Don’t you just hate it …

Posted 28 February 2008 By mac and has 12 comments.

… when a book goes missing.

We watched a documentary about Able Archer and the nucular war that almost happened.

It reminded me of a couple of books I wanted to read again: Trinity’s Child, and Down to a Sunless Sea.

The first was on the shelves, exactly where it should be, and has gone on the “to read” heap (which now needs a Sherpa to navigate). The second is gone – lost. Not even in the book database, so really gone. And out of print, although I can get a second hand copy, and I will.

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some days are so horrible …

Posted 26 February 2008 By mac and has 3 comments.

That you just have to order pizza.

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Protected: Lear has it …

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weekend 23/24 Feb 08

Posted 25 February 2008 By mac and has no comments yet.

Clare and Harry laughing
Originally uploaded by ramtops

We went up to Norwich at crack of doom on Thursday morning, as it was Harry’s Naming Day on Saturday. Much rushing around was done, including trips to town, to Waitrose, and preparing the buffet for about 25 people.

The service was lovely – no deities involved at all – and the subsequent party was huge fun. Lovely to see lots of people there too.

More photos here, should you care to look.

[green] the hoovering

Posted 19 February 2008 By mac and has 7 comments.

The reason I asked about the frequency of hoovering in this post is because …

Well, we used to be of the “lets invite someone round, then the vacuuming might actually get done” school of thought. I loathe housework, and hoovering is one of the worst things. It does my back in, and 24 hours after you’ve done it, it wants doing again.

But now … now, I LOVE IT. And this is why

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memememememe

Posted 18 February 2008 By mac and has no comments yet.

gacked from blue-condition

A.) Four jobs I have had in my life (other than current job):

Bank clerk at the TSB, import/export administrator, network engineer, temp

B.) Four movies I would watch over and over:
Strictly Ballroom, The American President, Notting Hill, anything with Johnny Depp

C.) Four places I have lived
Edinburgh, Leicester, Norfolk (various), London

D.) Four TV shows that I watch

Grand Designs, Channel 4 News, Question Time, Wife Swap (I know, I know)

E.) Four places I have been:

Monterey, Boothbay Harbor, Galway, Sorrento

F.) People who e-mail me (regularly):
Clients. They never stop.

G.) Four of my favourite foods:

Almost any “proper” Indian food, sausages, red cabbage, toast and marmite

H. ) Four places I would rather be right now:

Actually, I’m pretty happy here, but I’d go to Ireland right this moment.

J.) Four Things I am looking forward to this year:

Being solvent, spending a week looking after our grandson, surviving. That’ll do.

K.) Four favourite authors:
Sebastian Faulkes, Margaret Attwood, Terry Pratchett, Nikki French

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Did you get the things we needed? (an occasional series)

Posted 17 February 2008 By mac and has 3 comments.

We nipped (or popped) down to Costco to get some butter (their Beurre d’Isigny is very nice) and some kabanos, which perlmonger is very fond of for his luncheon.

Somehow, we emerged with a bill for £337 so, as you might surmise, there was a bit more in the trolley than we intended. So, in no particular order …

  • a Roomba. We’ve been after one of these for a while, and they’ve finally come back onto Costco’s shelves. Shame perlmonger vacuumed the whole house yesterday, but with six cats I’m sure it’ll get a full workout soon,
  • A copy of John Simpson’s latest book – I really enjoy his stuff
  • an electric Shiatzu neck massager. No, it’s not for electric necks, no it’s nothing at all to do with a small dog. But it is wonderful, and I suffer from am achey neck,
  • a pretty hanging basket for beside the front door – primroses and evergreen leaves
  • two pairs of trousers for perlmonger
  • 24 cans of Whiskas, some smoked Austrian cheese, a huge lump of gammon to make Nigella’s poor white trash ham for Harry’s party next weekend, some belly pork, some seeds (for eating, not growing), a jar of marmalade, and lord knows what else

We’re not fit to be let out really …

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Shiny!

Posted 10 February 2008 By mac and has 6 comments.

In and running, after sterling work from perlmonger. for which many many thanks :) And about four frustrating hours waiting for it to transfer many Gb of data … My 250Gb internal drive has been transferred, and the 4Gb of RAM fitted.

It finally arrived at 2:35 yesterday afternoon, by which time I was sunk deep in gloom and sure that we wouldn’t see it. Typically, it was the last item on the chap’s delivery list …

Some problems with data transfer – my (fairly old) Macromedia Studio got its knickers in a twist, and given I use Dreamweaver all day, that was a bit worrying, but I’ve beaten it into submission now. One or two other things are slightly skewed, but I am keeping the old external drive as is for a while, and moving to a 1Tb for Time Machine, etc.

It is *spectacularly* quick, and I’m about to install Fusion and Parallels on it to give it some real work to do. I hate the Mighty Mouse (which won’t right click for me), and I’m trying the little tiny keyboard because the regained desk space is quite attractive, but I suspect I’ll be back to the Matias soon …

So this afternoon I shall wipe the old Weatherwax (who has served me very well for 2.5 years, and is now going to a new home with agc.

Shiny

Posted 8 February 2008 By mac and has 6 comments.

Last night, the Apple Store pushed back the despatch date of the Mac Pro by another 6 days, to 13th Feb, meaning that I almost certainlyu wouldn’t see it till w/c 18th. Enough is enough.

I asked a mate of mine if his distributors had any in stock, They do. So one is ordered for a Saturday delivery, and Apple have been cancelled. Lets just hope they process the refund promptly …

In other news, I am considering (just considering) laser surgery on my eyes. I have obtained a copy of my last prescription, from May 06, and that indicates it’s possible, even with my myopia and astigmatism, so I’ve booked an eye test for Monday to see what the current deterioration is. I expect when push comes to shove, I’ll be too squeamish to do it, and too mean to pay out £2k, but it’s nice to have the facts before I dismiss the idea.

Tescowatch (an occasional series)

Posted 6 February 2008 By mac and has 3 comments.

From The Independent comes the story that Tesco have reduced the price of a whole chicken to £1.99.

[...]in a move that critics warned would heap financial pressure on the poultry industry and make it harder to the improve welfare of factory-farmed animals.

Wonderful.

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