In Bruges

Friday night I fixed a PC for the cousin of an ex customer. Her old laptop was so slow it took over an hour to copy her photos to my memory stick (usb 1.0 slow slow slow) and 4 minutes to copy them onto her new laptop! After that amusement I headed to Wilmlsow with Russell. He headed back to university on Saturday so it was the last chance to meet up. Its a little strange going meeting up someone after several years gap, but we had a nice chat he looked around the house. We met Phil in the Rectory he had been for a meal with his parents and was already drunk by the time we arrived. We had a long chat about women, Russell seemed to know half of the girls in there but hadn't capitalised on it. I drove so got to watch thm both get more and more drunk until the conversation headed so far south it was time to leave.

Saturday, I spent the morning getting a new website for work up and running. Well the infrastructure anyway. The web designer needs to do the rest. It went pretty well though I feel a lot more confident about the new strategy, I just hope its successful so I can secure my job. Saturday afternoon Martina cycled round and helped me strip some paper from the living room ceiling. Bruce popped in just as we were finishing up, he and I chatted about how to route cables.

I got home in time to find Jono showing off his new chainsaw, yes Jono bought a chainsaw, not just a little one either a Makita petrol chainsaw, its a beast. I am kind of scared what he will do with it!

I went for dinner at Martina's, she made plum pie and I piked salad leaves from her garden. We ate the plum pie with smarties ice cream, yum! Neither of us have any money so we stayed in and watched TV, Saturday night tv is rubbish, no good films no decent shows boo!

Today has been a good day, after the endless rains of summer today was sunny hot and rain free. I tried to amend some issues with the web server then headed to the house. Nick was repairing the crushed flags so I decided to strip some more paper. I have discovered that stripping wallpaper is a truly thankless task. You scrap and scrap and very slowly clear patches, Nick told me he hates it so much that usually he just smashes off the plaster and starts again from fresh. Unfortunately I can't quiet run to that sort of expense. I managed to clear two walls in the master bedroom though Ill have to go over them again with the steamer. I was getting fed up of stripping and with the good weather I decided to put up my new light.

This evening I went for a jog which made me feel good so I celebrated by eating chocolate and drinking beer while watching In Bruges. In Bruges is a film about two contract killers hiding out in Bruges, set against the beauty of Bruges Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson evaluate their lives as contract killers while meeting prostitutes, Canadians and Dwarfs.

Phil and I drank Stella Artois "Triple filtered smooth lager". It was actually very nice, at 4% not as strong as normal Stella but a lot more tastey and only £3 for 4 cans at Tesco, Bargain.

A secret tour

I had the day off today kind of, somehow I managed to be roped into going to not one but two meetings which ate up the majority of the day. Both meeting were fruitful so it was a pretty good, even if I should have been working on my house.
Talking of which a kitchen designer arrived this morning, he is going to draw up a plan of the kitchen including thinking about the best place to put the door.
This evening I went with Bruce on a British Computer Society arranged tour of Hack Green. It is amazing to see what Nuclear weapons look like, and what the government had planned for Britain in the event of a Nuclear war.
The guys running the tour let out all sorts of facts including that a number of Russians have visited Hack Green and told the owners that they had planned not to invade the UK but simply bomb it out of existence as we were (are) effectively an aircraft carrier for the US. Also the 4 minute warning plans involved dissolving the government leaving the country to be governed by regional seats (of which Hack Green would be one) and closing supermarkets and petrol stations taking the good into government control, scary stuff. All in all it was a fascinating place to visit for anyone with an interest in defence.

Electric Feel

It has been a long weekend for me as I worked at home on Friday. Friday evening I went to see Sandbox at Moho live. Phil drove as he had done a marathon work session helping out throughout Thursday night de rigging the GMEX. We picked up Nick who who demolished a Fosters in pretty much one swallow. It transpired that his day had not been the best. The Poles who planned to return home for a month had demanded a pay rise or they were refusing to come back to the UK. The remuneration of the Poles is pretty complicated and I don't really want to detail what he relayed to us the long and short is if he offered them more he could get English labourers and have a lot less hassle. He was especially galled as he had gone out of his way to line up work for them. I talked to him about how it would make an interesting scene in a book he keeps talking about writing, I even offered to Ghost write it for him...
We arrived in time to catch a pretty good band on the main stage before moving to the second room for Sandbox. Chief was on good form as was Emily after getting her results finishing top of her year. Sandbox played a good set I didn't get to meet the new guitarist but he sounded good. We were all fairly tired so we pretty much made a move off as soon as there set was over.

Saturday I spent the morning relaxing, Jono rather randomly popped round with his girlfriend Nona. It was a little bit of a strange meeting. After which I headed to the gym. I did the first proper work out in ages and felt tired, though good for it. In the Phil and I headed to the Legion for the comedy evening, we drank some beers had a lot of laughs then walked home, it was a fun evening.

This morning I met Martina and we went to the breakfast club screening of The Good the Bad and the Ugly. It is a great film which though she is a lover of the western genre Martina had never seen. I really love it the. The cinematography is great, shots of peoples eyes, the way tension is built up . The dialogue is limited yet almost perfect, all the characters are strong. Comedy is interwoven with the futilities of war and the madness greed drives men too. My favourite line is Tucos when after kililng an attacker who delivers a diatribe while he is in the bath "When you have to shoot, shoot, don't talk." I especially liked the ending all the build up hours of tension between the three protagonists is fixed within minutes, Clint the man with no name riding off into the the future with half the gold.

After that great film we came to look at my house, I now have a floor, not door or kitchen wall though. For bits for Nick to finish off before I can get in and do the rewiring. It looks a lot better now the concrete is down without the cracks, you can play marbles on there now :)
We then headed to my parents house to watch Nip tuck for a few hours before having a last orders drink in the unicorn with Bruce Nina and Phil.

Load level Polish Style

Load level Polish Style
Originally uploaded by j0hncooke

The Poles certainly know how to fill up a skip to the top and then some.

The Youth

Work was interesting today a colleague came in to work on a different project, it was good to have some diversion. Together he I and another guy who went for lunch at the Swan, it was a really relaxed surprisingly positive given the circumstances.

This evening I went to do an ID assertion. We got chatting over a beer, it turned out he was a really interesting guy. Turns out he drives trains for a living, he had lots of interesting stories and confirmed at least a few of my cynicisms, especially about the green running of trains. Originally from Sweden thought having lived in teh UK for some time. We talked about trains, Sweden and life. He told me he lived in the Beetham Tower in Manchester. In which on a good day you could see all the way to the airport and the hills he was also telling me when it snowed the apartment was was above the cloud level so the sky way empty. I never really considered apartment living before but that sounded pretty amazing to have such views. I suppose you have to pay a premium though, my apartment in China didnt have any really nice views.

Built on sand

Built on sand
Originally uploaded by j0hncooke

Matthew 7:[26] And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:

I have never quoted the bible before but I think it is pretty appropriate, rather than use hardcore whomever built my house used only sand to support the concrete. It should have tons of compacted hardcore to support the 7 tons of concrete. Nick plans to put in steel support to concrete too, once its done it should last a long long time.

Lucky

Murphy's law says that "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong", which at the moment seems to some up the recent events in my life.

Tonight I feel negative because after finding out my floor and heating are both going to cost more than I budgeted for, on the way home from my house my car died in what I very much fear is a terminal way. So I am carless, all my savings are spent (or at least allocated) and I can't live in my house nor do I have a car. Couple that with the fact I am working for a company who's fortunes have very much been transformed for the worse by the credit crunch so much so its affecting my earnings in a very real way. I feel pretty trapped and stupid earlier. I came to the conclusion when I heard the rumblings about work I should have pulled out of buying the house. It was just I got caught up in the fact I had finally found a house I could afford in an area I wanted to live. I didn't factor in enough what would happen if my situation changed.

I feel a lot more calm now though. After talking to friends today and this evening I realised the way you feel very much depends on your point of view. Through all this doom and gloom, I realised I have some great friends, confidants, that I have my health, and in the end if it comes to it I am smart enough to get out there and find another job. I have even decided to start studying again in an effort to make myself more employable.

Scary walk

Original Floor

Original Floor
Originally uploaded by j0hncooke

Second vinyl

Second vinyl
Originally uploaded by j0hncooke

Amzing what some people do, I lifted one piece of vinyl only to find another, lifted that only to find tiles, and under the tiles, more tiles.

Island of Domination

Strange Days, work was difficult today, I feel like nothing I can do is right. I found a way to save potentially hundreds of pounds a year today and it was greeted with derision. I went to lunch with a colleague and we had a good bitch about it all.

After work I went with my dad to pull some more rubbish out of my house (see the following pictures). Managed to take out all the builders tiles in the living room and most of the kitchen floor.

This evening I walked down to the unicorn with Nick. I have finally finished my antibiotics so I could finally enjoy a drink. It was a very humid and muggy night so we sat outside. There were a group of girls on the table across from us having a good time, at least seemingly. A guy came over to them, and a few minutes later they were having a full blown row, it transpired that is was her 40th birthday and she felt he wasn't bothered, to be honest hearing them I didn't feel either of them deserved sympathy.

Nick inspecting the carnage

Nick inspecting the carnage
Originally uploaded by j0hncooke

Hole in the floor

Hole in the floor
Originally uploaded by j0hncooke

Nick cut a hole in the floor to investigate why its sinking

Googlebombing

I just read this brilliant article on El Reg. It shows what can happen to people when they write about things they do not really understand which happen to also piss off people who do. A web search (on Google at least) for the offending columnist Julie Moult now returns this blog. Which shows two things really, annoying technical people can lead to problems and Googles ranking system is clearly manipulable by the internet masses.

Dumped Tyres

Dumped Tyres
Originally uploaded by j0hncooke

On the way to Sundays concert I saw this pile of dumped tyres with a note from the council on. I would have thought clearing up the mess would have been preferable to putting a big yellow notice on it.

The end of the world as we know it

"and I feel fine" Michael Stipe wrapped up the R.E.M. concert in Manchester last night with that iconic song. Despite being a fan for years I have never seen R.E.M. live. I remember being in France years ago on a rugby tour a listening to Monster, what's the frequency Kenneth was just so brilliant. I was really happy when they played it right at the beginning of the set. They played a real mixture of songs a lot from the new album but interspersed with bits from throughout their career. Michael Stipe addressed the crowd several times dedicating a couple of songs to the gay pride festival going on in Manchester over the weekend. They called on the encore by the video guy putting his iphone with a scrolling "Encore?". I really enjoyed the concert a lot, more than I expected in fact. I think that there recent material works a heck of a lot better live than recorded.

The set up swas a lot smaller than for Radiohead, with parts of teh field cut off. Another weird thing was we were actually stood on the cricket pitch at LCCC. Everytime I had been to concerts there previously the pitch had been covered with plastic. I guess they must be resurfacing or something.

Supporting R.E.M. were the Guilimots who were on form, and a lot better than when I saw them at the Academy but really not my kind of thing.
The second support band were the Editors who I have to say were excellent, and one of the best support acts I have ever seen. They pretty much played everything off their albums which was great.

The concert was notable for one other feature, we found a food stand selling gourmet buffalo burgers, which tasted excellent, the best food I have ever eaten at a concert by some margin.

Love Is Noise

Something I don't seem to have enough of at the moment is time. I try and do as much as I can see as many people as possible, only somewhere along the way I keep letting everyone down. The last few weeks have passed in a blur. Since I became a homeowner I have tried to get there as much as possible even if its only to do one small job. That had been my plan yesterday, but over the course of the day my arm had swollen up to the point where at 3m it was so painful I had to take a trip to the doctors. Dr Ali informed me that I had cellulitus and prescribed a course of antibiotics.

I went to the pharmacy bought the horse tranquilliser sized tablets then came home to eat pizza and watch Interstate 60. A lovefilm recommendation starring Gary Oldman and James Marsden, its an interesting take on the voyage of discovery.

I wanted to do so much today, work on the house, go to the gym, see friends, write my blog. Some how maybe because of the fact my body is fighting off an infection I just felt too tired to do any work on the house. Instead I took my mum shopping she needed a new washing machine so we went to several places looking for the right model at the best price.

In the evening I collected Phil, Bruce Martina and headed to the March Hair for a quite drink and chat. Afterwards we went round to Bruce's to watch the Reading festival coverage. They drank scrumpy while I sat and eat pringles, it was a pleasant evening though.

Are the batterys dead?

 
These were the batteries I found inside the doorbell housing, they look like they are from the 1970's needless to say the bell dosn't work

Foaming at the mouth

I went to see Cine this evening at Moho live in Manchester. I picked Nick up early, my gran and parents were monopolising the house so I needed to get out.

As we were so early Nick and I went for a drink and a chat in Dry Bar. As we talk a seat a surreal moment happened as a guy entered the bar with his dog, he sat outside to smoke with a beer and the barman brought the dog a bucket of water to drink from.

Nick is an inspiration to me, I have only been working on my house for a couple of weeks and already I feel worn out, I have no idea how he manages it day after day. Ian Faye and Danny joined us for a quick drink. Ian an Faye were looking tanned and happy after their sojourn in the US. We didn't have long to chat before we had to make a move to the club.

Danny pointed out that Moho is actually in what was the Lazy Pig. It brought back some memories of college days.

Inside Moho met up with Andy Gilmore, Emily, Jo Berger, Alex Humphrey, Paul Fletcher (who had something to do with holding the event). Cine played a good set, Paul was really hyped up, James was awesome on the guitar I really like the keyboard effects creating an almost door's like sound which was a suitable adjunct to Paul songs.

I really enjoyed the performance but afterwards the next band was way way too loud I couldn't talk to anyone properly so I hung around for a bit before making an exit about 11.

Violent Cop

Phil told me some interesting news last night. He is planning to go to Japan for a year, apparently he can get a working holiday Visa there. I am really Jealous if he is, Japan is an amazing place I would love to spend more time there. I am not sure if I could work there though, the super long hours would really put a drain on me. On a plus note I really want to go again and if Phil's over there is would be a great reason to visit.

I met Sarah again for lunch today we arranged to meet up for the Cine gig tomorrow. She said something pretty interesting we were talking about some of the people I know and she said "they are like characters in a book". I suppose I never thought about it before but while my blog is a diary for me it is a story to other people. It is always interesting for me to learn other points of view.

Gatekeeper

I made it through another Monday. It was actually a pretty good day for a Monday. I managed to fix a problem that has been taxing me for some time. Unfortunately in the current times of downsizing and credit crunching moral is pretty low. The office was like a ghost town today after the recent crop of staff leaving.

I was very glad whenSarah sent me a message to see if I was free for lunch. I BLT and a chat in the Swan was just the job.

After work I headed to my house took out the horrible carpet in the master bedroom and changed a couple of the lights removing the 1960s pendants. For the moment in most rooms I am just putting up cheap and cheerful fittings Ill get nice lights int eh fullness of time.

I borrowed Phils laptop to do my accounts, while I was tapping away I we watched the family guy Jo B gave me. It was called Blue Harvest a take on Star Wars a New Hope. Apparently the Blue Harvest moniker was the code name George Lukas used when making Star Wars. It was a hilarious take on the film I especially liked the dirty old man as OB1 I laughed out loud several times.

It has been a long long weekend I feel like a lot has happened. On Friday I set off for work got to the end of my road only for my car to cut out. I called my dad got a lift to work and he called the AA for me. The AA man found something quiet worrying. When the mechanic started to investigate he found an access panel had been cut to gain access to a relay (which was stuck causing the problem). One tap later and the car was running. I do think that its time for a change, I am going to use this to take everything to the tip and when the house is done look for a new vehicle.

After work I headed out for a drink with Nick Phil and Bruce at the unicorn. I felt pretty tired but it was an enjoyable evening.

Saturday I spent most of the day stripping paper off the wall of my house. It was woodchip, hard to remove and when it did come off was really sharp. My hands are covered in little nicks, war wounds from paper stripping. I started to become a little overawed with the whole job. I have spent quiet a bit of time there now and thought things are progressing there is an awful lot to do yet. Martina popped round in the afternoon to give me a hand, which was useful as she is quiet a bit taller than me and I don't have any step ladders yet she was able to do some of the higher bits on the wall.
Nick and Phil had arranged to go out for a few drinks in Wilmslow in the evening but I felt so tired that I ended up watching Monty Python's Holy Grail with Martina then had an early night.

Today I went to B&Q to have a look at the kitchens and pick up some supplies. I spent the morning removing more of the kitchen, just have to wait for the gas to be capped so I can remove the rest of the work top. I was meant to help out Jo and Holly with their allotment but after getting a bit carried away I didn&39;t arrive until they had nearly finished.

I spent the evening ordering bits from Screfix then went round to Phils to watch a film. We watched the Pathfinder, it was pretty dreadful, one to avoid.

Look Out Sunshine!

It has been a long long weekend I feel like a lot has happened. On Friday I set off for work got to the end of my road only for my car to cut out. I called my dad got a lift to work and he called the AA for me. The AA man found something quiet worrying. When the mechanic started to investigate he found an access panel had been cut to gain access to a relay (which was stuck causing the problem.

After work I headed out for a drink with Nick, Phil and Bruce at the unicorn. I felt pretty tired but it was an enjoyable evening.

Saturday I spent most of the day stripping paper off the wall of my house. It was woodchip, hard to remove and when it did come off was really sharp. My hands are covered in little nicks, war wounds from paper stripping. I started to become a little overawed with the whole job. I have spent quiet a bit of time there now and thought things are progressing there is an awful lot to do yet.

Break And Enter

I have been so busy recently I hardly can tell where the time has gone. I have removed most of my kitchen, started stripping the walls. My mum has been really great and made a real start in the garden. To be honest I think she has quiet enjoyed herself pottering around in the garden. My garden is a lot more manageable than my parents.

There have been lots of things I have really wanted to blog, but I am rubbish at takings notes and the stories have already escaped my head. I hope soon to return to more regular posts.

Now my parents new kitchen is nearing completion they had there old washing machine and fridge freezer which Nick helped me to transport to my house. Washing machines are really, really heavy! I offered to buy Nick a drink for his efforts so he walked round to my parents house about 10, out of nowhere the nice evening went very nasty and the rain came down in a monsoon type downpour. I elected to drive but even walking to the car we got we and the visibility was only 20 meters.

It was quizz night in the Unicorn so conversation was difficult and e both felt tired so after a drink we came home.

The Bridge

"Rumours of my demise have been greatly exaggerated". I am still alive and kicking though the last few weeks have been a trying time. My parents house is in bits, its been stressful not having anything to cook on or even a sink for a few days. I have tried being an electrician which worked a little but proved harder than it looked.

Yesterday I put down my house deposit, the single most expensive transaction I have ever made by a long long way. I was pretty scared in the moment on the phone to the women from accounts reading this big number that was my deposit, fees to the solicitors and stamp duty. I do think that it is a positive step getting somewhere to live rather than rely on my parents forever.

Today was an awful day for me at work unfortunately I can't talk about it here, suffice to say the credit crunch is taking few prisoners amoungs't our customers which obviously is eventually going to feed into our companies finances.

No Net

Due to the building work at my parents house I have not been able to get on-line to blog. You can see some of the photos of the work on Flickr

If everything goes to plan I will be a homeowner a week tomorrow, pretty scary stuff!

Continuity

I have spent most of the weekend without internet. Even now the equipment which normally keeps me on-line is somewhat jerry rigged. The reason for this mess up is that this weekend I my dad and Bruce have been doing a spot of re-wiring. My parents are having a new kitchen, and moving the cooker and appliances around so the cooker mains and some sockets needed moving around.
I thought that it would be a fairly straight forward task, that isn't quiet how things turned out. We had to chop plaster off the wall, take up floorboards in the room upstairs, run a cable into the wall underneath the toilet and into my old bedroom.

Near the end we had to do too long cables runs, they were unexpectedly long because of the route we had to take. Unfortunately this meant we ran out of cable just after B&Q had closed. Fortunately Bruce had a brainwave, Phils parents are also having some work done. Including replacing all the old electrics, they ere only installed about 10 years ago so the cable would do for us. We called round and after asking for permission from Gillian we were able to find a few decent lengths of cable in the skip. It was in really good condition too.

Eventually we managed to get three ew single sockets and move two double sockets and get the wire for the new cooker in place. It took most of the weekend but for a bonus I got take away two evenings on the trot :) Very naughty, but extremely tasty.

Where is my address book?

I have been moving some users from one server to another when one complained that his address book had gone missing. For a moment I got a bit paranoid then I reasoned the information must exist somewhere.
I copied all of his email but somehow the addresses were gone. After much searching I found that he used Squirrel Mail, which stores addresses and preferences in a data directory. In Ispcp installations these files are per user and stored in /var/www/ispcp/gui/tools/webmail/data Each mail user (who has logged into webmail) will have a user.abook and a user.pref and copied his to the new server and his addresses were restored.

Lie Damn Lies and Statistics

I just took a short break to browse one of my favourite news websites when I spotted the following article about The return of Killer Chlorine. Its actually a piece debunking some of the junk science and misuse of numbers to support sensationalist arguments. In this case he examines the claims that there is a link between chlorine heart disease. The scary numbers are soon proven to be inflated and of questionable value.

Following the links one comments I found that the author John Brignell runs a website Number Watch dedicated to monitoring and informing the facts behind some of the headline numbers the papers attempt to scare us with. It looks a little basic but was a very interesting read.

On the same note take a look at the following site.

Its a parody of some of the scare stories DHMO is of course more commonly referred to as H20 or Water.

Mascara

I feel tired but not sleepy, today was pretty long. Last night I stayed in York and spent the evening with Kasia. Her flat was stupidly hot for some reason they have the heating on? Fortunately we managed to have a really enjoyable evening listening to music and eating pizza. Having driven up there after work, this morning I had to wake up early enough to get back in time for work. Driving across the M62 in the morning. The motorway was pretty crowded full of trucks and there was fog on the top. I made a quick stop off at home to find the my mortgage offer had finally arrived, its quite scary to read through to see in black and white how much everything costs.

In popping home I made the fatal error of leaving my phone, a fact that came back to bite me several times during the course of the day. I rarely get calls during the day, today however I missed two calls from the boss, one from a colleague and most importantly a text from Sarah to tell me she wasn't going to meet me for lunch. Missing that one left me waiting for 20 minutes in a pub on the other side of Wilmslow.

This evening I went to Yoga class with Martina, she was really upset as a job she had lined up feel through because the women who interviewed her (before she went home to Germany) left. I found it hard to know what to say, I have learned a lot about the interview process you really need to play the game, something she just hasn't learned how to do yet. I hope something turns up for her.

Shamelessly stolen from liz's blog.

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed. Well let’s see.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicise those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE, or strikeout the books you read but didn't like.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who’ve read only 6 or less and make them read.

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones’s Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith, this gets all three as I intend to read it again its so lovely.
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane and Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

Human After All

This weekend has not been at all what I expected, my plan originally was to hold the lan event on Saturday then on Sunday to help Jo and Holly clear their new allotment.
Friday night came around, I worked on the game server, Bruce and Phil came over so we played a few games and watched Zero Punctuation. Phil told me about the achievement servers for Team Fortress. Servers set up only to enable players to improve their ratings. I must admit it was fun burning up everything as a Pyro.
Saturday the lan went off, it was well attended with 19 of us crammed into the legion it was a fun day. The games weren't without problems Steam once again failed to work correctly, I think it might be the last time I use Steam at a lan.
It was all going great Fun that is until about 8 O'Clock when my stomach decided to start playing up. The pain was intense, and I had to leave early, it was the first event I haven't stayed through to the end. I had to get a lift home then pretty much stay in the bathroom for the next couple of hours, not a great way to spend Saturday night.
Needless to say I had to skip going round to Jo allotment and have spent the day reading and resting. I started the Brothers Karamazov Dostoevsky masterpiece. It is a bit heavy going Second only in length War and Peace so it might take a while, but if its anywhere near as good as The Idiot or Crime and Punishment then it will be well worth the effort.

Radioactivity

Started moving office today, the customer is abandoning their second building. My normal desk is now a void in the centre of the office, and I am temporally sat next to the MI analyst. There is a bit of a bed atmosphere still all the uncertainty and change is palpable in the air.

Thankfully my day was brightened by a lovely lunch time jaunt to the Swan where I met Sarah. We had a drink, some food and a chat, somehow putting the world of politics to rights before moving to the Nature versus nurture debate. I was really good for me to take a break and relax for a while things have been really stressful recently.

I telephoned about the mortgage Iam taking out the advisor promised like so many others in the last couple of weeks to find out and call me back, she didn't. I am in the process of dissolving some of my assets to pay for the deposit and other costs, I must say it has been a chore, while perfectly happy to accept money off me getting it back its really difficult. New Star were especially painful to deal with, and after the dismal performance I would not recommend them to anyone. Its strange, I have been saving since I repaid my debts from University and travelling and I will soon exchange all that for over £100,000+ of debt {and a house). I am also doing it at the start of a downturn am I mad? It is possible but I think I drove a hard bargain on the price, I have a lot of skill so even if the worse happens I am sure lots of companies want to employ motivated talented individuals like so i think I have a few things going in my favour.

I went to the gym after work, I managed a short jog and a few other cardio bits, it was really hot I was very sweaty and glad of a shower when I finished.

This evening I sat and chatted to Kasia, we swapped some songs, and stories about why we like them.

Lose Control

I managed to be pretty productive today, helped my dad do some wiring. It was like spaghetti junction under the floor boards but armed with a multimeter we worked out how the wiring worked. Bruce's British domestic wiring guide was a big help too, it actually explains the best practises and why you might want all that earth bonding. I especially like Figure 3.1 which show the dangers of different levels of electric shock.

Apart from wiring bit I managed to go to the gym and set up loads of server bits for both the lan server and improvements to the server room equipment. I even found time to clean out the fish tank so I feel like I have had a pretty successful weekend.

El Rincon

Andy Gilmore invited Phil and myself out for a meal with a few other people to celebrate his birthday. We went the Spanish restaurant El Rincon. We met at Abito about 7.45 and walked down Deansgate to the restaurant. There were 10 of us including Phil, Myself, Andy's friend Chris his girlfriend, Emily her sister Hannah and boyfriend Carl.

The place was very busy, Chris pointed out the it was mostly female patrons. The staff were authentically Spanish to the point it was slightly confusing, almost as confusing at the menu. We had two choices basically a heap of plates with paella or a heap of plates without. Despite it being a binary choice it proved really difficult for everyone to come to an agreement on what we were eating. The choices were ok for most of us Chris decided to get his own stuff because as a strict veggy he wasnt sure there would be enough. For some unknown reason Carl threw a strop and decided not to eat anything which meant there was this malign presence right in the middle of the table. However after the food (and drinks) started to arrive everyone but Carl got into the swing of things.

The food was really nice, I ate far too much and enjoyed every bite :) Christ who turned out to be a bit of a wag pointed out that most of the Patrons were female.

Afterwards we went back to chiefs for some of Emilie's home made cake beer and Wii. According to Wii fit I am seriously in danger of metabolic disease, sigh.

Scary future

I am getting to the point when the house purchase is starting to scare me a little. I just read a few scary articles this one about is now a good time to buy a house?
on the positive side, I think I have found a good house in a nice area and I managed to get a decent discount on the price and I should be able to increase the value by fixing the place up. I am going to have a lot of work on my hands though. I should complete on the 8th August which is coincidently the start of the Olympics in Beijing, last year I was in Shanghai and the excitement for the upcomming games was just starting to build should be an interesting games.

Killing In The Name

Been a bit of a delay on this post as I have spent the week recovering from the night.

It was a night of Freedom last night for five of the IT team, so to celebrate a group of us went out to the Frog and Bucket.
It was a group of 11 of us, of which the only 4 would be staying on at. The rest either were made redundant or left of their own volition.
We met up at the rather expensive fringe bar, a couple of the guys had already had their last day so it was good to see them again, if a little sad that it would be the last time.
The Frog and Bucket did bottles of Carlin for £1.30 the alcohol was soon flowing. I had seen the compare before at the Woodford comedy night Legion of Laughs. He was a very funny guy. The other comedians were extremely variable ranging from the hilarious to the absolutely dreadful.

Jo B's ex lodger Alex was watching I said hello, he actually liked the comedian I thought was the worst, but it all subjective I suppose.

After the comedy was over one of the support techs persuaded us to go to 5th Avenue we were all a little worse for wear none more the Johns girlfriend who started speaking in Welsh and then fell and hurt her foot. She had only just had it taken out of plaster today so I left her with John looking for a taxi.

5th Avenue we pretty crowded with the sort of student types I remember in there years age when I went there (also as a student). I danced with the others like lunatics drunken to the ear splitting music (it took two days for the ringing in my ears to disappear). At one point Steve M and myself were screaming Killing in the name of at each other. A fun night all round though I felt like death turing into work at 9 after only leaving 5th Ave at 3. Mind you a few of the others went on to a casino afterwards and still made it in.

The Salmon Dance

I am spending the week in Laindon Essex on a work exercise. I was kept up most of the night by the Chemical Brothers Salmon dance which was playing on an endless loop somewhere out the back. It became quite excruciating after a while.

So far today went ok, I met a my colleague who is extremely tall, female and a little shy I think. She has been doing the web design but this was the first time I bumped into her.

They have put me up in a travel lodge on a little commercial park which isn't to bad, it just down the road from the office.

Bangers and Mash

Went to see Radiohead at Lancashire County Cricket Club this evening. It was really brilliant.

Martina, Phil and Paul joined me, Paul having already seen them in London a few days ago. We arrived just after 6 just before Bat For Lashes started up. Andy Fletcher was their sporting a VIP pass we went and said hello, he and Paul chatted then we went forward into the crowd.

Though it had been raining in the morning just like for Paul McCartney the clouds cleared and the weather stayed fine. Phil got wet though in the first moments of Radiohead a flying pint hit him squarely in the chest soaking him with what we hoped was cider.

When Radiohead came on they did a really good set mixing most of the best of In Rainbows with a host of their most popular tracks. The Gloaming and Idioteque were great as were Paranoid Android and Lucky was played as part of the encore. The sound set up was top notch, very clear and loud. I briefly saw Ian when we arrived back and apparently he could hear it all the way at one of Nicks places miles away.

I really enjoyed it and Paul reckoned the band were on a lot better form than London, though he thought and I agreed that the crowd were in part a little too malevolent a lot of very drunk and drugged up people jostling around.

Come as you are

It has been an interesting day, I spent the morning reading the Great Gastby, which proved to be a pretty excellent read. Set in the roaring 20s New York its a story of people out of place, love, and the problems lies caused. I kept thinking about Becky while I was reading it, she would fit into that would of high society.

I managed to get a quick swim in before heading round to Wollers house for a bbq. Danny, Ian and Paul were there already when I arrived. They went off to buy bbq stuff while Woller made up a salad. Unusually for salad it mostly contained veg. We set up an instant bbq in the back garden. Danny incinerated the burgers so Ian was left to do the rest of the cooking while I looked at Wollers virus filled laptop.

When we finished death by meat (The salad was virtually untouched) it was time for Mario Kart, with a quick interlude for the disgusting 2 girls one cup. For some reason it came up in a conversation so it had to be shown, Ian actually came close to throwing up. I cant say I blame him its completely disgusting. We watched a few bits from some TV show called Flight of the Conchords, it was funny but I didn't see enough to really get it.

We decided it was high time to head out to the pub. I chose not to drink so that I could drive home and sleep in my nice comfy bed not on my Wollers not so comfy floor. First stop was the Flower Pot, we were all laughing and joking around mostly at Paul's expense, Danny insisted his Corduroy jacket made him look like a teacher. At some point we were talking about phones, mainly because Paul kept impressing on Ian how superior his N95 was to his phone. I made the mistake of telling everyone how to use the voice dial feature by holding down the top right menu key for 5 seconds. It set off a 5 minute exercise in us all trying it out which Paul filmed.

We went to a few bars in Macclesfield talking and laughing it was a reall nice evenign sat outside. I was boring everyone about my house purchase and generally laughing and joking around. I left them at the point they were heading into a club
Upto that point it had been a really fun evening of talking and laughing, apparently I made the right decision as Chicargo Rock really wasn't that good.

Spyder Monkey

This morning I picked up the Telegraph money section, a couple of bits caught my eye. Obviously at the moment I have property in mind with the propective purchase of y first home, I was heartened to read this about the merits of buying in the current market. I am glad I didn't entertain the idea of buying a flats, at one point until Nicks sage advise persuaded me against it, I was seriously considering an apartment in Stockport, reading this confirms that New Build flats are a dangerous buy.

Youth Novels

Somewhere in the last few days I might have made a somewhat life changing decision. I suddenly have a lawyer, and I am in the process of arranging a mortgage. While its awesome news that after all this time looking I have finally found somewhere and had an offer accepted

Last night Martina and I watched the best of Radiohead dvd, it should really be called the full Radiohead because its actually all of their videos during their life at Emi. I picked her up from Northern Moor and we ate curry in Rusholme, I had Afghanistan cuisine lamb and rice. Before heading back to mine to appreciate the awesome band that is Radiohead.

I even declined an invitation to the pub, a move which had everyone believing I am having some sort of relationship with Martina beyond simple friendship. Its quiet interesting, I have done some pretty naughty things in my life but never with her.

Tonight I went out with Ian, Paul and Nick. Paul is up for the weekend to check out Radiohead on Sunday and party the rest of the time away. We had a fun evening laughing an joking. Paul hilariously made a very loud and rude comment regarding faecal matter heard by half the patrons of the Bollin Fee somewhat dampening our collective pulling power. I got told off for writing too much about our nights out in this blog, whoops it was never my intention to cause trouble, thought I enjoy being contentious.

Paul started an interesting text conversation with Sarah, I knew he was annoyed that neither she or Simo turned up for his Manchester gig. I think he wanted to say something so he sent drunk text, not always the best plan (though I have sent plenty myself).

We left relatively early, Paul and Ian had been drinking since 8 and were quiet tipsy I was drunk enough to eat a kebab. I feel overfull a little drunk and very very strange. I realised this time last year I was in Turkey, a lot has happened since then but in a way I haven't quiet got over that rejection yet. Olya is married now, like Maia and for that matter Anya. And thought I realise its for the best as non of them actually loved me, they all had an effect on my life and the way I think today. I think the worst thing for me is not the rejection itself but the fact that I could be (if only in my mind) such a part of somebodies life, talking everyday, listening to painful moments as a confident then be so easily discarded. I suppose I am just to sensitive abut it. My friends seem to get women to have such strong feelings for them, I have never felt in that position, though probably if I were that would make me similarly uncomfortable.

Foamy

My friend Lisa sent me a link to this
I think its simply genius, Foamy he knows all...

Vista

I saw this blog might be useful for multi core users as by default Vista only uses one of the processors on boot.

Gimme Stitches

Where did the weekend go? I blinked and its already Monday evening. I am slightly stressed to start with having made a rather big decision last week I made an offer on a house in Handforth, which I am still waiting to hear about. I had to make an offer, I am hoping in the current climate they might go for it, if not there are plenty more places out there.

Unfortunately it wasn't fun exciting things that took up the majority of my time. Saturday was spent busily building a new server upgrading equipment and generally getting bits of Server Room ship shape. Its taken over six months to move off the original server to the new box. To give its due that little IBM has managed to work for over 3 years.

Saturday evening was spent at Jo Bergers, in celebration of his upcoming birthday. It was nice evening with some drinks friends, football then boxing on the TV, and a chess battle between two of the guests.

Sunday I continued setting up bits on the new server its soon going to be ready to take over the bulk of the hosting, which is great as its a much better server than the current box. In the afternoon went to the gym then met Martina and her friend Ceri for a curry at the spicy hut. We had a fun time chatting about life museums and music. Ceri had to get a train back just after 8 so Martina and I went back to my house to watch some nip tuck and listen to music.

Home Brew Server

 
Bruce and I went to IFL to install a new server, we couldnt help but notice in the next rack was this creation. I have never seen anything quite like it before, it made us feel pretty professional!

Oh Well

Its been raining today a lot. I met Sarah for lunch and on the walk to the slug and lettuce I got soaked, was like a tropical rainstorm you might see in a film.

It was nice to see Sarah, it had been quiet a while since we last met up for one reason or another so we both had lots to talk about easily jabbering away through the lunch hour.

When I got back to the office I was waiting for feedback on a project I put live and I got dragged into review meeting. Not a project review though, this was a personal one. After my rant about things the feedback has finally worked its way through the chain. I had a long chat some of which was helpful some of which sounded like a conversation from Fight Club. Overall I think it was positive, but I still felt uncomfortable because my customer was doing this not my company. Still if it helps clear the air it will make me feel a lot better.

This evening I was supposed to go to Yogo with Martina but instead we sat and watched nip tuck. She had a job interview thing with Emirates today which tired her out, and I was just mentally tied after work. It was a weird evening watching a series all about beauty sex and power. She reviled that she is infatuated with someone online, it reminded me of all my bad experiences falling into infatuation with women off the net only to meet them and be a disappointment, I took her home and returned here deep in depressive thought as the rain batters my roof I sit and blog.

Something

It took me pretty much all day to recover yesterday. I think I need to cut back on the drinking somewhat.
I had been promising to take Martina out of Mack and Pats for days and though I felt like death I thought that I better do it, especially after she phoned again.
We went to the shops then for a walk around style. The weather was great but we got a little lost and after going to the gym the day before my legs were really tired. My knees especially found even a short walk pretty difficult. After that we went back to the house and cooked spicy broccoli, it was OK, not very spicy, filling though. Had a sit in the garden but I couldn't get comfortable both because of my aches and pains and the thought I wasn't entirely welcome in the house.
Martina wanted some CD copying anyway so we came back to my house, watched a Japanese Einstürzende Neubauten rockumentry then a few Nip Tuck season while I burned copies of her German lessons.

Today I just about got a big project ready for testing which was positive.

Someone left a weird comment on my flickr photstream, I can't tell what language it is. Kasia say not Italian, Nekena told me its not Spanish, I have no idea, love to find out though.

The house purchasing has slightly stalled while I work out how much I need for renovations versus how much I can borrow. At the moment its looking like I can afford the place but wont have enough spare cash left over for the renovations. I wanted to talk to Nick about it but he has been off commiserating with the Poles.

Little bit

Another sunday, another day spent feeling horrible because of too much alcohol. I think I must epitomise the binge drinking culture of the UK.
It all started Friday night, we [Phil Bruce Myself and Nick] enjoyed a quiet drink in the John Millington in Cheadle Hulme. It was very reserved just a nice chat and a drink

Saturday I dragged Nick out to see a house in Handforth. Its a bit of a wreak a 3 bedroom mid terrace with a dodgy floor. However the building is sound, the location great and with a little TLC it could be a really great house. Its one of the few places where I could really see myself living in, so I will make an offer Monday, fingers crossed. The prospect both excites and completely terrifies me

In the evening Nick Ian Gilly and I went for a meal and a couple of drinks at TGI Fridays. It was a bit rubbish to be honest Nick and I had both finished before Ian's streak arrived. We decided to go for some drinks in Didbury after that, starting in the Slug and Lettuce and working our way through Varsity to the Pitcher and Piano for some Mojitos. As we were enjoying ourselves we headed to Deansgate locks to continue the evening. I used to drink in Revolution a lot but I had not visited for some time, its sure changed. They have renovated and knocked through making for a much more pleasant environment. We all enjoyed a few more drinks a bit of dancing and chatting. Bumped into some friend of Becky's they were gorgeous unfortunately it did nothing to improve Nick's mood to be reminded of her.

By the time we left Revolution I was rather sloshed and so did not really see it as a strange step to go for a Curry in Rusholme. It was a mistake I could taste curry when I woke up this morning, yuk. Gilly was on top form in there talking about his family work and such. We got a taxi home from Manchester the driver of which was some African guy who was chewing on some sort of root which given his general behavior I took to be some sort of stimulant. He told us that the world is all controlled by the queen (his argument lasted virtually the entire 30 minute journey), I was glad to get home.

As I was typing this piece I realised had little red lines under all the words ending in ise, it appears Safari / Apple prefer the American (or Oxford English) ize ending to words. There is a full discussion about it on wikipeadia.

Digital Love

I have just about made it through the week. I was so glad to finish work today, I got home and just relaxed chatted on the net for a while.
Martina was mad at me for not returning a message, and my phone was bleeping with texts from people but I needed to take a few hours out just let the stress levels drop.
I did end up going for a quick drink with Nick Bruce and Phil. Phil is in high spirits as he has some new plan to make money filming holiday resorts, it one of those idea that could be great or a damp squib, for his sake I hope its the former.
Nick was a bit more tired and stressed than usual, he is still waiting on some cash to come through after the bank have been stalling, I think like one of our clients they are running a go slow in the hope people go somewhere else.

Elmo

Elmo, originally uploaded by j0hncooke.

Come Together

I realised last night that I was seriously depressed, the problems from work were spilling over into other areas of my life. I was sat with Martina in the pub and I felt like this weight was pressing down on my. At first I thought that it was because I was tired, but analysing it I realised actually I am really unhappy and I have been for some time.
I thought perhaps it might be a good time to do something about it so I contacted my boss and arranged to meet after work. I told him some of my problems and he said he would address them with the manager at my customer. As I walked away I realised that I hadn't handled the situation very well I should have spoken to the people in question myself. For too long now I have let things slide
This evening I went for a short jog and started to piece together some bits in my own mind. I came to the conclusion that I have been doing a lot of things wrong and though I went for a drink with Ian and Nick which was relaxing I still feel stressed. I think I need some self determination to solve some of the issues I am facing I just hope the I can find the strength I need to face everything.
On a more positive note last night I did manage to arrange a potencial date for the next lan party the 19th July, that is at least something to look forward to.

Foundations

After prompting from Martina to go for a walk I found one round Macclesfield Forest on the Discover Cheshire. I had been ages since I was in that part of the world so we decided to give it a try this morning. Martina and her fellow language assistant Michael drove up to Macclesfield Forest getting only slightly lost, parking near the Trentabank Reservoir. It was very pleasant (photos here) the trees and undergrowth looked great and thought the weather was not quiet as good as expected it was a most enjoyable morning wondering round the tracks.

Less enjoyable was coming home and finding an ICQ message from Olya, "John, hi!
Dont be angry.... but can u delete my pictures from your website? Let they be on you camera on just on your computer, but not in the Net. Please." I haven't spoke to her in 5 months, the last time was after I sent her a message on her birthday and she told me she was married. It brought back a lot of memories from last year most of which I had tried to forget. I will remove the photos but not tonight, I am off to a BBQ at Bruce's to celebrate his birthday.

B Movie

This week work has been very challenging. Apart from the ongoing stresses from poor management they have decided to lay off some more staff including 3 people from the team I work with. The atmosphere is pretty strange, I think more people will end up walking out after their hard work has been rewarded with nothing. The level of uncertainty is the killer, there are only going to be losing a few people but everyone feels under pressure. I watched B Movie with Martina, I can't say either of us enjoyed it very much. I guess my head wasn't quite into it anyway.

Nuda Veritas

Today I went with Kasia to Liverpool to see the Gustav Klimt exhibition at the Tate Liverpool. She is a big fan of his work so I thought it would be really excellent. As it turned out this review is pretty bang on the money. The exhibition covers all his different bodies of work rather than focussing on the later excellent pictures. The work with the displays of furniture were interesting but both Kasia and I would rather have seen more of his later paintings, Notablely absent was "The Kiss". Kaisa also missed another landscape painting of some beech trees.


I had never heard of Klimt before Kasia told me all about his work, on looking at the paintings I realised that I recognised some of the works. The most famous of his work are very pretty paintings mostly of women (later in his career he was accused of being a pornographer due to the provocative nature of his paintings). Like most art I have seen pictures do not really do justice to seeing the real article in front of your eyes, my favourite painting was the first one Kasia ever showed me, Nuda Veritas (naked truth). It was a work Klimt did as an answer to his critics the general gist is its better to please some than try and please everyone.

After seeing the Klimt bit we viewed the DLA piper exhibitions which has a range of works charting the last century, it was pretty good though I am still not convinced by the abstract works.
Once we finished in the Tate we took a wonder around Liverpool, first taking in the three graces then perusing the new shopping centre Liverpool One. I am really impressed by what they have done and are doing to the city, in another year or so when all the builders have finished its going to look really awesome. Already I think thanks to the fact there seems to have been an over-arching design I would have to admit, (though it pains me to do so) the city centre is looking a lot better Manchester's.
I drove Kasia back to York, we ate a pizza together share a few more moments then I came back to Manchester alone, its pretty hard seeing someone who lives so far away and who works opposing times to your own, but I really enjoyed our time together.

Let it be

Sunday night was the Liverpool Sound concert. Once Phil finally made an appearance we set off to Liverpool. I was feeling incredibly hungover but Paul McCartney was playing so I had a soak in the bath and some tea and pulled myself together.
Paul had this notion that there would be some sort of early birds area so wanted to arrive well ahead of time. It struck me a decent idea get there early, get a nice parking space, have something to eat together and queue up. Unfortunately I hit a problem. I bought Phil a ticket to the concert for his birthday present only he wasn't at home and his phone was switched off. I got stressed, but finally I booted my computer up to find that at 3.26 am he made friends with Andrea, I assumed this meant he was at her place. At about 12.30 he came online on messenger to tell me he would meet me at his house at 2. I arrived and waited getting more and more stressed chatting to several people on the phone. Finally at 3 Phil arrived and we left for Liverpool, as it turned out our timing was great. I managed to park right next to the stadium and get near the front of the queue. We even somehow beat Paul in though he had been in the queue an hour longer.
Our early arrival gifted us a forward position to watch the bands. The Zutons started around 6.30 they were really good. The sound was great. Kaiser Chiefs were next, I am not really a fan but they put on a really good performance, Ruby and I predict a riot were stand out. Unfortunately by this point I needed to visit the bathroom and Phil having been up all night needed to grab some caffeine.
Thanks to the toilet being right at the back we were unable to get back to Paul and Pippa, we found a place that had a reasonable view, which was good as Paul was superb, well not just superb, superlative.
He put on a great show mixing in his own, the Beatles and Wings numbers. I couldn't remember the full list but fortunately another blogger has it.

Hippy Hippy Shake
Jet
Drive My Car
Flaming Pie
Got to Get You Into My Life
Let Me Roll It with the Foxy Lady
My Love “This one’s for Linda”
C Moon
The Long and Winding Road
Dance Tonight
Blackbird
Calico Skies
In Liverpool
I'll Follow the Sun (with 4 endings)
Eleanor Rigby
Something (tribute to george) played first on ukelelee and electric for other half
Penny Lane (forgot the words off the bat and had a false start)
Band on the Run with David Grohl on guitar
Back in the U.S.S.R. with David Grohl joining Abe on drums
Live and Let Die with stage pyros and fireworks
Let It Be
Hey Jude

ENCORE
Yesterday
A Day In The Life then Give Peace A Chance ending
Lady Madonna
I Saw Her Standing There (with David Grohl joined Abe on the 2nd drum kit)
Dave Grohl came out and joined Paul to play Band on the Run, Back in the U.S.S.R. and I Saw Her Standing There. Then moved to the drums to a couple of songs, he also joined in the encore on Day in the life. I cant really adequately describe in words how good the atmosphere and the music was, hearing an entire stadium singing along to Hey Jude or being overwhelmed by the pyrotechnics on Live and Let die was all just awesome.
We caught up with Paul and Pippa as the crowd dispersed at the end, to the bangs of the fireworks over our heads. We were all buzzing, I boughta program and we said our goodbyes as Paul and Pippa headed for London and Phil and I to Manchester. We were both really awake so as to extend the evening I took a detour into Rusholme for a curry and a chat about the gig.

Hey Jude

Its been a pretty hectic weekend, and a long one for me as I had Today off as well.

Friday night I went round to Phil's house for a Chinese and a few beers. I dragged round the Philips DVD/Hard disk recorder I bought in error as Jim needed something exactly like this for a job he was doing. He was delighted to be able to play around and make sure it was capable of doing everything his job required (recording an event from a Camera and being able to burn DVDs of it at the event) so offered me the original price.

Saturday night was Nicks birthday so we headed out for a meal at Pizza express. Phil, Ian, Gilly and Nicks builder Neil all came out. Nick was running late (Quelle surprise) due to him having to finish a roof in time for a building inspector on Monday. The food was really tasty though the drinks were expensive and the service was a little overbearing.
After the meal we headed to the Slug and lettuce, stays for a couple of cocktails, which weren't very good so we headed to the Bollin Fee. Just as we were about to leave a group of drunk girls arrived the door man turned them away. They weren't turned away from the Bollin fee though, at least nit until later on when the manager realised how drunk they were. I basically got rather drunk, I stupidly had whine with the meal then beer then gin and tonic then back to beer it really wasn't a good combination.
Phil pulled a blinder, Neil was chatting up some girl and he went off for a drink, like a shot Phil was in there and ultimately ended up accompanying her home. Apparently she liked the way he resembled Gary Barlow. Neil spent the rest of the evening repeating "I cant believe it, I just turned my back and he was in there, Gary fucking Barlow!".
We randomly bumped into Ian and Nicks sister Ali in the queue, she was out with a couple of girlfriends. At some point around 1.30 Phil and Andrea vanished and the rest of us moved onto Suede. I don't remember much at this point, the bar had no tonic so I moved back to beer, and my head began to swim.
There was a big police presence in Wilmslow, they had a van parked outside Suede, so no real trouble. In fact it felt pretty safe, I did however feel old in there. In its previous incarnation Zest, it was one of the first places I used to go drinking in back when I was at college, a long long time ago now. Eventually we left I got a taxi home only to be invited back to Ali's, so sometime around 4.30 I cycled round to Alis for another few drinks before going home, not a great idea though it seemed like it at the time.

Dan and Ian in label

Dan and Ian in label, originally uploaded by j0hncooke.

23:10 23 May 2008 23052008137

Label

Label, originally uploaded by j0hncooke.

23:10 23 May 2008 23052008139

Best Foot Forward

I watched the final Pirates of the Caribbean this evening, I was kind of shocked at it. I felt like they almost totally forgot number two, certainly the beginning was a confused mass of non stories that divert away and confuse the "plot". I didn't really like it I felt it was a little like cinema by numbers rather than a film experience.

After that I headed out to see Martina at the March Hair in Cheadle Hulme. She had been waving off Peggy who is returning to Martinique. We talked at length about her housing situation, about how cruel and calculated Suzanna had been to throw her out. I do generally thing its pretty unreal to throw someone out onto the street with only a few hours warning and not a care for their well being. I mean you can fall out with someone without trying to ruin their life, in the end Martina is a foreigner here, she hasn't got a lot of money if Mack and Pat had not agreed to put her up she could have experienced serious problems. She also told me how agitated she was apparently jumping up and down and shouting in German. It reminded me of something kasia said yesterday; Apparently her room mate Ola was in Argos and she observed two Poles getting increasingly irate at the store for giving them the wrong item. Only thet were shouting at the assistant in Polish and it wasn't getting them very far.

On happy topics, Martina's parents are coming to visit her. Though for some very strange reason they haven't chosen to travel from German by coach. This weill take 36 hours to get to London then another two and a half to Manchester. A flight only takes just over an hour, so it was a very strange decision.

That's not my name

I had a long chat with Martina, she had been kicked out of her house after Suzanne the owner let living together tensions get the better of her. She is staying with a couple of retired folk she met at Japanese class who kind of adopted her. I think Suzanna her housemate bottled things rather than talk to Martina about them until the point she simply exploded. I think was pretty unbelievable of her to kick her out without any proper notice. The law states that excluded occupiers only have to have "reasonable notice" but this does not have to be in writing. I would say 12 hours is unreasonable but my opinion is that of a friend not a lawyer.

After chatting I went for a swim, managed 40 lengths then went to relax out in the sauna. There were a group of lads in there talking about the drinking binges they had been on. One of them threatened to take out another lad and "get him fucked up", the other one replied "yeah go get fucked smash some windows and get chased by the police". I felt both afraid to be in the same room and sad for humanity to hear this conversation.

In the afternoon I went to York to visit Kasia. We made a salad and sat and chatted for hours, it was a really pleasant and relaxed evening. I really enjoyed our time together and I was sad to leave, I wish she did not live so far away.

Long weekend

I had a great weekend, so I thought I would tell you all about it. Friday night was the first night of the M.A.P.S. festival Paul's band Ciné were playing. Unfortunately for me I had to go into work at 6am on the Saturday so I decided to drive.
Ciné were playing at the dry bar so we all convened there, it was a good crowd, Ian, Nick, Danny, Jo Holly myself Phil several of Hulme hall crowd including Sara and Catherine. Notable absentees included Bruce who went shopping with Nina instead and Simo and Sarah. Missing Sarah was a real shame given thanks to work commitments we have not been able to catch up in ages.

Paul was stressing there was some problem with the sound set up meaning that they had to go on without a proper sound check and once on stage apparently they couldn't hear themselves perform. It annoyed Paul so much I he delivered a stinging criticism during the middle of one of his songs. As much as the lack of sound annoyed Paul it was only negligible to the people listening. I thought they sounded really good. I like what the addition of the keyboard did to the sound. James and Paul were both on form, we all seemed to enjoy it.

After the gig (and much messing around, should never let Danny organise anything ;) we walked to Deansgate and headed to a bar called label. It was a very nice club, Sara's boyfriend was playing saxophone. The place had a kind of roaring twenties feel to it, there weren't any trouble makers. We were however accosted by a very drunken women; Paul and I were standing outside while he had a smoke, and she came up to us and started telling us about how she had "Just had her make up done", she was rocking on the spot, the conversation went downhill from there really.
When we came inside she followed us in and started looking for her bag around the table we were sat at, although she hadn't sat with us.
She was not the only drunk one, I left around midnight so as to be able to get up in the morning, I offered Phil a lift he dithered for about 5 minutes started following me out then stop told me he was getting a lift with Nick and wondered back. As a walked back to the car I passed all sorts of nightlife including one guy who was having his head put back together by the police, must have been some sort of altercation. It made me a little sad that this is England violent and drunk, I managed to get back the car and home though intact though.

It was very hard getting up Saturday morning my ears were still ringing as I sat in the early morning light. It was an absolute disaster too, I finished my part by 8.15am then had to wait until 2 in the afternoon for the SQL server to replicated the changes. The DBA blamed a lack of a proper test environment and I cannot say that I disagree.

Saturday evening was Sandboxes turn to play, this time on the rear stage. I thought they did a respectable gig though the event organizers seemed to cut them a little short. They all seemed happy enough afterwards though we drank a few beers and listened to the other bands.

Afterwards we went for Chinese food in China town, it was very tasty though by this point tiredness and alcohol took over. I had been awake for far too long and pretty much passed out on the car ride home. It had been nice to go out with the Sandbox crew though sans LD who played his last gig and took off immediately at the end.

Today I spent the day reading and generally chilling out, in the evening I went out with Nick and some of his builder friend in Knutsford. They seemed like a nice bunch of guys, though I a not sure how they took me. I ended up getting quite drunk hopefully I didn't disgrace myself.

Let It Die

I went to see Feist at the Palace theatre this evening. The Palace is a strange Venue for music all seated and geared up for plays and shows, I wouldnt like to have been on the top tier the view must have been poor. However it was nice enough for us in the circle. The gig itself was really great gig. The support band were an odd group of music geeks, they were entertaining if only for they variety. From a song about death to one about unrequited love of a teacher.
Feist was wonderful and had a wonderful stage set up. Most of the themes of the songs were visualised by a shadow puppeteer. So rather than the usual computer generated scenes there was a really arty backdrop. She even opened her set playing behind a white screen so all we could see was a shadow of her singing. During the gig she was constantly engaging trying to draw the crowd in, she also alternated between singling and playing on her own to using a full band.
All in all it was one of the best gigs I have been to for a while, I hope tomorrows Maps festival proves to be as much fun.

Carolina Drama

I just about made it home past the hoards of football fans streaming out of the pubs and bars between my house and Martina's. The guys from work who took a half day to go and catch the game in the city should all be very happy and drunk right about now.

I didn't watch the game myself, I have never been a football fan, instead I went to Yoga class with Martina. It was actually really good, though I was the only guy in a room of mostly middle aged women, Julia the leader was really good I definitely feel stretched and worked out now.

We went for a take away curry and a chat after the class, idling our time setting the world to rights. The curry was really nice from a little take away behind Tesco metro in Cheadle Hulme.

My tickets to see Paul McCartney's concert on the 1st of June arrived today, I am really excited about it. I have never seen him live and its rumoured that Ringo Starr will appear, which would be just fantastic, fingers crossed.

Joker

I reached the end of the line with a couple of the Estate agents, I got tired of being sent to look at overpriced junk. The spiky haired estate agent was trying to convince me that £137,000s for an inhabitable ex council house in the worst part of Cheadle Hulme was in some way a good buy. In fact I think that the particular chain of Estate Agents overprice, and hard sell some of the worst places on the market, I have decided (partially on Nick's advice) if possible not to deal with this chain anymore.

I had a Japanese class this evening, I performed pretty terribly. I really want to learn Japanese, the culture, country and people fascinate me. Somehow though I never seem to get enough time to practise or gain the critical mass of education that I can start to really read, write and converse in Japanese. A lot of people who have good language skills tell me the point I need to reach is to be able to think in another language, once you can get to that level its possible to really start understanding conversation and language. I really hope I can, I would love to be able to read a Japanese book untranslated.

What Else Is There?

After last nights gorging on Pestos finest Italian tapas with Emily Andy and Nick I decided to try and be healthy today. I lasted about 6 hours.

The morning wet well I started reading "looking for the lost" Alan Booths second and final book about travelling in Japan. So far its very interesting, his style is really very readable and interesting. World weary and angry yet so engaging and full of humour.

I managed then to go the the gym do a workout, then go and view a house in Hazel Grove. The owner showed me round, he struck me as an angry man constantly apologising and explaining why his house was as it was. To be honest for me it was overpriced and needed quiet a bit of work doing, so it is not the one for me.

When I got home I had lunch then went to Barton grange to pick up an out door table and chairs for my parents. I didn't; think it would fit in my car but the guy manhandled the box until it was just about wedged.

After putting the table together Nick called round. He had just bought a bike off ebay. It was two years old but basically had been left in a shed it looked brand new to me. We went for a ride around some parts of Poynton where Nick is looking for a house. It was interesting cycling around you can hear and see a lot more of an area, sometimes cars are just two divorced from the surroundings to be useful. After scoping out the houses we popped in to see Martin.

Martin was working on his new buggy, we chatted about bikes and kites for a bit. I think Nick was surprised how much of an adrenaline junky Martin really is. I thought he was alone until we popped into the kitchen for something and found Char ironing in the half finished living room.

It was Nina's birthday yesterday so we went for a curry to celebrate. Nick, Phil, Nina, Bruce, Holly, Jo and I went to the Spicy hut for a meal. It was tasty, we had nice conversations about life, houses, and business.

I got home and crashed, emotionally I feel very low. A lot of things seem to be going wrong my life is wasted on useless pursuits like the fruitless campaign to find a house. Everything seems to be a bit pointless, working for things that bring only pain, desperately trying to be somebody when the last characteristic anyone likes is desperation. So many bad decisions, failures and mistakes haunt me, I seem to have lost my way, but I no longer see what the path should be. Perhaps one day I can shake off the malaise and feel good about things again, I really hope.

I'm Insane

Driving back down the other end of my road, the fields illuminated in the moonlight I started to think that the reason I have so much trouble finding somewhere to live is because the place I live at the moment is so very nice.

I have done a lot of miles this weekend already. Last night straight after work I drove to meet Kasia. It took nearly one hour forty five to get there in rush hour. We had a nice evening together, have a short walk by the river shared a pizza and generally enjoyed each others company. She has to work two long days this weekend unfortunately so I headed home in the small hours. Part of the M60 was closed so I ended up driving home through central Manchester.

Today I went to view some houses, the first in Hazel Grove was a great house but the position was all wrong. Diagonally opposite was some sort of freight containers, and on the lamppost was a police dispersal order notice.

The next house was in Cheadle Heath, it was tiny, badly turned out and on a main road. The estate agent who arranged it offered to take us to another. I assented and we headed to Cheadley Drive. Nick bet me that the estate agent would have spiky black hair, a black suit and be holding his mobile phone in his hand, he didn't have his phone in his hand but otherwise fitted the description. The house looked like a bomb had hit it, apparently that is what £135,000 buys these days. I am not joking here either, the place had been repossessed, there was tape condemning the utilities, boards on the back windows and the state of the place was terrible. The was after walking past some guys stripping down a car in the road, I hope it was theirs... Nick and I struggled not to laugh at the prospect this place offered.

Disheartened I headed home wondering if I will ever find anything suitable. Fortunately Emily cheered me up by arranging for Nick and I to join her and Andy for some dinner. After a bit of wondering round Manchester, and walking out of one place after finding Andy's favourite dish had been dropped from the menu (he was actually happy to stay but I thought it best we find somewhere that we all could enjoy). We finally decided on the Italian tapas restaurant Pesto. Nick suggested it which was surprising as the last time we had eaten there was with his ex girlfriend. However it is a good place to eat. I really enjoyed the food and company, after the meal Nick left, he had to get up early to drive and pick a bike he bought from ebay up; the seller is in Birmingham!

Consoler of the Lonely

I had an harsh session at the gym this evening, unfortunately not due to the special amount of effort I put in. Rather because the air conditioning at the Wilmslow site is broken and the weather was good, the gym was extremely hot. I had to slow down jogging a bit to avoid hyperthermia. Like most of the patrons I was extremely sweaty and anti social that people were spacing themselves as far away from people as possible. One girl started off on a machine next to me after about a minute she moved two machines away XD

Martina invited me round for dinner so I headed there after the gym for her homemade German bread, which was very tasty. We also had some seafood combination thing from Lidl which was ok. After dinner we started putting the world to rights. She was complaining her students are always quick to email and Facebook everything. Today's technology means you can unleash your thoughts on the world maybe faster than good sense would allow. It made me think how different it must be for children growing up today. I had the Internet at college but it was very new then. Pre pay phones didn't really appear until then either so mobile phones were much more of a novelty. Now everyone has one, in fact I read a mobile phone customer is worth around £20,000 to the mobile operator over their life time, no wonder with charges like these. However I digress, my point was that communication is becoming faster, today we have instant publication via the web, SMS and instant message is it eroding or enhancing the quality? Obviously as a Blogger I think it is a positive step, of course there are new techniques to be learned and this is still really the start blog's and social networking is going to evolve a lot from its current form, nobody really knows how yet. People that claim to know what is going to happen with technology usually have an agenda to push. Most of the developments that really shook the market come from almost nowhere, and profits trying to push something often fail to notice the new waves, Bill Gates famously omitted the Internet from his book The Road Ahead.