Monday, June 25, 2007

Reverse Blog

Ok the...just finished doing the washing up after enjoying a lovely dinner of pasta with chorizo, onions, peppers & marsala. K away living the high life (shooting things and attending posh meals) so I was forced to do the washing up!

Tai Chi was fun before that although I tend to ache afterwards. We learned how to do 3 'splits' in a row which forms the next part of the form. Very relaxing!

Spent most of today at work marvelling at my new 17in flat screen monitor. The site where I work is suffering a power crisis so they were forced to replace all the CRT monitors with LCD. Amazed at how much easily it is to manipulate bugger large spreadsheets when I can see much more of them at once!

Also had a chat with the person who is going to help me sort out my business case for my role review.

Had quite a good Neverwinter Nights game last night despite dying 3 times! Also caught the last minute of Saturday's Doctor Who. Contemplated buying an Xbox 360 with my bonus (despite already having bought a digital camera) but decided that there simply wasn't enough software I want at this point to warrant a purchase...maybe after Christmas.

Watched Saturday's Doctor Who while stuffing pretzels that K bought me from Norwich...a fleeting chance to chat before she went off to Manchester for the High Life. Told her that I had decided not to enroll on my Open University Digital Photography course as I realised that for a 10 week 10 credit module I would be expected to do 6-8 hours a week work on it! Stuff that....I'm gonna get a book!

Played a lot of Okami while K was in Norwich getting her bridesmaid dress fitted.

We watched Hot Fuzz Saturday night with Becks & Ralph after a day of shopping, eating very large ice-creams and playing card & board games. I must have been feeling off as I failed to win a single thing! Also got my hair cut.

Got up very early Saturday morning to contemplate my role review and write some thoughts into my working record so that I could enjoy the weekend without thinking about it too much.

Watched Hot Fuzz (*raspberry noise and the V sign* "Jog On!") on Friday night with K after realising that Earl doesn't start for a few weeks.

Friday afternoon got a late call from my manager telling me that my role review had been unsuccessful at this time and needs more detailed evidence. Feel surprising fine about it.

Friday, June 22, 2007

Waiting for the phone to ring....

...it doesn't ring!

I want to know about my role review...when will it ring!

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Yum

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No its not a bottle of piss but my elderflower cordial...and very tasty it is too!

Made after I was inspired by Alex and is just delicious! I only wish that I could have made it a few hours sooner so I could send a bottle off with my mum to reach my dad for Father's day! Especially after she brought me one of his cabbages!

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Diane's Dead!

Another Thursday, another night in avoiding things I'd planned to do! Tonight was set aside to make a tart and do some tidying up. My mum is visiting us for the weekend and the house is a bit of a tip! I can't even be bothered to do the washing up!

Watched the end of Masterchef which means I can have a lie in tomorrow if I fancy it (while BB is on K and I have been recording and then watching Masterchef over breakfast), especially as I'm working from home.

Then got sucked into EastEnders which is very easy to lose 30 minutes watching. Then Holby City came on! I'd forgotten it's on on Thursdays at the moment (until pointless police show spin off, HolbyBlue ends its run) so I was forced to watch that for an hour. Not that it takes much forcing to be honest! Yes its very soapy but I really enjoy it. I don't know if its the overacting or the comedy moments or the good story lines at the moment but it is currently unmissable! I'll probably watch it again with K when she catches up with it. It was Diane's swan song tonight and was only slightly disappointing when she died off camera. To be honest though Paul Bradley doesn't have much luck with news over the phone. I remember in years ago in EastEnders, when his wife Debbie went the same way!

Had quite a good day at work although the spectre of my role review is still hanging over me. Apparently there should be some feedback in the offing next week but whether that will be good or bad who knows? I am stuck in a dilemma and I really shouldn't write about it as it will start me thinking about it agian. If it comes back and is a 'no' should I take on even more work/responsibility to try again in six months? Or should I just say "Fuck it" and reduce my workload to the level I'm paid for and then start looking for another job?

In other news I was all ready to make Elderflower cordial but a confluence of circumstances has meant I either had the flowers and no citric acid or the acid and dried husks of slowly rotted flowers. Must try to track some down tomorrow so I can make some for Dad for Mum to take back with her on Sunday. I keep seeing trees by the side of the road but I'm not sure I'm fantastically keen on exhaust fumey blossoms for my drinks.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Going to seed.....


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Originally uploaded by Leighbob.
I need to pull up my remaining radishes, quick smart! All that lovely juicy goodness in the root is busy turning itself into flowers! Stop it!

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Meanie

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Testing out the new camera's continuous shooting mode I managed to catch K just as she was about to give me a couple of 2 fingered salutes! The cheek of it!

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Feel the quality!

Well more like see the quality!

My last post had a nice picture on it...taken with my new camera! Early Happy Birthday to me!

Finally plumped for the Nikon in the end. Was supposed to be paying for it with my bonus (which comes in end of month's pay package) but when I've made my decision there's usually no point waiting! Fortunately my savings are fairly healthy at the mo so used some of those.

Really pleased with and managed to get quite a few shots in teh last couple of days. Mixture of quiet good and just plain average. My next step is to actually learn when all the settings mean! I don't really understand ISO, Shutter speed and aperture! But it does make a fantastic noise when you take a picture! Especially on continuous!

Saturday, June 09, 2007

Who wins?...You Decide!


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Originally uploaded by Leighbob.
K and I were having a competition to see who could grow the largest sunflower. I think we'll call it a tie!

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Grrrr

I'm supposed to be watching the Apprentice right now but K is on the phone to her mother! Thank goodness for pausing live TV!

My predictions are....

Simon & Kristina for the final. Lets see if I'm right!

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Loose End

K is at some some of training conference and I'm at a loose end! I've even spent the last 30 minutes watching old title credits for Home & Away and Neighbours on TouTube...that's 30 minutes I'll never get back.

There's lots of things I should be doing but for some reason I can't settle on one...

* Cook something with apples. We have a glut of too soft to enjoy eating apples and I need a recipe to use them up but it can't be a cake! I might just turn them into apple sauce and freeze for another day. Apple Jam apparently is not good and we don't have the space to strain and make apple jelly.

* Tidy up. There's the last remnants of camping stuff ready to be sorted and put away. K is much better at this sort of thing than I am.

* Think of things to cook avocados in. The new veg box arrived today and contained avocados (as well as cabbage, squash and bean sprouts...at least there were no potatoes!)

* Practice first 2 stages of the Tai Chi form we learned yesterday. It was our first class and despite wearing inappropriate clothing (ideally arms and legs should be covered and loose enough to really move) it went really well. The 90 minutes literally flew by! Not too achey today and looking forward to next week's class. Hopefully this'll help with work stress and get us a bit fitter. I have to watch out for my bunchy shoulders and big toe and K has to watch her turned out feet.

* Decide on an Xbox 360 or Digital SLR camera as a 30th birthday present to myself. Its not for another month but a quick decision will mean that family and friends have something that they can contribute towards in the way of accessories! An Xbox would be great but I can barely play everything I have now, although Mass Effect & Bioshock may be too great a temptation. They are being made by the people who made my all time favourite games of Baldur's Gate & System Shock 2. On the other hand with the camera I can develop a new hobby, learn a new skill and maybe do the OU course I was looking at. Should I decide on a camera I then have the task of deciding between the Canon 400D (more AF points, wider selection of lenses) or the Nikon D40x (better kit lenses, uses SD cards instead of CF, better grip, I used to have a Nikon). Or I could just save my money!

Right I think I'm going to go and play some video games!

Sunday, June 03, 2007

Back & Brown!

Just got back from camping and was really glad we took a risk and went despite the weather forecasts.

The first evening was great and we managed to get set up in record time and had a great barbeque and fire....

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The following day was spent eating a lot (I think I put on about 4 pounds in 3 days!) and drifting down river getting tanned for 3 hours...fantastic!

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Then the mist descended and we had a quiet night (especially after my disaster with the charcoal)

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The next morning a mercy dash to Morrisons ended in disaster with a splashing incident of some cyclists and an argument with a log by the side of the road...

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Luckily the weather really cheered up and we managed to get lost in a fantastic maze at Priory Maze at Beeston Regis.

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A quick trip over to Blakeney Point....

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And a giant penis at Sheringham!

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Finally back to the site (which was very basic, toilets you really don't want to use and the pervading smell of chicken shit, it was a working chicken farm after all!) to pack up and head off for a quick pub meal and then home!

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Catch Up

Finally finished Hotel Dusk!

More of a interactive novel than a game and fortunately the story is really, really good. Some twists that you could see coming but some that were genuine surprises. Highly recommended!

At last I'll have time to focus on Pokemon!