50 faces of

When I blog I always write what I think at the time. Unfortunately like most people I am emotional and erratic and hypocritical. I say things I should, emote my frustrations, anger and temporary feelings. In the beginning it hardly mattered, my readership was limited to the odd Google whack. I saw a T-Shirt the other day which read "this slogan has more readers than your blog", which is eerily true. Over time though there are a few people who noticed and started following and I have had a few comments usually in the real world that gave me pause to think. I am not writing to upset people more as a release, for myself however given that its the internet plenty of people can read my output. So the choice is to stop, to moderate or to continue and risk alienating people, so far I have mostly chosen to moderate, I hope that is the correct course to take.

Today was really difficult, I found out my car is totally trashed and had to make a snap decision on whether to fix it or not. In the end I decided to fix it as it would be better the devil I know. I could have gone out and bought a banger but whats to say I wouldn't have faced the same problem next month. It just couldn't have come at a worse time, I just paid £300 for a service and MOT, and £400 for my gym membership. On top of an expensive trip to Japan I am forced to dip into my savings which in turn diminishes my house deposit.

I met Sarah for Lunch though I felt it wasn't the best of our meetings. She looked harassed from work and I after a couple of comments I came to the conclusion some of the tings I have blogged might have come across as negative. Sometimes I get so into writing that I almost forget the connection to the real world. Anyhow to set the record straight, I do shy away from contact, but I like hugs, I just shy away when I don't know people well. Anyway my rather rambling point is it has been most enjoyable to meet Sarah and swap our respective stories and take a break from the hustle of the office.

Wake Up Alone

Bit of a strange quandary this morning. I opened my email to find a message from somebody I had never heard of before at the client. He was asking for some rather sensitive information. He had actually forwarded me an email conversation from several people at the clients site discussing how they will work on a new version of something we currently provide them. I forwarded it onto my boss, he found it all very disturbing, me too.

This evening I went to the gym and spent 45 minutes on the treadmill then 15 minutes cycling. I then pretty much undid this all by eating two dinners and lots and lots of cake. I had arranged to go to Martina's to watch Eastern Promises. Martina said she had made cake and I was in a rush so I only half read her email, so not only cake but also a second dinner was waiting, I'll never be slim!

The film was pretty good, Naomi Watts tries to investigate the parentage of a baby girl after her 14 year old mother dies in childbirth. She is drawn into a London underworld of Russians, prostitutes and villains. It was a pretty entertaining film malevolent and violent (in a real not cartoon way) I really enjoyed it.

After watching Bruce text messaged me so we went to the March Hare for a quiet drink and a chat. Bruce has to go to Belfast for the rest of the week.

Z.N.S.

I had two main tasks to do today. The first was to work on a comments system for Phil. He wants a really simple comment page that he can use with some commercial system he has purchased. I knocked together a very basic script.

Tee second task was to go for another viewing on a house in Shaw Heath. I took Nick with me to capitalise on his knowledge, it was very interesting watching him work. Poking around seeing things I just didn't notice at all. Firstly he noticed there was a right of way across the back of the property, then that the wall at the back of the place was falling down, the vendor had put a wooden fence in front of it to cover it up. His advice was, if they are covering up that what other sorts of things where lurking below the surface. I trust his superior experience so I wont be buying.

We did however take a walk around Shaw Heath. It is a regeneration area and as such the council have been making various improvements such as replacing frontages, clearing up the passageways and improving security. Nick was impressed with some of the housing stock and the variety of different type of houses.

He in fact gave me a lot of advice, so while the house was a dead loss the experience was a positive one. I saw a couple of streets which I am going to try and target and see what happens.

This evening was not bad, I ate Chinese food with Phil then we met up with Nick and went to see Semi Pro which was quiet funny. From the same team as Anchor man and Talagdada nights it was another modern comedy. Set in 1970's Flint Michigan the jokes were pretty good very good period stuff and Will Farrell was at his dead pan best. I still think Anchor man is by far an away the best thing he has done, but if you like that you might like Semi Pro.

Virus alert

No not the insidious computer wreaking variety, rather the more modern viral marketing.
Recently logging onto Facebook or checking my email I have found more and more "Funny" video clips forwarded by my friends which are nothing but adverts for products. It bad enough the internet is chock full of advertising without my people forwarding more to me. I know some of them are funny but it sometimes feel like were are simply a frame to wrap advertising round (Maybe I should put in a link to Amazon here just to be ironic!).

Today is February 29th, quiet an unusual day, traditionally it the day women can propose to men. I haven't received any proposals this time though, maybe in 4 years time!

Infected Mushroom

It has been another busy week, made more difficult by the lack of a car. Unfortunately at first the garage was too busy too look at it, then since they did they are having difficulty locating a part. I feel really guilty taking so many lifts, my Mum has even been taking the bus to work so I can get to work. Thanks to the dire state of public transportation it is actually easier for my mum to catch a bus to Withington than for me to Wilmslow. There is a bus which runs from the end of my road into Manchester (passing through Withington and Didsbury on route). I would have to catch two buses and it would take longer for me to go a much shorter distance. I still feel guilty though even though she offered, my parents will do pretty much anything for me which is great but also makes me feel like a child, I can never be independent while I am here. Ill always be an ungrateful and underachieving person until I get some more independence into my life, get out of the comfort zone as they say.
Talking of comfort zones, last night I was just drifting off to sleep when the earthquake woke me. For some strange reason it made me think of the night I went out with Martina and the French assistants; I don't really know why my brain made the association, but it did. One think struck me, something I have realised meeting them and other people recently, I'm not a tactile person at all. The French girl did the European lets kiss as we great thing and I really found it very awkward. I have never felt comfortable at close quarters with people, it just wasn't part of my upbringing. I always feel awkward and flustered, I think it makes me appear standoffish and aloof, which isn't the case at all. I actually really like hugs, I just lack the confidence around people that I don't know well.

I Woke Up In A Strange Place

Today was the day of the Lan Party. It wasn't the best planned event I just have not been able to find the time to play games never mine set up game servers. So I spent last night tweaking the server to at least play the usual compliment of games. It took a couple of hours to update everything. After which I caught up on lost. I have reservations about what they are doing, this season they seem to want to try something different but at the same time not know where to take the story.

I woke up shutdown and packed up the servers then grabbed breakfast. While I was eating my mum needed to go out, she going to the hairdresser with my grandma. My dad offered to back out my car and let her out as I was eating. 10 minutes later he came in and told me it wouldn't start. We called the AA and the man arrived in about 25minutes. He poked around and suggested that the fuel pump isnt pumping anymore, so he transported it to a garage. Its probably going to cost £100's to fix, C'est La Vie.

I had to ring Bruce and ask nicely if he would pick me up. We mosied on over to Phils as they had arrange for the keys to be dropped off there. Phil had to take his parents to the Airport as they were off back to Deux Alps to see Tina again. Bruce and I waited while he left and came back, still noone bearing keys arrived. So Phil phoned the guy, and two minutes later found the keys, thye had been dropped off the night before :S

We squeezed the gear into the cars and headed to the legion. I opened the door, tapped the code into the alarm, it kept beeping. I shouted to Phil he tried, then the alarm went off. The noise was excruciatingly loud, I thought my head was going to explode. The club were burglarised recently, so two things happened, firstly they changed the alarm code secondly they added two extra loud sirens. Another phone call and we managed to get the code, it only went off for a few minutes but it felt like and eternity.

We finally got into the club with no sirens blaring, and had our first stroke of luck. Someone had left some extra tables. We set up the tables and chairs with the extra we were more than ready for a crowd. Unfortunately the setup was marred by the game server dieing. It has done over 10 lan's without a hitch the server for the games event broke. We tried a repair and managed (about 2 hours after people arrived) to rig up something but it caused a lot of disruption and meant we couldn't share files around easily.

After we got going the gaming went alright though and we dropped the £5 entry fee because of the disruption. After gaming, Pizza and a few beers everyone seemed to have a great day so despite everything we made a success of things.

C64 + Wii?

http://www.gameslave.co.uk/newscomments.cfm?news=7007&title=Commodore-64-Titles-Coming-to-Wii

When Under Ether

There was a hole in my logic this morning, I spent a stressful few hours trying to work out what is was. After I got to the bottom of the problem though today was relatively non-stressful and productive, a nice change.

It being Thursday I met Sarah for lunch. We chose a different venue this week trying out the rectory. It was pretty quiet and we were served really quickly. I think the food is a little better at the Slug but the service was certainly better at the rectory. I am afraid to say I made a very foolish error. I bought a card for her upcoming birthday and left the damn thing at home. I didn't even think about it until she was sitting opposite me.

We had a long chap about the house I am interested in, having worked in the rentals market she has a lot of experience so I was keen to hear what she had to say.

Afterwards we were having a general chat about past events. It was very strange in a way as her recollection is an oddly parallel one to mine. It felt vaguely like watching a news program where different people are being interviewed about the same event; they all describe the same general themes but there are subtle differences in their perception of the occurrence. I found it fascinating listening this alternate version of our shared reality.

This evening I managed to get a gym session in, I haven't been going very regularly because of work so I found it very difficult, Still I feel a lot better for going, as I walked down the stairs to get changed I was covered in sweat but I had the slightly euphoric feeling of having done myself good.

To celebrate I went to the pub to undo all the good work. Phil and I met Nick and Becky, for a drink in Bramhall.
It was kind of strange, like a return to the past. Its early days but they seem to have a more knowing and wise relationship now, I wish them all the best.

Giving up blogging

No not really I just was laughing at this

Im not the only one

Working with dead languages then this guy seems to have a made a career working with Cobol a something I always assumed was longer dead than basic.
I am not entirely sure I believe he wanted to get into Cobol programming, but I do enjoy the fact he has seen a gap in the market and learned the dark and ancient art in an attempted to fill the gap between modern and elder language.
On the same lines I found this article lamenting the loss of the older programming languages as a terrible loss as a teaching aide. In his mind one of the great things about the older languages like basic was they allow you to quickly put mathematical exercises into practise and actually see the logic in practise. The more abstract modern languages are so removed from the operation it is no longer possible to see the connection between the code and what the computers is actually doing. I certainly agree when I was a kid there was something magical about typing in code snippets from magazine and actually seeing something come to life on screen.

Halber Mensch

I have an early morning tomorrow I should be in bed already but I am tired and upset. I an really angry with myself it seems like all I can managed to do at the minute is screw things up. I have lost a little faith in myself to be honest. It hasnt helped that someone that I really felt were going to be a big part of my life have let me down pretty badly, I suppose I should have known better.
Work is not much better, today I overheard a conversation in which some new guy at the customer site was getting heaps of praise. Now that is great only a big part of what he was being cited for is actually partly my work on top of the whole award mess last week it really made my blood boil.
Japanese class was inteteresting this evening though I am worried its not strong enough for my travels, not long until I leave now. I aam really looking forward to it, in fact its one of the very few good things on the horizon.

I Feel It All

I went house viewing this evening, saw 4 Houses. 2 in Edgeley, one in Adswood and one in Shaw Heath. Amazing the differences really, all had major pros and cons, the first was next to a take away and due to the enlarged bath the occupants had put in it was impossible to open the door, answer remove the door to their bathroom.
Next place was OK in the reservoir area but was mostly un-modernised and struck me as far too much of a project for me to take on.
The third place I had almost dismissed before walking through the door. On a main road opposite a petrol station and next to a newsagents. We were joking about how much of a waste of time it was. Only when we actually walked into the place we we both pleasantly surprised. It was really spacious especially with both the cellar and attic converted, it also required next to no work to move in. Really the lounge is the only room that need attention. I was also toying with the idea of renting one room out to help fund the place [that is only an idea at this stage] There are some more details to be worked out yet but a promising prospect never the less.

Tupelo

Well last week was truly awful, work ate into my personal life to such an extent life away from work was virtually none existent.
Two very late nights and the general slog, pressure really got the better of me by Friday I was worked out.

Before I left work though there was one last kicker. Over the last months of 2007 there was a large reorganisation at the customers site. The ICT department (where I am based) all worked really hard and it seems the management realised this and came to commend everyone. Well everyone apart from me. Now I realise I am not an employee, but I do work there everyday and have don't for years, and I worked hard really hard getting things done, a word of thanks would have been nice. Plus the knowledge that the whole rest of the department get to go out on a company paid for piss up is rather galling.

I had arranged to go and see the new Paul Thomas Anderson film with Martina on Friday night. I enjoyed it, though I found it like all his films strong on acting and visuals but without a really strong story to back it up. I mean the general story was OK but to personally I really enjoy watching the charaters develop rather than just seeing them as they are. Either way though it was a well worth a watch even though I was so tired I found it difficult to concentrate.

Saturday I went shopping, I really wanted to buy a new coat to replace my aging leather one. The wares on offer were not to my tastes though so I ended up getting some new trainers instead.

Today I spent the morning looking at someones PC, it was pretty stressful as he likes to talk and not listen so sometimes its difficult to put a point across.
After that it was round to Nick's, his ADSL router had finally arrived so I attempted to install it. I failed at the first obstacle though, as the DSL service hadn't been enabled on the phone line.

I tried to sort out my accounts afterwards but ended up getting distracted, I am pretty useless at chasing money from people. There are at least 5 people that owe over 50 enough to keep the server running for months but I having been able to get them to hand over the cash.

After that defeat I helped my dad finaly get his site fully running. We had to experiment a lot but finally got the initial webservice running.

After finally getting it up and going I rewarded myself with a pint down at the Thieves with Nick, Phil and Bruce. It was the first alcohol I drunk this weekend. If I can start getting back to the gym next week and retake control of my life everything will be fine.

I have 4 viewing booked tomorrow, hopefully it should give me a better insight into Edgeley. My mum came up with some crazy scheme today for me to take over their house, but I don't think it would be possible unless I either shaft them or bankrupt myself so I think its a none starter.

Destroy Everything You Touch

This has been a very, very long week. Its gone so fast that its almost a blur. On Tuesday the address lookup system we used expired, it has a built in self destruct if new files aren't loaded within a cut off period. It isn't normally a problem, simple insert the update CD and run a script. The only problem was nobody could locate the CD. No problem though the customer has a support contract so they can download the update, just one quick phonecall... The tech who called up received a recorded message telling him to a download site. I thought this sounded a little suspect, and I really thought so when the download speed was so slow, only attributable to the number of people downloading.

Along side the lack of automated address lookups strange errors started to be reported. With a greater and greater frequency a rather weird "Unexpected operating system error" kept appearing all over the place. More and more users reported the error, I couldn't really explain it and contacted so of my colleagues. They all suggested either hardware going wrong or corrupt data.

The problems escalated at pace, the first reports came in the morning when I got in at 9 but by 1 the system had ground to a halt. That meant the entire companies main CRM system stopped running during the middle of a busy day. I was sat at my desk surrounded by a group of staff and managers peering over my shoulder and asking when it was going to be fixed. Only I didn't have a clue what the problem is.

Actually I am doing myself a disservice, I did manage to locate the problem within a reasonable time, the main data file for customer enquiries was corrupted. I also managed to convince a colleague to get me a copy of the address lookup software. A reboot restore and data copy later and we were able to get users back onto the system.

Unfortunately the backup system was broken, so after this frantic day I had to go home, then log in after hours and copy back the live system to the backup. It took until 3am, I was like a ghost coaxing the copy.

I got the morning off to recover, I even managed to go swimming. Unfortunately the problems well still reoccurring, though they were more isolated. I spent the afternoon looking into it on the phone to various people.

It bothered me all night, I went round to Martinas to watch a film. I was so tired i found it really hard to concentrate on the film. To be honest I didn't enjoy the film much at all. It was called a cock and bull story its based on some famous book. Martina and Annika seemed to enjoy it having read the book at university. I found it to knowing and too much packed full of the usual lovees of the British comedy scene.

Today I really hunkered down on the errors, and finally found another data file which had corruption for a number of cases. I felt really good about locating and finding a solution to the problem even though it meant more out of hours work.
I felt much better about going out for lunch having a solution under my belt. I met Sarah at the Slug and lettuce. We had a nice chat about houses
I stayed up tonight cleansing the data of all the bad records. I still have no real idea what caused the initial problem, it seems to have been the names software maybe corrupting memory space, but I cant prove it. I suppose unless it happens again I will never know, maybe that is best.

I got called into see one of the managers, he started by complimenting the way I handled the problems on Tuesday. It was nice to hear, though the overarching message was one of we have more work to do and we need you to concentrate to get it done. One moment was very pleasing he questioned the wisdom of putting me in the middle of the room, whether it was leading to me getting distracted.

I got a valentines card which was somewhat surprising to be honest. In fact I think its only the second one I have ever received. The thing is, the postal stamp is south east, I don't know anyone in the South East. Well at least no single women, at least that I can think of.

In Between Dreams

I went to look round a house this evening. It is a little 2 bedroom terrace in Edgeley near to Stockport rail station. I quiet liked it, apart from the decor the place is in pretty good condition.
I am not entirely sure about the area, there are a couple of tower blocks down the end of the road.
I also found out that one of the flat I look round in Handforth which was in the process of having a new kitchen now has the kitchen finished and has come down by a couple of thousand pounds. I have arranged another viewing for later in the week.
After the viewing I went to Rusholme for a curry with Martina, her friend from Germany and a trio of French assistants. We tried out Pink Garlic, its a pretty big restaurant on the first floor. They have a joint Chinese and Indian menu which is quiet unique. We all eat Indian though.
The place is pretty impressive they have spent a lot of time on the decor it looks the part. Unfortunately neither the service or the food lives up to the grandeur of the place. I was extremely underwhelmed by the food, it wasn't bad, just not as good as a lot of other restaurants I have tried.

The Wizard

This weekend was very up and down, and extremely busy.
Friday night after a manic week at work I was already feeling tired, unfortunately for me I had to do a weird split shift and go back onto the system after the call centre closed. So after dinner and watching an episode of Lost (which is getting more and more obscure) at 10.30 I logged in remotely and ran a tidy up program, I then had to wait for 1.5 million records to convert.

The reason for this out of hours working was an accidental deletion of a database job which broke all sorts of things that are needed to move data between the software I work on and the clients databases.

As well as running a data conversion, I also had to do some extra system modifications which meant I had a very early Saturday morning session. By the time I got home at 10 I was feeling pretty tired. I decided the best plan was to head to the gym. I decided to print off a workout and give it a good bash, having not going properly regularly for a couple of months I find it very difficult, in fact I felt very weak. I will certainly have to find some more time to go.

Saturday evening it was the comedy night at the British Legion. I asked Martina to join us as she had previously told me that she hadn't ever been to a live comedy show. Bruce and Nina came along, also Phil turned up despite having travelled to Scotland and back to take part in an Aikido session there. Also present were Nick and Becky, yes that's not a typo somehow the experiences apart (and with over people) have conspired to bring them back together again. I don't know if it will last but I hope that they are both able to be happy.

I think Martina enjoyed the evening, it certainly caused a little controversy, somehow Becky seemed to think that there was something going on between Martina and Phil. This amused me greatly when she proposed it. I drove so I got to watch Martina and Phil drink whilst I supped coke. She was very drunk and I pretty much poured her home.

At least the actual comedy was good, apart from the first rather strange American comedian finished talking about Bush, the next two were brilliant observational comedians. The guy who finished up had me in complete stitches. As usual a day later and I can't even remember the jokes!

Sunday was another hard day, I went to visit someone to look at his PC. I tried my best but this computer has been played with by several people and has a ton of conflicting (and useless) software on it. I did my best but I felt guilty taking his money, even after hours there I hadn't really achieved very much.

Ready for the Floor

It's been a strange kind of week, I have worked really hard putting in early mornings and late nights to get a project finished. It taught me a valuable lesson, despite my best efforts rather than praise for hard work and a job done, there was simply more work and harsh words for not "being positive" and completing everything (an impossible task).
It made me feel rather demotivated today, if I try hard and its not enough what the point really?

Another blow came from an unexpected quarter. I usually stay in the office or go home or eat with my parents which is nice but very typical, thought sometime it can be painful. I had planned another lunchtime getaway with Sarah. The last few meetings have been a a lovely and interesting change. It has been nice to get out and spend time with somebody interesting and different. Unfortunately today she had a migraine, and so went home, I really hope she feel better soon.

Tonight I planned to go to the gym but I felt tired, and instead ended up at Nicks house. I ordered a new computer for him last week and it was sat in its boxes in his entrance hall. It took a couple of hours to sort out, transferring the data from his old computer.

We drank cans of Carling as I fiddled with settings and watched progress bars. It was an interesting evening I think we got closer than we have been for a long time. I felt pretty shut out during the whole Brie period, perhaps because I had my doubts from the get go (about the speed things moved, I only ever met her twice, and always in group setting so I cannot pass comment).

Nick's internet connection isn't in place yet so I was limited in the scope of what I could practically do. Beyond setting up and transferring data I managed to get rid of a lot of the junk programs installed by default. When I finished we went to the Thieves Neck, it felt like the old days having a Tete-A-Tete about relationships past and present (and future). I really missed his company, it strange how hard it is to identify things until they are gone.

Avalon

I spoke to someone today and asked a question about a mutual friend, she answered that they dont see each other anymore. I wondered why she told me the mutual friend dissapeared when she met a guy. I find it really sad that people who are so close can so easily drift apart.
The real reason I find it so sad is because I know who easy it is despite the best intentions to drift apart form people. Relationships (friendships included) take work to maintain, as soon as you abandon them they decay. I am really going to try and make an effort not to let that happen, I really value my friendships.

Country Death Song

I had an good Saturday. This morning I went for a walk round Style woods with Martina. It was a cold but clear day and if felt nice to be outside enjoying the air. We talked a lot about dogs, most of the people walking had dogs and she misses hers.

This afternoon I watched the Rugby, it the first England match of the 6 nations. It was on BBC HD so Phil and I went round to Bruce's to see it on his big telly. I nearly lost my mind in apoplectic rage as the England threw away a half time lead with stupid play. There is something missing from English sport some killer instinct that the Aussies or Kwis have, we make chances and throw them away, the Aussies go for the kill.

After the match we relaxed and dined on Costco lasagna.
Afterwards we ate doughnuts and watched No country for old men. Its a bit of a strange film it reminded me of a history of violence a little. The story is a fairly simple one a red neck finds a bag full of money after a drug deal goes wrong. He is then tracked by the Mexicans, sheriff and a psychotic killer. The sheriff character is played by Tommy Lee Jones, he does a great part disturbed by his advancing age and the violence surrounding the drug trade. I liked the movie but it was a little depressing and there was no real resolution at the end.

When Under Ether

I managed to finish work early today I was owed some time after coming in early yesterday and being phoned after work. Never the less I got some weird looks leaving work. Its always the same they are happy to burn into my spare time but when I try and take something back its met with derision.

It was lucky as I planned to go visit a friend in York.
She invited me for the evening as she works weekend and I work in the week its hard to catch up with each other. With leaving early I was able to make it to York for 6 so we were able to have a nice evening together. She cooked a really tasty Polish dish, I couldn't even pronounce it!

Travelling back I was faced with snow, ice and wind, it made the journey very interesting.

Munich

One on the weird and beautiful things about life is peoples constant capacity to surprise. Psychologist an anthropologists can predict the behaviour of the masses, prediction a specific persons actual behaviour in life verges on the impossible.

There is a point to my assertion, today I discovered I lost another reader today, fortunately its not a sad event, in fact in this case it is in a roundabout way a happy one. I met Sarah for lunch and she warned informed me that she no longer read my blog. It was a weird feeling, hard to explain. I am glad and upset at the same time. Clearly I spoke to her in a way through the internet but it nicer to make friends in the real world.

It is interesting to me that while some people like to read about themselves, others prefer to read only when they know that they wont be a playing a starring role. Sarah isn't the only person that has told me they prefer not to read about themselves so much so that it stopped the reading the blog all together. Part of my wants to be read, but this blog has morphed a lot since the early days when it was just for me, I am a little more careful about what I say. I wouldn't say its constrained me much, but perhaps I think twice about shooting my mouth off preferring sometimes to wait until the dust has settled.

How far is the Rectory to the Bollin Fee in Wilmslow?

According to Google this is one of the top questions people tap into google to find Cookies World, so being a helpful fellow,
Question
How far is the Rectory to the Bollin Fee in Wilmslow?
Answer
0.06 Miles, walk out the door of the Bollin Fee, Cross the main road at the traffic lights, carry on down station road, the Rectory is first on the left.

Videotape

Despite my worst fears I managed to make it through the day. In fact it was a lot better than I hoped for. I still had a hard day, but I tried hard to be civil to everyone and make it a more pleasant atmosphere. It worked to an extent, it didn't stop people from dumping work and the blame for things on me, regardless of whether it was my fault or not. 

This evening I did some Japanese study with Phil, I am starting to improve, we both are. There is a long way to go yet neither of us can successfully build complicated sentences and I still haven't been able to memorise the list of adjective Emi gave to us. After studying we went to the pub, Phil had been to a diving pool session last night and it started us reminiscing about diving in Australia. I was sat there remembering what a great time it was, I really think I should go back, go scuba diving, surfing and carousing on the streets of Sydney.

Black hole sun

Its been a pretty enjoyable weekend, though through it all I have been dreading one thing Monday morning. More about that later though, the weekend started with a trip to the cinema.
Martina invited me to go and see a film called Drawing Restraint 9 at the corner house theater in Manchester. Its an art house film starring Bjork, she also did the score. There is a little dialog the "action" takes place mostly on a Japanese whaling ship. Its all a little strange, but basically Bjork and another guy make a ritualistic sacrifice to cleanse the ship, its fine though, as they end up transforming into whales. Martina found it nice, I was mostly nonplussed.
Saturday, I went to the gym, restarted my program because I haven't really been going regularly for a while. It was good to get back into it though I really felt a little out of shape.
In the evening I met up with Phil, Paul, Pippa and Ian. Paul and Pippa were up for the night. They stopped off on their way to Edinburgh. We all went for a curry together, it was a really nice meal, we chilled out had a chat and enjoyed each others company. After the meal we went to Graze in Bramhall for a few drinks. Ian's friend Gilly joined us. It wasn't very busy so we had a chat and shared a few jokes. All in all a very pleasant evening.
Paul wanted to get back to Wollers house where he was staying for the night before he got back. He and Michelle had headed to Manchester to watch a play, Oscar Wild. It struck me as a very unwoller thing to do. We just arrived back before them. They seemed to enjoy the play, Woller was in high spirits.
Today [Sunday], I lazed around the house, cleanout the fish then went for a swim (at the swimming baths not in the fish tank!). I expected to meet up with Phil in the afternoon but he seemed busy with something. I think he went diving this evening, I was a bit annoyed he didn#39;t invited me but I suppose he is busy with his martial arts friends these days.
This evening Martina invited me round along with her French friends. They were good fun we played some games and ate dinner, it was enjoyable but very different to my English friends, I wanted to say English chums in an Anton De Cannes Eurotrash accent but it dosn't really work in a blog.
Anyway its late and I am sat blogging when i should be in bed, but I feel pretty depressed about work. I just feel betrayed, I think I have worked really hard but instead of a pat on the back I get lots more stress and moved to the crappiest desk int the office. Its pretty petty I know, but then why I am treated worse than all the in house staff? Why am I constantly questioned about things and given a larger workload? I better go to bed or Ill be fit for nothing tomorrow, I think I am going to speak to my boss in the morning and have a moan, I mean I feel really demotivated right now and I think its completely undeserved.

Jigsaw Falling Into Place

The more I think about things the more I realise most everything in life is a balancing act. We all try to find the right mix for ourselves, some of us focus on careers some on happiness, either choice is really a mixture. Very few people are totally business focussed to the point of missing out on the important things in life like friends and family. Yet that is my point and point of view in one, perhaps I am tainted by my own balance to consider friend and family the top of my agenda to the detriment of career (amongst other things).
I have been thinking about balance a lot recently, I think possibly because a few things are going on which affect mine. My dads illness has made me feel more vulnerable, when I see me parents ill it brings home to me my ultimate mortality. Combined with this is a more uncertain world, work is no longer the fixed target changes in the market and companies mean I no longer have so much of a safety net. Finally searching for a house, and thinking about changing my life to do so has made me focus a lot. Reconciling the idea that I will be more limited in so many ways, certainly I won't be able to take so many holidays is quite scary, its even more scary that the many practical concerns like having to pay all the bills and look after myself.
I made some bad decisions recently, I need to take back control of a few things that I have let slide I think I still have time to change and adapt, find some new balances.
On a more positive note I had a really nice lunch today, I met up with Sarah. She someone who has always been on the periphery of my circle of friends. I am sad that I didn't spend more time and get to know her, she proved to be very good company hopefully it will be the first of many lunch time diversion. The catalyst for our meeting proved to be her change of jobs placing her working life into central Wilmslow. She posed me an interesting question which got me thinking about the blog / life balance. She wondered if it was weird when people who didnt know me very well knew about my life via this blog. It was the first couple of times it happened, and especially when Patrick walked up to me and started talking to me as if I had known him for ages. I got used to it though and over time could start to tell who were reading me. The odd thing I noticed was my closest friends with whom I spend the most time with were the least likely too read me. At first I was a little hurt but then I realised I spend half my life talking to them its no wonder then dont want to read my random chatter as well.
This evening I spent a few hours trying hard to help my dad out with some software he wants to put out on the internet see it anyone is interested. Its something he started over 10 years ago, he even came runner up in a DTi competition but has never quiet finished. I tried my best to do something and who knows perhaps its still got potential, I hope so its pretty clever (if you need to cut gears). We struggle to work together though, I guess t because we are family but neither of us has any patients with each other, whereas we would both give someone else a chane we are the first to jump down each others throats./ Fortunately we can still get things done, on occasion, with a following wind.
On a final note well done to my friend K for passing her driving theory test, hope you'll be terrorising the streets of York soon.

Racing rats

It has been a long day, I woke up early this morning because I had agreed to go to Yoga with Martina. I was a bit of a random experience, she invited me ages go to this special 3 hours session I got steadily more worried as the day approached.
I met Martina and her house mate at her house at 9.30. Her house mate is another German, though she is somewhat older than Martina. I think she fitted the group much better than either of us. There was a class of about 36 people, it was all girls expect for me and one other man.
Yoga actually turned out to be a lot of fun, but very hard work. The first section was stretches and poses, they really got a sweat on and stretched muscles I didn't know I enjoyed the stretches and exercises, I found the meditation and relaxation OK but a little boring. Either I am incapable of transcending the thoughtful mind or I just find it impossible to free myself from the corporal being. It was a very interesting experience though, I was a little sad when the class ended, I walked by with Martina to her place, then she started backing so I bailed.

I the evening I went out with Phil, Andy Gilmore, Emily and her friend K for a meal. We were going to order Chinese but Emily thought we should go out into the big bad world for a change. So we headed out to the Printworks. The Printworks complex is only 10 minutes walk away, unfortunately it was pouring down and as we choose pretty much the busiest time of day for eating. We wondered from place to place being told the wait was at least 30 minutes, not what 5 hungry people want to hear.
Eventually we decided Chiquito it had the shortest queue and a wonderful offer on buckets of Corona. The meal was really enjoyable I had Chicken skewers which were really tasty. Emily ordered something which arrived on a hot sizzling plate, it looked really tasty only she had to manoeuvre it around, unknown to her the oven glove affair had a hole in it so she ended up burning her thumb. She then had to eat the meal with her left hand (easy for me not so much for her). We did complain but all the response we got was a pot of sour cream which was claimed (and seemed to) be a good ointment for burns; Photos here.

Poison Dart

Today was my third day working on the so called new projects. I am finding it a little difficult to adjust to both new working practises and learn a new programming language. The trouble is just at a time when I want to prove myself, I am forced to work a lot slower because I am ploughing into uncharted territory. I often the same when I start something new, at first there is a sense of fun because its new different and therefore interesting. Then I start to realise that all the tricks I have built up need to be relearned, modified or even forgotten to achieve anything new (so downside if the so called paradigm shift). Therefore it takes forever to do a simple task the new way. Actually that is not quiet correct, I usually find some things are more simple others more complex. In time I am sure I will grow to understand and work more productively but for now I am getting steadily more frustrated by a lack of progress. My second problem s slightly more serious, I have been pretty much left to my own devices, somehow I am supposed to get to a point where I will be able to support a piece of software which I currently have only limited access to. I feel a little bit at sea, I am not sure how to proceed. For the moment I have a task I can plough ahead with. At least to an extent without being an expert on the other software.

Due to all this work related frustration my mood was not the greatest. I had arranged to meet Martina for dinner so she could show me her accommodation, and so she could blag a lift home from Northern Moor. Fortunately she is a reasonable (if vegetarian) cook. We listened to Radiohead radio 1 take over, which was mostly good though I wasn't a fan of at least some of Thom's choices. Her new abode is very nice, a room in a detached house in Bramhall.
I took home a huge pile of CD I have been instructed to listen too, its going to take me the a while to work though them. At least its something to do while constructing my property searches.

Some Might Say

I went to see the mortgage advisor tonight, it was a very depressing meeting totting up where I spent my money (mostly on going out and holidays) then being given the hard sell on a range of insurance products. I began to wonder whether I can actually afford to have any sort of life, I suppose I will just have to change my habits at least for a few years until.
It's all very depressing but the old I get and the more used to my lifestyle the hard the sacrifice will be so I suppose I really need to make the jump now.
The trouble is with all the goings on and work recently I have really lost touch with property searches, I will have to start afresh later this week.
I have Japanese class tomorrow, I haven't looked at my books for a while, I tried tonight but I felt too tired to take it all in. I hope its not too tricky a lesson tomorrow!

Boxbackup

For a long while I have pondered and tried to find an elegant way to backup my co-located server. I tried and failed with Amanda and several home-brew scripts. I finally stumbled across boxbackup.
Boxbackup is a multi platform network backup device. One system acts a a server to which clients (windows mac linux bsd) can connect to and backup files.
Boxbackup uses libsync (think rsync) to only synchronise files that have changed. Also because there is both a server and client agent its should be more efficient than rsync alone.
Security is assured through the use of Tsig certificates. Certificates are used to encrypt the data transmission and secure files as they are transferred.

Server Setup

There are Debian packages available here Download
wget http://www.backports.org/debian/pool/main/b/boxbackup/boxbackup-server_0.10-1~bpo.1_i386.deb
then install
dpkg -i boxbackup-server_0.10-1~bpo.1_i386.deb
The debian installer didnt work out very well for me so I manually ran. Replace server1.example.tld with the name of your server.
bbstored-config /etc/boxbackup server1.example.tld bbstored
Change directory
cd /etc/boxbackup/bbstored
Create a certificate authority
bbstored-certs ca init
Sign the server key
bbstored-certs ca sign-server server1.example.tld-csr.pem
copy the certificates into the bbstored directory
cp ca/servers/server1.example.tld-cert.pem .
copy the server cert
ca/roots/clientCA.pem .
My server is behind a NAT firewall so I had to open port 2100 and edit /etc/boxbackup/bbstored.conf from
ListenAddresses = inet:server1.example.tld
to
ListenAddresses = inet:10.0.0.254
Create a client account, each client is identified with a unique hex code 75AB59D
bbstoreaccounts create 75AB59D 0 20480M 20480M
The numbers with M following are the soft and hard limits for the amount of space on the server to allow for backups.
Start the server
/etc/init.d/boxbackup-server start

Client Setup

Log into the client computer, download boxbackup-client
wget http://www.backports.org/debian/pool/main/b/boxbackup/boxbackup-client_0.10-1~bpo.1_i386.deb

and install
dpkg -i boxbackup-client_0.10-1~bpo.1_i386.deb
You will be prompted to let Debian guide you, it didn't work for me. Change to the boxconfig directory
cd /etc/boxbackup/bbackupd
and run the config generator
bbackupd-config /etc/boxbackup/ lazy 75AB59D server1.example.tld /var/bbackupd /home /var/www

The final entries are the directories to backup.
Copy 75AB59D-csr.pem to the main server /etc/boxbackup/bbstored/ and sign with your server certificate.
bbstored-certs ca sign 75AB59D-csr.pem
This will create 2 files ca/roots/serverCA.pem and ca/ clients/75AB59D-cert.pem. Copy these to the client in /etc/boxbackup/bbackupd/
Start the client
/etc/init.d/boxbackup-client start
Check its running
grep bb /var/log/syslog
You should see something like

Jan 14 22:53:54 client bbackupd[3540]: Starting daemon (config: /etc/boxbackup/bbackupd.conf) (version 0.10)
Jan 14 22:53:55 client bbackupd[3540]: Beginning scan of local files
Jan 14 22:53:55 beta bbackupd[3540]: Opening connection to server server1.example.tld...
Jan 14 22:53:56 beta bbackupd[3540]: Connection made, login successful

Good Luck!

Planet Telex

I woke up coughing this morning felt really awful, the boozing last night only served to further dent my immune system.
I eventually managed to drink enough fluids to rehydrate myself and get back on track.
Endo had invited me around to his place. He and Jo have been living there for a while but he has been busy redecorating. Apparently I missed the worse of the chaos. Having left Wilmslow they now live near Warrington, so it was just a 30 minute blast down the M56 (and some weird little roads thank goodness for GPS) and I arrived in the Cul-de-sac they now call home. I must admit I was impressed with his handy work its going to look ace when its done. The 46 inch plasma fitted to the wall and all the associated gear tucked away under the stairs. He did have a bit of an issue though we hung the tv turned it on and attempted to change the channel then realised the magic eye was hidden behind the panel he just cemented into place. He had to act as a human remote control.
We chatted and played some Unreal 3, Jo made dinner a really tasty prawn curry. She asked if I liked hot food and I replied yes. Little did I realise this meant I would be eating whole raw chillies it was a bit of a surprise nearly taking my head off. Still very tasty meal.
I left after nine and was going to have an early night, but I got a message from Ian he and Nick were in the Thieves neck so I joined them for last orders. Nick looked dreadful apparently has been struck down with the vomiting bug and only just recovered. I thought he was supposed to be in Thailand with Brie, but from the sounds of it things had taken a turn for the worst. Both he and Ian were celebrating being single. Apparently Ian briefly refreshed his carnal relations with one of his ex's he decided not to continue, a wise move I feel. From my own experiences it never really worked out going over the same ground again, its better to lok forward rather than back, YMMV.

Ever decreasing circles

I had to work today, it was pretty frustrating not least because the work I was doing didnt go very well. After all the travelling and feeling Ill I felt very unhappy. Fortunately I had a very good evening to look forward to. It was her birthday, though in her words her ages is decreasing each year now ;)
She had arranged a table at the Alderley Edge bar and grill for 9.30, but we arrived around 8.30 to grab a few drinks beforehand. The place was absolutely packed, we had a fight on to get to the bar. Including one really rude guy who simply refused to move. Fortunately and despite pulling his neck during his grading Phil found a way to circumvent him. Unfortunately his behaviour foreshadowed the night ahead.
Joining us were Bruce, Nina, Michelle, and several girls from the stables. The stable girls arrived, in a big group with a few extra boyfriends and random people tagging a long, giving how busy the bar and grill was this meant no chance of us all getting a seat. There was some stressing and they they all disappeared. I though it was a pretty poor thing to do turn up on mass then all go leaving in the end 4 spare seats. They said they were going to eat at Est Est Est across the road where they would meet us later. By the time we got there they had left.
We stood in the doorway of the bar and grill waiting as people arrived feeling squashed but enjoying a drink and a chat. Some acquaintance of Becky's called Joe arrived, he just popped in for a drink, and I think to meet Christian. He was interesting to chat to.
When we finally got out table, with the 4 empty seats on the end we ordered. The menu was a mix of dishes I had Thai fish cake to start and Malayan Style Chicken for a main. The service was truly appalling, we had to almost beg to get drinks the time between courses was shockingly long, they forgot part of Becky's meal and the waiters ignored us when I was trying to attract their attention, even ignoring me shouting at them when they were stood only a few feet away.. They added 10% service charge to the bill but we decided there was no way we would pay it. It was a shame really as the actual food was really good.
After the meal Bruce and Nina left but we headed to Est Est Est for a few more drinks and to mingle with the others. Things worked out slightly differently though, the girls from the stables had already left us to it and Becky's boyfriend the infamous Christians similarly failed to make an appearance. Having already decided to skip the meal and go out with his friends by the time we finished out meal he had disappeared to Stoke. Apparently he invited Becky but she didn't seem in the mood to travel there. Personally I thought it was pretty harsh for him to avoid her birthday.
I had a really good evening and she seemed to very much enjoy herself so that was the main thing. She got a few nice presents ate some good food and drank with friend, that is about as much as you can hope for really. There are some pictures available online here.
I have decided against making Alderley Edge a regular spot though. This might sound like sour grapes but I met an awful lot of people I disliked intently. I guess the affluence makes people used to getting their own way, both the bar and grill and Est Est Est were full of arrogant people. I realise making and having money is nice but do you really have to act like so arrogantly?

Granite

It took me over 6 hours to get back from Essex, journeying though the driving rain at times so bad it was difficult to the road. The worst part of the journey though was the final part down the M6 I had only 3 junctions to go but the traffic virtually stopped moving meaning a few miles took over an hour. I felt incredibly drained by it all and was really glad to arrive home.
Having had only a limited connection to the internet during the week I had a lot of Facebook pokes, messages and email (mostly junk) to catch up on. One of my Facebook messages was rather intriguing, an old acquaintance contacted me to say shes now working nearby to me. I think it will be very interesting to meet up, and always nice to renew old friendships.

Away inBasivegas

Due to some work commitments I am spending the majority of this week in Essex. They have put me in a travel lodge (every expense spared!) and I cant be bothered shelling out the exorbitant prices for without net access most of this week.

Ski Photos

Photos from skiing

Apple Mail Bug

I tried to open Mail on my Powerbook earlier and it imediatly errored telling me that I had run out of space in my home directory. This was clearly rubbish as finder showed I had 15GB of free space.
After googling a bit I found out that if you delete "Home/Library/Mail/Envelope Index" and open mail it automatically rebuilds the mail index, and fixes the problem.

Vodafone suck!

I have been full of a cold today, so I stayed at home in the warm and had a play around with a few things. I found out that my phone has some interesting applications. Including the ability to upload photos directly to the Flickr photo sharing page. I spent about 3 hours messing with my phone trying to get the photos I took to be uploaded directly to my blog. I tried lots of different settings but only after searching Flickrs N-Series site did I find that Vodafone block Flickr. They don't make that fact clear, even leaving behind the options to set up an account, unfortunately the communication always fails. I tried directly browsing on the mobile internet and couldn't get to http://www.flickr.com either. I finally realised I have been messing about trying to make it work in vain, very frustrating!

Big brother is watching you

I just caught this wired article and it confirmed what I have felt for a long time.

New Year

Thanks to the last minute trip to the Alps I hadn't managed to arrange anything to celebrate New Years eve. I spoke to a few people who had various plans, Paul invited me to London, Ian was already on his way. To be honest after all the travelling for skiing I didn't fancy it. I spoke to Jo B he was going round to his neighbours for a house party. Bruce and Nina were off out for a meal, Nick and Brie were away, Becky was busy so for a while I was thinking I would spend the night at home.

Fortunately Andy G saved me, inviting Phil and I to join him and Emily at their flat. We reasoned that it wasn't worth paying the New Years Eve tax to go out. Given that the infamous 5th Avenue wanted £15 for entry we decided to stay at the flat. Watched Jool's Holland, there were some good acts, Paul McCartney and Kyle were good, as was Kate Nash.

As the last few minutes of 2007 drained away we moved out onto the balcony. Andy's apartment is right in the heart of the city, so we were able to watch the fireworks exploding in nearly every direction. Someone was even firing rockets from the roof of the building opposite. We watched one rocket arc lazily exploding midway down the structure. Emily brought out some sparklers which we lit and played with as the firework displays burned themselves out.

We moved inside once the displays had finished we played on the Wii, drank beer and eat snacks. It was a fun evening, I enjoyed the company, the banter and atmosphere was nice and relaxed. After the partying in Deux Alps it was nice to relax. We played Guitar Hero and Wario Ware, both games were really fun. Wario Ware is load of little mini games, its pretty surreal especially the "Form Baton" descriptions.

It'ts not really cold but raining here, a grey day in Manchester. Not the most promising start to the year, I suppose it is winter though. Phil and I stayed at the flat in sleeping bags. We started the day by making a huge fry up, just the ticket to absorbed all of the Budweiser consumed in last nights celebrations. After that we had a go on the Wii, trying out Trauma centre. Its a bit of a weird game, very Japanese you get to try your hand at being a doctor.

Ski trip

I got home from Le Deux Alps about 8 last night. It was an amazing trip, full of fun food and ski.

Forever delayed

This has been a busy week, it all started at when at 4am on the 22nd December. My alarm woke me up to leave the house. Phil and his family wanted to arrive 3 hours ahead of time. I decided 2 hours was good enough (as indicated on the Manchester Airports website at least). Unfortunately my gamble for an extra hours sleep somewhat backfired on me. This was the busiest day of the year to fly and Thomas Cook staff weren't very good at keeping the queues down. It me 1 hour 10 minutes to check in then I joined the back of the queue for the security desk. I stretched across the airport from T1 departures nearly into T3. I had never seen anything like it and was convinced I wouldn't make the flight. Fortunately the airport staff dragged me out of the queue and I got into the fast lane. Once I was through security I literally ran across the airport to the gate. I walked on-board the aircraft 10 minutes before the scheduled take off, I shouldn't have bothered running. Thanks to fog in Lyon and the delays at Manchester we sat on the tarmac for an hour before take off.
There was a two and a half hour coach trip from Lyon to Deux Alps, the final hour of which was all uphill winding our way into the mountains. The coach rose though a series of hairpin bends, the bends were numbered!

Hogworts

Phil's family and Jules were staying in a hotel which was situated right at the bottom of the nursery slopes. Unfortunately there wasn't room for Phil and I, we were staying in a chalet about half a mile away. Unfortunately for us most of the distance was uphill. The chalet was located at the top of 5 flights of stairs. One of the reps at the hotel kindly gave us a lift up there (we would have really struggled with our bags otherwise) called the place Hogwarts because of the strange pointy roof. Apart from its position the chalet itself was actually quiet a nice place, it was designed to hold upto six people so felt pretty spacious with just Phil and I.

Ski Lessons

As neither myself Jules or Phil's mother hadn't skied for a while, we enrolled into ski school as level 1. Level 1 is not total beginners but not far off, for people who actually know how to put on their skis. I was amazed by how quickly the skills start to come back with a bit of tuition. Despite starting on the green nursery slopes (and falling over at lot) by the end of the week I was getting pretty good, god enough to have successfully (IE I didn't fall over) tackled a couple of Red runs.

Apres Ski

After about 4pm the light started to fail, the temperature dropped as the slopes moved into shadow at this point we were usually pretty tired having skied for most of the day so it was time to head back to the hotel. Ski resorts are out of the way places, up the top of a hill the only people there are people who want to sky or people who work looking after the skiers. Deux Alps is no exception; after skiing he only other thing to do is go for a drink or two, the so called Apres Ski. There were a few good bars in the town, Polar Bar (with its alpine pine panels and fireplace) the secret smithy's and club Avalanche. Phil and I went out most nights and visited most of the bars and clubs, I recommend avoiding French clubs they are stupidly expensive on drinks and entry. We actually made it into Avalanche for free after following onto a Neilson pub crawl.
Overall a really top holiday, I cannot thanks Phil's parents enough for inviting me it was an amazing trip.

Who's advice should I take?

 

Martina bought me these guys for Christmas, I think they are fantastic :-)

Snowman

Snowman, originally uploaded by j0hncooke.

17:44 22 December 2007 22122007031 Phils sister Tina and her Ozzy boyfriend Jonny built this snowman outside their chalet

Old School - Gypsy's Playground

Intro to old school

Medication X

Took this on my camera phone as my cameras memory card was full.

How Cold!

Phil and I went to the unicorn tonight, it was a pretty cold evening we were both wearing our sky jackets and on walking out of the unicorn it was a good job because according to Phil's car it was minus 40C the average temperature for Antartica at this time of year!

Wonder

I went to John Lewis to do more shopping today, bought the all important thermal underwear, just the job for skiing.
I also went to meet a mortgage adviser, something I kind of promised I wouldn't do but gave in to pressure from the estate agent. It actually wasn't entirely unhelpful looking into budgeting and costings was helpful. I am still going to shop around for deals nothing is binding. I certainly would think twice about using the in house legal services. One thing that was very strange was watching the adviser interact with the computer system. It was very similar to ours only as a windows application rather than all command line. It asked a lot of the same questions and even had some of the same foibles though.

This evening was very dull no-one was about about so i stayed home sorted out my accounts for Server room and watched some Dexter.

Kashmir

I felt very dopey at work today, sometimes people say I was there in body but not in spirit, well thats very much how I felt. Fortunately I had managed to get through most of the important work already. Also slightly fortuitous for me today was the Customers Christmas do. That meant that everyone could get out slightly early, I was extremely grateful to leave work at four. I meant I could get myself to TKMaxx to buy some things for skiing.

TKmaxx was recommended to me at lunch time by the shopkeeper of the small sports store in Wilmslow. I went in with Paul to try and buy a sleeping bag. He was planning to stay at Woller's that evening and needed something to keep warm. He was up in for the final Gypsies Playground practice before the Christmas ball concert on Tuesday. We went to the Bollin Fee for their (in)famous beer and a burger meal. It was actually pretty tasty, I recommend paying the extra £1 for the flame grilled chicken burger over the breaded one. It was nice to see Paul, chatting about Radiohead and life in general.

After work I headed to TKmaxx. I was prepared for the worse queues, or a total lack of products. Luckily Friday night turned out to be a good time to go. The place was busy but not excessively so. I manged to find a ski jacket, pants and a few other bits pretty cheap. While I was searching I got a phone call from one of the people at freedom inviting me to the Christmas do. I was really nice to be invited but I had already arranged to go and see a film with Martina.

After shopping I headed to Northern Moor to Pick her up, she had been tutoring a child in German. We headed for some food in Rusholme. We ate in Kebish, a small restaurant take away. The food was ok, I had Lamb tikka and a narn, Martina has Alu Gobi which was very tasty.

We went to see "We Own the Night". I thought it was ok a little long and drwan out I think Martina liked it a lot more. Focusing on Bobby a prodigal son who was enjoying his life as a bar manager of an up and coming night club in 1980s New York. Unfortunately his club becomes the center of a drugs investigation led by his estranged brother and father. The story then becomes a coming of age one for Bobby as he steps up risks his life then loses his freedom before eventually joining the police force and stopping the Russian mob. There were all sorts of subtexts which Martina liked but I thought was pretty overdone.

Prescilla

Its been a long day for me, I arrived at work at 6.30 this morning. It was cold and dark, no time at all to be awake working.
After work I headed to the gym lifted some weights in the hope I would find it relaxing. It felt good to be in the gym, it was empty as well. The usual calm December before the storm of January.

Phil dropped a crazy one on my this evening. He invited me to go skiing with his family to the French Alps. It means I wont be able to spend Christmas with my family and that I will miss the next Lan Party but in the end this is a really good opportunity to do something different at Christmas.

I must admit though I am a little apprehensive about skiing I have been before. I went to Andorra on a ski trip at school, but that was (and I am showing my age here) 14 years ago! I will definitely have to make sure my insurance will covers me!

Must be the wind or something but the last two nights I have seen broken umbrella's lying in the road. Phil drove over one last night and I saw one on the way home from Martina's.
I went round to practise some Japanese, I should not have bothered really I am coming to the conclusion than my mind is unable to digest foreign languages. I found it incredibly frustrating I have difficulty remembering even the most basic of phrases and grammatical structure. I think that it must have really pissed her off because she had no patients for my mistakes tonight. I doubt even extra practise would make any real difference I will always be a British guy with a strong regional accent attempting to speak Japanese, Much like the pigeon English which find so amusing myself.

Today hasn't been the greatest really the whole house thing is becoming a chore. It seem very difficult to find anything in my price range, let alone consider all the things people tell me. There seem two schools of thought, people like Nick and Bruce think a lot about making improvements and having a projects. A few others are more keen to get shiny new property somewhere that needs no work that is a nice place to live. I think I fall somewhere in the middle, I an not as a hands on as Nick or Bruce but I would like to put my own authority on somewhere rather than have something totally new. It all very confusing, I will ahve to sit and have a long think about the whole thing. No doubt the estate agents will be on the phone again tomorrow.

Mrs. Robinson

Yesterday was a very long day. It started out reasonably well. I had to drag myself out of bed bleary eyed to get to work for 6am. All software updates at the moment have to be undertaken out of working hours. So that means if I need to take the system down to upgrade the databases I need to get in hours before the call centre open do the upgrade and have everything up and working. For various reasons the last few upgrades haven't gone very smoothly. Touch wood, I had everything done and working this time so that when I go in Monday morning there will be no issues.

I had booked a couple of viewings on Flats for the afternoon. Bruce offered to come with me to check. I looked at another place in the same road, very similar to one I saw last week. It hadn't been modernised so needed a new kitchen and bathroom, plus central heating, it did however have a loft conversion which gave a lot of extra room. The owner / vendor showed us around the place, it was a strange experience.

It was a foul day and we got soaked walking to the next viewing, which was doubly annoying given the owners were out. So not for the first time I wasted 10 minutes stood outside their door waiting for an answer that never came.

I was feeling a little tired by the time I got home, the early morning starting to get to me. My parents are no help, they only offer dark warnings about how much money Ill lose if I choose the wrong place and no encouragement about my house buying. I went for a nap as I was planning to stay up for the boxing.

I got about 10 minutes rest before Paul rang me, he wanted to tell me about his Belgium trip and have a chat about the Radiohead boxed set. It was nice to hear from him, sounds like he enjoyed Belgium. Apparently Woller nearly didnt' make it back, after leaving his passport in his room.

After the call I was wide awake so I went to play on Mario for a bit, I managed to beat Bowser. I felt great only now the next aims is to collect all of the star. I have 40 remaining, and as I have completed most of the simpler worlds that leaves all the hard ones, so it might take some time!

Phil picked me up around 7 and we headed to Gilmore's flat. He paid for the Mayweather Hatton fight so we were planning to eat play some Nintendo then watch the boxing. We ordered Chinese from the same place as last time and an hour later tucked into yet another huge Chinese meal.

Andy and Emily got me a birthday gift too, which was really incredibly nice of them. They bought me the Nintendo Zapper and Crossbow game for the Wii. It was really quite fun shooting things :)

It got to 2.30am and both Phil and I were fading fast, we found out the actual fight did not begin until 4am so we decided to make tracks. It was a shame not to see the fight but I wouldn't have made it. I was sad to learn Hatton was knocked out in the 10th round when I woke up.

Radiohead 2008 @LCCC

I managed to bag tickets to see Radiohead next June, its going to be great, Phil Paul myself and Martina. I cannot wait.

Talking of Martina, it was her birthday today so I joined her and her friends for a Birthday curry.I was with Martina (German) three French guys (Etienne, Damien,and Romen (i think not sure how to spell)) a Spanish girl whos name I didn't catch, Michael a Chinese man and a French girl Paige.

Etienne followed me to Rusholme I dont think he knew the way, it went pretty well and we made it OK. I found a side street to park on unfortunately he had a great deal of trouble parking up behind me. There was plenty of space but it was wet and misty difficult to see properly.

I took them to the Spicy hut because I think its tasty and pretty well priced. Damien surprised me for a thin guy he eat like Bruce stiffing away two starters, a Pasanda and desert! An eating machine! I had my usual Chicken k Sizzler with Jalfresi sauce

Martina seemed to enjoy her vegetarian dish. After the meal she opened her presents and made an origami hat for Etienne. It was a different evening for me enjoyable but I did feel somewhat out of place, I was the only person there who didn't speak at least two languages fluently. Is strange when I was at school I never realised how wonderful and useful languages were, though I blame this partially on the terrible quality of language tuition at my school. OK I realise I could and should have tried harder but its was difficult with the emphasis on punctuation and grammar rather than speaking and listening.

That aside it was a very fun evening, great food nice company and something different which I always good fun.

Down is the new up

I had today off work, initially I was supposed to be heading to Antwerp to visit Marianne that however long ago ceased to be a possibility. I went to view a couple of flats I had seen on right move. It was the first time I properly viewed a place, even the house I stayed in at university was chosen by the other housemates.
It was a pretty weird experience wondering around someone else's house and being prompted for a commentary by the estate agent. I wasn't entirely sure what I was even meant to look for. I guess it would have been a good idea to take someone like Nick along.

I arrived home about 1 to find my Radiohead boxed set had arrived, it was very exciting. A whole new CD a booklet and LP version of the original in rainbows CD. I hate to sound disappointed but the second CD sounded more like Amnesiac to Kid A. The booklet was also somewhat disappointing, the artwork was well below the work done for previous albums, it didn't speak to me.

I spent the afternoon looking at more houses on the net and listening to Radiohead, then went to Japanese class. Class was very hard, we had a Japanese girl Yukiko who we got to ask questions of. Only one problem she could barely understand our broken Japanese and when she twigged she asked us questions back!

I was really exhausted afterwards, but Bruce asked me to the pub so I though hell why not. He was a bit down apparently a couple of his colleagues have decided to move on and its making him think hard about his future. We talked about that and I told him about the flats I viewed. Then Julie came and chatted to us a little she is going to the British museum in London to see the terracotta army. It sounds like a great thing to go and see I think I might have to go and check it out myself sometime before it heads back to China.

Salmon Pasties

Every year the customer goes on a company outing, as usual this ment a trip to Parrs Wood then a few drinks afterwards.
I go invited to make up numbers, I was unfortunatly awful at bowling and embarrassing came last and second to last. Never mind I did manage to have a go on House of the Dead and was a bit more successful.

Dinner came in the form of fast food from the in house Wimpy. So los of Chips a few bergers and a rather ramdom salmon pasty. One of the call centre manager rather too exception to the salmon pasties. He remarked that the call centre would function better if they were hadned to the staff and on scoring a strike exclaimed "Salmin pasties".

After bowling we headed to the Slug and Lettuce in Didsbury. After a round of drinks someone suggested we try out some drinking games. First one was word dissasociation in which you have to say a work totally dissasociated with whatever the last person said. While ths game sounds easy after a few drinks things get a little difficult.

Next stop was the Picture and Piano, the alcohol had already started to bring out a series of work tensions. I mainly kept out of it and drank down afew more beers. When time was called at the Piano the we designer suggested retro bar in Manchester. A short taxi ride later and a few more beers and my head was beginning to swim. I remember thinking it was a good idea to try and find a club though that didnt work out and we ended up in a curry house.

I ended up sharing a cab back to with the IT manger my head was swimmming and I was out the moment my head touched the pillow.

Old School

I traveled down to London yesterday after being invited to see Grand Central at the Islington Carling Academy.

I arrived about an hour before the sound check, just enough time to grab a beer and have a quick chat. Paul had to go off and help move stuff so I spent half an hour with Pippa. It was a bit difficult at first but we eventually got chatting about travel and life.

After a bit of messing about Paul, Jules, James and his girlfriend joined us for a drink and bit of a chat in the bar whilst they waited on the drummer to arrive.

Once the band were assembled it was off to the Watching Paul and the band set up. There was a really officious security guard who seemed intent on kicking us out, fortunately the event organiser was kind enough to hand out some passes. I have never had a pass to a show before it was quiet fun taking all the stuff to the back stage room.

Plenty of people turned out to see the gig, including Paul's Dad, Stepsister, his new housemate and Pippa's Australian housemates. They were really cool people, I had almost forgot how fun Aussies are, full of energy and excitement. I was a little scared of Paul's house mate he was very very drunk standing next to me. I was a little scared!

Grand Central kicked off the evening with a bang. It was the first time I hear him Paul play with a band since Australia, and the first time they played with James the new guitarist. I must say these are the these guys were much much better, much more in tune than revolution 9 and better musicians than the guys from Austrlia. They really took his songs and filled them with music. You could really tell they were enjoying themselves, Paul was exuberant, his presence filling the stage. The rest of the band were playfull all giving it there all. I also got a birthday shout out which was really exciting :)

I think the real testament to the gig was the round of applause at the end, it was so passionate, not just from friends and family but from the crowd. There were a couple of music people in the ranks and they both very much enjoyed it, the female one was dancing around. In fact everyone I spoke to afterwards really enjoyed the gig, it was mass of compliments and superlative being bandied around.

Paul spent a while chatting and meeting people so I sat with Pippa and the Aussies having a chat and a few drinks, listening to the other acts on in the evening. Once Paul had fulfilled his duties we all went for a Chinese meal. I was a very tasty buffet, I must say I eat more than my fill, the food was really good, (and I was very hungry long time since lunch).

Sunday Morning

Its been a while since I wrote a gonzo post, mostly I have written some time after the event, tonight is like the old days. I just got back from Didsbury.

It's been a strange day really. It was pouring down when I woke up so I decided to have a day of rest and Mario on the Wii. I also had to arrange something to do this evening. Originally I planned to go to Pesto the restaurant we ate at before the Foo Fighters but on ringing them, not only would they only do bookings for parties over (there were 7 of us) but the were full. I haven't organised a gathering ofr a while and had forgotten how difficult it is, messaging people to see if they will come, organising the place and the time, telling people when to turn up, giving directions it was all quiet stressful. I wanted to go somewhere a bit different but I ended up choosing Casa Tapas in Didsbury.

In amongst theorganisation I had several other phone calls, the first was from Lisa. She was out in Syndey and sounded a little drunk she wished and in fact sung happy birthday to me. Which was both surreal and wonderful, otherwise she sounded a little unhappy, out on a friends 21st and feeling a little old. I can really empathise I feel pretty old myself! I hope her night picked up. The second phone call I got was from Maia, she remembered my birthday was close and called me to wish my a happy birthday, have a chat and catch up. It was really nice and totally unexpected.

I went to Casa Tapas at about 7.30, we had the Banquet, the waiter was a bit funny about it, only a few of us wanted the banquet but he told us it was an all or nothing thing. In the menu it said for three or more people he made everyone get it. Fortunately they did a vegetarian version for Holly. We had a really fun chat an the food was tasty. I was a little dubious of the service, they didnt refrsh the plates between courses nor were they very speedy in taking drinks orders. The food was delicious though. I especially liked the mushrooms in garlic sauce and the meatballs. The aubergine with cheese was pretty special too.

After the meal Jo and Holly left, the rest of us headed to the picture and piano for a few drinks. Phil started us as we ment to go on ordering Mohjitos. We dranks and chatted. Becky was trying to encourage Phil and I too go chat up women but I was too drunk and totally lacking in confidence, even after all the rum. Becky managed to take her own advice though and spent the evening slowly getting with some guy. Eventually seizing the opportunity and going up to chat to him, I was quiet impressed but I guess she is a girl used to getting what she wants.

Vindaloo

I went for a couple of drinks with Nick this evening. Foo Fighters apart I haven't really seen very much of him since he moved in with Brie. He dragged me to the Governors house in Cheadle Hulme and sneakily manoeuvred us toward the TV so he could watch the football (England Versus Croatia). I don't really like football very much but I suppose it was England so I acquiesced and we sat near the TV.

We were a little late on the start of the match and were a little bit bemused to find England already 2-0 down. I sat through the rest of the match almost in horror as England fumbled about eventually losing 3-2 at home to Croatia, oh dear. People were quick to blame the manager but they team as a whole were rubbish even I could see the mistakes the total lack of form.

Whilst not watching the football I was discussing buying houses with Nick. He gave me some good advice and kindly offered to help check places out for me which is a very kind gesture.

Mario Galaxy

Phil came round today, the first thing he said to me was, "Sorry John I am going to make you spend £30's". He wasn't wrong either. A few minutes later I was playing Mario Galaxy on my Wii and loving it. What a game its so intuitive, the attention to details is incredible the levels are interesting and varied, from the traditional stomping on enemies to flying around like a bee or swimming in the ocean.


I had to buy it, so Phil and I went out on mission to buy a copy, Toys R Us were having a special. It has been years since I last set foot in one of their store, I have to say I found the place an overpowering labyrinth of consumerism. I would be scared to bring my children there, probably they would wear parents down to the point they would buy anything just to escape.

As we were leaving Andy text messaged and invited Phil and I over for an evening of Wii. It sounded like a plan so after a short sojourn at the data center we headed to Abito.

We sent out for Chinese food and while we waited for the delivery we warming up with Tennis and bowling. When the food we were feeling really hungry. Fortunatley arrived in those American style boxes. They look quiet petite, but are actually like little tardises. They hold a size able amount of food. I was very happy with the vermicelli, it was way more than I could consume.

We returned to the couch all feeling somewhat bloated, our hunger more than sated. Next up was Mario, we took turns hurtling through the levels all enjoying the weird and wonderful level designs. I also enjoyed a few beers :) Overall a great game, great night.

Infected Mushroom

A strange thing started off yesterday evening. I was booked to go to a blood donation after work, so I turned up at 5.40 for my appointment and was asked the usual questions, the final one being have you been out of the country in the last 12 months. I answered yes to China and Turkey. The nurse got all twitchy and started thumbing through a book of places then finally asked when I went I told her May and she said sorry you cant donate today you might have malaria. I was a little surprised given I was told I wouldn't need anti malarial shots when I visited the nurse before I visited China. I have also made a donation since I returned from China, so I found it very weird to be refused.

I planned to go round to Martina's she had organised a meal / DVD night with the other language assistants at her place. I headed to Cheadle picking up some Ice cream and a few drinks on the way. I was the first to arrive and we chatted about stuff. She had been backing the kitchen had a pleasant cookie smell.

The others arrived about half an hour later, a French guy Damien, and two Chinese people. One of the Chinese guys Michael took charge of the cooking frying up some rice and eggs. It was a pretty nice meal. After which we had a chat about languages and the perception of different cultures. Damien was amused at my typical English lack of language ability.

The Chinese guys had to leave early as they wanted to go see Liverpool in the morning. Damian gave them a lift home, when he returned we watched a film called Chronos. It was about a man who found a beetle which would keep him alive but at a price. I found it a little confusing because of the language (it was Spanish with English subtitles) but also because I wasn't much in the mood for films. We seemed to spend more time talking and joking then watching.

It was fun though many amusing moments. The only weird part of the evening was when the Martina's friend arrived, the were two girls and a bloke. Apparently both the girls fancy the guy, I have no idea why he was fat and seemed rather ignorant in the few sentenced we exchanged. It seemed a little weird to me putting up three people you hardly know who then go off and do there own thing, but that is her prerogative.

Everybody Knows That You Are Insane

Some days you everything seems possible, it seems like no matter what the problem its surmountable. Today was a little like that for me, at least the majority of it. I managed to solve a major problem for Phil, and some things at work finally clicked.
It left me feeling pretty happy this evening, I even received a little reward from Phil in the form of a couple of pints at the Orange Grove.

I also managed to finished my current book "The catcher in the rye". I enjoyed it the main character reminded me a little of myself, albeit a more affluent and socially outgoing version. I understand his obsession with the falseness of displayed by the majority of people. The hypocrisies and downright falseness displayed by the a great deal of people is incredibly depressing. However tonight I refuse to let such things dent my good mood.

The temperature has plummeted this evening. I am sitting in my room close to almost shivering from the cold. The heating ticks off about 11. I have spent the last couple of hours looking at places to buy. I tried both the local papers and online. Unfortunately the choice was a little limited but with my birthday coming up I have decided it high past time I did something to move on. I have been following the same path for over three years now so it time to make some changes and re-evaluate. One of those changes is moving out its going to take a few months to sort thing out but I am moving in the right direction now. There are some more change to make but that is for another blog.

For What It's Worth

Today was a struggle, I feel a little like I am at sea swimming against the tide, no matter how much I raise my game I am still going to drown in the end. I struggle on though getting through the days and weeks trying to get my work done.

I went to the gym after work jogged for about 50 minutes on the treadmill. I was disgusting by the time I was finished covered in perspiration. Fortunately I did have the good fortune to be on a running machine next to an extremeley attractive young lady which made the process somewhat more tolerable.

I feel pretty awful today though, I am not sure exactly why, mostly frustration with work and a lack of progress in life I suppose. I really need to move out of home I feel like I cant breath hear anymore, my parents are always around they stifle me. They never really have any faith in my abilities which is greatly depressing especially when others do, to them I will always be a little child.

The Devil

Another Sunday, another hangover, more blurry memories. Last night I went round to Martin house for a Firework display and BBQ. It was a great evening well attended by many friends.
I had great fun listening to Becky's tails of bad dates, she also looked totally horrified to see Martins deconstructed front front. To be honest I had no idea how much he had taken it apart, it really is back to basics at the moment. Bruce and Nina, turned up she had some of her homemade fudge, it was excellent if dangerously fattening. Martin was his usual exuberant self, Endo seemed Jolly even Martins sister seamed to enjoy herself. Jo and Holly turned up I dropped off his new pc after making another trip to Aria to get a replacement motherboard, it finally seems to have solved the problems I have been having with it (touches wood).

I lost my usual BBQ master chief role to Simon who seemed to have great fun cooking away. It gave me a chance to go mingle so it wasn't so bad to be relegated. I hung around the super heated air radiating from the chimnenea, Martin really loves to get a good fire going!

Most of us brought some fireworks, though I don't feel like it was as much of a show as last year. It was still very funny though, I had a most enjoyable evening.

I only took one photo on my phone, left my camera at home like a fool :S

The Pretender

Did something pretty different this evening and went to a book reading. I had never been to one before, so I really didn't know what to expect. The girl from Japanese class invited me, her German network were all going.

The reading was by the author of Angela's Ashes Frank McCourt. He was a very interesting guy he told us a little about his life before giving a shore reading from his new children's book. He had a very powerful personality and waxed lyrical about how his miserable childhood gave him the material for his book.

I had a most enjoyable time listening to him, I would like to say he inspired me to work harder on my book. Unfortunately I feel quiet the opposite, he was so eloquent, so good at drawing characters I don't think I can ever get to that sort of level.