Well, you’ll be pleased to know that someone killed that alarm last night before bedtime so I got a decent night’s sleep.

What I totally failed to do yesterday was get the grass cut or wash the car.
I also forgot to bring into work with me this morning my sterilisation tablets
for my water bottle, so I’m having to drink cans of expensive fizzy water
instead.

As I mentioned before, most of the people in the department are actually
away at the moment, so I’m a little bored. I’m therefore filling my time
with trying different ways of installing Mandrake 9.1 on a machine just to
see what differences it makes.

I have zero social plans for the rest of the week, unsuprisingly. At least
I do have some household chores to fill my time though, like doing the washing,
cutting the grass etc. Saturday I drive down to Cornwall for a 2 week break.
I do hope the weather stays nice.

Yesterday’s Brazilian Grand Prix was sort of interesting in places, as much
for the farce as for the actual racing. It was all very silly and a bit dangerous.

Anyway, I’ll stop my whittering on now.

My experiment with cooking lamb worked nicely this evening.

Lamb steaks were covered in a paste made from Colman’s Mint Sauce, vinegar and some salt and left for about 3 hours to soak in. They were then fried on a very hot cast iron griddle pan with no oil or fat as lamb’s quite fatty anyway. They were cooked for about 10-12 minutes, turning regularly.

They were then served with mini new potatos and peas.

It’s twenty to nine at night.

That flippin alarm’s been going ALL DAY.

Ok, for a while it sounded as though its battery had run down, but now it’s got its second wind and it constantly shrieking away.

I just hope someone manages to kill it before it’s time to go to bed otherwise I’m likely to have a rather sleepless night in store.

It’s sunday morning, there’s a car alarm constantly going off a couple of hundred yards away making an intermittent racket and being really annoying. The sky is cloudy but for the time of year it’s quite warm.

I’m sitting here on my sofa trying to ignore the car alarm in the near distance as otherwise it’d send me rather potty.

So, on to happenings…

I did stay for Happy Hour in the department on Friday evening and had an enjoyable time talking to those who were there, most of whom were flying out to Caan(sp?) in the south of France to pick up a couple of 35ft yachts to sail to Nice to use as floating accomodation for the AGU/EGS/EUG combined conference there. As it turns out, it’s cheaper to hire these two yachts for a week than it would be to stay in a cheap hotel in Nice! (There are 12 people, 6 to a yacht.)

Yesterday turned out to be very productive. I managed to get my hair cut, get some new shoes (well, trail shoes, Columbia Sawtooth), buy a replacement timer light switch for the living room and fit it. It was also a very nice, warm and sunny day. You have to take the opportunity to make the most of these sorts of days when they appear at this time of the year. I even needed to turn on the sir conditioning on my car at one point to cool the inside down!

This morning, I was going to wash the car but it’s a bit too windy. Not only would I get rather wet, but conversely, the car would dry too quickly for me to wash it properly. I will probably cut the moss in the back graden this afternoon. The bits of grass which ar eleft are getting a bit tall. I’ll also probably do the washing and hang it outside.

Well, I went to see a film last night, “The Life of David Gale.”

It’s not a bad film. It definitely didn’t drag. In many ways, the style reminded
me of Erin Brokovich. There were one or two places where the story seemed
a little contrived though I’m not sure for what reason. The main one being
that the hire car had a faulty cooling system causing the end (and the beginning)
of the film to be a little over dramatic. Oh, and why did Kate Winslet’s
character bother to watch all the video in that bloke’s house when she was
on such a tight schedule? Surely in that situation you’d find the right video
cassette from watching a couple of seconds, eject it and run?

Anyway, these are minor quibbles. Even the sexual scenes were done with taste
and very little actual nudity or explicit flesh of any kind. On the whole
I’d give it an 8 out of 10 score as the story was mostly transparent so you
could guess what was going to happen at the end mostly by the time you got
half way through the film.

Now, I’ve no plans for the rest of the week. I’ll probably watch Buffy &
Angel tonight. I doubt I’ll turn up to Happy Hour in the department tomorrow
evening as none of the people i talk to will be here. The weekend will be
taken up with chores which need to be done before I go down to my parents’
place in Cornwall for Easter such as getting my hair cut, washing the car,
getting and fitting a security timer light switch for the living room. That
sort of stuff. Oh, and I may give the rear moss^H^H^H^Hlawn the first cut
of the year.

A – Act your age? It depends upon whether you take chronological age or mental age. You’re only as old as the *add member of opposite sex* you feel. In this case I’m therefore of indeterminate age.
B – Born on what day of the week? Well, cal(1) tells me it was a Saturday.
C – Chore you hate? I think washing up is amongst the worst.
D – Dad’s name? Raymond
E – Essential makeup item? None at all.
F – Favorite actor? Matthew Broderick, if only for Ferris Bueller and WarGames.
G – Gold or silver? Gold, it’s the most ductile metal, is great as shielding against ionising radiation and is a wonderful conductor. Oh, and some people think it looks nice.
H – Hometown? The closest town to where I lived when I grew up was Ampthill. The village was Houghton Conquest, Bedfordshire, England, UK, Europe, Sol3, Western Spiral Arm, Home galaxy, Andromeda group. That should tie it down.
I – Instruments you play? I got up to grade 1 classical guitar when I was 11.
J – Job title? IT Systems Administrator
K – Kids? None, I don’t breed goats.
L – Living arrangements? Alone with many old computers to support.
M – Mum’s name? Patricia
N – Number of people you’ve slept with? It depends upon whether you mean slept next to or had sex with. If the former, a couple. If the later, it’s something that happens to other people and not to me. Sex is as much a myth to me as storks bringing babies with only slightly more evidence (storks don’t live in Britian).
O – Overnight hospital stays? When I was 6 I stayed over with concussion for observation.
P – Phobia? I’ve no fears I could classify as a phobia as such.
Q – Quote you like? Well, it’s not a real person, more a character’s words… “It’s too late for the pebbles to vote. The avalanche has already started.” Kosh.
R – Religious affiliation? I’m not affiliated with any religion. You could call me a humanist, or an agnostic, or an atheist. Then again you could call me a duck or a dolphin, it has as much meaning to me.
S – Siblings? None at all. (Which, funnily enough, is the amount of damage a bulldozer would suffer if it ran right over a person.)
T – Time you wake up? Weekdays, 7:28am. Weekends, as late as possible.
U – Unique habit? None. I don’t wear habits and I’m not unique.
V – Vegitable you refuse to eat? It’s not a vegitable but a fruit.. Gooseberries.
W – Worst habit? Procrastination, when I can get around to it.
X – X-rays you’ve had? Chest, teeth, hand. I think that’s it.
Y – Yummy food you make? Well, I do a decent banana and walnut loaf. Give me the algorithm, sorry, recipe and the components, sorry, ingredients, and I’ll fabricate the desired gastronomic item.
Z – Zodiac sign? Aquarius. The age of which dawned and then faded away.