I can talk

Bit of an epic weekend. Starting early on Friday, I took the day off so I could pick Kath up from the airport. Mercifully I was sparred the trip to Doncaster this time only having to venture as far as Liverpool. the flight was a little delayed, I waited in the Morrisons superstore, it's about 1/2 a mile form John Lennon. I mention this only because of what happened while I was waiting. About at 7.30 am, the superstore was closed except for the petrol station. A car pulled up next to mine, a young girl and boy got out, moved onto the back seat and promptly went to sleep. I thought it was pretty odd considering the car park was mostly empty that they would choose to pull up right next to my car, maybe it is some narcoleptic form of dogging?

Kath was really tired after the journey, so we had a relaxed morning. Then headed to the garden centre to speak to the aquarium section see if I could find a cure for the algae plaguing my fishtank. It was a really helpful trip the guy there was very knowledgeable and gave me several ideas to get it  under control. We enjoyed a coffee in the coffee shop then headed to Decathlon to buy sleeping bags for the party at Paul dad's place.

Saturday Ian picked us up, I didn't even realise until he prompted that he had a new car. How observant! In fairness its very similar though nicer with body coloured bumpers. Iain had also been to Decatholon and was sporting a net 2" popup tent. I had borrowed a tent of Bruce, it wasnt a two second erection, but it did go up pretty quickly.

Paul's dads house was suitably impressive. A converted Mill / Farm complete with a waterwheel extensive grounds and an annexe. The spread was impressive too, the garages converted into a stage and with a marquee ample space for the party goers.  There was beer, wine and cider aplenty too, not to mention the simply amazing food. Simple but tasty joints of beef and pork coupled with very nice French rolls, and some cheeses. The beef in particular was exquisite, I am getting hungry just thinking about it.

We sat and chatted, Paul's ex Leamington day flatmate and his wife. He persuaded the weaker minded amongst us to sample a Marlboro light, setting up a smokers corner. He also had an interesting form of logic regarding health risks. Claiming to be worried about the dangers of the potential for asbestos in some art-ex he removed from a ceiling. Compared to the dangers of smoking, I thought it was a pretty outside risk!

There was a band playing for the first part of the evening they were pretty good, was mostly covers though. Later in the evening Paul got up and did a set, his songs were great, though he seemed to forget the words during his cover of Lady Gaga. Jo joked the words didn't matter "its all gag gaga blah blah"! Apparently he did another set later on, by which time though Kath and I had decided to retire to bed. We were having a nice chat with Jo, Holly Ian and Chris with Paul coming and going while chatting and mingling.

I woke up in the morning to find Louise sat outside he tent surveying the remnants of a food platter, seemingly the foxes had enjoyed the cheese too. Apparently Ian had fallen asleep in her tent after she told him her fears about the foxes.

Kath and I felt fine having gone to bed fairly reasonable, Ian looked like death, fortunately breakfast was provided sausage bread rolls, egg and beans, lovely. It did us all the power of good to have some good stodge to soak up the alcohol.

Paul gave me two CD, apparently he is dissolving some of his CD collection in preparation for moving in with Saskia. Was very nice of him to think of me.

Ian had to leave early but Kath and I loitered on, Paul having arranged for us, Saskia, Jo and Holly to go for lunch at a local pub, the Fox and Hound. The Fox and Hounds was a very traditional English pub.  I loved it felt like a relaxed place, and seeing the food being dished out to people made my mouth water. I had a really nice meal, Belly pork, it was very tasty. I also tried Saskia's risotto and Kaths Sichuan beef all were very tasty.  It was a great end to a lovely weekend, excellent idea from Paul. It was great that Kath met Paul and Saskia, and my friends. I am also really glad that she heard Paul play now she might understand better why I think he is so talented.

Banking Error

Tomorrow morning is re-mortgage day, hopefully its a fresh start financially. To facilitate the transition I needed to transfer from money. Attempting to log into my account I received a message to tell me I was locked out of internet banking, I was sure that I put in the correct password, a password I had been using it since 1997, I use it so often that it is ingrained in my muscle memory.
I called the support number reset my password, the women told me to try it while I was on the line, I am glad she asked. Opening a new session I tried it out and wasn't able to log in. At this point I got transferred to another operator. He asked whether I had reused the password, I had at which point he told me after 99 uses the account get locked and a simple reset is not enough to get it working again. He reset my date of birth to today's date and I had to get my password, log in again. This time it worked, and once more change of password and reset of date of birth and I could access it again. I guess in 10 more years I will have to do the same again!

Candy

Awesome blog post about being an adult.

Too good To Live?

Brings new meaning to "too much love will kill you".

http://www.economist.com/node/16843817?fsrc=scn/fb/wl/ar/toogoodtolive

The Web Is Dead. Long Live the Internet

The Web Is Dead. Long Live the Internet

Bye bye foursquare?

Looks like Facebook has decided to squash Foursquare. This article in wired touts the new Facebook check in service which lets Facebook users check into places, not unlike foursquare. The fact that it will be available to facebooks 500 million users will I expect mean an end in growth for Foursquare unless it can quickly respond with some new features not available with Connect.

First State

The Register has an article stating that Virgin Media are touting the idea of writing to customers found to be part of botnets. I think this is an excellent idea. One of my servers was attacked by a botnet and I reported it to 6 networks, all but one never even replied to my abuse reports. No wonder bot nets can get so huge if administrators do not do anything to halt the spread.

Local Foreigner

As George Lucas announces Star War will be re-released on Blue Ray I ask myself do I need another copy? As a child the star wars films were my favourite. I nearly wore out the original VHS copies, and when the special editions were released I bought the box set. Then when the DVD editions were released I bought them too. Since then the new films came out and have somewhat damaged my enthusiasm for the entire project. Given I hope to soon upgrade my home entertainment somewhat from the old Sony CRT TV of my parents to something a bit more modern getting a blue ray player is certainly on the agenda. I guess I will end up buying them in the end just to enjoy watching the X-wings fly around in High Definition.

I spoke to Martin in the week, Marks stag do clashes with Paul's party so unfortunately I wont be able to go. Its a real pig to miss it would have really enjoyed it. Especially as the wedding has moved meaning Kath and I wont be attending. I mentioned to Martin that we missed the Slayradio gathering, we went to the first one (that listeners attended)  in 2005, would like to go back there one day.

On a related retro note I saw this floppy disk holder on deviant art It is jus tthe job for holding all those retro games, I think its really nicely done

Man Research

Ever wonder why we have strict gun laws? Look no further than this idiot to see why

The Captain

Today marked 2 years to the day since I completed on my house purchase. I lot has changed in that time, the biggest thing for me was meeting my girlfriend Kath. Though she lives in Poland and I am in the UK somehow we have managed to see enough of each other to have a meaningful relationship.
We have just spend the last two weeks together, during which time we have managed to visit Sheffield, Liverpool, and Wales.

Sheffield
I picked Kath up from Doncaster airport on Saturday 24th July. From Doncaster we headed for Sheffield, walking round enjoying the Winter Gardens. We arrived in Sheffield at about 8.30 to find a line of teenagers (mostly girls) queuing up for some concert going on in the city. First stop was breakfast at Cafe Nero where we enjoyed a nice coffee and a Panini. Fulling full we had a wonder thought the Winter Gardens, then wondered around the city to the Cathedral.

We drove back taking the scenic route via snake pass.

Liverpool
Liverpool  has a special place for Kath and I. It was the first place we went together after I picked Kath up from the airport. We had a really good time there looking around, was just as Liverpool one opened.

There was a Picasso exhibition at Tate Liverpool we wanted to see so we headed to Liverpool. We arrived around lunch time so started with a  meal at Haha bar and grill in the Albert Docks.
Then a short stroll around the Dock before heading into the Tate for the exhibition. The Gallery was really good mainly focussing on the influences of the war and cold war. I never realised that Picasso was a committed communist and peace activist. When visiting the Picasso museum in Barcelona these items were oddly omitted. Its really worth the entry price if you are in Liverpool.

After the gallery we took a walk to see the three graces, took some nice photos. I managed to get a couple of Kath sunning herself, it made her laugh then we took a few silly pictures. We then strolled to Liverpool one. Its a really nice shopping centre I like the blend of open and green space, much preferable to the Trafford Centre.

Having browsed some shops we took a walk to the Cathedral via China Town. We were having trouble finding the Cathedral which is a bit crazy given its absolutely enormous. They were closing up as we walked in but we managed to have a quick look by heading in the exit ;) Its certainly a very impressive structure. Walking back via St James Gardens we stopped for a coffee where we were treated to a cheeky pigeon trying to steal food!

Beginning Polish

Kath (and her Polish friends) have been trying to teach me some Polish phrases.

Yes
Tak

No
Nie

GOOD DAY
dzień dobry

GOOD NIGHT
dobranoc

BEAUTIFUL KATH
piękna Kasia

HUG ME
przytul mnie

PLEASE
proszę

THANK YOU
dziękuję

WOMAN! beer!
kobieto piwo!

woman blowjob
KOBIETO LODA!

Skeletons

I inherited my home phone number from someone else and despite going onto telephone preference (and having the number for 8 months I regularly get calls for the previous owner. Today I got home to find not a message but a text message waiting, it read "Just to tell you Pat has died"! I would hate to think what sort of person decides text messages are the best way to break such bad news. I felt like calling back, but perhaps they are grieving so maybe best not.

Today hasn't been the best day for me, I am in the process of re-mortgaging and I got a call to inform me that my house was not valued high enough to make the 75% loan to value (which gets the best rate). So now I need to either find another £2850 (£2000 to make up the difference and £850 fee) or take a hit on the interest rate. On a positive moment it still means my house is worth a lot more than I paid for it, just not enough more.

FUTURE SOUL SONG

I have seen two films recently. First one was up in the air a film about corporate downsizer Ryan Bingham [George Clooney], a man who spends his entire life commuting between companies where his only job is to tell people they are no longer required. Enjoying the Freedom of his job Ryan has no ties to the real world, spending as little time as possible in his tiny lonely apartment. A new employee at the company, and his sisters weeding threatens to change him forever.

Kath and I watched the film simultaneously so we could talk about it later.  I really enjoyed the journey of Ryan allowing some people into his single serving life.

Last night I went to the Cinema with Martina to watch Inception. Harking back to the the age old idea idea that watching a film is like a shared dream Nolan attempts to pull the viewer deeper into a dream state. A slick film, delving deep into our ideas of reality. At the end of the 90s there were a number of films along these lines including the Matrix, Existenz Dark City and the 13th Floor. Inception adds a new twist in that Dom Cobb [Leonardo DiCaprio] is a memory thief, creating dream spaces in order to enter targets minds and steal they memories. Sort of like Johnny Mnemonic who actually joins into the memory stream.

Martina made an excellent point that Nolan is a very literal director. A lot of the dialogue exists seemingly to explain to the viewer exactly what is happening. I felt that Ariadne character seems to exist as a foil to allow Cobb to explain himself. The use of the elevator where Cobb's secrets were stored in the basement was also a bit predictable. Actually I found it very hard to hear the dialogue because the pounding oppressive music. I found that the visuals were stunning, the action sequences impeccably complex and I walked out of the cinema with a head full of questions about the film.

Post 1000

I have been slightly intimidated by this post, one thousand times I have sat tapping away on my computer thinking about life, love, the future and the past. I dont think I have ever put so much effort over such a long period into anything else. Starting with my journal on Slashdot in 2002 then moving to blogger it marks 9 years of writing.

This blog charts some biggest highs, crashing back to earth, late night drunken rants. At times I have written things that have literally caused relationships to break down, and strained friendships to breaking point. You might ask why carry on with something that can cause so much pain. I suppose the answer is somewhere in between the catharsis I get from the release of putting my thoughts on paper and the ego trip of publishing something, even if it is only a blog.

Next week Kath is arriving for two weeks. I cannot wait to see her again, we are going to Wales for a few days to get away from it all. I will be amazing to spend time together, its a very difficult time we spend apart. Using phone calls and skype to bridge the gap is good, but nothing like the real thing.

Spotify lands on Linux | News | PC Pro

Spotify lands on Linux | News | PC Pro

C.R.E.A.M

I needed to get a webpage to focus on the first field, without knowing what the first field would be, I found this website. It neatly shows how to focus on the first field in a form using a simple piece of JQuery, awesome!

Crimewave

Talking of Fightclub there was an interesting article in the Independent. Starting out as a rebuttal that men are a dying species Christina Patterson goes on to describe a "whole sub-species of men that nobody wants". I wonder if they would make good space monkeys?

France 24 Mistake

France 24 Breaking news, actually Netherlands secured a spot in the 2010 World Cup final with a 3-2 victory over Uruguay not Spain, wonder what match the reporter was watching?

Flashback

Yesterday morning when I arrived at work there were some guys putting up new sign-age on the an empty unit in the paddock. When I left the office to go home there was a film crew outside filming the unit. I assumed that it was for some sort of advertising. This morning however the unit is once again empty, the only signs of its use were part of a logo sill taped over one of the signs. I wonder what it was filmed for?

I have been reading the novel Fight Club Having loved the film I finally thought I would get around to reading the book, only 11 years on :D In many ways I am disappointed by the book. The film basically distilled the ideas presented by the book, taking some of the best lines of dialogue and the main scenes. However the two play out in very different ways, in the book the narrator is far more involved in the various acts of Project Mayhem which I think lessen the eventual realisation the he is in fact the same person as Tyler Durden.


Also of note, check out the different packaging for the versions of the film. the original DVD features both Brad Pitt and Edward Norton, though Nortan is very much in the background. Whereas the updated Blue Ray release features only Edward Norton.

Breeze

Last week was unusually hectic work wise so I had a little bit of a chill out over the weekend. Starting Friday night Phil came round, and we played some Call of Duty Modern Warefare 2. I was actually hopeless but we managed to get a few promotions.

Saturday I got out in the garden, cut down a couple of trees and removed some of the vegetation at the back of the garden. I filled my green bin and had a boot load for the tip. Still load to do though. In the evening I headed round to Bruce's for a BBQ. After which we watched a couple of films, an older one rise of the footsoldier. It is a kind of strange film which follows the life of East end football hooligan type Carlton Leech, then becomes a who dunnit of the gangland execution of Pat Tate, Tony Tucker. After that we watched Harry Brown, another British film about crime. Michael Caine plays a retired marine who goes on a train of retribution following the death of his wife and violent murder of his only remaining friend. I found it very similar to Clint Eastwood's Grand Torino, only in the Eastwood film the conclusion is more satisfying, and I would almost say less Hollywood than Harry Brown.

Sunday I went to help Jo and Holly on the allotment. A couple of hours of weeding left me feeling tired and covered in cuts from brambles. It was quite good fun though, and by the time I left you could really appreciate the difference in the vegetation. Lots less weeds around the trees. Holly suggested going for aday out while Kath is over, which hopefully we can arrange, maybe a day out in Castleton if the weather holds.

I went for a swim then chatted to Kath for a for hours before bed. We are both excited that she will soon be here again.

10 Years of .Net

Sometimes news announcements make me feel old, I still think of .net as shiny and new, but its now been around for 10 years!

Rest my chemistry

I have worked on and looked after systems for over a decade, in that time I have seen many security breaches. They have ranged from serious taking out an entire school network for a couple of days, to defacement on a webpage. Each time different factors took their toll.

The most recent attack was against the lan party website. A vulnerability in the content management system E107 allowed an attacker to upload a script file to my site. A file "fwriteq.php" a modified version of a php example file. When a remote attack to request the page using a specific URL the page outputted a huge amount of junk traffic towards an IP address given in the request string.

The weird thing about it was that it created UDP datagrams. In response I cleaned up the site and altered the firewall to block outgoing traffic of type UDP on port 80 as this is invariably junk.

I went through the logs and found the command and control IP which were sending in the requests for traffic and then emailed the abuse contact. BT owned 2 of them and I received no response (another reason not to recommend them). One of them was a linode box, they replied and asked for more details which I sent on to them.

One Day

It has been a very tiring weekend. The weather was phenomenal, warm sunny and dry. Saturday I had a job to do, the partition fence is mostly rotten. Speaking to my neighbours they offered to split the cost if I would go and get the panels. 6'x5' Fence panels wont fit into a Ford Focus, fortunately I know a man with a van, Nick. He took me in the week to Stax where the cheapest panels cost £15 + Vat. There were pre treated but in a very light stain, so I decided to coat them in Cuprinol Shed & Fence Preserver in Acorn Brown. I spent the morning painting the panels the plan being for my dad to help me slot them into place. This should have been easy at the [concrete] fence posts were a standard width. Unfortunately one of the posts has moved a little so the first panel I tried to place didn't fit and I ended up scratching my leg on a rose while trying to position it. We slotted in the other panels and tried in vane to move the concrete post, I tried pushing, hitting it the a hammer but it was solid.

In the end after many hours I called Nick and once again he came and helped me out. He sawed 15mm off the edge, no mean feet given the amount of wood at the edge. It was a bit tight but we manhandled it into place, hurrah!
As it was getting late I invited Nick to share a dinner of stir fry. We sat in the garden enjoying the evening air chatting about life, enjoying a beer.

Sunday I invited my parents and Grandma around for a barbecue. Before they arrived I had to do some work though releasing some new software for the website. It took the majority of the morning, I had just enough time to quickly hoover and start preparing for my parents. I prepared a salad with rocket, pepper and tomato. Then grilled some burgers, chicken and sausage on the barbecue. It was all very tasty, after the food my gran did he usual trick of taking over the TV. So songs of praise won out against the England match. Probably best given the drubbing they received.

Mum and I played with Cocoa, brushing out her knots. I don't think she knew what to do with herself in the heat.

In the evening I went for a swim to cool down, then watched the first episode of the new Top Gear. Then I finished off the go live following the results of testing.

I went to bed feeling tired, but took the receiver and talked to Kath. Not quite the same as falling asleep together, but lovely to hear her voice before falling asleep.

Problem with Cisco Connect

I had difficult connecting to a site using Windows VPN on a machine which also had  the Cisco VPN Client. They wouldn't play ball together at all. I had been connecting by going into Windows Service manager and stopping the "Cisco Systems, Inc. VPN Service" this enabled me to connect to my Windows site. I finally stumbled upon the answer! Right click on the Cisco client in the windows task bar and disable the option "Stateful Firewall Always on". After doing so I can be connected to both either VPN (or even both at the same time).

X-rayted pin-up calendar

Saw this on The Register quite amazing lengths to go for advertising I hope it wasn't all one model getting zapped.

The law is an ass

This story on the BBC website about a Scottish women jailed for 5 years for the possession of a prohibited weapon. The weapon a Czech-made pistol dating back to about 1927 was a spoil of war brought home by her grandfather. There was no ammunition and no suspicion that she intended to use the item as anything other than an artefact, so how are the public protected by her 5 year incarceration? Suerly a fine, or a suspended sentance would be far more appropriate. Unfortunately the sentence is a mandated one so the judge had little latitude to allow leniency, to me it make s mockery of the legal system. Surely this sort of law is intended to put away gang members not Grandmothers. She will spend the same amount of time in prison as the guidelines suggest for a rapist.
Stories like this make me very nervous about the politicisation of the judicial service, what we need is balance examining cases in detail not putting in place mandatory sentences which lead to useless prison sentences.

I'll hold my breath

Friday night went to give blood after work. First time I have managed to make a donation for about a year. It was difficult while I worked in Macclesfield, much easier now the office has moved to Handforth. As part of the donation I was asked if I would consider being a platelet donor. Apparently A type blood has a great antigen in for platelets, I agreed so they took an extra sample.

After the donation I chilled out for a bit then got picked up by Nick. We went firstly to the Governors picking up  Gilly and Big Col en route. We had a good chat in the governors, about holidays, hangovers and girlfriends. Then Nick went off to pick up Ian; he arrived by train in Stockport after doing a job in London. He has really been working out, it has been a while since I last saw him, and the transformation was quite stark. I wish I could do that sort of training, but with work and looking after the house and cat I can only manage a few times a week not enough to get to that sort of physique.

Time was up at The Governors at 12 so we headed to the Penny Black for another couple of pints. I have never been in there before. I was full of young guys I felt a little bit old! However it was cheap so can't complain too strongly.

I must have drunk a lot because I had the hangover from hell Saturday morning. I basically could barely function all morning just sat around drank coffee and juice playing computer games. Phil popped round about 2, I was still rough, he gave me a media sender so I can hook up a TV in my bedroom. Would be nice to be able to veg out to TV some days. He got a spare set for a job so I got them, awesome! I just need a controller so I can change channel on the Virgin box remotely, oh and another TV!

Today I did some gardening, cut the hedge, and pulled out some weeds. I even got a few more plants, its starting to look a bit more garden like, rather than a big mess. Still got a huge task of sorting out the back of the garden at some point. I also need a new fencing panel as my neighbours were none too impressed about Cocoa frolicking in their garden.

I went to the gym to finish up the weekend, next to make dinner and get though some of the ironing pile, I guess I am living the dream!

Turn It Up

I went to the gym for a swim this evening. I had a secondary motive, while there yesterday I managed to leave my ipod. The battery died while I was working out and not having any pockets I put it into the drinks holder. Unfortunately I forgot it, and in all honesty didn't expect to see it again. I was pleasantly surprised when the girl on reception handed it to me; I guess I should have some faith in human nature afterall.

I saw Martin and Martin at the gym yesterday working out. Its kind of the only place I see them these days, there and the lan. Strange really I used to see a lot of Martin but these days I hardly know him at all. Weird how people move in and out of your life, not so long ago I thought that Kasia was my future, then that fell apart, then I met Kath and she changed everything. For the first time there was someone who supported me, and somehow we seem better together than apart, and even though the distance between  us is great we couldn't be closer in spirit.

Obstacle 1

Three not worthy events already today, firstly last night I helped Paul put the new wordpress based version of his website live. I set him up with wordpress so he could have more control over publishing the website content and so far he seems very happy. I have helped out with a few tweaks to get him up and running. I really like what he has done, feels a lot more like a his own site now.

Secondly the new iphone has finally been officially announced, should arrive here June 24th. Apple have simultaneously been able to made it thinner, faster, improve the screen and battery life and keep it looking fresh. The new screen look incredible giving over 300dpi it will be difficult to see the pixels! Awesome, I must have one!

Finally and not important for the same reasons, I got a phone call from MBNA to ask if I had made a credit card application. I haven't, so that means some fraudster decided to use my details. Not very nice to be used in that way.

Radar detector

The heat meant it was hard to sleep, then the cat decided to join us. So after the lack of sleep we decided to have a lazy morning.

We made a lovely breakfast of croissants and strawberry's with yoghurt; it looked so tasty spread out on the table that Kath took a photography and posted it to her Facebook. It was very tasty :)

After relaxing and playing with Cocoa we went out to Wilmslow garden centre and bought my mum a hanging basket. Unfortunately she was out when we popped into my parents, so I hung it out the back ready for her return. My dad was working on my old room, he is going to turn it into a home office.

Bruce was hosting a BBQ in the evening, picking up Phil on route we headed round. It had been a glorious day, but the evening started to cloud over. Mercifully the rain held off until after we had finished. As usual with a Bruce bbq there was plenty of food, Nina had made a salad and a birthday cake for Bruce. Stephen was in attendance too, Lindsey and Trevor didn't make it as she had bad hay fever.

Bruce lit up, the coals he bought from Costco burned incredibly powerfully, so powerfully in fact that the wooden side table on the BBQ split! I burned the first wave of food to a crisp not able to find a cooler place on the grill. I was more successful with the other meat, the lamb kebabs, chicken and second round of sausages turning out really well.

After the burgers assorted meats it was time for the cake. Nina had made a lovely coffee cake, it was really tasty. Then the rain started to come down so we hot footed it inside to shelter and have a coffee before heading home.

Kath and I had a sit on the sofa to aid digestion and spend the final few hours together before I had to drive her to the airport and back to Poland again. It has been an amazing weekend as awesome the time we spend together is so special.

Atlas

I managed to persuade Kath to come  and help me do some shopping. I needed to get some summer clothes and I am no good at shopping. We went to John Lewis as I had a voucher to use up. I ended up getting some light trousers, some casual shorts and a nice new shirt. Shopping is much more palatable when done with Kath.

After our adventures shopping we got back to our house and eat a chicken salad. Kath had prepared, it was really tasty with mushrooms, pepper, and rocket.

The plan for the evening was to go to the Stockport beer festival as part of Phil and Bruces' 30th birthday celebations. Kath and I took the train to Stockport narrowly avoiding a downpour as we walked into Edgely park the heavens opened. Phil and Caroline arrived a few minutes afterwards their brolly dripping.  We met up by the entrance grabbed a couple of beers then went out to the stand. Sitting chatting and drinking. I bought myself and Kath half pint glasses so we could enjoy as many different beers.

Phil was sporting a very nice new jacket his mum and sister got for him. I had got him a case of Hahn premium an Australian beer we loved while out in Australia.  According to Beers of Europe they no longer export it and I bought one of the last batch they have. Caroline had also bought Phil an Australian themed basket of goods (including Bundaberg ginger beer, and Timtams) so he can have a real Australian themed evening.

I tried a variety of different beers from the oddly tasty espresso beer to Ginger Tom, some were good some were bad not many were memorable. It was a really enjoyable evening though sat outside drinking and chatting. Joe and Holly turned up as did a few of their friends who I know from the lan bash.

Toward the end of the evening while I was buying a drink Kath got caught by a group of guys. There was a Polish labourer and an English guy who by all accounts was married to a Pole. He wanted to practise his Polish the Polish guy couldn't believe Kath had come to the UK for me.

The beer festival wound up at 11, good think really most of the kegs were running dry. To finish the evening we headed to the Kantipur for a curry. I had the spicy ginger, it was as usual very good. The garlic narn was a little too garlic for my liking though being covered with shards of garlic.

Crazy People

It seems that the idiom that the average Englishman is one rant away from rage. I got back to my car after doing some shopping at Sainsburys Cheadle Hulme.

I was inside the lines of the parking box, it was actually the other car who was right upto the edge. I had no issue getting out of the car;but given the high fat content of the shopping. Which included burgers, rolls ice cream I am guessing that the author was pretty fat.

Common People

I picked Kath up from Doncaster airport at 7.45 yesterday. I took me nearly two hours to get there as I got stuck behind a truck, I kinda wish that the M67 went where it was suppose to go.
We were hungry and as Doncaster is essentially an industrial park with some houses attached; we decided to take an impromptu trip to Sheffield.
I stopped at one of the many park and ride places Nunnery Square and paid £4 to park and for the tram ticket. Once on the tram I found that the ticket didn't cover Kath so it was another £1.40 each way for her. Next time I would recommend parking in one of the many city centre car parks because to me the park and ride represented very poor value for a day trip.
Once in Sheffield centre though the picture started to get more rosy. They have extensively gentrified the centre. We had a wonder round, enjoyed a coffee at Cafe Nero. There was an food festival on but it was a little too hot for watching. Instead we walked to the Cathedral had another coffee outside a little cafe, was a beautiful scene under the blue ski next to the Cathedral.
Walking back into the centre went through the winter gardens, have a browse round the galleries inside. I really enjoyed the digital art exhibition, Kath liked the collection of knifes and implements made in Sheffield over time.
We had lunch al fresco in the centre at Ha Ha bar and grill. I have a fish, Kath had a chicken burger, at £6 it was very good value.
 We drove home over the snake pass, on such a summer day the views were stunning.
My parents treated us to dinner, there was a early diner promotion on at the La Quila. It has been a few years since we have been there, it used to be a popular vibrant place, but this evening there were hardly anybody in. The offer were poppadoms, a choice of starters, and a choice of any standard curry for £8.99. the starters were a choice of either sheek kebab, samosa, onion bargy or shami kebab. I tried the shami kebab is was very tasty. For the main curry Kath and I had a lamb madrass, my parents both had chicken jalfresi.
The madrass sauce was tasty and hot, but the lamb was rather fatty and chewy. I would have been upset to pay full price, certainly I feel the place has gone downhill a lot.
After the meal my parents went home and Kath and I sat outside in the garden enjoying the warm evening, drink a beer, was a great day together.

Homeopathy; what's the harm?

Quite a lot by the looks of it. I intensely stand pseudo science "alternative solutions". Generally I find them an alternative to commend sense and logic.

Wish I stayed

Dropped off Kath at the airport this morning. It is always so difficult to say goodbye.

She arrived on Friday, I picked her up at 7.30am from the airport. We headed straight for my house so Kath could meet Cocoa. Fortunately they got on really well together. Kath was enchanted with Cocoa, describing the was she walked around the house as enchanting and elegant.

We went to Waitrose to get in some shopping, I was planning to make a nice meal for us. Initially I found a recipe for Spaghetti with hot-smoked salmon, rocket & capers. However while shopping we decided to make a few changes, adding bacon and prawn and substituting the spaghetti for linguine. I served it with garlic bread and an Italian style tomato, mozzarella salad drizzled with Olive oil. We also had a bottle of Boschendal Shiraz, it was very tasty.

After the meal we relaxed on the sofa and watched An Education. It was an reasonable film, about a young girl in the 1960 who ambitions to goto Oxford are nearly dashed. It was well acted and written upto the ending seemed a little hurried and open.

Kath and I went for a wonder around Wilmslow in the afternoon. Popping into a few shops enjoying the sunshine. We had a coffee and a sandwich in Cafe Nero, was very tasty. We also took a stop into Wilmslow garden centre to get a present for Nina. We decide to buy her a Bonsai plant as they looked very pretty. I got myself another Catius to the one Holy bought me company.

Last night we headed out for a meal with Nina, Bruce, Phil and Caroline; To celebrate Nina&39;s upcoming birthday on Monday. Nina chose Bellinis in Cheadle. We started off with an a mix of garlic bread, Calamaris rings, ribs, mushrooms. For my main meal I had a steak stuffed with mozzarella and Parma ham with a creamy sauce. It was very taste, and filling. I would recommend the restaurant for the food, the actual place is a bit cramped and noisy, not somewhere for an intimate dinner but great for a party with friends like this was excellent.

Worlds apart

Compare the devastation that Nazi Germany caused to the UK and Europe compared to what the Japanese managed against mainland America.

How many hungry weasels could your body feed?

Created by Oatmeal

Pretty little ditty

I am sat watching the leaders debate with my new pet. On Friday I got a call from my mum, it went along the lines of, "you want a cat to keep you company don't you". Just under a week later and I now live with Coco, a long haired Persian cat. She is actually a really nice kitty, she follows me around the house sitting next to me while I watch TV. Sometimes she even sits on my lap while I use my computer. He previous owners had several cats and they didn't get along with Coco. She prefers to be the only cat, so now she lives here with me. I think I have seen more of my mum in the last few days than since I moved out, she likes to come round to pet the kitty.

Not only do I have a new cat but I also started restocking my fish tank. I got a shoal of Zebra Danio a small hardy fish that should help get the tank started off. I am planning to have quite a lot of small colourful fish. I wanted to get some Neons and Tetras but they prefer a mature tank, so I need to build up to them slowly.

Tomorrow I am off to Poland to see Kath I cant wait to see her again.

I hate Steam :@

It was the lan yesterday, and I had decided that it would be nice to play Modern Warfare 2. As I am pretty cheap I saw a copy on Amazon marketplace £15 cheaper than brand new so I thought why not. I have bought games in the past once they are installed who cares if it was new or not.

However once again steam ruined things for me. Steam is an on-line game delivery service and it seems the distributors Activision choose Steam as the security mechanism. Steam requires the internet to work correctly, which causes problem at the lans were we don't have an internet connection. It used to be insurmountable but as internet dongles become more prevalent there are ways around it.

On installing the game I was asked to enter the code I did so, it was rejected as a duplicate. OK I thought well there must be a reset process, so I looked it up. I had to send the invoice and a scan of the code (printed on the manual) with my Steam ID written above. I did all this only to be told by steam they did not support used games suppliers. So in a stroke steam have killed the used game market, at least for steam game, nice.

Fortunately after contacting the Amazon seller I managed to get a refund.

Dinner WIth Becky

Wednesday night Becky invited my round to her completed house to have a peek and eat some dinner.

I walked round, as my dad has borrowed my car due to having managed to get a contracting job.

I walked the quickest route which took me from the suburbia of Handforth through the rather incongruous for Wilmslow council estate. Emerging back to suburbia with the gated community of the Villas.

Her house is a small mews set on The Villas estate, I never realised how far back the state went and I was ready for something to eat by the time I made it there. I had a good luck round, she had decorated it in her own style, extravagant. I was most taken by the bedroom with its mirrored furniture. Overall a nice tidy place, I think it suits her well

She made a dinner of Thai curry and fragrant rice, it was very tasty. We had a long chat afterwards it was all very sociable and relaxing.

I walked home this time around the main road avoiding the Colshaw estate.

Caller ID

I just got a call on my mobile phone, I looked at the caller, and hit the ring silently option so it would go to voicemail. Reminded me how much we take changes in technology for granted. I was already thinking about this as last night I watched Electric dreams. Basically a family lived a decade in a week having to live as people would in the 80s. They were given similar technology. Was funny to see the son playing with a BBC Mirco typing in code, reminded me of my youth.

Ten years ago I didn't have a mobile phone, ten years before that my parents had an old rotary dial phone funny how things change, would never have imagined being able to see who was calling me.

Also curious is the fact its a glorious day outside but all flights in the UK are grounded because of volcanic ash in the atmosphere.

8-Bit Trip

Swedish band, Rymdreglage, spent more than 1,500 hours moving Lego bricks for its third music video, 8-Bit Trip. This hypnotic video is a beautiful homage to old-school C64 games and 8-bit music.

The Bucket

I spoke to Kath on the phone last night, I was nearly falling asleep but it was great to hear her voice. I really miss her already, its going to be a long few weeks before I visit her in Poland.
Apparently we will meet up with her friends and either go looking at the sights of Warsaw or head off on her friends Mike's sail boat, either sounds nice I can hardly wait.

After I hung up I went to finish the washing up and I saw a fox idly walking through my neighbours garden, basking in the star light. I stepped outside to take a peek. It didn't run away at first but lingered on the driveway. Pretty surreal moment.

StarCraft 2 Beta Breakup

StarCraft 2 Beta Breakup

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Just arrived home after dropping Kath off at the airport, the house already seems empty. I sat down to write this blog only to be interrupted by a spider which decided to climb on me. It startled me so much that I dropped my powerbook on the floor, its got a little dent in now, sad times.

Kath arrived on Saturday, I got up at 5.30am so I could meet her at Robin Hood airport in Doncaster.

We took a lazy drive back through the Woodhead pass, even in the weak dawn light it was a beautiful scene. Stopping off to buy a few provisions we headed back to my house, ate breakfast of croissants and coffee.

After such a long absence it was great to be together again, nothing feels better than when I hold her in my arms.

We went shopping in the afternoon, Kath wanted to get something for my mum, so we went to the garden centre.

In the evening I prepared a stir fry which we enjoyed with a bottle of wine. It was a really wonderful evening together.

Greg Rutter's Second Definitive List of The 99 Things You Should Have Already Experienced

A wonderful lost of some of the most populat memes and viral content. http://www.youshouldhavealsoseenthis.com/

From Kath

Input Out

I stopped subscribing to the Economist a year ago, a lack of time (and money), meant I wasnt really getting any value out the subscription. Since then every so often they send me a copy of intelligent life, which is a nice magazine, though I would not buy it (unless someone hands me a big pay rise).

There were afew stories which caught my eye, first was the history of news. The permese is we live in a post news age where news escencially propogates across television and the internet, repackages by various sites. Where PR agents and publisists essencially procuce the news news. An example of this is Newsbeat on Radio one which is so short it escencially a few sounsd bites, or single view of news.

I find it all very depressing that we seem to have shrugged off journalism in favor of sensationalism and populism. Everytime I log into my hotmail account I get to see the joys of MSN, view the awful slide shows of the X best / worsed cars / dressed / some other fad.

On Some Faraway Beach

Had to work yesterday which was something of a pain. Our American developer was over in the UK so we met in a meeting room at the Britannia hotel in Offerton. I had been dreading it but it was actually a very productive and useful day. Our ex developer joined us to go over some work, being in the same room was very helpful.
Afterwards we went to the pub so Martin could catch the West Ham game, I stayed for the first half, but wanted to get back to watch the Rugby.
England were at times exciting to watch scoring the only try. Unfortunately as usual they were ill disciplined and gave away stupid penalties. Ending in a frustrating 12-10 loss to France crowning them as a Gran Slam winners.
Phil and Caroline came round for a drink and a chat. The had been out for an Italian meal in Poynton, sounded very nice.

Pi Day

Yesterday was Pi Day (at least if you write the date in American format MM DD YYYY) 3142010. In celebration Martina invited me round for dinner, and some of her apple pie. It was very tasty.


We chatted a lot about searching for jobs, the dishonesty of recruitment consultants, and the general insanity of the job market.

isn't that worth fighting for, isn't that worth dying for

I had a night of films this evening. Starting with a release from last year I watched Pandorum. It is a tense psychological thriller set on board a spaceship. I liked the idea, of the characters waking up with no memories. The cinematography was brilliant, but the pacing was a bit off the characters running to save the ship from nuclear disaster.

Next up was the 2003 release, Matrix Reloaded. Rather like the Phantom Menace, I couldn't wait to see it when I did though I walked out disappointed. I forgot how ridiculous the Freeway scene was. It is amazing was so over the top, I cant imagine even David Cameron would actually build several miles of Freeway at several million per mile just to create a scene.

I remember reading a review after the Matrix said the directors saw Charlies Angels. They believed that it copied the Matrix so much, it made them wan to make a film which couldn't be copied. Which they did really no one has tried to do bullet time on such a scale as say the scene where Neo does battle with the Frenchman's henchmen. I guess it was that overambition that lets the Matrix sequels down. There were so many ideas and they tried to explore so many of them that ultimately you end up with unintelligible scenes like Neo meeting the Architect.

The final film of the evening was from the end of the 90's ExistenZ. One thing I really notice now when I see a film from the 90 is that unlike today the actors look a bit more like people rather than looking like the spend their lives in the gym. ExistenZ explores the ideas of alternate realities, how our reality is defined by our mind. The Matrix tried the same thing but I think David Cronenberg takes it to the depths.

Zeppelin

Finally got the my blog ported to blogger website. It has been a bit of a journey, I still need to upgrade the template and change a few more settings. You might also notice that the URL has changes from http://www.johncooke.info/blog to http://blog.johncooke.info Thats he way blogger want it to be set up.

Had a few issued with the feeds over the few days, just in case anyone subscribes via RSS the feed name has changed so please update your settings.

For now I am staying with blogger I want to see what I can get out of it, and switching to wordpress presented a while different set of problems.

Beautiful day without you

As you might have notices blog has moved (for the time being) to blogger.com so I now have the wonderful (sic) blogsearch and next button displayed at the top, cheers google. I am debating whether to switch to a self hosted Wordpress installation or not, the URL shouldn't change again though.

Not much been happening recently, I am something of a cash flow crisis at the moment, have to watch every penny until I can get things turned around, of lots of nights spent at home, or at the gym.

Kath has arranged to make the journey here over Easter. I cant wait to see her again, we speak everyday on Skype or the phone but it is a pale imitation to being with her. I usually send her pictures of my dinner so she can ensure I am taking care of myself. Fortunately my culinary skills have improved greatly since I moved out. She has become one of the most important and precious things in my life, the pain of separation is well worth the moment we spend together.

Workwise I have been working hard, did a massive update on works website last night which actually appears to have worked quite well, hurrah. I despair at my company though, how so much effort can give so little return, and the same mistakes can be allowed to be repeated just boggles my mind.

I cant believe how petty some people out there are, in the last couple of months evertime I put out my paper recycling bag for collection, when I return home the bag is gone. Now I can believe once that it blew away, but this week there wasn't any wind on Wednesday. Which means either one of my neighbours thinks its funny to steal or, or worse they are so weak minded that they think its better to steal than contact the council. Newsflash, one phonecall to the rather nice sounding lady at the council office and they will give you a new one, they are already costed into the council tax bill FFS!

Triangle Walks | Video

Triangle Walks | Video

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Showdown

Who knew but there is an ISO standard list for currency codes.

Most Dangerous foods....

According to Time Magazine Hot dogs are pretty dangerous to Children under 10, however my personal favorite is leef greens. Despite whate vegitarians preech that only meet contains harmful bacteria and viri leaf greens can give you Nirovirus, E Coli and salmonella, though this is only is improperly handeled or stored.

More from Big Brother

Who knew that DEFRA supported such projects of Wythenshawe FM? The Register has a story about how DEFRA spent £8m over two years to civic society groups if they spread the correct message about Global Warming.

Halcyon

Dropped Kath off at the airport this morning. It had decided to snow overnight, I opened the door at 5 this morning to see the road [and the car] covered in snow. At times like this I wish Kath could fly from Manchester rather than Liverpool. It was still snowing as we drove the M56 was terrible, especially past the M6 junction snow covered all the carriageways.
Her flight was at 7.05, fortunately we had done the web check in the night before and her flight was slightly delayed otherwise would have missed it. I tried the M62 on the way back. The road surface was slightly better but it was still murder.

We have had a great few days together, Kath arrived on Thursday. We went round to my parents to say hello and take Storm for a Walk. In the evening we had a meal at my house,

Friday we went out and did some shopping, and had a walk around Stockport. Martin and Charlotte had invited us and Mark and Joe round for a meal. Charlotte cooked white fish wrapped in bacon, which sounded a bit of an odd choice but was really tasty. There were multifarious conversation as we went from Religion to Marriage, Martin and Charlotte Married life, Joe and Mark's upcoming wedding. Mark Martin and I had a good laugh about Slayradio, and geeky stuff. Everyone was nice lovely to Kath, she told me that she really felt at home, especially when Martin said she was one of the family.

Yesterday we had a lazy day at home, though I did have a few tasks to do. The weather was good so I washed the car, and in doing so realised one of my drains was blocked. Fortunately I was able to clear it myself though the smell was something else. After cleaning we had a quick trip into Wilmslow for some shopping, we went to Waitrose and bought some nice things for lunch. After that we spent the afternoon enjoying each others company. I made Chilli for dinner with chorizo, it was really tasty, as was the wine Kath chose to go with it. After dinner we had a cuddle on the sofa, was great just to be together.

Kath just phoned me from the plain, they haven't left the UK yet, still sat at Liverpool airport waiting for a takeoff slot, it may be some time. I heard on the news that Manchester airport has one runway closed due to the snow.

Spirit

:)

I sent Kath some flowers for Valentines day, the florist did a great job and she was really pleased.

In the Backseat

Managed to not get much done today. Had a nice chat with Kath via skype, paid some bills and ironed my shirts.
I went shopping to Waitroise, I love their essentials, a bit more expensive than Tesco or Sainsburys essentials stuff, and good quality, so great value for the money. I did also manage to go to Sainsburys, got my recycling done there. I also got t witness the power of Advertising; I bought some beer, took me a while to decide which offer was the best. They had a box of 12 330ml bottle for £13.68 which works out a £3.45/ltr, then there was an offer on two packs of 4 330ml bottles for £8, which comes in at £3.30/ltr (though the price per litre wasn't marked had to use the calculator on the Blackberry). Finally they had £ 2.09/bottle which was the cheapest option at £3.17/ltr. Cunningly they omitted the price per litre from the offer and on some of the items they marked the price per pint making it very difficult to compare.

My parents invited me for dinner at their house, they made beef bourguignon it was delicious. After dinner we sat and had a nice chat by the fire. I miss the fireplace, there is nothing quite like an open fire on a cold winters day.

This evening I went round to see Chief, he is preparing to move out of his apartment in Manchester to join his girlfriend in London. Its the end of an era really all the happy nights playing Wii with them, and partying at Abito. We had a chat drank some tea, he has got himself an IPhone and I showed him the awesome Remote app to control Itunes from his Iphone. I also managed to get his flip camera videos working on his Mac book.

Driving home I felt a sense of loss, someone else moving away unless things change for me I don't imagine very many London trips, not on the current budget anyway. Feel a bit depressed this week, work has been awful, and no end in sight, anyone know of any programming roles give me a shout.

Mega Shark versus physics

I love the humours appliance of science, so I simply love this infographic. While not quite as fast as Thrust SSC's 1228 km/h Mega shark would have needed to reach just over 700 km/h to gain the height necessary to take out a plain.

Love cats

I used to think it was a pain that there are no direct flights from Manchester Airport to Warsaw, maybe its not so bad after all. Given that aircraft controllers have had to change procedures after not one but two collisions by aircraft while Taxiing.

Fortunately Kath will arrive to Liverpool Airport where hopefully the air traffic controllers can direct the traffic. Only a week now I cant wait to see her. Martin and Charlotte have invited us for dinner next Friday, which should be a nice evening out. I think Endo and Jo will be there too so it will be a nice opportunity for them to meet Kath.

It will be nice for me to get out too, I haven't been getting out very often. A lack of money, and time seems to leave me mostly home watching TV. I really need to start looking for a lodger to help cover some of the bills, or a raise.

Kaboom

Coast Guard footage shows a massive plume of water rising out of the sea on Wednesday, near the Japanese island of Iwo Jima.

Blackstar

After nearly 7 years of blogging it looks like I am going to have to find a new home for Cookies world. Google/Blogger have decided to shut down ftp publishing of blogs. That leaves me having to relocate to Google servers, or migrate to one of the many other blogging products like Wordpress or Joomla which I can host myself.

Sweet disposition

I was reading the Daily WTF earlier today and found this story. It is quite interesting for any who programs, a lot of the comments are based on the premise the the coder didn't seem to know about else if or switch. In Business Basic the terrible old language I am forced to use there is no else if or switch case, so tricks like this are unnervingly common!

Last night I met up with Nick, Gilly, Ian and Bruce, we went to the John Millington for drink. We didn't stay there long though after 10 minutes stood being ignored at the bar we decided to decamp to the Governors house for a few drinks. Managed to get served quickly there, though the Neil Diamond impersonator wasn't doing much for the atmosphere, we did however manage to bad a table near the back.

Nick left round closing time giving us a lift into Bramhall to continue drinking at Beluga then Nappa. It was pretty dead but we had a goo old chat about life the universe and everything else inebriated people talk about.

I felt awful this morning, nights out with Ian and Gilly do that. I looked out of the window to find everywhere covered in Snow. I tried to pull myself together as my dad was coming round to help me finish the spare room. Just got the curtains to hang up.

I had to pick up something from my parents, they were out but Storm was crazy so I took him out for a walk. It was really clear and cold playing catch, we both enjoyed it. Afterwards I went and rejoined total fitness. They had a promotion 14 months for £345, which seemed like a great deal to me. I went swimming and sitting in the sauna finally cured my hangover.

I got home and made myself tuna steak with a baked potato, asparagus and salad. I even made a lemon chilli drizzle to go on it and I am proud to say I even impressed myself. I sent Kath a picture (she likes to make sure I am not just eating junk food) and she was really impressed. It is amazing really I never much cooked for myself when I was living with my parents, but I have found there are loads of healthy, tasty things that can be made really quickly.

Safe from harm

I always wondered why it took GPS devices so long to acquire a signal given a clear sky, maybe it has something to do with the extremely poor definition of the protocol as described here I was speechless :|

I miss Kath, evenings feel empty without her around and its not a nice eating alone. Fortunately last night Martina came round to keep me company. I tried to make Spiced rice with prawns [NB without the bacon as Martina is a vegetarian]. It turned out pretty tasty though I think we ended up putting in too much curry paste so ended up more like a Chinese / Indian fusion food.

After dinner we had a chat and a catch up, she told me about her trip to Scotland and her recent relationship. I told her about Kath's new job and moaned about mine.

This evening I went to B&Q with my dad to get the 10% discount on a few bits I needed. I havent really done any decorating since moving in, working and day to day life seem to eat all my spare time. Saying that I have spent the last few hours watching Pulp Fiction. I really love this film, its clever well acted well scripted pretty much everything I could ever want in a film. I cant believe it was released in 94 I doubt Avatar will be anything more than a curio in 16 years.

If I Had a Heart

Following last nights shenanigans I had a very lazy morning basically not moving from my bed until afternoon. To compensate when I finally got my act together I decided to do some cleaning and get the kitchen a good going over. Stainless steel looks great when its clean, not so good covered in dirty marks!

Spoke to Jo, he was asking me some advice on ow to get his tv working post digital switchover. I found him a cable to fix up his old NTL box upstairs. He and Holly were taking a trip to Ikea which was great for me as I was able to get them to pick me up a laundry basket and a side table.

I went round to Bruces this evening, we upgraded the Server room to the latest version of ISPcp. It went fairly painlessly except for one heart stopping moment where the upgrade failed. Fortunately we were able to work out that in editing one of the files I had inserted a misspelling which stopped Apache from restarting. It is now all up and running.

I got the train to Manchester to go to the desperately seeking Alex event. I did not know what to expect, it promised fabulous evening of poetry performances and open mic, musicians, burlesque dancers, classical quartet.

I arrived to find a very packed green room, having missed the string quartet in time for the poetry reading / open mic. I found some of the poetry hard going, I can appreciate the clever writing, but some of its was a bit too arty for me, I suppose that I am just a philistine.

I stood and had a chat to a few people including Holly back from her backpacking adventures. Unfortunately it transpired one of her friends contracted Dehghi fever which had rather coloured the last part of her trip. Hopefully her friend will recover soon and then I suppose the she can focus more on the good memories.

Paul, Righni, Jo and Ian were to play with a Gypsy's playground revival gig as part of the show. Paul looked very tense as they were getting ready, and sounded surprisingly nervous talking to the crowd. Fortunately as they kicked into a version of old school which was awesome. They also played another funky number, which I didn't get the name of but was good.

While it was all in a good cause we felt hot and crowded so we decided to move on to another bar. Paul, Ian, Myself Dave, Claire, Paul Righini, Danny and Nick headed to Space. We sat and had a couple of drinks before heading to the the Bridge. Nick gave us a lift there before heading off home.

After warming up in the Bridge we headed to Mojo by which time I was already feeling a little drunk. Someone had the idea to move to corridor which we did, it was nearly empty, I think we were going to leave but Dan had already bought a drink and got a bit stressed. So we stayed had a few more drinks before finally getting a cab home. The cab ride was amusing we were one too many so Woller sat on the floor trying to look inconspicuous!

Serenity

Since starting the new year work has been crazy. I feel like I just spend my life fighting fires, figuratively speaking. I feel like I am lost at sea most of the time, no matter how hard I work there is always something else, some shifting priority or new task, I just feel tired and de motivated. Due a general lack of foresight I ended up having to work well into the evening several night this week which was especially annoying tonight as I had arranged to meet up with Ian, Paul and Dan for a quiet drink.

I did manage to get out of the house on time just to pick up Ian and Paul just after 9. After wishing each other a happy new year we crawled through the ice to Bramhall where Dan was waiting.

We had a sit and a chat, Dan was telling us about his new romantic interest. Paul told me an interesting story along the 7 degrees of separation scenario. The previous boy friend to my ex girlfriend Jenny, was Robert Bud. He also used to go out with Paul's sister and is now married to the first girl Ian kissed (which ironically was in Paul's house about the same time he would have been going out with Louise!

We also got to talking about holidays and raised the potential for a boys excursion to Amsterdam. Sounds like fun, just no Pedalo adventures after Ian's experience I would give that one a miss.

Dan was in a very boisterous mood pleased about his new relationship, upcoming kitchen installation, and impending bonus. It did feel a little like his exuberance was spilling into arrogance though, and I don't think Paul was impressed with the number of digs he made at him, I do think sometimes he goes too far, I was really getting worried when he broke into a rant about the life Paul is lead. I think that he doesn't realise how angry Paul was getting, empathy is not one of his strong points.

Overall it was a nice evening, I enjoy their company and our meet ups seem to be fewer and farther between. Fortunately tomorrow we are going to Manchester, Gyspys Playground at playing at the Desperately seeking Alex event so I'll watch that then go for a few drinks.

Phil managed to get to the Woodford British legion and book the next Lan, it will be number 20!

I went to the pub tonight with Nick. We had some documents to exchange and after that went to the bulls head. We were chatting and realised it 6 years since we went to Mile and Alis wedding. I haven't spoken to either of them in such a long time either. Amazing how quickly time has flown. So much has changed yet somehow so much is still the same for me. I guess I like a certain amount of stability.

Kath sent me a couple of recipies to try, a chilli and a wrap. They both look great I cannot wait to try them.

Mercury

Work is crazy at the moment, it is really sapping my energy and making me feel pretty down. If it wasn't for Kath I think I would go crazy. I cant wait to see her again.

Since moving out I have been trying to teach myself to cook. In fact I have prepared the majority of meals since movnig out. Including make sandwiches for lunch (a great way to save money as well). It has been very empowering to be able to prepare and enjoy tasty home made food.

Today I made a bacon mushroom and tomato pasta dish using up a load of leftovers. It was very tasty. I would like to improve a bit more then maybe I can host a dinner party or two in the not so distant future.

Jo came round this evening, we had a chat and a Left for Dead 2 session, its nice and relaxing slaughtering zombies.

I put up my curtains, they actually belonged to the previous owner and were very dirty but fortunately a trip to Harry Berger has brought them up really clean and nice. They seem to hold the heat in pretty well too. I also found out that they can dye the set from the spare room for me to fit in better with the new décor.

Counterpoint

I got back from Poland on Monday, pretty lucky really as the big freeze started Tuesday I don't think I would have made it back.

I had an amazing trip and met so many new people. Starting at Warsaw airport I met Kaths friend Mike (Goofy) who was kind enough to Pick me up from the airport. I was so nice to see Kath again. It took about 3 hours to drive from Warsaw to Białystok, we chatted about many things. The drive was a bit longer because we got a bit turned around on the way out of Warsaw and we had to stop for fuel. During the drive I got a chance to look out at a lot of snow!

When we arrived at Kath apartment I got to meet her family, including her Mum, Sister, Brother and Grandmother. Kath myself, her brother and sister ate a nice dinner of brie and chorizo toasts with salad. After which we headed to bed, I felt tired after travelling, it was great to go to sleep.

Second day in Poland, Kath had to go to her work to pick up some documents. After which we took a walk through a nearby park and around Białystok zoo. Probably the smallest Zoo in the world certainly the smallest I have been to, but then it was free and I did get too see bison and a Polish horse.

It was pretty cold walking around so we went into a Pizzeria for a coffee and a ricotta cake. Then it was off to do the food shopping round two of Białystok's malls. Like every other mall I have ever been in apart from the Polish writing you could be anywhere similar shops, brands. In the evening it was a big family dinner at Kath's house. I met her cousins, aunt, and uncle. We ate a lot of food, including herring, and a sort of cabbage stew with pork sausage called Bigos, soup called Flaki, baked meat olives, pickles, we drank some vodka and fruit juice. Like the people I met in Belarus the Poles don't mix the Vodka into the fruit juice, rather we drank shots neat then washed it down with a sip of juice. Everyone was very nice but it was a bit overwhelming and not for the first time I wished I could understand some Polish.

After the meal Kath her brother and cousins went out for drinks, meeting up with her other friends at a bar called Rejs. Kath's brother got quite drunk which was very amusing. Also there was Kath's other cousin Agnes, Goofy and his girlfriend Ela and Kath's friends Sylvia and Wojtek. It was a farewell for Agnes too as she was about to leave for university in Tallinn.

Next day was New Years eve, Kath and I would be spending the evening at her friends finances parental home. Before that though we had to prepare some food for the evening. We made turkey wrapped in ham stuffed with mozzarella. Kath's friend Mike was going to pick us up and take us to the party, but before that we managed to sneak out for a coffee together at a lovely coffee at a little coffee shop near her apartment. It was wonderful to have some alone time sitting drinking wonderful coffee and eating a cake.

Mike picked us up about 14.30 and after a short stop to pick up some beer and Caroline's friends and college Magda we were on our way to Monki. Mikes girlfriend Caroline greeted my at the door saying "Welcome to Poland fucking cold isn't it". We then met Caroline's Mum a very happy woman who didn't seem to mind her house being invaded at all :) Apparently the trick to drinking Vodka is to intersperse drinking with eating food like Bigus. Everyone prepared some food and while we waited for Goofy, Ela, Sylvia and Wojtek we prepared the table. We had a beer and a chat, Mike told me I had a phone which was a call a cue to start drinking vodka. We were waiting for the other Mike aka goofy to arrive, he was slightly delayed as he had to stop off and buy tampons for Kath! The Caroline talked good Mike into going out to buy tights and to pick up her dress. Goofy arrived with his dog and another guy Paul aka the Goat. He also brought his home improved Vodka mixed with black current. I drank and ate and chatted, and drank, laughing taking photos of each other. Our food went down really well with everyone the turkeys disappeared quickly while Wojtek made short work of the salad. The cuisine here was a mix of traditional Russian, Ukrainian and Belarussian cuisine after midnight we had Potato Babka.

After the initial eating Wojtek played some Russian songs and the girls were dancing, while I drank some more Vodka, the Mike's determined that I would get a taste! The gin we brought with us ended up going spare;unfortunately by 11 drinking from 6 was taking its toll so I had to go have a lie down for a few minutes. Fortunately a power nap was refreshing enough to get me up in time to see in New Years Eve, stood on the porch watching fireworks and drinking sparkling wine. Kath and I cuddled and watched.

The rest of the evening was a bit of a blur until we headed to sleep, we were just drifting off when I very drunk Mike appeared and warned me to watch my back in case I got "a big dick and balls in my ass", I think it was his way of saying Happy new year! Fortunately I didn't suffer any such intrusion, however Mr Goat did decide to come an sleep in the living room rather close to us!

I woke up in the morning feeling surprisingly good considering the amount of vodka, Kath and I had a cup of tea and woke up. We took clipper for a walk around the town, it was pretty refreshing walking in the snow, but I could really feel like a shower. Unfortunately for some reason the water stopped flowing. So we sat stinky and hungover drinking tea chatting waiting for Goofy to wake up. Caroline's mum made some Pasztet a kind of a meat pate and we finished off some of the leftovers from the night before. I really had a nice time with Kath's friends, it was so nice to meet them and be a part of the new year celebrations.

Caroline decided she wanted to check if she was able to drive so she went to the Police station to get a breath test. Apparently they weren't very nice about it but eventually we got underway back to Białystok. Kath's mum and gran both gave me such a wonderful New years greeting it was so touching I was really happy.

It felt so nice to take a shower! We had a nap and a nice meal of beet root soup with French pastry stuffs. Afterwards Kath and I took a walk throw the blizzard into the city we had a look around her University and at the Cathedral.

Kath's mum and family left the next day, the flat felt pretty empty without them. We had a lazy day sleeping in late and tagging the photos, finally heading out to the shops to buy food for tomorrow train ride. We also bought tickets, first class it only cost 20 Zloty more which in hindsight was too much.

In the evening I took Kath out for a meal at a lovely restaurant called Lejdis. I had lemon sole which was delicious, they did something slight batter underneath which was just lovely. Kath had a salmon pie with a spicy sauce which was also very nice. After the meal we met up with Kath's friends for a quiet drink before getting an early night in order to be awake for the train in the morning leaving at 6.48am.

Kath and I took a train to Gdansk travelling on the train in Poland was an experience. The journey took 7 hours 45 minutes, the train resembled something out of the ark. First class appeared to be exactly the same as second class just with 2 less seats per cabin. There was a hole in the window which let in an icy draft, but that was nothing compared to the toilet! Someone had left the window open so it was an icy frozen place, I was glad I didn't have to sit down!

I was so glad to Arrive in Gdansk and get off the train! Kath's cousins apartment was close to the station so we walked through the big shopping mall to Anna and Maciej's apartment. Maciej had some tasty mushroom soup, and local beer :) Their daughters Aleksandra and Lidia were so cute, Aleksandra let us borrow her room, and gave me a tour of the apartment. She also brought Kath a stack of books and proclaimed she could read them all tonight! Maciej knew so much about the city it wsa interesting to listen to him. Unfortunately I was exhausted after travelling and it was so cold it was sometimes difficult to concentrate. We had to have a cup of tea to warm up before heading back.

In the evening we all went out for a tour around Gdansk. It seemed a lovely city I wish we had more time to look around and see some other parts like the dock where the solidarity movement started.

When we got back to the apartment I got to try a drink called Goldwasser, it actually had little piece of gold in it.

The next morning I had a 6am flight home, Maciej was kind enough to give me a lift to the airport. For anyone wish to travel to Gdnask the airport is tiny and disorganised, not recommended! I was sad sad to leave Kath at the security gate, we had such an awesome time together.

Back to the UK and back to work, due to the snow I ended up working from home which meant I barely saw another person until the weekend. Friday night Phil and Caroline came round, we had a few beers and played Wii. I realised that I don't really enjoy Mario Brothers Wii very much. After the initial excitement wore off I realised its just Mario 3 with better graphics. It has all the things that irritated me about platform games, really what is the point of lives and continues this isn't an arcade, I'm not feeing twenty pence pieces in.

Bruce came round Saturday night, I made a stir fry and we watched a couple of films. He had a hard week in Gloucester.

Kath and John

Kath and John
Originally uploaded by j0hncooke

No good deed

Just got back from seeing Andy and Emily. Had a bit of an eventful journey, I offered to drop Andy's sister off as Boxing day buses arn't the best. Unfortunately her road turned out to be rather so icy that when I tried to turn round I ended up stuck on the ice. Fortunately as the temperature is above zero I was able to melt it with several kettles of hot water.

I was an interesting evening, we ate cheese and pigs in blankets while setting up the Play station 3 which Andy and Emily got themselves for Christmas. After setting it up, downloading a massive update for the Playstation and installing Batman Arkham Asylum. its a really good game though seemed a lot of prelude before the actual game began.

Playing catch in the snow

Playing catch in the snow
Originally uploaded by j0hncooke

Storm enjoying catch on a snowy Woodford community centre

Oh Sailor

Christmas day, the first I have had in the UK for two years, the last two I celebrated on the slopes of France. Today it was my parents, and grandmother for a full turkey dinner with all the trimmings; roast potatoes, parsnips, gravy cranberry sauce, peas swede, carrots, stuffing, and sausage wrapped in bacon. It was incredibly tasty, especially my dads home-made chestnut and bacon stuffing, mmm.

After lunch I took Storm out for a walk, its so nice seeing him. It has been just under a year since he came to live with my parents. Strange how things change, my parents would never have gone out and got a dog, never mind one so large as Storm. Growing up we had cats, but after the last one died they didn' make any moves to get another pet. Yet thanks to a mix of circumstance Storm came to live with us and he is great. I have really enjoyed spending time with him, going on walks. I have missed him greatly since moving out. I would in some ways have like to bring him with me here, but given I have to work during the day I don't think it would have been fair on him.

This evening I have nothing to do really I am just chilling out and chatting to Kath online.

I went out to celebrate Christmas Eve in Bramhall with Nick, Ian Bruce and Sambo. We started in the New Victoria pub. They have basically given the Orange Tree a facelift and re-nanmed it as a pub, I quite enjoyed it we had a good chat and a laugh trying to make Nick feel ill recounting stories of peoples injuries. Sambo kicked it off telling us that he had helped a girl home after she feel over on the ice (the high-heels and intoxication level didn't help) landing on her face.
We had tickets to Beluga, stopping for a swift drink at Nappa on route. Beluga was dead though they didn't even bother to check the tickets. Sambo rather jokingly asked for a refund and in the spirit of Christmas the bar manager gave us all a refund :) It was so quite there were almost more staff than customers, and around 12 the doorman announced that they were closing early.
Bruce gave us a lift home and I finished the evening watching the Matrix Revolution and drinking G & T. Near the end of the film I started hearing weird noises outside, banging and scraping. My neighbours across the road were clearing ice off the drive to try and get their car on it. They tried for about 15 - 20 minutes before giving up and parking on the road (where there was plenty of space!) who knows why they felt the need to take sure measures when in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve.

Folding Chair

It was nice to have a day off totally work free. I was planning to sleep in late but was woken by an excited Kath. The flowers I sent her for Christmas had arrived at 7, it was a little surprise for her and she was very happy which was great. As I was up I decded to do some cleaning in the kitchen then going out to Wilmslow to have a browse around. In the afternoon I went round to my parents house and took Storm out for a walk, I miss him was nice to have a game of catch on the snowy ground.
I made a spicy Bolognese style sauce which was the first thing I have made with my dad actually agreed tasted good, I guess I must be getting a bit better at this cooking lark.
I am going out tonight with Nick, Ian and Bruce. We have decided to try the new Pub in Bramhall, should be a fun evening.

Happy Christmas Everyone!

Avatar

I went to see Avatar tonight with Bruce. It is a visually stunning film, the first I have seen in 3D. It really wowed me, the alien landscape of the planet Pandora, the forests were incredible eery and simply stunning. Certainly Avatar brings CGI to a totally new level, in a way George Lucas tried [and failed] with the Star Wars prequels.

Unfortunately I found the plot somewhat formulaic, basically it seemed to me to be the last Samurai set in an alien landscape with added themes of love and the typical Hollywood ending. Why is it no matter what the weapons, or creatures every battle has to end mano-a-mano? As soon as I saw the Colonel I knew it had to end up in a showdown between them.

The movie opens at the funeral of the brother of the main protagonist who is recruited by a company to go in his brothers place. His brother was an Avatar pilot, basically he controls an alien creature in an effort to learn more about them. The aliens the Na'vi are humanoid, Aboriginals who have a symbiotic relationship with the forest they live in. Unfortunately the company has detected an ore steam underneath the Na'vi's home and well how are a bunch of blue aliens to stand in the ay of progress. The protagonist Jake is sent in Avatar form and manages to bond with the daughter of the clan leader before long though he starts to question his humanity and becomes more and more bonded with the Na'vi eventually united all the tribes and leading a revolt against the humans.

Overall I have seen these themes from Avatar so many times, and while the film is enjoyable and dazzles the sense it could have done so much more. That said James Cameron is certainly a slick and accomplished director its well directed if a bit long and it simply has to be watched for the amazing visuals and it has all the turn mind of feel good moments you could ever want from a Hollywood blockbuster.

Enjoy the silence

The one big problem I have post move in is a severe lack of money. Over a year of working being paid a four day week yet while renovating a house have decimated my savings and eaten into all my accounts so now I am pretty much broke. On paper I have more than I started out with (including of course a lovely home) unfortunately I have hit a cashflow crisis.

I have been job hunting for the last few months and yesterday was offered two jobs yesterday unfortunately neither of them are really suitable. The first sound like an amazing job only slight problem after 6 months the job was moving to Telford. Not really commutable and not a place I have a desire to move to. The second job would be a bit of a gamble, and no extra money in the short term so little point in moving and losing my job security.

It had been a bit of an emotional day, my parents invited me round to eat with them, and test out their new oven. We had a nice dinner together, and I gave storm some attention, I really miss him.

I came back to my place, alone chatted to Kath online she helped cheer me up a bit pointing out all the good things I have achieved this year. Working on the house, changing things in my life, moving out.

Kath also gave me an itinerary for my Polish excursion.
Arrive around 9pm on 29th spend the evening watching a film and having a rest
30th A short tour around the city and in the evening we'll go out somewhere
31st New year's eve in company of my friends in [her friend] Carolines hometown
1st Get back and chill out
2nd Head for Gdansk so we could spend a day and a half in there hopefully

Killing in the name of

I have ben really busy of late, I've had so many things to write about but somehow have been to busy / tired / lazy to blog. Hopefully I can get back into the habit.

My parents came for a meal tonight. I prepared a chicken curry with vegetables. I thought that it would be really nice, and it was mostly unfortunately I was a bit rushed and cooked got it  bit wrong though the potatoes were a little overcooked.

Its pretty strange living alone after all these years there are great things the freedom is awesome. The last couple of weeks I had Kath staying with me. We had a wonderful time together, I was very sad to say goodbye to her to the Airport yesterday. Fortunately it wont be long until we see each other again as I am heading to Poland for the New Year.

Graduate premium

According to the BBC an average graduate will earn only £100,000 more than non graduates over their working lives. Given the cost of going to University leaves the average student £20,000 in debt it does beg the question are degrees really worth it?
For one reason or another I was a bit of an underachiever at University and my degree failed to open the doors I expected and I am still repaying the debt. Looking at how well some of my friends have got on without going to university I do wonder whether I would have done better to have gone directly into the workplace.