Red Light Green Light

It was St PatriK's last night so a great excuse to go out with friends and drink copious amounts of Guinness. As we had so much fun there last year, we decided to head to the Kings Arms in Wilmslow.

Martin was proudly showing off pictures of his stupidity, he managed so shower yogurt all over his car, moral make sure the cap is fastened before vigorously shaking ;)

Martin, Phil Endo and Myself were first to the pub quickly joined by Bruce and Nina, then Adam and girlfriend Steph. We managed to captive the snug and sat talking eating and drinking. Martin Endo and Phil still had Guinness hats from last year and with it being the drink of choice it wasn't long before we all looked like merchandising gurus for the company. I really wish I had remembered my camera it would have made for some funny shots.

The Kings arms is a friendly old traditional style pub with an attached Thai restaurant next door. This was particularly great as you can order snacks from the restaurant, so rather than crisps you can have chicken wings prawn crackers or Chicken skewers.

I have a very enjoyable evening, people were in a happy mood, the bar staff were welcoming and the Thai food made for very enjoyable tapas style eating.

Ghouls and Ghosts

Work was pretty good today, it was dress down in aid of comic relief and the ICT department all went out for a Chinese banquet as a hello to the new project manager Roshine. It was the most relaxed day in ages so a welcome break form the norm.

In the evening I sacked off the gym headed out to the Rampant Lion with Berger and Ian for a few pints. Then it was on into China town for a meal to celebrate Emily's birthday. It has been a long time since I last ate in China town so it was quiet exciting. We went into Pan Asia a restaurant which served up cuisine from China, Japan, Thailand and Indonesia. I had a Chinese starter of Praw Toast seaweed a meat samosa and spring roll. My main course was Japanese style fried cod with rice and salad, it was very good and I even managed to use the chopsticks to a little.

Emily looked happy she got some nice presents including some rather fetching wellingtons (for the festivals this year). I had difficult speaking to anyone really managed to be sandwiched between the table and a post so it was a little uncomfortable.

To make matters worse sat opposite were the crying girl we met at Emily's party a few weeks ago. She confirmed my view that she is an incredibly high maintenance girlfriend. She sat eating mushrooms declaring it would make her sick then after the meal started talking about how sick she felt. To mind mind it was a deliberate tactic to gain attention the sort of trait that really annoys me, I have no idea how her boyfriend puts up with it.

Ian was driving and took us (Emily and Andy grabbed a lift) back on what must have been the most bizarre route I have ever encountered. He followed a diversion and ended up driving right out into east Manchester towards Failsworth before hooking us round back past the city of Manchester stadium, through the slowest traffic lights ever then finally back into Fallowfield. Given the late hour of the meal and the amount of time touring Manchester we decided to call it a night.

For Reasons Unknown

I have been a bit lax on the old blog's recently, partly because I have been busy, but mostly because I am lazy ;) I finally finished the Idiot on Wednesday, it was a great book but ended in such a sad way.

I have started reading Sun Tzu the Art of War, which teaches the art of defeating an enemy possibly without actually fighting. I only just started but its only a short text so hopefully I will soon be able to win many battles. According to the preface its actually tied closely into Taoist thinking, in that an enlightened general is the ideal commander able to bend to the changing circumstances.

Wednesday evening I went to the gym with Martin, then relaxed at home. Last night I went for a cardio session at the gym tried to do 5km in 25minutes and failed miserably. You need to run at 12km/h to do 5km in 25 minutes I only managed about 5 minutes at that speed . In the end reached just over 4km running at 10.5 km/h.

I spent the rest of the evening working on Ian's new site layout I made a minor breakthrough so now I am much closer to having a new template.

What Can I Do

Today was a strange day, a new project manager coordinator started at work [for the customer]. This is the third one since I have been there, hopefully she will last better and be less annoying.

I managed a 60 minute 9.3KM run very good for me but rather put into the shade by a colleague who is entering the London marathon for the second time. Oh well I guess a few years ago I struggled to make 12 minutes walking never mind jogging. In life the only really competition is oneself, everyone else is running a different race. I have nearly got to the end of the Idiot. It has been a difficult thought rewarding book to read. The characters are so well drawn and the self examination makes me examine some of my own feelings and ideas.

This evening I spoke to a Czech girl who contacted me on icq after a brief conversation about shopping she seemed very keen too tell me escorts didn't get paid enough unless they rather literally sold their asses. It was rather a surreal conversation with someone I know no further that a few lines of text on the screen but never mind was a rather weird conversation.

Went for a drink at the thieves with Nick, Jono, Phil and Bruce, it was very busy some sort of quiz going on. Nick looked so tired he was virtually dropping asleep at the table we were say at. It was good to see him but I worry about how much work he takes on. Perhaps its because I am lazy and would never be able to tackle the same. It sounded like Bruce was bumping into some sort of trouble with his house purchase I think its only a small matter but annoying never the less. The owner is basically trying to squeeze more revenue out of the current tenants before Bruce takes over, at bBruce's expense. I would be wound up by it too.

Where do old computers go to die

I have been given two old computers play with, an Atari ST 520 and an Acorn A3020 I have yet to exactly work out what I am going to do with them as yet. I am used to own several Acorns and hope to have a play with this one see it I cant find a use for it, as for the ST I never had one and have never used one so I just wanted to have a play.

I had a major falling out with my parents this morning, I just wanted some quiet time but my dad had other plans, so I cleaned my room spent some time on right move then went to the gym to relive my frustrations. I really think after I get back from China I am going to put my efforts into finding something for myself, I don't think I can wait another few years, and I want to be out before I am thirty.

I watched Lost in the evening with Bruce and Phil, its really descended to a shadow of its former self but is still watch able, just about. I find I no longer care about the characters anymore, I have no care if Jack Kate Lock or Sawyer die this episode or the next or live forever. A sad state of affairs for a show which was so gripping in its first series.

Wii Mii

Today was a bit of a write off had a few little jobs to like sorting out Nicks internet and fixing the bathroom lights. So I was looking forward to a night relaxing.

I had already agreed some time ago to at go round to Berger's and play some poker. As a rule I don't play ever since an unfortunate night in France. I had also been invited out by Endo. It was his girlfriend Jo's not-birthday, they [Endo Jo, Martin, Charlotte, Bruce, Nina, and Phil] were all heading to the spicy hut for a curry. I had a quick drink and chat early doors before heading off to Berger's. Everyone seemed in a good mood except for Martin who decided to be rather aggressive about the fact I wasn't staying. We arranged to do something for St Patrick's day next week, I guess it ill involve drinking Irish whiskey and
Guinness :-)

I made it to Berger's around 8.15, I was expecting the poker and drinks instead Berger's neighbour Carlos had brought round his Nintendo Wii. What a fun device the controllers really make for some new games. Nintendo have at least with the Wii sports pack put together a load of fun games like golf tennis and boxing which you can basically pick up the controllers and start playing you don't really need to put much thought in at all. Boxing actually had me sweating after three rounds sparing against Jo! I also like the idea of the Mii characters, Carlos and his girlfriend had both designed their own mini Miis, makes it a lot more funny to be able to play games as yourself. I think that after I get back from China and have some money against I will have to get myself one it was just so much fun. It was a fun evening of games certainly made a change from the norm.

Parklife

The customer went to the dogs tonight I had never been to a race before either dogs, horses, bikes, or anything. So it was a pretty new experience. The price was pretty good too, £5 got us entry, 2 drinks, 2 x £2 bets and a meal voucher.

I had been a little worried about gambling I have a pretty addictive character and have had problems in the past. Like betting on crazy shares, but that is another story. Fortunately the minimum bet is £2 and with only 14 races and two free bets its pretty easy to keep things interesting without it getting silly. Though some of the people there took it all a lot more seriously.

I must say having money riding on the races, and the whole process of choosing chatting about and betting makes the evening a lot more interesting. I managed to get a couple of wins in but overall lost money (only a small amount fortunately). I am not really sure how the betting all works I always put on my money on a dog to win, the only guy I knew who made a profit was playing spread bets, betting on two dogs coming in. This tactic greatly improved his odd so that on one race he won £31 the omst 5 won was £4. Given my predilection for things that are bad for me its probably not a good I dea to learn how it all works least I get swept up ;)

I drove, with the track being in Belle Vue it would have been expensive to get a taxi. This was also meant I could not get drunk and go mad betting, a win win situation. I offered to give a lift back to another guy I work with who lives a few minutes away. Annoyingly a few other people basically hijacked me for a lift, ok it was only 10 minutes away but in the wrong direction, so before I knew it 10 minutes because twenty and it took nearly an hour to get home.

It was definitely a fun night out, different and quiet exciting I am certainly glad to have gone.

PNAC

Sail away

I read on bbc news today that because of Manchester's low growth rate economists believe the city will drop down the city rankings based on GDP from 73 to 82 over the next 15 years. It seems amazing that the city at the heart of the Industrial Revolution has become stuck as a regional backwater overtaken by most of the rest of the world. Is it because all the talent is sucked down into London? Or maybe its poor decisions by the central government cripple the infrastructure and destroy investment in the city?

Nothing much happening

Somehow I am busy busy seem to have so many projects on the go but so far very little to show. Bruce and I have managed to finally get some action on Server room. We found some excellent software to manage the new server and hopefully it can go in this soon. I have been trying to update Ian's site There is nothing new just yet but keep watching I have been tweaking the CSS and hopefully if I can just find a good way of formatting it correctly there should be some updates soon. Work has been hectic too so much going on there some good some bad some insanity.

I went to the gym with Martin again today, I did my weights while he had a cardio workout. My arms ache now, his shoulder is a lot better he is able to lift his arm up and nearly has a full range of movement.

I was only at home for an hour this evening but it was enough to get frustrated, my parents just don't get it that I need my own space and independence. Just because staying here is the sensible thing to do doesn't make it desirable. I am ashamed of myself and tired of peoples comments, I can never feel successful living in my parents garage, apologising to people for my failures it a joke. So I headed out for a drink with Bruce, he got promoted today which is great news. I wasn't very good company though sometimes I feel like my friend success I just reflects my failures more strongly. I read another chapter in the idiot last night I think I am Ganya after all, a totally ordinary person who longs to have something original about them, smart enough to realise I am not original but not smart enough to do anything about it, all very depressing.

Hot Fuzz

After spending a rather frustrating day trying adn failing to sort Ians website out, stupid html / css makes it very hard to place images dynamically despite its best intentions.

I went to see the new Simon Peg film Hot Fuzz. The film is about a top London officer Nick Angel (Pegg) who after showing all his colleagues up is "promoted" to the sleepy town of Sandford. Full of cultural references and clever humour coupled with some rather Tarentino esque ultra violence its a funny, light hearted take on the buddy cop film genre. My personal favourite laugh out loud moment was Pegg vaulting a fence to fly kick a shotgun wielding octogenarian.

Total eclipse of the moon

Today Bruce and I finally kicked the second server into life. It has been a nightmare getting the server to run so many things have gone wrong which has made me almost scared to do anything with it. However a final big push has seen Debian and vhcs. VHCS is a control panel to allow Server Room customers to manage their own sites a lot better. I am so far very impressed with how well it works, I think it will simplify the running of the sites greatly and allow a much better user experience.

This evening there was to be a lunar eclipse, so myself Bruce, Phil, Phil's brother Jim and friend Pub decided to go out into the hills of Macclesfield to watch. After a couple of beers we headed out to the Cat and Fiddle pub the second highest in the UK, in the hope of a better less light polluted sky. Unfortunately we arrived to find the pub shut up, so in the knowledge that the real event wasn't taking place until after 23:00 Bruce drove us to a rather provincial pub in Buxton called the Duke of Earl. The pub was very strange, it felt a bit like a working mans club, I guess not much happens in Buxton. There was even a women with a hook where her hand should have been. I think we were all glad to get out of there.

We made our way back into the hill, the mood was by now in eclipse form. It was an impressive sight, looking very red, though quiet small. Jim had his SLR and was trying to take photos, though he found it hard to aim at a dark and faraway object in the night sky. It was also bitterly cold on top of the hills, even in a jacket scarf and hat I felt the chill.

Midnight show

I must be getting old, Friday night and I am already back home at 23:20. I went out for a few quiet beers with Bruce and Phil we all felt so tired though instead of going on anywhere we departed at the call of time.

To be honest it has been a busy week. Work has been manic and I have gone to the gym 4 of 5 evenings. I only missed Tuesday thanks to Japanese class. Tonight I went with Martin. He still cannot drive after his shoulder op. So in extra motivator I went and picked him up so he could do some cardio work whilst I did my leg weights. It was quite fun like the old days when we were both well into training. He seemed to enjoy his workout, though I was disgusted when he wrung out his arm support it wasn't very nice.

I think to an extent the gym has paid off for me I am certainly thinner now that I have been training for a ling time. Check out this picture from 2003, compared to last week I look a lot more trim (I think). I still a lot of work to do though. I would love to be able to, just once be able to look in the mirror and smile rather than cry, hopefully another year and I will have be pretty close to achieving that.

Quote of the day

Found a wonderful website for quotations

"A little inaccuracy sometimes saves a ton of explanation."
- H. H. Munro (Saki) (1870-1916)

"There are two ways of constructing a software design; one way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult."
- C. A. R. Hoare

White Rabbits

Ah the first day of March, cold raining and dark. I forgot the to say "white rabbits" so that's another month of bad luck, sigh.
Work is mega busy its coming to the end of the financial year so people need so much work in preparation its very tiring.

I went shopping after the gym bought myself a new duvet and pillow as my cat managed to get my old one flea ridden. He might be 20 no but his capacity to cause problems is undimmed. I followed the advice from Phil and Bruce, buying myself an orthopaedic pillow to help my back problems. I'll tell you if it makes any difference!

This evening Ian popped round for a few beers and to take a look at some computer problems. He has given me a load of information to add to his website and we started investigating googles ad word system and whether it could add any value to Zanshin.

ISA Season

As the current financial year ends in April I have been attempting to sort out a few financial things. I am big on savings at the moment, its the only way I can see myself ever affording a house. I have found that the most effective way for me to save is to use my individual savings account privileges (ISA). Currently all UK citizens over 16 can save upto £7000 into an ISA account each year.

Even though they were intended as a simple savings vehicle, a lot of people get a bit confused about ISA's. The ISA is like a wrapper which can go round a range of accounts, anything from cash to bonds to stocks and shares can be held inside one. The government are a little fussy about how it works you can save upto £3000 in cash and an additional £4000 in equities. Alternatively you can pump the lot into equities.

There are two really great things about using ISA's. The first is that you don't have to pay tax like normal savings accounts. This means all the interest is paid gross. The second great reason is you never have to pay capital gains on the growth, though this is more geared towards stock market investments.

In my case save using both cash and equities. The equity part is in the form or Unit trust investments, I save money each month investing into the index tracker funds and various bond funds.

In short for taxpayers who save its pretty much a no brainer that using an ISA is highly effective way to save. So don&'t delay, act before April in order to get this years allowance.

Remember though I am not an accountant, so as ever don't take my advice do your own research ;)

Japanese html

I seem to have found a way to get unicode Hirigana fonts by using the escape codes from www.alanwood.net/unicode/hiragana.html. While hardly pretty its a functional method using standard html escape characters understood by just about all modern browsers (I have not tried in Links yet ;-)

ここわ

Got a weird Chinese email from this morning wishing me good luck don't know who the sender was pretty weird spam though. I needed good luck today work was very trying lots of little jobs are dragging me down. I helped find the solution to a complicated long term issue, though someone else stole the credit and then a long term problem (its been wrong for years) suddenly jumped to the top of the priority list, sigh.

I had a Japanese class after work. In all honesty I was completely unprepared having done literally no practice since the last class two weeks ago. Fortunately I was far from the only one, and seemed able to get back up to speed pretty quickly. A guy a work with was telling me his nephew has been in Japan for 3 years teaching English. Apparently he barley knows any Japanese and survives on English. I would love to work in Japan for a while experience another culture, but not teaching I doubt I have the patients.

I went out for a drink with Bruce and Philip this evening, they are both doing well. Phil is just about over his flu virus and Bruce's house purchase is going well. I am hoping in the not to distant to get invited to the house-warming ;)

Tell it like it is

Being woken up after a night out and only a few hours sleep on the floor of someone one else's house is not fun. So I was far from impressed that after going to bed after I was woken by loud knocking on the door at 8.10am. At first I thought it was the police given the insistence and tone of the knocking. After the third foray Ian got up and opened the door Michelle walked in asked where the party was and headed upstairs. Some 40 minutes later she was gone Woller went not long after. while I understand there are some issues she had no reason to be so rude to the rest of us and perhaps coming to talk when Woller had work was either very poor timing or very calculated. I am willing to give her the benefit of the doubt and say poor timing after a boozy night.

Ian was king enough to give Paul and myself a lift back even though he was in a hurry to get to a job in London, he made time. It was my mums birthday so I wished her well and spent the rest of the day chilling in my room. Paul came round in the afternoon for a chat, he was showing me some of the potential candidates for his band, he is very excited and enthused about the project I cannot wait to see the band playing live.

I ended the day by going for a quiet drink with Bruce and Phil, the latter having finally got over his flu infection. They were both on form but I must admit my mind was in a bit of a haze.

Barracuda Nights

As Danny intoned on his blog, we have fewer opportunities to get out as a group these days. Certainly not so often as we used to back in the college / university era. Though I tend to disagree with his assertion that the lower frequency is a sign of increasing age. I think it is more a factor of the diverse ways in which we live our lives. I have a standard 9-5 (well 9 - 5.30 but lets not split hairs) however Woller works shifts and Ian has odd hours depending on what jobs he is on. Add into the mix the fact we a more geographically diverse and it make for a more difficult night out scenario.

Anyway, Saturday night was the first chance in a while for us all to go out as a group, Woller had kindly offered his floor, and Paul was up from Leamington. The consensus was to meet early head to Macclesfield, go for a bite to eat then head into Macclesfield town centre. Ian and I met up with Dan and Paul in Graze Bramhall (see below) for a 6pm early doors drink. We then convoyed down to Wollers, making a quick takeaway beer pit-stop.

Ian, Paul and Danny sat in Graze Bramhall

After a short break for beer, and for Craddy to have a shave and sort himself out we headed to the Flowerpot for some pub grub. When it finally arrived the food wasn't too bad, and refreshed and in high spirits we headed into Macclesfield proper.

First we headed to Weatherspoons for a cheeky red bull and vodka, the atmosphere was a little oppressive so we quickly drank up and left. Heading next to Barracuda, via the cash machines. The queue for Barracuda was huge, and we had to wait alongside the a group of college students. They did make me feel old. After what seemed like hours, though it was more like 20 minutes, we made it into the venue, unable to stash our coats as the clock room was full we found a booth to continue the banter and drinking.

It was a very funny period we were ogling some extremely attractive girls until Danny spoiled it by behaving far too conspicuously, never mind the night was still young. Spotting a better table we upgraded, and decided it was time for a shooter, so Ian got us some Sambuka's.

I was feeling quiet drunk at this point and we wanted to get up and have a dance with some of the pretty young things on the dance floor. Unfortunately we still had our coats, so we decided to go upstairs find a secluded area and dump them in the hops no-one would steal them. We found a table right up in the gods, and stashed our gear there then headed to the dance floor. About this time Woller's girlfriend and her friends came into Barracuda after on some sort of works night out. A groups of us hit the dance floor and the DJ played some superb old school hits I remember from going out as a under-age kid in the 90's. I danced like a loon totally enjoying myself, my styles however original failed to impress the ladies so I took a break after 20 minutes.

A few bad things happened next, Michelle lost her purse, Dan's coat disappeared and Woller and Michelle had a bit of a spat. It was 1am the place was shutting so in order to give Woller some time to sort things out Dan Ian Paul and I went for a kebab. I had a rather tasty chicken affair, the only downside being that the sauce was prone to drip everywhere.

We got a taxi back to Woller's house, and waited for the man to arrive, about 30 minutes later. Then a couple more beers a bit of a chat and a round of sonic and we got to sleep about 5am.

Ian Myself Danny and Paul