Inhaler

Saw Phil last night, he told me all about his trip to Mexico. The Cave diving sounded amazing, I was pretty jealous. Phil looked better than I had seen him for some time, tanned and relaxed after the trip. We sat in the Kings Hall drinking and chatting, it was like the old days. In the last few years going out has gone from regular to a rarity which is a shame I miss it. I woke up with a dry mouth and headache though, don't miss that!

The rest of my weekend has been spent cleaning up the house in time for Kath and her sister Karoline visiting next week. She has never been to the UK before and we have a few things planned it should be a great week. Unfortunately because my holidays are limited I have to work some of the time but have Friday off and Monday is a bank holiday, so we should be able to do something exciting. I just hope that the weather holds out.

I just finished the On the Road film, somehow it was deeply unsatisfying, it had all the major scenes from the book but somehow lacked all the energy. The characters weren't quick as larger than life as I expected. Sal wasn't nearly as naive or wild eyed to Deans crazy antics.  The books is a wild trip with full of characters and events. In the film we don't really get to know any of the characters well. The scenes are well set but something is missing, there isn't enough energy its not frenetic enough.

Amok

Yesterday morning after only a couple of hour sleep I was sat drinking a glass of beer in the beer garden of Cafe Esperanto. Kath and I both felt a little overwhelmed after booking the wedding venue.

I had arrived into Warsaw the previous evening and we travelled on the night bus to Bialystok arriving around 3am. The appointment with the registrars office was at 10 in the morning. Accompanying us was the state registered translator, Jolanta. Apparently a necessity to explain what was going on to the alien, me.

First we went into a room where two ladies went over the documents and the translations. I had to provide a certificate of no impediment, my birth certificate and passport. All of which had been translated by Jolanta. Kath had to present her ID and birth certificate too. One if the women checked Kath's the other mine, she had difficulty distinguishing the area from my British address.

After they were happy with the documents we all trooped into the office of the registrar general. As we entered I could hear Jim Morrison's voice eminating from his computer speakers. The registrar a large balding man looked very relaxed with his music wearing a velvet suit jacket. He gave Jolanta a piece of paper with conditions for the wedding.

Then we had to sign some declarations, It was quite strange to be told that our children would have my surname, that was a last minute decision by Kath that she would use my surname.

It was pretty stressful for me having to rely on the interpreter to explain, however we resolved that we were happy. There was a moment of panic when he opened the calendar to the 24th August and there were already a list of names written. Fortunately there was a gap at 16:30, so that is when Kath and I will be married.

Walking out we went for a quick look around the venue itself a rather psychedelically painted period room. I tried to picture our friends and family in there watching us getting married, it should make for a good scene.

After saying farewell to the translator we decided despite the early hour a drink was in order to celebrate and contemplate. The weather was a warm 22c then sun beating down on us not a bad way to start the rest if our lives together.

A tooth for an eye

I started at a new company in January, so far it's been going really well. The team is well organised and the project we are working on is interesting. As a side benefit I found that I have more time in the evenings as I don't have to work like instead working 8-4 most days.  The extra free time has helped me get back into going to the gym and not too soon. 18 months of longs days in an office sat too close to the vending machine have left me flabby and unfit. I decided I needed a bit more focus so I decided to try out a personal trainer. After searching on the internet I choose Jon Bass and expert in Tabita training, a kind of high intensity interval training. So far its been working and I have started to turn the tide slowly improving my fitness. I still feel half dead after a session, not really managed to do a full hour as yet, but I am hopeful.

Thanks to vsauce I saw the following chart charting when people will forget. Its a good reminder that history is in fact not dead in spite of what some books might say. It is a point that has been reinforced to me while working with one of the interns. He is where I was in 2002, part way through university doing a year out in industry. It really interesting I can see something of myself in him, only he has a totally different set of experiences. He didn't grow up using Basic, typing in lines of code out of Computing magazine. He didn't have to rely on encyclopaedias or magazines like Quest to find out information the whole internet and Wikipedia is available to him. Who knows what changes will take place to the next generation, history certainly isn't dead.