MyOrdinaryLife

2008

2008-01-04T14:33:00.000Z

Another new year already, where does the time go. I haven't done the blogging thing for a long while now not had much to say really.

Still haven't

Jumbled Mumble

2006-03-20T15:27:00.000Z

Work is so quiet at the moment, you would think that this is a good thing but it's not. The days drag, your mind goes numb and worst of all this probably means no more job very shortly.

I'm off to Italy for two weeks in the summer so I am trying to learn some Italian., I think its is only right that you should make the effort to be part of the community I think it makes the experience all the more enjoyable.

The kids are coming down for the weekend, it's always great to see them. I always wonder did I do enough when I seperated from their mum and feel guilty that I didn't make enough effort to see them but I had them over every other weekend and worked the weekends in between, took them on holidays and they were down every Christmas. As they get older the visits are less frequent but we still get together whenever possible.

Builders coming next Monday to knock down the dividing wall between our lounge and dining room so much decorating to be done shortly. Still cannot decide whether to carpet, sand the floors or use laminate. I would prefer to sand the floors but there is an area in front of each fireplace that is concreted so would have to look at how that could be covered. One could be covered partially by a hearth as there is a fire there but the other one is just a blank wall so would need to try and lay some boards in place of the concrete. Carpet would be the easy solution but gets grubby so quickly and laminate just doesn't look the same. Oh well time to ponder.

Funman

Crash Boom Bang

2006-02-17T11:11:00.000Z

My laptop crashed again yesterday, just hung with the words ntoskrnl.exe is missing or corrupt please replace file. Just how you are meant to repace a file when you cannot get into the system to replace the file if you happen to have a copy I do not know. I managed to trace the problem, I think to Norton Antivirus beacuse everything was fine until I tried to open the programme.

Luckily I keep copies of all my files on Cd so that I can recover them anyway went through the lengthy process of rebuilding my laptop with the recovery software and then having to get all the updates downloaded including SP2. On the plus side it does mean I have cleared out all the crap.

Now I have to decide do I really need an anti virus programme or should the firewall, anti spamming software utilised by my account provider and my own due diligence be enough to keep me safe ??

Testing Testing

2006-02-13T08:46:00.000Z

Is there something wrong with Blogger or is it me. I posted some nonsense on Friday but it does not seem to be appearing. I think me and technology are destined for divorce, we seem to be totally incompatible. I like things to be nice and simple, buy it , plug it in and play it. This alas never seems to be the case.

Nice relaxing weekend, the girls were down along with my grandaughter, it's always geat too see them. Had a nice chinese on Saturday night and generally slobbed out. Took the boy swimming on Sunday afternoon and then home to read the papers. (Avoiding the sports pages, I have said before they need a kick up the arse.)

Well I'm going to post this now so lets see what happens.

And You Think It Can't Get Any Worse

2006-02-10T09:18:00.000Z

I had the day off yesterday so I thought I would have another crack at getting the wireless connection going.

1. Switch On Laptop
2. Wait for laptop to boot up
3. Still waiting for laptop to boot up
4. Receive message saying somesuch file is missing or corrupt and to please reinstall.

How do you do this when you cannot get into the system in the first place. I did seem to remember making a boot disk when a first bought the laptop and managed to find it lurking in the back of a draw. Phew thought I slotted it in the drive and waited and waited and waited. Bah.

Two options remained, either take it to a specialist and see if they can recover the hard disk or use the Restore Cd's that came with the laptop. Luckily I had been saving anything of any value to CD's so I thought I'd go for the cheaper if not painstaking restore option.

All went well and after much reinstaling of software I now have a working laptop with an extra 5 gig of harddrive space. ( I obvioulsy download a lot of crap).

One thing that I am getting frustrated about is music downloads and transferring to players.

I haven't gone down the iPod route, I use my Palm handheld with Real Player and my other half uses a player purchased from Maplins that supports MP3 and WMA.

I have been downloading my music via MSN which arrives in WMA format. My problem arises when I try to sync the player using Windows Media Player 10. If I leave the music in WMA format it fails everytime so I end up burning tracks to CD to convert to MP3 and then resaving them back. This obviously takes time although I do have to do this to add tracks to my Palm.

Can anyone recommend a good, reasonably priced WMA to MP3 converter to make my day a little less frustrating.

Technology Travesty

2006-02-07T10:02:00.000Z

My wireless saga continues.. It would seem that there is something in my house that is causing me problems. My girlfriend took the whole kit and caboodle into her work where the IT guys plugged it in and it ran straight away. Get it home and plug it in and.............nothing. I have tried unplugging phones, TV's, microwaves etc.

I guess the most radical solution would be to move but as that will cost slightly more than your average WiFi card my girlfriend is pretty reluctant to go down this route.

I seem to be one of those people where if something takes 5 minutes for everyone else to do it will take me 5 days. I will encounter every possible problem scenario imagined and some not, something else will all of a sudden require my complete attention or something else will arise to stop me achieving what I set out to achieve.

Why such the fuss about WiFi I hear you ask, It would just allow me to make things tidier and not restrict me to surfing the net from the dining room.

I shall perservere but if anyone has any suggestion please feel free to pass them on.

Todays News

2006-02-02T10:35:00.000Z

We have a builder. He is coming in March, which is fine, then we can get on with the decorating and buying of furniture.

I've been travelling around England for the last couple of days, went to Rotherham on Tuesday followed by an overnight stay in Leeds at a Bewleys Hotel. If you ever find yourself having to stay near Leeds City Center then I can recommend this hotel it is excellent and very reasonable rates.

The next day saw me make a short hop over to Manchester (North side of the city ) for the morning and then a quick trip to the south side (By Old Trafford cricket ground). Then it was the long journey home.

A New Day

2006-01-30T10:15:00.000Z

My weekend past pretty uneventfully, made a visit to the dump to dispose of some rubbish that I had sorted from my garage, and went swimming. Apart from that not a lot happened.

We are currently trying to engage a builder to knock through our living and dining room, we manged to get one quote before christmas but noone seems very keen. We have replied to the builder who did provide the quote and asked him to contact us as we would like to go ahead but have had no reply. This is so annoying I really would like to get th ework done. It would allow us to move the furniture around to suit the seasons, our house is south facing so the living room can get quite warm in the summer so it would be nice to move the sofas into the back room and the dining table into the front and vice versa in the winter.

I am also trying to add a wireless connection to my laptop which is proving to be annoyingly awkward, it just will not pick up a signal for longer that a couple of seconds. It appears that there is a problem with my laptop as we successfully installed the wireless card into another laptop and it worked straight away. I'm getting quite frustrated and feel like just buying another laptop which would be an extremely expensive solution.

Well best get back to work now.

Bye

Back Again

2006-01-27T14:24:00.000Z

Its been a long time since I've been here, but it's nice to try things new.

Anyway I have managed to stay off the cigs, that will be 15 months by Tuesday. Work is going well and I have been told that my yearly appraisal went well and a nice bonus will be on its way.

We have booked this years holiday, off to Italy a little place called Capo Vaticano, for two weeks in August. It looks lovely, not a mainstream resort with all the nightclubs and noise somewhere a bit quieter with a nice sandy beach. (If anyone has been and can provide any info) .

I want to try and keep this blog more upto date and interesting which will certainly be a challenge and one I will enjoy trying to overcome.

Must Go Now

Another Great ....

2005-02-08T09:03:00.000Z

....Load of Bollocks! Well what else can you call this drival that I churn out on a most irregular basis.

When I started this whole blogging thing I had every intention of adding to it daily, being both creative and intelligent in my little anicdotes but really all I have done is whinge very now and then.

There are some truly great blogs out there that keep you going back for more full of original content and captivating detail, perhaps there lifes are just more interesting than mine or I just don't appreciate how interesting my life is.

Take this weekend, Saturday off to Tesco for a couple of hours to explore the many various pathways that lead to the fruits of your search. Then just as you start to feel safe that you can navigate your way around in the shortest yet most productive way it changes. Once where there were bread rolls now lie pork cutlets or what was once the source of your favourite evening snack is now occupied by some orgasimically grown, tofu impregnated meat substitute lookalike.
Why do they do this, it drives you to tears and you inevitably fail to pick up everything you went for so I say to all you supermarket bastards NO ! leave it alone.

After The Fire

2005-01-31T14:55:00.000Z

Another weekend passes and it's back to the reality of work.

The bowling was OK bit of a shock when the strobe lights and music came on but it didn't seem to affect my game, I was still crap.

Saturday was quite a non event as far as anything social goes. In fact I am struggling to remember exactly what we did do. Still it also means that I feel quite rested. Sunday, for some unknown reason I was overcome with an urge to refit the toilet!! It had started to wobble slightly and I was worried it might start to leak which would then have meant having to redecorate the hall as it would have leaked through the ceiling. So I made my way to B&Q and to my surprise they actually sold the fitting I was after.. Spent a while looking at all the lovely tools and explaining to my better hafl exactly why I needed another cordless drill. (So when the other one runs out silly).

Back in the bog hole everything went to plan for once, removed the toilet, redrilled the securing holes, fitted the new pushfit steel hose with built in shutoff valve and refixed the toilet.

My son has just started to become familiar with my Playstation which in turn has reawakened my passion for Fifa 2000, (I know that there is a later version but I liked it when Chris Sutton played for Chelsea). I manged to beat Man U yesterday and England thrashed Brazil.

I don't know why I have titled this after the fire but I can't think of anything else so it stays

Oh well work to do now.

Can't Let It Go (PPT)

2005-01-27T15:21:00.000Z

Still seething about the extra cost of holidays just because the schools are closed. How does this justify these increases surely it should be the reverse that most parents would want to wait until the schools are shut so as not to impact on their childs education. Instead they are encouraged to practice Parent Permissable Truancy which cannot be right.

Apparently you can be find by the school for this but the fine is much less than the additional costs !! So we have had to complete a consent form allowing US to take OUR child out of school.

Somehow I have still managed to abstain from the evil weed despite all this excitement, 88 days now.

Going bowling tomorrow night at the Rotunda in Kingston, it's always good for a laugh especially after a few beers, it's usually me that ends up sliding down the alley and the ball ends up in someones lap.

Must get back to work now.

After A Break (And Excess Payments)

2005-01-24T15:34:00.000Z

Well

I have been away for a while, I'll be honest I tried another Blog site but I am unable to use it at work for some reason. I can view it but it won't let me edit or create so it's pretty pointless. Something to do with the version of Explorer we use.

Still not smoking, lost count of the number of days but it's been since 31st October 2004. Strangely I have been struggling recently and I have had to really grin and bear it and drink loads more.

Just booking this years holiday, we thought we would split it this year and have a week abroad and a week in the Isle of Wight. Well as the little one is now in school this is going to cost us about 33% more as we are going to have to go during half term and the summer holidays, what a con.

I was thinking of writing to all the schools and getting them to move all their holidays by a week but they are probably in collaboration with the travel firms. I'll have to wait until I become Primeminister then I'll pass a law banning such nasty practices.

Oh well back to work

I Keep Trying

2005-01-11T15:59:00.000Z

I am still new to this game and I am still struggling on how to set up my blog so that it can be found via a search engine. If anyone has any tips I would be grateful.

Still not smoking, struggling a bit this week though. Don't though why it's been 72 days now !

Pretty quiet weekend nothing exciting to report.

You know I cannot think of anything else to say today I am feeling pretty boring.

See ya soon

Another New Year (M25)

2005-01-06T18:54:00.000Z

Well, here we go again.

Christmas was good, ate loads drunk even more and generally celebrated as much as possible.

Back in work mode now, joining that never ending crawl on the M25. I think I know how to speed it up, get more police on there so that they can catch the dodgy drivers poodling along at 35mph in the fast lane. Seriously, in the intervening week between Christmas and New Year there were people who just seemed to be totally unaware of any other road user. This must apply all year around it' s just that they were more visible then. On one occassion I was enjoying the free flow of the fast lane cruising at a respectable rate when all of a sudden BRAKE !!!. Has someone crashed, had someone/something run into the road, had there been some sort of extraterrestial event. NO! just someone thought they might like to brake, maybe they suddenly realised that they were doing 37mph and had better slow down.

Went for a bike ride on Monday, first for about 25 years. It was quite nerve racking, all that confidence you have as a child has gone and you feel like you are going to fall off at any minute, which I did once. Still I did enjoy it. It is all part of my "Give Up Smoking" campaign. I have now been free of the weed for 67 days and feel quite proud. I thought New Years eve would be a struggle being in a bar fall of smokers and smoke but it was OK and you could definately tell the difference the next morning. You do notice that your clothes smell and it is probably the smell that I dislike the most.

However I have put on a couple of pouns, (28 pounds to be exact) which means that I will have to buy some more clothes, but will save on lilo's when we go to the beach.

Well thats me for today catch you all later.

The End of The Year

2004-12-31T11:35:00.000Z

Well

I thought we might have made it through without too much horror, but nature has proved that it is just as destructive, if not more than, as mankind.

This is a disaster of Biblical proportions and one that cannot and must not be ignored by the rest of the human race.

When I read the accounts of young children dying I look at my 5 year old son and ask why !

We must all pull together and try and help restore some normality back into the lives of those families that have been destroyed by this traumatic event.