Fake Plastic Trees

I took my mum to the garden centre this afternoon. Partly prompted by my conversation with Holly yesterday coupled with thE fact the the carnivorous plant Martin gave me a couple of years ago has come back to life. It is a bog plant, so unlike me it has greatly enjoyed the wet summer. I had thought it was at deaths door, its been stunted and never grown any fly catching cups until the last month were it has perked up immensely, spawning a cup and another on the way. Hopefully next year it will catch some of the fly's.

I also had to go to the pet section and get some more filters for the fish tank. Whilst I was there I they talked me into buying what is basically a chemistry set in order to perform all manner of tests on the water. I think I might leave it to my dad his eyes lit up when he saw all the bottles of testing fluid. I bought my mum some plant pots and an Aloe Vera plant, its not the prettiest but she seemed to like it, she is into natural cures at the moment.

This evening one of the people from Japanese class invited me round to practise and borrow a graphic novel, in return for a copy of some software. She is living on the road next to Bruce, it was really weird hearing her give me directions.

I was truly appalling at Japanese, I felt so embarrassed to be that bad. I really need to practise an awful lot more. I think it must have been greatly annoyed to her as she is a lot better practised. We chatted for a while afterwards, its interesting to hear the point of view of someone who has very different life experience, and she is certainly well travelled.

We have a conversation about some of the different nationalities behaviour, she is German. She made an interesting comment which might amuse Nekena, when I get a chance to relate it to her. Martina says she think Spanish women always look amazing, but that she dosn't ever think British people and Spanish people could work out. Her reasoning went something along the lines of "You British people drink warm tea with milk Spanish people drink warm wine, it just isn't going to work".

The Lost Art Of Keeping A Secret

Went for a BBQ at Jo Bergers today, I think its the first possibly the only one I will go to this year. Usually summer is bbq madness but this year the weather has been so poor this summer. Apparently Joe had a freezer full of food thanks to lack of BBQ action so he decided that as the weather should be good today it was time to use it.

Phil and I went down and dragged the Wii along, stopping on the way to pick up some beer and baps from the supermarket on route.

We arrived about an hour and a half after the first guests. Some music friend of Jo's, we had a chat with them and ate some bbq food, unfortunately they had to make tracks as they had a gig.

After they left I ate far too much meat, and had a chat with Jo and Holly. She seemed in an especially good mood, we talked about her new found love of gardening and work and life. I really enjoyed chatting to her, which was nice as Jo was busy cooking and entertaining.

I probably wont surprise you when I mention after the bbq we moved inside to play on, you've guessed it the Wii. Carlos a neighbor of Jo and Holly's brought round brain training and Tiger Woods golf. I found Tiger woods very difficult for a mess about game, more of a one player practice and improve than the Wii sports hit and hope games.

One of os friends came over and wow he must play a lot of games because he was so well practiced it was frightening. Apparently he is some sort of lawyer and they have games to chill out on in the office, wonderful I want them too!

Brain training was hilarious though, though I was feeling a little bit drunk at this point which I am sure adversely affected my play, unless I really am that stupid :S

My names John and I am a Wii addict

I am addicted, I just love the Wii. After playing in London I have had three nights of Wii this week.
Tuesday Phil and I played after Japanese class, then last night I went round to Andy and Emilie's mainly to chat and play some Wii. I arrived in the middle of the England game, Andy and Emily were in personalised England shirts. Never having been a footbal fan I found it quiet surreal.
We played a few games, I actually made up some points on golf and bowling. Phil arrived later after Akido and basically thrashed everyone at tennis. Andy got a bit stressed out by it all I think he was annoyed he didn't play very well and well he dosn't like losing either ;-)

I have even being playing Wii fitness when I venture home for lunch I find I have just enough time to get it donw before I jet back to work. I know I am probably a bit excessive at the moment bt I am sure I will calm down a little once the novelty wears off. I havent had a console this sociable since I bought my Nintendo 64 and Mario Kart our player!

Angels and Demons

Last week I received a rather cryptic email from my boss informing me that there was a management consultant coming in to assess the business. All sort of troubling thoughts were going through my head as this could easily be a byword for I am selling or downsizing. I spent part of the weekend getting rather stressed about it all.

It turns out I wasn't entirely correct in my assessment, the business might be sold but in a few years time, before which they want to grow the size to improve the return. The meeting I had was a bit strange but mostly positive so I hold out some hope for the future.

Weekend In London 3

If I felt hungover yesterday today I felt destroyed. Fortunately Paul saved us by cooking a nice big breakfast. Even though the sausages were a few days out of date they smelled OK and tasted great. With some food inside I felt much better.

I was too tired and my train was due at 15:50 so there wasn't much to do except chill out at the flat and play some more Wii. Paul was getting a bit frustrated at golf, they can be pretty competitive.

I tried to make Pippa's wireless connection more secure, by putting WPA encryption on. It seemed to work ok thought she had a little problem after I left. I felt very grateful she let me stay all weekend it was good of them both.

At 3 Paul gave me a lift to the station and within a few hours I was home again. In truth I was pretty sad to be home, it had been great to catch up with Paul and Pippa. Hopefully our paths will cross more often in the future, and maybe next time Ill get out and see something of London.

Weekend In London 2

After the late night drinking we all woke up a little late and somewhat groggy. Pippa had someone coming round to view her spare room and as we were in no mood to set off early we waited around and tried to drown our hangovers with tea and coffee.

The girl viewing the flat arrived so Pippa showed her around while Paul and I waited. She seemed a nice girl, Pippa was keen to get her back for a second "interview".

We set off to Angel in search of sustenance and excitement. Food was pretty easy to come by, we all bought these tasty Ciabatta filled with mozzarella and salami from a local delicatessens in Angel. After eating we were feeling a lot more refreshed so went for a wonder around the shops.

In truth I had rather hoped to see a bit of London but even after eating I felt a little tired. Also Paul had kind of helped talk me into buying a Nintendo Wii. I have been really enjoying playing on Andy's, and Phil's Wii and seeing one pre-owned in Game I though, "Why not?".

After a quick search around I managed to source a second controller from Woolworth's, the last one available at any shop in Angel. After a quick Frappuccino in was back to Pippa's for a few games.
We spent most of the afternoon playing Wii, joined later on by Pippa's friend Monica. She was great at the games putting us to shame but she didn't seem to enjoy it all that much. She did I think enjoy the Pizza we ordered though :)

After eating we headed out on the bus into Hoxton. A night of drinking and carousing ensued as you can see from the photos here.

Weekend In London 1

I decided that it was high time I went to visit Paul. With that in mind I got myself return tickets on a Virgin Pendolino train to London, I left pretty much straight after work just enough time to nip and grab some things. Friday was dress down day so I didn't have to change just grab a bag and jump on the train. The new high speed trains are great, it took only two and a half hours to London, the train was clean and nice and ran exactly on time. I couldn't have asked for more really. I arrived in London and after a short tube ride met Paul in Angel Islington. From there we went to Pippa flat in Dalston. Stopping along the way for a few drinks and a catch up chat in Paul's local pub. It was a nice evening to sit out and catch up, its been quiet a while since I last saw him. After much chat and a couple of drinks we headed to buy some takeaway goodness from the local Chinese. Pippa seem pleased to see us (especially loaded with food). I was impressed with her flat it is a pretty specious 2 bedroom affair in a low rise development. The area is multicultural, but pretty clan and safe from all accounts. We all ate and chatted then played Gamecube for a while before retiring to bed. Fortunately for me Pippa's lodger had recently moved out so I was able to have the spare room.

Mis-Shapes

I often think its funny how unpredictable life is. No matter how well you know people they always have the capacity to surprise or dismay you.I suppose I spend a lot of time people watching.
While I difficult to say I am surprised that Nick and Becky split up after the troubles they have had the last few months its not exactly surprising. Going back in time though it wasn't so long ago I thought they were a great match.

We went to the Rectory, and sat upstairs having a long chat with a couple of drinks. She was in a pretty good mood talking about an impending trip to Wales with Nicky. We mostly talked about other people in fact pretty much skirting around the whole break up issue until the end of the evening.

She told me that she was beginning to find out who her real friends were, I was never really that pally with any of my ex's friends so it mattered very little to me when we broke up. Added to that I have never really had that good relationships with both member of a couple who have split so I imagine there will be challenging moments ahead.

Get It Together

Just got back from another night of Wii play at the Andy and Emily'. I found it difficult to play tonight I was feeling tired and run down after work and arguing with my parents earlier.

I got really annoyed with them mostly unjustifiably sometimes people kill you with kindness, sometimes I just need to have things my way, I just really need some space to breath and at the moment I haven't got it.

To be honest it isn't just my parents who are disturbing my mood, I got a text message from Olya today. She is happy with this Russian guy, but she wants me to come and visit them. Part of me really wants to, to see her again, and some of Russia. Many more parts of me think its a god damn crazy idea. I wish I could control my emotion better really, should learn not care so much. Olya isnt the only ex flame who I have spoken to recently Maia invitied me to come see her husband and new apartment in Milan and in a real blast form the past Jenny added me on Facebook, all So complicated.

I got round to the Abito apartments about 9. The Wii was soon out, Tennis was first. Then Andy thrashed me at Golf and Emily demolished me at baseball, in fact I only managed to win one game all evening. It was fun though, in between playing I managed to get the old pc Andy used to use working.

Emily was also showing off her extremely snazzy mac book pro, I want one!

Rehab

I really should have stayed home tonight, I have been to the pub for three nights in a row, both my liver and my wallet would have thanked me.
That would have been boring though so instead myself, Ian, Bruce, Phil and Ian's Brother Jono went to the local alehouse for a few pints :) Originally I had planned to set a few website its and bobs up with Bruce, only he had some thing to do on the house and Ian tempted me with the pub in return for looking at his laptop.

Ian had come round to my house earlier so I could have a look at his laptop. In better his addiction to downloading on-line games and Ben surfing for porn there were a few less than desirable applications lurking on there. Fortunately I was able to clear it up pretty effectively.

Just as I was finishing up Bruce arrived and we headed out to the pub, picking Jono up on the way. Phil met us at the bar, just in time to get a drink in ;)

We sat outside chatting an laughing, both Ian and Jono were on top form. A few beers later and we were laughing and joking, talking about Nick and Becky, houses, business and life.

Finally the last orders bell went and it was time to get off home. Phil and Bruce cut one but Ian and I went back to Jono's for a Cup of tea. It was nice excpet for the huge spider running around his kitchen, I hate them!

I was sobering up a little by the time I got home but I have been drinking quite a lot recently I might have a break in between going to Belgum and my birthday.

A Certain Romance

An apt tine indeed to listen to whilst writing this post tonight, its a long story but I will begin in the morning.

Today has been a pretty average day mostly, I woke up ate breakfast, wrote some blogs and relaxed. Had lunch with my parents and Grandma, roast Chicken very tasty. I had arranged to go for lunch with Paul but he had to drive Emily and Matt back to London.

This afternoon I went to the gym to try in vain and work off all the Pizza and crap I ate yesterday. It wont make any difference of course, calories in are far more important than energy used, if only sigh.

This evening I went out for a drink with Phil and Nick. It was quiet pleasant sat in the pub having a few beers and a chat. Pleasant that was until Nick dropped a bombshell, he and Becky have split. Now I realise I have been through this before, but this time he seemed a lot more final about it. We talked a lot about the reasons, and while I understand them I do worry that he focusses too much on career and nothing about personal happiness. It his life and his choices though so I wont second guess other than make one choice.

What was really weird was on returning home getting a message telling me Becky had written on my Facebook wall. She finally had chance to look at the changes I made to her site. I feel slightly compromised but I would like to think I was friend with the both of them and have no quarrel with either, so its ok that I am worried about both.

Sigh life is strange I really though they were a compliment it each other, I even thought they had nice balance I would like. I suppose you cant always see what is under the surface.

Terminal Tournaments XV

Yesterday was the 15th an largest lan party held by myself Bruce and Phil under the ejected brass name. In case you missed out its a gathering of people who enjoy computer games, beer, pizza and a few laughs. We are a little community who every few months drag our PC's so we can murder each other, in game! Its usually a fun day and yesterday was no exception.

It was the highest ever turnout, though there was only one new person (somebody Berger roped in following their trip up Snowdon). The rest were returnees pretty much everyone who has ever been to an event before before. It was really good to have so many people though I was quiet tired helping to get everyone going, working the bar running the game servers and clearing up at the end.

We made a pizza order for 21 pizzas from the pizza place in Cheadle Hulme it looked pretty funny me and Phil carrying so many pizza boxes out of the place.

I think everyone had a good time, we made some money to buy new kit for next time, definitely including some new power strips. At one point due to a bit of bad planning all the power cables were plugged into each other and the wire was starting to get awfully hot! Fortunately we didn't burn the club down :)

I actually really enjoy running the events though I often find it difficult to get the time to do all the setup which is required. If we can grow the events further though it would be great to see how big we could go.

Kettles

Felt a little in a daze at work today, still tired from travelling to Surrey, it was hard to concentrate on the job in hand. A bit unfortunate really as I got handed a 60 page specification document to read through and make commentary on. I just about managed to make a start, there is going to be a lot to do.

I had planned to meet some people from Japanese class this evening. It turned out to just be myself Martina and the new Japanese classroom assistant. Martina made a Greek style salad, with sweet potatoes mash and an apple crumble desert. It was pretty tasty, though vegetarian based, I still enjoyed it.

I guess the plan was to meet and chat about Japanese, but I have been so busy / lazy recently I just haven had any time to look at my books so I felt completely self concourse with an actual Japanese native there. She seemed like a really nice girl I think she found it very hard to follow our English though, I am sure my Manchester drawl dosn't help matters.

We ended up chatting about music and the weather conversation was all a bit awkward at times. It was a nice to change to the norm though and especially nice to meet the new Japanese assistant, though I am totally afraid of starting back at class; I cant remember anything.

7 deadly sins / 7 Virtues

I am damned?

I think I have been guilty of them all this week.

Lust

I a single guy I cant help looking ;)

Gluttony

Yeah eating on the company expense account at the start of the week, well not just the start of the week I have been hungry a lot this week.

Avarice

I want to be rich trust me having no money isn't much fun.

Sloth

I haven't published a blog in ages mainly because I have been busy but also because I have been very lazy. I have hardly even made it to the gym either.

Wrath

I was SO angry with one of my colleagues I could easy have laid down my wraith,
in fact I contemplated many forms of revenge but in the end was too busy / lazy / cowardly or perhaps sensible to put them into action.

Envy

I was incredibly jealous of Lulu blog, she made her first post for months and immediately received more comments on it than mine had din its entire life. Mind you her next post was to thank me for fixing her shuffle so that made me smile.

Pride

I was ashamed to tell someone I still lied with my parents, always trying to keep up the good image.


or can I be redeemed?

Chastity

Being single its easy to be chaste

Abstinence

Hmm haven't done too well on this score I have eaten way too much this week.

Temperance

I do enjoy that beer goodness, so I guess I fall flat on my face with this one.

Diligence

Thanks to careful planning and execution my installation went like a dream score one for goodness :)

Patience

I have had moment of patients but overall I am a pretty impatient person :(

Kindness

I have given to charity and even helped out a few people

Humility

I think Im a pretty humble self deprecating guy most of the time.

So thats sins 7 Virtues 3 oh dear I am in trouble going to have to mend my ways I think!

Girls Who Play Guitars

Thought you lost me? No such luck ;-) I have been away, both from Blogging and home for a few days I have been in Farnham Surrey. I went to visit a customer down there and install a server I built for them last week. It was a 4 and a half hour drive down, taking me past Heathrow on the M25 which pretty busy at the best of times. The Tuesday morning after a bank holiday Monday should qualify as a busy time. Fortunately for me although it was busy an restricted to 50 MPH traffic was kept moving.
I arrived on-site about 10.30am which given the distance and traffic I thought was pretty good going. The server was quickly in and after a few problems with printers I was done in time for late lunch.

The hotel was set back in Frensham Ponds, it was quiet a nice drive into the complex past the various water bodies and countryside. I was greeted by rather lovely Eastern European women. The room was nice, and the hotel had a gym so I went and had a workout before dinner.

I ate dinner in the Bar rather than the restaurant on the basis I looked slightly less alone sat in a bar that at a restaurant table. It was quiet a strange experience for me sat alone in the pub. I felt pretty lonely to be honest I can understand why people who do this all the time can get depressed.

Closing Time

My favorite book of all time has to be Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. Its funny and clever and poignant the characters are all wonderfully described. The situations are so realistic the description of the military machine as a lumbering beast riddled all sorts of characters, the horror and the futility of existence contrasted with friendship and enterprise. Its just a great read cover to cover, I highly recommend it especially if you like to play with language Heller is a master of paradox and satire.
I never realised until today (yes I know I can be terribly out of touch) but he actually wrote a sequel to Catch-22 called Closing Time which I am now in the process of reading.

Linux netboot

I spent today setting up a new server for one of our customers. The customer had ordered it and had it sent to us to install all their software onto. It had a couple of really annoying features, firstly it didn't come with a powercable and as the office is bereft of spare parts I had to get back in my car go home and get another cable. This was to go with the keyboard monitor and mouse I had already dragged down.
On returning I realised there was something even more worrying than the missing powercable, on the front of the unit there was a rectangle of plastic. Unfortunately rather than being the cover of the cd-rom drive I was expecting this was a blanking plate. Yes thats right I had a server with no Operating System and no cdrom.

Fortunately it is possible to install linux from a remote machine provided the target computer is a able to run a PXE (preboot execution environment) boot from your network card. So I spent the morning configuring my laptop to act as the host server and deliver the initial files via tftp.

I had planned to install Centos as its closer the the normal Red Hat advanced server we use. Unfortunately despite a lot of effort the PXE boot images didn't work. Next I tried Debian, which booted but then failed to see the network card, preventing me from continuing. Ubuntu was next like Debian this booted and the initial installed seem to be ok, then it just hung very annoying.
Finally in desperation I tried Fedora, which actually proved to be the easiest to get going only four files needed and it worked straight away. I was very shocked! Whilst I was playing about with different netboots my colleague went out and acquired a usb cd-rom. He arrived just as Fedora was installing I decided it would be quicker to installed from the cds I had already downloaded rather than pulling a distributions down from the net. So despite its superior netboot Fedora was forgotten and I put a fresh install of Centos on.

It proved to e a really slick process I was very impressed. I managed to pretty much get everything done in a few hours including installing our software. Next week I have the pleasure of delivering the server to the customer so I want to make sure its as finished as possible before I arrive onsite.

True Love Waits

Phil sent me this rather quirky though heartfelt video, its a Japanese film but on a Russian server.

Stupid Car / Bourne Ultimatum

Phil and I planned to go to do some shopping at our favorite discount shopping centre Cheshire Oaks today. Unfortunately Phil had a big of a computer meltdown at work. The atov server went into melt down so he struggled to fix it. He even asked me to come and take a look, so I missioned into Manchester. Turning into the road leading to Atov h.q. I was confronted by a line of policemen. I first I thought there had been another shooting, then behind them I saw a procession of brightly dressed people, floats, dancing and music. The Caribbean carnival of Manchester was heading straight past Phils work, I had to turn around and head in a missive circle to come in on the other side of the science park. The PA system they were using must have been huge too you could feel the bass reverberations in the air!

Phil had managed to get the systems operational by the time I arrived so instead we did the initial setup for Holly's forthcoming website the universal woman. I also set up some email bits and bats for Phil. In gratitude he offered to should me diner. I always live by the Philosophy of "if its free, its for me".

I went out with my parents for a curry last night so I managed to talk Phil into going for Chinese. Bruce joined us and we headed into China Town. I wanted to go to the place I ate for Emily's birthday but I couldn't remember which one it was so we ended up in a random Chinese. Eating our banquet the food was delicious unfortunately we were sat next to what I can only describe as a table full of yobs. They spent most of the evening talking about fighting fucking (many loud tails of night spent with prostitutes) and thieving. I was feeling pretty uncomfortable by the end of the evening, and was glad to leave. I wonder what these idiots do, do they have jobs or just steal for a living?

After the meal we decided to catch a film and headed to Parrs Wood. The new Bourne film, Bourne Ultimatum was out so we decided to see what its like. The story continues where the last film left off. Still hunted by the CIA and haunted by memories from the past Jason Bourne attempts to get back to where it all began. Starting in Russian the action moves across Europe and ends at the beginning in America. The action scenes are splendid, though the car chase dosnt live upto the mini around France in the Bourne Identity.
A couple of things struck me, at one point the CIA agents raid a bus in London guns drawn, take over the cameras at Waterloo station and gun down a British citizen, I really really hope this would not happen in reality.
I really enjoyed the film, but lack all sequels it was a little samey and the FBI dialogue became more than a little tiresome, as Bruce pointed out how many times did the order to kill on site need to be delivered!

Extreme Ways

Not entirely unusually for a Saturday morning I am feeling pretty hung over, last night was a rather random but totally fun evening.
It all started with a quiet relaxed beer after work. It has been one of the least stressful weeks recently, it was nice downing a cold beer on a Friday. I only had time for one as I had arranged to meet up with my parents at the Lai Quila.

Lai Quila is one of my favorite curry houses, or at least it was until tonight. It seems like they have changed a few things since we last visited. There are new menus, higher prices and I didn't recognise the staff either.
The meals were still tasty, but not as a tasty as I remember. Also the usual generous portion sizes were smaller especially the rice usually there is tons, not tonight though. After the disappointing showing and the rather large bill I was feeling a little deflated, so I was glad when Phil called and suggested we go out for a few drinks. Half an hour later I was back at The Rectory, only a couple of hours after I left.

Waiting to get served at the bar I saw Nick and Becky stood over then way, so Phil got the drinks and I went to check out what they were upto. It turned out they were out celebrating the Birthday of one of Becky's friends. They didnt seem to mind us joining them so we followed the group to the Bollin fee.

It was very random on walking into the place I was confronted by a load of women ressed as playboy bunnies, at first I thought I was tripping, but then I realised it was a hen night. Unfortunately that was about the most exciting group of women in there, the place seemed full guys, at least far more than the number of women there.

I was ready a little tipsy so after a few more drinks I was feeling pretty smashed, not quiet as smashed as my glass though. Phil went and bought three drinks h attempted to hand me one only he let go of a different one to which I expected and SMASH! The bouncers didnt look very impressed.

I was drunk and felt like dancing as Nick wasnt I borrowed Becky and went dancing with her. I was pretty much a drunken buffoon but it was all good fun.

Nick was heading to the V festival in the morning he kept asking me if I wanted to go. In truth I really did but the idea of going down borrowing money off him and seeing if I could get a ticket off a tout seemed a little crazy. I am pretty broke still after Turkey and having to fix up my computer so I really couldnt afford to drop a few hundred on a festival. A shame but thats life I made my choices.