not who I thought you were

You ever think you know someone and then they say something that just totally knocks you for six? Something that just seems so out of character that it makes you realise that no, you didn't know them after all.

I had a moment like that the other day. I guess the real lesson is that you can never really know other people.

I've unfortunately been continuing to play quite a bit of Civ3, rather than do anything particularly useful. I think I need to finish this game I'm currently on and then I'll be able to get back up to speed with stuff.

The latest megami turned up the other day, so I'll try to scan it this weekend, though as I say more Civ3 beckons. I've also not got a backlog of scanning so it's not disastrous if I leave it. It was a little later than usual because, bizarrely, it had been addressed to Surbiton! I checked the original label (there was one stuck on top with my proper address) and it really had - it wasn't the couriers making excuses. How very odd.

One thing I have been doing (kick started by the train journey up to London on Saturday - I could never do it, but if I was ever to commute I'd get through loads of books) is reading one of Pratchett's most recent discworld books "Making Money". It's quite good - certainly a very easy reader with a very entertaining main character.

It's actually one of his semi-sequels, in that it continues the story of a character from another book, Moist Von Lipwig, which is why it's a little bizarre - it seemed to take a long time to get going. As I say, since it's re-using a character this just seemed a little odd. Not that it wasn't enjoyable, just unusual - it didn't leap into the deep end where that would have been a perfectly valid thing to do.

I'm also nearly done with Blassrieter. I think if it wasn't for the first 3 or 4 episodes, which are fairly mundane monster-of-the-week ones, I'd rate the series more highly. What I mean is it's worth sticking it out past those to get to the good stuff.

As I was expected, the snow's pretty much clearing away around here. It was quite unusual for it to be so think here.

No real plans for the weekend other than sleeping and resting - last weekend and struggling with all this snow has kinda taken it out of me a bit. I must be getting proper old!

those old friends

So Saturday was good.

The chums I met up with were going to a gig on Saturday evening, so we basically met up for a few pre-gig drinkees. I wasn't quite expecting to pack in as much booze as we did - we did rounds and I ended up sinking a total of six beers.

I was therefore pretty drunk when we left - a few more and I'd have been thoroughly soused. As it was I was stumbling around quite a bit. I put my headphones in when I got on the tube and it was a bit of a surreal experience, wandering around the tube, drunk with Greenday blasting in my ears. I'm also fairly sure I was singing too - dunno what the other passengers thought.

I actually fell asleep on the train home, which is always a risk when boozing, but luckily Alton is the last stop so luckily it doesn't matter very much. Then it was a quick walk up the hill, met up with a more local chum (it was later than I thought) and he ended up giving me a lift home.

Of course Sunday was therefore pretty much wrecked because I'd had more to drink than I thought I would. I just sort of laid in bed for most of the day and ate chocolate. I didn't really even watching anything constructive like anime or DVDs - just random telly.

Well, this morning's journey in was horrendous. The snow didn't really melt fully here yesterday, but it did freeze up. Then last night it snowed about another inch and then when I was driving in it was raining. You can guess what a mess it was - compacted, frozen snow with slushy snow on top and rain.

My traction control was working over-time with all the skidding about and the journey took ages. This sort of thing is one of the reasons I come to work very early - far earlier than I need to - as the traffic is less but it also allows a big leeway in terms of journey time.

back to work - but for how long?

Well, I'm back to work today.

The snow on Monday morning was biblical. When I went to sleep Sunday not a single flake had fallen, when I tried to get out to my Car on Monday I was greeted by this:





The snow was at least 6 inches thick and on the road that connects us to the estate it was apparently 8 inches thick!

There was no way I could get out - the front of my car isn't even 8 inches high!

On Tuesday the snow had subsided a bit, but only because it had frozen solid. It was literally a nightmare of unmovable snow.

I would still be trapped today, except for the fact that my landlord had to get out yesterday and spent all Tuesday digging an escape route.

The roads of the estate were still icy, but I figured enough was enough - time to get out. Plus it was all reaching crisis point as my supplies are getting a bit low. I'm guessing more people will be back today and the shops will be absolute carnage, but I've not got much of a choice.

I'd love to say I spent the days off wisely, but truth be told Monday I basically worked from home. Tuesday I totally wasted - I just spent all day playing Civ3 (oh no - not again!). I should have done some hardcore anime watching or scanning or something, but I couldn't be arsed if I'm honest.

The weekend went well. It was good - I'll blog on it later, though.