Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Not long now, November 18th release date for the new movie! Can't wait...!

Official site here...

Mars

...is clearly visible, and extremely red-looking in the sky in my garden right now...with a big telescope you could get an awesome look at it...BBC article here...

Oh, and some really bad news, had the heating engineer in this morning (a mate of Flyingpops' dad) and he basically said that our boiler may well need to be comdemned...price of the replacement - £1500.... :(

Why do these things always happen -

a) Just before Christmas
b) Just when you thought you were (just about) getting your finances sorted out
c) Already 99% financially commited elsewhere

Arse.

Oh the irony...

...took the day off today to have a good chance to catch up with my movies and zoom through a bit of Quake 4, got up at the usual early hour with Flyingpops and kindly drove her to the station to pick up her train, drove the car home in really high spirits and sat down to play Quake - then, inexplicably, a big blank - woke up about 3 hours later on the sofa feeling totally sick and suffering with the worst headache I think I have ever had, managed to drag myself upstairs to be sick, violently, into the toilet, sweating profusely...threw my clothes off and ran a bath and sat in it for ages, even though it got cold, the world spinning...was woken up by a phone call from Flyingpops (again) asking me for the name of a movie we recently watched (which had been "bothering her") forcing me out of the water...

Frankly, there isn't a chance that I could have worked today, feeling so good first thing this morning, the total transformation was actually quite staggeringly frightening....what if I had been sat at my desk when the illness hit? What about the train? Knowing Londoners I would probably have woken up in bloody Bedford...

And "work" probably would have called an ambulance had I collapsed thusly at my workstation...it's a bit scary! Really, this kind of thing has never happened to me before...either it comes on fairly slowly, giving some warning, or I'm okay...

And how funny for it to pass so quickly..? It sounds like bullshit...I'm feeling fine again now, I'm wondering if it wasn't something I ate maybe? Still, deeply, deeply unpleasant....Jinx came over in the afternoon and I sort-of moaned, sort-of tried to eat (only because I really thought I should), drank a load of water and (quietly and haltingly) discussed -

• The Nintendo Revolution controller
• How sick I was feeling
• How much I want a PSP
• How sick I was feeling
• Comedy greats
• How sick I was feeling
• What I should be watching on TV to make me feel better
• How sick I was feeling
• Disguising the fact that I had been too ill to put out the bloody washing until about 4pm from Flyingpops (and mechanisms to achive this)
• The fact that trying to watch "The Woodsman" was a bad idea when you are feeling ill anyway
• How sick I was feeling
• Should I cancel my folks coming over for a takeaway and a movie tonight?
• Frozen chocolate pudding, old saucepans of vegetable soup and caloree counting diets
• How sick I was feeling (after all that...)
• Bus times

Odd though, but give it an hour or two and I was feeling loads better...even enjoying some Chinese food and a drink with the family...it's just so strange! Never had a bug like it...

However, I'm going to see how I feel tomorrow before I count *anything*....

Service Industry Bloggers

Just taking my lunch break, working from home today but not going to say why...(Flyingpops!!)...anyway, Nate made a post the other day regarding this guy (among others)...it prompted me to leave a comment on his blog, but I thought the memory merited a repeat posting here...

Try as I might, I’m finding it difficult to get into his writing (not Nate's, but the Waiter blogger)…the typical entry length is just perhaps a little long for my taste (as I tend to blip in and out of reading) which doesn't help (even though I can be guilty of the odd long post or two), but I think the key issue, perhaps, is that I’m finding it difficult to relate to his world...I've only worked in one proper resturant (Redhill chip shop aside) and that was “La Barbe”, a French place in Reigate (Surrey), doing their washing up, so not even public facing…

I was still at school, yet they fed me wine, beer and extremely smelly cheese, called me “Fronk”, spoke virtually zero English, got me to wash up garlic snail dishes (which smell yummy btw) and clean range equipment with strong acid (with holes in my rubber gloves. which hurt btw), kept me working until 2am on some nights and forced me to spend my working hours in the same kitchen space as the desert chef, who was French (obviously) but was totally obsessed with George Formby…”when eem clean ze window, Fronk, zis is the ‘ight of Inglish culture”…the single "Formby" CD he owned was on repeat all night long…every night...(AK!)

Anyway, make your own mind up...he certainly has a good style...perhaps I'm just being too picky... ;)

Denial...

...isn't just a river in Egypt...

Hehe, great line from 'Glue'...Well, it made me laugh anyway... ;)

Update - actually, that should be, as I really ought to quote correctly -

"As they say, denial isnae jist a fuckin river in Egypt", but I am afraid the context is too rude to relate in a public forum... ;)

World War I photographs

Boing Boing just posted this amazing link to a Flickr account containing a load of previously unpublished German soldier's photographs taken during WWI...(which has also kind of killed that Flickr server with massive traffic), so check a bit later on...interesting stuff...

Beware though, it's warts and all...

Google Base

Wow, lots of buzz in the blogosphere about Google's new offering - Google Base - see the best current summary I can find here.

Effectively though, it looks like Google is going to try and kill every other part of the internet off (dating, classified ads (ebay), job searching, etc., etc.,etc.) in one fell swoop...

This is scary! Goodbye eclectic "internet", might as well just say "I'm going to surf the Google today"...

Sleep paralysis

I was reading "New Scientist" the other day and came across a letter about Sleep paralysis and realised that I have actually experienced it (at least twice)...

One of the occasions was when I was a young child, at that time living in a commune in Wimbledon in South London (where the tennis comes from)) I can't remember the start of the dream, only slowly bringing myself round because I could hear a telephone ringing, and managed to reach, I suppose about 80-90% conciousness as a result. In this state I was still *absolutely* convinced there was a telephone in the room (there wasn't really) demanding to be answered (I could *hear* it ringing, and I could see it in the shadows, but the whole room appeared to be oddly distorted, it looked more like the hall by the front door than my bedroom, but wasn't quite) and I also appeared to be floating slightly above it (although I did have a raised bed, which may account for that)...No matter what I tried I couldn't move a muscle, my body was still fully asleep and I just couldn't understand why, it was so frustrating...! According to the Wiki article on this, apparently it only really lasts for a very short space of time (like seconds), but I definitely remember it taking ages, felt like hours before I woke myself up enough to realise it was an hallucination...weird eh?

The second one was dreaming it was christmas and there were presents all over the place, but I couldn't move to pick them up to remove the wrapping...not scary at all (like the more commonly reported versions, which classically feature a feeling of threatening figures in the room, and a fear of immenent death) just a really odd experience...when I realised what was going on I was really, really dissapointed, like when you wake up thinking it's Saturday and you can have a lay in, but then the alarm goes off and you realise it's really Tuesday (or something)...

This, apparently is where Alien abduction experiences are born, in the doubt after a particularly trippy sleep paralysis episode, sometimes the hallucination can be reinforced or solidfied afterwards if a sufferer then seeks to probe the event using hypnotherapy...interesting stuff... ;)

Dodge the cracks...

Dodge the cracks
Originally uploaded by finkangel.

Just to warn you, I caught myself, without any good reason, avoiding the cracks between paving slabs today...*slap*

Rotten Pumpkin...

I'm rather pleased I didn't put my pumpkin outside now...(apart from the very real risk of theft by ADHD kids high on Cherryade) the Kings Cross one (that I spotted a few days ago) is now absolutely *swarming* with insects and in a state of rapid decay! I think perhaps the 17th was rather too early for them to carve...(hope mine stays scary looking until Monday, no room for it in the fridge)!

Forgotten ticket...

What a pain in the ass, forgot to pick up my train ticket today (took it out of my bag before the parties on Saturday night)...so had to queue up and buy a standard return (£14, but refundable if I hang onto the ticket and show it again tomorrow with my season ticket, so not a complete disaster), but my ticket wallet is unfortunately also where I keep my swipe card (for office door access)...it wouldn't be so bad but the nearest toilets are behind a secure door...

Prat...checklist before leaving the house definitely shouldn't stop at "Nintendo DS, C500, wallet, book, keys, USB pen drive and umbrella"...

My first pumpkin...

...(I think?) didn't turn out too badly, did it? ;) Actually looks quite scary! :)

Just cooking up a lovely bit of "Tesco Finest" Scottish silverside beef (with brocolli, carrots, peas, cabbage, cauliflower (all steamed), herb roasted spuds, roasted parsnips (oh, and a nut roast for flyingpops)) for tea, so I won't keep you...rather busy... ;)

'Auntie R's' 40th...

'Auntie R's' 40th...
Originally uploaded by finkangel.

...birthday party tonight, and amazingly, this is the second party of the night thus far... ;) The night began at a rather nice flat in Reigate, eating home-made guacamole, and is destined to finish in spectacular fashion in a fairy-lit, streamer-strewn, alcohol-fueled house in Capel, at some time in the early hours no doubt... ;) More tomorrow... :)

What a morning...

...the flash I saw outside the window as I drank my orange juice, was not, after all, the paparatzi trying to get a sneaky shot of me in my smalls, but the beginning of an extremely heavy downpour, which still hasn't quite abaited...It's hard to motivate yourself out into these conditions for the journey into London... ;P

Oh and btw, made the last couple of pages of the quiz last night (by some miracle... ;)

On the way I witnessed the opening of the new nightclub in Redhill (Liquid and Envy (I think?)) -

- utter chaos, it was like being in Leicester Square at a movie premiere, the whole place was packed, loads of police and the queue for entry stretched out of sight! Even though it was freezing cold and drizzling steadily they still had scantily clad dancers gyrating aboard the back of what looked like a converted lorry (into a cage with a pumping sound system)...mad!

Rather late home...

...tonight, sat waiting at Kings Cross with the shouts of drunken football fans echoing around the station interrupting my reading, currently 'Glue' by Irvine Welsh (which is harsh and pornographic and funny in equal measure)...had a great few hours in the company of some of the guys from the office and was goaded, not entirely involuntarily, into staying a while later than intended...the quiz night at the Causeway may be a little outside my grasp now, but I'll have a damn good try at getting there before close! ;)

Google Reader

Looks like Google have taken another step towards "Total World Domination(tm)" with the release of a public Beta of a browser-based feed reader - Google Reader (no less)...

It's easy to get started too, you can import your OPML file from Sharpreader (or whatever feed reader you currently use) and get up to speed right away!

I'm only minutes in and still struggling a bit with the interface (but I don't think I'm not going to ditch Sharpreader in the office anytime soon), but integration of "Gmail this" and "Blog this" options on each story are really obvious juicy benefits already, as well ask being able to carry my feeds around with me painlessly! Nice...! ;)

Wonder if there is a toolbar app like for gmail? That would be really good...I'll have a poke around... ;)

LOST...

On the subject of "Lost"...Gandalf23 made an interesting post, (which among other things) links to this page which discusses the various mathematical peculiarities present in the series so far...fascinating stuff... ;)

There *are* spoilers for those people still watching season 1...so beware...

Charles I and Saddam Hussein

Is it just me, or do we have some similarities here..?

I believe that it's the same punishment at stake, and exactly the same plea and arguement being offered up to the court...See -

Charles I and Saddam related links for background and current story...

Scary...not that it did Charles I much good, nor Cromwell, posthumously (for that matter)...see point 8...

The Policeman's blog...

...blogger has been busted!

I'm a bit behind the game here (been too busy for blog reading lately) but it looks like the Sunday Times and a number of other newspapers published his identity (or got close enough to the mark that his superiors wouldn't have much trouble tracking him down) and also a load of his archive of posts last week (unedited and without permission) as a sort of "expose of grass roots opinion" (as one commentor on his blog put it)...

As a result he was scared into pulling his archive offline and has basically stopped blogging while he seeking legal advice...

From the sounds of things no sacking (or anything like that) has happened thus far, probably because this is going to be a very difficult one for the old boys at the top to handle...(what this will do to the other emergency services bloggers I can only begin to imagine)...but how scary to be in his position and suddenly "outed" without any prior knowledge...that's the stuff of nightmares :(

I don't blame the guy for keeping his head down a bit... :(

The Beach...

...I really have to follow up on my previous post about "The Beach"...I just re-watched the movie and it's *nothing* *like* the book! In fact, it's like someone read it (while drunk) then, 5 years later, tried to explain it to you (while on amphetamines) only remembering half the characters (oh and the setting, but then the clue for that is in the name), and then got the rest completely wrong (by confusing it with a holiday they once had in Ibiza)...

What a load of toilet (especially the video-game sequences and re-invented relationships)...

Read the book...

Handbook for Bloggers and cyber-dissidents

Handbook for Bloggers and cyber-dissidents
Originally uploaded by charmingman.

Nate flickr'd this, and I thought I would pass it on... ;)

Click his link...

Well well well...

...looks like I can now blog pictures straight from my mobile phone via Flickr! Awesome! ;)

That picture, by the way, was one I took when in New York on my phone in the back of a yellow cab on the way in to Manhattan...you can just about see my face in the rear view mirror... ;)

This was shortly before the taxi driver almost killed us by yelling at another driver for 5 minutes while swerving all over the road (I didn't feel like taking photos after that!)...bleugh...

Anyway, great news! :)

Test moblog post...

Test moblog post...
Originally uploaded by finkangel.

Lets see what happens! ;)

Here are just a few...

...of the more suprising search terms (that people have entered into Google, Yahoo, MSN, Netscape etc) that have resulted in someone visiting my page (found by checking the "referring pages" list on my web stats package) -

• Pictures of a woman glancing over her shoulder (well, possible I suppose, but I don't recall!)
• Sounds of a lady being prayed for (*shrug*)
• Pictures of young women stripping (eh? When did I post anything about that!!?)

(suffice it to say, they will have been rather dissapointed! Especially the last visitor... ;)

As a result, I think I might pay for the service that lists them all (Site Meter *does* keep a record, but because I only have the free account I can't see them)...judging by these few it might be quite amusing! ;) There were also loads and loads of referrals from Google Image search (lots more than the regular search results) but the actual search term doesn't seem to be anywhere in the URL, so I can't tell what they were looking for, unfortunately...

To give the search engines back *some* dignity they did actually manage to send a *few* relevant visitors for search terms (if you are a regular reader then you might recongnise the postings they will have hit... ;) -

• Xbox Lan party (hehe, that was fun... ;)
• Zinger Tower burger (mmmm...)
• eyes watering (don't want to remember that, toe still not the right size! Even now!)

Here we go again...

...it's almost time for Halloween...

An attempt to make a similar effort to this one (that I spotted today in Kings Cross) last year, was foiled even before I could get a knife from the kitchen by one of the kids on the estate robbing it from the front doorstep...(although through the small child gossip network I found out who it was, by the way, and also discovered that his mum found out he had done it (quite independently) and harshly scolded him...hehe... ;)

If last year was anything to go by, Halloween where I live is actually a week-long festival of free sweets and chocolate for the entire under 16 population of the estate (as long as they are carrying a crappy plastic prop or making some such poor effort)...I am thinking of putting a sign on the door saying "Halloween - Monday October 31st" to see if this stops the hopefuls visiting on the wrong days...

On the day itself, when the really young kids come round, properly dressed up, then it is a pleasure, but do I object to the opportunistic preying on our generosity...so a sign and firm refusal to open the door on any other evenings (even if we do get an egg or two) this year I think...

Well, this sucks...

...wish I had *thought* to try this website before spending *all* DAY working on the garden...

I was confused for a while as to why, after putting about a thousand bulbs (from the Amsterdam Blumenmarkt) in the back garden when we moved in, not a lot actually sprung up in the spring (as it were). The discovery of a number of acorns as we were digging over the beds today, taken with the addition of this article (see the aftercare section) did *rather* reveal the answer...

Just a shame they are all bloody planted now...I think I just spent £40 on squirrel food....*slap* :(

I've just realised that...

...I have missed the anniversary of September 11th and I kind of had it in the back of my mind to talk about what happened on that day from my perspective...(after what happened on 7/7 it's brought the events of that day back into focus a little, so, slightly late (but none the less) here we go)...

Back at the tail end of 2001 I happened to be working right on the Heathrow flight path - in a place called Hounslow which is right out to the far west of London (if you click that link you'll see quite how near the airport it is), it's a crap town, dirty and run down, crowded and absolutely packed with various minority groups...(not that this is a bad thing, you understand, it's just to set the scene)...the many mosques and Muslim sheltered housing were (then at least) as evident as the burnt out houses and cars and the HM Prison detention centre...suffice it to say, I wasn't at all comfortable in Houslow after the hours of daylight had passed, and the evenings were starting to draw in (it being that time of year)...

Standing in the midst of all this squalor was a glittering palace, surrounded by a strong security system - swipe access, toughened glass doors and lots of security guards (getting in involved passing several stern inspections, including the occasional bag search). Again - just to put things in context - I was told early on that the place was regularly targeted by religious extremists from the local community, attacking other businesses on site - some big US bank and American airlines were sharing the rent, so security-wise they were taking no chances...Anti-US feelings were strong in the local area...

I was contracting for a GE business, situated on the top few floors doing IT support (2nd line) covering for a guy who was off with a back injury...it was the standard kind of thing, diagnosing faults with Windows machines, installing apps, building workstations (nothing too taxing) and had been there for several months. Contracting was good business at the time, big pay packets...so I put up with the extremely long journey in and out (was getting up at 5am most days) and the distinctly uncomfortable area I had to walk through to get to work...

From the top floor of this building you could feel the rumble of the engines as the constant procession of huge aircraft came into land at Heathrow, and (thanks to the altitude) they would pass the window at about the same height as you were standing when coming in to land. You would have been able to see the passengers through the windows if they had come any nearer...and it almost goes without saying that the deafening whine of the jet engines was audible throughout the building (and was pretty much constant)...

Now, I don't know if you have ever worked for, or been into a GE business, but every one that I have ever worked for/been in seems to have been notable for the number of televisions they have dotted around the place. Without exception their reception *always* has a flatscreen showing CNN/NBC (with market prices running by) and the meeting rooms all generally seem to also be equipped (for presentation purposes, I guess)...

Not wishing to sound clichéd, but 9/11 started just like any other day (and there was no reason why it shouldn't have done), a bit quieter than normal I guess, but support in this place never seemed to go at any rate other than slow, with only about 80 people in the office the number of problems on the go never seemed to exceed one or two...Breakfast had been my usual Woolworths' "Full English" with free newspaper...(lovely fried bread there)...so I had skipped lunch...taking my break a little later than usual (it was fairly easy going there) I was reading my way through the news sites on the web to catch up on things when that first "breaking story" came to my attention (from the BBC)...

That moment changed my attitude to news forever, or perhaps it was the fact that over the next few minutes, as word spread, CNN, BBC, SKY etc. (with the interest of the entire planet focused solely on one thing) became totally unavailable. I couldn't find out what was happening...and I *had* to know...(I guess that is why RSS is so important to me now)...

In the office, everything gradually ground to a halt...someone ran past shouting that two guys from the floor above us had flown out yesterday to attend a meeting in one of the towers...they would have been in there when the plane hit!

Giving up on the internet, I was in reception with a small crowd of worried people (some failing to reach US colleagues on their mobile phones) staring in disbelief at the TV when the second plane hit...I watched it happen...everyone gasped or screamed, someone started crying...

I don't know why, but for some stupid reason I didn't think I should stay watching it, I thought I should have been doing some work, so I headed up to my desk and tried to get on with things...but my mind kept on seeking news, what the hell was going on...?

Thus, using the internet I found the only place I could seem to get any joy at all was on Fark, which is usually a home to the photoshopping community, a place to find inspiration for their amusing images from stories in the news (it's where all the funny pictures you get on email usually originate), their forum became for me a source of what was going on, and the entries remain in their archive. I like to re-read the events unfolding from time to time...If you want to take a look then click here (where it all starts)...it reads in real time, so it's like being back on the day again...(I'd forgotten the news footage shown-that *very* day-of Arabs dancing in celebration in the streets when they heard the news, for example)...

By the time the first tower collapsed I knew it was really serious, and definitely deliberate, so I was back in reception, with pretty much everyone else from the office...and I'll be completely honest with you, the rest of a day is a real blur in my memory mixed with a feeling of horror and helplessness, so absorbed was I...I remember jumping each time a plane went past the building, picturing it striking us (silly as that sounds)...and I remember the eerie silence in the building when they stopped coming...as all flights were grounded...

I remember dreading my walk back to the station...but I don't remember the walk itself...I remember strangers on the train trading stories, trading updates as text messages and phone calls came in to our phones...trading "where were you" stories, trading "my mate is in New York" stories...trading the untrue rumors that were rife (until the dust had settled)...And I can remember telling someone "Someone is going to pay for this, like waking a sleeping dragon"...and I remember saying (thinking closer to home) "That's the end of the IRA, no way Americans are going to fund terrorists now"...It's funny, mostly because in England, no-one ever talks on the train, apart from to say "Will you move down a bit please?" or "Excuse me"...

The next day at work the building was evacuated (and everyone sent home when the police arrived to conduct a fingertip search that was going to take all day and most of the night) thanks to a specific bomb threat that had been phoned in that our building was next...I have to say, I really wasn't sorry to finish that contract at all...

I know why I have remembered these things, what with the London bombs, but this has also highlighted how easy it is to let terrible events like this slip gently into the mists of time...it's funny the way things have turned out, I've actually been to ground zero now, on several occasions (I never imagined at the time that would *ever* happen) and I know, thinking about it now, that when I was there I didn't feel the same, even actually standing there, looking at the great big hole in the ground, as I feel now, typing this...recent events have brought things back with a bit of a bang, I guess...

Anyway - That's all I had to say....so time for a deep breath and a *full stop*.


Thanks for listening, dear blog - with a bit of luck that's that out of my system...

Well, looks like...

...Tim has started blogging...

(Tim, you need to sort out your template - your posts are appearing under the page fold... ;)

Scroll down, therefore, to read about his new phone...(I will be tempted to follow him down this route myself)...I fancy a PDA shaped model for my next one (and upgrade time is rapidly nearing), I'm finding that internet access on the move is becoming increasingly important to me so a little PDA would be just the ticket (especially if it's Wifi enabled ;)

On the train, in...

...the mornings at least, I always try and go for one of four special seats in the carriage (well, special to me, anyway)...these seats are my super leg-room seats that can be found where a rack of 3 faces a rack of two (by the doors at each end of the carriage and also by the sliding doors that we all use to get on and off)...

Today I scored one of the special seats and sat grinning smugly to myself, rabidly consuming the last few chapters of Alex Garland's "The Beach" (which is *well* worth the read, even if you have seen the movie (which was good in it's own way, but did't quite get it right)) all the way into East Croydon (the first stop outside Redhill), where the train normally fills right up...right on queue the crowd piled on, forcing me to shift position slightly (as often happens)...however, this time I grimaced as I went to lift my left foot from where it had been resting (stuffed inbetween the luggage of the person to my left and my Nike rucksack (in between my feet)) thanks to the dawning awareness that it was stuck...not stuck *fast* but more like I had left it to rest for a long period in a huge puddle of pre-chewed, sun-melted, super gooey chewing gum...

It took perhaps 3 greasy seconds to slide it free of whatever it was that I had trodden in... (yuck!)

Dreading what I would see when I looked at the sole (but unable to manuvure myself into a position whereby I could do so by the passing crowds) I just had to put up with visions of other peoples point of view of me when I stepped onto the train, leaving a huge trail of chewing gum, or wet tar behind me (quite unawares)...

This ruined the mood I had been placed in by the book. I spent the whole of the rest of the journey subtly trying to wipe whatever it was off my shoe and onto the carpet, quite without success. Whenever I left my foot in place for more than a few minutes it stuck again, in exactly the same way as before. By now I was having visions of the whole of my sole covered in some mozzarella-like goo...sticking, as it was now, front and back...

At City Thameslink everyone piled back off the train again and I finally got a chance to peer at whatever it was...but mysteriously the carpet, and my shoe were completely devoid of any sign of any sticky material...!

I can only imagine that someone must have dropped a load of colourless glue (or something) into the carpet but my imagination had already done it's job, I'm *still* sat here, left with the feeling that the bottom of my shoe is tainted in some way, even though there really isn't anything there... :(

*grumble*

Hmmm...

...well, measuring up took about two hours (with lots of frowns), especially over the lintel on the back door and the back window...we shall see...

Red and gold...

...colours are now just starting to dominate (thanks to the Axial Tilt), but we can thank the global "homosapien contribution" (exhaust-wise)-(and otherwise) for the rather unseasonably late summer weather today...(not that I was complaining too loudly ;)...(and sorry Gaia (despite the number of times I have fought your corner with extreme prejudice in video games) I feel cold science is probably right in this instance)... ;)

One result of this odd climate is that all the kids in the local area are out playing on their scooters and yelling (albeit in a charming fashion) another seems to be that most of the summer plants in the garden are *still* hanging on..just until the first frost of winter...(if it ever arrives)...

Hard to know what to do with the garden in these uncertain times...

And also makes me wonder if we actually want double glazing or a frigidarium... ;)

Well, excitingly...

...and *finally* (they are "very busy at the moment mate, got a couple 'o blocks 'o flats on in Levered and a loada council in Dorkin' to do") I have managed to get an appointment with the boys from Dorking Windows to come round and do the formal measuring up for the double glazing...this is happening tomorrow (he couldn't be too specific about the time, but in the fast moving, suprise-ridden world of window installation you just never know what may crop up to interrupt an appointment, I guess ;)...

I just hope I don't have to move all the furniture around the place so they can access the windows (the office in particular is rather wedged with things exactly where I'm guessing they are going to need to stand)...

Oh well, we'll just have to cross that bridge when we come to it...!

Played about 9 hours...

...of Dungeon Siege II yesterday, it's excellent! I'm running an Elven ranger (bow and arrow type, bit like Legolas) presently accompanied by some sort of odd undead pet that fires death magic, a Nature Mage and a Half-Giant with a large hammer. Wish I had given the first one the time of day now! Flyingpops was down in Worthing helping one of her old friends celebrate her birthday so I had from kick off of the England Match (1-0 to England and Beckham was sent off (unfairly), in case you missed it) until she got home at about 1am, no idea where the time went! ;)

Need to rest...

...got a few things to finish off tonight, but (to put it crudely) I'm knackered, I'm gonna do my best not to work tomorrow (might be one or two bits, but that's fine)...going to stick "The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring" Extended edition DVD on the TV through the Xbox in optical 5.1 surround (*CRISP* and *BIG* and *LOUD*)...and slip off into Middle Earth for a while (and probably sleep before too long, despite the racket)... ;)

Okay, a few...

...pics done, (taken a quick break from work) scroll back, more if I can find some more energy....

Only just...

...finished working, and am rather tired, so am going to lounge in bed and put on one of my favorite comfort movies - "Carry on Abroad" and try to switch off before sleep time, will try and blog some pics from the weekend tomorrow, time permitting! ;)

Sorry for no updates...

...just had the worst few days at work, been absolutely rammed (without mercy, and at all hours)... :(

Wicked...! Dr Who...

...prop exhibition on the pier! ;)

Just in the car...

...on the way to the coast to enjoy the 'Brighton Breeze', which is an air cooled VW London to Brighton rally, we are on the M23 right now ina HUGE queue of campers! Pics later! ;)

Update - pics from the day - starting with overtaking the queue -

- we arrived super early, before most people did, found an excellent parking space right on the front, the weather was just incredible! Shorts and T-Shirt in October (of all things!) -

- we grabbed some (excellent) breakfast and pretty soon the queue started to arrive accompanied by a mass of exhaust fume (better than fresh air to a petrol-head) -

- (well, one way or another they found their way, remember some of these vehicles are way older than me!) -

- view from above -

- we wandered the length of the strip, taking in all the sights and enjoying the shops -

- including an impressive display of virtually identical splitties -

- and the odd injury -

- then we decided to go and check out the (remaining) pier -