Big Brother

Despite my best efforts, I am finding myself getting dragged into watching big brother. It goes the same way each year. I see a bit of a preview or read in a magazine. I think what a bunch of tossers, I'm not watching that. Then Tasha will watch it and I just get dragged in. There seems to be some devious people in there this year (as well as others which seem to be real air heads)

Resigned

Handed in my notice yesterday, with a hope of starting my new contract on June 12th. MOST people have been very supportive, although others are being arseholes. Head spinning, hopefully be able to settle my thoughts during my visit to Leek.

Massive Kebabs

We all just had huge kebabs from Winchester. Man they were really good, especially the whole chillis. I had the healthy(er) option of chicken, which must have had 3 whole chicken breasts in it, salad, those lovely chillis etc. Robin had the same but with Doner meat. Mike however asked for "the special", it arrived in 3 containers. The 1st was about 12" square and had doner meat, chicken breasts, lamb chops, shish kebabs and a salad, he then had a portion of chips and 2 pitta breads. After 1/2 hour of snaffling, he was defeated and there was still loads left.

Just packing up now, realising that I'm not actually going to get much time at home. Will need to leave the house at about 9am latest tomorrow, then I'm off to KHE on Sunday. I decided to take Adrian's lead though and went for the evening flight rather than the lunchtime one, which will give me a few extra hours!

Tonights work has gone OK, managed to get all my mods done on the UNITs and they're all in ready for a big compile later.

Early start means early finish

After speaking with Mark this morning I decided to come in early today, so that I can get aware a head of schedule later - it also means that some good comms can be had with the day shift boys.

Mike's new brakes in his car didn't work to well last night, as I found his car had run into mine overnight in the hotel car park!!

Rumours from last night are false and it seems that the sale of our business is going through. However had an interesting conversation with another agent this morning, who basically offered me an interview with the purchaser directly!! We are being catious as we've been told that blogs are being watched on the subject!!!

The penny has dropped

....with the managers on the project and they finally realised that things are behind schedule. Panic set in rapidly and they asked us to work the weekend. I obviously declined due to my interview and Mike declined due to the fact that he doesn't give a shit! They have come up with a plan so that it will be in "some kind of shape" for Monday morning. I think that doing this to save a bit of face now is daft (and potentially dangerous) but hey, I'm the code monkey on this one!

Google Notebook

Just set up Google Notebook and it seems pretty good. obviously its not got all the features of OneNote, but I like the fact that its all online and accessible wherever there is an internet connection.

Also just spent some time applying for a couple more contract positions. I think that it is for Dragon as its an LNG project based in Middlesex.

Swapping hotels

Left in no-mans-land this morning, when I had to check out of one hotel and into another (with a 4 hour gap in the middle). Managed at least to get my car parked, with all my gear in it, so that I could walk around Winchester. I walked a long way. And then walked some more.

Had a phone call to say that a chap from Booth Welsh would ring me to talk about work. The offer was OK (if it was for a local firm), but I don't really fancy the weekly commute to Scotland, or the commissioning periods offshore in the Arabian Gulf. I've got some more "irons in the fire" though, so hopefully things will come good by the end of the week.

John seemed to have a good day at interview too.

I'm actually sitting in the workshop all by myself tonight, not sure where everyone is, bu I have managed to get my del.icio.us tags done and catch up on the Google Reader feeds, wonder if I'll be able to afford this when I'm contracting (or more importantly the new house required to accomodate it). Not really one for Star Wars stuff, but I thought these bookends were really cool

On the night shift..... oh yeah on the night shift!

Back down in Winchester on nights again. Slow start to the week, getting to grips with the final mods required to the UNIT machines.

On a personal note am well into switching my on line tagging links back to del.icio.us, and I have an interview on Friday!! The logistics of getting there are a bit tricky, but not beyond the realms of possibility.

Pajama Game

Got home around lunchtime, so while the weather was still good went to the Jinny for lunch. First time we've been since it has had the new people and it was fantastic.

Tasha chilled in the garden while I sorted out my shit from the week.

Went to see Tasha in the Pajama Game in the evening with Sue, Louise and Sara. One of the best Mellows productions I've seen. I know that I'm biased but Tasha was REALLY good, and she got some good lines in the excellent review in the paper

"...Mike Storr as the jealous time & motion man and Natasha Ingham as the secretary whose saucy teasing of the menwinds him up give great performances. Natasha excelled not only in their duets, but also in song and dance ensemble scenes..."

Tasha had some really funny bits which she pulled off and the audience was great last night so there was the interaction in the right place. It might be a different story this afternoon when I go with Florence because

1. A lot of the younger members went out on the lash last night
2. The audience tends to be filled with pensioners, who don't get the jokes and fall asleep in the dark, warm theatre
3. It saturday afternoon, so its the 5th time they've done this!
   

The Wormington Night Train

Last night this week for the twighlight crowd. Although I get pretty tired (I seem to still get up early) its been great to get out in the day, the weather down here has been brilliant. Lots of people watching outside the Catherderal today, whilst having my sandwich from James Martin's Deli (and very nice it was too).

Last couple of days Mike had found a golf course that also has a 9 hole Par-3 course, so we've been over there. My game (which is compltely shit) got better by 5 shots today. I've calculated that by the end of next week I should have a clean sheet if I progress at that constant rate!!!

Lots of checking of Google Reader, there have been some mighty posts about productivity.

I have also been busy on the contracting front this week, taking calls from a few agents. John seems to have scored a cool show (interview next week), so hopefully that will come off for him.

Looking forward to getting back home, especially going to the theatre (and having a drink)

On Saturday I went to get my new phone, the first step on the way to independant working, like Mark I couldn't wait to get home and get the shorts on. Unfortunately I'd missed most of the good weather, and the sun went in after about an hour to be replaced by drizzle, which has stayed with us for the rest of the weekend. Watched Assault on precinct 13 last night. Good bits of action, but patchy in other places. Tasha had band call today, and Suzanne came back for a cuppa, good to see that they are quite relaxed ~ big start on Tuesday next week. Spoke with Adrian today at the airport, he's off for another week in Karlsruhe.

Late nights = fat pockets

Had it confirmed today that Mike and I will be working the late shift next week. Generally this will be admin in the late afternoon and then gaining access to the system from around 5pm and working through to the early hours. Just getting confirmation that this is classed as full night shift (so I can get the extra dough!)

Well the busy weekend finished well yesterday. We went for a wander and some coffee at Fradley Junction - got home and ate sushi. Chilled out during the afternoon and Tasha cooked a fantastic chicken and leek gratin for supper. Matrix on the TV, so watched the first half, before retiring for the evening.

Early start this morning, down at Winchester to find Siggy busy compiling (he and Robin were in on Bank Holiday Monday). Not expecting anyone else here for a while.

Lifehacker are running a coolest workspace competition, which has some interesting entries, with some nice kit. Up to now there has been nothing out of the ordinary (i.e. what you can see in the Apple Store), but this really has gone too far! Also on the trawl I found the perfect recipe for cooking rice, now I'm not bad at cooked rice (I get lots of practice as its a staple in our house), but everyone seems to have a different method. Now everyone hotel should have an iPod vending machine, for those times when you think you've packed your charger.