Wednesday, December 31, 2003

Hoorah, the rain has finally stopped and the sun has come out to play instead. Which meant I went for a wander over lunch for the last time this year. And came back with the Gamecube title half of Llamaland is raving about - Billy Hatcher And The Giant Egg. Seems daft enough for me so I reckon that I might just dedicate some of New Year's Day to playing it.

We've been invited round to Ma & Pa's for dinner tonight and also to stay to see 2004 in if we choose. Hopefully we will all be able to stay awake until then...

Tuesday, December 30, 2003

Oh bottoms, have forgotten to bring a cup with me today so I'm going to have to either overdose on fizzy stuff or just go thirsty. I should have known something would get left behind - everything else went nicely ahead of schedule this morning when getting ready to leave the house. Grrrr. Mind you, today is looking like being just as grey and dismal and rainy as yesterday was (although a fraction warmer) so I shouldn't be expecting everything to go just fine now. And still fairly bloomin' freezing here in the office, although not as bad as yesterday.

Watched Charlie's Angels - Full Throttle last night. Even more of a switch the brain off film than the last two mentioned, but thoroughly enjoyably daft anyway. And more a case of listing who wasn't in the film somewhere than who was. I think there was a plot in there somewhere between all the action set pieces and costume changes... I think I will also have to take the time one of these days to watch all the extra features from both CA films. Purely for research purposes and to gain a fuller understanding of the nuances of the film-making process you understand.

Have managed to get a bit further in the "Park & Ride as transport hub" report thanks to the lack of distractions here but still can't say I'm gripped by the material. I think I will at least manage a finished first draft for people to look at by the end of play this week but am not promising that it will be gripping reading.

Monday, December 29, 2003

Oooh, well we had a very good Christmas and I was just far too busy to be waffling on here. That's my excuse and I'm darn tootin' well sticking with it. A few highlights rather than a full blow-by-blow account I think (mainly because I'm lazy, I freely admit that one...).

23rd Dec - last working day - no management in the building. As a consequence most of the group spent most of the day doing very little indeed. Lots of chocolates were eaten in the morning and lots of alcohol was consumed from lunchtime onwards. I did go over to the bar for an hour or so after work, but not until I'd got some stuff sorted out and clocked out. Unlike some people I could mention. Also failed once again to win anything in the Christmas draw. So no surprises. It seems things also got a bit hairy after I left with broken glass flying about and people generally getting up each other's noses. I need some more details but no-one else who was there is in today... Then home finally for the break.

Christmas Eve - Joan still working. I popped in to to town for the last bits of food shopping and to pick up the stuff we had ordered which once again reminded me how lucky I am to have got a way from the retail trade. Also luckily Argos finished early for a change so we were able to get round to Ma & Pa's at quite a reasonable time for once, which was nice. V. tasty Goose etc to eat and far too many presents leaving us spoilt rotten once again. Same thing every year, we all spend far too much money on each other, but there you go.

Might be different next year as Dad has stopped working again (don't think I mentioned it before - after his 6 month probationary period was over his boss apparantly turned in to something resembling a monster, so he decided that she wasn't worth putting up with
at his time of life). We shall see. In fact Dad was a bit quite, and spent most of the rest of Christmas in bed not very well at all. Poor chap.

Christmas Day say Helen, Bhupen and Alexander come to us for Christmas dinner. All went very well, lots more presents (Joan and I were especially good to each other, again!) although Helen also a bit ill. Some really evil bugs going round at the moment it would seem. So we ate lots more, played games, watched some festive tv and generally had a good time. We also watched the first Christmas DVD - A Man Apart - which was pretty good.

Boxing Day was more relaxed, but Ma, Pa & Richard came along for their tea - although Dad didn't exactly eat very much!

Saturday Joan was back at work and I avoided town altogether. Which seems to have been the best plan as there were people everywhere fighting for the bargains and complaining about and returning stuff. And yesterday was not much better from what we saw - although most of that was from the other side of the fence as customers for a change. We only went in to town because Joan had to do some stuff on the computer at work to ensure everyone got paid.

Yesterday was also Joan's birthday and she got further spoilt.

So today I am one of the few back in the office. It is bitterly cold in here as the heating has been off for 5 days and now doesn't seem to want to start up again. It has also been raining nearly all day so I've not ventured out. Might dash to the post office on my way home to send something off to a friend in America, but otherwise I think I will be off home soon.

Other entertainment - finished the re-read of Redemtion... and enjoyed it a lot. Had forgotten nearly all the plot twists although not all of them made much sense it has to be said. Still, fun and non-taxing. Not started anything else as yet - catching up with magazines and the like. Also switched our brains off and watched The Scorpion King and the Scooby Doo film. Not sure quite which was the daftest!