Now that is big!

Wow!

Feelings of Guilt

My friend Sheena applied for the job that I am now doing. Obviously she didn't get it, despite being interviewed the day before me. At the time I felt really guilty about it as she has two small kids and lives just up the road from where I now work.
Today she rang out of the blue to say that she got another job just up the road from here. Ironically it is another job that I applied for, and turned down the interview when I accepted this role.
We had a nice lunch today and my feelings of guilt melted away!

Now I just need to work out how guilty I would feel if I stuck a £300 piece of technology* on my credit card... or perhaps more accurately how guilty Serena would make me feel!

* In Scotland this item sounds really small!

More Birthday Greetings

So today is my Mum's Birthday & is also Julian's Birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM AND JULES!

I'll be polite to them and not mention any ages!

An Early "Happy Birthday"!

Since the whole family are upping sticks and heading off to Barcelona next week, I need to get a few pieces of admin out of the way over the next few days.

Firstly "Happy Birthday Gareth"! I know I am a couple of weeks early, but I'll be away and I would have missed it!

I have spent literally minutes agonising over your present and decided that I could prove GK wrong about one of her earlier comments...

Hence, you have some "Art" for your house heading your way! I expect it up on the walls when I next visit!

To help you get the theme here are a few of the items I rejected when selecting as I didn't think they were "arty" enough!

Kiss

Kiss 2

ZG2

Teamwork

Bottoms Up

I won't give any hints as to what I did choose in the end! I just wish I could be there when you open them, especially if you wait to do it with GK!

The Agony of Choice

I needed some reading material this morning, so I went to buy the Star Wars anniversary edition of Empire magazine. To celebrate the the 30 years they have done 30 commemorative covers showing different Star Wars characters.

Talk about an Agony of Choice! Who do I pick? Who does that mean I reject?

The newsagent had about 12 copies and that gave me about 10 cover choices (No Han, Luke or Vader), however my choice was an easy one to make in the end...

Cover #6. "Size Matters Not!"

Scared!

This weekend's Dr Who was quite scary! The classic "monster at the window" moment made me jump!

I am struggling to remember something so this is thrown out to the wider audience...

Two things grabbed me in the episode:

First was the scarecrows... Wurzle Gummage aside, what Kids TV show had scary scarecrows in it? The ones on Dr Who really reminded me of something and there was a real creepiness to the memory that it twanged. Maybe it was "The Moondial"?

Second was the image of the little girl with the balloon. Serena reckons that that is an homage to a classic horror film. I think I know what she means, but I cannot place that memory either!

How Wude!

Star Wars is 30 years old this week and neither Gareth nor I have rambled on about it yet! Nor did we do the usual "Happy Star Wars Day" back on May 4th.

Either we are unwell or our nerdiness is subsiding!

I once had a conversation with Hubert (Serena's not so little anymore brother) about Star Wars and what it meant to "my generation". He told me that The Matrix trilogy defined his generation in a similar manner. Somehow I don't see the new Spiderman films being used in a similar fashion!

I have to laugh about Gareth's love of Star Wars, given that I am just that little bit older than him and actually saw Star Wars at the cinema when it first came out in 1977. I'd love to say that it should give me the moral high ground on any discussions we have, but when it comes to Star Wars he is a much bigger nerd than I am (and I never saw Episodes 5 and 6 in the cinema until the remastered versions came out in the late 90s).

I recently bought the Lord of the Rings and Star Wars DVD Trivial Pursuit games... Next time Gareth is down I'll have to take him on at the latter! I'll keep it shrink wrapped so I can't be accused of cheating! I am currently undefeated at the Lord of the Rings one (although Rena gives me a close fight most times), but then my LOTR nerdiness knows no bounds!

Scary Food

Jase and I try to get to the Farmers' Market in Chiswick every other week (and sometimes every week) to buy what we feel to be fresh food. However, we do some food shopping at our local supermarkets because it is so convenient.

I'm sure that some supermarkets are better than others and some branches are worse than others, but this news article really shocked me:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6676345.stm

Be wary of scary food out there! I think the important thing to take away from this is not to buy from the "fresh meat" counter...

We have the Technology!

I have gotten so used to having webmail, that I never really explored "other options" as far as checking my email when away from home.
Since Combined have blocked webmail on their internet servers I have finally been forced to review other options.
Friday afternoon had me on the phone to Orange and I now have my phone configured for GPRS and my ancient Dell PDA configured to use a Bluetooth modem. I can now download the headers to my PDA via my mobile and delete all your spam / choose what I want to read / knock out a few replies that I don't want to go via work.

Next step is for me to configure our laptop to do the same and work out how to use the same process when abroad.

Finally!

I now work for CICA as a Project Manager in the Business Transformation Team!

Their office is here.

No work email etc for a week or so!  Their IT is a bit slow!

Endless Waiting...

I have been waiting for something since 12.30 pm.

If it doesn't get here by 5.30 pm I am going to be well p'd off!

I just feel like the afternoon has been a complete waste of time.

iPod culture gone wrong

Enough Said!

One for the Girls

Here is a quick nod to all you laydeez out there.

Given that you are reading my blog then you must be a bit nerdy, so this site is definitely for you...  It just won an award for the best UK Technology Blog.

Movie Roundup

Time again for another round up of a few of the movies I have been watching recently.

Sunshine
Credible Sci-Fi Triller, but completely loses the plot towards the end. My nuclear physics may be a bit rusty but I was still going "Eh?" a bit too much!

Underworld Evolution
Kate Beckinsale is still a very sexy vampire, but again the plot of this film is just rubbish. I am glad I waited to see it on Sky as it wasn't worth paying good money to see.

Saw
I watched the first 15 minutes on Sky+ and then deleted it. I could tell this wasn't going to be up my street at all!

Snakes on a Plane
Brilliant - completely cheesy and plotless. A perfect way to unwind whilst studying for my exams!

Slither
Not as good as the hype at the time suggested. I loved Nathan Fillion though, as he plays a similar character to that in Firefly. A bit more tense than SoaP, but still good plain cheesy fun.

Mission Impossible III
Complete waste of time. I still think the first one was far and away the best and the rest were just poorly conceived. Both sequals were only worth watching for their female content!

And now for the big finale....

Spiderman 3
Hmmmm... This is a toughy. The film tries to do too many things. It feels like Sam Raimi was trying to do an Action Film, a Comedy Film and a Romantic Drama, but only had budget for 150 minutes of cinema time, so he squeezed out something that missed on all three.
The action is OK and the CG is vastly improved, so that Spidey no longer is obviously fake, however the action is too fast, so that everything becomes a blur. I miss the old days of slow-mo kung fu!
The comedy bits are straight "set pieces" which look a bit like they were penned by a separate writer. They do work and they are funny, but I am not convinced that they fit into the film very well.
The romance is awful! If I were MJ I would have kicked Spidey in the nads quite early on and told him to F#CK OFF!
As a bit of a comic book fan, I did enjoy the film over-all, but I don't think it is as good as numbers 1 and 2.

Jobsworth...

My first day signing on today...

I got there early and checked their computers for jobs, as per my Job Seekers Agreement.  As per my online searches on the Job Centre website there was nothing close to being applicable.

I decided to take a seat and handed in my signing on book, which was then taken to the relevant desk.  The girl sat there looked at it, looked at the clock and did nothing...  for 20 minutes.  I handed in my book at 10 am, my time slot is 10.20 to 10.30.  For 20 minutes she sat there looking bored and did nothing whilst I sat there looking bored doing nothing!

At 10.20 she called me over, we had a quick chat to prove I was seeking work and I signed my form.  At 10.23 I was heading out the door.

What a waste of bloody time!

Ups and Downs

It's been a rollercoaster day today.

I was in high spirits this morning after taking Lauren to nursery and then shortly before lunchtime I got a call to say that I had been knocked back by Ernst and Young.  I was disappointed by the feedback so I may give the interviewer a ring and ask for a bit more info on that.

I was due to meet an old friend for lunch, and I was really down for the whole drive over to her place.

Chatting with her cheered me up and I have also received some good feedback from the BarCap interview.  They have asked to delay decision making until Tuesday next week, but wanted to let me know that I came across really well and they thought I was a good fit for the role.

I've applied for a few more jobs and have been drinking iced coffee down by the riverside most of the afternoon - I'll probably be scarlet tomorrow!