

Right, that's it. My life is uninteresting at the moment; no commuter rage, no rants at the world, just a desire for sleep.

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First steps

My little daughter took her first proper steps at the weekend. Recently we have been able to support her whilst she is walking and then gently let go; she has then tottered a few steps before sitting down with a big grin. She knows what she's done, and she loves it.

This weekend I was putting her shoes on so we could go out, and she was wanting to stand up and lean against me. We started playing a game where she would stand up, let go, hold for a few seconds, and then fall forward onto me. Big grins and giggles all round. After a few goes I moved back a little, as it is the fall forward as much as the standing she loves. A couple more moves, a couple more falls, then she took a step! I shuffled back a little more, she took another. More shuffling, more steps, then I hit the wall, and she caught up.

She was sooo happy with herself. Smiles, giggles, clapping. My wife had come through half way through, so she watched as I moved her back and we did it again. More smiles and clapping. I then turned her round, and she walked to mummy. Then back to daddy. The she was a bit tired, so lots of hugs and praise and we went out.

We've repeated things since, but she still needs confidence before embarking on her own.

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