Friday 27 November 2009

All I want for Christmas is

... 32% beer.

Tactical Nuclear Penguin

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/north_east/8380412.stm

"This is an extremely strong beer; it should be enjoyed in small servings and with an air of aristocratic nonchalance. In exactly the same manner that you would enjoy a fine whisky, a Frank Zappa album or a visit from a friendly yet anxious ghost."

It should be drunk in spirit size measures? Probably because it tastes so rough.

http://www.brewdog.com/

The Half Moon may be closing down

Or at least change from where I took April on our first date.

http://www.halfmoon.co.uk/information/closure.html

It looks like it might change into a gastro pub. Boo. It's not as if Putney is short of gastro pubs.

Amongst other bands we saw the front man from Dodgy play there (Valentines)

What to watch on Sunday afternoon?

Everton v's Liverpool (Sky Sports 1)
Kettering Town v's Leeds (ITV)

Decisions, decisions...

Ooh. Just installed Firefox at work

I've been using a dodgy old version of internet explorer here at work and they even won't let me upgrade it to the latest version.

Ha, ha. I'll install Firefox then thank you very much.

Never let the system get you down. Stick it to the man. Yarda, yarda, yarda...

Thursday 26 November 2009

Automation

I'm working on automating many of our procedures for putting data into our models and extracting useful info out of them.

If everything goes to plan my models will be nice and slick and consistent. I don't envy other members of the team having to do it with theirs...

Home alone

April's going to a ball tonight and is staying at a friend's house later so i'm left home alone.

Boo!

The cats better keep me company.

Monday 23 November 2009

Cat news

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/8374495.stm

Old CV

A friend of mine was looking for his original job specification when he first started at Lloyd's and stumbled upon my old CV, the one I used when I started working in insurance back in 2002. He, he! It's changed a bit since then.

Bloody cats!!! Strike back!

I was running late for work this morning so was rushing into the kitchen to feed the cats. Without looking I stepped into the kitchen and then into a pile of cat vomit.

Yuk! Bloody cats!

I didn't have time to clear it up so had to shout upstairs for a spare sock and asking April nicely to clear it up for me. Sorry April (you now have a voucher for one free cat mess clear up).

Idiots. What a waste of time and money

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8373794.stm

Wednesday 18 November 2009

West Wing

Finally started watching the West Wing (30th birthday present from the dweebs) this week. Is it good? Yes. Very. Another high budget American TV series.

Only another 150 episodes to go...

Mmm, I love a bit of S&M

Sausange and Mash that is. Guffaw, snigger...

http://www.sandmcafe.co.uk/

I've started a monthly team lunch recently here at work, last month was Wagamama now for some sausage and mash at Sausage and Mash.

My next step it to make it gross account...

Tuesday 17 November 2009

£75 in my change pot

I've got a change pot (Pewter pint tankard stolen from a Davy's wine bar) where I put all my change in each night. I took it to the Sainsbury's machine (charge 8%) and I took out a clean £69 (£75 real money) ! Not bad really.

My current rule is all money in my pockets go in there each night including £1 and £2, but each morning I take out £1.20 for a tea on my way into work.

Study leave

I was off yesterday studying and it was the first time i'd stepped foot in a library in 8 years. Jeez! I was actually quite productive and also quite enjoyed it. 4 more left then the exam.

Friday 13 November 2009

Study leave on Monday!

I've got 3 days study leave to take until my first exam. How cool is that? I guess i've got to study though.

Capital modelling is in demand

In the past two weeks i've had two cold calls from recruitment consultants asking me if i'd be interested in a move. I was chatting to my boss about it (always good to let your boss know that you're wanted...) and he said that he'd had a few recently too.

With all these headhunters about, it looks like insurance is picking up. Saying that, we were never effected anything like as severe as the banks.

Wednesday 11 November 2009

I thought I was blocked there for a minute

Phew! Not to worry, the people's champion can still write his anti establishment hard hitting political rhetoric.

Websense was going to give me a 'quota' of 60 minutes per day!

Tuesday 10 November 2009

Slightly different audience

I bought Dragon Age: Origins today for the x-box, so looking forward to that but there was a massive queue outside Waterstones so I had to push my way through to get it. They were queuing up for David Attenborough to sign his new book for them.

They were queuing round the block, he was there on Friday afternoon too, that's a pretty popular book signing when compared to Viz a few weeks ago

Weekend

I finally got round to having my surprise birthday weekend. April did so well in keeping it quiet. I didn't have a clue as to what i'd be doing or even where for that matter.

As it turns out we flew to Amsterdam to see Skunk Anansie! They've recently reformed and April managed to get tickets on ebay. The hotel was great too so thanks to Steve and Jenny for helping April fund it all.

The highlight was obviously the gig (photos to follow), but the city and museums were great too, I can't remember much about last time I was there with Kris and Shaheen but it was quite different.

An added benefit was that 99.9% of Dutch speak excellent English so there was never that added hassle of trying to communicate in pigeon English.

Study material's arrived

That'll keep me busy in the run up to Christmas. I haven't got an exam date yet but it's provisionally early December.

Friday 6 November 2009

The GREAT polystyrene in a wicker basket challenge

There's an old Hamley's hamper that's been lying under someone's desk for ages and then one day this week it was put by our bin to be thrown out. Of course we had a look in it and it was filled with polystyrene lozenges.

Being bored we decided to bet how many were in there.

I lost. There were 612.5 , I guessed nearly 1,000.

Boo!

SC Heavy Weight Champion of the World

There's quite a lot of news at the moment discussing the big fight between David Haye and Nikolay Value dubbed David v's Golliath.

I'm not a massive fan of boxing but this fight has intrigued me a little, I mean look at the size of him!!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/boxing/8342534.stm

So what does heavy weight mean? Having looked it up it means anything over 200lb, yikes! If I was a boxer i'd be in the same category... 203lb

Time to lose some more weight me thinks?

Saying that i'm actually the lightest i've been all year, and when I say lightest I mean least heavy.

Typo or poor font choice?

Whilst playing football manager last night I played a fixture against Bumley, i'm pretty sure it was Burnley that were promoted to the Premier League not the arse version.

Thursday 5 November 2009

Just been told about texting to landlines!

Why was I not told about this before? I've been woken up to a whole new level of piss taking!!!

He, he!

Wednesday 4 November 2009

How ironic

It's as ironic as it gets. As Liverpool concede in the last couple of minutes against Lyon I beat them 1-4 whilst a man down in Football Manager. What are the chances of that eh? I randomly drew Lyon in my Champions League draw too. Boo!

Rafa, your time is up.
Liverpool, i'm only on 3 months notice.

Heaven and Hell

I got to the station early this morning so jumped on an earlier train, i'd have to walk accross London Bridge as it was a Charing Cross train but the sun was out and it's usually quicker than heading on through to Cannon Street as usual.

We got to about a mile out of London Bridge before stopping and didn't move more than a couple of meters forward for 20 minutes. Move forward a bit, 10 minutes, move forward again 5 minutes. We finally arrived at the station and it was rammed so took another 10 minutes to get out.

To de-stress I put my headphones in and put some Black Sabbath on. Heaven and Hell. Great track. Quite Iron Maideny. Or Iron Maiden are quite Black Sabbathy.

I'm sure they had a frustrated commuter in a suit, carrying an umbrella and the book First Things First (coping with the ever increasing demands of the workplace ), when the wrote it...

I finally got to work at 9:25, that’s an hour and 45 minute commute! Argh! Damn you trains!!! but as my friend next to me said, at least you missed 25 minutes of work. I left work at 6:40 on Monday so they still owe me 1:15 in my eyes. maybe i'll have a long lunch...

Pain in the bloody neck

I woke up early this morning with a stiff pain in the neck. I must have slept awkwardly. I get the same thing about once a year but it's not as bad as it's been in the past.

Tuesday 3 November 2009

Viz respectable?

I went into Waterstones at work this lunch time and there was a small queue for a book signing. When I left I saw the sign and it was for the creators or Viz. The guys were middle aged men in suits. Far to respectable.

I also bought Slayer's new album.

Weekend plans

I'm finally getting my 30th birthday present from April and Steve this weekend, and I still haven't a real clue as to what it is. All I know is that

I've had to book Monday off
It's "bloody expensive" (Steve)
It's not sheep herding
I'm not allowed a big night out this Friday
And it seems that everybody but me already knows about it and refuses to tell me what it is.

Damn you! Call yourselves friends.

I've ordered my study material

And have a preliminary exam date of early December. That should get April off my back...

Monday 2 November 2009

FM handing over ceremony 2009

I finally got the new football manager through the post today! Only a weekend late.

He, he!