Glass

I had to take my parents and gran to John Lewis. My grans microwave had blown up (she has a knack of destroying them somehow), this is a problem as she uses it to do most of her cooking. So off to John Lewis where she bought a new Panasonic. Its a pretty nifty one as microwaves go, it can actually sense the gasses coming off the food and adjust the output accordingly. I used some vouchers to buy a kettle a pan and a frying pan for the house, was kind of strange to be buying my own appliances, I have always shared.

It was a glorious day today, I took the dog for a long walk in the sunshine playing catch at Woodford Rec for ages, until he got tired and decided a better game was tug of war with the rope pull, he virtually destroyed it!

My mums friend came over to see her and somehow convinced me to show her my house. Nick was there finishing some boxing in on the kitchen, she seemed to like it. I feel like its getting close, but at the same time there is a huge list of jobs left to do, and I am feeling pretty skint right now. I am sure Ill manage to find a way to get there though, I feel optimistic today.

I'm off to Bramhall to meet Gilly Nick and Phil.

Moon and moon

I had quite a nice week, though busy. My company has moved to a new office which means I now have to travel all the way to Macclesfield.

Tuesday Night I went to see Bat for Lashes at the Ritz. Martina had asked me to buy the tickets while she was away in Birmingham, it was to be the start of her new tour to promote her new album so we were treated to the new songs. It was a really nice concert despite some technical problems with the piano.

Wednesday I went to Halifax for a business meeting, there has certainly been a lot of work to come of way because of it, which should in time help with the cashflow crises.

Everyone seems to be switching to Twitter at the moment, but I am far too verbose to be able to fit anything reasonable into 140 characters, so when I have the time I am going to keep it real with blogger :)

A Different Way

Its Sunday already another week and more importantly weekend has thundered by. I spent Saturday putting back the floor boards, all but 3 are back down. I have used over three hundred screws over the last couple of weekends putting them down. Just like everything with the house it wasn't just a simple proposition of laying them back down. Im many cases I had to build noggins to hold up the boards. I felt like I was back at technology class at Bramhall High chiselling out bits of wood sawing and plaining. It was hard work but very satisfying to see it laid back down.

Saturday evening Phil and I went round to Bruce and Nina's, to watch a movie. He had a copy of the new X-Men film. It was an unfinished version the effects and some camera shots were not finished, but that paled into insignificance compared to the thinness of the plot.

Today I spent most of the day outside. It was a great day, the sun was out so I agreed to do some things at my parents house for a change. I mowed the lawn, then refelted some of the shed roof where the wind had blown off the felt. My neighbours dog was happy to see us vaulting over the hedge and watching me work. I took him for a walk after lunch to Woodford recreation gronud. He is so happy and easily pleased its impossible to be unhappy spending time with him. I think he has basically adopted us as we pay him attention. He often sits outside our front door waiting for me or my mum.

Non-Entity

Well the good news at this point is part of my kitchen is installed, and because of Howdens screw up I managed to get a draw unit for the price of a cabinet. Unfortunately there have been a number of setbacks, the most painful is that a gas pipe is right in the middle of where two units meet. This means Ill have to get a gas engineer out to move it then get the kitchen fitting finished then get the gas engineer back to connect the gas hob. Also due to another minor screw up the sockets on one side of the kitchen were a few cm to the wrong side ;( Not much I can do about it unfortunately just got to get the people back rejig things and hope it all looks nice in the end.

You Know What You Are?

For some time Faye has been organising a surprise party for Ian. So Saturday morning at twenty to nine he was greeted by Nick, Phil, Bruce, Dave, Sambo and myself. He seemed somewhat dumbfounded when Faye told him we were all there to take him paintballing.

Faye production lined Bacon butties and cups of tea for us all, while Ian sort of stood still trying to piece together what just happened. After the tasty bacon barm, we hit the road to Elland near Huddersfield for the paintball session.

We went in two cars, Phils sat nav took us to the wrong place, so we were a little late. Arriving at the venue I was shicked to see so many people. Teams were chosen on the basis of the arrival number, I was 65! That put me on the same team as Ian, Nick, and Sam. Were donned our boiler suits and loaded up on paint, there were also all sorts of armaments. Paint grenades, smoke bomb and flashbangs were on sale. I just stuck to pain, wish I had bought a pair of gloves like Bruce and Phil though.

The first game was attack defend, it was pretty hectic with so many people. The place was not organised the same way as the one I had been to for Bruces stag do. In fact they just seemed to want us to run off as many paintballs as possible, and no wonder at £ 30 for 500 balls.

Bruce must have been glad that we werent like the stag party there, on the VIP game were the object is to protect the VIP, the Stags friends (and team mates) unloaded 100 paintballs a piece from close range. He was writhing on the floor in agony, and nearly throwing up with the pain.

I got shot a lot, like to run in death or glory style but at one point during the second attack defend (waste as much paint as possible session) I got trapped and shot a lot, my back and shoulders are covered in bruises.

I did have one inspirational moment, when during the second VIP game I used a kid as a human shield I managed to tag a couple of players. While the kid got shot to pieces I was safe, bad John.

There was a second surprise for Ian, a Party at Fayes house. He knew nothing after the paintball other than he Faye Nick and Charlotte were having a meal. We all went home to change, and met back at Fayes before 8.30, cars hidden around the corner so Ian wouldn't suspect. We were all waiting in the kitchen when they arrived, Ian forgot his keys, so Faye answered the door and led him into the kitchen, he was surprised by everyone. Opening the door to be confronted by the Rocky sound track and his friend all screaming "Surprise!"

Danny had prepared a really good music selection for the evening, which served as a soundtrack to the party. I mingled, chatted to Bruce, Nina, Holly, Paul, Righni, Faye, Michelle, Ian, Holly, Jo and Gilly amongst others. I drank and dances and generally everyone seemed to have a great time.

Nick and Charlotte were looking very couple like, Nick seems happier than I have seen in a while, though I hope he maintains some sort of balance and doesnt try and rush things too much.

Holly was in a great mood too we were discussing ways to keep optimistic about long term projects where it can be hard to see the work done compared with the tasks ahead. Paul was on usual form drawing everyone attention, though he wasn't most popular with Ian and Faye when he decided to bed down in their room :D

Fayes parents are an inspiration, they have such a good sense of fun and ha obviously helped Faye a lot with the food. The food was really tasty, a choice of curry or lasagne, I had the curry and found it very enjoyable. I was actually bowled over by the effort that Faye had put into the whole party especially keeping totally on the QT from Ian, very impressive work. It made me wonder if Ian ever popped the question how well organised their wedding would be.

As always however the better the evening the more painful the next day. I felt like I was hit by a freight train, my body ached from all the painball hits and alcohol consumption. The morning was a a right off, this afternoon I just about made it to the house to put a couple of floor board back and do some preparation for the kitchen installation.

I stand corrected

It was Alison Brook's birthday yesterday, so myself Ian and Nick headed round to her house for a bit of a party. Strolling through the front door we were confronted by a load of twenty something lads who were all high, drunk or both (it was around 8.45pm when we arrived). No I realise I was a bit crazy when I was younger but a couple of them seems very scary. There was one tall bloke absolutely off his face walking round his nose covered in white power, which I assume wasn't icing sugar from the cake. We stood and talked in the lounge Al was buzzing around Finlay had snaffled some boze and was drunkenly lolling about the room. I felt really uncomfortable and chatting to Nick and Ian they felt the same. Chantell was there she looked out of place afraid of the hoodies in the kitchen. We got chatting to one of Alison's ex work colleagues Louise and he friend Ruth, who also felt a bit intimidated by the guys in the kitchen.

Apart from the bad vibes in the kitchen Nick was keen to get away and see Charlotte his new beau. We headed out to Wilmslow, Ruth and Louise joined us. Grabing some cash we made our way past the bouncers, one of whom appeared to be starting an altercation with a reveler. Eventually we made it into revolution, Faye Charlotte and Matt were having a good time. Nick headed straight for Charlotte, that was pretty much the last I spoke to him except for a brief visit to the bar, he couldn't wait to get back to her, she must be pretty nice. Hopefully one day Ill get to find out for myself what she is like. Ironically later in the week Nick asked me what I thought of her, I replied the truth I have never had a chance to speak to her!

I spent most of the evening drinking and chatting to Louise and Ruth who were really good company. I did talk to Faye a little and Ian but mostly I would have felt like a complete third wheel if it hadn't been for them. I enjoyed Revolution, though it was a little pricey and the bar staff were pretty clueless, there was a generally good vibe.

Sometimes playing catch with a doggy can be dangerous! Yesterday I was playing catch with my neighbours dog storm. I wasn't really paying attention and I managed to rebound a solid rubber ball straight into my face with enough force to mark my face and the sharp edge of my glasses cut into my eyebrow.

I was very tired at the point having been working at the house. It has been going pretty well recently, I have made really good progress finishing the wiring. Nearly all the sockets have cable to them and I made the bathroom an equipotential zone. This sounds really complicated, but actually its pretty simple. Electricity always flows between areas of different potential, e.g. a mains socket is 220v ground is effectively zero so grab hold of a live cable and while standing in a pool of water and that 220volt flows through you to ground. However by wiring everything metallic together and earthing it all the metal has the same potential so even if something became energised all the other bits of metal would have the same potential thus the electricity shouldn't flow; in fact at this point the circuit protection should kick in.

One side effect of all the wiring is reaching under, floors in the loft and round walls is that I am covered in little cuts and scraps, in fact after reaching under to thread a cable I look like I have been self harming!

While I was doing the afternoon session Paul and his new girlfriend Saskia popped round to visit the house. On balance it might not have made the best first impression, with all the dust mess and my dad and I in our scruffiest clothes. She seemed a nice girl and it was great to see Paul, an unfortunately brief time though before they had to get off to meet someone else on there grand tour. Hopefully I can pop to London to see them soon.

In the evening I was really tired, Phil suggested a film and as its relatively cheap and there are a few things I want to see we ran down to Didsbury to catch watchmen. Unfortunately it seemed like everyone wanted to go to the movies! Didsbury was full and so was the Trafford Centre we ended up getting a few cans and watching "How to lose friends and alienate people" instead.

Plastic Meadows

Two weird things, first thing Phil sent me a link to Horizon (2008-2009 - 6. What's the Problem with Nudity?). Nothing weird about that, until of course a few minutes in I realise why he sent it, not so I can see naked bodies but because someone we both know is in the program. It was very, very surreal and voyeuristic to watch.

Second weird, well not really weird by certainly sad.
on a different note I installed the new Skype (Version 4.0). I found the interface horrible! Fortunately Phil told me that you can us the 4th button on the top to separates them. Overall though I found the The interfaces just so different and less intuitive. I just wonder why on earth they would change a decent format to a convoluted one? I thought at first the I was just too familiar with the current interface, but Kasia and Phil both said similar things. Kasia called it Chaotic, and Phil confusing.

This evening I put the finishing touches to a website hopefully it will go live later this week. I am pleased that I am reaching the end.

Hacked

In my professional career I have had systems I worked with compromised several times. Unfortunately its much harder to defend than attack. Today I uncovered a rouge program on one of the work servers. Tomorrow I will be doing some analysis of when where and how it happened.

One Day Like This

I haven't posted for a while, I would like to say these is an earth shatteringly important or interesting reason for my blogs stagnation. The real reason is lack of interesting diversions. There was Fayes birthday last Wednesday, which was a nice evening.
Yesterday was the most interesting day in a long time though. It was the first time in a little while that I have felt really alive. Kasia came up from York, I picked her up from Stockport Station and we headed into Manchester. Our firs destination was the Chinese Arts centre. Kaisa had seen it on a website and was exited to see it. As it turned out it is quiet a small gallery only one exhibition was open. A display of people and their drugs. It was interesting but only too a short time to peruse.

The shop seemed bigger than the actual gallery, but the teas were great and the nik naks lovely. As it only took 30 minutes to go round I suggested we visited Urbis, I had never been there before so it was a new experience for us both. We looked at the Emory Douglas and the art of revolutions. As minister for culture in the Black Panther Party he was involved in the chain reaction the empowered Africa Americans to the point where American now has a black president. It was chilling to see how only just over a generation ago blacks were lynched with impunity.

The other exhibition at Urbis was titled Reality Hack: Hidden Manchester. It was a series of photographs by experimental photographer, Andrew Paul Brooks. He has managed to capture scenes from Urban explorers, and from alternative rooftop views. My favourites were of the eerie underground shelters and the picture from the town composing the Angels with the modern cityscape.

After our art tours we went to see my house. I think she appreciated the progress but was a little shocked at how much there was left to do. We ate fish and chips and cuddled on the sofas. After which then headed out to the Trafford centre.

I wanted to get some new jeans but after trying on a few pairs I realised that I have put on quiet a lot of weight in the last 6 months. Working on the house has meant I haven't been working out at the gym. I am going to have to do a lot of running and exercise once the house is finished. I bought the Elbow album "The Seldom Seen Kid" to listen to on the drive to York. I am really enjoying it, I must admit its a grower the first time Martina played it to me I really did not think it was my kind of thing.

We visited the new bit of the Trafford centre which has home furnishings, but didn't end up buying anything.

I spent the night in York, we were both really tired after the driving and visiting but it was a really great day. I was very glad to do something none work and one house, they are really pretty much dominating my life at the moment.

State of the house

Things moved on pretty well this weekend. Bruce helped me tidy up the network cables and I managed to lay the remaining part of the upstairs ring mains. The face plates arn't on but they can wait until the rooms are decorated.
The kitchen is painted, and the lights gone back up.

Martina came round to help on Friday, she put another coat of paint on the kitchen and utility cupboard while I carried on with the wiring. In the evening we went out for a curry and to watch the wrestler. I enjoyed the wrestler though it is a fairly depressing film and it dragged a little at the start.

The upstairs wiring is nearly done, the wiring for the ring, TV, and network are all in place. I still have to do the lights upstairs, replacing the old stranded core with twin and earth. The stranded cables don't currently have an earth.
The lounge is prepared and my dad is soon going to start wallpapering.

Eleanor Rigby

I went for lunch at the Cheadle Royal, it was ok but the service was appalling, took forever to get served and when the food arrived they guy asked if we wanted any sauces we did but he disappeared never to return. Walking back there was a single solitary Swam preening herself on an embankment in the middle of the road. It seemed slightly surreal somehow to have this bird there not caring about the traffic or us walking back to the office. Sometimes I wish I had no cares or worries.

We play endlessly

I bearly made it to work this morning, though not for the normal reason of hangover of lakc of sleep. I had to brave the worst snow in 18 years on the way in to work. Normally this would not be a problem, as my daily commute is only a few miles. Yesterday I travelled to York to visit Kasia so this meant I had to scrape 4 inches of snow off the car. Then drive down a rather snowy M1, across the blizzards over the Pennines on the M62, finally braving the M60. I left at 6.30 and arrived at 9.15, it usually takes one and a half hours!
It had been a very nice evening with Kasia. We went for a walk round York, which was very pretty in the winter air and moonlight. Then we eat pizza listening to music, my free Independent Sigur Ros CD and her 80's French pop, it was very relaxing.

Relaxation was something I badly needed having spent the last few days decorating. Specifically repainting my kitchen. It turned out that the stains on the ceilings cannot be stopped! The marks have come through a layer of plaster, a coat of PVA glue, and two coats of kitchen paint! I found a stain blocking paint at B&Q which I applied to the ceiling. Being oil based and full of VOC's it stunk like heck. The stain blocker was also white so in between coats I had to squint to see where I had painted breathing in these fumes I felt pretty high by the time I was finished.

Warwick Avenue

Painting lots of painting, my hands are covered with the damn stuff despite baths and frequent hand washes. The scary thing is the amount left to do, the kitchen is half finished that leaves, living room, hall stairs and landing, the bedrooms not to mention the bathroom.
Quite apart from the painting I still have wiring to finish, wall paper to hang and all the floor boards lifted for the wiring need to go back; which going to be like a giant jigsaw as I forgot to mark where they came from.
I do start to feel like its coming together though, I shouldn't have to rip anything else major out and things are going back in, perhaps only a few more months and I will be living there.
Last night I met up with Martina, she had a problem with her laptop which I fixed then we started watching the first series of Mad Men. It is a really cool show about 1950s American Advertising men, when men were men and women did what they were told. She made cheese biscuits as compensation for my laptop fixing though actually there wasn't much to fix not like my colleague who had over 28 viruses! I am not normally a fan of cheese biscuits but these were rather tasty.

Anysound

I was painting today, my fingers are still partly white in spite of several washings and a bath. I made some quiet good progress today, with help from my Dad and Martina we painted a lot of the kitchen, an alcove where some wiring is going and filled a load of holes.

I started with a trip to Stax. It is trade only but fortunately Nick has an account. They are really cheap for paint and decorating supplies, and other bits.
On the way home I picked up Martina from Bramhall, she had gone into her previous employer B2B to invoice them for some work.

Starting upstairs we used sugar soap to clean out an alcove I need to be painted before installing my comms cabinet. It was filthy I don't think the previous owner knew about cleaning. The doors upstairs have little windows, I thought it was frosted glass but it turned out to be nicotine stain, yuk!

Martina worked really hard painting the kitchen ceiling and helping out, it felt really good to finally see something getting back in.

Enable user ftp uploads SELinux

I just had some issues getting vsftpd setup on Centos 5.2 I kept getting 500 OOPS: cannot change directory. Searchign around on the net I finally found
this post which included the command to allow ftp for users through SELinux.

/usr/sbin/setsebool -P ftp_home_dir=1

The New Pollution

I started the day by putting in part of the ring mains upstairs, it was a major mission routing a cable from the start of the ring to where the immersion heater used to be. I am going to use the space where the tank used to live to put in a comms cabinet for the wired cabling and the TV points.

Around lunch time I headed out with Nick to pick up a sofa. Martina's housemate Neal had put me in touch with his workmate Paul who had a sofa to dispose of. The only problem was that I had to arrange a lift to near Clitheroe in Lancashire to pick it up. Following the sat nav it took us just under an hour to find it, traveling perilously close to my old stomping ground. It was a pretty nice day sunny and clear as we drove there, changing to a rather overcast one on the drive home. So now I have a sofa, a table and a floor, just need a kitchen and to finished the decoration and I can finally move in.

The only certainty in life is that things will change. When I was younger I loved going to bars, I would get dressed up on a weekend drink and dance listen to loud music.
Tonight Ian Nick and I went to the Unicorn, I wanted to show Ian how far its fallen. We all agreed it needs a refit, badly. Paint is coming off the walls the décor is haphazard and the whole place needs a common theme. Also the previous owners stripped a heck of a lot of bits out of the place leaving very unsightly gaps.
After we got tired of the sad decor we made a move to the Rectory, unfortunately they played very loudly the greatest hits of the 80's which did very little for conversation. That was a shame given Ian was telling me some of his plans for a possible bar venture and it was really interesting to hear his plans. Nick was being sent especially west by the music, and Ian had to pick up Faye so we had an early night.

Funny Load

Funny Load
Originally uploaded by j0hncooke

Nick and I were behing this, ahem, gym on the way to pick up a sofa near Clitheroe

Two Seat Sofa

Two Seat Sofa
Originally uploaded by j0hncooke

This is my new sofa, well new to me anyway. Should do for the moment though its in pretty good condition. Thanks to Martina, Neil and Neil's friend Paul

Lacrymosa

Today was a good day, I had a day off to work on the house and managed to get a lot done. Primarily I had to take a day to wait in for the heating repair man. Homeserve rang in the morning to say they would turn up between one and four in the afternoon. So in the morning the plan was to seal the concrete floor. Basically until it is sealed conrete gives off dust and tomorrow I was picking up someone old sofa. I didn't think it was a good idea to put the sofa in this dusty environment.

The floor sealant is a solvent which seals in the floor chemically binding the top layer. It stunk like very strongly of chemicals and I was high as a kite after we finished. It only took a few hours to prepare and paint onto the living room and hall floor.

The heating repair man was early, and quickly fixed the leaking heating. He did however spot a few faults with the installation.

Earlier in the week I had a telephone call from the blood service asking me to go and donate on Friday. After the engineer had departed I traipsed into Wilmslow and made a donation at the Parish Hall. I had never been during the day before, they had milky ways along with the other biscuits I guess they are normally all gone by the time I arrive!

After donating blood it was still early enough to continue a little on the house. I wired in a cable to upstairs and got my first upstairs socket working.

So I have my first working socket upstairs, working heating, a locking garage, and a sealed floor and I gave away a pint of blood, a pretty good day I think.

I went out with Phil for last orders at the reopened unicorn. The place looked rather bedraggled the previous people had taken a lot of things including the nozzle for the Guinness tap so Phil couldn't have a pint of Guinness.