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.

Back Online Again

My ADSL modem decided to go titsup on Thursday which was a major drag. Quite shocking how much I miss being online. Still, I've got the situation in hand now. Picked up a 'stand-by' modem and we're back online today.

Went to see Gang Of Four on Thursday night. Top gig. They were fantastic. Good to see Paul and Mark of the IC list. Also bumped into Graeme there who claimed that Bruce has retired. I hope that it's not true.

Worked from home Thurs/Fri. Documents coming along fine. Got mail from my boss about overhead booking so I sent him back an explanation of my situation over the last few months. I wonder if I'll get some sort of response.

Another Site Day Plus Add-Ons

Well it gets me out of the office and gets my hours in. Not much reason to be in the office anyway. A very dull place when the good 'uns aren't in. Home working the rest of the week to try and bash out some more documents. Got a call from Trapper confirming that SteveP is after the Winchester position but it's about two months away so no point getting too excited just yet. As discussed with Phil, Trapper might end up being a good boss. At least we can shout at the guy and it's got to be better than another 'outsider' being foisted upon us.

Hopefully got my DVD burning sorted. Fixed at 4 speed, I made a good copy of Shaun Of The Dead which we enjoyed watching last night. Might take the speed up a notch later but at least I can do reliable copies now.

Wires new DVD The Scottish Play released at PostEverything today. Got my order in.

Looking forward to seeing Gang Of Four tomorrow night. Hopefully get a few shots for up on Flickr. Cool story on FlickrBlog tonight about a girl being photographed taking a photograph in Japan. Both images are up on Flickr now. What a great place it is!

On The Sick

Couldn't face it this morning. Stayed home and booked the day off sick. Caught up on some work documents and spent a lot of time on the phone to work. Suppose I might as well have been in work. Oh well.
Dylan's playing at Davids tonight. Harriet has come home with the cold symptoms also. Put her straight into bed. So I guess it's her turn this week.

Why Doesn't It Snow Anymore?

Feeling OK. Rallied yesterday after being called to site by client. Could have done without it but at least it got me motivated. Symptoms cleared enough to permit the usual Friday night bottle of wine to be opened.

Swimming lessons this morning followed by a walk around the block with the kids on their new scooters. It's started snowing this afternoon. I wish it would settle and we could have a winter wonderland for a few days. I know it won't. It's turning to drizzle already. Bummer. Why doesn't it snow anymore?

The Worlds Biggest Headache

This morning I've woken with the Worlds Biggest Headache. I can barely open my eyes. Tottered downstairs to medicate myself and I await some kind of relief. Please. I need it to get a bit better than this if I am to work today. Otherwise it's a day on the sick.

Yesterday in the post I got the latest issue of The Wire and a package of CD's from 4AD. I haven't even opened them yet. THAT'S how ill I am!

Location Update

So here I am at work. I WAS planning on working at home but when I phoned in, Geoff said he could do with a meeting. So here I am. Feeling rotten due to approaching cold and a 1.5 hours plus drive to the office. At least the Beard is not in and DaveH is. Hoping for an informative Team Brief later.

Adrift Midweek

Losing my bearings this week. Keep forgetting what day it is. Starting to feel cold symptoms from Dylan so I'm going to work from home tomorrow and Friday to save the tedious travelling. Cleared site today. No snags. One more site to go. Probably going to miss tomorrows Team Brief but sounds like there's no-one in anyway so it might be cancelled.

Gang Of Four related coincidences this evening. Got mail from Fergus asking if I was going to the Brum gig next week to which I replied yes, probably. Then Paul from IC mails out a ticket offer. Spooky. I guess I HAVE to go now.

Home Cinema

Fun evening 'cinema session' with me, Jacq and the kids all sharing the sofa with drinks and snacks, the lights off and Thunderbirds in the DVD. Pants movie to be honest. But a fun experience all the same.

Long Day Ends In Balti

The working day was tiring but at least it went by fast. Phoned Jacq on the way home about 9 o'clock. She then phoned the Raja with our order and I swooped by 15 mins later to pickup the baltis and home for feast. Kids staying up late to greet me. A top treat.

Thoughts In The Remix

Tired from a long site day and another tomorrow so just a quick few thoughts. It's good being out of the office and occupying my time, even if it is tiring. I'm enjoying quite a few of these new bands I'm hearing at the moment, especially TV On The Radio and Bloc Party. I even bought the NME today! Decided to shift focus of my recent musical dabblings back to rhythm. Beats are my thing, always have been, drummer in a punk band and all that. I've been neglecting the beat recently. Ideas above my station. Need to get back to my roots. Looking forward to a bit of free time to get creative. Also looking forward to a little drinkie tomorrow night. A nice glass of wine with the wife and a chillout infront of the box.

Have a good 'un y'all.

Thoughts In The Mix

Lots of things going on my brain in the last few days. Kewl stuff and depressing stuff all mixed up together. Buzzed yesterday by the new Mac mini. I want one of those suckers. Work was good too, Geoff over on site with me. But work today was a downer with Trappers stories laying it on thick. My confidence in the whole setup erodes more and more with each fresh tale of incompetence. Phil had had it all yesterday and I got it today. The lunchtime walk was subdued. Where do you start? Tonight we went over to my parents and I sorted out Dads printer and checked out his ADSL modem a bit more. Right now I'm busting some live DJ Shadow tunes on headphones. Loving the track 'InFlux', when the track moves up a gear as the vocal says 'change', it felt awesome. I've always naturally thought that change is a GOOD THING. Do I need change?

Bed Time Stinks!

Got my 1990 Wire photos scanned and uploaded today which I'm pleased about finally doing. Nice mail from Fergus about yesterdays upload. Took sometime finding a workaround to cope with the poor scanner software. But now I know what to do I can now hopefully start plowing through all the stuff Mike and I have been collecting. Hopefully do something creative and get it uploaded somewhere. Which reminds me I still haven't got the Tingy domain registered with my new ISP.

The kids have been a treat today. Let them stay up a bit longer tonight as they were playing with Animal Crossing and some Spiderman 2 Lego we got in the sales today. At the call for bedtime they quickly produced plackards and marched around the room chanting 'Bed Time Stinks!'.

Scanning Stuff

Got my scanner setup on XP SP2 tonight at last. It's not fully integrated so the scanning can only be done from the crappy software supplied by Packard Bell. But at least I can start getting some stuff done. Scanned in the WIRE Nottingham warm up gig from 2000 and got it up on Flickr here. Plenty more stuff to do.

Jacq found an article on the Guardian site about postal DVD rentals spelling the death of the video rental store. So we signed up on the Sainsburys rental site and were both online busily adding titles to our rental queue. Time to get some blank discs ordered I think.

Derren Brown

Watched Derren Brown tonight. HUGELY enjoyable! He managed to convince a whole bunch of 'experts' in all sorts of wack religions that he is the real deal. The guy was trying hard to maintain a kind of impartial line but he SO easily could have started into an anti-religion rant. I wish he had, it would have been SO cool. And even though I know it's just tricks he does and he admits as much, I REALLY wish I knew how he did 'em cos they are completely mystifying. Top stuff. By coincidence (or is it?) I got a leaflet today advertising his show in town. I think I might book a couple of tickets.

Movin' & Groovin'

Yesterday in the office day was not too bad. Perked up by a good moaning session by me and SteveD to Neil. Let's see what comes out of it. Visited Jim tonight then back home with enough time for the kids to play a while. I put a few tunes on and before long we were all dancing away to Fatboys 'Rockafeller Skank'. The kids were collapsing with laughter at my groovy dance moves. Copied 'Dawn Of The Dead' that Phil had lent me (looks good) while Jacq watched 'The Day After Tomorrow'. Gotta love that DVD writer!

Starting The Working Year

Got in early this morning to get it over with quick. Not a bad day in the office but still so many examples of poor performance from management that it's quite a struggle to maintain a positive attitude. Bart stuck his notice in Christmas Eve and will be gone in a couple of weeks. Good for him. He has needed to do it for a long, long time. Problems for the Coventry team though. It's another man down and I'm sure he won't be replaced. No plans in place for the transition which is no suprise. Steve down in Winchester again so things just drifting as before.

On the plus side it's good to catch up with Phil, Dan, etc. Excellent DVD of The Incredibles from Phil. Quality looks good from what I've seen. I'll have to knock out some copies of that when I get home tonight.

Punk

Enjoyed 12FU on BBC3 tonight, a documentary about Punk by Jonathan Ross. Totally understood his nostalgia for that unique time and also agreed with his analysis that so much creativity is powered by the energy and ideas of Punk. Good points well made.

I could well do with channelling some of that energy into some creativity of my own.

Tsunami

Haven't been able to form my thoughts about this still and it happened a week ago now. My previous posts have made no hint as I simply did not know what to say. And what do my words matter anyway? Donated tonight. Now what? What else can I do? Does it help to keep thinking about it? I haven't been watching the TV news during this holiday, it would probably have been just too much. My head struggles enough with the internet reports.

Can't believe todays comments in the media that peoples faith might be tested. Yeah? Really? Like, duh! When will the world just GROW UP and dump this infantile attachment to its religions. Just what use are they being right now?

My thoughts and opinions on these matters are inadequate and irrelevant I know, but I just wanted to put something down.

Happy New Thing!

A happy two thousand and thing to all my reader! Been over at Lizzies this afternoon, she made a nice curry then we played Triv. Nowhere near as much fun as the recent Taboo session. Questions just too hard and uninteresting.

Changed my Flickr buddy icon tonight back to a non-festive style. The tree will be coming down sometime this weekend. Christmas will soon be over.

Pulling down a few tunes from Soulseek as I type. It's been a while since I downloaded much but magazine and website lists of the years releases have given me some ideas.

Fireworks are going off like crazy right now. People are out in the street looking up. Families with little 'uns staying up for the new year. It's never really meant that much to us. Seems a little too forced. I'd rather find a moment to meditate on the past year than set off fireworks.

Listened tonight to a Peel Radio 1 documentary I'd recorded recently. I wonder if his passing is my defining event of 2004? Right now I can't think of anything else that comes close.