Month: November 2004

Reading time: 2 mins

I’ve had enough. So has Louise.

We generally reach this point at the same time, which is quite handy, although if I’m honest I possibly reach it before she does, I just ignore it for longer (or maybe she does that too).

Tonight the house is GETTING IT BIG TIME.

I should probably explain what I mean, right? Well we live in a three-bedroomed semi-detached house. The smallest bedroom is the ‘office’ as it has the computer in it. The largest bedroom is ours, and the spare bedroom … well that belongs to Louise I guess. We have a single bed and a couple of wardrobes in there, and it’s mainly used as a large walk in closet by Louise. It’s also where the clean clothes go before they get put away. Well, when I say “before they get put away” I really mean, “where they stay until they get worn”. It’s a bad habit we’ve both gotten into, and currently you can’t see the bed for the clean clothes strewn over it.

It came to a head this morning when it took me 10 MINUTES to find something to wear. 10 MINUTES of cursing, swearing and much pulling and messing of the piles of clothes. Including several brief pauses where I thought I’d found what I was looking for only to realise, having pulled the item from the pile, that it was in fact NOT my dark blue shirt but a bra.

That, coupled with the growing daily accumulation of bits and bobs and this and that, has turned our house into somewhat of a midden. So tonight we have vowed to tackle the house head on and tidy it within an inch of its very being. It may even get hoovered and dusted as well.

And then on Saturday the Christmas tree goes up and we’ll mess it up all over again.

Reading time: 2 mins

Late-night shopping last night, so Louise came into Glasgow to meet me after work (she was held up because the police had closed London Road, but NOT because of anything traffic related. So why? Heard nothing else about this but we did spot three police officers stopping random cars near George Square, most odd. I digress).

The Pier had a 20% of night, with wine and nibbles laid on, and as usual we saw three or four things we’d like, mainly Christmas decorations, and as usual we balked at paying £13 for a glittery candle. There is some wonderful stuff in that store but it appears to be hand-made and unique such are the prices. None of the things we saw were anything we needed so it was quite nice NOT to buy anything.

We did manage to get a present for my Mum, which makes it four presents down and.. oodles to go. I also managed to remember to take my camera out with me and got a few shots whilst I wandered around, killing time whilst I waited for Louise. I’ll post them up … later!

We only managed a few shops, but a stroll round George Square, with a bag of chips for dinner, was quite pleasant. It’s the one thing I love about living near and working in a big city. People watching. From the young lovers playfully teasing each other, to the elderly couple strolling silently but contentedly around the square, the young women sitting by herself just watching the Christmas lights and the group of women gossiping loudly, I could stroll around Glasgow all day and night.

As of yet I’ve still not managed to crack the ‘taking photos of people’ thing though. I think that is something easier done if you look like a photographer, have a big SLR camera to hide behind, and a large camera bag over your shoulder (the fact that the big is holding your lunch and a couple of books is neither here nor there). My little compact Canon Powershot doesn’t really make the right impression, I don’t think.

Or maybe it’s a confidence thing which will improve over time.

Anyway, it’s payday, cake day and I’ll be handing in my passport renewal application at lunchtime. Seemingly it should only take two weeks to receive my new passport. We fly to Spain in just over five. Should be plenty of time. Right?

Reading time: 2 mins

This post may not interest you in the slightest, the main point is that you shouldn’t notice a thing but it may be quiet here for a few days in the near future.

I think, after four and a half years, through Blogger Pro, the Google buyout, the redesign and all the early day issues, it’s time I finally said goodbye to Blogger. It’s been fun, and I’m forever in the debt of the guys at Pyra for helping me get started – I can still remember finding Blogger, completely independently, when I was looking for an easier way to update my website than having to hand code a page, then hand code additional links and finally FTP all the updated files to my site – who knew it would go on for so long. It’s grown from a quirky little service to a fairly substantial one, but unfortunately it’s popularity is it’s downfall. The inability to post when I want has become increasingly frustrating, and all the while the feature set is being tailored more towards the ‘new’ market (I can’t blame them for that, it IS the space that Blogger is trying to dominate).

However I think I can safely say that I’m more a power-user and my recent spate of Firefox posts has made me realise, finally, that categories could be very useful.

Of course having made the decision, I need to find the time to actually make the switch. Ideally I’d do it this weekend but I’m a tad busy (shopping on Saturday, night out Saturday night, staying at parents, Gran’s birthday celebrations… ) so I’m guessing it’ll be done at some point next week. I’ll keep you posted of course.

Not sure how it will all work just yet, but hopefully the only difference you’ll notice is a change to the comments system.

Anyway, just a heads up, if I’m not posting my usual inane nonsense at any point in the next week or so you’ll know why.

Reading time: < 1 min

Blogger is playing up. Again. Such is the price for using an American based service it seems, every morning is the same. Come 4pm GMT the site zips along like nobodies business, leading me to one of two conclusions.

1. Our American friends are finally ‘getting’ with the whole Kyoto thing and switching off lights at night. Unfortunately someone is mistaking the light switch for the switch that controls the Blogger servers.

2. Google are running backup procedures, and such like, overnight (overnight their time that is) and that’s causing problems.

There may be another solution but that’s all I can muster at this time in the morning. WordPress is looking better and better (even if I’d only have two categories of post: Misc and Firefox) but I’m not sure I’ve got the energy to switch across. Any of you guys done this? Think I’ll go pester Hanni for a ‘Dummies guide to switching from Blogger to WordPress’.

Mind you, right now it’s all I can do to keep my eyes open, I really must learn to go to bed before 1am on a school night. Caffeine, my friend, where fore art thou?

Reading time: < 1 min

Note to self: Sure, the early train is always good to catch but haring along the platform like some deranged mutant doesn’t make a great impression. Neither does sitting for the entire journey trying to recover whilst looking like you’ve spent 30 minutes too long under a sunbed. Great start to the day, you numpty.

Now, does anyone have a spare lung? I appear to have coughed one up and can’t find it.

So yes, getting into work early on a Monday morning is a tad masochistic, but it does mean that I can take Monday at my pace for a change. This was helped by Louise getting a lift to work, meaning I had the car and could run myself to the station (yes I should have walked but come on, it IS Monday morning). Of course I hadn’t actually planned to get the early train, but just as I was stepping out of the car it started to pull into the station. Next thing I know I’m glaring down at my feet as they insist on making me run, all the while I’m trying to ensure that my stomach doesn’t suddenly decide that it actually doesn’t like this combination of a bowl of Shreddies followed by a 20 yard dash.

An added bonus is the overnight development of a phlegm factory in the back of my throat. Hmmm, too much information?

Coming later, another re-work of THAT Firefox post you are all bored to tears with and some musings on getting your haircut.

Ohh and whilst I remember, yesterday’s screening of Bridget Jones allowed me to witness a rare occurance in modern cinema. Yes, that’s right. EVERYONE stuck to the “One couple, one row” rule! You know the one. Right?