So I weighed in on Monday, and it was not good news.
I'd gained five pounds... taking me up to 20 stone 13 pounds.
It was not a good weekend, generally. I wasn't too bad with my old problem of buying too much food, but I certainly wasn't lacking stuff to eat. Well, I say that - I'd actually had a couple of curries during the week (with the training course I felt the need). However, there were two big problems.
The first was a lack of exercise - on the Friday I was short on walking and on Sunday and Monday I basically did nothing. There was sort of a reason for this in that I've been having some trouble with my right heel, but really this was a combination of laziness (I played a lot of Civ 5) and a hangover.
And that was the second issue - I went out for a "few drinks" on the Saturday and actually got wasted. In total I had 8 cans of lager, a half of a small bottle of vodka with 2 cans of Dr Peppers as mixers and two thirds of a bottle of red wine.
I also ate a load of junk - both on the Saturday and then on the Sunday. Indeed, I even cleaned out the limited supply of junk type stuff I keep at home when I got back, so it really was pretty bad.
I'm therefore not surprised I gained weight, though I have to say the scale was surprising. I'm slightly suspicious that some of it may be temporary effects, but still, it's a significant gain and completely wipes out the little I had lost since resolving to lose weight for Canada.
I really need to get serious here - I'm getting close to when I need to buy new clothes for the trip and I therefore need to know what sizes I should buy.
Showing posts with label weekend. Show all posts
Showing posts with label weekend. Show all posts
Tuesday, 22 April 2014
Friday, 28 February 2014
working weekend
Looks like I'm going to be in working this weekend.
I really didn't need this, but people have let me down left, right and centre. If they'd done their fucking jobs properly and on time it wouldn't have been necessary.
But of course they haven't so I need to work the weekend to do what needs to be done in time. Funny how it's always me that has to do this shit. Give other people two fucking weeks to get their jobs done and they fail to make the deadline, and what they do produce is horribly written drivel. But of course it's no problem - obviously I can sacrifice my weekend to rewrite the entire fucking document.
The bizarre thing is that this is the exact same thing as where I had the situation that led to "the problems". People doing their jobs which they've had weeks to do last minute, so then I have to sort out the mess afterwards.
This time, though, I'm not in the situation where it's last minute so I have to make a panicked decision. No, I get to do that next weekend, I'm sure.
I really didn't need this, but people have let me down left, right and centre. If they'd done their fucking jobs properly and on time it wouldn't have been necessary.
But of course they haven't so I need to work the weekend to do what needs to be done in time. Funny how it's always me that has to do this shit. Give other people two fucking weeks to get their jobs done and they fail to make the deadline, and what they do produce is horribly written drivel. But of course it's no problem - obviously I can sacrifice my weekend to rewrite the entire fucking document.
The bizarre thing is that this is the exact same thing as where I had the situation that led to "the problems". People doing their jobs which they've had weeks to do last minute, so then I have to sort out the mess afterwards.
This time, though, I'm not in the situation where it's last minute so I have to make a panicked decision. No, I get to do that next weekend, I'm sure.
Monday, 13 January 2014
time dilation
Why do weekends go so quickly when weekdays go so slowly?
It's more than a bit of a cliché to make such an observation, but as I sit here typing this I can't honestly say that the past two days really felt like two days. It felt more like about 6 hours.
Which isn't to say I did anything particularly different or interesting, it's just that time seemed to basically evaporate.
Not that it was all rosy. For some reason all Saturday I had a bit of a "pulled muscle" feeling in my stomach area - like if you've been doing some lifting and tweaked a muscle, but not so bad as to put you out of action.
However, I think I must have compensated weirdly, as Sunday I had muscle pains in my back instead. These didn't really ease today; however, I think that might be more due to the fact I had a terrible night last night so my body's not really had a proper time to recover.
For some reason I just couldn't get comfortable in bed (I don't know if this was related to the back - it didn't feel so bad when I was lying down), but also I just didn't seem to be able to switch my brain off properly.
So I kept napping and then waking up again. Today I don't feel like I had proper insomnia, but I am tired. I think to some extent it might be an after effect of the fact I slept really well and for a really long time on both Friday and Saturday nights.
I'm wondering if perhaps I "overslept" then and so didn't really need as much sleep on Sunday. However, the reason I'd slept so much was that I'd had proper insomnia on Thursday night and only got about two hours sleep. This was an insomnia that was actually prompted by the temperature.
for some reason this year I really seem to be struggling with sleeping when it's cold. I mean, obviously there always been the odd occasions when it's been really cold and it's woken me up, but this year it seems to be happening a lot. In particular this year it feels like there are cold breezes blowing across my face, though I can't identify where the heck these might be coming from.
Part of the problem is also that the bedsit is like a leaky sieve when it comes to heat, so even if you get it really hot before bed it cools right down after just a couple of hours. And of course I can't sleep if it's too warm, so I have to turn the heating off. I thought I'd cracked it on Saturday when I used my oil-filled radiator and put it next to the bed. This is much more adjustable, but it has a bright light when it's on. As mentioned, on Saturday I slept really well, even though it was really cold outside (thick frost on the cars), but as I also mentioned, this might have been more to do with being tired.
It's more than a bit of a cliché to make such an observation, but as I sit here typing this I can't honestly say that the past two days really felt like two days. It felt more like about 6 hours.
Which isn't to say I did anything particularly different or interesting, it's just that time seemed to basically evaporate.
Not that it was all rosy. For some reason all Saturday I had a bit of a "pulled muscle" feeling in my stomach area - like if you've been doing some lifting and tweaked a muscle, but not so bad as to put you out of action.
However, I think I must have compensated weirdly, as Sunday I had muscle pains in my back instead. These didn't really ease today; however, I think that might be more due to the fact I had a terrible night last night so my body's not really had a proper time to recover.
For some reason I just couldn't get comfortable in bed (I don't know if this was related to the back - it didn't feel so bad when I was lying down), but also I just didn't seem to be able to switch my brain off properly.
So I kept napping and then waking up again. Today I don't feel like I had proper insomnia, but I am tired. I think to some extent it might be an after effect of the fact I slept really well and for a really long time on both Friday and Saturday nights.
I'm wondering if perhaps I "overslept" then and so didn't really need as much sleep on Sunday. However, the reason I'd slept so much was that I'd had proper insomnia on Thursday night and only got about two hours sleep. This was an insomnia that was actually prompted by the temperature.
for some reason this year I really seem to be struggling with sleeping when it's cold. I mean, obviously there always been the odd occasions when it's been really cold and it's woken me up, but this year it seems to be happening a lot. In particular this year it feels like there are cold breezes blowing across my face, though I can't identify where the heck these might be coming from.
Part of the problem is also that the bedsit is like a leaky sieve when it comes to heat, so even if you get it really hot before bed it cools right down after just a couple of hours. And of course I can't sleep if it's too warm, so I have to turn the heating off. I thought I'd cracked it on Saturday when I used my oil-filled radiator and put it next to the bed. This is much more adjustable, but it has a bright light when it's on. As mentioned, on Saturday I slept really well, even though it was really cold outside (thick frost on the cars), but as I also mentioned, this might have been more to do with being tired.
Friday, 10 January 2014
lull
So, first week of the year is over.
It's really been a week of "plus sa change?", which is to say, I went back to exactly the same shitty issues that have been getting me down over the past couple of years.
It's weird - staying was clearly a mistake, but then going to the company who made me the job offer I had would have been a mistake (I can't really say in the blog, but take my word for it). The real answer would have been to take the pay rise and just keep looking, but instead I thought stuff would change.
I was wrong, and, indeed, stuff got worse. It felt quite a lot like getting shat upon, so not I just want to go. Problem is I'm a bit trapped.
Anyway, weekend ahoy and next week I will definitely explain all about the big event next year and how it's left me not sure what to do about stuff like moving and finding a new job.
It's really been a week of "plus sa change?", which is to say, I went back to exactly the same shitty issues that have been getting me down over the past couple of years.
It's weird - staying was clearly a mistake, but then going to the company who made me the job offer I had would have been a mistake (I can't really say in the blog, but take my word for it). The real answer would have been to take the pay rise and just keep looking, but instead I thought stuff would change.
I was wrong, and, indeed, stuff got worse. It felt quite a lot like getting shat upon, so not I just want to go. Problem is I'm a bit trapped.
Anyway, weekend ahoy and next week I will definitely explain all about the big event next year and how it's left me not sure what to do about stuff like moving and finding a new job.
Friday, 26 July 2013
hungarian grand prix
Hungarian grand prix this weekend. It's not usually that interesting as a race, and the BBC is only showing highlights. After this there's a 3 week gap, during which F1 has its "two week holiday".
I have to confess I've not found this season all that memorable. There's been a few interesting races, but it doesn't seem as close as last year. Weirdly, even though the rules were pretty stable again, it seems to have had something of a crystallising effect on some of the teams. Perhaps they've shifted significant focus to next year's car?
It doesn't help that McLaren are not in contention and some of the mid-level teams have relatively poor cars.
I've no particular plans this weekend. I had thought that I might play some games other than SimCity. I mentioned doing this a while back, but didn't actually do it.
Alternatively I might try to get ahead with watching some of the anime I keep selling, rather than having to watch it once it's already sold.
My landlord is going away on holiday in September this year I believe so I'm expecting to have a go at the contents of the shed. There's quite a bit of stuff out there that I think I'm going to have to sell, given my financial situation.
I have to confess I've not found this season all that memorable. There's been a few interesting races, but it doesn't seem as close as last year. Weirdly, even though the rules were pretty stable again, it seems to have had something of a crystallising effect on some of the teams. Perhaps they've shifted significant focus to next year's car?
It doesn't help that McLaren are not in contention and some of the mid-level teams have relatively poor cars.
I've no particular plans this weekend. I had thought that I might play some games other than SimCity. I mentioned doing this a while back, but didn't actually do it.
Alternatively I might try to get ahead with watching some of the anime I keep selling, rather than having to watch it once it's already sold.
My landlord is going away on holiday in September this year I believe so I'm expecting to have a go at the contents of the shed. There's quite a bit of stuff out there that I think I'm going to have to sell, given my financial situation.
Tuesday, 20 November 2012
lazy days
I had a pretty lazy weekend last weekend.
I've discussed before that I put together a to do list for the weekend so that I don't forget anything. Well occasionally (not for a while) I go off-piste and this was one of those weekends.
I didn't do any washing, even though I had thought to myself that I would in order to get ahead (I have the Friday at the end of the month off and am trying to avoid the temptation to just leave everything until then).
I didn't hoover - being a bedsit and with the areas I live in having lots of trees I need to hoover every week.
I didn't catch up with my e-mails & the blogs that I follow: heck, I hardly even opened a browser window all weekend.
I didn't put on any e-bay auctions. To be fair while I've a bit of a pile of stuff I want to get rid of I don't need the cash (the pay rise seems to be bringing a bit of relief on that front).
I didn't compile my new anime to torrent (I still do these, even though I've not watched an anime in months!)
I didn't even do that much in the way of catching up with TV. And obviously the GP wasn't really shown - certainly not at sensible times.
I did watch my rental Blu-Ray, so that's something I guess.
But what I basically did was play a computer game.
Now I had suspected that I might do this, as the new Call of Duty Game is out (Black Ops 2); however, I was possessed by more of a creative bug earlier in the week. This was brought on by the relative imminence of the SimCity and me reading some of the blog posts - I had a bug to create something.
As such I loaded up Anno1404 (I have the new game - 2070, but have not yet played it and I wanted to just crack on and build a world, rather than work out how to play the game). I must have totalled about 12 hours across the weekend.
I therefore feel a bit guilty that I basically "wasted" a big chunk of the weekend, but also happy I did something fun and a bit pointless with my weekend.
One thing I will say, though, is that it definitely beats working at the weekend.
I've discussed before that I put together a to do list for the weekend so that I don't forget anything. Well occasionally (not for a while) I go off-piste and this was one of those weekends.
I didn't do any washing, even though I had thought to myself that I would in order to get ahead (I have the Friday at the end of the month off and am trying to avoid the temptation to just leave everything until then).
I didn't hoover - being a bedsit and with the areas I live in having lots of trees I need to hoover every week.
I didn't catch up with my e-mails & the blogs that I follow: heck, I hardly even opened a browser window all weekend.
I didn't put on any e-bay auctions. To be fair while I've a bit of a pile of stuff I want to get rid of I don't need the cash (the pay rise seems to be bringing a bit of relief on that front).
I didn't compile my new anime to torrent (I still do these, even though I've not watched an anime in months!)
I didn't even do that much in the way of catching up with TV. And obviously the GP wasn't really shown - certainly not at sensible times.
I did watch my rental Blu-Ray, so that's something I guess.
But what I basically did was play a computer game.
Now I had suspected that I might do this, as the new Call of Duty Game is out (Black Ops 2); however, I was possessed by more of a creative bug earlier in the week. This was brought on by the relative imminence of the SimCity and me reading some of the blog posts - I had a bug to create something.
As such I loaded up Anno1404 (I have the new game - 2070, but have not yet played it and I wanted to just crack on and build a world, rather than work out how to play the game). I must have totalled about 12 hours across the weekend.
I therefore feel a bit guilty that I basically "wasted" a big chunk of the weekend, but also happy I did something fun and a bit pointless with my weekend.
One thing I will say, though, is that it definitely beats working at the weekend.
Friday, 9 November 2012
tired
No grand prix this weekend, so current plan is to watch some of this telly I've stacked up.
Of course, the last time that was the plan I ended up spending almost all of my Sunday at work…
And unfortunately it does currently look like I may have to work at the weekend. The issue really is that I’ve got a stack of stuff building up – none of it is important, as such, but it all needs my attention. It’s just that because it’s not important I’ve been back-burnering it, and now it’s getting to a stage where it’s actually getting in the way – causing me confusion, clogging up the system, etc.
There may be a bit of an issue, though, as I understand some other people are wanting to work this weekend and I don’t really want to get in their way.
Of course, the last time that was the plan I ended up spending almost all of my Sunday at work…
And unfortunately it does currently look like I may have to work at the weekend. The issue really is that I’ve got a stack of stuff building up – none of it is important, as such, but it all needs my attention. It’s just that because it’s not important I’ve been back-burnering it, and now it’s getting to a stage where it’s actually getting in the way – causing me confusion, clogging up the system, etc.
There may be a bit of an issue, though, as I understand some other people are wanting to work this weekend and I don’t really want to get in their way.
Tuesday, 6 November 2012
brrr and boom
So this last weekend it was bonfire night.
This year I didn't actually go to a display. There were a couple of reasons for that.
Firstly I made a right mess of my timings, so I was running very late and so would have struggled to get to one in time.
The second reason is kinda related in that I'd had some sleep issues, waking up after only about 5 hours sleep on Saturday morning and so feeling really tired by Saturday evening.
The last was that it was stunningly cold. I mean I've experienced colder weather, but it's not normally quite so sharp early in November. I had thought the last couple of weeks in October had been a bit chilly, but this weekend the temperature really nose-dived.
As such, staying in actually seemed appealing.
It was a bit of a weird experience, though, because I could still hear the displays. Where I live I'm basically in between Aldershot and Farnham, both of which hold quite big displays in parks that aren't too far away from me.
Now I don't know the exact start times, but I'm pretty sure both must have overlapped at the least, because you could have been mistaken for thinking world war three was happening - the cacophony of bangs between the two was quite extraordinary.
Speaking of the weather I believe it's going to get even colder next week, with temperatures down into the freezing zone. I hope it's not a sign of another cold winter - I could really do with a mild one for a change, not least of all because it costs me a fortune.
My heating (well, the heating I have control of) is electric. Now electric heating is not the most efficient anyway, but my flat is actually quite chilly & drafty anyway. It also doesn't help that in the last few years the electric company have really ramped up the prices. Why they privatised power I'll never know.
Anyway, there's also some heating I don't really have control of - there's basically a spur off my landlord heating and I have a radiator in my bedsit area. This is really good when it's on - I can leave the door open and basically heat the whole flat - but when it's on is not in my control.
This leads to some weird situations where they turn the heating on but I don't need it (I can turn the radiator off) and I end up wondering why they've turned it on. In particular, late at night, after the evening where they've not turned it on, suddenly the radiator will be blazingly hot. And the opposite is true as well - I'm sat there chilly, having to turn my own radiator on, but there heating is apparently completely off.
It's a particular problem this time of year when it wobbles between just being a bit chilly and properly cold - it's a bit better in winter proper as they obviously need to have it on themselves.
The other annoying side to it is that I actually pay some money in my rent specifically to cover the heating, so when I'm shivering I can get a bit annoyed as it feels Iike I'm not getting what I'm paying for.
This year I didn't actually go to a display. There were a couple of reasons for that.
Firstly I made a right mess of my timings, so I was running very late and so would have struggled to get to one in time.
The second reason is kinda related in that I'd had some sleep issues, waking up after only about 5 hours sleep on Saturday morning and so feeling really tired by Saturday evening.
The last was that it was stunningly cold. I mean I've experienced colder weather, but it's not normally quite so sharp early in November. I had thought the last couple of weeks in October had been a bit chilly, but this weekend the temperature really nose-dived.
As such, staying in actually seemed appealing.
It was a bit of a weird experience, though, because I could still hear the displays. Where I live I'm basically in between Aldershot and Farnham, both of which hold quite big displays in parks that aren't too far away from me.
Now I don't know the exact start times, but I'm pretty sure both must have overlapped at the least, because you could have been mistaken for thinking world war three was happening - the cacophony of bangs between the two was quite extraordinary.
Speaking of the weather I believe it's going to get even colder next week, with temperatures down into the freezing zone. I hope it's not a sign of another cold winter - I could really do with a mild one for a change, not least of all because it costs me a fortune.
My heating (well, the heating I have control of) is electric. Now electric heating is not the most efficient anyway, but my flat is actually quite chilly & drafty anyway. It also doesn't help that in the last few years the electric company have really ramped up the prices. Why they privatised power I'll never know.
Anyway, there's also some heating I don't really have control of - there's basically a spur off my landlord heating and I have a radiator in my bedsit area. This is really good when it's on - I can leave the door open and basically heat the whole flat - but when it's on is not in my control.
This leads to some weird situations where they turn the heating on but I don't need it (I can turn the radiator off) and I end up wondering why they've turned it on. In particular, late at night, after the evening where they've not turned it on, suddenly the radiator will be blazingly hot. And the opposite is true as well - I'm sat there chilly, having to turn my own radiator on, but there heating is apparently completely off.
It's a particular problem this time of year when it wobbles between just being a bit chilly and properly cold - it's a bit better in winter proper as they obviously need to have it on themselves.
The other annoying side to it is that I actually pay some money in my rent specifically to cover the heating, so when I'm shivering I can get a bit annoyed as it feels Iike I'm not getting what I'm paying for.
Wednesday, 10 October 2012
box sorting
No blog yesterday as at the point I was going to start writing it I was handed something to do.
That something was a bit of a mess and took all afternoon to get even vaguely on the right track. It actually poxed up all my afternoon, to be honest, but there you go.
This last weekend was incredibly busy. As well as the Korean Grand Prix and all the recorded telly I had to watch I also had to do deal with a huge pile of washing (all my holiday stuff plus the work week), sort out the boxes / shed situation and clean my car.
Well, cleaning my car was not something I had to do, but I wanted to do it to take advantage of my landlord being on holiday. Three days later it's unfortunately now dirtier than it was. There's some house building going on near the industrial estate where I work and they've been digging out a huge amount of earth and leaving trails of muck all over the roads, so with it being rainy it's made a right mess of everyone's car - it's like everyone in the estate goes rallying to get home!
I did also need to sort my boot contents out after the holiday, so I did that too.
The boxes was a bit unfortunate - I'd actually planned to do it anyway as I usually do when my landlord goes away at this time of year, but he also left me a note basically asking me to do it, which made it a priority task. However, the weather was crappy across the week and it been my intention to spread it out a bit.
What I'd been hopping to do was most of the box moving and some of the more basic sorting in the evenings during the week. However, rain and dark is not really the best combination for doing it.
As such that meant I had to do the whole thing at the weekend - a weekend when I had a big long list of other stuff to do as well.
Now I did basically do it, but it was pretty poor in terms of really sorting out, tidying up and identifying things to e-bay. Really I've just moved a load of crap from my bedsit out to the shed and ensured what's in the shed is properly boxed and stacked.
It's a little frustrating from several perspectives, but it is what it is.
It does emphasise to me that I need to move now that I've decided to stay working where I am. Indeed, I've decided I really need to move to Alton, though first I need to not spend my pay rise for a few months so I can build up a deposit!
That something was a bit of a mess and took all afternoon to get even vaguely on the right track. It actually poxed up all my afternoon, to be honest, but there you go.
This last weekend was incredibly busy. As well as the Korean Grand Prix and all the recorded telly I had to watch I also had to do deal with a huge pile of washing (all my holiday stuff plus the work week), sort out the boxes / shed situation and clean my car.
Well, cleaning my car was not something I had to do, but I wanted to do it to take advantage of my landlord being on holiday. Three days later it's unfortunately now dirtier than it was. There's some house building going on near the industrial estate where I work and they've been digging out a huge amount of earth and leaving trails of muck all over the roads, so with it being rainy it's made a right mess of everyone's car - it's like everyone in the estate goes rallying to get home!
I did also need to sort my boot contents out after the holiday, so I did that too.
The boxes was a bit unfortunate - I'd actually planned to do it anyway as I usually do when my landlord goes away at this time of year, but he also left me a note basically asking me to do it, which made it a priority task. However, the weather was crappy across the week and it been my intention to spread it out a bit.
What I'd been hopping to do was most of the box moving and some of the more basic sorting in the evenings during the week. However, rain and dark is not really the best combination for doing it.
As such that meant I had to do the whole thing at the weekend - a weekend when I had a big long list of other stuff to do as well.
Now I did basically do it, but it was pretty poor in terms of really sorting out, tidying up and identifying things to e-bay. Really I've just moved a load of crap from my bedsit out to the shed and ensured what's in the shed is properly boxed and stacked.
It's a little frustrating from several perspectives, but it is what it is.
It does emphasise to me that I need to move now that I've decided to stay working where I am. Indeed, I've decided I really need to move to Alton, though first I need to not spend my pay rise for a few months so I can build up a deposit!
Friday, 24 August 2012
zip it
So I had a bit of an embarrassing situation on Tuesday at work.
Basically to skip to the punch line the zip on my trousers broke. Now we're not talking about an explosion under duress or anything like that - this was that type of breaking where the teeth are undone even though you've zipped the zip.
I'm sure you know the sort of thing - a zip works by the teeth intermeshing, which you achieve by pulling the zipper up or down depending on if you want to close or open them. Well what sometimes happens is that the teeth become un-meshed when the zipper is in the closed position. Basically they become un-aligned and the zip no longer knits them together when it closes.
The way to fix this is to basically slide one set of teeth out of the zipper and re-align everything so that the zipper meshes them together. However, this is only really possible on those zips that are designed to come completely apart (so the zips you have on the front of coats, rather than on the pockets of a coat.
Of course the zipper on my trousers (otherwise known as the "fly") is of the pocket closing type, so I was left with the embarrassing situation of not being able to close my trouser's fly area. I ended up using a bull-dog clip on the inside to close them up.
Now actually this is the pair of trousers that's really slack and it's my intention once I get my new boosted pay packet to start to buy some new clothes. Plus of course I have another pair of work trousers, so it's not a big deal really.
I'd actually gotten rather ahead of myself on that front, expecting my wage to come in during this week for some reason, but of course it will be next week as the end of the month is on Friday.
It's a Bank Holiday Monday next week, so I'll only be blogging Tuesday to Friday. However, I will actually probably be working early Saturday morning, as there's some bits I need to do. It's not that I'm super-mega busy; it's just that I can't see how the timing is going to work out any other way.
Basically to skip to the punch line the zip on my trousers broke. Now we're not talking about an explosion under duress or anything like that - this was that type of breaking where the teeth are undone even though you've zipped the zip.
I'm sure you know the sort of thing - a zip works by the teeth intermeshing, which you achieve by pulling the zipper up or down depending on if you want to close or open them. Well what sometimes happens is that the teeth become un-meshed when the zipper is in the closed position. Basically they become un-aligned and the zip no longer knits them together when it closes.
The way to fix this is to basically slide one set of teeth out of the zipper and re-align everything so that the zipper meshes them together. However, this is only really possible on those zips that are designed to come completely apart (so the zips you have on the front of coats, rather than on the pockets of a coat.
Of course the zipper on my trousers (otherwise known as the "fly") is of the pocket closing type, so I was left with the embarrassing situation of not being able to close my trouser's fly area. I ended up using a bull-dog clip on the inside to close them up.
Now actually this is the pair of trousers that's really slack and it's my intention once I get my new boosted pay packet to start to buy some new clothes. Plus of course I have another pair of work trousers, so it's not a big deal really.
I'd actually gotten rather ahead of myself on that front, expecting my wage to come in during this week for some reason, but of course it will be next week as the end of the month is on Friday.
It's a Bank Holiday Monday next week, so I'll only be blogging Tuesday to Friday. However, I will actually probably be working early Saturday morning, as there's some bits I need to do. It's not that I'm super-mega busy; it's just that I can't see how the timing is going to work out any other way.
Tuesday, 21 August 2012
mini heat wave
So we seemed to have a mini heat wave while I was taking my long weekend.
It was nice that it didn't rain on me, but the heat made it a bit unpleasant. It was actually another case of my classic comment on British weather that it comes with exclamation points. I mean the change was so sudden that it was quite a shock.
I have to say I found the whole weather extremely nostalgic.
It was, to coin a phrase, just like the weather we seemed to have when I was a kid. Well, no, actually, not when I was a kid proper, but when I was a teenager. My recollection of my teenage years (around the GCSE and A-level kind of time) was that the weather during the summer was constantly like how it was this last weekend - hot and cloudless during the day and not really properly easing off during the night.
I don't know if that's really an accurate reflection of how the weather actually was, but it's how I remember it. I remember days of going around friends' houses and having barbecues and lazing about and then smoking pot and getting drunk in the evening.
This weather was so reminiscent of that period, particularly as the smell of barbecue was filling the air when I went out for my walks around the estate.
As for other stuff I did it was all pretty unexciting.
I gave the car a thorough clean, including giving it a polish. Usually when I do these mega cleans I find them quite tiring because I do everything and so it take hours, but I also end up using muscles I don't normally use much so I then have several days of aches and pains.
This time I didn't find the doing as tiring, but the after-ache was really bad.
I also decided to do a load of backing up. In the end I did my hard-drive based back-up routine, but didn't get the time to also burn the DVDs I usually do as well. I like to be thoroughly backed-up having had several bad experiences of drives crapping out and taking everything with them.
I'll probably look at burning the DVDs this next bank holiday weekend, though I am currently anticipating I will actually have to work part of the weekend. This isn't so much because I have too much to do it's more because the timing of things other people are doing mean it just won't be finished in time for me to do anything prior to the weekend.
I decided to do the back-up because I actually had a bit of a worrying moment the other week when I plug one of my drives in and it came up as if it was a new disk and asked me to format it. In the end I got around it, though the drive ran incredibly slowly. However, I think looking back on it it was because I used a USB3.0 slot that the motherboard has and I never installed the proper drivers for those slots because I don't have any USB 3.0 peripherals, so it ran at the default USB 1.0 speed.
At least I hope it was that - if not, I've backed it up anyway.
It was nice that it didn't rain on me, but the heat made it a bit unpleasant. It was actually another case of my classic comment on British weather that it comes with exclamation points. I mean the change was so sudden that it was quite a shock.
I have to say I found the whole weather extremely nostalgic.
It was, to coin a phrase, just like the weather we seemed to have when I was a kid. Well, no, actually, not when I was a kid proper, but when I was a teenager. My recollection of my teenage years (around the GCSE and A-level kind of time) was that the weather during the summer was constantly like how it was this last weekend - hot and cloudless during the day and not really properly easing off during the night.
I don't know if that's really an accurate reflection of how the weather actually was, but it's how I remember it. I remember days of going around friends' houses and having barbecues and lazing about and then smoking pot and getting drunk in the evening.
This weather was so reminiscent of that period, particularly as the smell of barbecue was filling the air when I went out for my walks around the estate.
As for other stuff I did it was all pretty unexciting.
I gave the car a thorough clean, including giving it a polish. Usually when I do these mega cleans I find them quite tiring because I do everything and so it take hours, but I also end up using muscles I don't normally use much so I then have several days of aches and pains.
This time I didn't find the doing as tiring, but the after-ache was really bad.
I also decided to do a load of backing up. In the end I did my hard-drive based back-up routine, but didn't get the time to also burn the DVDs I usually do as well. I like to be thoroughly backed-up having had several bad experiences of drives crapping out and taking everything with them.
I'll probably look at burning the DVDs this next bank holiday weekend, though I am currently anticipating I will actually have to work part of the weekend. This isn't so much because I have too much to do it's more because the timing of things other people are doing mean it just won't be finished in time for me to do anything prior to the weekend.
I decided to do the back-up because I actually had a bit of a worrying moment the other week when I plug one of my drives in and it came up as if it was a new disk and asked me to format it. In the end I got around it, though the drive ran incredibly slowly. However, I think looking back on it it was because I used a USB3.0 slot that the motherboard has and I never installed the proper drivers for those slots because I don't have any USB 3.0 peripherals, so it ran at the default USB 1.0 speed.
At least I hope it was that - if not, I've backed it up anyway.
Monday, 13 August 2012
scrappy
It was a bit of a scrappy weekend.
My landlord has gone on yet another of his holidays. Actually, holiday is probably not the right word - can you take a holiday if you're retired? "Break" is probably more apt.
During the winter they often jet off to some exotic part of the world, but in summer they tend to go caravanning. I'm not sure where they're off to this time, but I've a feeling it won't be for as long as they've planned.
This week it's meant to rain and drizzle a bit and they're not very tolerant of bad weather (I know - why do they go caravanning then?) so I'm guessing they'll probably be back by mid-week.
Now I'd actually thought they were going on Monday but they went on Sunday, so I decided I would make use of their going this weekend and the nice weather we were having and clean the car.
As I say there's a fair chance it will be poor weather, so while it was nice I thought it best to give it a clean. Unfortunately I had a bit of a problem with one of the things I did and actually made it dirtier than it was already, so I'll have to buy a better cleaner and try and do it this next weekend (as I say, assuming it doesn't rain) - or maybe we'll get a reasonable evening at some point.
I was also rather fatigued on Sunday as Saturday had taken quite a lot out of me. The thing is, though, I'm not 100% why. I've a feeling it was actually more a case of work draining me during the week and then Saturday just sapping the last of my energy. With it being hot and quite muggy I found my afternoon walk particularly hard work, for example.
But also everything I did seemed to take longer and/or be more difficult than I'd anticipated. So, for example, I did a huge pile of ironing, but it took a lot longer than I was expecting.
So yeah, bit of a scrappy weekend.
This week I am taking Friday off. I'd originally planned to take both Friday and Monday, but with the days I took looking for a new job I have ended up with all Friday and half of Monday off. Either way it means fewer posts for the next few weeks (the week after is also the bank holiday). I'll probably us the opportunity to post a bunch of film reviews and get myself somewhat caught up there too.
My landlord has gone on yet another of his holidays. Actually, holiday is probably not the right word - can you take a holiday if you're retired? "Break" is probably more apt.
During the winter they often jet off to some exotic part of the world, but in summer they tend to go caravanning. I'm not sure where they're off to this time, but I've a feeling it won't be for as long as they've planned.
This week it's meant to rain and drizzle a bit and they're not very tolerant of bad weather (I know - why do they go caravanning then?) so I'm guessing they'll probably be back by mid-week.
Now I'd actually thought they were going on Monday but they went on Sunday, so I decided I would make use of their going this weekend and the nice weather we were having and clean the car.
As I say there's a fair chance it will be poor weather, so while it was nice I thought it best to give it a clean. Unfortunately I had a bit of a problem with one of the things I did and actually made it dirtier than it was already, so I'll have to buy a better cleaner and try and do it this next weekend (as I say, assuming it doesn't rain) - or maybe we'll get a reasonable evening at some point.
I was also rather fatigued on Sunday as Saturday had taken quite a lot out of me. The thing is, though, I'm not 100% why. I've a feeling it was actually more a case of work draining me during the week and then Saturday just sapping the last of my energy. With it being hot and quite muggy I found my afternoon walk particularly hard work, for example.
But also everything I did seemed to take longer and/or be more difficult than I'd anticipated. So, for example, I did a huge pile of ironing, but it took a lot longer than I was expecting.
So yeah, bit of a scrappy weekend.
This week I am taking Friday off. I'd originally planned to take both Friday and Monday, but with the days I took looking for a new job I have ended up with all Friday and half of Monday off. Either way it means fewer posts for the next few weeks (the week after is also the bank holiday). I'll probably us the opportunity to post a bunch of film reviews and get myself somewhat caught up there too.
Monday, 6 August 2012
chillax
It was a pretty quit weekend.
Which, to be honest, suited me down to the ground.
Over the last couple of weeks work has been pretty horrible, as we've been bidding a big framework. I have to say I'm not sure why we're bidding this framework, but bidding it we are and I have ended up with most of the actual effort to do it.
And it's been bloody hard work. Hard work not helped by the fact I've had this horrible cold for the last few weeks. It's finally starting to clear up, although it's still not gone and it's been more than two and a half weeks since I caught it. But then it took several days before it really kicked in, so maybe it's not surprising that it's taken weeks to clear?
The main problem is that it seemed to get into my sinuses, which has made me feel bunged up and left me mouth breathing which then gives me a headache. And as I say, I've been maxed out at work on top so I entered the weekend feeling drained.
In fact I entered Friday feeling drained and made several clear errors. I struggled through and did a bit, but if we worked flexi I would have taken off quite early, I think.
So this weekend I chillaxed.
Well, I say that. I spent Saturday morning cleaning and went on some very long walks that meant by evening on both days I was fit to drop. But that was nice - it was nice to feel tired because of those sorts of things, rather than fatigued because of ill health and work stress.
I also started to attack some of the stuff I've recorded. As I mentioned on Friday I recorded very little in the week, so I was into the recorded stuff quite quickly.
As it happened what I attacked wasn't really the TV shows I've recorded, but the Beethoven "Symphony cycle" that was played at the proms a little while back. It was basically all 9 of Beethoven's symphony and was mostly radio stuff, rather than TV programmes. I'm a bit of a fan of Beethoven.
Being radio I also managed to catch up on a bit of reading. I've gotten behind with a few of the articles and blogs I read and while I'm not fully caught up it was nice to bring some of them up to date.
Chillax is among one of those words that I know quite a lot people hate. I'm fine with them myself - one of the things I love about the English language is its fluid nature and how it absorbs words. I could easily have been an Etymologist as I find it endlessly fascinating.
One I'm slightly more puzzled by is "amazeballs". I think its origin is ironic, but how it's come to be used I'm not sure, particularly as it's actually slightly more complicated to say that amazing.
Which, to be honest, suited me down to the ground.
Over the last couple of weeks work has been pretty horrible, as we've been bidding a big framework. I have to say I'm not sure why we're bidding this framework, but bidding it we are and I have ended up with most of the actual effort to do it.
And it's been bloody hard work. Hard work not helped by the fact I've had this horrible cold for the last few weeks. It's finally starting to clear up, although it's still not gone and it's been more than two and a half weeks since I caught it. But then it took several days before it really kicked in, so maybe it's not surprising that it's taken weeks to clear?
The main problem is that it seemed to get into my sinuses, which has made me feel bunged up and left me mouth breathing which then gives me a headache. And as I say, I've been maxed out at work on top so I entered the weekend feeling drained.
In fact I entered Friday feeling drained and made several clear errors. I struggled through and did a bit, but if we worked flexi I would have taken off quite early, I think.
So this weekend I chillaxed.
Well, I say that. I spent Saturday morning cleaning and went on some very long walks that meant by evening on both days I was fit to drop. But that was nice - it was nice to feel tired because of those sorts of things, rather than fatigued because of ill health and work stress.
I also started to attack some of the stuff I've recorded. As I mentioned on Friday I recorded very little in the week, so I was into the recorded stuff quite quickly.
As it happened what I attacked wasn't really the TV shows I've recorded, but the Beethoven "Symphony cycle" that was played at the proms a little while back. It was basically all 9 of Beethoven's symphony and was mostly radio stuff, rather than TV programmes. I'm a bit of a fan of Beethoven.
Being radio I also managed to catch up on a bit of reading. I've gotten behind with a few of the articles and blogs I read and while I'm not fully caught up it was nice to bring some of them up to date.
Chillax is among one of those words that I know quite a lot people hate. I'm fine with them myself - one of the things I love about the English language is its fluid nature and how it absorbs words. I could easily have been an Etymologist as I find it endlessly fascinating.
One I'm slightly more puzzled by is "amazeballs". I think its origin is ironic, but how it's come to be used I'm not sure, particularly as it's actually slightly more complicated to say that amazing.
Friday, 3 August 2012
thank crunchy it's friday
So I've really felt the impact of the Olympics this last week.
Every week I set up all the programs I want to watch on my PVR and this week it was really quite apparent that actually all the stuff I'm setting up is on the radio. There's maybe been only 2 programs I've recorded this week. Well, I say that, there's Mythbusters on Quest every day, but it's basically all been radio stuff.
This is the first weekend of the four week hiatus for the Grand Prix and after the double header it's now a chance for me to clean the flat. I usually give it a clean every two weeks and at the end of that it's usually clear it really needs it.
When I have to leave it three weeks for the doubleheaders the place is proper filthy. I've tried cleaning anyway when there's a Grand Prix, but it really doesn't work - all the stuff I have to do on top of spending some 10 hours on all the Grand Prix stuff just makes it impractical and a little tiring.
It also kills off any possibility of me doing anything else and means I tend to end up with a full list of other stuff to watch on my PVR. It's better to just leave the cleaning for a week.
Also, the flip-side is that the nature of the double headers usually means that I end up double-cleaning and it's nice to clean when it doesn't really need it.
I'm hoping for some good weather, but it appears to be more of the same rainy, cloudy and not warm but not cold stuff for the weekend. While I had the cold I wasn't really up for doing much walking and I'm afraid I did a fair bit of comfort eating.
My diet has pretty much ground to a halt.
I've not really put anything on, but I've not really lost much either - I'm sort of bimbling along around a constant just under 20 stones weight. It's a lot better than I used to be, but still means I'm obese and my target was to get under the line for simply being fat.
I'd need to lose about 4 stones to get down there, which is less than I've already lost. Trouble is I've sort of slipped back into eating too many bad things. To lose weight I need to go back to the more strict diet I had before.
In theory I could up my exercise too, but there's not a lot more I could do in the time available I have. Certainly the exercise I do is balancing out the extra eating, so cut out that extra and I will start dropping again.
Part of the problem, to be honest, is that I really need some new clothes. The clothes I have are all at the stage of hanging off me. Obviously if I get some more clothes now and lose weight, then those clothes will need replacing, but of course if I stick with my current clothes then it's just going to be even worse.
Thankfully the new pay for my job should relieve my financial situation somewhat and I should be able to afford to buy some new stuff.
Every week I set up all the programs I want to watch on my PVR and this week it was really quite apparent that actually all the stuff I'm setting up is on the radio. There's maybe been only 2 programs I've recorded this week. Well, I say that, there's Mythbusters on Quest every day, but it's basically all been radio stuff.
This is the first weekend of the four week hiatus for the Grand Prix and after the double header it's now a chance for me to clean the flat. I usually give it a clean every two weeks and at the end of that it's usually clear it really needs it.
When I have to leave it three weeks for the doubleheaders the place is proper filthy. I've tried cleaning anyway when there's a Grand Prix, but it really doesn't work - all the stuff I have to do on top of spending some 10 hours on all the Grand Prix stuff just makes it impractical and a little tiring.
It also kills off any possibility of me doing anything else and means I tend to end up with a full list of other stuff to watch on my PVR. It's better to just leave the cleaning for a week.
Also, the flip-side is that the nature of the double headers usually means that I end up double-cleaning and it's nice to clean when it doesn't really need it.
I'm hoping for some good weather, but it appears to be more of the same rainy, cloudy and not warm but not cold stuff for the weekend. While I had the cold I wasn't really up for doing much walking and I'm afraid I did a fair bit of comfort eating.
My diet has pretty much ground to a halt.
I've not really put anything on, but I've not really lost much either - I'm sort of bimbling along around a constant just under 20 stones weight. It's a lot better than I used to be, but still means I'm obese and my target was to get under the line for simply being fat.
I'd need to lose about 4 stones to get down there, which is less than I've already lost. Trouble is I've sort of slipped back into eating too many bad things. To lose weight I need to go back to the more strict diet I had before.
In theory I could up my exercise too, but there's not a lot more I could do in the time available I have. Certainly the exercise I do is balancing out the extra eating, so cut out that extra and I will start dropping again.
Part of the problem, to be honest, is that I really need some new clothes. The clothes I have are all at the stage of hanging off me. Obviously if I get some more clothes now and lose weight, then those clothes will need replacing, but of course if I stick with my current clothes then it's just going to be even worse.
Thankfully the new pay for my job should relieve my financial situation somewhat and I should be able to afford to buy some new stuff.
Monday, 2 July 2012
revision?
So that was an odd weekend.
I guess I should actually start with the day before the weekend, which is more traditionally labelled "Friday" after the Norse God Frigg, Odin's missus.
Friday was the day of my most recent interview. It was a fair distance away, but close enough that it was a half-day job. I actually set off very early as the route is very direct, but takes me straight through a couple of big towns that sounded like traffic hot spots. Indeed, this was proven very true on the way back when it did indeed take ages to get through one of the towns I'd been most worried about.
This did mean I arrived very early and I decided to use the time to have a quick drive around the closest town. Big mistake. The town was okay when I drove in, but as it approached 8:00 the place ground to a horrible stop. It has a weird one-way ring road system around it and it seems to funnel cars towards a couple of particularly horrible junctions, causing the whole town to seize up.
Because I'd had so much time I wasn't late or anything, but I clearly would have had troubles if I had been a bit closer to the interview time (if that makes sense).
The interview itself went okay.
I don't know that I particularly bowled them over, but I also don't think there were any real show-stoppers in there. I guess it really depends on the calibre of person they're seeing. I have a few disadvantages (and advantages, obviously) with my experience so it can be difficult for me to judge.
I got the feeling though that, unlike one of my prior interviews, they will tell me if I don't succeed. And certainly the timetable he was talking about is quite quick.
Journey back was okay, though as I mentioned I got fouled up in some nasty traffic.
The weekend itself was where the blog title comes in. For my second interview at one of the places they have asked me to try to learn about their product a bit and it sounds like the interview won't be so much of an interview as a test or exercise of some sort.
I've had exercises to do at a few of the interviews, but this is a little different - more focused on the products they have, rather than general skills.
Anyway, that meant I've downloaded and printed out all their sales manuals and some general information from Wikipedia, so I spent a good chunk of the weekend reading it through.
I have to say it's difficult to know quite how technical they're going to expect me to get. I don't know if I should have researched the physics of it all or I'm okay with just the products they make and their capabilities.
That next interview is on Thursday, so I have a few more days to bone up as well.
Also that morning I have a sort of second interview with another company - it's called "meet the team" and, as the name suggests, probably won't be like a formal interview, as such.
I guess I should actually start with the day before the weekend, which is more traditionally labelled "Friday" after the Norse God Frigg, Odin's missus.
Friday was the day of my most recent interview. It was a fair distance away, but close enough that it was a half-day job. I actually set off very early as the route is very direct, but takes me straight through a couple of big towns that sounded like traffic hot spots. Indeed, this was proven very true on the way back when it did indeed take ages to get through one of the towns I'd been most worried about.
This did mean I arrived very early and I decided to use the time to have a quick drive around the closest town. Big mistake. The town was okay when I drove in, but as it approached 8:00 the place ground to a horrible stop. It has a weird one-way ring road system around it and it seems to funnel cars towards a couple of particularly horrible junctions, causing the whole town to seize up.
Because I'd had so much time I wasn't late or anything, but I clearly would have had troubles if I had been a bit closer to the interview time (if that makes sense).
The interview itself went okay.
I don't know that I particularly bowled them over, but I also don't think there were any real show-stoppers in there. I guess it really depends on the calibre of person they're seeing. I have a few disadvantages (and advantages, obviously) with my experience so it can be difficult for me to judge.
I got the feeling though that, unlike one of my prior interviews, they will tell me if I don't succeed. And certainly the timetable he was talking about is quite quick.
Journey back was okay, though as I mentioned I got fouled up in some nasty traffic.
The weekend itself was where the blog title comes in. For my second interview at one of the places they have asked me to try to learn about their product a bit and it sounds like the interview won't be so much of an interview as a test or exercise of some sort.
I've had exercises to do at a few of the interviews, but this is a little different - more focused on the products they have, rather than general skills.
Anyway, that meant I've downloaded and printed out all their sales manuals and some general information from Wikipedia, so I spent a good chunk of the weekend reading it through.
I have to say it's difficult to know quite how technical they're going to expect me to get. I don't know if I should have researched the physics of it all or I'm okay with just the products they make and their capabilities.
That next interview is on Thursday, so I have a few more days to bone up as well.
Also that morning I have a sort of second interview with another company - it's called "meet the team" and, as the name suggests, probably won't be like a formal interview, as such.
Tuesday, 26 June 2012
complicated weekend
So this last weekend was actually a bit rubbish, which was interesting as it contrasted markedly with the weekend before.
The weekend before went so smoothly as to almost be silly. I had a big old list of chores to do, including cleaning the bedsit and going shopping and everything went so smoothly that I'd done everything by late lunch on Saturday.
This added to the fact that I had the Monday and Tuesday off for the interviews and the weather was rather nice meant it was a rather good weekend.
This last weekend was not so good.
It started going badly on Friday, when I had a particularly bad bout of insomnia, but a lot to do during the day. In the evening I went shopping, but made a bit of an error, in that I bought something for my tea.
Now that normally wouldn't be a bad thing to do, but I forgot I'd brought in a packed lunch, but we'd been to the pub. I therefore had two dinners and had to steak my sandwiches in the fridge and have them Saturday, when I have to confess they were more than a little dried out.
The shopping trip also cost a fortune, because for some reason I decided to get lots of the random or infrequent purchases (for example, the clothes washing tab things I use) all at once. Normally I spread them out more.
Anyway, when I got home I did the usual Friday night bits I do and then started watching the Valencia practice. Only about half way through there were these 3 weird brown outs of the power.
I've no idea what caused it, but it seemed to cause my PVR to go a bit funny. At least I think that was the cause - basically my PVR stopped showing the time when it was on standby. This was a pain, but it also seemed to mean that it wasn't able to switch itself on when it had a programme to record.
Now luckily the majority of what I had to record was overlapped by me having the TV on anyway, but it did mean I lost a radio programme on Sunday (this was how I figured out there was an issue). Luckily the problem seems to have been solved by me doing a "factory reset", but it that means I've lost all my settings. The only one I redid was scanning for channels and a few immediate programme record set ups, so I'll have to do the rest tonight.
Early Saturday morning I did my washing, and that was a bit of a disaster. Basically, they'd shut the water off (well, I say off - it was tiny dribbling trickle), which is kinda an important aspect of a laundrette's facilities.
Now I use one of the big machines for my weekly wash and in some aspects that turned out to be a good thing. The smaller machines that somebody else used just kept going through their cycle, even though there was next to no water. The big machines, it seems, are set up that they'll effectively wait until the water reaches a pre-set level before moving to the next phase. That meant, with the flow rate, that it took well over an hour for what is usually a half-hour programme.
And it only took that long because I drove home several times, filled up a bunch of plastic bottles and poured them into the machine (via the powder slots). If I hadn't done that, god knows how long it would have taken.
My guess is they'd closed the water down because they were doing some repairs on Friday and then forgotten to put it back on again. Certainly when I spoke to the management (it had taken so long they were in - usually I've finished by an hour before they turn up) that seemed to be the implication.
What else?
Oh yeah, for my interview on Friday I have to go somewhere in Oxfordshire and it wasn't very clear where I had to go and I got very nervous. A big part of the nervousness is that I've taken the morning off and the interview is actually starting at 9:00. I was therefore very nervous as to what time I had to set off and if I'd get back in time.
The google maps route was direct, but looked complicated and the alternate route I personally though I could do was a lot longer and was bound to have heavy traffic. I therefore decided to do a trial run, but with all the other delays to stuff I set off really quite late and the return journey was in the dark with it lashing down, which was a bit scary, especially as I was then very tired.
Still, I know the google route now, and it's actually not that bad, though I am going to go very early as it goes through some big towns.
The weekend before went so smoothly as to almost be silly. I had a big old list of chores to do, including cleaning the bedsit and going shopping and everything went so smoothly that I'd done everything by late lunch on Saturday.
This added to the fact that I had the Monday and Tuesday off for the interviews and the weather was rather nice meant it was a rather good weekend.
This last weekend was not so good.
It started going badly on Friday, when I had a particularly bad bout of insomnia, but a lot to do during the day. In the evening I went shopping, but made a bit of an error, in that I bought something for my tea.
Now that normally wouldn't be a bad thing to do, but I forgot I'd brought in a packed lunch, but we'd been to the pub. I therefore had two dinners and had to steak my sandwiches in the fridge and have them Saturday, when I have to confess they were more than a little dried out.
The shopping trip also cost a fortune, because for some reason I decided to get lots of the random or infrequent purchases (for example, the clothes washing tab things I use) all at once. Normally I spread them out more.
Anyway, when I got home I did the usual Friday night bits I do and then started watching the Valencia practice. Only about half way through there were these 3 weird brown outs of the power.
I've no idea what caused it, but it seemed to cause my PVR to go a bit funny. At least I think that was the cause - basically my PVR stopped showing the time when it was on standby. This was a pain, but it also seemed to mean that it wasn't able to switch itself on when it had a programme to record.
Now luckily the majority of what I had to record was overlapped by me having the TV on anyway, but it did mean I lost a radio programme on Sunday (this was how I figured out there was an issue). Luckily the problem seems to have been solved by me doing a "factory reset", but it that means I've lost all my settings. The only one I redid was scanning for channels and a few immediate programme record set ups, so I'll have to do the rest tonight.
Early Saturday morning I did my washing, and that was a bit of a disaster. Basically, they'd shut the water off (well, I say off - it was tiny dribbling trickle), which is kinda an important aspect of a laundrette's facilities.
Now I use one of the big machines for my weekly wash and in some aspects that turned out to be a good thing. The smaller machines that somebody else used just kept going through their cycle, even though there was next to no water. The big machines, it seems, are set up that they'll effectively wait until the water reaches a pre-set level before moving to the next phase. That meant, with the flow rate, that it took well over an hour for what is usually a half-hour programme.
And it only took that long because I drove home several times, filled up a bunch of plastic bottles and poured them into the machine (via the powder slots). If I hadn't done that, god knows how long it would have taken.
My guess is they'd closed the water down because they were doing some repairs on Friday and then forgotten to put it back on again. Certainly when I spoke to the management (it had taken so long they were in - usually I've finished by an hour before they turn up) that seemed to be the implication.
What else?
Oh yeah, for my interview on Friday I have to go somewhere in Oxfordshire and it wasn't very clear where I had to go and I got very nervous. A big part of the nervousness is that I've taken the morning off and the interview is actually starting at 9:00. I was therefore very nervous as to what time I had to set off and if I'd get back in time.
The google maps route was direct, but looked complicated and the alternate route I personally though I could do was a lot longer and was bound to have heavy traffic. I therefore decided to do a trial run, but with all the other delays to stuff I set off really quite late and the return journey was in the dark with it lashing down, which was a bit scary, especially as I was then very tired.
Still, I know the google route now, and it's actually not that bad, though I am going to go very early as it goes through some big towns.
Friday, 1 June 2012
super bank holiday
Well, apparently the Queen has failed to die.
I mean, that's basically what we're celebrating. Now that the monarchy has no actual power and is essentially just a figurehead she can't really achieve anything as such. She hasn't invaded France and claimed its throne, for example, which seemed to be one of the main defining characteristics of past monarchs.
And I'm pretty sure she's never crushed the Scots, as the National Anthem claims, if I recall correctly.
So yeah, we have a super bumper double bank holiday weekend. Only one is a genuine addition to the calendar - the other has been achieved by shifting the usual end of May holiday.
I don't really have any plans for this extra time off.
I do have a couple of things on my PVR that I've stacked up, these being the most recent series of Being Human and the second series of the Walking Dead.
The first I'd originally planned to watch in my most recent holiday, but the sudden shift to having loads to do meant I never really even started on them. The second is just a reflection of the fact that several other things I've been doing have been eating up all of my free time.
In particular I've been shedding anime DVDs, which has meant I've been ripping them and scanning the covers and extras. Neither of these is difficult though both take time. It's also pretty time consuming doing all the e-baying, as I've discussed on previous occasions.
The other thing of course is the whole job hunting, which has proven really quite time hungry. I mean, I knew it would absorb some time, but I've been taken aback by just how much time it's absorbed.
As such I'll probably use the bank holidays to watch stuff, although I also really want to give my car a good clean. I'd actually been hoping that my landlord would go on the holiday that he postponed from earlier in the year; however that seems to have been almost permanently abandoned.
I mean, that's basically what we're celebrating. Now that the monarchy has no actual power and is essentially just a figurehead she can't really achieve anything as such. She hasn't invaded France and claimed its throne, for example, which seemed to be one of the main defining characteristics of past monarchs.
And I'm pretty sure she's never crushed the Scots, as the National Anthem claims, if I recall correctly.
So yeah, we have a super bumper double bank holiday weekend. Only one is a genuine addition to the calendar - the other has been achieved by shifting the usual end of May holiday.
I don't really have any plans for this extra time off.
I do have a couple of things on my PVR that I've stacked up, these being the most recent series of Being Human and the second series of the Walking Dead.
The first I'd originally planned to watch in my most recent holiday, but the sudden shift to having loads to do meant I never really even started on them. The second is just a reflection of the fact that several other things I've been doing have been eating up all of my free time.
In particular I've been shedding anime DVDs, which has meant I've been ripping them and scanning the covers and extras. Neither of these is difficult though both take time. It's also pretty time consuming doing all the e-baying, as I've discussed on previous occasions.
The other thing of course is the whole job hunting, which has proven really quite time hungry. I mean, I knew it would absorb some time, but I've been taken aback by just how much time it's absorbed.
As such I'll probably use the bank holidays to watch stuff, although I also really want to give my car a good clean. I'd actually been hoping that my landlord would go on the holiday that he postponed from earlier in the year; however that seems to have been almost permanently abandoned.
Monday, 21 May 2012
both coming and going
I had a horribly busy / tiring weekend for some reason.
I've mentioned before the troubles that I was having meeting my footwear needs, though I'm not sure if I've mentioned that I've been wanting to get a new mattress as well. Well I looked online and saw that the nearest millets was in Aldershot and they also have some big furniture type stores there as well, so I decided that I would try to knock everything on the head in one weekend.
The plan was I'd do my washing as usual first thing then head up to Aldershot for opening time, park at the furniture store, nip into town to get work shoes and walking shoes and then head back to get the mattress. I'd then unload all of these before heading into Aldershot with the primary intention of posting some parcels I had to send but also in case the shoes were still outstanding.
I also needed to buy some bits from smiths and Tesco's so I could park up in Tesco's in Aldershot and then walk into town. This walking would also help me tick my walking allocation box for the day too.
Good plan and it sort of worked - I got all of the things done, including the mattress, although there was one downside. The out-of-town furniture places have gotten a company to manage the parking since I last went there (we're talking years since I last went) and one of the conditions they have is that you don't leave the site and of course I did, so they've charged me.
I've actually just been doing some searching and there are quite a few websites (including some YouTube clips from watchdog) saying these aren't really legally enforceable.
Anyway, having bought the mattress it was a hell of a struggle getting it home. It's actually oddly deep (as in "high") and although it's surprisingly light it's rather inflexible. I only drive a small car so I was fiddling about putting seats down and taking off headrests and all sorts to cram it in.
I did get it in eventually but it was a bit dodgy driving as it was difficult to get to the gear stick. I remember thinking as I set off that it'd be a bit dodgy if the police saw me and of course on the drive back there was a police car that had pulled someone over (for speeding I guess)!
The reason for sending the parcels is I made a bit of a decision to get on and rip a bunch of anime DVDs and put them up for sale. I had actually started doing this with my normal DVDs but got a bit side-tracked with the whole contracting work, but I got a couple of hefty credit card bills and it kinda spurred me into action to try and get the cash flowing again if I'm honest.
The other issue was that on Thursday night I had real trouble sleeping and Friday night I wasn't able to catch up, which meant that by Saturday afternoon I was absolutely shattered. Sunday I felt so tired that I didn't go for any walk or anything - indeed I didn't actually leave the bedsit
I've mentioned before the troubles that I was having meeting my footwear needs, though I'm not sure if I've mentioned that I've been wanting to get a new mattress as well. Well I looked online and saw that the nearest millets was in Aldershot and they also have some big furniture type stores there as well, so I decided that I would try to knock everything on the head in one weekend.
The plan was I'd do my washing as usual first thing then head up to Aldershot for opening time, park at the furniture store, nip into town to get work shoes and walking shoes and then head back to get the mattress. I'd then unload all of these before heading into Aldershot with the primary intention of posting some parcels I had to send but also in case the shoes were still outstanding.
I also needed to buy some bits from smiths and Tesco's so I could park up in Tesco's in Aldershot and then walk into town. This walking would also help me tick my walking allocation box for the day too.
Good plan and it sort of worked - I got all of the things done, including the mattress, although there was one downside. The out-of-town furniture places have gotten a company to manage the parking since I last went there (we're talking years since I last went) and one of the conditions they have is that you don't leave the site and of course I did, so they've charged me.
I've actually just been doing some searching and there are quite a few websites (including some YouTube clips from watchdog) saying these aren't really legally enforceable.
Anyway, having bought the mattress it was a hell of a struggle getting it home. It's actually oddly deep (as in "high") and although it's surprisingly light it's rather inflexible. I only drive a small car so I was fiddling about putting seats down and taking off headrests and all sorts to cram it in.
I did get it in eventually but it was a bit dodgy driving as it was difficult to get to the gear stick. I remember thinking as I set off that it'd be a bit dodgy if the police saw me and of course on the drive back there was a police car that had pulled someone over (for speeding I guess)!
The reason for sending the parcels is I made a bit of a decision to get on and rip a bunch of anime DVDs and put them up for sale. I had actually started doing this with my normal DVDs but got a bit side-tracked with the whole contracting work, but I got a couple of hefty credit card bills and it kinda spurred me into action to try and get the cash flowing again if I'm honest.
The other issue was that on Thursday night I had real trouble sleeping and Friday night I wasn't able to catch up, which meant that by Saturday afternoon I was absolutely shattered. Sunday I felt so tired that I didn't go for any walk or anything - indeed I didn't actually leave the bedsit
Sunday, 5 February 2012
game me away
This weekend I've spenty most of my free time playing games.
I did the same last weekend, but there's a key difference - this weekend it feels like I've bumbed the time away, not doing anything that's really productive. And I still feel that, even though I spent half the time last weekend waiting for the game to install.
I mean, that's pretty much wasted time - I wasn't actually playing the game, but I couldn't really just leave it in case anything went wrong and it needed my attention. But still, it's this weekend that I feel I've wasted the time.
So why the difference? In both instances I was gaming, but last weekend I played a game I'd never played before - homefront- whereas this weekend I've been playing Civ 3.
Homefront was okay. It was a first person shooter and has a very similar story to modern warfare, in that America is being invaded and you have to fight the invaders. In homefront you're a resistance fighter, which actually makes it a bit more like a cross between half life 2 and modern warfare.
In homefront it was the Koreans invading, rather than the Russians. However, it didn't make a huge difference, although the plot was different enough to make it interesting. And it's not a bad plot - it's a bit cliché and a bit jingo-istic, but well enough executed to be enjoyable.
It was very short, though. I was sort of expecting it would take me a couple of days to get through, especially with the huge time it took to load, but it only took about 6 hours of playing. And that's bearing in mind I'm crap at games and there are no cheat codes to help me.
The load time really was long. Part of the problem was that initially it tried to install from steam, despite having it on disk. However, I recalled you can get it to install from disk and once I'd done that it was quite quick.
The bit that took ages was once it had been installed it then went and downloaded updates from steam. Obviously there was nothing I could really do about that apart from let it do it, but the real problem was that the updates were around 4.5gb!
To put that into some sort of perspective, the game installed from disk was about 7.5gb. That means the updates were more than half as much again.
Obviously I was hooked up to the cable broadband, but 4.5 soon ate through the limits and the throttling kicked in, so it must have taken something like 3 hours to install all the updates!
Quite how they can release a game that then acquires 4.5gb of updates, I don't know.
Anyway, homefront was okay, if short, so that was fine.
Problem has been this week I've been listening tot eh civ5 podcasts when I've been walking. I've had these for ages and figured I should finally listen to them. And listening them gave me a strong hankering to play civ3.
I know 3 - 5 - eh? Well, problem with 5 is I'd need to uninstall homefront and then steam then reinstall steam and re-install 5. I played it very briefly when I first got 5 but it was so buggy I gave up almost immediately...which made me afraid I would have another 4 hour session downloading updates!
So Installed 3. What I should have done is waited until Sunday, but I installed it early on Saturday and it's only really now on Sunday evening I'm thinking about putting it on hold for the rest of the day.
I mean, don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed playing it, but I should be doing something like playing another game I haven't played. Not least of all because if it's not so good I could sell it on e-bay.
Not that e-bay's a hugely practical proposition at the moment, with the contracting. However, I think I'm finally getting my head around the timings with the flexi-time. I even went and did a bit of washing on Friday evening, which was good as it freed me up to go get a haircut on Saturday morning, rather than sit in the laundrette.
As I say, now that I'm getting used to it, hopefully I'll get some more time to do different bits in the evening.
It snowed last night, but it's been a little warmer today and there's been no additional snow and no indication on the forecast it will snow, so I don't think the place I'm working will be closed. Hopefully this is the only bit of snow we have this year. It's been quite mild this winter and I think we really needed one - the last few have just been a real drag.
I did the same last weekend, but there's a key difference - this weekend it feels like I've bumbed the time away, not doing anything that's really productive. And I still feel that, even though I spent half the time last weekend waiting for the game to install.
I mean, that's pretty much wasted time - I wasn't actually playing the game, but I couldn't really just leave it in case anything went wrong and it needed my attention. But still, it's this weekend that I feel I've wasted the time.
So why the difference? In both instances I was gaming, but last weekend I played a game I'd never played before - homefront- whereas this weekend I've been playing Civ 3.
Homefront was okay. It was a first person shooter and has a very similar story to modern warfare, in that America is being invaded and you have to fight the invaders. In homefront you're a resistance fighter, which actually makes it a bit more like a cross between half life 2 and modern warfare.
In homefront it was the Koreans invading, rather than the Russians. However, it didn't make a huge difference, although the plot was different enough to make it interesting. And it's not a bad plot - it's a bit cliché and a bit jingo-istic, but well enough executed to be enjoyable.
It was very short, though. I was sort of expecting it would take me a couple of days to get through, especially with the huge time it took to load, but it only took about 6 hours of playing. And that's bearing in mind I'm crap at games and there are no cheat codes to help me.
The load time really was long. Part of the problem was that initially it tried to install from steam, despite having it on disk. However, I recalled you can get it to install from disk and once I'd done that it was quite quick.
The bit that took ages was once it had been installed it then went and downloaded updates from steam. Obviously there was nothing I could really do about that apart from let it do it, but the real problem was that the updates were around 4.5gb!
To put that into some sort of perspective, the game installed from disk was about 7.5gb. That means the updates were more than half as much again.
Obviously I was hooked up to the cable broadband, but 4.5 soon ate through the limits and the throttling kicked in, so it must have taken something like 3 hours to install all the updates!
Quite how they can release a game that then acquires 4.5gb of updates, I don't know.
Anyway, homefront was okay, if short, so that was fine.
Problem has been this week I've been listening tot eh civ5 podcasts when I've been walking. I've had these for ages and figured I should finally listen to them. And listening them gave me a strong hankering to play civ3.
I know 3 - 5 - eh? Well, problem with 5 is I'd need to uninstall homefront and then steam then reinstall steam and re-install 5. I played it very briefly when I first got 5 but it was so buggy I gave up almost immediately...which made me afraid I would have another 4 hour session downloading updates!
So Installed 3. What I should have done is waited until Sunday, but I installed it early on Saturday and it's only really now on Sunday evening I'm thinking about putting it on hold for the rest of the day.
I mean, don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed playing it, but I should be doing something like playing another game I haven't played. Not least of all because if it's not so good I could sell it on e-bay.
Not that e-bay's a hugely practical proposition at the moment, with the contracting. However, I think I'm finally getting my head around the timings with the flexi-time. I even went and did a bit of washing on Friday evening, which was good as it freed me up to go get a haircut on Saturday morning, rather than sit in the laundrette.
As I say, now that I'm getting used to it, hopefully I'll get some more time to do different bits in the evening.
It snowed last night, but it's been a little warmer today and there's been no additional snow and no indication on the forecast it will snow, so I don't think the place I'm working will be closed. Hopefully this is the only bit of snow we have this year. It's been quite mild this winter and I think we really needed one - the last few have just been a real drag.
Friday, 16 December 2011
a week to go
Wow, it's only a week until I go on holiday and then a couple of extra days and it's Christmas.
As I mentioned before I'm quite looking forward to it this year and the news there's less than a week to go is very pleasing.
I've pretty much done all my Christmas shopping now. A few things are still to arrive, but all should be here by the time I go away. If not, it's not a disaster, as I can just post those bits that don't arrive in time.
I'm hoping we don't see a repeat of the snow we had over the last few years. Fundamentally I like snow, but it's best when it happens when you yourself don't have to get anywhere or do anything.
Or, even better, when it snows you in from work. Although that always has the difficulty of knowing when it's safe to go back. It's best when it knackers you mid-week, but then goes away over the weekend.
I sort of sympathise with those who moan about how the country grinds to a halt when it snows, but I can fully understand why. I mean, yes we've had a few years in a row of bad snow, but then we could easily have five or ten years of really mild winters, so spending loads of money on gritters and ploughs and stuff would then be seen as wasteful.
The best compromise idea seems to me to be the suggestion that farmers be provided with ploughing equipment that they can easily store and then they're brought in when it does snow to clear the roads. Not sure how much that would cost, though.
Anyway, plans for the weekend are to try to clear the decks of some domestic stuff ahead of the break, so that when I'm on holiday I can spend more time relaxing, rather than fiddling about with that sort of stuff.
I'm also planning to do a bit of cleaning and washing - this'll be two weeks in a row and I think I might need to make it weekly over winter, as the colder weather means I wear more clothes (jumpers and vests and stuff).
As I mentioned before I'm quite looking forward to it this year and the news there's less than a week to go is very pleasing.
I've pretty much done all my Christmas shopping now. A few things are still to arrive, but all should be here by the time I go away. If not, it's not a disaster, as I can just post those bits that don't arrive in time.
I'm hoping we don't see a repeat of the snow we had over the last few years. Fundamentally I like snow, but it's best when it happens when you yourself don't have to get anywhere or do anything.
Or, even better, when it snows you in from work. Although that always has the difficulty of knowing when it's safe to go back. It's best when it knackers you mid-week, but then goes away over the weekend.
I sort of sympathise with those who moan about how the country grinds to a halt when it snows, but I can fully understand why. I mean, yes we've had a few years in a row of bad snow, but then we could easily have five or ten years of really mild winters, so spending loads of money on gritters and ploughs and stuff would then be seen as wasteful.
The best compromise idea seems to me to be the suggestion that farmers be provided with ploughing equipment that they can easily store and then they're brought in when it does snow to clear the roads. Not sure how much that would cost, though.
Anyway, plans for the weekend are to try to clear the decks of some domestic stuff ahead of the break, so that when I'm on holiday I can spend more time relaxing, rather than fiddling about with that sort of stuff.
I'm also planning to do a bit of cleaning and washing - this'll be two weeks in a row and I think I might need to make it weekly over winter, as the colder weather means I wear more clothes (jumpers and vests and stuff).
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