Don't you hate it when you need a weekend to recover from the weekend? Spent most of this weekend out in the cold. On saturday i went to the invite publisher, who had succeeded in introducing errors into our drafts. Then off to get my wedding suit. And then off to see the photographer. Finally to a pizza express with icy. To say it was cold outside is an understatement. I was exhausted.
We had gone out on friday, bought tickets for the 2320 showing of hide and seek. Spent until 9pm eating and then until 1015 at waterstones reading for free. Nice to just chill like that. I picked up a copy of The Shadow of the Wind. It started off well. Makes me want to join a library again.
Yesterday we went gift list shopping. Did better than before. And finished off at eat and 2 veg. Lovely place with fresh wholesome wholemeal vegetarian food. I cant help wondering what this week will be like at work. Want to see hotel rwanda. Not sure if I'll be happy afterwards but i want to see.
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Capricorn
You've just about had it with that certain individual who's had it in for you for what seems like months and you're perfectly prepared to handle this, face to face, with the authority figures. The problem that this individual may have -- and may not have thought of before they started this campaign -- is that you've been following all the rules, and they haven't.

Daily work (by Astrology.com)
You're seeing the big picture more clearly than ever, and your visionary ideas are getting a welcome reception. Don't hold anything back now. Ask, and you will receive. Guaranteed

Monthly career (by Astrology.com)
The weekend of the 5th and 6th is a pretty stellar one for you workwise. By the 9th, 10th and 11th, whatever projects you've been putting your Herculean efforts into during the last few months are suddenly going to get rolling. You weren't straining your big biceps all that time for nothing, you know! Those bouncing-along projects will continue to pick up speed over the 15th and 16th with a velocity that could knock your socks off -- that is, if you didn't have your feet planted so firmly on the ground. Good for you! And you're not the only one your projects are going to impress. The 17th and 18th, be cautious with any expenditures. Try varying your routine -- but not too much. You're going to need to keep those get-the-job-done muscles in top shape, after all! And don't forget to save all your receipts for reimbursements! The 21st, a business problem or two could emerge. Don't give your resources away, and by the 24th, you'll be back in business at the office

Tosh!

TFIF
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dp

Oh yes, something to make the Furion in us come alive. The Guardian, my paper of choice apart from The Independent, has the following leaders on its website. They make me think that Tony Bush and George Blair are nothing but a pair of wannabe NecroWarmongers. Where's Riddick when you need him to kick their asses into touch?

1. Revealed - the rush to war!
2. How Goldsmith's advice changed....
3. The Law and War.
4. Transcripts of Tony Bush's mates lying to Parliament.
5. Goldsmith - salt of the earth..hmm.
6. Difference of Opinion.
7. Even cowboys needs friends.
   

There you have it. NecroWarMongers playing havoc on the population of other countries, converting them to their new found religion. We need a Furion of quality to sort em...Where's Riddick!

Book: Lawless World by Phillipe Sands QC

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dp

...and its only just begun!

Where's Karen Carpenter when you need her to soothe the mind? This week has been an absolute disaster. I didn't think much of it last week, but I had a bit of a mini-nightmare one night where I was no longer wanted on my current project due to me being totally utterly crap and a liability. Funny eh. Well, not when Monday and Tuesday conspire against you and it gets to the point where you begin to think that there might be some truth in the matter. I am not an accountant, so when someone asks me to do the financials on a project that isn't mine, wellllllll what do you think is going to happen. What if £1+m was left to spend in the wrong month? Arse. Thats what. Total Arse. Just happens to be mine that's getting a good kicking at work. The funny thing? Its not even my project - the guy who runs it, my boss, is on holiday. Yep. So the fact that only a few million is in the wrong month shouldn't harm anyone should it? Well urm, apparently it does. Go figure.

So there you have it. I am getting absolutely clobbered at work. Now where's that smile of mine....
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dp

Time flies, it really does. Especially when you least expect it. The Wedding is fast approaching, and I've yet to sort out a Suit for the big day. Went along to West London's Asian Wedding Exhibition near the new Wembley Stadium today. It was a hodge podge of stands and stalls. Saw some lovely decorative pieces, hopefully dearest Icy - who was there on her own Stall - got the hint that a few of them were absolutely DIVINE!

We picked the invite and handed over the internal sheet drafts. We have an olde style invite, and two additional cards for the family functions that a few people are invited to. The card is rather nice, a definite classy little number. There is now a need for me to get the Address Labels sorted. I'm thinking of using Avery paper and the downloadable templates. Those guys are super duper for giving away free templates to go with their paper. Now that's what I call great consumerism. I'm already going for their paper based on this fact alone. Wonder if anyone has any experience with this stuff? Any recommendations?

There were some awesome Chocolate Fountains on show. These were amazing. The chocolate tasted superb, and they just looked dreamy. Talk about a great guest toy.

It appears to be winter again. The weatherman says its going to snow later this week. I'm busy as heck at work, so most likely won't see it until the long commute home. God I hate walking home in the dark in the snow. Its treacherous as it is, let alone when the path is iced up.

Watched Gosford Park again. Its a class film. Love it.

Right, best get ready for CSI NY - 2nd episode. Ooh, I' love being common ;-)
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dp

Friday and i'm relieved. A busy week of work and the nerves related to house buying have taken toll. Unfortunately i won't be able to relax this weekend.
Tonight i drive across town to pick up my sister so that tomorrow we can all go to a wedding exhibition. I then drop her off when its done and on sunday finalise how i am going to pay a whopping 5figure sum in convayance fees. The fact that I've yet to find a solicitor is something else!
At least i found a surveyor who is doing his thing today.
Its cold right now. Another freeze arrived.
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dp
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Another morning at the station. Bloody freezing weather and a packed train. Luckily managed to sneak a seat, most likely to the detriment of some poor sod. Best not to dwell on that too much.

I am getting worried that the climate may have changed irreversably. What sparked this silly thought? I was watching tv last night and saw an advert for cat food. It advised watchers that a cat jumps a thousand times before its 7, so as conscientious owners, we need to protect its joints. Thankfully the new cat food they were selling was packed with vitamins. So that's all right then, better go buy that. That made me think.:

• How gullible are we these days?
• Do cats need to be given vitamins. Don't they get them from mice?
  
• Are we so down the road me changing our habitat that we have no hope of gettig nutrients naturally from food anymore?
• Why is it that we need to go on diets so much? What has changed in our diet and lifestyle that means we can't eat and relax?
• Are we making cats fat?

So many questions for a Wednesday morning...
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dp

Brrr, its freezing tonight. A cold blitz arrives in West London.

Work is picking up, and I continue to wonder if I'm the only one who wants to do anything to make things work. Still, life goes on.

Instructed a Surveyor to go see the potential new house. Hopefully I don't get Gazumped or something evil like that.

Our glorious Mayor continues to set a prime example to everyone who wants to make rude comments to workers of a paper. Top bloke.

I'm awaiting the new episode of CSI - the original. Dont like Miami, but New York first episode was OK.

Mobile updates will be resumed now that I have gone back to using the Sony P900i for work.

That's all for today. St. Elmo is on fire...Gotta dash.
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dp

One would imagine, that after this season's Flu, you wouldn't get another virus. How wrong was I. I have got the most annoying sore throat that produces a tickly dry cough. I think my resolution for March is to start running again, get a little bit more exercise than I currently do. Don't want to be ill in June!

Some interesting events occurred this weekend.

1. We finalised the list of attendees for the Civil Registry Reception. A nice group, but I do think its slightly lopsided towards a certain group of people. Alas there's not much I can do, since the Parents think its the way it should be.
2. The old todger finally accepted my offer on his house. Now its time to rush through the Surveys and Conveyancing before someone Gazumps me.
   
3. I have almost chosen a wedding invite design. Somewhat restricted in choice, and not entirely happy with it, but I guess its going to be thrown in the bin after the day, so I'm not going to lose sleep over it.
4. Watched Resident Evil 2 (a sorry excuse to show two slim ladies in skimpy outfits), and Hellboy (yuck, a waste of time).

I also find the comments made by the Lord Mayor of London, regarding a Jewish reporter being like a Nazi Concentration Camp Guard very upsetting. To then follow this through with a comment about 'everyone working for the Daily Mail group being regaded as a valuable part of society, well you're not!' is just indicative of a self-righteous ego maniac imho. What about people who work there because they need money to feed themselves and its the best job they could get? What about the fact that despite the political leanings of the paper, everyone has a part to play in balancing and arguing political views? I think that guy needs to be booted from City Hall, but knowing Londoners, you just need to show us a sexy woman, or a soundbite from him promising something nice, and we'll vote for him - unless there is someone equally celebrity like to oppose him. I honestly believe Londoners don't really vote on politics when it comes to City Hall. Case in Point - Extending and Increasing the Tariff of the Congestion Charge. Soon it will come alllll the way out to the M25. Smashing.
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dp

Age creeps up on you. Back in the day, I used to work obscene hours for a certain UK Chemist company, and was fine and dandy (until my body started eating itself due to lack of food). Now, many years on, I am still finding it hard to recover from Sunday night's marathon work night in a Supermarket. To top it off, I've got a sore throat. Splendid.

I've been watching the debate about the Pakistani Nuclear Scientist who sold secrets to the Axis of Evil and beyond. I find it rather amazing that the US Government so blatantly turns a blind eye on such things. Can you imagine what they'd do if it was, say a Iranian Scientist that did the very same? I guess there's truth to the fact that there's no oil in Pakistan. I'd urge the British government to re-establish ties with the Indians, since they have dog-tailed after Bush into siding with Pakistan. All I see this encouraging is a bit of tension in the region that isn't welcome - trust me. Still, the recent Time article on the subject has been a real eye-opener.

The wedding plans have turned again. The venue is back on, and all is hunky dory. Its good good good, so far.

The football today is OK. Holland are rather good technically, but they miss the incisive behaviour of a true number 9, like say, Marco Van Basten. I heard he's God. I believe it ;-)

I must organise my work life better. I've said that far too many times. I'll keep saying it until I eventually do it.
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dp

Even though the intent was to sleep all afternoon, I automatically awoke at 6am, and ended up watching the re-run of Match Of The Day - and then pretty much snoozed and stuff. Went to Boots, Argos Extra, Halfords, and Staples. Back to the Hilton and then some more chilling, whilst watching Columbo, a quick meal and off to the store.

My night shift at the client site begun today at 6pm. I'll record my whopping night shift on a regular basis.

• arrived to find a huge violation of company policy in effect. I had to do the right thing and offer people a chance to explain, nobody I knew was at fault, so I had to thereafter escalate. This is one incident that is going to hit the fan.
• 8:00 did a bit of a walk around check, and all is well. Music was blaring on the floor, people doing their thang.
• 10:30 now creating some checksheets for - ahem - the site that Icy and I visited at Xmas! Small world!
• 11:20 did a walk of the front and back areas. Reminded me heavily of the scary (when I first saw it as a kid) Dawn of the Dead. Spooky.
• 11.50 unable to stand it anymore, we ordered Dominos, just about made final delivery. 2 GO Decisions were passed. This is good news. Next deadline is at midnight.
• 1.01 after some pizza and coke, the sugar and carbs are kicking in and things are picking up. Passed another checkpoint, and am now watching the other engineers do stuff with printers. Very interesting, not.
• 2.45 another walk through, showed that everything was stacked well, and the place is bloody freezing. Have to dash across the car park to the pfs to find out if the printer is working at 4am. That will be freezing.
• 3.30 two little birds, outside my window, singing sweet songs, a melody pure and true, saying, this is my message to you-oh-hoo. Saw two birds racing through the warehouse. Its cold. This place really is like Dawn of the Dead, full of zombies with red eyes. Bob Marley is awesome.
• 4.30 its nearly done and dusted. The system is up and running. Wooohoo. Bloody freezing outside though. The PFS was freezing too!
• 5.00 the users are testing the cutover system.
• 6.20 the site opens for business, 1hr 40 mins ahead of schedule. Its done. Thank god!

I decide to head home at 10am, a mammoth night shift later. Never again.

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dp

The week has been building up to today at work. Today we head off to another site, and babysit a conversion of an old system to a new system. Its an all night job, so we'll be locked in at this site all night, where the site is not designed to house people after hours. So a lack of food and drink, and heat will be the main features. Fantastic. Its back home on Monday afternoon, to hit the sack, and then wake for work again on Tuesday morning.

I went to see Oceans 12 with Icy last night. It was rather funny in parts, but it certainly was a pedestrian paced movie. What I discovered is that that Zeta-Jones bird is just really a money digger, trading up husbands and film roles to schmooze with the fancy lot a-list. Her role was rather pointless in the film, though some will argue it was necessary for the final twist. I frankly disagree, and think a better finale could have been cooked up if the screenplay writer had bothered to think a little. Still, some funny moments there.

Currently reading Secure Coding, since I believe if you are going to harp on about something, you bloody well need to know the basics of the subject otherwise you look like a tit. Whilst my peers snarfuffle at such low level detail, I think detailed understanding brings greater perception of the problem.

I won't rant about Bush or Blair or anything like that. I'll wait till it bubbles over.
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dp

I have been slack of late, due largely to the situation at work. I'm now looking after three rather different projects, in different stages of their lifecycle, and to be totally honest, I'm not yet fully up to speed on how to deal with it. Coming from a background of having only one project to deal with, to being in a position where the Central nature of my role and skills means I'm farmed out to avariety of projects, the transition to juggling skills has not quite been smooth. I was the first to admit this, and am trying to find my feet and what I would call my own personal style. I constantly remind myself of this fact "people pretend to know more than they do". Its very true you know, at least in the environment I'm in. People portray a position of calm and knowledge far beyond the real situation they are in. I on the other hand, am rather transparent. If I look worried, its because I am. If I look calm, its because I am. If I look confused, its bcause I am - and thats how I look a lot these days. I am being asked to test a newly manufactured device, so beyond having release 1.0 of its firmware, its first of its kind off a manufacturing belt. How on earth do I test that? My solution - leave em on for a month and if they break, thats bad, if they don't , thats good.

Anyway, other than that, I have had nothing back from the Estate agents that "sell houses that are not reall for sale". My offer on a 4 bed house, which was only 5 % less than asking price, was rejected. The house is still for sale, and I doubt if he'll get a better offer unless the market picks up. There aren't anymore houses for sale in Oakwood anymore, so I'm now going back to my first old hunting ground of Pinner/Harrow. I seem to have upped my budget a bit, in a bit of a rush of blood to my head, and I realise I can get a decent place for that now. So the emails have been registered, and the hunt resumes again. Pants.

The wedding plans are going ok so far, though I'm having a mare of a time with a silly bugger (I seem to attract these) who is trying to change the terms of a contract on me. I am seriously thinking of taking him down, but most likely will have to find another venue for a reception bloody damn fast if he is obstinate enough to continue to try to pull the wool over my eyes. The world is full of em init.

Met an old mate from my early ICL days last night. He went on a bit of a train journey before he got to Waterloo, going a full 53 miles in a round trip, when he started just a couple away in Clapham, but after that we had a good time yapping away about - hark - meta physics, work, business strategy, house prices, ales, bush, and software engineering. What a lot for a late evening! I just about managed to get the Very Last Train home - 23:53, and realised that the new timetable is kak.

Back to work...
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dp