Another tuesday and another day waking up with a headache that I can't shift! Fortunately work is suspiciously quiet so I was able to make a quiet exit and log on and deal with important stuff at home. My first thought is stress but then I've got nothing to stress about at the moment...
Have now received final instructions for the wedding of the year (tm) and everything looks ready. A load of friends from Uni are piling down to chez Caple on the friday to rehearse some singing that we're doing but hopefully it'll turn into a party!
Spotted this today which is a follow up to a news story I read a while back. It seems pretty incredible that we're going to be able to build a thermonuclear fusion reactor on Earth! The official site is here and it won't be built until 2015 but it still seems pretty amazing. Its very easy to say thts 10 years away but it seems that my life is speeding up! Who knows what will happen by then and where I will be? It seemed unlikely that I would move away from Nottingham but here I am in Ipswich coming up for nearly 5 years! 5 years!
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Monday, June 27, 2005
Mondays
Another strange day at work...we have a big re-org coming up and its almost as if everyone knows the end game but no-one has really thought about how we're going to get there. It does make it tough to get things done!
I notice that Monopoly are celebrating 70 years with a brand new London Here & Now edition. The idea is to build the board based on now. The London Eye makes it in as does the BT telecom tower (good things) but so does The Sun newspaper and skateboard and rollerblade playing pieces (bad things). There's also chance to play in a live version based around London. They give you money and you buy your properties. You pick a london cabbie and then 5 otehrs are sleected at random. Whenever one of the other real life cabbies lands (ie visits with a fare in their GPS tracked taxis) on your properties you get the rent. This is played over 24 hours and then you get entered into a draw to win prizes...I currently have £55 million in my balance but the best players have hundreds of millions. Check it out here.
While browsing the net I noticedsome blogs for food...in this case bread. I was wondering if I should start a new blog and detail recipes I cook...I wonder if anyone would be interested and whetehr it might end up too time consuming...although it would make a handy reference.
In unrelated news Richard Whitely died last night. I find this really hard to believe, he was only 61 and such a nice man to boot! He always had a pun ready (never a bad thing) and Countdown is a national institution! Oh well...
Also I've managed to get Kath addicted to my Nintendo DS! Brilliant!
I notice that Monopoly are celebrating 70 years with a brand new London Here & Now edition. The idea is to build the board based on now. The London Eye makes it in as does the BT telecom tower (good things) but so does The Sun newspaper and skateboard and rollerblade playing pieces (bad things). There's also chance to play in a live version based around London. They give you money and you buy your properties. You pick a london cabbie and then 5 otehrs are sleected at random. Whenever one of the other real life cabbies lands (ie visits with a fare in their GPS tracked taxis) on your properties you get the rent. This is played over 24 hours and then you get entered into a draw to win prizes...I currently have £55 million in my balance but the best players have hundreds of millions. Check it out here.
While browsing the net I noticedsome blogs for food...in this case bread. I was wondering if I should start a new blog and detail recipes I cook...I wonder if anyone would be interested and whetehr it might end up too time consuming...although it would make a handy reference.
In unrelated news Richard Whitely died last night. I find this really hard to believe, he was only 61 and such a nice man to boot! He always had a pun ready (never a bad thing) and Countdown is a national institution! Oh well...
Also I've managed to get Kath addicted to my Nintendo DS! Brilliant!
Sunday, June 26, 2005
Woo-hoo!
After months of badgering our dance teacher finally managed to drag us to one of their medal presentation dos and I must say we had a great time! We arrived a little after it had started because we'd been watching the tennis (Andy Murray lost but it was a great match!). That tuned out to be a mistake as the place was packed. We perched ourselves in the bar area but soon were spotted by Pat who match-maked with some other young couples and were squeezed onto their table. God bless her for interfering as we met some nice folks who liked dancing too (obvious really as they were at this event)
I managed to dodge entering the Adult/Juvenile mixed competition as there were too many adults but Kath got a bit confused with the taps on the shoulder. A tap was a good thing! The upshot was the Kath danced in one of the finals when she'd already been knocked out of the heat! Brilliant!
We got awarded our Bronze medal for the exam we took and as is usual in any of these situations the presenter couldn't get the name right! "Caple rhymes with Staple". I suppose its difficult for people in Suffolk as a lot of little villages around here are called Capel St. Something and its pronounced the same way. One of the other couples were collecting their third pre-bronze medal and they suggested that if we wanted to enter competitions that we should delay completing our pre-bronze for as long as possible so we could compete in the easier competitions. Sounds like good advice if entering comps was what we wanted to do..which I'm not sure it is...anyway...
The other couple we were sat with were collecting their Silver medal for Salsa. They did a demo for everyone at the end and they were fantastic! She was only 15 and Kath and I couldn't believe it! We were trying to work out his age but I guess he could be anywhere between 20-30.
Jenny roped us into entering the competitions on the night and we ended up dancing in the Waltz and Cha-Cha. Amazingly we passed both heats and got into the Grand Finals for both! Gareth was telling us that we were in the finals over and above another couple he kew that dance in open competitions! Anyway we got awarded sixth place for Waltz and fourth place for Cha-Cha...not bad for our first foray! Gareth and Claire came forst in both so our table was doing very well that night! The table also won 3 of the raffle prizes, talk about lucky!
The presentation did go on a while though as the competitions were all split into a million age groups (slight exaggeration). We finally got home at about 11 and decided it would be a good time to watch CSI:NY, which I must say has really grown on me, although Danny is really annoying and it was good to see him come a cropper last night!
Ooops better go...off to see batman Begins this morning!
I managed to dodge entering the Adult/Juvenile mixed competition as there were too many adults but Kath got a bit confused with the taps on the shoulder. A tap was a good thing! The upshot was the Kath danced in one of the finals when she'd already been knocked out of the heat! Brilliant!
We got awarded our Bronze medal for the exam we took and as is usual in any of these situations the presenter couldn't get the name right! "Caple rhymes with Staple". I suppose its difficult for people in Suffolk as a lot of little villages around here are called Capel St. Something and its pronounced the same way. One of the other couples were collecting their third pre-bronze medal and they suggested that if we wanted to enter competitions that we should delay completing our pre-bronze for as long as possible so we could compete in the easier competitions. Sounds like good advice if entering comps was what we wanted to do..which I'm not sure it is...anyway...
The other couple we were sat with were collecting their Silver medal for Salsa. They did a demo for everyone at the end and they were fantastic! She was only 15 and Kath and I couldn't believe it! We were trying to work out his age but I guess he could be anywhere between 20-30.
Jenny roped us into entering the competitions on the night and we ended up dancing in the Waltz and Cha-Cha. Amazingly we passed both heats and got into the Grand Finals for both! Gareth was telling us that we were in the finals over and above another couple he kew that dance in open competitions! Anyway we got awarded sixth place for Waltz and fourth place for Cha-Cha...not bad for our first foray! Gareth and Claire came forst in both so our table was doing very well that night! The table also won 3 of the raffle prizes, talk about lucky!
The presentation did go on a while though as the competitions were all split into a million age groups (slight exaggeration). We finally got home at about 11 and decided it would be a good time to watch CSI:NY, which I must say has really grown on me, although Danny is really annoying and it was good to see him come a cropper last night!
Ooops better go...off to see batman Begins this morning!
Saturday, June 25, 2005
3 years in and still going strong...
I can barely believe that Kath and I will be celebrating our third wedding anniversary in a couple of months time...where has the time gone? As is traditional I wanted to try and get a nice gift that fits the proper conventions. Helpfully there seems to be a traditional list and a modern list. Year One was Paper (trad) and Clocks (mod), that was easy I got her a watch and made some origami flowers. Year 2 was cotton (T) and china (m) so I think I bought her a porcelain figure to match the one I bought for the wedding.
Year three is Leather (t) and Glass/Crystal (m) and I was just doing a serach for leather and I found this site with a reasonable sounding name and some hilarious pictures within...quite alarmingly you can buy leather duvets!
I guess I'll just have to keep looking...
Year three is Leather (t) and Glass/Crystal (m) and I was just doing a serach for leather and I found this site with a reasonable sounding name and some hilarious pictures within...quite alarmingly you can buy leather duvets!
I guess I'll just have to keep looking...
Blueberry Tar
It's supposed to be jam but is it? No it's buggering not! It's bluberry tar!
I'm going to have to throw the jar away! How upsetting!
I was reading a fantastic preserving book today in the bookshop and I can't wait to actually make some jam that works! If you're feeling generous you could buy the book in question for me from here. Thanks!
I'm going to have to throw the jar away! How upsetting!
I was reading a fantastic preserving book today in the bookshop and I can't wait to actually make some jam that works! If you're feeling generous you could buy the book in question for me from here. Thanks!
Thursday, June 23, 2005
Still really really hot!
But at least my sunburn is subsiding! Just got back from dancing and realised the onion in dinner was a mistake, its all I can taste. I'll need to hunt out a mint at some point!
Time is flying by in a haze and I feel like my blog entries are becoming a little pointless! Not really got anything to link to or wisdom to share. Ho-hum!
Time is flying by in a haze and I feel like my blog entries are becoming a little pointless! Not really got anything to link to or wisdom to share. Ho-hum!
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Sunburn
Thankfully the pain is staring to go and my leg doesn't feel quite so itchy any more. What this probably means is that next time I go out into the sun I'll forget the pain and forget to put sun cream on again and then whinge about it on my blog! The cirle of life!!
The good weather has continued and the garden is looking deader every day...if only I could be arsed to water the garden!
The hot weather has also had a strange effect on our dancing teachers...we more or less did latin dancing back to back and there was some very sultry dancing from Pat...managed to learn the meringue (spelling) and did some more Salsa too but boy was it hot! Added to that floor was very slippy and we ended up sweating like bastards!
Just trying to look at the Roald Dahl website at the moment, they had good things to say about it on Radio 2. I remember being told off in a school library once for singing and dancing the intro to Tales of the Unexpected too loudly! Oh happy days!
The good weather has continued and the garden is looking deader every day...if only I could be arsed to water the garden!
The hot weather has also had a strange effect on our dancing teachers...we more or less did latin dancing back to back and there was some very sultry dancing from Pat...managed to learn the meringue (spelling) and did some more Salsa too but boy was it hot! Added to that floor was very slippy and we ended up sweating like bastards!
Just trying to look at the Roald Dahl website at the moment, they had good things to say about it on Radio 2. I remember being told off in a school library once for singing and dancing the intro to Tales of the Unexpected too loudly! Oh happy days!
Sunday, June 19, 2005
The sign of true Britishness
Forgetting the sun cream and thinking "we'll be fine without it"! My wife has very pink knees and a weird pattern on her feet from her sandals and I have pink forearms and a very sore left leg (my right one is fine though!).
Spent the entire day sitting in the sun and eating...firstly at Kath's mums and then at Kath's dads. Strawberry overload but its difficultto say no. Kath's mum must have thought she was feeding the five thousand as there was far too much food! I did manage to acquire a copy of 'Mrs Beeton's Cookery and Household Management' though. Its really good especially when you realise she wrote it in 1859.
One phrase she used in the preface to the first edition always makes me laugh, in her words "I have always thought that there is no more fruitful source of family discontent than a housewife's badly cooked dinners anduntidy ways" Not entirely politically correct but very much of her time. The book literally covers everything about running a house from buying or building one to decorating, childrens illnesses, recipes, etiquette and much more...truly amazing!
Spent the entire day sitting in the sun and eating...firstly at Kath's mums and then at Kath's dads. Strawberry overload but its difficultto say no. Kath's mum must have thought she was feeding the five thousand as there was far too much food! I did manage to acquire a copy of 'Mrs Beeton's Cookery and Household Management' though. Its really good especially when you realise she wrote it in 1859.
One phrase she used in the preface to the first edition always makes me laugh, in her words "I have always thought that there is no more fruitful source of family discontent than a housewife's badly cooked dinners anduntidy ways" Not entirely politically correct but very much of her time. The book literally covers everything about running a house from buying or building one to decorating, childrens illnesses, recipes, etiquette and much more...truly amazing!
Saturday, June 18, 2005
Who's afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?
Certainly not me after watching the final episode of Dr Who this evening. I thought it was referring to the God of the Daleks but when he proclaimed half way through that he wasn't Bad Wolf it got me really excited!
The Doctor shoving Rose back into the past to save her was great as well...it prevented the whole episode being guns and shouting, although Rose did her fair share of shouting back in London. All in all I can't wait for me, Kath's face when David Tenant popped up as the new Doctor at the end was priceless! And as for the resolution to Bad Wolf and the Dalek invasion...brilliant!
Right need to go and make some daiqiris, the heat is high and we need some cooling off....
The Doctor shoving Rose back into the past to save her was great as well...it prevented the whole episode being guns and shouting, although Rose did her fair share of shouting back in London. All in all I can't wait for me, Kath's face when David Tenant popped up as the new Doctor at the end was priceless! And as for the resolution to Bad Wolf and the Dalek invasion...brilliant!
Right need to go and make some daiqiris, the heat is high and we need some cooling off....
Friday, June 17, 2005
Gah...
...my get and go and got up and gone! I feel so bloody apathetic at the moment...nothing can keep my interest....
Another week gone by.....
Where do the weeks go? Its friday afternoon again and here I am on a conference call for work...16:30-17:30. What a great way to end the week! Because Kath gets up at a ridiculous hour to trek halfway across East Anglia to go to work, I get up to. This means I'm usually in work by about 8am and can leave fairly early most days, until my boss's boss asks me to attend a conference call that is! I was almost tempted to stay in the lovely air condidtioned office (its 28 degrees outside at the moment) but the traffic off the park and the fact that the Orwell bridge is down to one lane means it can take an hour to get home....
It could be worse I suppose...I'm sat in my shorts, typing this and waiting for the call to begin...again I'm on mute so no-one knows I'm here but at least i don't have to say anything...I can slurp my can of Sprite in peace...oooh its started!
Another reason for having to leave early is that I wanted to get something for Kathryn...as she passed her exam!! Not that I didn't think she would! She often worries but I have supreme confidence in her...well done Kathryn!
Looking forward to the nice weather at the weekend as the garden is looking a little neglected and we've got a BBQ in lovely Great Yarmouth.
The call is really dragging on.....better go as I should be listening....bye bye!
It could be worse I suppose...I'm sat in my shorts, typing this and waiting for the call to begin...again I'm on mute so no-one knows I'm here but at least i don't have to say anything...I can slurp my can of Sprite in peace...oooh its started!
Another reason for having to leave early is that I wanted to get something for Kathryn...as she passed her exam!! Not that I didn't think she would! She often worries but I have supreme confidence in her...well done Kathryn!
Looking forward to the nice weather at the weekend as the garden is looking a little neglected and we've got a BBQ in lovely Great Yarmouth.
The call is really dragging on.....better go as I should be listening....bye bye!
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Are my spending days over?
I have a surplus of cash and no desite to spend it...Am I ill? Or have I finally realised the rewards of seeing empty credit cards and money in the savings account? Living in a small house certainly helps. The things I would want to buy we can't put anywhere, my garden is full of plants and needs no more and my wardrobe is bursting at the seams!
The problem is I can't stop thinking about it! Part of me keeps saying "you have money, what are you going to spend it on?" while the other half can't think of anything to buy.
On other news really looking foward to the last episode of Doctor Who this week...should be great!
Thats it, nothing else to say.
The problem is I can't stop thinking about it! Part of me keeps saying "you have money, what are you going to spend it on?" while the other half can't think of anything to buy.
On other news really looking foward to the last episode of Doctor Who this week...should be great!
Thats it, nothing else to say.
Monday, June 13, 2005
A good day had by all...
....at least that was the impression I got when I left the event I was attending this afternoon. This mood was probaly helped by the fact we had watched Eddie Izzard teach us about body language and its use in presentations, seen one of our colleagues walk on broken glass, been given exciting light up pens, heard how our company will do great things, been served champagne as the afternoon refreshment and had a sumptious buffet lunch in a swanky Park Lane hotel. Oh and the £100 we all got as recognition for doing a good job as Agents of Change went down well to! Why can't all events be this good?
Not sure what I'm going to spend the money on but I do have a couple of ideas....
Not sure what I'm going to spend the money on but I do have a couple of ideas....
Sunday, June 12, 2005
Sci-fi Crazy!
Ok...I've spoken about Dr Who before, about how I hated it and now I'm really loving it...I still am! I'm a bit confused about bad Wolf...not really sure if it wasanythign portentious but the episode last night was great! All those daleks...whats going to happen? And will we see the new Doctor next week....too exciting!
We went to see Star Wars 3 this morning and thepower and the brain strikes again! I had convinced myself it was going to be awful but it turned out much better than I expected! I didn't realise Anakin was going to get all his limbs hacked off and then set on fire so that was a surprise! George Lucas managed to excel himself with poor dialogue again but at least it wasn't as bad as Star Wars 2!
The trailers included items for Batman Begins and Fantastic 4 and they both looked great! Its really good to see Hollywood appreciating a good superhero story at last!
We went to see Star Wars 3 this morning and thepower and the brain strikes again! I had convinced myself it was going to be awful but it turned out much better than I expected! I didn't realise Anakin was going to get all his limbs hacked off and then set on fire so that was a surprise! George Lucas managed to excel himself with poor dialogue again but at least it wasn't as bad as Star Wars 2!
The trailers included items for Batman Begins and Fantastic 4 and they both looked great! Its really good to see Hollywood appreciating a good superhero story at last!
In a bit of a jam
It's generally accepted that I'm a good cook. I can whip up something tasty quick and I have a good knowledge on what goes well with what. Leave me in a book shop and I'll generally gravitate to the cookery section. I don't know whether this due to talent or the fact that I've had a lot of practice I don't know. Fortunately in this house doing all the cooking means that I more or less avoid any other housework...ok, I'll do a spot of ironing from time to time but generally I miss out.
Kath decided that she would cook for me yesterday and I must say it was delicious! Strange smells wafted form the kitchen and she looked very red faced when I poked my head around the door but all in all a success. The extremely strong margheritas helped as well.
Having missed out on the cooking yesterday I thought I would do extra duty today and really I'm not too pleased with the results....the problem is this...I can't do jam! Its either runny and water or like tar! Take the blueberry jam I made this afternoon...it won't come out the jar! I keep trying to preserve things but it ends up a disaster. I'm either too cautious and whip it off the heat before its reached the setting point or I take my eye off the ball and BAM! it take a pneumatic drill to get it off the pan. If anyone is reading this is stuck for birthday present ideas head over to my wish list and get me a jam book!
Kath decided that she would cook for me yesterday and I must say it was delicious! Strange smells wafted form the kitchen and she looked very red faced when I poked my head around the door but all in all a success. The extremely strong margheritas helped as well.
Having missed out on the cooking yesterday I thought I would do extra duty today and really I'm not too pleased with the results....the problem is this...I can't do jam! Its either runny and water or like tar! Take the blueberry jam I made this afternoon...it won't come out the jar! I keep trying to preserve things but it ends up a disaster. I'm either too cautious and whip it off the heat before its reached the setting point or I take my eye off the ball and BAM! it take a pneumatic drill to get it off the pan. If anyone is reading this is stuck for birthday present ideas head over to my wish list and get me a jam book!
Friday, June 10, 2005
Shhhhh!
I'm currently on a conference call with a load of senior managers with instructions to stay on mute and not say anything...nice! I guess I'm being a bit naughty by updating my blog but hey ho!
We watched Kath & Kim last night and its really funny! New Aussie comedy and I can't really think of anything else to say about it...being distracted by conference call.
Looking forward to a relaxed weekend with no real plans except getting my hair cut. Kath is cooking for me on Saturday which is a real treat as my share of the household jobs includes doing all of the cooking. Apparently I'm being treated to a 2 course meal with surprise ingredients! Although I do know that it'll include pork chops as I was told I need to find something else to cook for sunday tea!
We watched Kath & Kim last night and its really funny! New Aussie comedy and I can't really think of anything else to say about it...being distracted by conference call.
Looking forward to a relaxed weekend with no real plans except getting my hair cut. Kath is cooking for me on Saturday which is a real treat as my share of the household jobs includes doing all of the cooking. Apparently I'm being treated to a 2 course meal with surprise ingredients! Although I do know that it'll include pork chops as I was told I need to find something else to cook for sunday tea!
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Hmmm
Nothing really to Blog about today, although not really sure that's a verb! It might have been added to the dictionary though. I spotted a news article today that was detailing new words added to the dictionary. Chavtastic is one of them! I'm all for new language and modifications of uasage but...chavtastic!
Another item that cuaght my interest was this....seems like Dr Who related shenanigans are back with a vengence!
Anyway better go...I've got 2 pork chops marinating and I need to cook 'em before Kath gets home!
Another item that cuaght my interest was this....seems like Dr Who related shenanigans are back with a vengence!
Anyway better go...I've got 2 pork chops marinating and I need to cook 'em before Kath gets home!
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Tuesdays
Some days you just wake up feeling crap…welcome to my Tuesday! There’s no real reason for it that I can tell. I don’t know whether it was because my incredibly deep sleep was rudely interrupted by my waking up I don’t know, but I have a headache and nausea! Nice!
A weekend away
The power of the mind is a great thing. Having convinced myself that having to spend the entire weekend (Friday night to Sunday evening) engaged in stag festivities would end up being less positive than negative, I am pleased to report we had a great time!
Friday, June 03, 2005
I'm rubbish at art!
But it is a good demonstration of a funky little art thing I found on the internet!
Go here and marvel at my crap drawing and painting and see my frustration boil over into an attack on my picture with a large tin of black paint!
Enjoy!
Go here and marvel at my crap drawing and painting and see my frustration boil over into an attack on my picture with a large tin of black paint!
Enjoy!
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Commercial Break
Now usually these are a big turn off for me (and are a big part of the reason why I don't watch ITV) but every now and then comes along an advert that is really good. And if you like the product then all the better. An example of this is the recent Muller adverts that all share the slogan "Lead a Muller life". They show normal looking people dancing in strange places. There's something about the combination of images and the choice of music that means once I listen to it its stuck for the rest of the day. And so as not to be selfish you can check it out here. Hopefully it'll get stuck in your head too!
And thank god Michael Winner is off the TV with those stupid eSure adverts coming to an end. Michael Winner in drag is not something I want to see thanks very much!
And thank god Michael Winner is off the TV with those stupid eSure adverts coming to an end. Michael Winner in drag is not something I want to see thanks very much!
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