NYC Envy

I'm suffering from a condition known as NYC Envy. Paul texted me to let me know he was standing in the queue for the Empire State Building. Lucky bugger.

Has Bruce Left Then?

The runour about Bruce leaving WIRE hit the list a few days ago and it's still running. Shame that WIRE can't put out any clear communication about this. Don't know why most artists seem unwilling to communicate directly. Maybe they need to preserve a distance.

So It Never Did Snow

Enjoying the weekend. No snow left at all from the past week. Every day we hoped we'd get a decent snowfall but it never happened. One morning in the playground the kids were scraping together the dusting of snowfalkes in a desparate attempt at a snowball fight. Such a shame we never got a chance to have a real play in some deep snow. It never seems to snow here anymore.

No More R.E.M. Ranting

A knight who says Ni.

I've said my piece and I'll say no more. But I wish I had taken the camera like Steve did. He got some nice shots even though he was miles away. Good work.

R.E.M.

Tonight we went to see REM at the NEC. Top band but shit venue. I really hate stadium gigs. They are really pointless souless affairs. The band are an inch high and the sound is lame. It was the quietest gig I've ever been to. And what the fuck is the clap-a-long all about? A bunch of fools displaying a rudimentary graps of a songs rhythm and tempo? I want to hear the music, not the claps of middle-aged cretins. And yes, I know I'm middle-aged but I'm a different sort to this lot let me assure you.

A real gig involves shoving, sweating, spilt beer and music so loud that you can't hear properly the whole bus journey home. Give me one of those any day.

Happy Little Skater Boy

Well it's Wednesday and I still don't have my car back yet. Hopefully this morning, I'm waiting for the call back to say it's ready to collect. I should have chased them earlier yesterday but I was up on site. While up there I grabbed myself my first ever pair of Vans trainers! Only had to wait thirty years! The little skater boy inside of me was a very happy chappy.

Trying to snow a bit again today but still not having much impact. No where near deep enough to both walking round to the woods.

My work laptop looks like it's gone tits up this morning so I'm not being very productive while waiting for my car to be ready. Hopefully the I.T. man will fix it this Friday. Though knowing my luck it'll snow hard and he won't bother coming up from Winchester. Need to get into the Coventry office and collect my old laptop.

Car Service Day

Today was my annual car service day which always fills me with dread. Somehow I've got the whole power relationship wrong with garages. When they phone me up to advise me of things that need doing I almost feel like I'm in trouble. I need to remember that I'm the customer here! So the car needs some work doing on the brakes but by the time I spoke to them it was too late to complete the work today. Good job I've got a hire car for site at the moment.

Popped into the office this afternoon. First time for ages. Got stuck in a meeting with my boss and a salesman. A cruel reminder of how deep the talent pool runs at that place. Trapper updated on the latest gossip. Seems like SP is still a possible for the Winchester job. Maybe change is coming?

Totally Pooped

A busy weekend involving all the usual stuff and more besides.

Paul over first thing Saturday to dump his camcorder footage onto DVD clearing his tapes for his trip to NYC next week. Dylan asked him to come and watch him swim which he did. Watched the Bourne Supremacy tonight. Top stuff.

Sunday morning took the kids to see Spongebob at the cinema. Met up with Steve his kids there. It wasn't as funny as the TV version. I fell asleep for a while which made it mercifully short. Went to the Bullring in the afternoon to pick up a present for Maleeq. Over to Star City for the bowling party. What a noisy place. Dylan was unsure at first but settled into having a great time with his mates. He was pipped for first place by one point right on the last turn. Harriet was pretty stressed out by the place. I ended up chatting with Steve and Ruth same as last Saturday. When the party was finally over we visited Jim and dropped in some groceries for him. Back home about 8:30PM totally pooped.

A Week Offline Is A BAD Thing

Back from a week on site and so glad to be back online. No real tales to tell about my week. Long days but finally my project comes to a sort of close. Some mopping up left to do but all the sites are now up and running.

Phil down on site this weekend coverng for the Grain team. Hope it's no too tedious down there mate!

Watched Anchorman tonight. Bit of a dissapointment. Very patchy for laughs. Not really worth a copy, and that's saying something.

Chloes Party

Got up early. Couldn't stay in bed any longer. Decided to go for a walk. Boots on and striding out with purpose. Did a big circuit around Bearwood for about 35 minutes. Felt good. Gave swimming a miss this morning. Harriet stayed with Aksa while we took Dylan and Sofia to Chloes party. Dylan had a great time. Good chat with Steve and Ruth while there. Rest of day spent just lazing about. Downloaded some good tunes. Enjoying 'The Lost You' by Hood who are playing the Flapper this week but I won't be able to catch them cos of working on site. Put off the groceries until tomorrow. Feel OK in myself.

Nathan Barley

Mike came over this morning. Great to see him and ramble on about all sorts. Reviewed some of my latest loops. Some of them are definite keepers. Got him to agree to restarting the 'whatever' stuff under a different guise. Plan is to use the blog structure and concentrate on content. My first task is to plough the box of stuff we've collected and get them scanned in.

Lots of work comms again today. Seems that there is no alternative to me going up to the Mersey site on Monday. Thankfully Geoff while be there as backup if I flake out. More gossip circulating about the new engineering structure. Interesting times ahead.

At last some decent comedy on the telly tonight with the start of 'Nathan Barley', the new series by Chris Morris and Charlie Brooker. Okay, the target were soft, Hoxton media types, but it was damn funny shit all the same. Check out www.trashbat.co.ck

Nintendo DS VIP Pack

Fresh in the post today, the Nintendo DS VIP Pack. The latest addition of Nintendo goodness to our household. It's a lovely bit of kit. It came this morning while I was kipping in bed. Jacq bounced into the room to show me Mario 64 in all his touch-screen glory.

Not feeling too bad this morning I guess. Although it has varied throughout the day. Going to the toilet feels like I'm pissing needles! I've been assured it will ease after 24 hours so I just have to grin and bear it.

Jacq went out to help with a school visit to church this afternoon and I spent the entire time on the phone. Spoke with Mike and arranged a 'coffee-morning' session this Friday. Should be just like old art-school times. Dad called and we compared painful pissing stories. Spoke with Geoff on site to try and help with problems. Have suggested to Stuart that I work next week from Kingsbury just in case I need to flake out back home. Trapper phoned with the latest gossip. Seems that the new my systems manager post in Winchester is not in the bag. Maybe things won't be changing in Coventry after all. Apparently the new Team Leader roles are salary based, rather them than me.

Back Home From Hospital

So glad to be back home tonight. All done and feeling pretty good really. Yesterday was an anti-climax as it was only planned to admit me to the ward on Monday with the procedures booked in for today. It took until 4PM to get confirmation of a bed by phone then I had to haggle for the latest time that I could 'check-in'.

Took the bus down to City Hospital to save Jacq and the kids disrupting their eveing routine. After all I was just going there to sit in an uncomfortable chair and bed then attempt to sleep. Had trouble sleeping on the awful bed and with the sounds of the ward.

This morning dragged until I was called for theatre at 1:00PM. The procedures went to plan except that no stone was found! There's a chance that it's got washed up into the kidney so I'll be having follow up in four months. If it's still in there they can sonically smash it. Felt a bit yuck afterwards but perked at the thought of getting outta there this evening. The first was REALLY painful and still is for 24 hours. Ouch!

Jacq and the kids turned up for a visit at 6:00PM and I was chuffed to tell them I was coming home. The kids had drawn up some lovely get well cards which made me blub. Got my stuff together and home for a relaxing evening. Post from Phil (thanks mate) provided the evenings viewing of Collateral which was excellent.

Feeling OK at the moment and hoping for a restful nights sleep. Great to be home.

Blog Summary

It's been a while since my last blog so I'll attempt some sort of update:

Wednesday, February 02, 2005 - On the way into the office Jacq called me. She was feeling rough so I returned home to take the kids into school. This meant of course that my time in the office was reduced so I had to knuckle down to get all the tasks done to prepare for the Mersey site commissioning. I'm hoping that Geoff doesn't get dumped with the job. I hope I'm fit enough to do the business.

Phil gave me a birthday card which I found really touching. He really is a top mate.

Thursday, February 03, 2005 - Dropped kids off with Jayne then down to City Hospital for pre-admission checks. An x-ray confirmed that the stone was still in there. Had all my bloodworks done and confirmed Mondays procedure is still on.

Friday, February 04, 2005 - My 41st birthday. Went to Harriets assembly. She had some words to say which she delivered beautifully. Jacq and I went up to the Clent Hills for a walk. Same as we did last year. Very enjoyable just walking and talking in the fresh air.

Post from Amazon, Everyday Matters which I discovered via the blog of a Flickr contact rbanks. The book is lovely and inspiring. Makes me want to try to do a drawing. Something I haven't done for years. Recently I got my art folder down out of the attic and was looking at some pencil drawings I'd done of my own hand drawing. I wondered if I could still do such a drawing.

Saturday, February 05, 2005 - The usual swimming lessons and groceries plus Paul and Lyn came over tonight and subjected us to their holiday snaps from Australia. So much easier to check out photos when all jpeg'd onto a cd through the telly. Looks like they had a good time although the place has no appeal for me whatsoever. The lucky buggers are shooting off to New York in a couple of weeks time. Now THAT appeals to me bigtime.

Product Update Briefings

Good day in the office with a series of update presentations from various bits of the business. Good explanation given of how my company fit within the organisation. Pity that we didn't get something similar a couple of years ago! Feel quite positive coming out of the meetings. Wonder how long it will last?

When I got home Jacq and kids were having a 'cinema party' on the sofa watching a DVD. I set about making a chicken curry for Jacq with a quorn version for myself. Not bad for a first effort.

Mersey Monday

Monday on site. Had to go into the office first to pick up a cable then back up to the Mersey site. Long day but generally successful. In the evening I picked up a bummer email from Fergus confirming the rumour about Bruce. Depressing news.

The Snowman

Lovely day on Sunday started with a visit to the Birmingham Rep theatre to see a production of The Snowman. It was great watching the kids experience live theatre. At the end, fake snow was dropped onto the audience which was top fun. Went to the museum tea room for lunch. Lovely surroundings. Overhead someone humming the 'Walking In The Air' tune. Walked further into town and checked out some shops. Jacq bought a hat and bag from Accessorize. In the Bullring we picked up some new books for the kids. Harriet chose some Jacqueline Wilson novels and me and Dyl picked up Captain Underpants.