Is seagull shite random?

I suspect it's not after suffering a near miss from an anti-personnel bombing raid yesterday morning. Shrapnel wounds only, but a close thing. Certain cars seem to be targets as well, so what gives? Are they cunning little emissaries of Osama Bin Laden, or innocent flying rats?

Mum arrived on Tuesday and is settling and getting over her jet-lag. We have her locked in the bathroom to do the cleaning, and let her out for dinner and when we need to dirty the room again.

J has started packing and we're already concerned about whether we can fit all our stuff in the car. We didn't think we had bought much until we started this little exercise. We've been trying to get everything done, and we have new insurances, a forwarding address, the packing, storage, etc, to get organised.

We each had interesting days at work. J discovered the final date for a major funding application had been and gone for the year, so there were a few upset people there. I have had problems with the report I look after. I am handing over to a new woman, and she is already dispairing. It's a shame that the bank couldn't get their act together to have this project completed while I was still around, but we could only extend our stay for so long...

We'll be letting Mum out of her box so she can come with me to London and be my photocopying slave for a day at the IWM. It'll be very useful having an extra pair of hands so we might let her have the rest of the time off.

Actually, she had a day looking around London with J last Tuesday, taking the hop-on-hop-off bus around for the day. For the last couple of days she has been quietly exploring Bristol, and this weekend we'll try to get out of town for a taste of Little Britain. The weather has been lovely, so she'll have the completely wrong idea of the place...

J and I passed the one year milestone a fortnight ago. (That's why all our insurances, etc, have expired). Only four to go... Bristol has been a great home for that time and we will miss it when we go. Let's hope Scotland is as easy to live in.

More English than the English?

So, I'm not dead, just resting. We haven't been up to much except planning the big trip. I haven't been back to London for a fortnight as there were too many people away at work. It's going to put some pressure on over the next few weeks though... So little time left.



I won the St George quiz on St George's Day at work. It's a bit poor when a Kiwi beats all the Poms in a quiz on their own national day, so perhaps they should all go home and learn how to guess as well as I do. I've suggested a quick sing-along of Land of Hope and Glory might be in order at the next meeting (non-English excepted of course).



It's been pretty busy for the others at work as they've been testing changes for Quarter 1 reports that haven't worked. I carry on with it all happening around me, a bit like those TV shots you see of a person standing still while the crowd moves in fast-motion around him/her. My own report gets run this week and again next week, but I'm away in London 3 of those 10 days and another is a 'bank holiday' so it could get busier. Of course, my report was supposed to have been automated way back in December, and while I'm grateful for the extra work, it's a little disappointing I won't get to see the finished product!



Mum gets in tomorrow week plus a day, so she's quite excited. We've got a house-sit in Glasgow for a month when we get in from Italy, where we have to mind two dogs and a cat while the owners go to Aussie and, somewhat ironically, to Christchurch. Mum could have done a houseswap! So we may end up settling in Glasgow rather than Edinburgh, but it really doesn't matter as we weren't committed to anywhere in particular anyway.



The car is back on the road, but we've spent as much again as its buying price I think. New radiator, new water pump, jerry-built gearbox linkages, new tyres, and we still don't know if it'll pass the MoT (WoF). We've both swapped our NZ licences for UK ones recently too.



This weekend we went to Hay-on-Wye (the Town of Books) via Gloucester. I liked Gloucester Cathedral, especially for its solid Norman style. It has the very first examples of fan vaulting don't you know? (See J's blog for the best pic). In Hay-on-Wye I spent a good 8 hours browsing the military book sections. One shop in particular had a fantastic selection of regimental histories and personal histories, although rather expensive. I could even have bought the British Official History if I'd had a spare large sum of money. We stayed in a nice B&B run almost on an honesty system (the chap was in the hills somewhere and his instructions were to choose a room, make ourselves at home and catch up with him later). It was a very pleasant weekend away, with so few weekends left.



J caught up with a friend from one of the schools she worked at. They are converting a barn into des res, but they have a hell of a lot of work to do even to get it to a point that you would consider the beginning of the project. I admire their vision, but it wouldn't be something I'd consider.




I caught up briefly with C after the family came back from Aussie, and we will see them for dinner next week. It'll effectively be goodbye I suppose, although they might make it to a farewell lunch...



The flat has had two viewers: one a friend of the Italians, and the other through an agent. The agent made two appointments and didn't show up so I got the landlord to give him a bollocking. Hopefully they'll communicate better now.



Anyway, time to go.



Distinti Salute

Quiet days

Well, another two weeks with no blog entry - you'd think there was no news, and you'd be almost right.



It's been quiet at work. A few people off sick but we still seem to manage OK. I've had the odd frustration as people failed to supply the data I need to run my reports, but at 5:00 it doesn't matter any more. My biggest wins this week were getting the drinks machine and printer fixed. Two weeks ago someone called the repair people about our tea/coffee machine. A week later the tech was in fixing the innards. He went away and still no machine so I rang them after a week to see what was going on. I think he had just forgotten to turn it back on because we saw no tech, just the usual maintenance/filling person and next thing it was going! The worst thing was that they seemed to have left the tea and coffee in for the whole two weeks so it was a fairly well brewed cuppa for the first day or two.


The printer was broken for half a day before I put the call in. By the time it was fixed there were two days of print jobs on it, which of course no-one bothers to pick up. Lots of confidential stuff lying around for anyone to pick up... The lack of security at the bank really has surprised me. They've recently had a push on security, including enforced encryption and so on, but you'd think the ideas were all new from the way they go on. OGHS was more secure than Lloyds in some respects.



The car park continues to provide some interest. Last week we got home to find a burnt out wreck in the next block. (We only went out one day in the whole weekend and that's when it happened.) The cars either side were scorched and had their trim melted off so they'd be a tad annoyed, but not as annoyed as the owner. Apparently it was an electrical fault, but there was very little left of the car and the scaffolding it was parked under was burnt. That scaffolding has been there almost as long as we have but we haven't seen any sign of actual work. It must be costing a fortune. Later that week there was a row of cars with wheel clamps on - one had two clamps for some reason. A while back they closed off the rough carpark so there are now 20 fewer parks in the street and the workers get desperate for somewhere to leave their cars. It's crazy because nothing has been done with the closed lot.



On motor related issues, we can no longer get reverse gear nor 5th. J has the car booked in for Tuesday, but I'm not looking forward to the diagnosis. From a quick Internet trawl it would seem the linkages are the most likely cause, as they are plastic and wear quite quickly. If so it won't be horrendous, but still money we don't want to spend.



The pound has dropped to a record low against the Euro which is probably good for Mum but a disaster for us on the eve of our trip. It has dropped from 1.65 when we went last year to 1.23 so quite a significant percentage. They are talking recession over here so it'll be interesting to see how that impacts on us.


We went for a walk around Hotwells, which we hadn't explored even though it is very close. I've put some pics here. There are whole quarters of the city we haven't looked at, but we haven't done too bad a job thanks to J.





I have to hurry up 'cos she who must be obeyed wants to cut my out of control full head of hair back to a no 3. She cunningly cuts it to make me look like a semi-bald 40+ year old.

J's birthday

Well, kind of. Her birthday in NZ as I write, but not yet in England.

We have spent Easter weekend trying to get our trip sorted and still haven't managed the first hurdle - our accommodation in Abruzzo. It is hard to understand why this non-tourist area can be demanding E500+ a week when we only pay E900 a month for our apartment! At least Mum has confirmed her flights although they were a problem for her and I think she's paid a bundle.

We went back to Glastonbury, this time in the daytime. We climbed the Tor and felt the cosmic energy rippling down the ley lines into our chakras. Actually I just felt puffed, and feckin' cold. The town is full of shops selling magic and new age garbage, which didn't seem to help the lamb roll I bought which appeared to have been made using the same principles as naturopathy - the presence of lamb had been so diluted it was only the memory of lamb that remained. The Abbey was quite something though, again more for the memory of what once was than for what was actually there. For more 'Glasto' pics follow the link on J's page.

Other than that outing we didn't get up to much at all. In fact I stayed in my dressing gown for all of Easter Monday - how decadent, but strangely familiar to some!

JP has sent the latest version of the manuscript to read, and I have nearly finished my own article, save for bits that can only be written after the Italy trip. My own test readers haven't done a great job of reading the draft of the Cassino chapter from my book for me, so get a move on lads...

Last week I installed a laptop screen for our Italian neighbours so A is doing some letter writing for me in return. I hope to get into 'The Crypt' at Cassino if at all possible this trip, so we are writing to the Institute of the Sisters of Stigmata for permission. I rang L as he hasn't returned emails since we left last year. He wanted us to stay in his house but that is the one thing we have managed to arrange in Italy so far so we had to say no. I'm not sure if he's read that bit yet - it may be another year before he checks his email!

The Ides of March

Considered the start of Spring by the Romans, and their new year, we all know it wasn't too good for Julius Caesar. A better day for Dad as it was his wedding. I managed to get through to them after ringing the reception twice and a wrong number once. It sounds like a nice day for everyone and we expect to see plenty of photos from the family.

J and I have spent all day trying to sort our trip out, and basically have got nowhere. We've arranged accommodation in Cassino, and have narrowed down the accommodation near Orsogna to around three main possibilities. We didn't hear back from any of the real estate agents we emailed so we've had to go through holiday home sites which may end up quite expensive. Trying to sort out meeting W&R&l has been put in the too hard basket for now...

Wales won the 6 Nations and the Grand Slam, although England at least got a win. We've all but lost the 2nd test so the next one will have some interest. I haven't seen the scorecard for our first inning, but it can't have been good reading.

Nothing really happening over here, although it's coming up J's birthday and our wedding anniversary too. Better buy some presents I suppose...

And a sad weekend for English sport

So England bats, and collapses. The attitude over here is that NZ is a team of easy beats - 'tries hard, but not much talent' our report would read - and I think that's what the Poms have in their heads.

Then the rugby team put in an inept display to lose to Scotland. Go figure.

And finally, the big name teams are out of the FA Cup. Great for Barnsley supporters I'm sure.

At this level the players usually have no shortage of talent, or they wouldn't be there, so it must be what goes on in the head that makes the difference. The Australians have their heads right, even if it comes across as arrogance. When the Indoor Cricket World Cup was here last year you could always hear the Aussies pumping themselves up. It was a stark contrast to the quiet teams they played, and I think it is not a coincidence that Aussie won every game. The Poms have their heads wrong, and until they can sort that out they will struggle to win consistently. So how does a coach do that?

Our holiday break is sneaking up on us so we've been trying to find accommodation in the areas we're visiting, as well as trying to coordinate with W&R who are over here in June and July. So far all we have are tickets to Rome, so there's a bit of work to be done. Thank geeks for the internet.

I'm still in love with Google Earth (J will tell you I spend more time with it than her recently). I have been overlaying photos and maps, and mapping the places photos were taken. This way I can create maps on demand when I get there that will help me be more efficient. GE has also helped me find some of the series that I will be writing about in my own article, and all from the discomfort of the chair in our apartment!

Got to go. I'm trying to write a macro at work that will cut out a lot of fiddly cutting and pasting between spreadsheets. Wish me luck.

Sad day

On Friday the police helicopter was over the harbour again and we commented about another person drowned. On Monday it was announced that one of my colleagues (a developer in the greater team) had been found drowned after a night in town. He was a nice bloke and had spent some time in Dunedin a few years ago. RIP Andy.

At the team meeting that day it was my turn to provide the cake. I made a pav, but it was a flop. It looked OK in the oven but collapsed and ended up with the marshmallow bit about 2 cm deep. Anyone know what I did wrong? Anyway, they made the right noises.

After a couple months of Colonel Blimp being an arse about it I have finally received a copy of the contract I signed. How unreasonable can a person be? J gets it every day from her workforce, and had an example today of someone on the train simply refusing to pay his fare. "I got no money, what are you going to do about it?" Society depends on people acting reasonable and it can be quite a shock when you find people, like Colonel Blimp, who do not. But then we create lawyers who are paid to be unreasonable on your behalf.

BTW, what's the latest on the VC theft?

The first test was off to an indecisive start, with the Pom's claiming the best of the first day. I congratulated my co-workers on the fact that England haven't collapsed yet, purely because they haven't batted yet. We'll see how many runs the tail enders can put on.

That's all for now.