salvation

Loan documents turned up last night, finally.

I was beginning to get more than a little worried as the end of the month approached. If it isn't all set up by then, things could get a little hairy for me.

My other irons in the fire seem to be bearing some fruit as well, though again, they seem to have taken an awfully long time to get there. I dunno, maybe it's just because of the pressure situation that it's seemed that way.

Luckily this month I'm sorta okay because pay day happens to be a bit earlier (for reasons there's no point detailing) but it does mean I get a little bit of wiggle room in terms of timing. If it was next month, I'd be in deep shit.

I'm hoping to have a fairly relaxing weekend this weekend. My only real goal is to get some site updates under way again. It's been too long since I actively updated my sites.

The problem is there's never enough time to do all the hobbies I have. For example, just recently I've been reading a lot, which means other things have to drop out to make room for it. But that means they start building up.

It's like I've done virtually no walling for what must be the best part of 6 months. But then where would I have found the time?

Part of me wants to scale back--give greater focus to fewer things. The problem is it's the variety that's a big part of what makes the individual things fun. If I spent all my time on one or two things, I'd become bored very quickly and then end up doing other stuff anyway.

odd names

This news article on the BBC has tickled me.

What a very peculiar thing to do - naming your child Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii. I mean, it doesn't even make sense as an expression :/.

On the one hand I'm of the "poor kid" frame of mind, but on the other I'm thinking "lol".

Pretty slow just recently--still knackered after Tuesday so I've not really done much except watch a bit of telly.

Gadget show had there summer special on Monday. Suzi Perry in a bikini--life isn't all bad :D.

yesterday's meeting

So the meetings actually went pretty damn well yesterday.

The day itself was a horrifyingly long nightmare of trains, tubes, trams, hot & sticky journeys, long walks in shoes and all that rubbish, but the meeting itself was fine.

I had to get up at 5:45 to get a 7:00 train from Farnham. The journey from Farnham to London Waterloo always takes bloody ages, even though, to give some idea of the actual distance you could drive it in 20 minutes by Car (traffic not withstanding).

Then went on the tube to St Pancreas, which was fairly smooth. It was a little busy, but just that bit too early for the commuting hordes to appear, I think.

St. Pancreas you have to walk miles in to get to the actual platforms and there was a huge, 40 minute wait for the train. It was the quick train (only one stop) so it took about 1.5 hours (compare that to the hour it takes to get from Farnham to Waterloo :/).

Then there's a tram in Nottingham, but we got a bit lost when we got off so we walked around a bit much.

The meetings lasted about 4 hours, I think, then I headed off on the tram, this time walking straight there in less than 5 minutes.

Got to the station and the info there is crap - it's really hard to work out which platform is which and you've no idea until you actually get down onto a platform, so inevitably you pick the wrong one and have to go back up and come down on another platform.

The train took ages before it set off--a good 45 minute wait. And it was a stopping service, so it took two hours. Unfortunately, I also had someone sat opposite me so I couldn't stretch out my legs properly.

We got into St Pancreas at a couple minutes past six, which is tail end of rush hour, so the tube was pretty busy. Grabbed a bite to eat and the next train for Farnham was at about seven, so I was back home for about 8:30 with the car journey back home.

So in summary I set off from Farnham at 7am and got back to Farnham at 8pm. Four hour meeting means I spent 9 hours "in transit".

You may have gotten the impression I'm not hugely enamoured of public transport. You'd be right.

Oh, and it cost £120 each for us to have the pleasure of this 9 hour trek. (And that's excluding the £4.50 for car park at Farnham station and the £2.60 for the tram).

Also to go to Nottingham by car is about 180 miles. So call it 400 miles round trip. That's approximately a tank of petrol for me. At today's prices that works out to about £40. Even if you call it £50 or double it to two tanks at £80, that would still make it £160 cheaper than using public transport.

Naughty me

I think I just got a telling off.

It was kinda disguised as 'advice' but I'm pretty sure it was really a telling off.

Ironically, I wouldn't even be in this situation if they hadn't sacked the person who really should be attending this meeting tomorrow. But that's not an excuse - my communication skills are appalling, I've always known that, but still, it does smart a bit.

Y'see somehow, I've ended up with more responsibility. Really on this contract I just do the grunt work. It's the person they got rid of, the former project manager, that understands it, that manages it and decides what's what. I just crank the handle each month.

But the new person in charge of me knows next to nothing about stats. So I end with the job of coverign that angle... but unfortunately I don't know a lot about stats either. Not in terms of detail, and the meeting tomorrow sounds like it's going to focus on detail.

Well, that's really cheered me up :(. I was doing quite well recently, but this has really put a kibosh on my mood.

I just want to curl up in a ball and let the world do its thing without me.

long day

I've got to go up to Nottingham for work tomorrow. It's for a meeting (well, two meetings) but it's one hell of a way to go.

What makes it worse is I've really no interest in attending either of the meetings. The first is to do with security (*yawn*) and the second is to meet a new supplier that our customer has hired.

This second meeting could go either way--either they're going to be good, or they're going to be a pain in the arse. I'm kinda bracing myself for the second.

The most annoying thing is that I think I'm going to be relied upon as some sort of "guru" of statistics. I'm really not--they fired the person on this contract who is. If this situation comes up I'm just going to put on a blank face and say "I don't know" a lot. It's hardly my fault they got rid of the other guy :/.

This last weekend I polished off the last few outstanding magazine scans. My mission now is not to let it all slip again. I need to keep up the momentum and scan all these artbooks I've got piled up.

In terms of new anime shows I've most recently watched:

• Zettai Karen Children: It's distinctly average. I mean, it's not actively bad in any sense, it's just so very "seen it all before". There is also a slightly uncomfortable feel to it - a bit like Kodomo no Jikan last year, but not so extreme. One of the ten year old girls behaves like a "dirty old man" and it just doesn't quite sit right for some reason - maybe if she was 13 or 14, but 10 just seems a bit young.
  
• Itazura Na Kiss: Now this was a surprise. I had no real expectations going in, but it really charmed me. Admittedly it's not hugely original, though it is a bit convoluted to explain in a short blurb like this. It's a fairly gentle romantic comedy at heart, but with a female protagonist and more aimed at girls than boys, but still it's really well done.
  
• Allison to Lillia: Only watched one episode of this so far, but I'm really liking what I've seen. Possibly another highlight of the season.
  

I'm still waiting on the documents to sign for the loan. I hope they get here pretty soon, as it would be very annoying to exceed my overdraft limit simply because the documents took so long to get to me :/.