Campylobacter
Monday, November 29, 2010 ~ 3 comments so far
AKA Food Poisoning.
Is not fun.
I will spare you the details.
That is all.
Getting into the groove
Monday, November 22, 2010 ~ 1 comment so far
This blog is starting to feel like just that, a personal blog, again.
That’s good, in that I seem to be getting some sort of writing routine back (even if it’s still somewhat sporadic) and bad in that I seem to be treating it more like a diary.
Anyway, it’s my blog, I can do what I want.
One thing that I definitely need to focus on is getting into a routine. Tonight, finally, I have an induction at a gym. I deliberately chose one close to work, that opens at 7am, to force myself to get up and hit the gym in the morning (with the fallback of going in the evening). It’s not that far from my flat, about 15-20 minute drive, but as my weekends are looking busy already then I’ll likely, mostly, be going during the week anyway.
That’s the plan at least.
I’m also considering buying a Wii, and Wii Fit, as I did enjoy using it and it was definitely helping with my flexibility (cardio stuff is better at the gym), although I do need to buy a new camera as I’m going to be signing up for a photography class which starts in January…
Hmmmmm, I think I need a new credit card.
Random thought of the day
Tuesday, November 16, 2010 ~ 5 comments so far
I was at the Skunk Anansie gig last night and there were a lot of tattoos on display. A lot of them on women including one full lower arm piece. It got me thinking.
To have a large piece of ink on display, pretty much all the time, takes an attitude and lifestyle but which came first?
Was the “I don’t care what anyone thinks” attitude always there? Or was the tattoo part of gaining that attitude? Doubtless it was somewhere in-between but is there something there about being able to develop a mindset that maybe is sometimes hidden? A way of making a bold decision to make (force?) a change in your personality?
I think that it can take big events for some people to re-focus on themselves and take a step closer to who they want to be, and whilst it wasn’t the original reason behind my first tattoo, it’s certainly a lot closer tied to my thinking this time around.
Or maybe I’m just too old to care anymore.
Don’t answer that.
Upcoming
Friday, November 12, 2010 ~ 2 comments so far
Just been checking my calendar.
12th Nov – Tonight, out for food and drinks.
13th Nov – Tomorrow, hand in registration form at new doctor, go discuss idea for next tattoo with artist.
14th Nov – Sunday, early start at IKEA, then the building of various pieces of furniture whilst watching F1.
15th Nov – Monday evening, Skunk Anansie at the O2 Academy.
16th Nov – Tuesday evening, Kele at the Arches.
17th Nov – Wednesday evening, start work for website design for client.
18th Nov – Thursday evening, gym induction (tbc).
19th Nov – Friday evening, pizza and movie night (the first, of many?).
20th Nov – Saturday, out for lunch/drinks/munchies.
21st Nov – Sunday evening, Caribou, Four Tet, Nathan Fake, James Holden at the ABC.
In other words, whilst I am pretty busy next week, I’m not going to short of things to blog about.
You have been warned.
Alright me Babber
Monday, November 8, 2010 ~ 1 comment so far
I was in Brizzle on Friday, I mean Bristol. It was a bit damp, but that didn’t matter as I was there for the wedding of a wonderful woman called Ann and a rather charming man called Karl.
I had some time to myself during the day, and wandered round the harbour area, avoiding the drizzle as best I could. It’s a nice place, from what I saw of it, and the people are really friendly. I’m sure it’s even nicer in the sunshine!
The wedding itself was one of the better weddings I’ve attended, not least for the company, many of whom were bloggers, more of whom were Twitterers (Twittees?), and all of whom were friendly, funny and most certainly game for a laugh. The bride looked stunning, the groom dashing, and I even got to wear a kilt for the evening which is always good.
Several highlights spring to mind, not least watching the bride pogo to Smells Like Teen Spirit. Meeting several people I’ve known online (some of which for almost ten years) for the first time is always fun, although we never did figure out quite who all the other people on Twitter were (hashtag for the evening was #pixnups, yes, it was a geek wedding!). There was beer, cameras, knitting, good chat, shoe porn, laughter, toy cars, and even a spot of dancing. Fun fun fun!
Mind you the getting up at 5.45 the next morning for the flight back, not so much fun!
Nor was locking myself out of my flat when I left on Friday morning, which meant I had to go pick up the spare set from the letting agency rather than just crawl into bed, whimpering.
The rest of the weekend was pretty quiet, but all added up to being a very good weekend indeed.
Come back soon for the next thrilling installment when I’ll be blogging about buying and constructing bookcases from IKEA, and plans for my next tattoo. The fun never ends!
Oh No, Not Again!
Thursday, November 4, 2010 ~ Comments Off
HAD to share this.
One for my Dad
Wednesday, November 3, 2010 ~ 4 comments so far
Apparently I’ve not been blogging much. My Dad commented on this last night when I phoned so I thought I’d post a wee update for all my tens of avid readers.
Not much is happening.
I’m working.
I have no internets. I will not have internets until November 23rd. In a royal cock up between O2 (with whom I’d like to have both my home phone and broadband services) and BT OpenReach (the engineer part of BT, the only people allowed to touch the exchange, apparently), I managed to have my new home phone number wrongly allocated to someone else (by BT).
That bit was funny actually. I got a txt from O2 to say my phone line was now connected and “here is your new phone number”. I thought I’d test it by phoning my landline from my mobile. It’s a weird thing to be staring at a phone, as you dial the number that should make it ring, for it not only to not make a sound but for someone to pick up and say “hello?”. Freaked me out that did!
Upon reporting that error, O2 said (after a lot of to-ing and fro-ing) that they’d have to cancel the order and set up a new one (which is where the 23rd November date comes in). I was supposed to have an engineer out today but O2 said, no, it’s cancelled now.
So when a BT engineer phoned today to say he was on his way … I was a bit perturbed. Nevertheless I went home, he fixed the line and got the phone number allocated to me. I happily phoned O2 to tell them this, presuming that as it had been sorted then they could just turn things back on at their end (or whatever it is they actually do) only to be told that as the order had been cancelled yesterday there wasn’t anything they could do and that they would, yes really, have to disconnect that number and issue me a new one (and a second wireless router for the broadband connection too. Yes, really).
Which all seems a bit fucked up and which will be the subject of a detailed complaint to O2 wherein I will ask for compensation as I have websites to fix/design/build and I’m losing money all the time I’m not doing those things!
OK, so strictly speaking I will have internet access via a USB dongle which O2 issued to me but it’s not quite the same!
Aside from that, nothing much is happening. The flat is slowly taking shape (the purchase of some new furniture will help), and I’m reasonably settled into my new routine although I’ve yet to add “going to the gym cos I’m a fat bastard” to that yet so we will see how that goes.
Ohh yeah, and I’m off to Bristol on Friday for a wedding. I fly down Friday morning and, thanks to EasyJet who only do one flight back on a Saturday, I’ll be getting up at 6.15am on Saturday. The day after a wedding. Where they will be serving alcohol. This strikes me as “not fair”. On the other hand I am getting to meet a lot of blogger-type people who I’ve never met before and that’s ALWAYS fun.