A happy birthday to zola - enjoy the day and many happy returns.

A Happy Birthday to lilly_rose.


Enjoy the day and many happy returns.

As a few may have noticed - I arrived back from Austria yesterday. I need to do a post about it all but it was a good trip.

So I'm now back at work and sorting through my email. One thing has made me laugh today - which is unusual as sorting through work email is usually soul destroying (academics love to make their points known). So, here it is, with the background.

A couple of weeks ago, at the last annoying staff meeting, I asked about a piece of software that has been requested to be installed on lab machines by some academic staff..... I got a rather annoying reply from several staff they "they've been on at people to get it sorted for about a year". This was the first time I'd heard about it - the IT TECHNICIAN for the department wasn't spoken to AT ALL about it. So, after talking to the correct people I got an email today - the software has been set to install on the lab machines when the are next switched on (installing over the network is nice).


Isn't it nice how quickly something can get done when you talk to the correct people and not scream to the wrong ones......


Oh well, such is life here and I have to rememeber it won't last too much longer (I hope).

Not really much is happening at the moment. Work is quiet as its summer (practically no students) so I'm trying to get as much programming done as possible during the quiet time (few, if no interuptions = easier to programme). Lots of academics are on holiday or 'working from home' so its quieter that side too.

If I order stuff online I usually get it delivered to work or my parents as I'm not in much. I placed an order last week and the form complained that I was using the wrong address. The address I use, although correct, is not the 'registered' address as I need to add an extra line so it actually gets to me and not stuck in the post room for a few days while they work out where it should go.

So, it got sent to my parents. I let my parents know that one was coming and got an email today saying it had arrived. It was good timing as the kitten was being spayed - I got to my parents after work to discover they had to take her back to the vets - they'd picked her up and she managed to break her stitches, so my parents took her up again and they stapled the wound shut. It was bleeding again so I drove them up there. Luckily it wasn't that bad and didn't need anymore work so I drove them back again. I spent longer at my parents than I'd planned - cups of tea and general talking as well as laughing at a kitten having trouble with a buster collar.

When I finally got home and opened the box - it wasn't what I was expecting. It was the normal monthly anime collection with another folder. I telephoned my parents and told them to expect another box.

One good thing - I've been invited around for Sunday Lunch so that'll be okay. I can probably annoy my sister too.

Oh well, not much of an update but hey ho - it filled the time while waiting for my dinner to cook ;-)

Over the last couple of weeks two links to the past have died.

First was Henry Allingham - a person who fought in World War 1, serving in the Roynal Navy Air Service (a under which was merged with the Royal Flying Corps to create the Royal Air Force). He died at the grand old age of 113 last week. He was with the fleet which fought the Battle of Jutland and also spent some time in the trenches defusing boobytrapped bombs left by retreating German forced.

Then today, the last surviving British survivor of the trenchs died. Harry Patch was conscripted and fought in the Battle of Passchendaele.

Both were links to the past which we no longer have. I was lucky enough during the 1990's to spend a few minutes, during a concert interval at a nursing home, to speak to a very frail World War 1 veteran. Although we couldn't speak longer, those few minutes were extremely interesting.

History is one thing, talking to people who were there is entirely another thing. If you get a chance to speak to a veteran of any war - do so, you may be surprised with what you find out.

I don't get much from my work - but I did get 3 days in Dublin last week for the ATSiP conference. As conferences go - its quite cheap and I was told I could go. So thats what I did.

( Cut for length )

So, now its back to the programming and other such fun at work. I spent a couple of days before the conference messing with 'gd' to attempt to make dynamic graphs from php. Now I'm back to the systems I need to programme. The graphs are an interesting project - but these other projects are more important currently.

I haven't posted much for a while (actually, since the update after myself and babyghia had gotten to the hotel in London during the tube strike.

babyghia is doing a series of posts about her trip so that saves me posting anything. Since she went back nothing major has happened. Work is quiet as the students are gone until late September so I'm getting on catching up with my programming. I have one system ready for testing so I'm planning the next amount of coding.

Last Saturday I went up to Edale with my best friend for a walk. We didn't walk up Kinder Scout for several reasons (a) We didn't bring any safety equipment or our walking boots and (b) neither of us is really up to that sort of walk. I'm still building my stamina back up and my best friend is trying to lose some of the extra weight he's put on. We'll attack it sooner or later though - its a nice walk and excellent views of the 'Dark Peak'. We did about 4 miles worth of walking and I may dump some photos up on facebook at some point.

Badminton has been okay, I enjoy playing it and I have a good laugh. At times I get really annoyed with myself if I play well below what I am capable of (I don't mind losing as long as I've played well).

So, thats about it - this afternoon its the badminton BBQ in Duffield - I'm taking a load of bread (probably too much) and I had a special order for one of my 'death by chocolate' chocolate logs.

We've had a heat wave this week so its been really hot and humid at times. A mass of rain has helped but I'm hoping for a good storm to clear the air more.

So thats about it - pretty boring really.

Well, myself and babyghia have made it to the hotel in London (near Tower Bridge). No thanks to the RMT union who are on strike today and tomorrow (the days we are in London).

We got to London okay but we found out that there were more tube services running than expected. Although not many and the Tube station at St Pancras station was closed. So, with each of us with a fairly heavy rucksack each (we were at the minimum but still we had to pack some stuff), we set off.

We walked to near Euston station and then headed to 'The Mall' via Russell Square. After a rest near the fountain in Russell Square we carried on past one end of Oxford Street and down Charing Cross road towards Trafalgar Square. On the way we spotted a small Sushi place - not a bar as although it was made onsite it was packaged. As babyghia is a sushi monster we stopped and had a small selection box each (not a great amount but enough). After that we continued on to Trafalgar square where it started raining quite hard. We stayed for a bit for photographs but finally headed off down the Mall near Admiralty Arch. At this point the rain eased off and we walked down the mall to Buckingham Palace. We then staggered to St James's park and sat down for a while with a drink.

After the rest we walked over to King Charles street and went to look at Downing Street and the Cenotaph. Then we walked downto Parliament Square for the Houses of Parliament and St Stephens Tower (which where the bell 'Big Ben' strike the 3pm chimes. At this point we were both starting to tire (babyghia especially). We crossed Westminster Bridge and attempted the tube at Waterloo station. The Jubilee line was running (delays though) and we got on a very packed train and got off a few minutes later at London Bridge station.

After yet another walk with several rest stops we walked past HMS Belfast and over Tower Bridge to St. Katharine's dock. We knew that there was a Starbucks there and we both needed another drink (we had walked past 4 of them already). After that it was a final big effort to get to the hotel and thats where we both collapsed (and we were both glad of being able to remove our shoes).

So, after we've recovered some we are going to find something to eat and then I have something planned for late this evening.

This 'quick' entry turned out longer than planned - oh well. I'm cursing the RMT union a lot now (even more than usual for this really annoying union).

Edit: For the record I just about killed babyghia with the walking but I will point out I had planned to use the Tube today so I shall blame the RMT

Swiped from ravenlore while she was worrying about the Goth Prom

Not really surprised with that result. I'd better find a spanner and some scotch.

Your results:
You are Mr. Scott

Mr. Scott 80% Geordi LaForge 80% Jean-Luc Picard 75% An Expendable Character (Redshirt) 60% Chekov 50% Will Riker 50% James T. Kirk (Captain) 45% Beverly Crusher 45% Data 44% Spock 42% Worf 40% Leonard McCoy (Bones) 35% Mr. Sulu 30% Uhura 25% Deanna Troi 5%

You are a fun-loving foreigner with an amazing ability to get any job done on time. Often described as a "Miracle Worker".

Click here to take the "Which Star Trek character are you?" quiz...

One of these days I'll do a real update (honest) but here's something boring.

Today, I have the day off - I used some 'lieu time' aka toil so it doesn't eat into my annual leave allocation (although I have 2 days left on that to book). The reason - I ordered a new monitor for my computer - my current one is getting darker and showing serious signs of breaking so I ended up getting a new one.

Luckily, I found a well priced one on offer from dabs. Unfortunatly as its my first order from them they will only deliver to my payment address (ie where my debit card address is), instead of having it sent to my parents or work. Annoyingly their delivery setup is worse - their 'cheapest' delivery is a '3 day spread, between 7am and 6pm' (ie arrive on one of 3 days). Next, arrive on a single day between 7am and 6pm. A lot more expensive is single day '7am to midday'.

So, I went for the 'single day, 7am to 6pm' option. So, I'm stuck in the house all day awaiting it to arrive. I know I could have asked my mother to house sit for me but I thought I'd use some of the lieu time. She may visit (easy way to walk dog and get a cup of tea).

Not sure when it'll arrive - it has online tracking but the depot is in Nottingham so it depends on when the drivers route is. Made me laugh as the tracking reminded me of (http://xkcd.com/281/

Well, I'm going to finish the current pot of tea, then do some housework. I need to do a decent cleanup around here and I need to redo all the cables behind the tv setup as they got messed up a bit when I got the new cable modem.

Still, its still nicer than work - I get to see more of the outside as my office is in the middle of the block (ie 4 walls and a door).

Edit: It arrived just before 10am