More stuff...

Or not. After pointing out to you all that it was daylight saving we turned up to a movie an hour early, wondering why no-one was around. We eventually saw Metropolis, the 1926 sci-fi silent movie by Fritz Lang. I'd been wanting to see it for years, and clearly so had others as it was a sell-out. It had a live musical accompaniment which wasn't as bad as it might have been: after all, it could have been Radio Gaga. It was all very melodramatic and for some reason our hero ran like Groucho Marx walked. Never mind, the Workers and the Capitalists were reconciled at the finish - don't you love a happy ending?

It's been two steps forward and one step back at work, with minor and major problems turning up every hour. It got so bad that we had to re-do a whole month's reports, and even then I discovered another error. I'm enjoying the challenge of getting my head around the process, and suggesting improvements, but it really is a piece of s**t that is almost designed to cause errors.

I popped up to see about joining a hockey club, but in the dark I couldn't find the bloody entrance! It's out in the countryside so you'd think they'd put a light at the driveway. I'll have to try again during the day...

C is in the middle of exams but is also celebrating her birthday. It's the first one that J hasn't been around for. We gave her a call and she sounded well - from a distance, since I seldom get to say hello directly. She and O are looking forward to their trip over here, and we have booked an apartment in Barcelona for a few days, and in London, and in Oxford.

We received our first power bill this week - it's only taken 6 months. There is still a bill for the previous supplier to be settled, as they want to charge as much for one month as the new one charged for 5. In the end it isn't in our name anyway, so they can't cut us off, but the landlord may need to get involved 'cos for some reason it's in his.

It is dark coming home, but there are lovely reflections on the harbour. I will have to get a tripod so I can photograph some nightscapes.

Stuff...

Not much to report this week. It has been busy at work trying to sort out last month's mess and getting ready for this month's. We discovered two major errors and one less major one, totalling a mere L100,000 overpayment, and that's just September! Still, we've all got our heads around the process a lot better... With such large numbers involved it seems pathetic that all the extra work earned me just L34. 8-)

J is wanting a pet. If she wants something to fondle and to clean up after she already has me, so I'm rather upset. Today we wandered around a pet store looking at gerbils, hamsters, rats, fish, rabbits, chinchillas, stick insects and hermit crabs. She didn't buy any and for now has settled for an aquarium screen-saver. I don't think the urge has passed though...

We went looking for a hockey team and I have found a club that might fit the bill - it isn't too far away and has a range of teams including a 'veterans' league team (35+). I'll have to go through the palaver of getting all the gear again I suppose, but it would be nice to have a run around every now and then. the team I watched wasn't playing at too scary a level and that was their second team.

There is a paper over here that has a consumer's affairs page, a bit like Fair Go, but written. Can anyone think of an equivalent in NZ? I'm still looking for a way forward with Col Blimp.

Daylight saving this weekend, as the nights are already closing in. For the millions of you intending to ring, you will have to do so an hour earlier.

We are considering moving to Edinburgh after our next lot of travel. Not because we don't like Bristol, but just to keep looking around. We've heard it's very nice and the street names will be familiar...

J's been bringing home plenty of books to read, but most are of the gory murder, forensic scientist genre. I'm hoping she'll find something a little lighter next time, but one wonders about the recommended reading at the schools she gets them from.

Speaking of gore, we saw what appeared to be a student hostel jaunt today, with around a hundred zombies on a pub crawl. Some were pretty convincing, and will probably only get more so with more booze in 'em. Brains for dinner then. Yummy!

Gorgeous cheese?

We wandered around shopping on Saturday, as I was looking for some sturdier walking shoes than I have at the moment. Of course anything is sturdier than jandals, so there was plenty of choice. I'm now trying out a pair around the house.

They weren't tested in time to use them for real the next day when we visited the Cheddar Gorge, the original home of Cheddar Cheese. It was a nice sunny day to be walking through and around the gorge, which is quite spectacular. It cuts through the Mendip hills and you can travel through close to 200 million years of time as you climb through the layers. I was looking out for Arthur Dent's towel but didn't find any sign of it.


We only had to push start the car once so that's a bonus. Apparently the alternator is kaput, but bloke at garage said it will be cheaper for us to buy an emergency starter than a new alternator. And cheaper still for me to push it but not so convenient.


Today at work the frustration continued. I don't need to say any more as it's the same reasons as last week. However, it's clear the stress is completely different than teaching as faults are in the system and not personal, so I can leave them at work. That feels good.


Not a good week for the English sports fan - almost out of the Euro 2008, 2nd for Lewis Hamilton and 2nd for the Rugby team. Good for me though as I got L32.50 for my L5 'investment' pre-tournament. It paid for a below average meal for two, and some goodies from Cheddar though.

J's computer has been showing some nasty virus and/or spyware infections so we've been trying to clean them off before they cause any lasting harm. She has up-to-date antivirus thank goodness, so we've got rid of most of the undesirables. It's always a bit of a worry though.

For photos of the weekend follow the link below.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Italythenandnow/CheddarGorge

Life in the anthill

It was J's last day at Backwell, but you've probably already read about that in her blog. She thinks it's a sad thing and is worried about getting more work, but with the CVs they give her she'll be running Telecom in place of Teresa Gatting. She got presents of food and drink, so I will sacrifice myself to save her waistline and scoff most of them.

It's the big weekend this weekend for English sports fans. They've all but been knocked out of the football champs after a loss to Russia, but they have the Rugby and the F1 to potentially keep them happy. My workmates are all looking through their ancestry to find a football team they can support with any justification, but they are certain of their English heritage when it comes to the rugby. Lewis Hamilton is on the verge of winning the F1 unless Alonso rams his car, which is entirely possible. It might be the second Peninsula War if that happens, but there're so many Poms in Spain now that the Spaniards wouldn't have a hope - fifth column and all that. I'm told it is the 3rd/4th play-off tonight but frankly, who gives a damn? Certainly not the players, and probably not the public.


The week ended on a crappy note at work, as I found that the last hour had been spent filling in forms for the wrong bloody people (because last month's file was sent to me) and then the last phone call was to suggest that last month's reports had to be re-run completely because there were so many errors. I can't see this actually happening because we are due to run the next ones, but we'll see. It gives you some idea of the quality of the process that this might happen. There are seven potential inputs, and (currently, as more keep being added) five outputs, each of which is largely manually processed. If something goes wrong, I have to decide which of the inputs was involved and whether it was the original data or our processing of it that was at fault. I then have to decide who and how it will be corrected, and which of the outputs will be effected. And this month plenty went wrong...

The weather is turning cooler, and the leaves are changing colour and shedding. The last two days have been lovely walking to work, with still waters reflecting the trees along the harbour. This morning had very unusual cloud formations as you can see, and all natural unlike the ones in J's blog. It's still a sign of the approaching winter, but since you are still having snow in Dunners we're not too badly off.

Well, the playoffs were quite entertaining in the end, even if more one sided than expected. A bit scrappy and I'll wager Chabal's eye was not the result of an accident. Just made him look even more savage. Who'd have thought, eh? Argentina 3rd, England in the finals...

Monday

So Argentina couldn't quite pull it off. I didn't think their half-back had a very good game - his passing was poor. Anyway, not a bad match and my bet is still live until next week at least.

Another frustrating day at the anthill, but at least I don't have to do anything after clocking off. It is an amazing feeling to come home and realise that there is no marking, prep, resource collecting, etc, to do. You don't realise until you stop teaching just how much extra work or even just thinking you put into it.

So nothing much to tell really.

But I spent hours making the earthrace boat into a space ship. Ages and ages getting the laser the right colour. She tried to help me but she is just a girl and girls don't know about space ships.

Merde!

Going into the match I wasn't sure who I wanted to win, but coming out I don't think it was the English. (Sorry M!) I don't know why, but perhaps it's just the thought of them winning two in a row after playing so terribly leading up to the tournament, and in the pools. Or maybe it's just jealousy.

We had dinner and watched the game at the home of a couple of Kiwis we met in a restaurant a few weeks ago. They were an easy-going couple who've been in the UK for around six years now. H works selling agricultural supplies and A is a nanny, and they live in a village just north of Bristol. It was a a nice night, and our second weekend out in a row at the invitation of strangers. Rugby has helped to break the ice if nothing else.

The anthill got busy this week as my first run of remunerations went wrong. Fortunately it wasn't the payments, just the reporting of these that was incorrect, but it led to a storm of emails that hasn't yet abated. Worse still, although I knew where the problem lay by Tuesday, I still haven't been allowed to send out the corrected information. This particular remuneration scheme requires 8 different inputs that each have to processed differently, and should spit out about 5 outputs, some of which are only being revealed as recipients complain they haven't received them. It is a recipe for disaster that I have to deal with until December, after which a new automated system is supposed to come on line, and I look for another position. I'm busy trying to document it as I go so that next month it will run more smoothly, and I have been asked to work through an automatic emailing system for it, which should be interesting.

We had an interesting diversion on Friday when we had a 2 hour 'waste disposal' meeting. Nothing to do with the environment though, but rather trying to eliminate processes that waste time/effort/money. We had a look at how sicknesses are dealt with amongst a group of salespersons, and picked the process to bits. Good analytical stuff, and I think I made some useful suggestions. Curiously the exercise took 16 person-hours, so I wonder how much will be saved after taking that into account. The best suggestion, but probably least likely to be taken up, was to scrap the entire scheme. I wish I'd thought of it.

J booked 4 tickets to Barcelona in February - 1p each going out and L8.99 each coming back, plus taxes. (The other two tickets are for C and O who are coming over for a month.) It'll be nice to have a break over the winter. The next question is what to do for Christmas...



Earlier in the week the Kiwi Earthrace boat was in the harbour. I took some snaps on the 'phone so they aren't great quality. The whole enterprise has been dogged with bad luck, including a collision that killed a Guatamalan (?) fisherman, so their aim of breaking a round-the-world record wasn't met.

J went for a huge walk today, so I'm off to pick her up from somewhere miles away. Enjoy the Argentina v SA game. Viva Argentina!

But life goes on

The good news is I have L5 on SA to win at 11-2, the pre-tournament odds. This bet is looking a lot better now, but with two upsets so far maybe Fiji will continue the trend?

We watched the Aus-Eng game at the local pub and the regulars were happy indeed. We had to make it clear we were Kiwis, and of course could afford to be magnanimous given we were going to win later that night. I suspect we'll get a ribbing when we goto watch today's games. Luckily I didn't get too mouthy at work since I'd just started so won't have to eat any humble pie there. I'll probably get sympathy instead which was not the expected situation prior to the weekend.

We watched the Kiwi game with an Italian family who live in the same block. Mapy comes from Bari so I was able to show her where I'd been when I was over there. She was rather surprised that I had been to places such as Orsogna and Lanciano which are not exactly on the beaten track. Andreo is from Milan, so they represent the great Italian divide. They were great hosts and interesting company, and Andreo has watched most of the RWC which is a little unusual for an Italian but less so for a Milanese. We tried to explain what a loss might mean for New Zealand but he thought I was exaggerating. We'll see - perhaps NZ has grown up after the last disappointment?

Today we walked to the Slow Food market, which was a little dull. J went off to the Debenhams 50% sale while I came home. We'll watch the games and in between there is a computer show on that we'll pop out to see. Exciting huh?

Mourning all.

Well, I woke up and the dream persisted. I'm still in shock. I'm guessing NZ will collapse again as the truth sinks in that this was our worst result in a World Cup so far. What next? Bundled out in the Pools at home in 2011?

I need to watch the game again to try to figure out where it all went wrong. I've read the Kiwi papers online and the excuses fall into 3 categories:

1. Bad refereeing
2. Bad coaching decisions
3. No heart

There were some bad calls yesterday, but had we been playing well they wouldn't have mattered. Did the forward pass make a difference? If it had gone back the try would still probably have been scored, so we can only blame ourselves for the position we were in. In this case the ref could have saved us - should have saved us - but missed it. Should McAlister have been sent off? Probably not, but why were we in a situation where it mattered?

The ABs seem to have based their game plan around avoiding the line-out, presumably because they thought there was a weakness in their own game there, and that superior fitness would eventually tell as the French tired of running the ball back. It was clear that the first premise wasn't true for this game, as what lineouts there were went pretty well, and we saw little sign of the latter either, so the game plan should have been changed. Kick for touch (while we had kickers) and make the French bring the play to us. (This may have also saved Carter and Evans from the injuries they received.) We saw the forwards making good progress when they kept the ball in hand, so they should have done this more often. If the finishing hadn't been so poor we would have had at least one try from this, perhaps more.

Did the resting of players and the rotation policy work? It would seem not. We didn't get any strong opposition in the pools and this can only have been compounded by the these policies which left the players with little hard work in the build up to the tournament and the quarters. We had it easy and fell apart in when it counted, while France and England had it hard but pulled off seeming miracles when they needed to. On the other hand, Aussie didn't rest anyone, had a slightly tougher pool and still lost it so perhaps it comes down to number three, a lack of heart?

Only the players will know the answer to that one. It did appear though that both Aussie and the ABs didn't expect the games they got, and were perhaps mentally unprepared. In the end perhaps it wasn't lack of heart, but lack of mind that cost us.

Oh my God!

It's funny. I dreamed that Australia had lost to England and that we had been knocked out in the quarter-finals by France. I'm sure I'll wake up soon.

High-flying banker types

So this is the life of a banker. Playing hard and fast with oodles of lolly, diving into safes full of moohlah, lighting cigars on burning L100 bills... Mwa ha ha ha.

Actually I study spreadsheets. Yesterday we looked at the adjustments to salespersons' targets while they were on training courses. Today I redid said adjustments as we'd screwed up yesterday. I know it matters to the salesperson, but it's a pretty pointless exercise in the greater scheme of things and I really don't like the role I'm playing in this materialist/capitalist society. It is a challenge though and it's good to get the brain going again. And better yet, there are no rude little oicks to deal with.

We got invited to our Italian neighbours for afternoon tea on Saturday. All we have to do now is find out their names... Should be fun, but the timing isn't good for the rugby. I suspect that since he watches, the time will be moved to fit the game time.

I talked to Mum for half an hour. Cheers Mum. Happy birthday J and coming soon Big M. Maybe the engine will turn up wrapped in ribbons. It's good to hear you are back on your feet N, and I hope you continue to recover well. Work hard at school mate.

Mum wants to come over next year and may be able to travel with R who also wants to come. I hope we can work something out. Then W, R and L will be turning up some time around June. Anyone else?

That's all folks.

Weekend stuff

A quiet weekend in that we didn't go too far, but still good. It is clearly getting cooler and darker already and I take an umbrella everywhere. We watched some rugby, though not the Kiwi game since it would be so one-sided, and not Wales v Fiji sadly. J lasted a bit longer on Saturday than on Friday and we managed to watch all of the game. Perhaps she was fortified by the window-shopping she filled in the day with. Ho-hum.

The Kiwis got the Bronze in the Indoor Cricket Mens, with SA Silver and Aus Gold.

On Sunday we'd had lunch with C, M and m at a plant shop restaurant, and aside from being a vege outfit it was a nice enough venue and great to catch up. We walked around the harbour before finding a pub with the game on and watched Ireland v Argentina. Two of the home nations out, and two to go...

The car uses a litre of water a day now, and it appears the Stop Leak didn't. We'll have to save up to get that fixed now. Never bloody ending.