bookmark_borderKeeping busy

Without wanting to harp on about it, but hey, it’s my blog so I’m gonna… as covered the other day, and as the Belbin tests confirmed, I’m the guy who likes starting new things but soon gets bored.

I wish I could argue against this but it’s true. I do. I love the planning and design stages, but the rest of the work is drudgery to me. However, as my mother always said “sometimes you have to do things you don’t like”. Admittedly this was usually uttered shortly before I stomped upstairs and slammed my bedroom door in response, and it was more than likely after I questioned WHY I had to .. wash the kitchen windows, tidy my room, etc etc.

But, as mothers are wont to be, she was right. Oh god, have I just admitted that in public??

And so I turn to my latest ‘project’, something which has been in the back of my head for a couple of years but that has long since been filed in the “one day” pile. Just to clarify, that’s not “can be done in one day” but “one day I’ll get around to it” (also known as the “roontuit” pile).

We’ve had a scanner for a couple of years, but by and large it hasn’t really been used, and just sat there gathering dust. Since getting the new PC I’ve been pondering whether to bother hooking it up at all or whether is should be relegated to the cupboard.

I was in mid-ponder the other night when Louise interrupted me to ask if the scanner was hooked up yet..

Putting aside the fact that you should never EVER bother a pondering McLean (we have a tendency to fart quite viciously when startled), I confirmed that no it wasn’t and asked why she was wanting it done. Apparently she wasn’t to “scan something, duh”, which was the obvious answer to a rather obvious question

So I spent an hour or so downloading updated drivers, figuring out where to plug it in, and getting the scanner up and running. Ohh and on that topic, a big thanks to HP, it was really kind of you to wrap the drivers for the scanner within a 245MB software pack. Muppets.

Anyway, now that it’s hooked up and working my thoughts drift to the not inconsiderable amount of “old-fashioned” printed photos that are lying in a box in our loft. I’ve got plenty of room on this PC and we ARE in a digital age after all, so surely the obvious thing is to start scanning them all in. To be super-extra productive, whilst I’m doing that I can continue the ongoing “rip all the CDs and get them boxed and into the loft” project, all whilst hacking away at the “getting Movable Type to work with XAMPP” project.

Of course, by now, you’ll have realised that I’ll get partway through box one of the photos and my attention will be diverted. I really must stop doing that and develop some willpower… more on that.. tomorrow.

bookmark_borderOINK

Popped into our local Lidl the other night – I always find the food tastier, it seems to be made for the ‘continental palate’? – to pick up some basics, tuna, juice, cold meat, milk, mayonnaise and so on. The shop was pretty quiet so we were the only people at the till as we paid.

Just as we turned to walk away the girl at the checkout said that there were some items behind us that were going to go out, so why not help ourselves. Now, I guess that one reason that Lidl food tastes better is because it has a shorter shelf life (less preservatives?), so we turned to see a couple of boxes of food items. Most of one box was chilled items, coleslaw, fresh sandwich spreads, and some fruit. The other box contained nothing but bacon.

We wandered over, inspected a few items when Louise noticed that the date on the bacon was the 24th February, 2006. We glanced at each other and I jokingly suggested that we just take it all.

Next thing I know she’s grabbed the box and I’m legging it out of the store after her!

So, we now have 24 packs of bacon in our freezer, um, make that 23 as we had a celebratory dinner with one pack. It’s medallions so not as much fat (good for the heart, bad for the flavour) but hey, it was free! We presume that someone made a mistake, and it’s only now that I’m wondering if we’ve nabbed something that someone else paid for… oh well, their fault for leaving it next to the ‘help yourself’ items.

What we need now is some good inventive recipes for bacon, other than slapping some between some bread, smothered in HP or ketchup of course, or adding some to a stirfry I’m a bit lost. The Danish bacon company has a few yummy suggestions – bacon with apple and pickle, and potato carbonara catch the eye – but we could do with some more.

So it’s over to you, we can manage the basic “scrambled egg and bacon” type dishes but I’d love to try something fairly inventive. We have pretty good stock cupboard and I don’t mind buying in special ingredients if a recipe warrants it, so the more original the better. Any other ‘bacon inspired’ tips are welcome.

bookmark_borderStart Over

Right, where were we?

Ohh yes, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is still reverberating and is proving surprisingly long in the tooth. Bombarded by images both from the media and from “real people” via internet, we watch and absorb and wonder if we are the only ones who can see the political spinmeisters hard at work in the background. Conspiracy theories lap at our ankles like floodwater, and we are starting to get annoyed that our shoes are getting wet…. hmmm a metaphor too far.

Let’s change tack.

If you had the opportunity to change careers/jobs, and could do anything you wanted, what would you do?

Chatting with my brother-in-law at the weekend, discussing is imminent redundancy package from HP, he mentioned that as he’ll be receiving a lump sum equivalent to almost a year’s salary (tax free) that he was considering doing something completely different. It would certainly be an ideal opportunity, and as he is soon to sell his house and move into his girlfriend’s flat it would seem like the perfect time. But what to do? He mentioned going into the ‘trades’, and I have to admit that doing something other than sitting at a desk for most of the day does have some appeal.

Me?

I think I’d like to do something that involved the outdoors a little more. I’ve mentioned before that I’d like to work with animals, but the more I think about it I think I’d like to try being a wildlife ranger or somesuch. Alas the bank manager may protest (as well as a few other people to whom we owe money) so I’ll have to make do with maintaining our garden and dealing with the cat from across the road.

So, if you had that chance, what would YOU do?

bookmark_borderLowry

For the record, and regardless of what you may have heard or read anywhere else, the music used in the current HP advert is a Status Quo track by the name of “Pictures of Matchstick Men”. It was released on the 5th January 1968 and was the first single to be issued by “Status Quo” (in fact as “The Status Quo”). The b-side “Gentleman Joe’s Sidewalk Café” was intended to be the a-side but the more psychedelic sounding “Matchstick Men” finally became the a-side choice. The song is written by Francis Rossi and was later included on the album “Picturesque Matchstickable Messages From The Status Quo”. It got to no.7 in the hit parade.

As you were, pop pickers.

bookmark_borderI'll have a P please Bob…

My brother-in-law works for Compaq/HP, they have a scheme where, at the start of their year, they can ‘purchase’ additional holidays. Nice touch that.

It got me wondering if there is any chance I could buy some extra hours in the day from anyone? Surely some of you layabouts have a few spare… I mean if everyone gave me, say, 30 mins of their time I might actually get through the weekend.

Yes I know my usual – ohh crap I’ve got a busy weekend – post normally happens on a Friday but I am THAT busy at the moment.

Here are the weekend ingredients:
Work is busy, that’s a constant. I’m also doing some extra work for a friend which needs to be done by Tuesday at the very latest!. Add in a belated birthday night out on Friday night, finishing laying the bathroom flooring (my back’s fine now, thanks), and a Stereophonics gig on Sunday night, squeezing in some (erk) Xmas shopping, shake and pour over crushed ice.

All I need now is a straw so I can enjoy my ‘howthefuckamIgonnadoallthis’ cocktail… Mmmm mmmmmmmm stressfulicious!

In short, keep an eye on the miniblog, probably all I’ll have time for…

Free iPAQ?
OK, admittedly against the backdrop of the “war that no-one wants” this is kinda trivial… but…

Amazon accepted my order of £23 for a top of the range HP iPAQ H5450 Pocket PC (valued at around £500), but now it looks like they won’t pay and, legally they probably don’t have to. So I’m off in the huff… pah!

Ohh and to all the ‘City’ workers who were ordering 50 or 60 at a time, the only thing I have to say is: You greedy bastards.
And to Amazon: Come on, what’s a £1m or so in lost profits between friends… (figured based on 2000 sales at £450 loss each…)