Flat Pack Hell

After recent days spent building up Ikea shelving units, today provided hopefully the last of the flat-pack hell. It seems like we're starting to get straight with some books coming out of boxes and onto shelves for the first time since the move. Jacq's been trying to get me to dump some vinyl as part of the sort-out. It's a really tough call. Should an LP be dumped if you now own the CD? I don't know. These are tough philosophical questions. I'm not sure I'm qualified to provide answers.

The Gaps In Between

Another busy 'working from home' Friday in which lots of things happened and I managed to fit some project work into the gaps in between.

Dropped the kids off at school and went to see my doctor for another blood pressure check. This check was at the end of a month on the tablets he prescribed me. The good news was that my BP was down to just about the right numbers for my age. I've now got the go ahead to start getting into some exercise and get my act together lifestyle-wise.

Put the car into the garage for an engine service. While waiting to drop it off I stood for a long while chatting with a mechanic and admiring the 1965 Mini he was working on. It was in superb condition and made me smile just to look at it. Just a year younger than me and still going strong.

Back home for a few hours at the project work then another session with Linda. We practised quite a lot of Chi Kung which felt really good this time and I was complimented on my stance. I'm seeing her again in two weeks so I need to work at integrating the practise into the coming weeks in Karlsruhe.

Took our old two-seater sofa round to Mikes with his help. It was easy enough to carry round to the house, but a bit of a bugger to get through to the back room. Now they've got two sofas in there it's a bit full but I reckon they'll be real comfy in there. I hope so anyway.

Parents came over in the evening. Dad glad to be back from Ireland.

I Understand No German

Finally got around to putting some German language lessons on my iPod. I've been really slack about this, Adrian and Phil have been studying it for ages now. I had a go with lesson 1 on the drive to work. As I got to the office the only phrase I could recall was 'I understand no German'. I tried my phrase out on a German guy working in the office and at least he understood me!

Running Taper

Mark Clifford, the genius behind Seefeel, has a new CD 'Running Taper' out on his Polyfusia label. If you click the link, you can hear a track from it. Just been listening to 'Idealess' and it is a lovely thing. Really makes me want to make some noise.

Working At Home, Blogging In Bed

Back from Germany late last night and up bright and early for quite a busy 'working from home' type day. We took Dylan to school and then hung around, Jacq did the refreshments prior to the year 2 assembly, and I nipped out and got my hair cut. After Dylans cute assembly we picked up some supplies and headed home for the last bit of the morning. At midday the coach arrived bringing Harriet home from Ingestre Hall. Sounds like she had a great time there with stories of 'eating tuck after light's out', absolutely classic.

Jacq helped out with year 1 kids in the afternoon while I had another session with Linda. The practise didn't go so smoothly over in Germany. The hotel environment proved to be a distraction and we discussed some strategies for dealing with that. Sitting practise was good and the body-scan practise tried for the first time. Must try to maintain a consistent approach in this coming week to really fix it into my routines.

The rest of the afternoon was spent doing some actual work. Design decisions made while in Germany are now being questioned. If only these issues had been addressed by the original design process then we would not have been forced into making decisions at this late stage. Sometimes, despite what the customer says, we have to trust that we know a thing or two about designing control systems. It's the only way to go forward at this point.

Went over to visit Mum tonight as Dad is over in Ireland catching up with people. Sounds like he's having a good time there and I'm glad he's finally making the space for himself to do this sort of thing. Long overdue.

Typing this from bed. Blogging in bed rocks! It's the future.

Working In A Karlsruhe Stylee

A bit of snow, a warm hat, lots of walking, public transport, iPod soundtrack, PCS7 programming, hotel breakfast, canteen salad, Subway sandwich and mumbling the occasional words in German.

Working in a Karlsuhe stylee.

I think there's worse places to be sent to work in than Karlsruhe. I'd rather be working at home of course but this place is better than being stuck in Winchester which is where I'll be in a few weeks no doubt.

Jacq and Dyl sound like they're having a fine time while Harriet is away at Ingestre Hall for the week. Looking forward to friday when we're all back together.

Siemens Industriepark Karlsruhe

A Connection Thing

Worked at home yesterday and had my second session with Linda. We did sitting and standing meditations and I think I'm getting into it more. No revelations as such but a tangible sense of relaxation and peace. Will be interesting to see how I can integrate the practise into next weeks visit to Karlsruhe.

Swimming today and Dylan still wasn't happy swimming from the deep end even though we'd practised it loads last Sunday. Harriet swam superbly and passed her level 8 test!

Quick phone chat with Mike while making lunch. We agreed that Sally Phillips was a godess last night on 8 Out Of 10 Cats.

Went over to Marys in the afternoon. I haven't seen the Steves since christmas I think. General agreement on the greatness of My Name Is Earl. Theresa still not committing to the June holiday yet. Just what does she need? I'm gonna have to force the issue next time I see her.

Came home and watched Curse Of The Were-Rabbit which looked great on the telly after I played around with the connections. Ran the DVD through the RGB input and it made an amazing difference to the picture quality. Also, the annoying crackle in the left speaker seems to have gone, so that must have been a connection thing.

The Start Of Spring?

March already. The met office are calling it spring but it doesn't feel like it right now. It's been cold, but no snow to speak of. Enjoying the blinding glare of the sun through the windscreen on these clear mornings soundtracked by Boards Of Canada.

Feeling ok with work stuff which seems unusually under control. Can it last? I dunno. Trying to keep taking my tablets and practising the meditations. Drinking less coffee. Am I feeling any different yet? No. But, early days yet.

Check My Links

Tinkered a bit with the blog today. I've wanted to organise my links for a while but didn't want to have to get into any sort of coding. Finally I found the combination of services that appears to give me what I want. First off, I created a Bloglines account to scan through the rss feeds of the usual suspects of news sites and publish the good stuff on a blog. This blog also provides an rss feed which gets converted by Feed Digest into some javascript dropped into my Blogger template. Job done. Check my links.

The Old House But Different

Swimming in the morning. Shopping in the afternoon. Party for Harriet later and Mitchell came over to play. Noticed that our old house is up for sale. Checked it out online and there were a number of photos of it inside. It was weird to see pictures of somewhere you know so well, changed by others redecoration.

Much musing in the evening over holiday choices. Center Parcs is looking favourite. Probably in thhe UK even though it's way more expensive than over in Europe. The booking will be made soon.

Precious Snow

Friday at home again. A covering of snow made the walk to school fun. Harriet carried her snowball all the way to the playground. I saw a number of kids carrying huge chunks of snow in their arms towards school. Too precious to throw around, this rare material called snow. I wish the kids could enjoy a proper downfall of the white stuff.

Back at home I settled down for my first solo meditation. Had about a 20 minute session in total and it seemed ok. Calming. Got me in a good place ready for the work session. Getting into my sequence logic. Nice when a plan comes together.

Got the car back. Still needs an engine service but I'll book that next week. Just glad to have my 'wheels' back. Watched Kingdom Of Heaven tonight and really enjoyed it. Unusual film for me to like but I guess I was just in the right placce for it.

My First Meditation

Thursday I worked from home. Car in the garage for MOT work. Spent a lot of time on the phone to various colleagues. At last the pieces are coming together and some coding can take place.

Broke off at 1:30PM for my first meditation session with Linda. An interesting hour or so. Not sure what I got from it but I've decided to follow it through for a few more sessions to give it a fair chance.

Didn't get the car back as some work needs doing on the brakes so I guess no office action tomorrow either.

Mike came over in the evening and we went out for a beer or four. Attempts to go down the Hagley Road were aborted and we ended up in the local which turned out to be just right. T'was real good to see him and hear his enthusiasm for his current creative outputs. Go for it fella!

An Update From The Doctor

Saw my doctor today and thankfully my BP has gone down a bit. I need to do a month on the tablets to confirm that they really are working. My blood tests haven't shown up anything to worry about so that's another bit of good news.

Update

Back from Karlsruhe Wednesday at midnight. Blood test first thing Thursday then took Dyl for another hearing test at City. Into the office late morning, not many in to catch up with. Reported project progress and probably started alarm bells ringing.

Worked at home Friday and the alarm bells continued to ring. Got a login for the I&S ProFlow system which seems a neat way of exchanging large files. Went into town for lunch and a stroll around the Bullring.

Saturday swim only for Harriet as Dyl complained of earache. In the afternoon we saw Zathura with Carol and Dave. Rest of day just hanging and doing a bit of project work. The application is well and truly in my head now and it's not going away. Need to make some REAL progress in the coming few days. I need all of my CFCs in place and get down with sequence development.

Free Is My Favourite Price

Those nice people over at Computer Arts have made all of their tutorials available for free. That's very nice of them isn't it? They used to be 99p each and so I never bothered with any of them. But I think I will now. Free is my favourite price.

Back At My Hotel

Back at my hotel room and about to watch a movie on my laptop but first I did a check for any wireless networks, and hey, I found one! So what's a boy to do but leech some bandwidth and have a web browse. Shamone!

Karlsruhe Commute

Another commute over to Karlsruhe. A journey eased by my swanky new earphones I picked up at the airport. The ear-plug style really boosts the bass and cuts down on the aircraft background roar, leaving the skittering rhythms of Laika to soundtrack the flight.

Done a few hours in the office and now I'm the last one here. I guess I'd better take the tram over to my crummy hotel. That means no more internet connection for today. Arrgh!

Through The Roof

While in hospital last year I was told to get my blood pressure checked out as it seemed to be a bit on the high side. So yesterday I saw my doctor who checked it and declared it to be "through the roof". Apparently my 180 over 110 is a bit more than on the high side. It was a bit alarming. I had an ECG done to check that my heart wasn't already damaged by the high pressure (it wasn't) and he put me straight onto medication to get the pressure down as a priority. Apparently five years at this kind of pressure and I'd be done for. Yikes.

Back Home And Working At Home

Got back home at midnight last night. Got a taxi home from the airport complete with the city's most talkative cab driver. I mumbled my way through his endless conversation whilst praying constantly for him to please... shut... up. This morning I got up easy and have been working from home. But now I'm really feeling tired. My eyes are closing as I'm typing this. I should take a nap but a coffee will have to do.

After mentioning the chat function within Gmail, they only go and launch it today don't they? Tried it this morning and it worked well. It will probably only be Phil that I chat with as it's a great way to keep updated with the office gossip.

The Winter Olympics open today in Italy. Google have uploaded hi-res data of the area for Google Local and Google Earth. Must try and catch the opening ceremony tonight.