Warm

It's warm this morning. Or, at least, I am. Strange, as it's miserable, and damp outside. Maybe the tran doors haven't been left open overnight.

Next train now, and slightly cooler. Much condensation though.

We've now stopped. Apparently, someone is leaning on the doors. We've been here 2 minutes, so I find that hard to believe now. What we have is a broken train. Fun.

Anyway. I've been taking mouthwash for a tiny ulcer on my tounge, the side effect of which is making all my food taste horrible. The taste receptors at the front of my mouth don't seem to work correctly for the majority of the day after using the stuff first thing. I'm on day 4 now, and the effect is slightly lessened this morning, but still definitely there. I drank a strawberry, raspberry, apple and banana smoothie yesterday, and it tasted bizarre. Not horrible per se, just wierd. Chicken chilli soup at lunch was another interesting experience. Thankfully the effect seems to wear off by the evening, so I'll be back to normal on Saturday having had a week of wierdness.

Train update, we started moving after 5 minutes. No explanation, and no further problems. Yet.

Today is interesting. For the first time in a long time I only have one meeting. And, that meeting is only 30 minutes. There is a serious danger of me getting some work done!

Time to get to it.

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This morning

I got on the tube this morning, and promptly couldn't move. I managed to get my blackberry out, and, from memory, composed the post this morning with just my thumb whilst unable to see either the screen nor the keyboard! I was impressed that it worked.

Busy weekend. Planted a large number of bulbs. Managed to do a run. Spent 4 hours on Saturday doing my day job due to "urgent requirements".

Busy day today, but only with the boring stuff.

It's amazing the size of pushchairs / prams / travel systems these days given the size of the occupants!

And on that random thought. Au revoir.

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Can't post

Too cramped
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Time is against me

Not much time left this morning as it's been too crowded to type (doesn't stop people trying to read newspapers though! A special mention to the twit with the guardian as he hasn't even tried to fold it!)

The weekend approaches. I have one interview (currently) between it and me. By the time I get there I will have done 16 interviews this week. My team will have done a further 18. We've been busy! Hopefully, at the end of all this, I'll have filled all the positions I have available, and we can set about becoming a team (again).

I got to hold a blackberry bold yesterday, although it was just one of those mockups, not a real phone. It felt nice. Different to mine, but not too different. The beginning of December is phone d-day. Hopefully the Thunder / Storm will be around in the country for comparison. I'll take a look at the G1, but as it doesn't have the exchange integration I need, and I haven't read mention of OTA calendar integration it's not looking like a big draw at the minute.

Lots of stuff to do this weekend. Less housework than expected thanks to the wonderfullness of my wife. Plenty in the garden though, and finding the available time (without little interruptions) is difficult.

First week back almost over. Tired, but not as tired as I was Wednesday. Hopefully next week will be a bit easier. Off to today now. Hometime awaits!

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Taking the long way home

Sometimes, technology is not the saviour, but the cause of the problem.

I subscribe to a number of feeds to give me travel information on the lines I use. If I get these quick enough I can re-route before becoming snarled up in the mess. I got one such message on my journey tonight.


Title: [Very Severe] First Great Western, Burnham - diverted

Service suspended between London Paddington and Reading due to person hit by a train at Burnham. London Underground are accepting tickets for reasonable routes


"Oh dear", I thought. However, I got this soon enough to get off at Waterloo and re-route.

Now, the problem with these alerts is that there is no time stamp on them. The BBC produce the feed from a constantly updated web page, and doesn't always mark the end of the problem with a cleared message (or if it does, my blackberry misses it as it only checks once an hours). So as soon as I got into the open I logged into some web sites and started to check.

Turns out the problem was cleared hours ago. However, it took me so long to find out that I was in danger of missing my connection at Paddington if I embarked on that route again. So I find myself on a slow train from Waterloo. The main problem with this is that this slow train doesn't stop at my station. No, it becomes fast at just that point! So I'll have to change. Of course, the first time they announce this fact is after the doors have closed and it's too late to do something about it!

All I want to do is go home. I thought technology was meant to work FOR me.

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Logic problem

You are faced with 2 people, one always lies, one always tells the truth. How do you determine which is which?

The things that amuse me on the underground. I spent three and a half minutes puzzling that one out on the bakerloo this morning. Passes the time.

As expected I got home at 20:30 last night. I was in bed for 21:00 and asleep by half past! Too much.

Only(!) 4 interviews today, and I actually have some gaps in my day.

Around me today are 4 paper readers, 2 music players, 1 reading a book, and 1 feigning sleep. No interest. Although we just hit Waterloo, so it's getting a little cosier. (Although, not by much today). Still no one interesting.

So, topical; why did Ruth Kelly leave the cabinet? Are we really supposed to believe it was to spend time with her family? If that was the case, why then, in that place, at that time, overshadowing all that had gone before it. Making it that much more difficult for Brown to pick up the pieces and move on. Cal me cynical, but I don't buy it. We haven't heard the last of Ruth Kelly.

Right, off to it again. Another day, another set of meetings.

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Life? Don't talk to me about life.

Tired this morning. Tired to the bone. Wednesday, and the early morning / late evenings are taking their toll. I won't be leaving work until 18:40 tonight, and I have a 30 minute break in the whole day from 9 until then. Joy. So, mainly for my own record, I left the house this morning at 06:47, and I'll walk back into it at 20:30. Sheesh.

Ok, whinge over. Not that it matters. My viewing figures hit 0 while I went on holiday, and haven't shown any sign of perking back up to the heady heights of 6 again. Of course, you RSS people don't count in that. You'll be back thanks to the wonders of syndicated content.

Right, knackered now and at a loss for things to write. I know I still haven't done the whole holiday post thing, but really, would you be interested? We cycled around, did some paddling, enjoyed some meals, and visited Yorkshire. In the main, we spent our time in play areas, and generally relaxed. Not the most stimulating story. I feel I should write something a bit more intellectual (there's a first time for everything).

How about all these people surrounding me? Studiously ignoring me and everyone else. Each lost in their own world. The guy beside me doing sudoku badly. He really is slow, can't seem to see the basics in front of him. Took 3 minutes to even get started, and he's doing the easy one. I wonder what his job is. Or the Japanese guy, in a suit, you just got off with his son in a push chair. At rush hour. On a jammed tube. I realise there will be a good reason behind it, but I wouldn't want to do it!

No music players this morning. Plenty of people trying to read their paper, and practicing advanced level origami to do so. Then there's the woman who just jumped all the queue at London Bridge, and pushed on beside me. Her hair is in my eye, and I'm having to type one handed as my other one can't move (and is going numb).

That's it then; I can't see, I can hardly type, and, thankfully, I'm nearly there!

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Sports massage

The question: sports massage. An attractive woman rubbing her hands over your body, or incredible torture for 40 minutes. I can tell you from 5 sets of experience that it is definitely the latter.

I'm not knocking the results, but the execution is agony. 20 minutes per leg of pushing and stretching and working my muscles into positions they really don't want to be (even if that's where they're meant to be). Thankfully, it doesn't hurt much once she's finished, and not at all the next day.

So, that's what I did yesterday evening. It's the last session though. In 2 weeks I check back with the osteo, and see if all this pain has made any difference.

Feeling a little down at the mo. Back in work yesterday after 2 weeks off, and it was a bit of a shock. So much to do, so many 'emergencies' taking up time and effort. A bit daunting. At home, our little one is playing up. Refusing to have naps, messing around at bed time, but tired too, and therefore even more of a handful. I know my poor wife is struggling. With all the housework, jobs to do, and other pressures, it's all getting a bit much. I think I have most of it in hand, and it's just a case of working through things until it becomes manageable again.

Ok, whine over. Another long day awaits. I have meetings from 9 to 1 and 2 to 4 30! Fun.

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The coalface

Back to it this morning. It's going to take a day or so to get into the swing of this again; but for now, here are some short updates.

Holidays with toddlers do not lend themselves to blogging.

Holidays with toddlers are not holidays per se, they are a change from the norm. This is not to say that it wasn't fun, nor relaxing; but for those without kids, it wasn't like a holiday as you'd think of it.

Holidays generate washing. Lots of washing. (It's all done and sorted now though. Woo!)

A two week break from blogging doesn't immediately fill you with ideas to blog on. Although, in my case, that probably has more to do with the time of day and the disruption of sleep patterns.

So, need to focus. Notes to self:

Write something about the holiday
Stop yawning
Remember to book some more time off in the future so you've got something to look forward to
Really, stop yawning

Right then. Today should be interesting...

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Knackered

It's Friday. It's been an uphill struggle to get here. It's not going to be an easy day.

At least, once it's over, I'm on holiday for 2 weeks. I know, I know, I've been very quiet about this. I'm actually looking forward to it. And, once we get to Monday and I've finished driving and started relaxing, I'm going to use the opportunity to stop drinking coke again. For a while.

The host (read coffee fetcher) on the train this morning would not shut up. He kept coming over to the 2 people on my left and starting conversations. Even when they were already talking to each other he waited a bit and then started to talk about how he'd be in the end of the monsoon season in a couple of weeks! I don't know, people who use any excuse to talk about their upcoming holiday! Whatever next?

I'm off now to a breakfast meeting with one of my staff to try and prepare her for the coming fortnight. I feel sorry for them. They're all quite new, and relatively inexperienced (at the way the organisation works, and who to talk to); I feel like I'm leaving them to the wolves. Oh well, 10 working days and I'll be back. They'll cope.

Little on had me up at 05:25 this morning. She had, once again, got her foot stuck through the bars of her cage er cot. I extricated the foot, straightened her out, and covered her with the duvet. She was instantly asleep. Minx. I got up less then an hour later. She was still fast asleep.

On the geek front, my admin page is up and running. I have full system and network monitoring of both my main boxes, with performance dashboards available from one place, and only accessible from my internal network. I'm happy, but now need something else to tinker with.

That's probably it. Can't think of much more worth writing (yes, that means I thought all that lot you've just skipped through was worth writing). Expect a bit more sporadic posting over the next couple of weeks (did I mention I'm on holiday?), but I'll try and get a couple of updates in (I've even been promised some guest posting from the wife after her fantastic debut the other evening). I know you'll all be sitting there, hitting refresh every few seconds, just waiting for that next nugget of finely crafted prose. I'll try not to keep you waiting too long.

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Tough one

It can only be Thursday again. I tried to swipe through the oyster gate with my work pass. That's not going to work. Then I tried my ticket holder even though I've had one of those barclaycard all-in-one things for months in my wallet. I eventually sorted it out. I may not be entirely with it!

I know meetings are a boring topic, but bear with me. Why did I have no real meetings at the beginning of the week, a normal amount at the middle, and then 2 days of practically no gaps for the end of the week? Is there a conspiracy to send me on holiday as dead as possible? I even have one tomorrow at 08:00. I'm going to have to get up at 05:53 to make it! Then they put a meeting at the other end of the day so I can't even go home early! Grrr.

Did I mention I was going on holiday by the way? I did? Really? Oh, ok. For 2 weeks? Ok, I'll shut up. Tomorrow. :p

Can't think of much else, and I'm now so crammed in I can hardly type. So, until tomorrow...

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Pressure

So, in response to the dozens of comments I got yesterday, here's a minute by minute breakdown of my journey, followed by an exhaustive list of all my meetings! :p

Ok, so really. Erm. It's Wednesday. Hump day. Not much news on a Wednesday. The weekend is but a distant memory, and the coming one a long way off. Even if this one does signify the start of my holiday. I did mention my holiday, right? Thought so.

I've spent bits (odd minutes whilst waiting for things to run) of the last few days being geeky. I now have my systems reporting system metrics into my central box for collation. My main systems are running network analysis applications monitoring my traffic. And a seperate app is monitoring network header info to track my internet usage. I've also locked down my web server to deny outside access to some of these things. Now all I need is a simple page to access all these apps from. Shouldn't take long.

Being geeky aside, there's not much else going on. Little one decided 04:16 was the right time to get up and demand a drink, but she settled twenty minutes later, and whilst she murmured a few times during the rest of the morning, she was still out when I went to work.

The site was hit by 86 visitors the other day. Appears that my R.E.M. set list was quite popular. 45 visitors the day after. I'm guessing I'll be back down to 4-6 pretty soon. Be nice if 1 or 2 stayed though.

Those voting buttons seem to be next to useless. I know for certain that they aren't counting every click. Some don't seem to be counting ANY click! I'll take a look and see if I can work out where it might have gone wrong. At least I can say it's not my code.

Right, time to get to it. Fun fun fun right?

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It was a dark and stormy night...

Alright, it was a damp and grey September morning. It still is. I forgot to put the dishwasher on last night. The third or fourth time in a row that's happened. I can load it, no problems. I always wait, just in case something else could go in; then I get distracted, and forget to put the tab in and close the door. Oops.

Yesterday, I actually got some work done. I only had 2 meetings. Today I only have 1, the work possibilities are almost endless. The rest of the week falls back into a more regular pattern.

As predicted, the chancellor's announcement of doom and gloom has become a self-fulfilling prophecy with the pound hitting an all time low against the euro, increasing foreign costs and imports even more and ensuring that any interest rate cuts (not that there would have been any this year) are now even more unlikely as inflation is likely to go even higher. The man's a muppet.

I failed dismally to get out the house on time today. I put it down to working too hard. Honest. The rest of the week has some early meetings, and therefore a bit more pressure. Then I'm on holiday. Don't know if I've already mentioned this ;) I'm on holiday for the next 2 weeks. I'm looking forward to it. Can you tell yet?

Which segues nicely into comments. No one ever does. I know there are 5 people reading this through google reader, and a further 4 to 6 who regularly come to the site, but not one of you leaves me a single message. :'( How am I supposed to steer my content if I have no guidlines? To aid you I have added the reactions feature under each post. If you visit the site just click funny (yeah, right), interesting (you'll be lucky), cool (not even warm), or boring (open to some abuse I think). I'm not sure how well it works, when I looked at it the numbers in brackets weren't showing properly, and the border for the last box seemed to be chopped off, but see how you go. It's a beta feature so it can only get better. If you want other boxes you'll have to (shock, horror) leave me a comment!

Get clicking!

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Monday, September 1st 2008

I subscribe to the simple view that December to February is Winter, March to May Spring, June to August Summer, and September to November is Autumn. So today (fittingly a Monday, the start of the week) is the first day of Autumn.

The weather this morning was a perfect Autumn day; crisp, clear, but with a bite in the air. Perfect walking weather if only I didn't have to go to work.

Even the trees seem to have got the message. There was a prevalence of brown, gold and red showing through the canopy as we passed on the train this morning.

We're in the final week before schools are back, so the tube isn't too bad this morning, and as I'm on holiday myself for 2 weeks after this one, it'll be some time before I'm crammed into a standard commute again. Then it'll be Christmas!

Now there's a scary thought, it's not really that long to the end of December, and in that time I've got a stag do to finish organising, and attend, 2 weddings to go to, visits from my Brother, and my parents, and that's just what I can think of off the top of my head!

The weekend was good. I've already written about the concert; we had my Mother-in-law over to look after the little one, and on Sunday morning, she got up, shut our door (we always sleep with the door slightly ajar so we can hear any squeaks), and sorted out little one so we could get more sleep. We got up at 10:30! Our first lie-in in at least 20 months!

The rest of yesterday was taken up with huge cookfests, shredding of paperwork, and filing / sorting other paperwork. The study is now a haven of calm and order, and the to-do pile doesn't need industrial support to stay upright.

That's about it I guess. I feel I should write about something topical, but the only thing that comes to mind is the stupidity of our Chancellor, and the sorry state of the housing market / economy as a result of his dithering and daft comments. I mean, if there is talk of removing stamp duty, come out and either do it, or state, categorically, that it isn't happening. Don't sit on it for a week and then release a dithering statement about options, and plans. The economy is based on perception. There are a few factors like oil and food prices that have an effect, but the effect they have is based on the public perception of what these things mean. When the Chancellor gives mixed messages, and forecasts of doom and gloom, this causes those problems, which in isolation don't present any grave danger, to be linked and amplified to the point where everyone believes there is a problem, so there is.

Ok, enough waffling, just this week to go, then 2 weeks off. I may need it!

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R.E.M. @ Twickenham 30th August 2008 - Set List

1. Living Well Is The Best Revenge
2. These Days
3. The Wake-up Bomb
4. What's The Frequency Kenneth
5. Drive
6. Man Sized Wreath
7. Disturbance At The Heron House
8. Ignoreland
9. Walk Unafraid
10. Hollow Man
11. Fall On Me
12. Electrolite
13. The Great Beyond
14. I'm Gonna DJ
15. Exhuming McCarthy
16. The One I Love
17. I've Been High
18. Let Me In
19. Horse To Water
20. Bad Day
21. Orange Crush
22. Imitation of life
(Encore)
23. Supernatural Superserious
24. Losing My Religion
25. Perfect Circle
26. Country Feedback
27. It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
28. Man On The Moon

R.E.M.

A Saturday posting, although it must be nearly Sunday by now.

Tonight my wife and I went to see R.E.M. live at Twickenham. We didn't have the greatest of seats, Twickenham doesn't have the best acoustics for a live gig, but it was great.

They mainly played older stuff, even a fair helping of the old I.R.S. days, covering the whole 30ish years they've been going. All the expected hits were there, and the obvious new tracks. Good use of video screens allowed even those of us stuck in allocated seating somewhere near the back corner to get a good show.

Having seen R.E.M. 3 times previously I had an idea of what to expect and they didn't disappoint. However, I've never sat down before at one of their gigs, so it was interesting to see things from a different perspective.

Speaking of a different perspective, my wife, not a fan, has never seen them before, so in a blog first, here's her opinion.

<Wife>not bad</wife>

So, there you have it. She has said that she would see them again too.

Now it's 00:10 and we're quite tired. Not that we're getting a bit old for this or anything.

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Quiet week

Been a quiet one this week for the old blog. Bank holiday, actual holiday, and a day working from home. So what's been happening the last couple of days?

Wednesday saw a day off (with 93 e-mails I wish I hadn't bothered) taken so I could accompany my wife and daughter to my little ones first measles injection. It was, most defintely, an anti-climax. She fell asleep on the way there, stopped crying after the injection by the time we got to the car, and was perfectly happy the rest of the day. Apparently the 'fun' can start in 1-3 weeks. Right when we're on holiday!

The rest of the day was spent doing not much. We found a B&B to stay in on the way up to our holiday so we can get the most out of our first day at Centre Parcs. Had a quick and easy tea; and watched a movie before bed. We were a bit knackered having stayed up the night before talking to a friend, and having been woken a couple of times with little one. The movie was 'Happy-Go-Lucky', and wasn't worth it.

We were woken early again by our daughter. Even though she was knackered she still seemed to want to be up at 06:16. We settled her a couple of times before giving up. I dressed and trundled off to work (the study) as tired as if I'd got up and gone to work.

Worked late last night. Why is it that when I work from home I start at the same time as if I'd gone to the office, but work far longer. The office finishes at 16:45 for me, working from home is at least 17:30, and usually past 18:00. Last night I logged off at 18:45.

The reason for working from home yesterday was to get my MOT done, which was sorted out easily enough, and means I can get my road tax sorted today before it runs out on Sunday.

This weekend promises to be a busy quiet one. No one visiting, but plenty of jobs to do in both the house and garden. Then, one more week before a fortnight off. Woot!

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Back in the saddle

An interesting, if not terribly relaxing, long weekend. I now have to get used to the idea that it's Tuesday. I've already caught myself thinking it's Monday 3 times already today. I'll end up turning up at the wrong meetings!

My parents popped down over the weekend on their way to France for a month and a half. They came over to ours Friday, we went to their caravan for lunch Saturday, then they were back at ours in the evening.

On Sunday my parents-in-law were celebrating their wedding anniversary and my Mother-in-laws birthday. The venue was over in Kent, so we were staying over. My parents were invited too, but they went back to their caravan that evening. From what I saw the party was fun and people seemed to be haing a good time. However, not long after 7 I headed upstairs with little one, put her to bed, and then read in another room with the baby monitor on for the rest of the evening. I swapped positions with my wife once, briefly, to say goodbye to my parents, and grab some cake.

Yesterday we packed up, and travelled home. A bit zonked, we unpacked and I had an easy afternoon reprogramming our universal remote to work properly with the new tele (and the amp we've had for over 2 years that I've just never got round to) (and the sky+ remote). Evening saw a healthy stir fry and bed.

We have one of my wife's old friends visiting this evening, and then I'm off tomorrow as my daughter is having her first measles jab. Hopefully she'll take it in her stride, and have no ill effects. At least the weekend is only 4 days away, and is free for once.

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8 more hours...

The commute was a struggle this morning. Friday is bin day, and that means emptying our indoor bin, and the outside nappy one, and putting the bags out to be collected. It took a little longer than I had time for, so hitting the train was a push. I made it though.

Managed to get a seat too. I've got one on the tube now as well, so my feet are thankful.

Not much else to report on this one. Last night was just daughter time, cooking, and eating / battlestar galactica. My parents arrive at 16:00 today, so they'll be there when I get in. Both my wife and I are exhausted. I really hope we get some decent sleep this weekend. Unfortunately I doubt it'll be as good as it needs to be.

Oh well. One more work day. Several more meetings, and then home.

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What is it with Thursdays?

Our new, zero cost TV arrived yesterday, and I was very restrained; waiting until my daughter was down, and other jobs (cooking) underway before unboxing it. We then watched our evening tele on the old set before I switched them round and connected the new one.

I think it's glorious. Shiny, new, beautifully clear picture. I may be alone in this view.

The connection out of the way, we finished tidying up and went to bed. Not bad timing, lights out at 11:10.

My daughter woke us at 02:20, investigation showed no probable cause, so she was settled and we returned to bed. 03:00 she was back. This time food was offered, a nappy change, some slightly lighter clothes, lots of cuddles, and a calming light show on the ceiling. Seemed to work, but at a cost of 50 minutes.

Strangely my alarm didn't wake me! I got up late, too late to get even the 07:30 train, so I'm an hour late at this point. I did get some paperwork done, and some stuff in the kitchen that's been hanging around since the weekend put away, so it wasn't a complete waste of time.

I have a few less meetings today, and a new person starting which should, eventually, take some of the burden off me.

Life, as always, continues. And the three day weekend gets ever closer.

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