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.

Sparky The Hamster

Phoned home last night and Dylan picked up. I asked how he was and what he was up to and his reply was, "We haven't even got a hamster!" What a cutie! (That's Dylan, not the hamster. The hamster I've not met yet.)

Travelling Back

Travelling back today but in the office all day till six before setting off for the train/plane. It's going to be one l-o-n-g day today. The iPod is on charge on the desk getting ready for the journey. Progress has been happening within the project so I guess it's been a worthwhile trip. I'm back out here again on Monday for some more.

Sitting here at my desk I'm really cherishing my internet connection. Couldn't do without it. Makes being away so much easier. Checking my regular blogs helps loads. Keep on posting people!

Some great web stuff to pimp at the moment. 30 boxes is looking good and being very useful in practise as I'm planning out my forthcoming weeks. Looking forward to getting chat working within my Gmail as this will be an even greater way to keep in touch using IM. Lifehacker keeps on feeding the goodness with a link to this tidy little torrent client which I'll install when home and then I'll be hitting this list of torrent sites hard.

The Great Bull

This is superb, The Great Bull, a version of 'The Great Bear', which in itself is a version of the London tube map. Made me a bit homesick. And a bit proud strangely.

Another Day In Karlsruhe

Ate out last night with Marco at an African restaurant which was very nice indeed. I gave the crocodile meat a miss and stayed with the vegetables.

Not much to say about the work side of the trip. Things are plodding along and it seems I'm expected to turn up here every week even if it's just to show some 'presence'. Seeing as I don't really command much presence, being a humble sort of chap, I don't really know if I will meet this requirement. But, if that's what they want me to do...

Karlsruhe Again

Karlsruhe again. Monday is basically travelling. The journey is not hard, but the time taken means that not much else can be done in the rest of the day. Hotel is a bit basic but it'll do for a few days. The noise from the surrounding area is a challenge. There is a level crossing right outside the hotel where the tram cuts across. A bells rings constantly while the barriers are down and this happens every ten minutes!

Tuesday now and I'm in the office, meeting some new guys on the team. Looking forward to a productive few days. Initial meetings have been promising.

On a comedy tip, I got an entertaining mail from Mike today. Reading his latest blog entry at the weekend was laugh-out-loud funny. I really hope he keeps it up cos it sounds like he's on a roll right now. Check him out here.

Happy Birthday

To me!

The above display was made for me by Harriet on the dining table. Opened up my cards this morning and I got some lovely hand-made ones. Dylans card of a fast car featured working flames! Got a cool Hellboy figure plus the directors cut DVD. Also got last night from mom, the Firelfly DVD box. I'm picking up some great DVD's lately, just need to get around to watching them.

Ramblings From The Week & Other News

The big news in the office is the suspension of the current redundancy program that was due to be announced next week. Very strange news which has been explained away by the management but could be a cover for something else big. More waiting and uncertainty I suppose.

In other news, I shall be in Karlsruhe again next week for more collaborative work on the project. Can't say I'm hugely looking forward to being away again but I'm itching to get into writing some code. It's been another busy week but not of much substance.

Got new tyres fitted during the week while at work using a mobile service I found on our intranet. Most convenient way of getting a chore done is to do it during work hours. Saves me wasting a few hours at the weekend.

Dylan has been off school all week with a throat infection and I've enjoyed taking Harriet to school for a few days. Last day of the working week and I'm taking the opportunity to work from home.

Work have blocked access to flickr through IE so I've installed Firefox to get around it. Enjoying the look of the Firefox Aquafox theme.

Yuk! Yet fascinating account of wasps making roaches into zombies here.

Big Telly

Hurrah! We got a big telly! At last!

Showed t'wife the slimline Samsung telly and she agreed to the purchase. 500 notes for a 32" CRT widescreen pure flat and 100Hz refresh ain't bad, and the slimline design is a real bonus. I had to go back to the store by myself to pick it up and it only just fitted in the back of the car. No way could I have fitted in one of the full size beasts, and no waaaay could me and Jacq have lifted one into the house. We only just managed with this slimline one. Just watched House Of The Flying Daggers on DVD and it looked a treat. Check it out: