Right?
For once I sat down to blog on a Wednesday as I usually do (mainly as it's a free evening) and I've just sat staring at my screen for 5 minutes. Nothing has happened in the last few days. Should I be worried? Will my life suddenly turn normal. Will I lose my powers of being interesting (if I do say so myself) watch this space if it remains blank, please feel free to fear the worst.
So I find myself in the odd position of turning to something relevant to mull over for once. Todays topic: Congestion charging.
* Lightning flashes, a lady screams and a poor orphen boy suddenly learns the awful truth about his father*
There has been a lot of time in the media devoted to this topic, mainly due to the phenominal number of people who responded to the online petition. In my opinion Congestion Charging via road charging is a bad idea. The government should be making public ransport more attractive, rather than making drving less attractive. I know causing the latter brings about the former, but for any government that relies on image this would be a bad idea.
Using me as an example here is how the car vs public transport debate works. At present I have a 12 mile commute to work using the car 90% of this is on the motorway (M1 and M621) and the other 10% is badly designed A roads and junctions between the 2 motorways. This takes me about 30 minutes on average. More during bad weather, less during school holidays.
My route on public transport would be much more varied. 12 miles is too far to walk/cycle to work so I need to take powered transport somewhere. It is 1 mile to the train station and then a 20 minute train journey to leeds station. £4 before 9am £2.50 after 9am, but of course it must be before 9am. Then I must walk to the bus station (about 10 minutes) to catch a bus that goes close to where I work. The bus would probably take 30 minutes to get to work. So far total transit time is 1 hour minimum.
Comparing current costs (40p a mile for the car) the car costs £4.80 and public transport £5.60 so there is only 80p difference between journeys. Over a year that translates to about £190 difference in cost. Now I could really reduce that if I cycled from Leeds station to work, which would be my prefered option. However I can't take my bike on rush hour trains. People are packed in like cattle already. There is no way they're going to let me on. They talk alot about reducing my "carbon footprint" but the most environmentally friendly option isn't available to me.
Obviously if they brought in road pricing they would definately price me out of driving my car to work. If public transport improves before they impelent this, then I'll gladly switch to public transport.
However if things don't improve, I won't go willingly, cully!
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Monday, February 19, 2007
It lives!
... insert evil belly laugh here ...
I've gone for a bit of a theme for the first part of this post. Why only the first part? Well because even with my twisted logic I couldn't make my the second half fit with the first part. I look at it and think it would be easier to stitch together chalk and cheese.
Part One - The Themed One!
Let's start with mentioning something that is currently among the unliving - my boss. He was away Thursday and Friday last week looking after the kids as his wife had flu. What was worse was his oldest daughter also had chickenpox so she couldn't even go to nursery. Unfortunately he's now also caught the flu as well! I wish him and his family well, not least because I'm running the office on my own at the moment. I may have next week off, but it looks like work is going to work me hard for it.
They have provided me a tool to try and make this easier though. The IT necromancer who works in his tower office in the emerald city has worked a miricle.
It lives...
Yes my laptop is back amongst the living pieces of electrical equipment. I didn't enquire too heavily as to how they managed it. All I know is that it involved lightning and some chanting in BASIC, when they started taking to me about sacrificing virgins I thought it best to beat a hasty retreat.
Another thing among the land of the living is ...
... me. Sort of. I'm feeling much better than I was a few weeks ago, but only thanks to the marvel that is modern medicine. I now have to take pills three times a day to stop the muscles spasms which are the cause of my discomfort and I also have to take dietry supplements as well.
The pills are fine, it's the supplements that are they odd thing. I need to take it once a day with breakfast and it takes the form of an "orange juice drink" I say form very loosly. Imagine talking your morning glass of orange and dissolving a weetabix biscuit in it, that's what it tastes like. It also soldifies if you don't drink it quickly. All I need is for it to bubble and steam to make my morning complete.
Part Two - The Random Stuff
Because it doesn't really belong anywhere else. For example I spent some of this weekend on a "Media Communications" course with the ATC. Bascially it was a course on how to write press releases, take interesting pictures and how to handle the media in a crisis. And that last part involves a lot more than just "No comment" I might add.
We also got chance to discuss the recruitment of Adult volunteers as they are planning a big recruitment drive over the next month. Did you know the ATC actually has more members than the RAF? But like most volunteer organisations we lack the people power to run all of our squadrons properly. It'll be intersting to see how the new campaigns works as last years wasn't all that good.
I've also started to watch the first season of "Life on Mars" which I bought on DVD last week. I have to admit it's one of the most intersting things I've watched recently. It has that little bit extra which to me makes it more than "just a cop show". I don't ever think I'll look at the girl from the test card the same again either. For those who haven't watched it I'd recommend it.
And finally, I found this picture on my camera, having forgotten it was there, I'll leave it up to you to add a caption.
I've gone for a bit of a theme for the first part of this post. Why only the first part? Well because even with my twisted logic I couldn't make my the second half fit with the first part. I look at it and think it would be easier to stitch together chalk and cheese.
Part One - The Themed One!
Let's start with mentioning something that is currently among the unliving - my boss. He was away Thursday and Friday last week looking after the kids as his wife had flu. What was worse was his oldest daughter also had chickenpox so she couldn't even go to nursery. Unfortunately he's now also caught the flu as well! I wish him and his family well, not least because I'm running the office on my own at the moment. I may have next week off, but it looks like work is going to work me hard for it.
They have provided me a tool to try and make this easier though. The IT necromancer who works in his tower office in the emerald city has worked a miricle.
It lives...
Yes my laptop is back amongst the living pieces of electrical equipment. I didn't enquire too heavily as to how they managed it. All I know is that it involved lightning and some chanting in BASIC, when they started taking to me about sacrificing virgins I thought it best to beat a hasty retreat.
Another thing among the land of the living is ...
... me. Sort of. I'm feeling much better than I was a few weeks ago, but only thanks to the marvel that is modern medicine. I now have to take pills three times a day to stop the muscles spasms which are the cause of my discomfort and I also have to take dietry supplements as well.
The pills are fine, it's the supplements that are they odd thing. I need to take it once a day with breakfast and it takes the form of an "orange juice drink" I say form very loosly. Imagine talking your morning glass of orange and dissolving a weetabix biscuit in it, that's what it tastes like. It also soldifies if you don't drink it quickly. All I need is for it to bubble and steam to make my morning complete.
Part Two - The Random Stuff
Because it doesn't really belong anywhere else. For example I spent some of this weekend on a "Media Communications" course with the ATC. Bascially it was a course on how to write press releases, take interesting pictures and how to handle the media in a crisis. And that last part involves a lot more than just "No comment" I might add.
We also got chance to discuss the recruitment of Adult volunteers as they are planning a big recruitment drive over the next month. Did you know the ATC actually has more members than the RAF? But like most volunteer organisations we lack the people power to run all of our squadrons properly. It'll be intersting to see how the new campaigns works as last years wasn't all that good.
I've also started to watch the first season of "Life on Mars" which I bought on DVD last week. I have to admit it's one of the most intersting things I've watched recently. It has that little bit extra which to me makes it more than "just a cop show". I don't ever think I'll look at the girl from the test card the same again either. For those who haven't watched it I'd recommend it.
And finally, I found this picture on my camera, having forgotten it was there, I'll leave it up to you to add a caption.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Thoughtful
Happy Valentines Day!
Although for me today is just like any other. Except I can't help but reflect on certain things. Especially when they seem intent on ramming it down your throat for the entire day. Don't get me wrong, it's great that a day like this exists. Love is definately a think that should be celebrated and to be quite honest romance is defiantely an idea that appeals.
However to make valentines the more special for those who celebrate it, maybe advertising should be toned down a bit. I would like to think I'm showing my affection because I wanted to, rather than because this is the only month of the year that WHSmith has a rack of cards allowing me to do so.
It was interesting to see how different people at work celebrated valentines day. Some went the whole hog, flowers, cards, chocolates etc. Other's were sightly quiter, but probably no less affectionate. And there were one or two who didn't do anything special (so they say).
Of course being completely honest with myself I do get slightly jealous around this time of year. Being brutally honest I don't make it easy for myself, but that's just the way I am. Even with all this I can still see the humour in it all.
I was stood in the queue for the checkouts at Tesco, when I actually looked up to study who was in the queue in front of me. There were 5 people in all, 4 blokes with baskets full of ready meals and the staples of bread, milk etc. The other was a bloke with a bouqet of Tesco value flowers. It was like somethign out of the start of a comedy sketch. What made me smile though was the realisation that I was stood in this queue and probably didn't look out of place at all.
That put me in a whimsical mood. And as always happens with at this time, I decided to do something on a whim. I went round Tesco's and worked out how much Valnetines would probably cost me if I weren't single. That money is now set aside for a good cause.
I just wish I had some chocolate in the house at the moment!
Although for me today is just like any other. Except I can't help but reflect on certain things. Especially when they seem intent on ramming it down your throat for the entire day. Don't get me wrong, it's great that a day like this exists. Love is definately a think that should be celebrated and to be quite honest romance is defiantely an idea that appeals.
However to make valentines the more special for those who celebrate it, maybe advertising should be toned down a bit. I would like to think I'm showing my affection because I wanted to, rather than because this is the only month of the year that WHSmith has a rack of cards allowing me to do so.
It was interesting to see how different people at work celebrated valentines day. Some went the whole hog, flowers, cards, chocolates etc. Other's were sightly quiter, but probably no less affectionate. And there were one or two who didn't do anything special (so they say).
Of course being completely honest with myself I do get slightly jealous around this time of year. Being brutally honest I don't make it easy for myself, but that's just the way I am. Even with all this I can still see the humour in it all.
I was stood in the queue for the checkouts at Tesco, when I actually looked up to study who was in the queue in front of me. There were 5 people in all, 4 blokes with baskets full of ready meals and the staples of bread, milk etc. The other was a bloke with a bouqet of Tesco value flowers. It was like somethign out of the start of a comedy sketch. What made me smile though was the realisation that I was stood in this queue and probably didn't look out of place at all.
That put me in a whimsical mood. And as always happens with at this time, I decided to do something on a whim. I went round Tesco's and worked out how much Valnetines would probably cost me if I weren't single. That money is now set aside for a good cause.
I just wish I had some chocolate in the house at the moment!
Monday, February 12, 2007
12 of 12 February
Well it's that time of the month again, it's 12 x12 x2, which could be 12 x 24. 24 huh?
"This is a day(ish) in the life of Andy Ellis. He has 24 hours to save the worldwith only his digital camera for company" I'll tell you now if I only had 24 hours to save the world I'd ask for an extention. I could guarantee that I'd want to sleep for at least 8 of those 24 hours. Can you imagine that...
... "Now on FOX, 5am - 6am on 24, beep, beep, beep..." All you would get would be an hour of me in bed asleep. Punctuated by adverts of course. In fact I could guarantee that those adverts would probably be the most exciting part. What am I saying such a programme already exists over here in the UK, it's called Big Brother.
So let's start todays 12 of 12 where I would spend those 8 hours of the day I mentioned earlier.
---
1. 06:45 Approx
This is the time my day begins when I'm working in the office. Although I'm not above catching an extra 5 minutes here and there. In cold weather I like to rap myself in the duvet like a sleeping bag and only my bald spot is probably visable between the covers. Well, nobody else needs the covers at the moment!
---
2. 07:10 Approx
Breakfast. I'm never one for a cooked breakfast, however I always have a bowl of cereal which is bigger than the recommended serving. I'm also a big fan of banana's which is why I always add one to breakfast whenever possible.
---
3. 07:45 Approx
My steed for this mornings ruch hour traffic. Although I'm back in the office I have a works van due to working on site last week. This was featured in Yesterdays Fable of the tale of the "Snow White Van Man".
---
4. 08:05 Approx
And the rush hour is in full swing. I sit at this junction every morning rain or shine. In my opinion it is one of the most ill-designed junctions I have ever had the misfortune to come across on a regular basis. Also do you notice those white stripes painted on the road. You are not supposed to drive over those lines unless it's an emergency. I wonder where the truck is on the road? *Sarcasm*
---
5. 09:30 Approx
My desk at work. It's a much more comfortable place to work than round the back of a cremator or on top of an incinerator. Yes there are 3 mugs on there, but I only use the one. I don't know who the other two belong too. They just seem to multiply.The last time somebody left a mug on my desk I planted a cactus in it. It's still on my window sill growing away nicely. Notice the fan heater in the bottom right hand corner. Until last week the radiator in the office didn't work.
---
6. 11:00 Approx
Tea Break. Or in this case a biscuit break. This is the office (okay my) biscuit barrel. Can you guess what it actually is? Yes it's actually a plastic urn, although as far as I know it's only ever had biscuits in it. It currently houses my Jaffa cakes.
---
7. 12:45 Approx
Lunchtime. Our canteen is only open Tuesday - Friday, so we have to fend for ourselves on a Monday. Usually we just wander up to the local sandwich shop or for those of us not watching what we eat, the chippie. As you can see I I took option A. It's a bagel with Salmon and Soft Cheese filling, a chocolate caramel slice (okay so I'm not watching my weight weight that much) and a fruit smoothie. Eaten at my desk as I've got stacks to do of course.
---
8. 16:00 Approx
My true steed. Yes this is actualy my car when I'm not tearing around the countryside as teh country's slowest white van. I took this shortly after transfering all of maps, spare glasses, CD's etc from the van back into my car. The van and the car were parked less than 5 feet apart yet I still managed to lose the van keys walking between the van and my car!
---
9. 19:00 Approx
Straight after getting back in after work I try and go out for a bike ride if it's dry and not to windy. I tend to cycle upto the top of the hill next door. Although Helen would probably argue that it isn't a hill. Anyway this is the view of the motorway at night from the top of the hill. I'm actually really pleased how this picture came out. Much better than the pier from last time.
---
10. 20:00 Approx
Dinner. I wasn't too tired by this point tonight so I decided to cook something rather than break out something from the freezer. So what you see here is a low-fat chicken Korma, side salad and a not so low fat Peshwari Naan. The camera had to be quick as I was v. hungry. It was also very tasty as well. I'm glad I could enough so I could put together another one later in the week.
---
11. 20:30 Approx
The aftermath. I hate the washing up. That's actually a couple of days worth of washing up. I do it that way to try and claim to being "Environmentally Friendly".
---
12. 21:30 Approx
My "To watch pile" of DVD's. I'm getting to the state where I'm actually buying DVD's faster than I can watch them. If i get chance I'm going to reduce that pile by one tonight. You may notice quite a few Anime DVD's in that pile. At present my anime DVD's outnumber all my other DVD's by a ratio of 7 - 1.
---
So that's my 12 of 12 for February. You've now seen parts of the other side of my job, when I'm actaully sat behind a desk. Unfortunately some parts of it can't really be shown in a public forum for obvious reasons, but I hope it's intersting none the less.
If you have read all fo this and have no idea why I did this, then pop over here and read Chad's blog.
"This is a day(ish) in the life of Andy Ellis. He has 24 hours to save the worldwith only his digital camera for company" I'll tell you now if I only had 24 hours to save the world I'd ask for an extention. I could guarantee that I'd want to sleep for at least 8 of those 24 hours. Can you imagine that...
... "Now on FOX, 5am - 6am on 24, beep, beep, beep..." All you would get would be an hour of me in bed asleep. Punctuated by adverts of course. In fact I could guarantee that those adverts would probably be the most exciting part. What am I saying such a programme already exists over here in the UK, it's called Big Brother.
So let's start todays 12 of 12 where I would spend those 8 hours of the day I mentioned earlier.
---
1. 06:45 Approx
This is the time my day begins when I'm working in the office. Although I'm not above catching an extra 5 minutes here and there. In cold weather I like to rap myself in the duvet like a sleeping bag and only my bald spot is probably visable between the covers. Well, nobody else needs the covers at the moment!
---
2. 07:10 Approx
Breakfast. I'm never one for a cooked breakfast, however I always have a bowl of cereal which is bigger than the recommended serving. I'm also a big fan of banana's which is why I always add one to breakfast whenever possible.
---
3. 07:45 Approx
My steed for this mornings ruch hour traffic. Although I'm back in the office I have a works van due to working on site last week. This was featured in Yesterdays Fable of the tale of the "Snow White Van Man".
---
4. 08:05 Approx
And the rush hour is in full swing. I sit at this junction every morning rain or shine. In my opinion it is one of the most ill-designed junctions I have ever had the misfortune to come across on a regular basis. Also do you notice those white stripes painted on the road. You are not supposed to drive over those lines unless it's an emergency. I wonder where the truck is on the road? *Sarcasm*
---
5. 09:30 Approx
My desk at work. It's a much more comfortable place to work than round the back of a cremator or on top of an incinerator. Yes there are 3 mugs on there, but I only use the one. I don't know who the other two belong too. They just seem to multiply.The last time somebody left a mug on my desk I planted a cactus in it. It's still on my window sill growing away nicely. Notice the fan heater in the bottom right hand corner. Until last week the radiator in the office didn't work.
---
6. 11:00 Approx
Tea Break. Or in this case a biscuit break. This is the office (okay my) biscuit barrel. Can you guess what it actually is? Yes it's actually a plastic urn, although as far as I know it's only ever had biscuits in it. It currently houses my Jaffa cakes.
---
7. 12:45 Approx
Lunchtime. Our canteen is only open Tuesday - Friday, so we have to fend for ourselves on a Monday. Usually we just wander up to the local sandwich shop or for those of us not watching what we eat, the chippie. As you can see I I took option A. It's a bagel with Salmon and Soft Cheese filling, a chocolate caramel slice (okay so I'm not watching my weight weight that much) and a fruit smoothie. Eaten at my desk as I've got stacks to do of course.
---
8. 16:00 Approx
My true steed. Yes this is actualy my car when I'm not tearing around the countryside as teh country's slowest white van. I took this shortly after transfering all of maps, spare glasses, CD's etc from the van back into my car. The van and the car were parked less than 5 feet apart yet I still managed to lose the van keys walking between the van and my car!
---
9. 19:00 Approx
Straight after getting back in after work I try and go out for a bike ride if it's dry and not to windy. I tend to cycle upto the top of the hill next door. Although Helen would probably argue that it isn't a hill. Anyway this is the view of the motorway at night from the top of the hill. I'm actually really pleased how this picture came out. Much better than the pier from last time.
---
10. 20:00 Approx
Dinner. I wasn't too tired by this point tonight so I decided to cook something rather than break out something from the freezer. So what you see here is a low-fat chicken Korma, side salad and a not so low fat Peshwari Naan. The camera had to be quick as I was v. hungry. It was also very tasty as well. I'm glad I could enough so I could put together another one later in the week.
---
11. 20:30 Approx
The aftermath. I hate the washing up. That's actually a couple of days worth of washing up. I do it that way to try and claim to being "Environmentally Friendly".
---
12. 21:30 Approx
My "To watch pile" of DVD's. I'm getting to the state where I'm actually buying DVD's faster than I can watch them. If i get chance I'm going to reduce that pile by one tonight. You may notice quite a few Anime DVD's in that pile. At present my anime DVD's outnumber all my other DVD's by a ratio of 7 - 1.
---
So that's my 12 of 12 for February. You've now seen parts of the other side of my job, when I'm actaully sat behind a desk. Unfortunately some parts of it can't really be shown in a public forum for obvious reasons, but I hope it's intersting none the less.
If you have read all fo this and have no idea why I did this, then pop over here and read Chad's blog.
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Snow White Van Man
I'm sure their should be some "quotes" in that title somewhere, but I just can't seem to decide where to put them!
Once upon a time there was a wicked EnVIronmentaL health officer. Who one day decided to confer with his magic filing cabinet. You could tell it was a magic fling cabinet as it could speak and somehow everything could be filed under the letter 'V'. Yet when you reached your hand in he the file that came to hand was the one you actualy wanted.
"Cabinet, Cabinet on the floor, who is the cleanest on this shore" spoke the EHO. And low, the middle draw on the filing cabinet did open and did a single file rise slowly from it's unfathomable depths. And the file contained the information on a site in the fabled land of Kent. The EHO prided himself on being the cleanest in the land, but in his hand was a site that was clean, but was not as clean as an identical site in the land of Suffolk.
"How can this be?" cried the EHO. Another file rose from the cabinet, this time from the top drawer. Reading this new file a wicked smile came to the EHO's face.
"Bring me the Whtie Van man who cleaned up this site in the far of land of Suffolk. I want him here, send my minions forth. I want my site to be the cleanest in the land, whatever it takes to keep it that way!" So saying the EHO then issued an evil belly laugh. This laugh was so evil that all the birds nesting in the nearby trees took flight, for they are sensitive to such things.
And so White Van man was forced to travel to the fabled land of Kent, but only after working a full day in his office as a scullery maids work is never done. So after working "around" the fire he threw his tools in the back of a borrowed cart (okay van) and took the many pathways that led to Kent. Arriving late in Kent White Van Man got lost, but was taken in by a kindly inn. Well as kindly as an inn gets when they are getting paid by expenses.
Now at this point in the story you are probably expecting 7 dwarf (or dwarves if you prefer), but due to the EHO also having a political correctness fetish ther will be none of these in our tale. In fact there is nobody of a vertical challanged nature at all, not even a Jockey!
Feeling utterly knackerd the White van man immediately went to sleep. Not even wondering about the feeling of De ja Vu that engulfed him as he walked into the decidedly purple room. When awoke the next morning this is the site that greeted him.
After digging it out and still undecided where the quotes should go in his new name, Snow White Van Man set off to fufill the EHO's request not knowing that this story would not have a happy ending (there you've had fair warning, but read on if you must).
At first the request seemed an easy one. Snow White Van Man had already done this one and it should of been a simple matter to repeat the feat and at first all went well. But as the days past he came to realise all was not well in the land of Kent. And at the end of days he had to give up on his task, much to the displeasure of the EHO.
And so he was cursed to return to the land of Kent someday. To try and try again and again until the end of time until his task was done. And so he returned one last time to the inn, planning to sleep the sleep of a thousand years.
But no, he was awoken the next morning. Not by a fair prince I may add and for this he was glad because he didn't swing that way. Nor by a fair princess either (because Snow White Van Man is all for equal oppotuinities) it was not to be, although someday he hoped that would be true. So with a heavy heart he mounted his white steed and drove off into the rain.
Fin
Once upon a time there was a wicked EnVIronmentaL health officer. Who one day decided to confer with his magic filing cabinet. You could tell it was a magic fling cabinet as it could speak and somehow everything could be filed under the letter 'V'. Yet when you reached your hand in he the file that came to hand was the one you actualy wanted.
"Cabinet, Cabinet on the floor, who is the cleanest on this shore" spoke the EHO. And low, the middle draw on the filing cabinet did open and did a single file rise slowly from it's unfathomable depths. And the file contained the information on a site in the fabled land of Kent. The EHO prided himself on being the cleanest in the land, but in his hand was a site that was clean, but was not as clean as an identical site in the land of Suffolk.
"How can this be?" cried the EHO. Another file rose from the cabinet, this time from the top drawer. Reading this new file a wicked smile came to the EHO's face.
"Bring me the Whtie Van man who cleaned up this site in the far of land of Suffolk. I want him here, send my minions forth. I want my site to be the cleanest in the land, whatever it takes to keep it that way!" So saying the EHO then issued an evil belly laugh. This laugh was so evil that all the birds nesting in the nearby trees took flight, for they are sensitive to such things.
And so White Van man was forced to travel to the fabled land of Kent, but only after working a full day in his office as a scullery maids work is never done. So after working "around" the fire he threw his tools in the back of a borrowed cart (okay van) and took the many pathways that led to Kent. Arriving late in Kent White Van Man got lost, but was taken in by a kindly inn. Well as kindly as an inn gets when they are getting paid by expenses.
Now at this point in the story you are probably expecting 7 dwarf (or dwarves if you prefer), but due to the EHO also having a political correctness fetish ther will be none of these in our tale. In fact there is nobody of a vertical challanged nature at all, not even a Jockey!
Feeling utterly knackerd the White van man immediately went to sleep. Not even wondering about the feeling of De ja Vu that engulfed him as he walked into the decidedly purple room. When awoke the next morning this is the site that greeted him.
After digging it out and still undecided where the quotes should go in his new name, Snow White Van Man set off to fufill the EHO's request not knowing that this story would not have a happy ending (there you've had fair warning, but read on if you must).
At first the request seemed an easy one. Snow White Van Man had already done this one and it should of been a simple matter to repeat the feat and at first all went well. But as the days past he came to realise all was not well in the land of Kent. And at the end of days he had to give up on his task, much to the displeasure of the EHO.
And so he was cursed to return to the land of Kent someday. To try and try again and again until the end of time until his task was done. And so he returned one last time to the inn, planning to sleep the sleep of a thousand years.
But no, he was awoken the next morning. Not by a fair prince I may add and for this he was glad because he didn't swing that way. Nor by a fair princess either (because Snow White Van Man is all for equal oppotuinities) it was not to be, although someday he hoped that would be true. So with a heavy heart he mounted his white steed and drove off into the rain.
Fin
Monday, February 05, 2007
Splash! A-ha.
God's I'm tired.
I attempted to stay up and watch last nights Superbowl....
We interupt this programme to bring you a special news flash, there is currently water coming out if my ceiling...
... excuse me...
In the name of everybody everywhere. Why me? I've just spent the last half an hour mopping up all of the water on the floor of my bathroom and the kitchen. One of the joints on one of the toilet fittings has just decided now was the time to break! It was like a garden fountain as the pipe just pointed straight upwards. I've managed to fix the joint, but I think I'll keep the water turned off when I'm not out of the house. At least until I can get a plumber to look at it.
Which won't be this week as I'm away from wednesday evening until Sunday. Why do these things happen at the most inconvenient times. I'm not at my best at the moment anyway as my digestive system is giving me gip at the moment so I'm having to watch what I eat or drink more so than usual. Which is going to be made soubly difficult living out of restaurant in Ashford later in the week.
There are days when I just think the world is out to get me! Do I really want to get out of bed tomorrow. Roll on my time-off at the end of the month.
The big question which I was going to blog about before my house turned into a waterpark was the age old question...
...should I stick with my glasses or go back to my contact lenses. My glasses need replacing due to running into one too many solid objects. I'm caught in two minds wondering whether to go back to contact lenses or just replace the glasses. The reason I stopped wearing them was originally due to catching an eye infection - swiftly followed by that illness of mine. I never really got back into them after that.
If I stick with the glasses, do I stick with similar frames or go for something different. It'd be nice if I only had this trivial thing to worry about at the moment.
I attempted to stay up and watch last nights Superbowl....
We interupt this programme to bring you a special news flash, there is currently water coming out if my ceiling...
... excuse me...
In the name of everybody everywhere. Why me? I've just spent the last half an hour mopping up all of the water on the floor of my bathroom and the kitchen. One of the joints on one of the toilet fittings has just decided now was the time to break! It was like a garden fountain as the pipe just pointed straight upwards. I've managed to fix the joint, but I think I'll keep the water turned off when I'm not out of the house. At least until I can get a plumber to look at it.
Which won't be this week as I'm away from wednesday evening until Sunday. Why do these things happen at the most inconvenient times. I'm not at my best at the moment anyway as my digestive system is giving me gip at the moment so I'm having to watch what I eat or drink more so than usual. Which is going to be made soubly difficult living out of restaurant in Ashford later in the week.
There are days when I just think the world is out to get me! Do I really want to get out of bed tomorrow. Roll on my time-off at the end of the month.
The big question which I was going to blog about before my house turned into a waterpark was the age old question...
...should I stick with my glasses or go back to my contact lenses. My glasses need replacing due to running into one too many solid objects. I'm caught in two minds wondering whether to go back to contact lenses or just replace the glasses. The reason I stopped wearing them was originally due to catching an eye infection - swiftly followed by that illness of mine. I never really got back into them after that.
If I stick with the glasses, do I stick with similar frames or go for something different. It'd be nice if I only had this trivial thing to worry about at the moment.
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Well Tickle Me Pink!
... er well maybe not. I don't go pink when tickled. I wonder where that expression came from?
Anyway I saw something yesterday that gave me a good laugh. It was something with good intentions, but ultimately useless. I was driving along (I'll get onto where later) when I came across the sign "Test Your Brakes". Now this is a great sign to have before you descend down a very steep hill however...
... in this case I came across this sign when I was already half way down the hill! I think half-way down the hill is a bit too late to be testing the brakes. I'd imagine if they didn't work you'd get a similar feeling as the sky diver who's just pulled the ripcord and nothing happens. The sense of impending doom as you hurtle steadily downwards.
Where was this hill I hear you cry (I'm hear lots of voices nowadays don't you worry). It was just south of Bath on one ofthe back roads between a place called Frome and Bath itself. I ended up down there with work on a very last minute job. So last minute I learn't of it at about 3pm on Tueday afternoon and drove down Tuesday evening as I had to start work at 8:30am on the Wednesday.
I'm now back in Leeds. I have a meeting with a customer tomorrow, so I had to finish the job today. Work just seems ridiculous at the moment, I have loads to do in the office yet I'm finding myself out on site more often lately. Next week I'm due to work on an incinerator in Ashford, Kent for 3 days next week. And one of those days is a Saturday, just so I can have 3 days in the office. Oh and again Im travelling down in the evening after working a full day.
That's irritating, but do you know what's been the most irritating thing this week has been? The light switch congiuration in the Frome Travel inn. Each switch is for a different bulb in the room. You walk in the rooma nd you can only see one switch, you press it and the light above the door comes on. You can now see the switches for the lights above the bed, so you walk over and switch them on. You then walk back to the door to switch the first light off. You need to reverse the process when leaving the room. Argh! The amount of times I climbed into bed forgetting about that light near the door!
Here's a statistic for you: Last month I spent 25% of the month in a travel inn.
Anyway I saw something yesterday that gave me a good laugh. It was something with good intentions, but ultimately useless. I was driving along (I'll get onto where later) when I came across the sign "Test Your Brakes". Now this is a great sign to have before you descend down a very steep hill however...
... in this case I came across this sign when I was already half way down the hill! I think half-way down the hill is a bit too late to be testing the brakes. I'd imagine if they didn't work you'd get a similar feeling as the sky diver who's just pulled the ripcord and nothing happens. The sense of impending doom as you hurtle steadily downwards.
Where was this hill I hear you cry (I'm hear lots of voices nowadays don't you worry). It was just south of Bath on one ofthe back roads between a place called Frome and Bath itself. I ended up down there with work on a very last minute job. So last minute I learn't of it at about 3pm on Tueday afternoon and drove down Tuesday evening as I had to start work at 8:30am on the Wednesday.
I'm now back in Leeds. I have a meeting with a customer tomorrow, so I had to finish the job today. Work just seems ridiculous at the moment, I have loads to do in the office yet I'm finding myself out on site more often lately. Next week I'm due to work on an incinerator in Ashford, Kent for 3 days next week. And one of those days is a Saturday, just so I can have 3 days in the office. Oh and again Im travelling down in the evening after working a full day.
That's irritating, but do you know what's been the most irritating thing this week has been? The light switch congiuration in the Frome Travel inn. Each switch is for a different bulb in the room. You walk in the rooma nd you can only see one switch, you press it and the light above the door comes on. You can now see the switches for the lights above the bed, so you walk over and switch them on. You then walk back to the door to switch the first light off. You need to reverse the process when leaving the room. Argh! The amount of times I climbed into bed forgetting about that light near the door!
Here's a statistic for you: Last month I spent 25% of the month in a travel inn.
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