Computer Clear-out

Yesterday was quite productive for me. We popped into town and came away with a rowing machine (part of the post Christmas get fit theory)! Tasha had to go to rehersal so I started processing some pictures, whilst at the same time trying a bit of education in the Adobe Bridge package. I've now re-thought how I take images off the camera and store them, making new file names with the Bridge package. I also looked into (and wrote) some new actions in Photoshop which help me process images for Flickr. One of my other tasks for the holidays, was egtting all the music into one place and converting the ID3 tags, and formatting the iPod and putting it all back. Its taking a long time just getting the music from individual CDs onto the hard drive.

Today, I have to go up to the caravan and try and mend the sliding door. I bought some supplies yesterday, so hopefully I can engineer a reasonable solution, without causing too much damage. I am going to have to cut into the pelmet to get access to the slider rail but hopefully that will mean that a much more substantial fixing can be used.

Dave popped round last night, with an invitation to Evie's birthday party on Monday - it was good to see him not looking so tired!

Full on Winter weather

Thw snow that had fallen the other day is now nicely frozen (another day without the temperature getting above freezing). We have had a light dusting of snow and loads of frost. the clouds look heavy with snow today, and they are that kind of uniform grey colour.

Went into town again to get the items that I went into town for yesterday and forgot when I got distracted in the sales!

Got some DIY items for (hopefully) mending the door in the caravan.

Tasha is going to have her hair cut off today, a new style for the new year. Dan & Karen have arrived at Gill & GJ's so hopefully catch up with them tomorrow. Cooking a thai meal tomorrow night so hopefully that'll turn out OK.

The pizza evening with Jane & Nigel went down a treat. Pizzas were to big (as usual) but the wine and banter flowed freely.

Good to get out with the camera today, hoping to go for a good walk somewhere before the snow melts (even better if we get some more). If its not too cold, might even try a night shot later.

Snow fall

Snow fall,
originally uploaded by Phillip.

Well it is a slightly belated white Christmas here now - the snow has lasted but is now frozen solid. Its not got above freezing here all day. Took a brief visit to town this morning, wasn't too bad when we arrived at 9, but by the time we left it was frantic.

Had a call from Will - they are coming to visit bank holiday Monday.

Jane & Nigel coming round tonight, have made some pizza dough and sauce.

Happy Christmas

Well its all over now (the actual day anyway). It all went very well. the Christmas food shopping was hilarious (I went without kids), so I was unstressed, but there were folk there climbing over the stands to get at stuff - INSANE!

We are spreading the present thing out, as we had our presents withthe kids yesterday morning, then Tasha's mum, dad and gran came over for an excellent dinner (well done Tasha) and we had more presents. My folks are over for brunch this morning, with another batch, then Tasha's brother is coming over just before new year!!

I prefer it that way as it can be too overwhelming in one hit.

Just getting the fire started for more present opening, and eating. Bring it on. I'll try and get some photos processed so that I can blog them later

Work is over for 2005

Work is now over until January and the last day was really quiet. There were only 4 engineers in and our brand new shiny phone system went up the swanny, so we didn't have the phone ringing at all for the whole day.

I was glad of all that because the weekend had been manic. After Florence's ballet lesson on Saturday, she had a Christmas performance in the evening. It was an hour long and there were a couple of occasions we both had tears rolling down our faces. She was so ellegant. On Sunday we drove over to deliver a few more presents to the Aunty Sue side of the family and have a good look around their new house. Were surprised to see Graeme who has moved back in for a bit, but it was good to see everyone - can't remember the last time it was. In the afternoon we went to Martin & Alisons and met up with Colin & Lisa and had the Beacon Road Christmas do. Martin had cooked a whole fillet of beef, which was fantastic. the kids had a great time and the 4 of them played really well together. There was lots to drink and then poor Tasha had to go off to rehersals, although the alcohol certainly lessened the chore!

Today has been really slow, Florence didn't need taking to school as she was on the walking bus, Archie came round and has occupied Nate and Tasha has been making the secret recipe dough for the mince pie orders she has for Christmas. I was left with nothing to do but sort out the Christmas shopping credit card bills!!!

Exam Over

Took my CFSE exam this morning, and was pretty nervous (mainly due to the fact that it has been over 10 years since I took an exam). It was split into a 2 hour multiple choice and a 3 hour case study. I thought that there would be sufficient time, but I was scribbling right to the last minute! Speaking to Dimitris after the exam we took completely different philosophies. The object of the exam is to pick 50 points worth of questions (from 100) some questions are worth upto 20 points, some as low as 2. Obviously the bigger points also take longer to complete. I started with some big questions and hardly did any on the basic ones, where as Dimitris did all the 2 pointers and made up the difference with 4 and 8 pointers.

At the end of the exam the chappy told us that the exam body (who also do safety feed studies etc) are looking to increase there numbers in the UK and if we got good results he'd be intouch. He said there are 2 different kinds of position and employee and a partner (I think this is like buying a frnchise), but the average partner salery is £150K!!!! --- SHAM - the f!ck - ON MF!!

Buncefield

The Buncefield fire is still raging this morning, and as it is one of the sites that we work on it was the topic of several conversations yesterday. Fortunately no one has been killed in the incident, and Mark spoke to his contacts from the site.

There are at present 3 tanks still burning, but the fire crews are hope to put those out today. The news earlier said that it could be another week before the air quality on site is sufficient for investigations to begin, but from the picture that were shown, there doesn't seem to be an awful lot left.

Christmas Lights

Christmas Lights,
originally uploaded by Phillip.

Well the festive period has begun - and it was a full on decorating weekend. Starting on Friday evening, when I picked Florence up we went straight to my Mums for the 1st decorating session. After ballet on Saturday we decorated our trees (we put one up in the front room, and one in the back). Sunday we had a fantastic swim - Tasha did a great job with Forence again, who is rapidly getting more confident. Nate was spurred on by this progress too and chucked his rubber ring. In the afternoon we went to Gill & GJs house and decorated their tree.

Digital TV on my laptop

Yesterday I received my DVB USB TV Receiver, and had a quick play with it last night. Unfortunately I couldn't get a signal where I live with the supplied mini aerial. Reading the manual it explains that if you are indoors you should try and use a normal rood top aerial. This again caused a problem as our is shit! We actually have two, and I've only tried one up to now, but I got the same "Low signal" message. Looking on the freeview website at out postcode I got a message to tell me that I need a "wideband" aerial as digital TV is broadcast using a different type of transmitter in my area (some areas can use the same type of aerial)

I brought it into work this morning to see if I could get a signal here, and I checked the coverage again

Another mention in the manual is that weather conditions play a big role too. I need to try again at home with the supplied aerial, and pray that I can use it when we go in the caravan!

Another option is to also buy the standard USB gear so that a normal analogue aerial can be used.

Update: I obviously need to go down the road to my Mum's house to try the equipment

Staff Dialog

Had my 3rd staff dialog yesterday, and it took the longest yet (just under 3 hours). It was by far the best though and followed a different format than my previous 2 with Steve in that it was a lot less formal and not dictated to by the form. Stirling said a lot about "the business" that was very interesting, and also offered an idea of a career path that I had not really thought about before - which appealed to me. Managed to get plenty of good training down on the sheet though and will shortly be requesting a place on another righteous workshop in Karlsruhe!

Apparently there is a standard Siemens template CV, which gets handed out to customers on request to show competence of staff, Stirling is going to try and get the whole team on this system. He also said that I need to try and get my CEng status ASAP, as it is looked upon very favourably both internally and in process safety.

All in all a very interesting chat, with some scary stuff in too (don't worry Mark I'll let you know!)

Impromptu Holiday

I've taken a quick last minute "forced" holiday, this was down to the fact the I'd worked some extra hours and had to take them off by the end of November. At first I thought that this was a really bad idea. Holidays are precious to me and as they were last minute we had nothing planned and I thought they'd end up being wasted time. As it turned out we had a great few days, with short shopping trips to IKEA and a couple of great trips to the bullring. I love the bullring.

The first trip we ate sushi in Selfridges - which was first class. Generally we had a fantastic day and it was the first time we'd had a "kids free" day time lunch appointment since Nate was born 3 years ago!!

The second bullring visit, managed to meet up with Mark for coffee and lunch and an introduction to Muji, which was an experience and I had to hold back a little