the dreaded return

Well, I'm back at work.

Boo!

And of course, there's been tonnes for me to do. That's one of the problems with only having a couple of days off - people just stack things up on your desk 'because he'll be in a couple of days'. If you're off for two weeks, they don't because it would take so long before you turned it around.

The weekend was pretty much a success. Certainly I did, like, 95% of what I'd intended to. Here's a bit of a list/run-down:

1) Opticians

Went and got my eyes checked. I went to the Specsavers in Farnham - well, when I got the right place I did. Bizarrely, there's another opticians just 2 doors down and I initially went in there. I used to go to an independent opticians in Alton, but the last time they bent the frames of the glasses I'd picked and so I decided not to go there again.

I haven't really had any troubles with the glasses I've got, other than they're scratched to buggery - so much so that I can see weird lines across my vision. Interestingly they said my prescription hadn't really changed, which think is the first time I've ever had them checked and they've not changed, but I got some new specs anyway because of the scratches.

It was a bit weird actually in Specsavers - all of the employees seemed to be in a rush. They all even spoke really quickly. It was like they'd all been downing coffee all day :/. I'll pick the glasses up next Saturday and I guess I can check if they're still all in hyper-fast mode.

2) My dental hygienist is a sadist

You know when the dentist tells you to "have a rinse"? There are two reasons for that - they've either just done something messy, like polish your teeth, so there's gunk all over the shop, or, they've done you some damage and they can't see anymore for all the blood.

I had to rinse three times during my hygienist appointment. None of which were due to polishing.

On the third time she'd given me my glasses back (taken off to prevent splashes getting on them) and I could clearly see big clumps of flesh in the bowl.

A big part of the problem is that the inside edge of my gums is higher than the outside edge, so whenever you stick something through the gap from the outside, there's a good chance you'll injure or impale my gum. She did that a lot.

3) Halfords don't sell wheel nuts!

This was a bizarre one. I've detailed in the blog about my wheel/tyre problems, one of which was these appalling locking wheel nuts, so I thought I'd go to Halfords and see if I could get some ordinary ones to replace them.

But they don't do them - they only sell locking wheel nuts. Initially I thought I was being stupid or that they might only be available to order, so I asked the guy at the parts desk and he said they didn't do them. The reason - they can't make any money on them.

I was a bit stunned, so I just left, but I've been thinking about it and I might get some of the locking nuts. There seemed to be some with much better designs so I may get them. Plus it means I still get the security side of having locking nuts.

4) Got my windscreen fixed and car booked in

It's only taken, like, 5 months, but I went to Autoglass and they did the old crack filling thing. Obviously I wasn't in any sort of a rush, but it took them a good 45 minutes to turn it around from when I got there.

To be perfectly frank, it's not really a lot different to what it was before, but it only cost me £10 and hopefully it means it's sufficiently good to pass an MOT. It's not in the main line of sight, so I think it should be all right.

And I booked said MOT for Next Friday. It's also going in for a service, which will be the last free one as part of my service plan. I've also asked them to take a look at the wheel wobble I've been getting. I've a dreaded feeling it might be damage from the pothole, but I'm hoping it's just a wheel weight not on right.

5) I figured out what I'd done wrong with my scanner

Basically - the answer was the same as the answer to "what's the shortest distance between two points? A straight line - basically, I was trying to thread the cables around the desk, like I do with the other cables, but actually what I did with them was simply have them hanging loose.

Unfortunately, I'd already been to PC World and bought a hugely long USB cable, but I'm sure it'll come in useful anyway. It wasn't cheap - cables are a right rip off at PC World - but I had a voucher thing my dad had given me, so it wasn't too bad.
I also...

Actually, this post is already massive, so I'll chop it in half and post the rest tomorrow, I think. That'll actually help me out because I'm off to a meeting tomorrow.