Friday 30 January 2009

£1 for this monster

This is the size of the rolls I get at work. And all for just £1. They're generally very good, this one was a turkey bab with some sagey beany things, however sometime's they're a little off the mark. yesterday's sandwich was prawns with palm hearts. I didn't know what they were so I wikipedia'd it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_of_palm

Heart of palm, also called palm heart, palmito, chonta or swamp cabbage.

I don't think so!



Incidently this was my first mobile post.

Thursday 29 January 2009

Russian Snap

After a relativley warm week or two it looks as though we could be in for another cold snap.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7858104.stm

This time however it appears the Russians have had their hand in it. They must have developed some sort of weather machine designed to blow cold Russian air towards the Europe and the UK in order for everyone to tutn up thier central heating and in turn charge more for their gas. The swines!


It'd better snow after all this.

Weird and Wonderful

There's a Wierd and Wonderful section on the Evening Telegraph website. I think it's mostly wierd.

http://www.northantset.co.uk/weird/Pig39s-face-spotted-in-wood.3841082.jp

I don't know about you but I think it just looks like a wooden fence panel. Or at a push a bear, certainly not a pig or a dog.

Trains for Corby

More delays for Corby's train service

http://www.northantset.co.uk/corby/Still-no-start-date-for.4919645.jp

I think i'd be quite annoyed with Stephen Fry if i'd bought a house in Corby off the back of one of his adverts. A door to door commute in to London must be about 2 hours at the moment.

It looks like the deadline could be postponed back even further or by my prediction indefinitely. Watch this space. Or better still watch the ETs website.

Wednesday 28 January 2009

Woo hoo! debt free!

Or at least my student loan's now finished.

I've just spoken to the Student Loan Company to find out my balance and my last payment was due on the 10th March. I thought sod it and paid the lot off this month.

That's an extra £130 a month from now on till I die!

Equivalant to £2600 pay rise once you take off income tax etc.

It's wierd but I feel strangly happy and extreamly relieved about it. I guess I have been paying it off over 5 years.

There's still a long way to go before i'm fully debt free but slowly but surely i'll get there. 3 / 4 years is my plan and it won't mean cutting back too much. The beauty of it is that the more I pay off the more I have next month to pay off some more. That's the thory though.

Then the next plan is to pay off the mortgage. 24 and a third years left of that!

I hate people...

... who put auto compact and repair on their Access databases. Some asshole's just waisted 2 minutes of my day.

Mmm, ribs

I'm off here tonight.

http://www.thechicagoribshack.co.uk/#/home/

If the food is as well made as the website i'm in for a treat.

We're joining Steve and Jenny after their friends can't make the reservation. Unfortunately you need to give them 48 hours notice if you want this delacacy.

Whole Baby Piglet For 8 (48 hour pre-order only) £235.00, we serve butt, snout n’ all; you pull. Served with one of each side dish & a bottle of pink champagne

Monday 26 January 2009

I had some loose change so I thought i'd buy...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7850680.stm

$68bn? Jeez. I wouldn't mind being on the team that brokered that deal.

If I had the money it's not top of list of things i'd buy.

Bloody cats

I was rudly awoken this morning by my lovely cat Biscuit. She was pestering me at around 6:30 so I batted her out of the way. She jumped onto the side table knocking over a full pint of blackcurrent onto the carpet, laptop and phone.

Luckily not much landed on the later two. Saying that though, the slide function on the phone is a bit stiff! Doh! Bloody cats!

Tried to get Izzard tickets this morning

I got up early this morning in order to be one of the first 100 people to enter a draw to get tickets to a special interview between Eddie Izzard and Simon Amstel. All I got was that the page doesn't exist. Boo!

I can queue up outside before hand as another 20 pairs will be available but some bloody student will be camping outside there now to hold their place so i've got no chance.

I found £5 on Saturday

Getting out of the car having arrived at our fixture I spotted a sweaty five pound note on the floor. Get in.

I seem to be very lucky in that department.

I reckon I find an average of £10 each year. Not bad for keeping your eyes open.

April thinks I deliberately search on my hands and knees.

Sunday 25 January 2009

Good rugby pitch for ducks

Luckily we were away from home on Saturday but here's our pitches at Juddians. There where actually canoeists on there too. The River Medway must have burst it's banks. Incidentally I scored.

Saturday 24 January 2009

First game of the year

After my first game of the year a couple of weeks ago was canceled because of frozen pitches. It's now over a month since my last game.

Boy am I going to hurt.

Friday 23 January 2009

Umbrellas

The bloody cats have weed on my umbrella. It now smells of cat wee. How lovely, now I need a new one. Bloody cats!

Thursday 22 January 2009

Fire alarms

Some silly bugger's playing silly bugger. We've had three fire alarms here at work this week. One was planned and we have it every Monday at 10. The other two we had to clear the building.

Idiot!

Mmm, 19 inches

After 3 and a half months i've finally nagged our IT guys enough to replace my 15 inch monitor with a 19 inch. Much better. Plus it adds the additional bonus of helping keep me fit.

I now have to move my mouse further to move the pointer from one edge of the screen to the other.

Wednesday 21 January 2009

Duck pate on a piano?

Thursday's sandwich from my work canteen is duck pate on a panino? What on earth is one of those?

The wonder of silly putty

One of our team is off on maternity leave at the end of the week so she's clearing out her desk.

I got first dibs on a shiny new pen, and a tine of silly putty. It's an odd material, over the course of an hour is slowly reverts to it's happy state. Here's the after shot.

It's actually quite handy though, I need to keep exercising my knackered finger so I can now do it in the office too.

Pool shark

I had an impromptu 6 or 7 beers last night with Shaheen and we ended up in a dodgy pool hall near London Bridge. I kicked his ass! It's only the second time i've beaten him over the course of a night and the first time didn’t really count as although we were both drunk, Shaheen was far worse.

This time however I beat him convincingly 7-5!

I’ve basically been lulling him into a false sense of security all these years. I really should have put some money on it. Ha, ha, ha!

Shaz presented me with a red pool ball as a trophy when we were waiting for a train. Tut, tut!

Which is worse?

Middle East or East Midlands?

Tuesday 20 January 2009

No trips to the US for Stu in the foreseeable future

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7839391.stm

$ / £ rate's dropped below $1.40 per £.

It was as high as $2.03 back in September last year. Jeez!

Things to do this weekend

I might not be playing rugby this Saturday so if i'm not doing that i'll have nothing to do. I really can't just do nothing so we're looking at various activities in the local area.

April spotted this on here internet travels

http://www.sevenwonders.org.uk/index.asp

The 7 wonders of the Wield, see what they've done there (that's my street name unless you've guess already)? Hopefully the weather won't be too bad as it'd be nice to have a walk around somewhere.

Advertising's missed a trick

With all this press coverage that's trailing behind Barack Obama it's a wonder no one's tried to sponsor him. He could have made a tasty few $$$ if he gave away the rights to his life.

Cornflakes-Official breakfast serial of the White House.

But is there too much danger in associating your brand with that of a president. Even though Obama won relatively convincingly, 40%+ voted against him. Plus i'm sure President Bush was semi popular at one point, look at the state of him (and his country) now.

What product could GWB have promoted? Toilet Duck...

Monday 19 January 2009

First time to the gym in ages

I went to the gym for the first time properly in over a year. I went to the gym loads last year but only ever went for a swim, the pool at the new place doesn't really look like there's much point so I went running, cycling and a bit of weighting.

I'm tired now but good work.

Mmm, Japanese Cakes



Our Japanese owners have handed us a load of these.





http://www.hiyoko.co.jp/shohin/hiyoko.html#english

Don't be put off by the pork pie like colouring, they're not that bad. In case you're wondering, it's about 95% suger, 4.9% haricot bean, 0.1% ?.

Bored today

I'm bored today, not sure why, i've been doing plenty of work this morning but I just don't feel particularly inspired.

I went for a walk around Spittafield Market but didn't really want to buy something just for the sake of it. I then tried to get a new Oyster card but the closest station (Aldgate) isn't manned outside of rush hours so that's going to have to get postponed.

I'm off to the gym after work so maybe i'll take my frustrations out on my body.

Sunday 18 January 2009

My new hobby

Finally got the car!

I think it's about 7 weeks since our old one died. So far so good, i'm picking April up at Heathrow later so i'll be able to give it a proper test drive.

Reading the manual yesterday I found this, perhaps that's why the old one died, we were listening to The Darkness when we first saw steam coming out of the engine.

Friday 16 January 2009

£100,000 legal bill

How did it ever get to that stage?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/7830671.stm

Another idiot

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/7832647.stm

Hanne Stinson, chief executive of the British Humanist Association, said: "I have difficulty understanding why people with particular religious beliefs find the expression of a different sort of beliefs to be offensive.
"I can't understand why some people seem to have a different attitude when it comes to atheists."

Thursday 15 January 2009

Idiot loses £130,000 in online scam

Or at least that's what the title should have read.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/7829177.stm

Home alone

April's flying to Moscow as we speak so i'm home alone for 3 nights, I guess I do have two very cheeky cats to keep me company. I'm out for a few tonight then have a big one tomorrow plus the guys are coming over on Saturday so i'm sure I won't get too bored.

I haven't heard from April since she was at check in. I hope she's okay. She's trying to bring in 8 yellow hard hats, and 8 packets of spaghetti and marsh mellows.

£1 to whoever guesses what all that lot's for.

Wednesday 14 January 2009

Annual Lunch

We’ve got our annual lunch on Friday afternoon. I’ve been told on good authority that’s basically just a huge p!ss up of all staff members.

The basic itinerary is as follows, arrive at the venue at 12:30 and start drinking. Sometime in between 12:30 and 17:00 have a sit down lunch, followed by more drinking at another venue. The second venue shuts at 1:00 the next morning!

Urgh! I doubt I’ll be staying to the end, besides I said I’d go to my brother’s leaving drinks afterwards anyway, I can’t turn up totally smashed and tarnish the good family name…

One thing I will have to be careful with is I’m due to pick up the new car on Saturday morning so I’ll have to make sure I’m not still drunk. Saying that, I haven’t heard from the garage yet so we may have to wait for another week.

Food overload

I got back from my desk after picking up some lovely smelling soup, a bread roll, sandwich and packet of crisps to see my whole team standing in their coats waiting for me to return.

I’d forgotten that we were all going out to lunch for a new starter and a maternity leave leaver. Doh! They all took the mickey out of me which was interesting, I didn’t think they had it in them. I left the food on my desk and ran out with them.

We went to a poshish Italian called Bertorelli’s, I’d been there before with my last place so knew I was in for a treat. There were a few more digs at me so I decided to not have a starter (eat the rest of my food when I got back).

I’ve just got back now to some cold soup (poured down the drain), not tremendously bad as it only cost £1.

Busy, busy busy...

Not even enough time to finish writ...

Sunday 11 January 2009

Mmm... Mixed Roast

Just got back from a little drive out in the new car. We stopped off at a lovely stately home's gift shop and bought some cider. Then off to the Spotted Dog farm shop to buy some local beer and local wine.

Then on to a nice village pub for Sunday dinner. April had chicken pate wrapped in pheasant wrapped in bacon enclosed in puff pastry. I had mixed roast.

Is it a Kent thing? I've only ever seen it here.

Roast Beef
Roast Pork
Roast Chicken

All on the same plate with all the trimmings.

Burp!

I think the only thing that's missing is a nice bit of lamb.

Saturday 10 January 2009

Cat stand off

Trouble is brewing. Poppet may have the higher ground but Biscuit weighs nearly a kilo more. My money's on fatty.

The eyes of a dork

On the way to pick up the car this morning I spotted this...

If you look closely you can see what's actually a CD in the gutter above someone in High Broom's porch. If you look even close you'll see that it's for Championship Manager.

Ha, ha, ha! What a spot.

I told April that I had the eyes of a hawk, April responded by telling me I had the eyes of a dork.

If the game I spotted was Football Manager i'd have rang the bell and had a word.

Stuart is mobile

We've finally got a car!

Unfortunately not our car. It is the same model (2.0i Sport) and actually 2 years newer though so I can't complain too much. It'll be nice to not have to go to the Mazda garage every weekend. It'll be 4 in a row if we get our car next Saturday.

Here are some photos of the loan car, the interior shot is for John.

Friday 9 January 2009

Great! Bloody brilliant.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/7820661.stm

Sacking people on my train line is hardly going to improve the service. We're paying an extra 10% this year anyway plus passenger numbers are also up so how can they justify this.

Bloody idiots!

1000th post

On this momentous occasion what shall I write about?

How about the lack of blogging from the others?

Kris: Not blogged since the 17th September
Ian: Rubbish! Not blogged (properly) since 28th August
Tim: Tim’s Twitter died on the 11th of November

And I haven't forgotten about you missy, April, hasn't blogged since September.

The only gold star goes to Ben with his new blogger blog. Well done Ben. I hope the rest of you are ashamed…

Argh! Mazda!

I’ve just got off the phone to the idiots and they’ve said that the log book hasn’t arrived from the DVLA yet (had to send away to get another one as previous one was lost) , all this means is that they can’t tax it! And that means we can’t buy it until that arrives which may be next week. They’re going to lend us another car in the mean time though.

I might ask for an RX-8…

Bargainous Breakfast

My new company has a full time chef who cooks us breakfast and lunch for £1 a portion.

Breakfast usually consists of some sort of pastry or maybe some porridge, today’s delight was 2 hash browns, 2 rashers of bacon, 2 slices of bread and some beans. All for £1. Not bad really.

Lunch is £1 too, and is usually a sandwich, which also comes with a packet of crisps. She also does nice soup too.

All this is great on one sense, much, much cheaper. Going outside would be a fiver minimum. Unfortunatly if you’re eating at your desk you tend to be available for work so you never really get your full lunch hour. Is it worth it?

Thursday 8 January 2009

Damn!

Ronaldo's crashed his Ferrari.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/7817764.stm

Couldn't have happened to a nicer fellow.

Trains

Having seen train prices go up at an extortionate rate this month (I thankfully managed to get my season ticket a day before the rise), I’ve now experienced three sh!tty train journeys in a row.

All because of stock shortages… My trains had 8 carriages instead of their usual 10 or 12. I’ve had to stand twice in the mornings and then fight to get on a train last night. Luckily I’m bigger than most old ladies and pregnant women so managed to get myself a seat.

Where have the carriages gone? I find it hard to believe that you could lose one. Maybe we’ve sold them to East Midlands Rail so that they can finally put a train into Corby.

Elbowbag

I’m sure I’m written about this before but why do women insist on carrying their HANDBAGS with their elbow? I think the correct method of holding said HANDBAG is with your HAND. Please refrain from using your bloody elbow!

Idiots!

Tuesday 6 January 2009

Stupid is as Stuart does

I've gone and thrown out another bloody oyster card!!!

Argh!!! Another £20 or so.

I can claim them both back (minus the £3 deposit), but i'm going to look a right numbnuts!

The year's slowly filling up

A week in Spain
A week in St Ives
Stag do in Germany or Poland
Oktoberfest

That's 10-12 days out of a total of 25

Monday 5 January 2009

Bleak winter

Brrr... Makes me shiver just thinking about the cold. Our house has been pretty cold these past few weeks and as April's been doing lots of work in on her assignment in the study i've bought her a portable heater to give the room a little boost of heat when it needs it.

It has the added bonus of being portable so we took it into the bedroom last night. When April gets up in the morning she can turn it on, then by the time I get up the room's nice and toasty. Mmm...

Here's a picture of the snow in Tonbridge. April's very excited.

Mobile blogging

Any ideas? Kris: I imagine you can do it. I've looked it up and it seems that only Sony Eriksson are supported.

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Cold turkey

You'd think most people would have had enough cold turkey to last them a life time let alone all this New Year resolution nonsense.

You'll be pleased to know however, that i've not had a sip of alcohol since New Years Eve. 4 and a half days off the booze and counting. It's probably a record for me since I turned 18 and first went to Uni.

Let's see if I can last till the end of the month...


...any bets?

Yawn, back to the daily grind.

I'm slowly starting to get back into work after a lull over Chirstmas. I was in every day over the holidays but there's no pressure for me over this period so it's not really the same.

I'm now looking to forward into the New Year and am wondering what I have to look forward to. We've got plenty of ideas but nothing definite so i'm left feeling a little down.

The only definite thing I can think of is Saturday when we pick up the car and the poker night round Shaheen's but that's next month. It's time to get dates in the diaries for 2009.

If anyone fancies doing anything this year then let me know.

Playing golf can 'damage hearing'

Keen golfers are being warned by doctors that they could be risking their hearing for their sport.
Players who use a new generation of thin-faced titanium drivers to propel the ball further should consider wearing ear plugs, experts advise

Not when i'm playing...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7811143.stm

I only hit one in three.

Saturday 3 January 2009

Spamalot

April got a nice present from her Dad again. A lovely meal followed by a musical tickets. Thankfully we booked before Spamalot finished it's run as there wasn't much i'd be interested in otherwise.

The musical was good, not really my cup of tea but April enjoyed herself so that's the main thing. I'm not sure if you can work it out by the photo but we're a very long way up. 3 rows from the back to be precise.

Cross dressing


Here's me trying on April's new hat on the way home from Tunbridge Wells.

We've bought our new car

Here it is with two very happy new owners.

There is the small part of the remaining balance to pay (we've only paid a £200 deposit) but we're going to finally pick it up next Saturday after a month without a car.

Cats passed their MOT

£135 quid though. Bloody animals!

Poppett: 3.5kg
Biscuit: 4.3 kg (Fat bastard)

Friday 2 January 2009

Another free half day 2

We've just been told that we can more or less go home now. Ha, ha. None of our underwriters are in as their renewals for January have all been completed so our big boss has let the rest of us go home too.

Only problem being i'm out in the West End later with April. We're off to grab a bite to eat and to see Spamalot (a present from her Dad).

There's not enough time for me to go home this time so means it i'll have to hang around London until 6:15 with not much to do. I could go shopping but I don't need or want anything, it would just be a waste. I can't even go to the pub.

Boo!

Advert?

Is it me or is this just a big advert for a huge pub chain?

http://www.northantset.co.uk/corby/Corby-and-Kettering-pubs-slash.4837807.jp

The Evening Telegraph is supposed to be a Newspaper. BBC's getting worse too.

We've now got a second TV which is great but switching it on in the morning is beginning to annoy me.

Breakfast is not a news programme! I've ranted on it many times before but this morning was terrible. They were running a story about a bored housewife who was fighting the NHS to help people get cancer drugs that were deemed too expensive.

Firstly, the money has to come from somewhere, it's not a bottomless pit of funds. By moving money from one part of the organisation from another means that one part will be short. It's what budgeting is for.

Secondly, when they were talking to people that she'd helped in the past they put some teary music in the bloody back ground!