Drive

I have spent the evening moving some more of my old Australian photos into my gallery. So many good memories, it was a great trip, I often think about going off and doing another. Phil was remarking to me we wouldn't even had seen mission beach if his car hadn't broken down there, yet I had some amazing times there.

Tomorrow I am in work for 6.30 the thought is keeping me awake. I should be tucked up in bed, but recently things have been so stressful. Seems like everything is a new critical project, its always a rush job, always fighting fires. It would be nice just onces to be able to enjoy a project and carry it though properly.

I am also thinking a lot about my life, and some changes I want to make. I think I have to start making some more of the opportunities I have rather than waste my life worrying about the past, I need to move on find some new things, new people.

Leaving Me Alone

Just had the weirdest interruption to blog writing, I sat down to write and felt something weird on my leg, I lifted up my trousers and found a snail on my leg! Very strange I must have picked it up on my shoe on the way back from the pub. It was a weird feeling, you know when you feel weird creeping sensations on your skin but usually is just your mind playing tricks, well this time it wasn't! The really weird thing was it was already dying, I think the salt from my glands did for it.

It was the second weird blog related thing this evening, I stumbled across an alternative cookies world! Personally (though this is Narcissism) I think my blog is the definitive, I have certainly been going for longer :-P

This evening I went for a quiet drink with Nick. I needed a drink to be honest today I had a company meeting. Whilst I think it was both constructive and overdue it was still hard going, I felt pretty worn out by the end.

And here is another google recommendation

How to go to your floor quickly, I wish I had known this one in Shanghai.

http://view.break.com/327059 - Watch more free videos

Google aka Big Brother

Check out http://www.google.com/history/. If like myself you have Google account it could list every search you made, how many per day and even more if you enable the advanced options! Its either a useful wealth of information or a scary scary big brother system, I haven't decided yet, I sure hope Google still are committed to "do no evil".

Also amusing is the trends and things you might be interested in depending on your searched here was one of my top ten recommendations

PHP webservices

I spend the last couple of days experimenting using php as a webservice client so here are a few tips!

Installation on Debian 4.0

To get up and running you need, a webserver and working php5. It important to have php5 as the webservices pretty much don't work under 4.

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
apt-get install php5 php-soap php5-xmlrpc apache2 libapache2-mod-php5

edit /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini uncomment

[soap]
; Enables or disables WSDL caching feature.
soap.wsdl_cache_enabled=0
; Sets the directory name where SOAP extension will put cache files.
soap.wsdl_cache_dir="/tmp"
; (time to live) Sets the number of second while cached file will be used
; instead of original one.
soap.wsdl_cache_ttl=86400

Restart apache with "apache2ctl restart" and you should no be calling up php5. You might want to create a php.info apges to test by creating a test.php with the following.

// Show all information, defaults to INFO_ALL
phpinfo();
// Show just the module information.
// phpinfo(8) yields identical results.
phpinfo(INFO_MODULES);
?>

It should show your running php version 5.something and furhter down the page you should be able to see a soap section.

Simple Webservice Test

I use the .Net environment for creating web services and this foray into php was something of a test. It took me a while to get anything done as there are several php implementations of webservices none of which are very well documented. Eventually I saw the post by Orion I and it was enough to access my service. Because of the way the ms service works you need to use the SoapVar command.

In my webservice expects two doubles ratio and tolerance so I did the following

$pRatio = $_POST['xratio'];
$pTolerance = $_POST['xtolerance'];
include("SOAP/Client.php");
$namespace = "http://mars.glenfernassociates.co.uk/enmesh";
$wsdl = "http://10.0.0.254:8080/GearService.asmx?wsdl";
$sc = new SoapClient($wsdl);
$ratio = new SoapVar($pRatio, XSD_DOUBLE, "double", $namespace);
$tolerance = new SoapVar($pTolerance, XSD_DOUBLE, "double", $namespace);
$wrapper->ratio = $ratio;
$wrapper->tolerance = $tolerance;
$params = new SoapParam($wrapper, "GetPair");
$ret = $sc->GetPair($params);
?>

Magic mystery and junction boxes

My head hurt this morning, unfortunately thanks to my routine I find it virtually impossible to sleep in these days so I was awake before 9 feeling sorry for myself.

I spent most of the morning chatting to someone online, she told me I should have proposed to Olya. I was a little horrified at such an idea but she sees the whole a lot differently than me. We always have interesting conversations for it though.

I was also trying to use PHP to access the webservice I wrote for my dad. To be honest I understand why people pay for products that just work, I am using complex types for my webservice and php just can't seem to deal with them :( Failing with that I foolishly turned my hand to some diy.

The light on our landing for well over a year so I decided it was high time it was fixed. Hours later I was covered in crap from the loft and desperately searching for fuse wire after blowing the fuses. Basically its got two switches one downstairs and one up which can turn the light on and off. Unfortunately the electrician just used chocolate boxes and the light was removed months ago so it was trial and error wiring. It was also all in the loft which has no light and it very dirty. My dad and I both get pretty stressed out, it took hours and hours but eventually I succeeded in getting it all hooked up.

This evening we went to see the new Harry Potter (Order of the Phoenix). It is the longest and in my opinion one of the best of the books, a lot darker than the preceding stories. Obviously there was far too much in the book to squeeze into the film, indeed I think this one is the biggest departure from the book. It mostly got things right balancing between being faithful to the main story whilst cutting out some of the sub-plots. Some of the editing was a little clumsy, a few words glossing over some huge part of the book but overall it was an enjoyable film well worth a watch.

This was a big film release and so we didn't have to sit with the mob (and children) we splurged out on gallery seats. The gallery seats are on a raised area above the main seating. There are large plush leather seats, there is also a separate sound sound system and the best bit is free soft drinks, sweats and popcorn. Its a bit expensive at £16 a ticket its a bit pricey but if your the sort who goes to the cinema, and buys drinks and popcorn its probably not bad value.

Black Swan

I went to give blood after work, after picking a number and waiting in line the nurse handed me an envelope. Inside was a badge and a certificate apparently it was my tenth donation and praiseworthy! It was a busy donation session, they were understaffed and given the weather a lot of people had nothing better to do than give blood.

I had arranged to meet a few people for drinks later on, so it was all a bit rushed. Bruce arrived back from Gloucester and popped around. I invited Nick out and he gave me the good news that he and Becky have finally spoken and they were both coming out for a drink. Happy friends happy days. Bruce chauffeured us as he had already arranged to pick Nina up from a work do she was attending.

Phil arrived home from work just in time to change his shirt and eat three pieces of pasta then we headed out to the Kings Head in Cheadle Hulme. Jo and his friend Wally joined us. I hadn't seen him since before I went to China, he is working for some recruitment company in Didsbury. I think he misses the snow, I know how he is feeling I am missing the beach.

We all chatted and drank having a great time. I had a long drunken chat with Becky about life the universe and relationships. She and Nick were looking pretty good together, I hope they have worked it out. I remembered to take my camera out so there are some pictures here. Nick managed to get Jono to give us a lift home, I was really drunk (I blame the lack of blood) I think they poured me out of the car.

Even Flow

"Funny how time flies right before you yes and they don't recognise". I had a conversation early with Danny, we were suppose to be going for a drink but as usual work / life / things got in the way. After making plans to In a strange the way people sometimes have the same thoughts. We got talking about how fast times flown since we were all just starting out, finishing school and starting to make our own paths.

The conversation it reminded me I was only just thinking the other day, while listening to Lucky, it has been nearly 10 years since I bought OK Computer. Where did the time goto it seems to have flown by almost without me noticing.

I guess its not the time that matters its more the contrast, I remember thinking I had it all in font of me. Yet somewhere along the way I ended up as a typical company man, I guess I hoped for something more. I suppose I shouldn't complain I not really in a bad job I guess I just thought by now I would be more successful.

Tonight after the gym I came home and realised I came home and spent the evening watching house. Its a very entertaining series I wish I had that sort of self conviction. To feel totally clear in though, to believe n my actions. Its something to work on I suppose.

Snakeblood

Had a pretty meaningless day at work sat in an office with my dad, it was his last day after being effectively made redundant whilst I was in Turkey. Basically the owner of my companies second largest customer decide to close down their UK operations effective immediately. n response my company let go of all the contract workers including the guy who had been working with me at Freedom, and my dad.

He wasn't too unhappy though as he might have found something else at least in the short term so who knows. In order to cheers ourselves up we bought take away from Cheadle Tandoori. It was extremely tasty especially with a couple of cobra beers. Its near Roscoe's roundabout if your in the area and feeling hungry I recommend you give it a try.

I I had an Facebook conversation with Becky which spurred me on to get Nick out for a beer. We went to the John Millington for a couple of drinks. He seemed to think the Becky was ignoring him and didn't want anything more to do with him. I attempted to explain she was angry with him and expected him to make more of an effort than a few text messages. Its so complicated both of them have grievances but they both say there still in love. From my dispassionate point of view
I just wish they would get together and talk it seems like half the problem are the unspoken things that have been going on. I dont really know what will happen but I wish them both the best of luck.

Little Miss Sunshine

This film has got to take the cake for its portrayal of the most wildly dysfunctional family in America. The dinner table scene was surreal the whole family tucking into chicken on paper plates and talking about why Frank tried to commit suicide.

Olive the bespectacled little 7 year old, who's only dream is to take her crown in the little miss sunshine beauty pageant. Pity she has a brother who "hate everyone", a heroin addicted grandfather, failed motivational speaker of a father, and a suicidal gay uncle.

While the story is very dark it has some wonderful humour from the Acerbic grandfather.

Worth a watch if you like indie.

Word Up

Spent a hectic day of bug fixing, and proved once again that people just cannot be trusted to actually test anything properly. Nevermind got to do something fun this evening to make up for it. There was no Japanese class instead a few of us went to Umami . I even took the train into Manchester, it was a little strange reminding me of the day I used to commute to university. Its getting to b a long time since was there now.

The German girl Martine arranged it and 5 of us turned up. Thats 50% of the class so not a bad turnout really. I ate a rather wonderful Japanese meal, surprisingly good in fact. Starter were a kind of fried king prawn dumpling. My main course was a very tasty noodle and chicken concoction.

After the food we went for a couple of drinks in Kro 2. It was a little noisy but they had several Japanese drinks including Kirin lager on tap. I sat chatting to Martine for quiet a while, we got talking about the Dark Tower, she had quiet an interesting interpenetration on Roland, and the ending of the series. I found it somewhat and anticlimax, whereas she found it amusing that near the end his strong masculine character tempered with the imagery of the roses surrounding the tower, and she liked the circular nature of the story. It was an enjoyable and different evening food chatting and a couple of drinks a nice relaxing time after work if only I could do so more often.

House of the rising sun

Had a strange day at work today, after Saturdays upgrade there was a very minor problem. It took me about 20 minutes to find the solution, there was a small error in a bug fix (not made by me!) which caused unexpected almost random behaviour. After that and a dressing down of sorts, I felt pretty disinclined to focus on the next job in the queue. Though I made progress in the afternoon. I sometimes wonder what hey expect, it wasn't my job, it seemed to work and was passed though testing, I am not sure what else I could have done, especially seeing as every change is expected yesterday.

After work I went for a run, it felt good just plodding along the treadmill, music playing like I was free. At least for the first 10 minutes then I got tired. Perhaps I overdid things after swimming yesterday and weights the day before my legs were tired.

I tried to chill out watching TV, but there was nothing on I watched mega-structures about the huge hotel in Dubai and a show about the Yom Kippur war in Israel. I never realised it was a part of the cold war played out in the middle east. With the Soviets supplying Egypt and the US Israel.

Phil came over and we headed to an empty unicorn for a drink. Not only was it empty thanks to the road works but virtually all the lagers were off so I ended up drinking Stella. We had a chat Phil had seen my pictures from Turkey and was asking about Olya. I told him about meet her in reception and going on to spend the rest of my time in Turkey with her. It was a really great trip and though its left me broke it was well worth it.

I just wish I could meet someone more local who's company I enjoyed so much.

Tomorrow I am going to have a Japanese meal with some member of the class. It should be a different experience, though I am totally inept it has been an interesting experience trying to learn Japanese.

Who is Tyler Durden?

I felt fine after drinking last night, I guess that Harp extra must be actually quiet light. It was a funny night just a few relaxed drinks and some chatting at the John Millington. Nice and stress free.

Nick was on at me to come to the V festival, and I must confess I would really like to their are some amazing bands playing. Unfortunately im already in the red after Turkey, what with all the trips there and the fact I had barley paid off China. Then no sooner did I reach home but I had to buy some new glasses. They came to over £300 after the lenses and sight test, so at least for a few months I need to be careful.

I had a free day today with nothing much to do. I decided to relax in the morning then went for a swim. I stupidly cycled there thinking a few minutes of sunshine meant better weather. Haha, I should have remembered the sunshine is just a trap to make you forget your coat. On the way home I was as wet as I had been in the pool!

This afternoon after watching Hamilton come third in a slightly anticlimatic Silverstone, I tried to get something done on my Dad's website. I proved impossible, I think I will have to either rewrite it or use a Windows server to host it, because try as I might I cannot get mono to run this webpage :(

I got a text message from Olya, apparently its raining on the black sea and today is some sort of valentines day affair in Russia. I wasn't entirely sure how to respond. I cant quiet work out if she is tormenting me, wants to be friends, is just bored, or actually misses me. I should really stop tormenting myself and forget about her. One of my friends told me my problem is that I form too deep connections too quickly with people so I get hurt. I think she is correct, and maybe I find it hard to deal with so hide myself away. Mostly I think I analyse too much and act too little. I just need to try and be more assertive, challenge myself and try and be a little less introvert.

This evening I headed to Phil's house to play on his Wii, he has bought another nun chuck so we were able to have two player boxing. So much fun, and actually a little workout. Next was gold then tennis. I actually managed to win at tennis usually I get thrashed :) The Wii is really a fun toy, really engaging and a lot more enjoyable than I imagined. I kind of really want one, though I am not sure how much I would use it after the novelty wore off.

I hope this post isn't too boring / rambling. I have found blogging really difficult recently, I feel pretty sad and am *trying* desperately not to totally lose it, and stay as positive as I can.

Save Me

I have done a lot today, I was in work for 6am to put some programs live. It all seemed to go very well which is about the best we can do.

I also went to the gym for the first time since before my holiday, I did some leg exercise. I have lost some strength but I just about managed a session. I felt a lot better for it afterwards.
This evening I went out with Nick, Bruce and Phil. It was a lot less harsh than last night. Rather than just complain about our love lives, we had fun, chatted about nothing and everything setting the world to rights.

Met Mark Dunnington at the pub, its amazing to me that this guy is married with a job as a policeman, and a house. I remember when he was a reprobate, it just shows how much things can and do change. He reminded us that Ian and Paul are going to Amsterdam with them for Emilie's fiancée stage do, should be fun for them!

I picked up my new glasses today (pictures below). My eyesight has changed a great deal since I last was tested so much one of my eyes basically wasn't working, crazy huh! They have pretty much bankrupted me as they were a rather unexpected expense. I got a card through the post and decided to follow it up. I last had a check in 2003! I shouldn't have left it so long my eyes have really changed, and work should really pay for the test as I work behind a screen.

I got some texted off Olya today she met and argued with her ex and was feeling not the best. It was great to hear from her but I was a little stuck on what to say, I just want her here with me now but it is impossible, so no point on dwelling on it.

Power out

I went for a drink with Nick tonight, he was in a strange mood really. I think his break from Becs is having more of an effect than he would care to admit. Whats frustrating is they dont talk to each other about it. I think if they just sat down together and had a frank chat some, maybe enough could be sorted out. Mind you what do I know about it I am not exactly doing great when it come to relationships. I hope they sort things out.

I am missing Olya greatly. I sat at work today looking out of the window at the rain and the cloud wondering what the heck am I doing here? Post holiday blues perhaps, I should be happy I have a pretty ok job, a little money I am just mad at myself for taking the easy route, living with my parents, not taking risks its no wonder I cant find anyone who loves me.

I have to work tomorrow, early, its not helping my mood so I better get some sleep hopefully I'll feel better or at least be able to find more perspective.

Feeling frustrated

Going back to work was difficult, there is so much going on.

Ian's wireless link has been suffering recently so I had bought a new access point, well second hand from ebay access point. It has been sat in my room for weeks, only when I took it out to set it up it didn't work. Its broken! What a pain I was so annoyed I smashed it to pieces with Nick's sledgehammer.

I went round for some beers and a chat setting the world to rights. He seemed a little sad but trying to make the best of it.

How to rotate videos

Whilst I was away a took a number of videos on my camera side on, resulting in side on footage. I didn't realise it but with quick time pro you can actually flip the video really easily.

On an Apple Mac open the film in quick time (this only works in quicktime pro), then choose window, then show film properties (shortcut apple + j). Select the video track then visual settings. There you will find the options for rotating, resizing or flipping the film.

Also I found this really useful page on how to make screenshots in Apple OSX.

Compromising

I haven't finished all my Turkey posts yet but I am getting there, I have spent most of today just going through my photos rearranging things and writing blog posts.

I did watch the film American Splendour which I thought was pretty cool. About the man behind he comic book of the same name it was shot in a challenging but pretty interesting way. One of the better biography's I have seen, they usually tend to be over-long and obsessive but this seemed to manage to encompass the majority of the import bit without detailing too much minutiae.

Went to Japanese class and totally fucked up in front of the German girl, I just got completely confused. It was the last lesson of this year, so a break until September I already can hardly remember 20% of the words I have learned I cant even imaging how bad I will be in September.

Becky came round to pick up her hard disk, I showed her the pictures from my holiday and we had a chat. It seem things are not exactly rosy between her and Nick. I wont detail it but neither of them are very happy at the moment. I can see it from both sides and I count them both as my friends so it was a very difficult conversation. I really hope they manage to patch things up, I think relationships have there ups and down so you have to be prepared to compromise at some point if you want to carry things on.

Final Day

I am sat in the airport in Dalaman, I arrived at 2.30 and my flight isn’t until 4.55. I had to wait until after 3 for the check in desk to open. It has been a heck of a trip, I have managed to do many activities and see many things. Emotionally its been a bit of a rollercoaster. Today things were much better and as Olya waved goodbye I felt very sad to leave.

I was a relaxed day with out anything to do. We both slept in late, feeling tired after the diving, karaoke and drinking yesterday. Missed breakfast we went out to lunch, at the Baran bar. They do pretty tasty food and have air conditioning that is just the job for lunchtime heat.

The Turkish seem to be a nation of traders, everyone wants to be your friend, at whilst there is a chance they can separate you from your money. Good never have an actual fixed price you just have to haggle your way down and often this can mean right down. They do work hard though most of the bar staff seem to work all the time; it was the same people in Baran at lunchtime as the night before.

After lunch we went swimming then I sorted out my taxi, tour guide Ben managed to get it for 40 Lira cheaper than I arrived so that was a bonus.
Olya and I had dinner together than I packed and we went for a final drink on the strip before the taxi would pick me up and 1am. It was a weird evening felt close again (I am a glutton for punishment arn't I) she even wanted to sit on the beach together, it was pretty nice, I was sad to have to leave.

I had a last minute panic as I couldn’t find my driver straight away but fortunately we hooked up and I was soon whizzing down the country roads to Dalaman airport. Arriving way before my flight was due giving me a chance to sit here and start documenting my thoughts.

I caught something on the tv behind me it was a bit of a parallel life experience. I haven't really seen the news all week so it was weird to see a piece about the UK terror alerts on TV especially hearing prime minister Gordon Brown.

Diving

Though no longer together Olya and I seem to have patched things up enough that she still wants to spend time with me, especially as Luba had already headed off home.
Regardless I wanted to try doing some diving and Olya was keen to give it a try so we booked onto a day trip with Marmaris dive centre. I opted to stick with the beginners group as she was pretty nervous about the whole experience.

They were pretty good with Olya, giving a Russian-speaking instructor despite the fact she was the only Russian on the trip. He ran her through the basics, 1 breath, 2 equalise your ears, 3 clearing your mask. The rest would be taken care of by the instructors. The dive would be to 5 meters only and the instructor would tow round Olya.

Thanks to my PADI cert I was allowed to join in but not be babysat. We got into the water and though she tried hard Olya couldn't breath through her mouth so I was impossible for her to dive.

I sat on the bottom waiting having my photo taken, then went on a short dive. When I surfaced she told me about it. I was sad she couldn't join in. It did mean on the next dive I was allowed to go out with the experienced divers so at least I go a proper dive in. It wasn't the most impressive diving though. After the Coral Sea and the barrier reef in Australia seeing a few ancient amphora just didn't impress me much.

This evening Olya and I went to Baran bar, a sort of karoke cocktail bar, I got quiet drunk on Efes larger. So drunk Olya managed to talk me into doing Karoke, I have never tried it before, always finding some reason not to. I tried to inject some humour into it and choose The Beatles — Back in the USSR. I even switched Moscow Girls to Ukhta as its Olya home town. She didn't even notice!