Friday, December 30, 2005

That was 2005

Good stuff:

Getting a new job (hopefully)
Going to Lisbon
Two public inquiries and three hearings
Starting a blog
Bng and K8 getting engaged and buying a house
Laura and Chris getting married (twice)
Volunteering for Planning Aid
The new series of Battlestar Gallactica

Bad stuff:

Falling out with friends and family
Stopped caring about my current job
Getting caught speeding
Bumping my car into a bollard (twice) (yes, I kept the second time quiet)
Some other stuff too that I am not posting

Favourite blog posts (in reverse date order):

( ^ _ ^ ;)
Double bookings
Sorry we missed you
Daylight
The hotel of evil

Thursday, December 29, 2005

NSFW

Thought I would do these links, which I have been meaning to put up for a while now, when folks are less likely to be at work over the Christmas to New Year break (because they are a little bit naughty).

Read
Girl with a One Track Mind.

Play with
Orgasm Girl.

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Back to work

Hmm, sucks to be me. Back to work already. Not sure how I ended up doing that. I seem to recall thinking ‘I’ll book some time off in the new year and enjoy the between Christmas and New Year lull and avoid the post New Year chaos.’ But I apparently failed to book off much time in the New Year too.

However (thinking ahead) leaving work before the end of the tax year means that four days have been slashed off my annual leave allocation so the remaining days off I have will be most welcome when (hopefully) moving flat time comes around.

Anyway the Christmas break was good. Four days of not being at work and getting yummy home cooked food are not to be snuffed at (and I now have two quiet days in the office before flat hunting recommences). For pressies I got a cook book, a stack of cash as well as the usual array of booze, chocolate, and socks. Sadly no flat screen tft monitor or any other jazzy electronic devices but there you go. Christmas sales were also a little disappointing as I picked up absolutely bugger all.

Hope everyone else got lots of nice stuff too.

(Have also added an emaily side bar thingy for a new way to send abuse and will hopefully keep it, subject to spam robots not attacking me).

Friday, December 23, 2005

A little more festive

Have an excellent Christmas everyone. Eat, drink, be merry, have fun and I hope that everyone gets just what they wanted from Santa (because I am sure you’ve all been very good this year).

Nick101 resumes on 28th December.

Thursday, December 22, 2005

As festive as...

I must say I feel a little irked that despite the supposedly festive season my blog has been about as Christmassy as a U-bend (and not even one with sparkly lights or tinsel). I have to confess that I am not the biggest Christmas fan, being unreligious and otherwise pretty cynical about the excessive consumerism of the event. It has its highlights but as with many (but not all) things is best kept in small doses. The Christmas preamble of festivities going back as far as October does somewhat desensitise me to the ‘big day’ and render it somewhat of an anticlimax I think.

In order to try and inject some (arguably needed) festive spirit into the blog I did try to find some festive links to insert but failed to find anything other than a number of similarly cynically minded takes on the event such as
Christmas Day with my new girlfriend's family as a circa-1982 text-based computer adventure game.

And that is pretty much where this blog post runs out of steam. However here’s to wishing everyone a happy Christmas.

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

That was Tuesday

One of the things I have deliberately steered away from in doing this blog thing is to recount in, what would no doubt end up being horrendously boring detail, the things I did today (or any day). For one, I doubt anyone would be interested in that kind of crap (but hopefully I can get away with it this one time) and two, I sure as hell would stop writing it because it would be really boring for me too.

However, I am possibly for the only time, going recount roughly what happened yesterday and document my fairly dull routine because it was a pleasant enough day (albeit uneventful) and fairly soon my routine is going to have to change and it would be nice to have a least some record of what I do, roughly, Monday to Friday.

Alarm goes off at 7:00, although I was awake at 6:30 but still don’t emerge from bed till about 7:20. Kicked off with a morning cup of tea, milk, one sugar. I really should quit the sugar thing but I like the sweetness in the morning (and I frequently and very hypocritically disapprove when I see other people putting sugar in, and wrecking, yummy tea at all other times of the day).

I usually kick off at this point by editing and publishing a blog post but don’t because I don’t feel like it and am not up to much at work so it can wait until then. A bit of BBC breakfast (Dermot and Natasha) and a bit of friends (one from just before Ross got married to Emily) before self cleaning rituals, get dressed, breakfast (banana, few grapes, juice, vitamin supplements), bit more BBC breakfast, remembering to smirk at the loosers trying to commute into London on local news (don’t get to do that much longer).

Leaving flat, try to sneak past crazy neighbours who I try really hard to pretend not to see but have to wave and say ‘hi’ after getting my name shouted at me and a series of whistles and whoops. This is followed by a very rapid de-icing of the car as I try to get away before the aforementioned neighbours attempt to engage me in conversation. Success. Spend more time trying to pull out of driveway (right turn, busy road) than it takes to actually get to work.

At work, exchange a couple of emails including one with Graham (my ex-boss) who is curious about me (possibly slash hopefully) moving to Maidenhead (also lives in Maidenhead). Not too sure if he is worried about me living on his doorstep or pleased to have a new neighbour he will know in the town? Email from Mark querying why I hadn’t done a blog post. Abuse is sent back along the lines of ‘you didn’t manage even one while you were covering the blog when I was on holiday.’ Blog post done next.

Get coffee, do some work. Issues today with some random shipping containers, approximately 1000 square metres of unauthorised storage and a certain reality TV building. Get bored of that. Read Questionable Content and browse del.icio.us (very relieved it is up and running again after crashing on Sunday and being out all Monday too). Bit more work. Meeting mid-morning between me and our very nice landscape girl, Louisa, and this guy about some badly needed landscaping around a two house development that didn’t quite go according to plan (but I won’t go into that now) so there’s evergreen trees and hedges going like everywhere possible.

It was Christmas lunch day in the office where everyone brings in food and drink etc. and folks hang around and chat for an extended lunch which was pleasant. Thankfully very little in the way of awkward management types hanging around (and everyone politely trying to avoid them while they pretend they’re not being avoided and that they want to be there). Saw Megan and children for possibly last time before they head off back to New Zealand after Christmas. Megan gets a hug. Will miss Megan, and yes ok probably the children too, a bit.

Afternoon is kinda dull. Read ScaryGoRound (could the witch that Amy burnt to death in the oven be her mother?). Construct threatening letters to two people with unreasonably bright lights (signage and floodlighting). Bored of that. Talk to Laura about Christmas shopping, Mark about the new Prince of Persia game. Send links to cute overload and some funny smoking thing to Gem and a list of new proxy servers to Andy and Mark to try and bypass work’s restricted website access thingy (none of which work as it turns out).

Get bored. Go home. Take Mark with me as car his car is in the shop and play computer games (Halo 2 and Need for Speed) until he goes to football (assume he got home ok without car).

Dinner is chicken stir fry with red peppers, mushrooms, onion and rice with Teriyaki sauce (should really be beef or seafood with noodles with Teriyaki but I have neither of either). Watch Demolition on Channel 4 – about Cumbernauld shopping centre, god that is a planning and architectural disaster and the representative from the Lanarkshire (?) (whatever) Council is a disgrace.

Get an email from Mike, turns out Kiera Knightly was in Star Wars Episode 1. Hmm, lost that bet then. Thought he had forgotten about it too.

Write (most of) this blog post. Realise while trying to work out how to spell Teriyaki that I have forgotten to put remaining Teriyaki sauce not used at dinner in fridge. Put Teriyaki sauce in fridge. Think about ironing shirt for work next day. Don’t bother to iron shirt.

Watch part of a re-run of Sex in the City, get bored. Start reading new book, High Society by Ben Elton courtesy of Kate, as finished How to be Good by Nick Hornby last night (good book, mildly reflective, can relate to lead character).

Tired. Go to bed at approximately 11:45.

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

More houses

Amidst my (really rather minor) housing crisis, Bng and K8 move in to their new house today. So big congratulations to you for that guys. I would give you a hand moving in but I am kinda stuck a few hundred miles south.

Anyway, the house looks great, from the cursory external inspection and peering through the windows I got to do. I hope it will be a great house. Of course I am expecting an invite at some point in the New Year…

Monday, December 19, 2005

How much?!

So I have found this block of flats in Maidenhead that I have kinda fallen for.


The block is pig ugly to say the least, being generic 1960s mass produced crap (see photo). Moreover, according to Kate (former Maidenhead resident) it is in the arse end of Maidenhead (although this still seems a lot nicer than Langley and I am not even going to bother to compare it to Slough) and it is a fair chunk of a walk from the station. There are presently two flats up to buy and two for rent. There are only about thirty flats in total in the development so that nearly 15% are up for grabs at Christmas time is hardly a glowing recommendation.

I still like it though which is possibly slightly irrational (or stupid).

I have seen a bunch of flats in Maidenhead now and I have to say what I can afford is more than a little miserable aside from the aforementioned ugly block of flats in the arse end of Maidenhead.

I appear stuck in the infinitely unsatisfactory position of having to trade off commuting time with a nice flat with a decent area with paying to live there and (of course) I can’t afford them all…

Anyhow, flat hunting is now suspended until after new year.

Friday, December 16, 2005

Communication

It has now been three and a bit months that I have been doing this blog thing. Despite getting irked by it on occasion, particularly when I don’t feel like writing anything, it has been a fairly enjoyable experience and feedback has always been really good (but as I think I have said before I doubt anyone would tell me outright that it royally sucked). One of my original reasons for starting it was to try to keep in touch with people and to an extent it has succeeded in that intention, although predominantly in ways that I was not expecting (as with many other things).

The main day-to-day issue that has arisen out of this is when talking to people I sometimes find myself at a loss when people appear to continue conversations based on blog posts. Not that I don’t welcome this. It’s nice to know that people not only read what I have written, but also paid attention and retained some of the merry nonsense that I come out with.

However this can be mildly unnerving from my point of view (but don’t get me wrong, not in a bad way). I do appreciate that people actually read the blog but I never really know how much people have read or remembered and indeed sometimes wonder whether I have had a conversation along similar lines with someone or exchanged emails etc. I don’t really feel I can say, ‘so you have been reading the blog’ because it sounds a little Nick-centric so on occasion end up floundering slightly trying to recall what, if anything, I have posted and how likely this person is to know about it until generally it is resolved with a smile and a ‘yes, Nick, I have read the blog’ (or not).

This can disappoint on occasion though too as sometimes people seem to know more about what’s up with me than I do about what’s up with them leaving me a little on the back foot. It can perhaps seem a little invasive I think to insist on persistent questioning to try to bring myself back up to a level par.

Ultimately really the blog thing is only ever going to be one way impartation of information as folks are unlikely to post feedback comments telling me all about them (but you can do that too if you like). And despite some coaxing nobody else seems to have taken up their own blogging reigns…

Anyway, I guess what I am trying to convey with this post is that I appreciate people reading the blog. That is, as I have said, one of my main reasons for doing it. And I think I would now be slightly upset if everyone stopped reading and my enthusiasm would probably go out of the window.

So thanks for reading folks, please keep coming back (in spite of the weak posts) (yes, yesterdays was pretty dire I know) and don’t forget to let me know what’s up with you too.

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Space monkeys

I don’t know if anyone else has been watching Space Cadets on Channel 4. I have been watching when the opportunity arises with some interest. The sets are well set-up and persuasively done and the premise is certainly entertaining.

But the more I watch, the more I think that everyone in the supposed space shuttle must all be actors and the whole thing is a giant hoax on the viewers. It must be, surely, right. Nobody can be that dumb as to think they can be in a nice roomy big-brother style space shuttle, pissing about in orbit around planet earth, with no lack of gravity issues or any other serious considerations about breathable air, fuel consumption, flight trajectory or any of the many, many other serious issues that arise with space travel. I am not the only one who thinks this may be the case.

Perhaps I am being unduly harsh or cynical on the 'contestants.' If your environment looks the part, everyone is telling you that that is what is going on and you have no base line of previous experience of the sensation to refute this I don't doubt it could be difficult to make that leap of faith. But seriously, come on. You're supposed to be in a space shuttle floating round in orbit but you are not floating too. It ain't star trek you know.

Its over on Friday (I think) so I guess I get to find out whether my theory is correct or whether the 'cosmonauts' really are that dumb.

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

( ^ _ ^ ;)

The Japanese are crazy. If you didn’t know that already perhaps the unnecessarily complicated Japanese emoticons will sway you a little. Or how about the crazy signs and logos that they come up with (you may have seen this already, its been going round the internet for years but is still funny).
And if none of that persuades you perhaps the computer game where the objective is to take photos up girl’s skirts will convince you. Don't believe me, watch the video.

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

F**k Langley

Well yesterday was way interesting. Saw loads of nice places and some which really were pretty nice. It’s been a long time since I have seen a property and been excited about possibly living there. The last time I think was when I moved out of London with my parents into their present house.

Most places I have lived, whilst decent (with a certain second year at University exception), I can’t say I ever recall being actually excited about. More a, ‘meh, that’ll do’ or in the case of my present flat when I first saw it, ‘hmm, is that it?’

Suffice to say I like Maidenhead but I am not saying anything more in case I jinx it or something else irrational. I am going back today to try and reconcile some unexpected eventualities.

So erm… not too sure what happened to Christmas shopping day which was supposed to be today. I think it might be a rapid tour round John Lewis to see what those nice folks there can suggest.

And really, fuck Langley and fuck Slough too (I really hope I don’t regret saying that).

Monday, December 12, 2005

All change (no really this time)

Ok, so contract is returned to [withdrawn], notice handed in at present work and today I start the first day of my quest (proper) to find somewhere new to live.

First up on the list is Maidenhead but I still have that nagging feeling that it is just going to be too expensive. Nevertheless, I need to go have a look around to see what I can get. We’ll have to see what comes of that.

Conscious that I might not be able to afford Maidenhead I took a daring look around Langley this weekend as it has a reasonable compromise between being more affordable, closer to Ealing and not being Slough. And to demonstrate that Langley isn’t in Slough I have produced this helpful map:

Anyhow, now that I have [withdrawn] in the bag of course I am now (I say now, I mean at some point…) going to have to go back through all my posts and withdraw reference to it as it rather conflicts with my being paranoid about blogging work stuff.

Friday, December 09, 2005

Assault on the control room

Today I hand my notice in. I wonder how that will go…

Update:

... went fine. Guess I am really going then.

Thursday, December 08, 2005

Megalomania lite

I have been having a lot of fun over the past few weeks with NationStates, which is a very simple to use on-line game (none of your multi-online-super-role-playing, my-nob-wizard-beats-your-death-ork nonsense mind). It’s basically a text based game where you control your fictitious nation and guide it through amending government policy, generally with extreme, unexpected and gently humorous results. You get a new theoretical scenario each day which shapes the way your nation works out.

Check out the status of my nation, Bedlamania, with its rather worrying lack of any legislative controls at all, apparently serious crime and gambling problems, also suffering from massive deforestation (none of which I intended, honest, I was just trying to be nice).

For the megalomaniac in all of us, but without any kind of major social or political repercussions.

Update:

And could today’s scenario be more appropriate to the timing of this post:

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Vertigo

So Mark conceded that one of the posts that he was ‘going to do’ whilst ‘filling in’ for me when I was on holiday was on the Millau Viaduct in France. I was thinking of doing a post on it at some point anyway as it is a very cool looking bridge.

It is yet another structure designed by good old
Norman Foster, who if you don’t know is responsible for the glass roof over the British Museum, the erotic gherkin in London (real name the Swiss Re Tower) and the 2005 RIBA Sterling Prize nominee, the MacLaren Technology Centre in Germany amoungst many other things.

The Millau Viaduct is really pretty high up, aside from being rather smart looking. You could fit
One Canada Square (known to the proles as Canary Wharf) underneath it and that is a big building is big (trust me, I’ve been up it).

However if you want a truly vertigo inducing structure, how about the proposed
Grand Canyon Skywalk, a U-shaped bridge suspended 1200 metres above the floor of the Grand Canyon… with a glass floor.

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Too much time on the internet

Arguably I spend far too much time on the internet. However, one pastime that I can say with confidence that I have never engaged in is that art of egosurfing. Not that I would find very much about me as what is probably the principle source of information about me, namely this blog, is not picked up by internet search engines.

Of course, this clearly was not an alien phenomenon to
this poor guy who screwed himself over at a border checkpoint when an unnecessarily web savvy border guard found the guys blog on search engine and put him in hot water on account of it.

However, this is not to say that this blog is not unfindable. I recently welcomed my first visitor from Australia who found me, no doubt accidentally, and with probably a massive lack of interest, care of those folks at
technorati.

The big question is whether you spend too much time on the internet. I think this is a good test…
Read this. If you understand it, I think you spend too much time on the internet. If you think its funny, like I did, perhaps its time to go into internet dependency counselling.

Monday, December 05, 2005

Bored of inevitability

It is now nearly a month since I was provisionally offered the [withdrawn] job and my provisionally accepting yet still no contract has been arranged. I am therefore stuck in this weird limbo land where I can’t hand my notice in at my present work in case something goes wrong (and knowing my luck, if it could, it would) but nor can I start sorting stuff out to get ready for a change.

So at work I have no enthusiasm for anything that I do but this is tempered by the fact that I have no firm guarantee yet of actually getting to go. This is added to my two months notice I have to run (once I am actually in a position to hand it in) and I can then actually leave.

Meanwhile at home I am undertaking the eminently dull task of sorting the three years worth of crap that I have accumulated into some semblance of order so that if I ever get the green light on the [withdrawn] job at least I can move fast(ish). This does not take away from it being a painfully dull task.

Anyway, so it looks like it will now be the beginning of February at best until I can leave my present job. The sugary glaze on this scenario though is that my parents are on holiday in Australia and New Zealand during February and March so if I get forced out of my current flat I can live at their nice house in the country rent free for two months (without the parental involvement that would drive me nuts). Of course the commute would suck more than an industrial grade Dyson and there would be no broadband, or sky, or friends, or take aways, or street lighting and then of course there are the ritual witch burnings and pagan festivals that happen in darkest Buckinghamshire but for zero rent I am not complaining about that (at least too much) (for the short term).

So another weekend passed of kicking around waiting for my own paperwork to catch up with me so I can get my life moving again.

Meanwhile the conundrum of where to live next (permanently) continues to play out. No matter how much I try to convince myself that I would be happy with a walk from North Ealing tube station to the office after arriving there from wherever else on the Piccadilly line, lets face it, I am not going to be happy with that as it is a longer walk than my present commute to work (in the theoretical situation that I walked that) after however long on the tube.

So I am back to considering things along the
suburban rail lines into Ealing Broadway which is way closer. But I refuse to live in Southall, Hayes or West Drayton because they are at the bottom of the runway at Heathrow airport, are really rough, chav strongholds and well, there are other erm… ethnic issues that I really shouldn’t have a problem with but just do ok (I am sorry if that makes me a bad person). So this leaves somewhere called Iver, Langley (a glorified mobile home park), Slough (no comment), Burnham (read Slough), Taplow (again read Slough) and Maidenhead…

Friday, December 02, 2005

Blogatorium

Ok, two posts today, this one being the second, which I have decided to do because I have a small amount to write on two distinctly different things and likely if I don’t post on both now it won’t get blogged at all.

So my friend Bng’s blog appears to have been officially pronounced dead which does seem a shame although I do understand why. Nevertheless, I am going to keep the permalink to his blog for a little while on the off chance he may reconsider (otherwise it goes with my next permalink review).

However, Bng’s throwing in the towel at this stage is also slightly reassuring as at least if I ever get bored of this blog thing then I would not be the first person (I know) to throw in the blog towel.

Inquiry debrief

What with the whole getting caught up with the holiday thing I forgot to note a couple of highlights of the inquiry I was in last Wednesday. So my three favourite moments were:

1. Getting to call a mobile home park ‘a little twee for my tastes’ whilst under cross examination.
2. Getting heckled by the same residents of the mobile home park for saying other disparaging things about their mobile home park.
3. When our counsel got the appellants expert witness to hold his head in his hands after one of their witnesses blew apart a chunk of their case of their own accord.

Thursday, December 01, 2005

Winter break 2

Now that I have worked out how to transfer photos from my phone onto my pc, here are a couple of the better photos (but far from great) that I snapped:

Me and Mike in a café in Amsterdam.

Nick and Mike with random girls whose names I don’t recall (and yes well done Mike who pulled the one on the far left) at around 4am in Amsterdam.

Nick and Mike in Amsterdam.

Me and Nick in the same place, but this photo is better... Notice the menu advertises 'atomic blog chicken,' we went for the nachos though.


And a funny sign, that probably isn’t all that funny at all, thanks to those crazy Belgians.

There are a few more (but not many as I had to keep an eye on the phone battery) but they are pretty dire and are not getting posted.