Oh Dear!

When I started working in "the cage" down here (which is right next to the smoking area) I made a polite request to the management to see if an alternative arrangement could be made as the smoke was affecting me. It wasn't the odd one or two smokers but a constant stream throughout the day so that on the worst days the environment was continuously smoky.

Well its been escallated and a permanent site wide smoking ban is being enforced from today!

Oooopps - I feel my car might get wrecked!

The Breakfast Club

I've now been in the same hotel for 3 weeks, and have realised that there are some other people staying that are long termers. I don't know who these people are or what they are doing in Winchester but I have given them names and made up stories about them to pass the time.

The Mad Man
The mad man is very quiet and aggressive looking, he never says anything, eats a huge meaty breakfast to sustain his strength for strangling people. After hes finished he takes his Popeye style tattooed forearms for a smoke in the bar.

The Little Man
Reminds me of the "little man" in the UK version of the apprentice. Always looking down his nose at people and mutters under his breath at the waitresses, dines with the paper and his mobile phone, waiting for the big call that never arrives.

The Hoffmeister
A huge bear of a man who dines alone, or does he? A blonde woman always comes in moments after him and sits on the next table. They talk together, once they sat at the same table. Yesterday the Hoff received a phone call and he was shouting that he'd speak later - obviously his wife ringing with the " is that hussy having breakfast with you" conversation.
I saw the Hoff and the skinny lady out together in Winchester last night, Hoff was not at breakfast this morning.

The Big Lass
A larger lady, who tries every morning to (like myself) avoid a big greasy English breakfast, lets just say I have considerably more success.

Steve Martin
Well if it isn't its his double.

Trafalgar 200

Down here in the naval south its been the Trafalgar bi-centennial celebrations. I thought of popping down to see the re-enactment and fire works last night, but was glad I didn't! The park and ride system failed, and by the time they got back to their cars, had the pleasure of sitting in the traffic jam out of the car park until the early hours of the morning. There was some shocking weather too. Huge storm. Was going to go and get some Winchester shots last night.

Managed to get some work done again in the hotel last night, but feel quite run down this morning.

Mum's Home

Mum was discharged from hospital last night at about 8pm. She completed her treadmill test, and was actually better than the first time. She has been placed on the emergency out patients register at Glenfields for another angiogram to determine whether her stent worked. She seemed OK on the phone, but was tired.

Made some progress at work yesterday and can hopefully get back into loop testing today. Hotel is being renovated from this week, which means access to my room is difficult. It was also very busy last night/this morning with a coach load of German pensioners. Was disturbed to see a section of ceiling missing outside my room, with access to all the communications wiring. A lot of noice when I first got back too, but they must finish at 6.

Weekend Roundup

In summary VERY BUSY.

I don't know how Tasha copes when I'm away! Completely shattered after Saturday, but the Tasha's event went well and nearly £3000 was raised. Tasha's "1 cake a month for a year" went for nearly £60 which she was chuffed with.

Sunday, went shopping and Florence went to a party. I went to see Mum in hospital. The people on her ward all look REALLY ill - which I never find nice. I just hate hospitals, lots of really sick looking people getting pushed around as I arrived. Mum told the story of her "fainting" and she has had it confirmed that she was in VF. Today she is due to go on a treadmill so that they can "stress" her heart and get some good data from her (she said that it takes longer to wire you up than it does to do the walking bit). Her blood pressure is really low at the moment, which caused the initial fainting spell.

Car lights

Car lights,
originally uploaded by Phillip.

Was really hoping to get a shot of the moon (as its supposed to be at its biggest at the moment for 20 years), but its too cloudy. Need to get into some long exposure shooting. Bored witless, done the ironing, Tasha came and went for a few minutes earlier, but the auction sounded really good.

Food Prep. for Auction of Promises

Food Prep. for Auction of Promises,
originally uploaded by Phillip.

Today is the auction of promises. Tasha started work at 8am this morning going to get all the bread. The house is full of food - I think they are expected quite a few people to go. Some of the lots seem pretty good.

We've been trying to keep out of the way, so what with this and regersals probably won't get to see much of t'wife before going back to Winchester.

Bad Day

Bad day yesterday. Major issue was discovered, talked through with Dave Adams only to find that what I'm trying to do isn't possible in my version (but is in the latest). It basically means that I've got to redevelop a section of the code. I set all the templates up over night so hopefully be able to test the "new" theory today.

Dad phoned me yesterday to say that he'd had to take Mum into hospital with chest pains. My Mum didn't want to go and they didn't think that it was a heart attack, so fingers crossed.

Started watching Dog Town and the Z-boys very early this morning, wow!

Summer's Here

Another hot one this week, so much so that I've had to buy a fan, that I'm taking between work and the hotel room.

Saw a couple of Siemens bods in the hotel last night. Had some good gym action but looked like I'd showered in my clothes by the time it was over.

Forgot to swap my HDD over before leaving last night so couldn't do as much as I wanted to.

Watched a programme last night about the columbia shuttle - they now think that it was a "sprite" lightning bolt that caused the shuttle to break up and there were some pretty good bits of evidence (the bottom picture) to back it up.

On yeah, that always happens

I've been asked to feed some CDs into a machine a build a couple of PCS7 terminals while I'm testing. The machines are pre built with windows and just need the goodness putting on. I happily get it out of the box, fire it up, B A N G !

"Oh yeah, that always happens every time" - they are odd US power supplies in the PCs that don't like 240V. Mmmmm should you have told me that as you watched me plug it all in??? Spent the next 1/2 hour swapping out the PSU.

The Weekend

Warfield Fete,
originally uploaded by Phillip.

Wow - what a hot one. The temperature was 32C both days and Saturday night was soooo humid. Had a great time with Dan and Karen, not had chance to use the camera very much yet, but hopefully get something done next weekend. Shattered today as 3 of us spent the night in one room without a fan and I didn't get to sleep at all. Nate up at 0515. Dan's little wildlife garden was alive at even that time though and we saw a jay, a woodpecker and a nuthatch. The previous night we'd has a great evening outside BBQ etc then watched hedehogs come out and feed.

It was like a gangsta rap video...

..last night in the hotel gym. Basically, me (the gangsta!) and loads on bikini clad "bee-hatches" swanning around the pool side and jacuzzi.

Dropped back into reality quickly though and went and did some more work. Last night really muggy.

Heard on the news that the officials at stone henge are going on strike for the solstice.

A good day

Had a good day today testing, got some potential major problems sorted. Lack of experience in the area had me nervous, but everything worked OK. Plenty of work to be done in hotel when I got back too.

Seafood after a long day

A mentally taxing day yesterday on site. But mangaed to get some key things done that I thought would take longer, so to celebrate I went to the lock fyne fish restaurant. Mark wouldn't have been happy as I blew out and exceeded my budget, but had

• Baby pan fried squid
• Whole Sea Bass
• Green Salad
• Wine

Great atmosphere too - highly recommend it if your in Winchester, or I find out from the website another 24 locations in the UK. The weather has changed to yuk today, so have driven in, but at least I get here in time to get a parking space!

Early morning call

Early morning call,
originally uploaded by Phillip.

Taking the early morning call to the extreme, the fire alarms went off in the hotel this morning at 0650! Everyone had to be evacuated. At least I was dressed, some people were wearing some "unusual" atire - if anything!
An American guy was asking what it was that had caused the alarm, and I thought to myself that they should be telling us that information, but they didn't.
Walked into work in the sunshine (while its here). The weather is due to get cold and wet soon. The British Summer.

Its been a quiet day

Woke up at 4, tried to get back to sleep, but it wasn't happening, so decided to hit the road early. In and out of the Coventry office by 0630 and down to Winchester for 9 (with a stop for a bite to eat).

Today in the workshop has been REALLY quiet, the occasional person goes for a smoke in the corner, but other than that no contact at all. Things went with a slow start - lots of stuff that should have been done, hasn't which in turn means I end up doing it as its holding me up. Loads of work left to do on the panel networking wise.

The other tech specialists are having a meeting about our roles, so hoping for some feedback on that later.

Hope Wolfhart is in the hotel, otherwise its going to be a quiet eveing as well!

Morgan's birthday

Just been round to Morgan's first birthday party. Keeping up with these Jones' would be difficult they always lay on a good do!! Richard was ther jammin in the garden on the guitar, great food and the children fully entertained. We had to come away early as Florence had another party to go to!

Camera

Just aquired me a bit of a new camera package Nikon Coolpix 5700 and a load of gubbins. Tasha's brother has upgraded and has kindly offered me first refusal. It just happened that it was one of the models I looked at when I started thinking od upgrading. Quite handy that we are spending the weekend with them next weekend too - so I should be able to have a really good play with it.

Ladybower

Bridleway,
originally uploaded by Phillip.

Had a great day out with Stubbs today. We went cycling at LAdybower. The route taken from a book, was pretty extreme in places. The uphills were a nightmare but the downhills made it worth while. We both took tumbles but the new pads were good. Got "some air" on the jumps and hopefully Stubbs caught them on camera

sushi night

sushi night,
originally uploaded by Phillip.

I made this sushi the other night, and it was good. I was really pleased with my photos too.

Open Communications Workshop

Spent yesteday at head office. Got a couple of hours work in in the SAS office before trying to find the meeting room that we were having the workshop in. Doh! No one in reception knew were it was and time was ticking - not agood sign to be late for the new GM I thought. Reception managed to track him down and he came over to collect me from reception. "Your ears must be burning" he said. He we go I thought. "Yes, Ian was just singing your praises". Wayhey!!!!!

Why we choose our friends

My sister has just come round (out of the blue) and the first time that we've seen them since their wedding in at the beginning of April. She took Tasha to one side and said that the reason that she'd not been invited to her hen night was that no-one wanted her to be there! (nice) My sister basically told her that no one in my family likes her. An obvius upset Tasha then went round to my Mums. My Dad got one on him when Tasha said that she wouldn't be going round an Wednesday and they both started alying into her about how we are raising our kids and that they always feel unwelcome. To set the record straight the ONLY people we have round at the moment (do to Tasha being ill the last 2 years) is my Mum and Dad. Its such an exhausting procedure trying to make them happy that we don't have the energy to do much other entertaining.

Hence we choose our friends, unfoirtunately we are lumbered with our narrow minded families

New Phone line

The fact that this is getting posted is proof that my re-wiring of our phone sockets has been a sucess. No more trailing leads under the carpet and another of the "last few jobs" on the kitchen signed off. The main phone is now in the back room - what a luxury, so no more getting into the hall in 3 rings in the cold.

The Man Mountain

The main mountain that is MAVIS, has just phoned me (lunchtime Friday of half term week), to see if I'd go down to GRAIN tonight and work the weekend. THE - ARSE - FATTEST - MY - PART - KISS- OF. Forget that I might be doing something with my weekend and have my own project to work on before testing next week. Doh!

Working from home

Checking my pda blog link

Devil's Slide

Had a good go on the bike last night. Took a new route down the canal, which brought me out at a woodland area. There was a good wooded track and downhill section, but also a steep staired climb!

Winchester visit went well the other day and everything seems like it will be ready for my arrival next week. Although this might be delayed as I've been asked to attend a meeting for Grain phase 2!!