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".
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
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!
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.
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.
Monday, August 28, 2006
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...
Thursday, August 24, 2006
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...
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...
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
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.....
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.....
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
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!
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!
Sunday, August 20, 2006
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:AmsterdamNew York Venice | stay away from:North KoreaCiudad Perdida Darien Gap | ||
Saturday, August 19, 2006
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!
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!
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!
Saturday, August 12, 2006
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!
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!
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
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!
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!
Sunday, August 06, 2006
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.
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.
Saturday, August 05, 2006
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!
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!
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
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??
...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??
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