Wii-ing over Christmas

The Wii went on tour with us this year and was a resounding success!

My parents went a bit mad and it appears we played Wii Sports for about 5 hours on Christmas day...even my nan got up and playing. Bowling is awesome and tennis is pretty good too. Don't think Dad was too pleased that I beat him at Golf though. When I could wrestle my parents off it spent much of my time playing Zelda, with able assistance from K. Too many times I'd be stood there saying "How can I light that torch, I haven't got anything fiery" and K would point out the lantern stowed in my backpack!

I want to plough on and see the other dungeons and cut scenes but I almost don't as I know it'll be over soon. Can't really complain as I've racked up about 30 hours so far and I think there's still a couple of dungeons left.

I've also become slightly addicted to buying Virtual console games which I play only once before ignoring...

The Wii was also taken to Chris' and had a fair outing there as well. Chris himself may be buying one soon but I think Alex will be getting one as soon as he can find one to buy! There's Wii all over his blog at the moment. Here, here, here and here.

Christmas

Part from the washing machine saga (see below) Christmas has been pretty good so far. Once we get past New year I'll post the photos so far and you can see for yourself. Alex has worked out how to do gifs so his blog is full of them right now...nice jumpers by the way!

Spent much of it in Derby with my parents and apart from some hysteria on the 23rd it was all plain sailing.

Got some lovely presents and feel very spoiled. They include the War on Terror game (which for a worrying minute I thought was Ipswich Monopoly that my parent's had bought for me) and seeking out the link for that makes me hope that wasn't how much Alex spent on it...naughty boy! I also got an iPod nano (do I need to link to it?) which I need to learn how to sync to my iTunes, and some whizzy Super Mario Kart pull back karts (Peach, Mario, Luigi & Bowser!). Despite not buying it for each other we have a tonne of chocolate to eat as well!

Did the rounds over the last few days and saw our friends and Ks family and came home day before yesterday, exhausted! Went shopping yesterday & today and managed to get costume stuff for New year (I'm playing Lucy Loveless this year and have got a lovely brown skirt to wear with pearls) and order the new sofa (which despite our missing out last time is back in the sale for even less than last time!)

The problem with the sofa is that K wants to time the carpets to be done prior to it arriving so we're now in full DIY mode!

Washing Machine Saga

Just to say it's ongoing really....you can read about it here, here, here, here, here and here.

Just dropped K of at the laundrette and managed to drop a T-shirt on the way. Fortunately a nice, old, drunk bellowed across the street that I had and I was able to retrieve it!

Also used up the entire household supply of towel & tea towels mopping up last night's flood...its basically a big pain in the arse!

Ooops!

I didn't realise it had been quite so long since I'd last blogged so I've got a bit of catching up to do.

I'll spread it over a few blog entries I think, help make it easier to read!

Since the 8th we've been to 2 pantos! The second was the Ipswich Wolsey Rock & Roll panto (Dick Whittington) and as usual was fab! Becks & Ralph came along and we had a great time. Also tried out the new Wolsey seats, very comfy!

The first was Cinderella at Nottingham. This was much better than last year and we went with the usual Notts gang. Before it started I spotted a load of G&S people from just before we all joined including my ex-flatmate and ex-girlfriend. They hadn't spotted us and I was in 2 minds about going over...I didn't want to be made to feel guilty about not keeping in touch and I wasn't sure how I'd feel speaking to ex. The first interval passed by and I still sat there anxious, but when the second one came and I needed the loo I had no excuse to not speak to them as I walked passed on the way back to my seat. Very glad I did in the end. It wasn't weird at all and got re-acquainted with my ex-flatmate! The panto was pretty good too.

It's here....

....and its good!

We're just taking a little break while I register it so I can start to buy stuff off its online shop! Luckily it located my wireless hub in seconds and was online super quick...can't wait until the web browser, Weather & News services start...should be fun! Had a great time creating a couple of Miis (avatars that are used in the message boards and in some games designed for them) as well. I'm not convinced about mine but Ks is spot on!

Enjoyed a bit of WiiPlay but couldn't get the hang of billiards so we rested from that. Tennis (part of WiiSports) is good but K thinks there's something wrong with the controls...I think we're just crap at tennis, but I'm sure we'll find out soon enough.

Still yet to try Zelda, Monkey ball & Rabbids but there's still time before bed!

I can't believe its finally here though...I remember putting my 45 day count down on the blackboard...its flown by!

Waiting at home for Wii

Its been dispatched but hasn't yet arrived...sigh! At least I didn't spend 8 hours queuing in Asda yesterday like a certain sibling I know!

I've been contenting myself with waiting in for the washing machine man (and now K is home) popping out to buy Wii stuff that my online provider is not able to fulfill.

I've also done this quiz...

Benevolent Designer

...which had some pretty accurate things to say about me!

Oops!

So much for updating regularly!

Am forced onto the computer as K is downstairs watching Monk! We more or less finished our christmas shopping today and apart from a few bits on the internet and I want to look through it all and K is downstairs drinking tea!

Anyway...the world (video game world anyways) went mad this past week as both PS3 & Wii were released in Japan and the US. Only 6 more days to go before it comes out here! Trying not to think about it too much as I've become a little obessed! Check out Wii.com for some cool stuff and also Mission in Snowdrift Land for a Nintendo themed advent calendar.

Wii Update

News just in...I have a successful pre-order which will couriered to me on day of release!

Oh thank you, Gameplay, you are mighty and good!

I'm back!

I can’t believe it’s been such a long time since I’ve blogged properly. And it’s not for lack of stuff to blog about either. That’s probably the problem actually, not enough willingness to free up some time to blog. I don’t know how Alex manages actually (perhaps it’s the fact that he hasn’t really got a full time job?).

OK, important things first, its only 18 days until Wii launches in the UK and I don’t know whether I have secured a pre-order or not. Play.com mailed me to say that they couldn’t fulfil it and I’m waiting to see if Gameplay.co.uk are going to do the same. I’m pretty sure I have a good chance with Gameplay as I was online when they started taking orders and put one in straight away. Amazon opens theirs on the 21st (no time mentioned, so I guess I’ll be up early) with a promise that they’ll deliver on the launch day.

Zelda appears to have been reviewed and seems to be doing quite well over at Metacritic. I’m trying desperately not to read in depth reviews or watch any video spoilers so I can enjoy it when it arrives but I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to hold out.

Also on the gaming front Elite Beat Agents has us in its thrall, with K even getting in on the act.

I finally finished Jade Empire on Xbox as well. Enjoyed it quite a lot but it was pretty linear. There was a lot of optional stuff to do but once you moved onto the next Chapter you couldn’t really go back. I guess I’m too used to having to back track and do stuff that I couldn’t do earlier. The ending was a bit of a let down as well. There seemed to be a big build up with regards to “facing the consequences” of my actions but no payoff. And the fact that the epilogue was just a bunch of text screens was almost unforgivable. But a nice touch was the voice over stuff that played during the credits.

The TV dilemma is over as well. Bought a nice new 26’’ LCD and managed to find a TV stand that matches our coffee table (although that was irrevocably damaged when we moved the old TV!). The front room seems much bigger now, just in time for the new sofa and armchair/bean bag that I want. A bonus was that even though we’re not in a digital reception area the TV managed to find about 70 digital signals and so we now have the likes of BBC3 & 4 plus a load of others. My next challenge is to work out how to record them.

Christmas shopping is now well under way with me spending too much money as usual. Well, there’s bound to be a time in my life again when I don’t have any spare cash so I may as well enjoy it while I can! That’s my philosophy and I’m sticking to it.

Obviously the other big thing, for those that know me, recently has been the show. We did a double bill of Trial by Jury & HMS Pinafore and all in all it was a pretty good experience. I’ve already blogged this but you can read the BBC Radio Suffolk review here. The only other review we’ve seen is the one from the Ipswich Evening Star which said I was “very good”. The downside was that I felt drained the whole week. I had a list of things to do in the house and I don’t think I managed a single one of them. For some reason every time we put the heating on I get wheezy. I don’t know whether there’s some kind of rising dust or that our house is so well insulated the warm air has nowhere to go but we end up with the heating off and jumpers on instead! I suppose it’s cheaper but hardly what I had in mind when we installed the heating. Didn’t really have this problem last year so I’m trying to fathom what has changed.

Wa-hey!

Will blog properly soon...in the meantime have a look at what we've been doing!

I know how Cartman feels!

Stuck on YouTube

Great, great game! Shame more people didn't play it.



And some of those rascally rabbids...roll on Dec 8th!

Geek!

I'm a sucker for TV themes. There's just something about a memorable theme that can make you relive the emotions that the TV show made you feel.

I got K's reaction to the new Casualty theme tonight. It's definitely different, very stringy without a full orchestra feel.


This got me thinking...I remember the new Eastenders theme which didn't last very long...too jazzy I think! Good old YouTube though!


Then for K, the Casualty @ Holby theme

You can kinda hear the old Casualty theme tune in there!

Just spotted this...brilliant!

Nor to Battle the Strong

This is going to sound crazy but I swear I'm dreaming about the Wii now. Or maybe its just the first thing I thought of when I woke up this morning? Either way it's a problem. I've even commandeered the blackboard in the kitchen to show a running countdown until it arrives (48 days in case you're interested).

Such is my obession that I'm thinking about rearranging the living room to accommodate it. This includes wondering whether we should get a new TV (smaller and more HD ready) and shifting the massive coffee table (how else am I going to be able to stand and play on it?) I guess a part of me also wants to spend money before we get to a stage when money would be better spent on other things (for example a new house or children) and isn't as freely available as it is now. And in case you're interested, this is the TV I'm looking at.

I seem to be getting over the cold I had (well at least I'm not waking with a sore throat) which is good news as I can't possibly be sick this week, we're too busy at work. One of those nightmarish weeks where not only do I have a ton of work o do, I also see to have a large share of meetings to go to.

Went to Ikea yesterday and spent a goodly portion of time stood around while Becks & Ralph decided which futon and lamps to buy. We came out relatively unscathed at only £60 and managed to get a clothes box for the bathroom stury enough to double as a seat for those chatting to the person in the bath moments.

Popped into town today and managed to get myself some new walking shoes. I was looking for something a bit more casual and less heavy than my boots and I think I succeeded! Handy for when we're only away a couple of days and I only want to take one pair of shoes. Have also started to seriously think about Christmas. Kath is pretty much sorted in my mind, as is my brother but everyone else, my parents included, it's a bit trickier.

One Day in History

The National Trust is running a campaign to get people involved in history and one thing they are tryig to do is create the largest blog ever. What this means is that they want everyone to post a blog entry about their day, Oct 17th, on their website that will be accessible for generations to come as part of the archive at the British Library.

Apparently they are most keen (according to the bbc news article on ordinary day to day stuff that may appear mundane to us now but in 50 years may hold astonishing truths for future generations.

Anyway, here's what I submitted and I hope all my loyal readers will get over there and submit something too!

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My day started pretty much as usual, with me being tired as hell. To be fair it was my fault, we had a show rehearsal last night and decided to do the shopping afterwards. Tesco, at 10.15pm, trying to do a weekly shop is not a great place to be. Especially as I hate Tesco, but that's a story for another time. Doing the shopping that late wasn't the problem, it was getting home, unpacking it,putting it away and then trying to read some of my book before going to sleep, that was. The fact that wake up time in the morning feels as dark as the middle of the night doesn't help.

Had Bran Flakes for breakfast as a change from Shreddies and watched another repeat of Friends until it was time to go to work at BT. Drove there (and really must try alternative routes as it can be quite slow going the Ipswich town way in the car) and listened to Radio 2 and Terry Wogan. Can't really remember what they were talking about but there was some complaining about Gordon Brown stealing money from the Janet & John CDs that should be going to charity.

Got to work at about 8.15am, the first as usual, although I did have a voicemail from my boss who was in even earlier. The day was pretty productive actually as I managed to make great progress on my process document. This is to contribute to my Objective of Succession Planning but really it means if I get hit by a bus someone will be able to understand how I write my reports and the Resource Management team won't fail due to lack of information (although to be honest they don't read what I currently produce and sometimes I think they wouldn't notice if I made the figures up each month).

I also got copied in on quite a gratifying email from my boss's boss's boss to someone I'm doing some work with pointing out that what I'd been saying for weeks was in fact his position as well and that he couldn't understand why the team I'd been dealing with for weeks hadn't sorted it out yet. It was nice to know that he supported me and I didn't end up looking stupid. My favourite bit was where he said "I'm frankly appalled that the XXXXX team has failed to understand this concept yet"...yay!

Left at a reasonable time and called K with a list of additional ingredients for tonight's dinner. Overcooked the noodles and my Pork & Peanut noodles ended up a bit of a slop but tasted quite nice. Also managed to finish my book (Terry Pratchett's Thud!) but was annoyed that the last few pages were the first chapter of his next book. This really annoys me. I think I have so many pages left, judging by thickness, then suddenly it's all over because I've got to read the first few pages of a book that's not out for ages, that I'll only re-read when I buy it anyway! Pointless!

Will be spending the rest of the evening playing videogames (DS - Rocket Slime, PC - Uplink & Darwinia) as K is out at a orchestra rehearsal!
##########################################

His Way

Had a pretty succesful weekend by my unique measures of success. By this I mean I did some modest shopping, had a nice lunch in town and sat on my backside a lot!

Holst was good but you can read more about that here. I also managed to do some cooking (Spaghetti alla Prawns, Roast Lamb dinner, bacon salad & Lemon Sponge Pudding).

Got caught up with West Wing and managed to squeeze in ample Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime time as well as finishing the easy level on Stamp mode in 42 All Time Classics.

Homefront

Had a pretty good day at work today, topped off with an escape at at 2.30pm! Hooray!

The weekend is looming large and looking like it might be a pretty good one. Hoping to catch up on sleep, shopping, video games and some cooking.

Have some chicken thighs languishing in the fridge so I should really cook them tonight. Thinking about bashing them flat, stuffing with cheese & garlic, wrapping in bacon and bunging in the oven....hmmm....sounds like a plan!

Also appear to have bought/downloaded 4 new games so I've got those to fill my time to. Also want to try and get into the garden at some point and have a tidy up.

Hmmm!

Stayed in and had a normal night last night, which probably explains why I feel much more chipper today, despite a lot of people getting on my tits at work. The current project I'm involved is such a battle as everything is questioned and I have to puch back on the other people so much to get them to do what they're supposed to do.

On another topic, Nintendo has released a load of new videos of people experiencing the Wii. Hopefully people will realise that Nintendo is going after these kind of people (non-gamers) and doing stuff to please them and bring them in. If I hear one more person complain that they don't need the internet on their TV I'll scream! It's not there for you...its there for the non-gamer!

Likewise with the Weather, News & Photo Channels. Sure you may not use it, but your dad might. And then he'll perhaps try out one of the names and bingo...another disposable income tapped into. Maybe its because gamers like the feeling that they know something others don't, they don't want their parents muscling in on their turf, I dunno.

We've only got 3 episodes of Prison Break left to end the series and we may well get through them tonight. K is terrible when she gets hooked on something, single minded determination!

Finished Faithless yesterday, quite good but kinda petered out at the end. Have started Thud! although I'm getting a little sceptical with Terry P at the moment. Every other book seems to be about Vimes...surely there are other characters worth focusing on??

Pull yourself together man!

Sometimes I feel like a wreck. My body is weary, my brain hurts and everything is just too much effort!

I'm only 29 and already I feel this way...what's it going to be like in 10 years or 20? God forbid what's going to happen when we start a family! I need to focus on what I think is the problem, namely no free time and do something about it. I think I may not do the show next year and I'm hoping K has got some free weekends programmed into the diary. That'll srt me out I'm sure!

Work was mainly dull today although my boss forced me to have the afternoon off and take back some time owed. Filled it productively by doing the shopping, finishing my book and rescuing some slimes.

Spent much of my remaining time scouring the internet for Wii news. It's sad but I'm freakishly excitedfor this console release but I should stop thinking about it I think. It's still 2 months away! CVG do have some good hands on features at the moment though.

Had a good (if tiring) time at the weekend as we travelled down to a friend's 30th birthday in a hotel in Guildford. Drank too much, stayed up too late and forgot to take the camera...deep joy!

Weary

Looking out of my window, the sky is clear and the sun is shining. Oddly since its been chucking down for most of the day. Perhaps it matches my mood as I was at the office and it was cold and wet and nasty, and now I'm at home at my computer, listening to an IGN Podcast and typing this blog.

Looking forward to doing not much at the weekend except shopping, travelling to Fleet, going to a party, driving back from Fleet and going to a rehearsal. Hmmm, perhaps we are doing quite a lot after all.

Ok this podcast is starting to grate...I might switch to the great Star Trek radio documentary I started to listen to on Tuesday.

Can't decide whether to get a pizza or make something healthy for dinner. We've kinda stopped the diet but still my weight has dropped below 12 stone! Brilliant!

Speed Blog

Neil over at Dogwood Tales has got me onto this idea, so I'm going to try it out as I recount my weekend in Norwich.

Saturday
Got up. Watched IGN Weekly. Got in car. K drove the entire weekend (bless her) which helped me a lot. Listened to radio, discovered Jessica Stevenson has an 8 year old child (although she is 34 so). Arrived in Yarmo and helped the Brown girls empty black sacks of crap from under their old beds, ate lunch and then drove to Norwich. Failed to find new shoes, dithered over and then bought manbag, bought chocolate, bought unfeasibly expensive, metrosexual personal grooming products, bought Carcasonne. Discussed origami and wedding table decorations and decided on a Day Flower & Lily combination with lobsters and boats as extras.
Walked into Norwich, went to a great restaurant (Pinocchios) and had a superb, very reasonably priced meal (K's pasta was especially delicious). Walked back through Norwich and discovered that the Saturday night clubbing scene is the very cess pool of humanity (and this was only from walking around it to get back to the house). Drank water, pinched-punched everyone (by this time it was first of the month) and went to bed.

Sunday
Got up, ate porridge, watched New Popworld (frankly terrible) and deflated bed. Walked to Morrison's, bought Afro comb, discovered Argos sell the GPS I'm after but only do home delivery. Drooled over flat screen LCD TVs (we want to go smaller and flatter) and walked home through the throngs of Norwich City supporters going in the other direction.
Was driven home, looked on the internet, beat K at Carcasonne (althoughh it was close), watched Prison Break, caught up with Lost, played some Ludo on the DS and revisited The Dales.

Random Stuff

Because of my limited time I haven't really had chance to post about stuff I've been looking at or doing these past few days, so here goes.

My new Wireless hub is all set up! Well its actually wired to the PC but it allows me to play DS games from the front room. This bodes well for connecting wirelessly to the Wii which has now been pre-ordered.

Nintendojo ran a interesting article about a group of fans that are trying to make a 2D version of Metroid Prime! You can download a demo here.

This blog is very clever.

It's always annoying to discover there are 2 things happening simultaneously that you want to do. K's autumn concert is on the same night as this, which looks bloody brilliant.

Time

Why is it that I just don’t seem to have the time for anything at the moment? I seem to be in a constant state of tiredness and yet don’t have such a great deal to show for it? Perhaps my desire to do lots of interesting stuff has meant I don’t focus on relaxing and unwinding as much as I should.

Work seems a bit of a drag at the moment to be honest with some days just an endless list of stuff that needs doing without any view as to the whole point of it all. Added to that I’m going on a course next week and I have to do 8 hours of pre-work before then. I either fit it in during the day or do it at home. Neither appeal to be honest.

I want to do more exercise and all last week I parked away from the office and walked the last mile in. This week I just can’t be arsed!

Evenings are a bit of a wash out as well at the moment. We have G&S rehearsals once a week (which in spite of myself I’m enjoying much more), dancing once a week and then the remaining nights get filled with house jobs and trying to watch the good telly/DVDs that we’ve been storing up. I think the biggest problem is that we’ve not had a free weekend in ages.The last few have been Paris, Cumbria, Cumbria, Nottingham, Wales and this one coming up is Norwich. Hmmm, I hadn’t realised quite how busy we’d been. Don’t get me wrong, the travelling has been great but in hindsight it would have perhaps been better if we’d spread it out a little more!

The biggest casualty so far has been video games. This includes GameCube (Chibi still hasn’t sorted out The Sanderson’s problems), Xbox (I don’t know how The Bard’s Tale ends) & DS (I dread to think how infested my Animal Crossing village is at the moment) and my weekly Sunday evening Neverwinter Nights have fallen by the wayside.

What I also miss is time to cook. This one is a little tricky at the moment because of the diet but I haven’t really had chance to play in the kitchen for ages. Celebrity Masterchef is giving me ideas as are a couple of the food website I go to. But time and the fact I seemed drained at the moment make the kitchen a place of work and not play.

This is all quite aside from the new things I’d like to give a try or find out more about. These include Geocaching, Morris Dancing and Photography.

Back from the Wilderness!

CIMG1077
Originally uploaded by Leighbob.

Finally got around to updating my blog after being very lax this past week. I feel like I'm getting old and tired and can't cope with the normal stresses of life!

Anyway, all of this year's holidays are taken (August/Sept was very busy) now that we're back from Wales. Headed over to Shell Island where Alex has spent many a summer and returned with great stories. You can read all about it here and check out my photos here. Needless to say we had a great time but tides and no love of breaking camp in the wet (even if it was only a potential wet) meant we left a night early and headed back to Derby.

Which would have been great but we don't live there anymore! Another trek across country saw us home (safe but wet!) in good old Ipswich yesterday around lunch.

TNG

Play.com are selling whole series of Star Trek: The Next generation for £16.99....amazing!!

Sure you got some stinkers (anything from Series 1, a load of Series 2 and quite a bit of the rest) but you do get some classics (Anything from Season 3 or 4 and some highlights in 6 & 7) in there....very very tempted!



Not TNG I know but YouTUbe is stuffed full of Star Trek stuff! Hardly a surprise as the geek worlds of sci-fi and cmputers converge!

No pen is safe!

A mere month ago K was regaling everyone on her blog about her pen fetish and the fact she had too many pens in her handbag. I think she ended up with 10 pens in the end.

I made her empty her single handbag out yesterday...15 pens! She has a real problem. No pen is safe!

Phew!!

It's been a busy weekend!

I've recovered after Friday's tense wait for the European Wii press conference. We are getting it this year (Dec 8th), it won't be too expensive (£179) and it'll come with a free game (Wii Sports). I've booked the day off and am just waiting for Gameplay or Amazon to open their preorder services so I can get it and a load of games and accessories in. You can get the full low down here.

The internet community has gone a little crazy over it though. Penny Arcade sums it up best I think. I especially like the phrase "retard rodeo". This was all because Nintendo have decided to make a profit on their hardware this time round instead of making a loss in the hopes of recouping it on software sales. This isn't how the console market traditionally works. It interesting to note that you can only try this strategy (i.e. make a loss on hardware) if you're a large company with other divisions that are making profit (see Microsoft & Sony) which Ninteno isn't and also that through the life of the Xbox it never broke even!!!

We had a very short notice visit from Mum who needed a place to stay for a golf tournament even though we were going to be away in Nottingham celebrating Mr. Palmer's 31st birthday. Great to see everyone and decided to put the diet on hold for one meal. Ate quite a lot but nowhere near what we would usually eat which is good. In fact the scales show a loss of 7 pounds this week, although I think this is partly due to faulty scales and the fact I would have lost some anyway as I was no longer on constant gorge mode like I was on holiday. Anyway we're giving it another week as we've discovered some more really nice things I can make and we're able to eat for free on the diet!

While in Nottingham I also managed to snag a pair of sky blue flared cords and a lime green silky seventies shirt! It's for the show, not because I like those things!

Although having said that I did have a penchant for Knots Landing! Radio 2s betamax challenge quiz on the Stuart Maconie show reminded me...here's a clip for your delight...

Wii-news galore!

Not the full proper european version (Nintendo has been holding press conferences all over the world yesterday & today) quite yet but lots about the North America and Japanese launches here.

Scarily the same site references a rumour that we won't get it unitl March 2007, like the PS3. Please say it isn't so!! It wouldn't make much sense to be honest as the thing is supposed to be region free, if Nintendo don't release it here at the same time everyone will just import it!

It's finished!!

CIMG0920
Originally uploaded by Leighbob.

And we love it!

Aside from a few little leaks it's all done and not a moment too soon. The man ruined another meal plan on Tuesday night (don't try and cook gammon in 5 mins under the grill) but it's finally all done.

Tidied up and painted bits last night and I've just finished the second coats this evening. The chap is back in the morning to collect his cheque and tighten the pipes again...just in time for a visitation by mother!

Master of magic, spells and illusion

I think it was at Emma & Paul's birthday bash that I was singing the theme to this TV show. Not sure why I was exactly but it might have been that someone mentioned it or didn't believe I could.

Anyway here it is for you to enjoy....



It also looks like they'll be releasing this on DVD soon...hmm might be tempted!

I can hear sawing

Despite claims that the bathroom would be finished today I can hear sawing coming from downstairs and there's still a builder in my house!

They turned up at 7.20am this morning while I was frying a 'Red' day breakfast (bacon & mushroom omelettes) and returning at 5pm tonight I can't tell if they've done anything. The mirror, shelf, bath panels, radiator, cupboard & loo holder are still in the dining in their boxes. I suppose he might have been boxing things in but I'm not about to start poking my nose in.

There were here quite late last night at well, only leaving at 6.55pm. Normally this would be fine but since we were due to go to a rehearsal at 7.10pm and the kitchen was full of tools I couldn't cook dinner. My carefully thought of 'Green' day meal (vegetable stirfry) had to be hastily replaced with a pan of quick cook pasta with some peas and a stock cube thrown in for good measure and then swirled with olive oil and parmesan. To be fair it didn't taste all that bad but I'd got my mind set on something else.

It's only day 2 and to be honest I haven't been thrown into a massive depression about it. I even managed to fit in some exercise as well! I shan't mention that I had to do this as my normal step class had to be shoved aside while I got brow-beaten over the phone by a team that wants some new reports.

Woohoo!

Finished Super Princess Peach tonight! Perhaps I achieved something on my holiday after all!

Another Survey

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	7.3
Mind:	6.1
Body:	6.1
Spirit:	6.7
Friends/Family:	5.3
Love:	9.1
Finance:	8.1
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

Ack

Despite the many walks on our holiday, I've come back half a stone heavier. Hmm the copious pasta meals, chocolate and cream teas may have something to do with that!

Anyway it would appear I am approaching the dreaded 13 stone mark and I don't want to!!!

Hmm...options....

FitDay tracks your food and excercise and shows where you're going wrong. Pros: Free, seem easy to use. Cons: Not sure it actually offers you advice on what you need to do. It's American, so has US measures, food names etc.

WeightWatchers Online Pros: It's run by the pros. I lost 1 stone on this last time I did it. Cons: It seems pretty pricey, £40 for month one, then £10 for each month after. Can I bear to count points? Or live off the 'Free' menu?

Slimming World Online bodyOPTIMISE Pros: It's run by the pros. Their online tools look pretty snazzy. It's something new. Apparently I could lose 10lbs by this time next month. Cons: It's pricey as well, no initial fee but £20 a month (with a minimum 3 month subscription).

Hmm...decisions, decisions!

We made it back!

Got back yesterday from a great trip to The Lakes!

The holiday started off OK but on the way up we visited Mum who talked mysteriously about an email and my brother and so far I'm none the wiser. Hopefully that'll clear itself up in the next few days. We then had a tortuous journey up to Cumbria as it seemed that every rroad I wanted to use was somehow hampered with problems. I hadn't realised that England were playing at Old Trafford and half the country was on teh same road as us trying to get to Manchester! That'll teach me for not keeping up with current affairs!

We got their safely in the end and settled into our new home for the next week. Now, don't get me wrong the cottage was very nice but the owners seemed a bit funny. There were little notessaying things like "Please don't leave the tidying up until Saturday morning", "If you break anything leave the appropriate remuneration on the dining table", "There are 2 plastic beakers in the kitchen cupboard that you could use for your toothbrushes. If you do use them please put them back in the kitchen cupboard before you leave" and so on.

The biggest thing that annoyed me was a little leaflet about their water problems (their tank is nearly empty) and that we should refrain from taking long showers, using the washing machine or dishwasher or even having baths, but (rather magnanimously of them) we shouldn't let it ruin our holiday too much and if we must do any of the aforementioned things we could. It just seemed so patronising and unnecessary. And quite frankly the kind of people who could afford to stay in a place like this (its wasn't exactly budget friendly) would be doing those things anyway! Also if you're going to shoehorn 4 flats into a single building (that being my other complaint, the living room was tiny) and install incredibly powerful showers, baths, washing machines and dishwashers in them all then you should have been better prepared for water difficulties!

Besides, given the almost constant rain we had I think it was a bit rich! For the first few days each morning was greeted with a couple hours of rain but actually it didn't bother us too much. I don't think either of us had realised how much we needed this holiday. Until Tuesday I think we were asleep until at least 10 every morning. I know that doesn't sound late but for me & K it is. Fortunately this sleeping time coincided with the rain so we were OK.

We took it really easy the first couple of days. The position of the cottage was great as it was a leisurely mile stroll into Grasmere village which, much to our delight was full of tea shops and places selling cake.
We did a fairly easy walk around Grasmere (the lake) itself and then enjoyed a cream tea.

The nexy few days were raining so we did a mix of short walks and visits to other towns (Windemere, Keswich, Ambleside) in the area. To be honest they were all a bit towny so we didn't stay long. We did visit a place called Lucy's in Ambleside which took itself a bit seriously but did do a nice lunch!

We did also manage to go into the flagship Lakeland store at Windemere and visit a museum called the Puzzling Place in Keswick that was pretty cool. Most of the rest of the time was spent reading, watching TV or playing on the DS. Managed to finish The Eyre Affair and got stuck on both Final Fantasy 4 and Super Princess Peach, sigh!

Thursday rolled around and we kinda realised that we had not much time left so we should make the most of it! Fortunately the rain had completely stopped by this point of we had 2 great days of sunshine. We started with a visit to Greystoke Gill Pottery where we were both able to have a go on a potter's wheel and create something. I made a bowl and K made a vase. Once the potter has glazed and fired them for us, he'll pop them in the post. I'll take some pictures when they arrive!


We then did a walk up to Alcock Tarn near Grasmere. Strenuous to say the least but it was a great view! We finished the day with a meal and cinema visit at Zeffirellis. We didn't quite realise it was vegetarian until we were seated but it was highly enjoyable nonetheless. My Rain Forest pizza was delicious! This was followed by The Sentinel which was actually not too bad at all.


Friday was a no car day and we did 2 walks. the first a strenuous climb to Easedale Tarn and then a more sedate (but not much) trek around Rydal Water. Also of note is the fact that Rydal Mount is a house and not a hill! Didn't we feel stupid! We also managed to pop into Williams of Grasmere for breakfast AND lunch (although you can't really call a bowl of fries and a cream tea lunch, can you??)

We then tidied the flat and left nice and early on Saturday. The journey back was going great until we discovered that junctions 1 & 2 of the M6 were shut. Our detour via Coventry and the A45 turned into a nightmare when the A45 was closed. When we did finally get around that diversion we discovered that the M45 only joins the M1 going southbound (we wanted it northbound). Fortunately it worked out OK in the end and we diverted through Northampton and finally rejoined the A14 at Huntingdon. Phew!

Oh and despite being away for a week the bathroom isn't finished. I can't be too cross however as the new toilet, bath and shower are all in and usable. Just waiting for the sink, extractor, boxing in and cupboards to be done. I must say the floor and walls do look pretty damn good though!

Interesting

My Personality

Neuroticism	80
Extraversion	61
Openness To Experience	21
Agreeableness	38
Conscientiousness	31

Test Yourself Compare Yourself View Full Report MySpace Surveys, MySpace Codes and MySpace Layouts by Pulseware Survey Software

They've started

The bathroom men I mean. And with pretty good timing as we're about to head off for our hols...that means no updates for all of my 3 readers. I'm sure you'll cope!

Number One

Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" was apparently at the top of the chart's when I was born according to here.

And I share my birthday with David Essex, "Its sweet and clean down 'ere. Ahfter the rain".

A (not so) Nice Dilemma!

I've got a bit of a financial dilemma...

If someone offered you, say, £1 with no strings attached you'd take it straight away, right?

What if they then offered you the chance that it might be £2 in 2 years time but it could also be £0. What would you do then?

Would you risk it as you didn't have anything in the first place or would you play it safe and take the offer?

What if you had low short term expectations of getting the £2 but a wild dream that it could turn into something like £5 if you were prepared to wait 5 years?

And what would you do if the £1 was actually £10 to begin with? £50, £100, £1000, £2000? What would be the cut off before you took the money without risking it?

Help!

Book worm

Managed to get through a few books of late and realised I'd not been keeping my blog upto date. So far, my piles are only getting bigger because K is adding to them. I don't think I've bought a new book since my resolution (can only buy one if I've read one).

Anyway, managed to read through The Pure in Heart over the weekend. Having 6 empty hours on Eurostar certainly helped. It was good but not as good as her first in this series, The Various Haunts of Men. Looking forward to the next which is out in hardback so should be coming to paperback soon.

Also managed to read The Oxford Murders which was pretty good. Quite short which was nice for a change as most of the extraneous filler had been removed.

Just started The Eyre Affair which promises to be good after The Big Over Easy.

And there's still no sign of the bathroom men.

I found this highly amusing

Just the thought of someone going round with something pointy in the museum....maybe its just me?

La Grand Aventure

Viva La France!

Just spent a great long weekend living it up in Paris to celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary. I can't believe we've been married so long or that the past few days have flown by so quickly.

By the time work finishd on Thursday I was just tired and not in the right frame of mind for our break. Slowly, through the evening, I got more excited and by the time we went to bed was properly relaxed and looking forward to it.

Clothes and packing, as ever, caused us some degree of stress and we just weren't sure what to take. The miserable weather here and the not too promising 5 day forecast for Paris meant I packed jeans instead of shorts. Halfway walking to the train station with jacket around waist and long sleeves rolled up we realised we might have made a mistake. Fortunately while the weather was nice most of the time, trousers were the right choice as when the clouds came out it was fairly brisk.

K covered what we did on her blog so you can get the specifics there. Paris for me shall be known as the city of tall things to climb. Not that we climbed too many of them in the end. Our massive walk across town from Notre Dame to Arc de Triomphe (due to the metro line being out) was great as we got to see stuff we would have missed but also very tiring. Factor in a climb up the Eiffel Tower and a walk back and we were pooped.

We did mange to go into Fauchon though. It all looked yum and I got a natty new apron as a souvenir.

I must admit though, Paris, along with Brussels has given me something of an enthusiasm to visit some other places. Madrid, Rome, Venice, Florence, Iceland, Athens. There's even talk of Christmas shopping in New York. In the meantime though I just have to remember that there's only 4 more days at work and then we're off to the Lake District for a week!

Oh and FFIV has so far engrossed me for more than 10 minutes and even went so far as giving me a migraine this afternoon because I couldn't put it down. Well they do say the old ones are the best ones....

And we're still waiting for the the bathroom men to visit...

Free at last....

...well for a few days at least. Off to sample the delights of Paris tomorrow and not coming back until Sunday...and we've got a bank holiday!

K is frantically packing as I type but I haven't even started. I guess I'll be a bit more relaxed about it that Brussels and just throw some stuff in a bag! Back to work on Tuesday but only for 4 days before off again for a week in the Lakes. Can't wait for it, work is so draining at the moment.

In other news K got a pay rise and finally earns more than I do! According to a long standing agreement this means I should get her pregnant and she'd be forced to return to work while I stay at home with the kids. Can't see it happening really...

Damp Squib

Nintendo's 'big' announcements weren't really earth shattering after all. A Wii version of Super Mario Strikers & Battalion Wars and the pink DS for Europe in October. Where was the price, launch date info, where was somethign bigger and juicier? Oh well, I was reading a comment on the CVG website and someone had said that even if they announced the date, it wouldn't bring it any closer and they've got a point. I just need to keep 'em peeled and get my pre-order in as soon as I can.

One highlight though is that there's a new Red Steel video over on IGN that looks pretty good. We'll perhaps get more stuff as the days go on.

Still no sign of the bathroom men.....

And yet more changes!

Ooooh...just found this template (you're looking at it now) that stretches to fit the screen size you're viewing it on...nifty!

Back to the grindstone!

Was quite a hectic day today, especially with the massive deadline hanging over me. As I said before I've agreed to deliver somethign that usually takes 12 days in a mere 3. This wouldn't be so bad if everyone else did their bit. One time recording system hadn't been shut prior to my automated report running so I had to wait around anxiously until they shut it so I can run my report (90 minutes wasted). The other problem is that data we thought would be ready for us at 9am today isn't actually available until 9am on deadline day...oops! Should be OK though, we made some good progress with what we've got. I just hope the numbers show them what they want!

Onto other things, I had thought the bathroom people were coming to de-tile us today. As far as I can tell no-one has been...this is quite good as K has a 'nowhere to shower' problem (I'm fine, showers at the office) and if the builders don't come until Thursday or Friday we'll be in Paris anyway. Speaking of which I'm very much looking forward to that!

Also you may have notice the template update on my blog. Blogger has finally made it easy to bugger about with the layout as they've launched beta blogger which requires less knowledge of HTML and is MUCH easier to use.

The only problem is that Flickr doesn't seem compatible so I'm having to include pictures via the blog entry instead of clicking the 'blog this' button in Flickr. To be honest its OK though as beta blogger has made it sooo much easier to insert pictures from anywhere (I think if you give it a picture on your PC it uploads it somewhere for you so you don't even need hosting!)

Ok thats it for now...off to play Final Fantasy 4 on the GBA for 10 minutes until I get bored and put it in my 'to finish' pile along with everything else!

Finally there is the GC 2006 running this week in Germany and tomorrow is Nintendo's press conference. I'm hoping there'll be lots of juicy Wii gossip with a price and release date so I can get my preorder in...I shouldn't be this excited!

Pretty accurate actually

	Your travel type: Culture Buff The culture buff needs to see a museum, an art gallery, a 16-th century church every day during his holiday. When he travels he is always well prepared. He has read history books, speaks a few words of the lingo, knows about the strange habits the locals have.
	top destinations: Amsterdam New York Venice	stay away from: North Korea Ciudad Perdida Darien Gap

get your own travel profile

Where I've been in Europe

create your personalized map of europe
or check out our Barcelona travel guide

And a link to Alex's.

Games

Not sure what it is about Games that makes me love them so much.

I was going to try and differentiate between different games and what I meant by my first sentence in the context of me, but as I tried to think of the types of games I didn't like I realised I couldn't think of any!

Take the Olympic Games. I'm not really one for sport to be honest and wouldn't watch the athletics usually but when its part of the Olympics something happens to me. I watch it and enjoy it. The same with the Commonwealth Games. There's just something about the bringing together of people from around the world in friendly competition. This may be countries who are at war, physically or with words, but when they are on that field or in the pool or whatever, they are just people united by a dream. I know that sounds weird but it's something about the word 'Games' tacked on the end that make them so special to me. Pretty pleased with London hosting the Olympics in 2012 and I am hoping that we'll be able to go to some event in 6 years time (assuming they'll built everything of course!)

The other one that sprang straight to mind (pardon the repitition) is Mind Games. Just you ask K, my 30 year old wife how much I like those.

As I type this I'm waiting for an opponent in an online game called PoxNora. It's kind of like Magic The Gathering but with a map and pieces that you move around. Its free to try but then you buy online expansions and play other people. Great fun but a bit temperamental at the moment, I'm sure they'll iron out all the bugs. The only free game is with someone of rank 5, so I'm avoiding it as my rank of 9000 suggests he'll spank me good! Hmm just played a rank 300 and was forced to surrender...not very good at this game!

We went to Coleens garage sale this morning and although we didn't buy anything I was offered a soup tureen (spelling?), a marble rolling pin and some other tat. In the end we just liberated a cribbage board, Pass the Pigs and a game called Verbosity. My collection keeps on growing!

And still it continues

Ok...so Terry should be back on Monday but I can see no end in sight for the work I'm doing. The stuff I was hoping to hand back has now been given to me permanently and we're going to have to deal with the fall out of my usual work load not getting done on monday morning.

Was in the office until 6.45pm (highly unusual for me) and was punctuated with texts from K mking sure I was still alive.

Not sure how it happened but I've agreed to deliver something in 3 days that usually takes us 12. In effect I'm going to be incommunicado (no email and phone switched off) for the whole week. Hmm first I'm going to have interesting conversations with my customers on Monday telling them all that the can expect all of their reports either very late or not at all....joy!

Sad

I've posted about it a few times before but I will say it again, Six Feet Under is great!

Having finally watched the last few episodes of the series over the last 2 days it has firmly cemented itself in my list of all time greats. But boy, was it emotional! K was blubbing almost the entire time and I had a tough job not to join her!

Also suprised that I managed to get through week 1 of Terry's absence, only one more week to go!

Ack!

So very tired....

Terry is away and I'm trying to do his job and my job. Barely had time to eat today but I think its slowly getting better. Either way its thursday tomorrow so the week is nearly over.

Must learn my music for our rehearsal tomorrow. As I said before I really have been singing these songs all wrong for years.

Better go, still got the dinner to make!

Not quite fully true

K has berated me for blogging about boring things when I have a wealth of slightly more humourous things I could blog about.

I had my first principals rehearsal for Trial by Jury on Thursday and it was ok. I discovered that the tunes I thought I knew I'd been singing wrong for years and I'm simply rubbish at harmonising without flipping to someone else's part. I've set aside some time today to practice. Half my bits have circles round them to draw my attention to the fact they need work.

Fortunately everyone else seems to be having similar problems. What tends to happen is that everyone listens to a commercially available recording to learn their songs but frequently either the timing/rhythm is way off, they are singing something completely different or our conductor has decided to change it anyway. I'm sure it'll all work out. I just have to remember to sing Dye-lemna instead of Dee-lemna and not listen too carefully when the Counsel is singing "Far Cologne". The way she does it maes it sound like "Fark alone" and it just puts a picture, in my mind, of a posh person masturbating. (Un)Fortunately I wasn't the only one to think this at the rehearsal and we should all be grateful that the person singing the Plaintiff only has to sob uncontrollably at this point and not sing.

As I blogged yesterday I said we were going to Somersham and we did. Had a great time and managed to buy a pile of tat (most of which was stuff K had left in Yarmo anyway) from Coleen's bric-a-brac stall and won big-stylee on the tombola. And by big-stylee I mean lots rather than anything impressive (a tea pot shaped like a cottage, a flannel and soap, a bottle of cola etc). Coleen swiped most of it back to redo on a future tombola! What with the stalls and the tea/coffee (all in Christine's back garden) and donations I think they made about £275 for charity so not a bad day's work!

We also managed to finish Xmen 2 - Age of Apocolype last night. Now need to fin another game that K & I can play together.

Proper post

Had a manic day on Friday and finally managed to get something approaching a handover at 17:30 last night! Trying not to think about the freakishly large and scary spreadhseet that I will have to sort out and manage for the next few weeks.

Quite a few people are on leave so it should be fairly quiet but I'm not trying to think about it as I'll get all panicky.

We're off to Somersham later to see Kath's family for some kind of gathering, which should be quite nice and apparently we'll be meeting the cousin's boyfriend for the first time, poor chap! Although I can't really have sympathy as I took Kath to a family christening within a fortnight of us getting together!

Lego AND Star Wars....inspired!

Geeky Music

Since I last blogged....

...I've discovered my jam hasn't set properly so I've got 3 jars of mixed fruit sauce instead of jam.

...that 2 good days at work are always followed by a shitty one.

...we've had our last dancing lesson for a month or so. It'll be nice to have free tuesdays for a bit.

...I can't stop buying random video games I know I haven't got time to play but can't resist the rock bottom prices I'm spotting them at (Bust a Move DS, The Bard's Tale, Lego Star Wars).

...I reiterated the fact that I'll agree to almost anything if I'm door-stepped. We have a woman coming on Friday to see if K wants to start karate lessons at a local hall. Don't ask!

...I discovered that K is much better at Bohnanza than me. 2 games played, 2 wins to her! Boo!

...I found out that as if work weren't bad enough, I'll be covering my boss's leave for the next 2 weeks. I'm already starting to play conversations with our VP in my head ("Yes I can do that new, very urgent report for you today but it means the other very slightly less urgent business as usual report you want me to do won't be done. Why is that you say? Because while I'm covering for him, no-one is covering for me!!")

Roll on the 25th...Paris are you ready for us??

How do they come up with this stuff?

Looks like this was a single take too...awesome!

So many games have such great music!

Good old Microsoft!

Productive

Some weekends you get abslutely nothing done and then go to work on Monday feeling like it was a waste...but not this weekend!

Up early on Saturday and the house was cleaned and a lot of tidying up was done. Then managed to do the shopping, bought some fruit at the pick your own, bought various anniversary cards in town and then made some lemon curd (hint: never freeze then defrost lemons to use as normal, they were strangely rubbery). I also made a Raspberry Ripple Terrine and some marinated chops for the BBQ. The weather looked vaguely threatening so we had them on the grill instead!

Today we sorted and boxed some books, bought the lino for the bathroom and I made some jam from yesterday's pickings.

I've also managed to squeeze in a fair amount of video game playing and most of Season 2 of Scrubs, which is now finished! Also watched Howl's Moving Castle which was great.

I love this cartoon!

Unholy Alliance

Yay! Just discovered that this is on its way for my Birthday...cool!

Hot!

I've really been trying not to complain about the hot weather, we moan when its cold and wet so we should be glad that its warm.

But I just can't help myself. It's 10.30pm and the temperature in my study (and the rest of the house) is 32 friggin' degrees!

Top Marks!

To all those who got me fantastic presents I got for my birthday!

Special mention should go to K who, in addition to getting me some great gifts, organised the Belgium trip.

I also especially liked my 2 game related presents, Chronology and Bohnanza! Thank you guys, you know who you are!

Happy Belgium Day!

CIMG0106
Originally uploaded by Leighbob.

We had the great fortune (entirely by chance) to arrive at Belgium on Belgium Day, one of belgium's national holidays.

What this meant for us was that as we arrived at the train station and went in the wrong direction we ended up seeing part of a parade and our eventual trip to the hotel was punctuated with numerous fly bys of the Belgian air force, great stuff!

Also it meant that we were able to see what was quite possibly the best fireworks display I have ever seen! Constant barrage of spectacular fireworks for the full 20 minutes of Bolero (god that piece of music gets old very quick!). This was after we'd had a traditional Belgian meal of Mussel casserole for me and Flemish stew for Kath (both served with French Fries of course!)

What was slightly strange however was that there were trucks giving away plastic bags of water. Clearly Belgium takes its public health very seriously but you can't fault em for it...I didn't see anyone passed out because of the heat!

Stormy Weather

CIMG0300
Originally uploaded by Leighbob.

A picture of the Hotel de Ville in the Grande Place in Brussels. I was trying to be arty and use the B&W setting on the camera. This was actually taken at about 8.30pm I think. The sky suddenly went dark and wind started howling through the square.

We went around the corner for waffles and by the time we'd finished the streets were deserted and there was a torrential dowpour! It was strange as it seemed very apocolyptic. One minute we were eating waffles and the next people were running through the streets screaming. We dashed back to the hotel and got thoroughly drenched in the process (although several kind shop keepers offered us their doorways).

This storm (with full thunder and ligntning effects) carried on for about 2 hours.

Ok...I'll stop doing this now...

With music like this...this game should be ace!

Prepare for a deluge!

I've discovered YouTube!

Back from Brussels

And it was fantastic!

This is just a quick post to say that my new camera i ace and the battery lasts a very long time, very pleased. The only downside is my 1 gig SD card is rather full...I may have been over zealous with my picture taking. Will post again later, need to unpack and put my feet up for a bit.

My evil plans....

....for domination can begin now that K has left me alone in the house! Mwa ha ha ha!

Ermmm...not really. A lovely big headache has prevented me from venturing out this evening and K has gone to rehearsal on her own. Not sure what brought it on to be honest. Had quite a stress free day actually. Went to aerobics for the first time in months (good but sweaty!) and had to dash to the doctor's for an appointment I'd forgottten about. Went to the shops and did the shopping then, wham, headache central after I'd put everything away.

Sat with a ridiculous cool mask thing on my forehead and when K arrived home she said I looked awful! Oh well. I'll perhaps do a bit of reading and try to remember to record Part 2 of Silent Witness for K. Fingers crossed!

BBQ

CIMG0032
Originally uploaded by Leighbob.

Had a great time at Emma & Paul's birthday bbq in Derby this weekend, 2 whole lambs roasting on a spit, cous-cous, ice cream, fizzy wine, a WWII parachute being used as a gazebo and a collection of interesting music (we were all asked to rpovide some MP3s, mine seemed to have got lost in the mail!).

I also managed to pick up some of my birthday presents and get lost in mum & dad's huge new sofa. The only downside really is that we had to travel 3 hours each way to get there. My thoughts, of late, have been increasingly turning to when and if we need to move house and I can't help but think however nice Suffolk is our friends just aren't here.

The new camera is great as well...managed to get a good video of Kath, Emma, Alex & Paul dancing when they thought I was just messing about with settings...I'll try and find a way to post it soon!

For Queen and Country

Boys in blue

Bleh!

Had a terrible day at work today....the week started with so much possibility. No deadlines to meet and plenty of time to focus on the good stuff and the improvment actions to make my job easier.

It descended into pointless last minute requests and doing work that should be done by someone else but they're too stupid or lazy to do it. Shouted at my boss a couple of times and had to leave the office to go for a walk around site to calm down!

At least its the weekend now though....going to a BBQ to Derby tomorrow and doing some more birthday shopping in the morning.

Where can I get my paper clip!

http://www.oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5167388.stm

Revelations

It’s been a weekend of revelations in one form or another so I thought I’d share some of them. They range from the mundane to even more mundane but it’s a chance to glance inside my head!

1. Colleen’s Loft – After a stressful beginning we managed to clear it out. Very dusty but we did find award winning poetry by K (she was such a school girl swot) and minutes of NUT district meetings running back as far as 1920.

2. The Carphone Warehouse’s Broadband Package isn’t as easy to install as it seems. Ambushed into installing it for K’s dad…it didn’t work but I’m not sure if the problem was the package or the frankly bizarre amount of phone lines and sockets in his house.

3. K’s taking me to Brussels, I’m taking her to Paris. Hooray! And the luggage we’ve bought is great!

4. I really like Six Feet Under. Started to watch Series 3 that K bought me for Christmas (there was literally nothing on and we’d exhausted our July supply of DVDs, except for Ripley’s Game which we started to watch and couldn’t get into) and managed to find Series 4 for £25 in Virgin so bought that too. Must remember to remove it from my Amazon wishlist, so close to my birthday!

5. There’s an online ‘Theme Park’ for Origami. Lots of exciting looking models with a fairy tale appearance.

6. What happens to Rose Tyler. I was convinced the Daleks needed her DNA to make a Queen Dalek and she willingly trapped herself in the void ship for eternity to stop the Daleks ruling the universe. That didn’t happen in the end but it was a bloody good (and emotional episode). Thank goodness for the levity at the end. Can’t wait for the Christmas episode now.

7. My new digital camera is super. A significant upgrade on the old model (Nikon Coolpix 2100) and super slim ready for our hols. Just need to buy a bigger SD card and a spare battery.

8. We’ve run out of Leigh’s Super Lemon Curd (well its not mine but from a great book about preserving). I must remember to buy some lemons.

9. The world is full of freaks.

Dusty

We're off to Colleen's today to clear out the loft...which should be fun...and dusty. By all accounts the loft has not been entered for 16 years (I think it was something K's dad did but didn't teach K before he left, unlike the central heating timer switch).

It should be quite interesting but probably more so for K & B as each long forgotten toy gets squeals of delight (Playskool Pick-a-pair) and a lot of junk emerges....I might take a book.

Did very well on the Stalk market this week and have managed to pay off another mortgage! Hooray!

It's been a while...

...so this post might be quite long as I desparately try to cram everything in before having to go and make dinner for K.

Been a bit down to be honest and don't really know what's causing it. Work is OK, money is fine and K is great as usual but I just feel a bit limbo-ish. Hopefully I'll snap out of this fugg and be back to my tip top self soon enough, anyway onto an update!

Decided against buying a wormery and an iPod in the end but did manage to completely sort out the garden and buy the bathroom ready for the man coming soon. Although that was a bit of a nightmare as one B&Q didn't have all of the suite and the other had just the missing bit. Fortunately we got it all for much cheaper than we thought which is just as well as the shower broke last week and we need to get that fixed at the same time.

My birthday is in a few weeks and so the presents have been rolling in already. Mum has been and bought me some shoes (I bought a pair as well) and my stash is slightly embarrasing. Imelda Marcos eat your heart out! I did give 3 pairs away to charity though so hopefully it evens out a bit. Got my presents from Gerry & Becks but won't open them until the day. Well the evening of the day as we'll be away in some exotic foreign location (K's present to me). I don't know where we're going but I'm sure she'll tell me in plenty of time!

I also spent a few days trying to decide whether to book a long weekend for us August bank holiday. This time a surprise for K, can't wait! However this did cause some problems as on Sunday I discovered my passport had expired. 2 years ago!!! OH. MY. GOD. I always thought peopel who didn't keep on top of things like this are complete thickos and now its happened to me!

Anyway, had this afternoon off and pootled down to Peterborough to get it sorted. The RAC lied and it took me 1 and a half hours insteadof 2 and a half so I sat in my car in the multi-storey car park playing Animal Crossing for 45 minutes. The office is very strict about arriving too early and won't let you in until 10 minutes before your appointment. As far as I can tell there are 2 sorts of people in there...the genuine ones who discover that they need a passpot at short notice and are prepared to pay a premium and the losers who can't read fucking forms! Queued for an extra 10 minutes at reception as someone thought they could get a new passport without new pictures and someone else thought they'd be able to take their new passport away that day despite the MASSIVE signs saying that this is only possible if you have your appointment before 12 (this was at 2pm). Went through without a hitch and my new passport is guaranteed to arrive by next thursday which leave another clear week until we go away. Phew!

A whole new me

They say that money changes people and I have to agree that it does. It certainly affects our spending habits although not necessarily in the obvious ways. I remember a time when I was a student and then just after where I had barely any money and large debts as well. To be honest I didn’t really care, I kept spending. I’d inherited the Mother C spending vision of “if you’ve got it, spend it”. Although in this case it should be more like “if they’ll let you borrow it, spend it”.

Those of you who know me would probably find this quite surprising as in my family I am the ‘sensible’ one. The one who doesn’t drink at family parties, who follows the rules to the letter and generally does what is expected. That is certainly the view of my family, anyway. To my friends I’m the one who drinks, swears, says inappropriate things at parties. I still follow the rules but only where I think they apply to me and I have been known to flash my cash about. I remember buying 6 bottles of wine at Sainsbury’s and then only noticing that I got an extra discount for 6!

Anyway, the point is I used to spend money that I didn’t have. Now though I have money (including savings accounts!!) I dither over every decision about spending it! I’ve gone from easy street to penny pinching miser in the time it took my account to flip from red to black. There was no real change in my overall wealth but suddenly my attitude switched. There is something about watching a little pile of money grow on the internet to a pile a little bigger and something inside says “No!…if you don’t spend me I’ll get a little bigger”. I don’t know whether the Mother B ethic of “Save everything, you can’t spend your money!” has finally asserted itself via K (although interestingly Colleen seems intent on spending all of her money in the shortest amount of time possible at the moment) or whether my true sensibilities (allowed to flourish away from Home C) have stopped me in my tracks.

Either way it’s making purchasing this iPod a bloody nightmare!