Category: Life

For the stuff about my life

bookmark_borderFate?

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What is it about these things, these events in life that all seem to collide. Days go by with only the merest ripple distorting the norm then … BLAMMO! …

For example, take tomorrow. I need to be in the office to deliver a presentation as part of our induction and the kitchen fitters are due to, finally, start work. I’ve also got an appointment with the nurse to get my blood pressure taken.

I’d figured out the timings, I’d wait until the kitchen fitters arrived and then head to work. The presentation is right after lunch, so I’d give that then head off to the local health centre, then home to see how the fitters are doing.

Except they won’t be here until midday apparently, which fucks up everything. I can’t NOT be in work tomorrow but can’t wait here until midday… so Louise is taking the day off.

It’s never simple, is it?

Mind you, fate sometimes helps. I’ve managed to bork the search page on my other blog, so when I heard WordPress 2.5 was out I figured I may as well grab it and get upgraded. So I have. Both blogs are now on 2.5 and the upgrade was super smooth and whilst I’ve not had much time to play with it, the new admin screens aren’t too bad.

Fate, sometimes it gives you a helping hand, sometimes it’s like a steel-toecapped boot to your knackers. Such is life.

In other news, isn’t the new R.E.M. album good! They’ve rediscovered loud rockin’ guitars, wheeeee.

bookmark_borderLaughing is good

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It’s fair to say that we are both fairly stressed with the ongoing ‘lack of kitchen’ saga, so it’s been good to have a hearty chuckle over the past couple of days.

The cat flap we fitted for Ollie is working fine. It uses a magnetic lock to stop just any old feline wandering in, and means that Ollie now has a small magnet dangling from his collar. I’m sure there are other cats in the area with the same cat flap fitted in their homes but it will stop the strays getting in.

Unfortunately for Ollie, having a magnet attached to collar makes life… interesting… particularly when your food and water bowls are made of metal … *CLUNK* … or you have to walk past the washing machine as it’s currently sitting in the living room … *KLANK* … or you walk past the clean dishes, lying at the top of the stairs as they are currently being washed in the bathroom, and a spoon attaches itself to your collar … *CLINK*. Cue one bemused cat staring down at this spoon as it follows him along the hall… “But I’m not carrying it! Get it off me!!”.

We shouldn’t laugh at him of course, but we do…

And then, off to see Jimmy Carr last night. We started with some teppenyaki, and then we (my sister and her boyfriend were with us), headed over to the Clyde Auditorium.

Suffice to say (without wanting to spoil the show for others) that he was hilarious. I’d say he was edgy but that wouldn’t really sum up his brand of humour. What he does is very smart of course, taking the audience to a place where it’s ok to laugh at a particularly distasteful joke and then taking you one step further to shock you.

Peppered with one-liners, and a nicely handled ‘open session’ with lead to some arsehole just shouting abuse (which Jimmy handled excellently “You know, whenever I get someone like you in the audience I get a nice warm glow. After all, somewhere a carer is getting the night off…”) the highlight was probably the consistent way in which he related the jokes to two 14 year olds that were sitting in the front row….

A great show and a very smart, very funny man. If you get a chance to see him live, and you aren’t easily shocked (there are recurring themes of paedophilia for example) then go and see him.

Just be careful if you decide to heckle him. He is quietly and lethally brutal.

bookmark_borderCurrent Mood: Ranty

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Idiots: Take 1

Orange have dropped my line rental by 20%. Yay.

Orange have offered me an upgrade on my handset, and I hate my current handset. Yay.

That would mean a new 18mth contract. Boo.

And despite having chosen the phone on Monday, I was told yesterday that I’m in the “wrong band”. Boo.

(That last one is odd, I’ve never even been in a band, unless you count noodling around on keyboards in Martin Gillespie’s garage when I was 14….)

This is not the first time I’ve ended up having to chase two different Orange departments because THEY screwed up. So, as soon as I can, I’m off to O2.

Idiots: Take 2

I put up an item on eBay and it sold for £97. Yay.

The buyer had no history, whilst ALL the other bidders did. Hmmmmm.

eBay pulled the item because of ‘rogue activity’ on the buyers account. Nuts.

Because the item was pulled, I have to go through the entire listing process again, rather than just clicking “Relist”. Boo.

I received an email from “paypal” to tell me the funds were in, and could I ship the items to an address in Nigeria. When I say paypal, the email came from officeemail.net but hey, they’d transferred £127 into my Paypal acc… ohh wait, they didn’t. Boo.

Idiots: Take 3

I filled my iPod with some music yesterday, planning to bring it into work so I can get my head down as there are a few items that have just leaped in priority and I want to get them done ASAP.

iPod remains sitting on my desk at home. Boo.

And finally…

Apparently it is now Spring. This is evidenced by the fact that is grey, cold, windy and raining.

You know what, I think chocolate will feature in my food diary today…

bookmark_borderUpcoming

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This post is entirely to save my own sanity. Feel free to skip it but if I don’t write all this down my head will explode.

Today I await the arrival of a new kitchen worktop and need to visit the doctor (well the nurse) to get my blood pressure taken again. I’ve been pretty good watching what I eat, not adding salt to anything (well a tiny amount to that tasteless bowl of chicken soup.. ick) and I’ve also managed to lose about 5lbs so it’s all good, I hope.

Tomorrow night Louise is out seeing South Pacific. Not my favourite show so quite glad I’m not going, it’ll give me a chance to sort through my bookshelves (some of them at least).

Saturday (22nd) night we are out to dinner with my sister and her boyfriend, then off to see Jimmy Carr. I’m expecting sore sides on Sunday morning.

Although I might have to work on Sunday so I hope they aren’t too sore.

Alas I might also have to work on Monday (Bank Holiday or not, but I’ll get the days back…).

At some point next week the article I wrote for Credit Control Journal (exciting stuff) will be published.

Tuesday (25th) of next week I’m through in Edinburgh in the evening at a SUPA event (ohh dahhhlling that’s supa!), which will give me some blog fodder for that other blog I have as well as being pretty damn interesting in general.

Thursday (27th) of next week, we are at the dentist at 9.30am. Well Louise is, but as we share the commute these days it means I’ll also be late into the office.

Friday (28th) of next week is Games Night at work, and I’m looking forward to chilling out a little, playing Guitar Hero, eating pizza and generally being a bit geeky.

On Monday the 31st of March the kitchen fitters arrive. I’m not saying any more on THAT topic lest I jinx things but it does mean the next few weekends will consist of flooring, papering, cleaning and of course we’ll need to buy new stuff (basin, bins, that kind of thing).

On Friday the 4th of April I’ll be at the Elbow gig at the ABC in Glasgow (anyone else going??).

On Friday the 11th of April we have a Development night out (allegedly, it’s still to be arranged).

And on Saturday the 12th April I’ll be at the Portishead gig in the Corn Exchange in Edinburgh. That’ll be odd as their new album isn’t released until the 28th…

At some point in April we will be going down to see Peggy and family so Louise and her get a chance to meet before we fly off to Hungary together at the start of May.

I’ve also got an article in the ISTC quarterly publication, Communicator, but not sure when that is appearing, and I’ve got a regular slot in their monthly newsletter starting this month. Both will be covered on t’other blog.

Phew.

Ever wondered how the time goes by so quickly? THAT’S why!!

bookmark_borderThe art of complaining

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Apparently we are rubbish at it, us Brits. We’d rather quietly seethe than give voice to any kind of negative comment or any hint that we are complaining.

I’m an occasional complainer, mainly because I just don’t see the need to bother with things I consider mundane so I tend to save up my complainments* and currently they are all being focussed on a letter of complaint.

There is a twisted joy to writing a nice meaty letter of complaint, I guess it’s akin to actors preferring to play the bad guy, it’s much more fun. That said I have never ever written a letter of praise. Maybe I should do one of those too, balance out the karma??

Anyway, as we will be without a kitchen until the first week in April, at the earliest, then I’m currently pulling together a letter pointing out that the delay was entirely the fault of the surveyor not doing his job (he didn’t check the electrics or plumbing, both of which the contract confirms he has to verify as being up to scratch) and that we expect some compensation for the inconvenience. I’m still trying to figure out the amount.

Thankfully we’ve only paid a deposit so have a few thousand pounds worth of bargaining chips.

Part of me is hacked off it’s going to take so long, part of me is relieved that the end is starting to appear over the horizon, even if it’s still a little too far away.

If this were a movie, this is the part where I lick my pencil, and starting scribbling on a yellow legal pad.

But this isn’t a movie (hopefully you’ve noticed that already) so I’ll flip to the Firefox tab that has Google Docs open, and start composing my magnum opus in the field of letters of complaint.

* I am fighting against made up words at work right now (“productizing” anyone??) and it’s kinda turned into … well making up words all over the place.