Half life

I'm 35 today. half way through my traditional lifespan. Thinking about all the things that have happened in my first half life, I wonder what the next 35 years will bring?*

happy birthday to me.



*I'm hoping for instantaneous transportation and downloaded learning:-) Oh, and replicator technology lie in Star Trek!

Happy aniversary...

Never mind queenie & Phil the greek. There is a far more important anniversary today. Aggie and I have been together for 15 years today (well tonight if you want to be picky), working on the date that we first started a "romantic" relationship.

Not bad considering we frst met when I was gooseberrying his date with my flat-mate (at her request, becasue she was too scared to tell him that between asking him over for dinner, and him actually coming over for dinner, she had started dating someone else), on our first date I was a "little" dunk and fell asleep on his bed, only to scarper without saying goodby at 4am, and his first introduction to my family consisted of a lot of rapid fire yelling and swearing, and comletely ignoring him.

it took my mother three years to learn his name. And me five years to stop telling him he was just a quick fling that would be over tomorrow.

A lot has changed since I was a teenager. I reckon we have more to be proud of than Queenie's 60 years!

Lets make spend lots of money

My mother sold the car this morning. Wayhey - 6 months gross salary in one go:-)

Of course, she has to pay it in to her bank, wait for it to clear, send me a cheque, wich i have to pay into my bank, and wait for it to clear before it's real, but what's that got to with it? This morning, once I had dragged myself out of bed, groaned about my hangover a bit and tried the traditional cure of eating a large fried breakfast, we all wandered down to the horror that is PC World and bought 2 new laptops one for me and one for Mstr A.

Aren't credit cards great sometimes?

Aggie had been researching the best ones to get for a while, and unfortunately PC World was doing the best spec for the right price (I had set a lmit of £1k for the two). So they got our business. Which was a shame, as they are abysmal in so very many ways. My laptop was th last one in the shop, wich meant i got the display model. I tried for a discount for that, and salesman has to go off and ask the floor manager. No luck "it's already been discounted by £30off book price and we don't make much money on the machines". Yeah right. I tried for a discount for buying two too, and he went of again to ask, but no luck there either:-) I think the salesman was a bit disappointed in us by then. We did make it worse by refusing to even look at any of the dodgy insurance/tech support policies he tried to flog us. "It even runs right alongside the manufacturers guarantee, it doesn't replace it" No shit sherlock, it's illegal to "replace" the manufacturers guarentee, which I did point out to him.

Anyway, we get to the paperwork bit. I pay, and we point out that the PC World website tells us that we get a free cover for Mstr A's computer with it (it's got interchangeable covers you know - to look cool and up to date!). Salesman does not know anything about that. We ask him to look it up, and there it is, on their website. He's not sure that they have any in stock. I suggest he realy ought to go check. Off he goes to see the floor manager. Again. Eventual he reappears with a football one. Mstr A does not like footall. I ask for a different one, but he cliams it's the only one the have in stock. We take it anyway, on pinciple. And soon it will be on Ebay:-)

He goes off to find out if my display model has been packed up ready to take. No, the've lost the key to unlock it fro the display. Salesman spends several minutes running around in a panic. Eventualy he finds the key. The floor manager comes and whispers in his ear. Uh oh They need to do a full system restore because it has been used. I say we'll wait. He goes talk to the tech guys. I may be up to two hours. To do a system restore? Huh! But I give him my phone number, and say I'll come back to collect it when it's ready and off we go.

3 1/2 hours later I've heard nothing, and the shop will close in 30 mins. I go back to find out what's going on. The tech guy said he was just given a laptop and told to do a system restore, no-one said why, when or that I would be collecting it. I told him I wanted it toay and would wait. However long it took, and no, I didn't cae tha the shop was shutting in 30 mins! 20 mins later, i get my new laptop. at last.

Aggie has spent all afternoon setting it up and putting everything on. It's hardly plug and play! i wonder ow much PC World would have charged to do that? But still it's done. I should now be able to get online whenever I want! Whoppee:-)

I think perhaps I should wait until I have the money before I spend any more though.

Beowulf birthday

I went off to see Beowulf last night at a preview showing for SleepyPete's birthday. It was pretty empty considering it was apreview - on the night that all the christmas stuff opened too, so the place was heaving with people when i arrived, all looking at the grotto & skateing on the fake ice\ or throwing fake snow balls at each other. I don't know why - if they'd waited a couple of hours everyone was scraping the ice from their windscreens:-)

anyway, we had been intending to catch up with everyone after they had eaten but in time to see the film, but when I got home from work Aggie was not feeling up to going out and offered to babysit the whole evening, so I got to join the gang for pizza first too, which was nice. The poor waitress must have been terribly disappointed though. She would have been rubbing her hands at the thought of a birthday group to serve. then when she took the first drinks order, it must have occured to her that we are, perhaos, the most boring birthday party in the world. "diet coke for me, I'm driving" I said, "and me", "me too" "same here" "same for me" then, just to be exotic, there was one "coffe please". We`all had a little pizza and a garlic bread, then all had exactly the same dessert too:-) Oh well, I expect there were more flamboyant people in later:-)

Then the film. I was pretty worried about it tbh. All i had heard`about it was that it was animated, and mostly advertised by pictures of Angelina Jolie in the nude! (That sentance should get me some hits:-)!) I'm not a great Beowulf fanatic. I have read it, many years ago, in a fairly poor translation (My linguistic skills do not stretch to anglo-saxon unfortunately), but I can't claim any great affinity for it. But all the same, it is the oldest written epic in English history. It deserves some respect, and Hollywood is not known for it's ability to respect original works!

But actually i was pleasantly surprised. The animation was fantastic. Each time I see a new animated film I am amazed at how much better it is. This was close to film quality. except the horse. They couldn't do that very well for some reason - the dog was brilliant, and the other animals good, but not the horse. Or the mail which didn't move right. But I think that was because they were copying the crappy knitted mail Hollywood is so keen on using for it's actors, rather than the riveted metal rings that weigh 4-6 stone that real soldiers wore.

***************SPOILER ALERT***************SPOILER ALERT***********************

There were some bits I didn't like. I was not at all keen on zombie Grendel. In the poem he is quite decidely a man, if a "monster" of a man, and outcast from the village he terrorises and descended from Cain, and I thought the zombie look rather detracted form the "monstrous man" image. I wasn't overly keen on the whole undermining of the hero thing really. It's all very well adding in fantasy so you can have Angelina Jolie in the buff, but for the hero of a heroic epic to be unheroic in both battle and morality is a bit off imho.

but then again there were some bits I loved. It was beautifully and skillfully shot (if that can be said about an animated film). It was set in the right place at the right time, with a good attempt at giving a flavour of the people then rather having modern people living then. I liked the old English Grendel and his mother spoke, and loved the reading of the "original" Beowulf in the background during the feast scene. The fight with the dragon was fantastic. Shame it was the only proper fight!

Over all, I give it four stars, which is pretty good for me:-)

Money isn't everything

I know that. I understand that. I even believe that and have acted upon it, giving up a well paid job for a very low paid one. But sometimes it can be a baffling way of keeping score...

I've been holding the fort at work for the past couple of weeks. Last week the head of dept was on leave, and this week he is in court. No 2 in the dept is on leave most of last week and this week too and the junior person only works a couple of days a week anyway. It's not been a problem. They have sorted out as much as possible, left notes on what to do on everything foreseeable, and I can always pass on anything complicated to another solicitor who won't be able to help but is qualified to tell someone that:-) But it does mean that I have been doing quite a lot of "real" work - stuff that is actually costed and claimed for.

Yesterday I received a bill for a report that an "expert" had completed on a part of one of our cases. I am sure that the expert was well trained and experienced. I am sure that they put a lot of work, time and effort into their report. Indeed, they billed us for just over 100 hours work - which includes preparation, travel and observations. Their bill for this was slightly more than my full year's salary! For 100 hours, on one case.

i think I'm in the wrong job:-)

Oh well, i'm expecting 6 months pay for my car to turn up at the weekend. Of course, i have mentally spent it already, but still £6k is £6k :-)

Bear with me

The computer is ****ed again. More blogging to follow shortly........

with luck!

New computer being bought out of car money if/when it arrives!!!!

Money & fun

We've been sorting stuff out this week. Today we sucessfully sold LMB's old bed (well, it wasn't that old...), and Aggies cross trainer (ha ha, had it for two years, used it two times - well worth it!). This has made a little more room in the house (not alot, but it's a start) and put enough money into our getting rid of stuff fund to buy Mstr A his own tent for next season, which will be nice for him, and us:-) Now we just have to find one we like for the right price!

It's been a very sucessful morning all reound really. More space should mean Aggie will be able to get on with the bedroom walls again (yeah right). The kids and I all made a nice banana cake which kept them occupied and means we have yummy cake to eat:-) Now they are`all fired up to cook all the time. Aggie and I have both made some bread - I made a loaf first thing this morning when I woke up, promised the kids toast for breakfast, then discovered we didn't have any bread in the house. Oops. When he saw it he decided that he would ahve to make his own loaf to see whose was best! I ask you. MEN!

Later this afternoon Nanny is coming over to babysit the kids while we go off partying for CQ's birthday. We're going bowling, then for a meal, then for drinking and dvd's:-) Aggie is designated driver as he can't drink anyway due to antibiotics for the plueresy, so i may well have a tipple or two.

tomorrow is the company archery tourney. I am reasonably confident that I will come last anyway, having hardly touched the bow all season, but it should be fun. Plus it will be a good time to discuss our plans for next year - I know they are not too happy with the idea of dual grouping, so i'd rather get everything out in the open and explain our reasons nice and early. Looking at the other groups nevent list (ours isn't finalised yet) I think we will only attend a couple of tem anyway - too many are too far away, and the whole point of dual grouping is to not make long journeys!

The kids are `all being rather sweet still. I don't know how or why! At the moment Mstr A is glued to the computer, and the girls are running round and round in circles in the front room talking on their phones. Aggie asked why they had to run round in circles to talk on th phone. "becasue we want to talk fast"

Obviously dad! :-)

OHMIGOD!

Ohmigod, ohmigod, ohmigod........ I really DID win a car!!!!!

here it is:

AND, they've nicely gone and put the price up for them so I should get a goodly amount:-) If it sells:-)

Anyone in London want to buy a car?