Another long weekend....

Made longer by a few things.... Saturday during the day I start to jet wash the patio, big patio, long job, so decide to do it over a couple of days, then Saturday late PM the drains (luckily the kitchen sink & garden hose drain, nothing worse!) block up! So on a Bank Holiday weekend should I call out Dyno-Rod & get charged £400? No, on Sunday AM I go out & buy my own set of shiney drain rods, then go back & buy another set because the first set wouldn't reach the blockage, all sorted in 4 hours on Sunday morning - ah what fun.

Sunday PM & Monday continue to jet wash the patio & teak oil the garden furniture, all finished by 7:00pm, time to have dinner & retire to bed for a short working week. Most people appear to be on leave this week, so will try to have a quiet one.

An enormous sense of dread....

Why is it that some days you can't sleep because of an enormous sense that something is going to go so very badly wrong? Work or personal life, not sure. It rarely happens to me (ever the optimist!?) but last night I could barely settle into my comfortable bed to sleep (as normally happens without any issue). Nothing bad happened today at all, infact it was quite a productive normal day without any issue that I couldn't deal with with - which is the norm.

Will have to wait & see what tommorrow brings. Weird.

Update: Well, I'm still here a few days after my sense of foreboding. Don't know what that was all about.

Been away.... time to catch up

I have been on a week of leave from work & thought it better to reflect rather than get over excited like my earlier post entitled "Wahoooooooo - its Friday, and I'm now on holiday...."

Had a good week off, went to France, had some lovely food, brought back a load of food, wine, beer & booze that I'll cook & enjoy over the next couple of weeks or so (longer for the alcohol - honest). Asparagus, Prawns, Mussels, Champagne to name but a few. Had the mussels last night - lovely!! Tommorrow I will cook an Asparagus & Cheese tart that I saw in The Sunday Times Magazine a few weeks ago.

Am off to Salisbury tommorrow to have a go at contact lenses at the best opticians in the world (see earlier post) & take a recent addition to my collection of Browning shotguns to Greenfields gunsmiths for a few modifications. A 16 bore Browning 325 Grade 6 that kicks like a mule as its too short in the stock for me, so am having a Kick-Eeze pad put on that will take it to 15" & having the horrible polyurethane stock taken back down & oiled properly. Am going to Greenfields first as my normal Gunsmith fell through his roof two weeks ago & will be out of action for a few months. When Greenfields have done I will take it to him to get the stock reshaped & re-chequered & a silver insert put in the stock to match my others.

Had some news that a friend of mine has just lost his entire hard disk drive - nothing backed up at all. I created a database for him 7 years ago & he has lost the lot - I am inclined to say what a twat, but am feeling charitable. Anyone know any good data recovery services near Birmingham?

People analysis....

At my customer today I met a guy, well actually he is a shrink. He is flown all over the world at great expense by his employer (my customer) to meet & analyse the senior management of the businesses. He reports back & holds sessions where the management are gathered together to discuss each others failings & bad points - how therapeutic!?

He was introduced to me as he had a question about my car parked outside (he has a BMW 7 Series & is looking to change it for an Audi A8 - apparently!?). I did think for a nanosecond about going down the path that I have such a large car because it's really just an extension of my penis etc etc, but thought better of it. So I just answered normally & gave my opinion on what a nice car it is. It still feels like I was being analysed & measured by him though, I really wonder sometimes & I don't understand some people when they just don't stop work mode.

Where in the world....

Carl Tylers blog had this link, it replicates a map of the world on my study wall with little dots all over it to represent places I have been. Strangely it comes out at 40 countries or 17%, the same as Carl & clearly still loads to see then!



Give it a try create your own visited country map

It's my birthday & I'll garden if I want to....

Yes, it's my birthday today (38 honest!), it's that one day in the year when you can do as you please as its the anniversary of your birth. So what did I do? Got up at 7:30 took a load of stuff to the tip, got a paper, had some breakfast & spent the day working in the garden! Not my idea of a day to remember, but at least the gardens look 100% now.

The best eye test, ever!

I had today the best experience of a process that I usually hate, an eye test. I dislike it because it probably means great expense & investment in new glasses, sunglasses, shooting\squash glasses which adds up to a pretty penny. You are also subjected to a bloke pushing his face around yours with a small bright torch beaming away in your eyes!

All of that happened, but the prescription hadn't changed so no new glasses required.

I did however ask that my current glasses be adjusted and that the pads be replaced. I was passed on to the sexiest Opticians Assistant ever who had the most fantastic cleavage on public show. After she had replaced the parts, then pushed & pulled the frames & placed them on me she asked me to follow her hand around with my eyes to see if she had adjusted the glasses correctly, where do you look!? She didn't seem to mind & made light of it, brilliant.

If Heineken were Opticians, they would come 2nd place to these. Memory Opticians

A good day & a bad day in IBM

I went to the IBM Business Partner Community Conference today in sunny Bedfont, an excellent event with hundreds of IBM Business Partners attending. Bumped into loads of people that I work with & know of old from my years at Lotus\IBM. An excellent networking day with loads of information shared, sadly the email suffered & I have come back to 65 to get through!

The end of the day was a tad uncomfortable with the public announcement that IBM is to make 13,000 staff redundant in Europe, with probably quite a few in the UK and Paris EMEA HQ.

Why do people do it?

I travelled to central London yesterday, I took the train. Once in a while is bad enough, but 5 days a week!? How\why do people suffer the cattle in a lorry conditions & rip off prices for the pleasure? I know the answer to my question is probably "because they have to".

I had a 2pm meeting, so took the 12:04 from Andover, it was OK, not too many people, got a seat with a table & did an hour of work on my laptop. Journey back was the 18:20, managed to get a seat in the door lobby area, it was smelly & baking hot, packed full of rude & dumb people, they all got off at Woking & Basingstoke! Mega headache upon return meant early to bed.

Mayday means fete!

The Mayday fete at Hurstbourne Priors has been a fixture in my diary for a few years now, not for the fete itself, but for the Clay Pidgeon Shoot in the next field held to raise money for something or other.

It's only a small venue, it is quite good fun watching the locals have a go, mixing with the "ringers" who travel around winning the cash pool every year. Then there is the even more interesting sight watching a cross section of society from Gamekeepers to Gentry, Professional to Thug, Window Fitter to Plumber, Bankrobbers & others (I see myself in the "others" section by the way!) shoot with varying degrees of ability & I have to say it - safety. Some of the gun handling skills were terrible, CPSA safety course & CPSA membership for insurance should be mandatory for anyone wanting to shoot in a competition - only my opinion.

I only shot one round, with a 20 bore, I scored 31 ex 40, so not bad, but no prize. The winner shot 4 rounds & scored 39 ex 40.