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Currently listening to "Space travel is boring" - Sun Kill Moon

This rocks.

The track used is "Heartbeats" - Jose González, which is pretty damn good.

Thanks to everyone for you Lovely prezzies yesterday.

M

The wrong side of 25...

Currently listening to: "Heartbeats" - Jose González

Thats right, i'm getting old.

I was getting into bed after a lovely night at shiny sarah's house. I started to contemplate being 26.

26. I remember when i thought that was old.

Nevertheless I was just getting snuggly when I got a call from my big bro Andy. He'd neglected to put diesel in Mee-lan's car and was sitting at a local motorway's central reservation.

I jumped up, got dressed and headed down, but the AA were already on the way so I parked up and let them wait in the heat for the short while till the breakdown truck arrived.

The guy sorted the car with fuel, and it started after a little bit. Hoorah!

Just before i left them I said "anytime you wanna say happy birthday is fine with me." Immediatley i got a nice chorus of "Happy birthday to you", the first of my 26th year, in the freezing cold on the M2!

T'was oddly nice.

Now as I drift off, I spare a thought for Dave Allen in Medicine Hat Canada. He's 25 and gonna be a daddy anytime now. I thought I had trouble!

Much manly love to y'all.

M

Flip me its foggy.

When i was driving in this morning I found that because the fog was so thick, you could look directly at the sun! (and not get blinded).

This is a bad shot i took on the way with my phone camera, if i had been 10 seconds earlier it would have been perfect, but here the sun is starting to break through.

Oh well.

Current music: "Oh well" - Fleetwood Mac

A hell of a week. (and a ripping yarn)

This week, I've been mostly on Microsoft's "2273a Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Server 2003 Environment" Many thanks to the kindly folks at Steria who sent me, and of course, paid for the whole she-bang.

Now perhaps I'll be able to hold down a conversation about server-ie thing-ies. (at least, that's the plan).

There were only 5 of us; Declan, Davy, Pete and the trainer Marek. Which meant that I got lots of help when I inevitably screwed things up. We learned a lot. We also had a good lunch at a different Belfast pub every day. (I must recommend Whites Tavern - the oldest tavern in Belfast, which I never noticed before. It is located off the side street beside Dixons at donegall arcade).

Here is a picture of us working hard on friday afternoon!

On the Tuesday I had an induction to attend at the gym (valley leisure centre, cuse its cheap!) to make sure I'd not die on any of their machines. I was in a little bit of a hurry to get there, so as soon as class was finished I ran to the parking spot I had in the multi-story carpark next door.

The payment machine took forever, and I ended up forgetting my card and only realizing when I'd reached the 4th floor! I ran back down and the attendant made a "you silly plonker" face at me. I ran back up the stairs.

When I got to my car I realized that the front left tyre was flat. I swore a little and got on with changing it asap. The car I currently drive is a rental, It gets changed every few months, so I'm never that sure where things like spare tyres are, as makes vary.

I got the spare out of the boot, undid the complicated alloy wheel lock nut thingies and started wrestling the tyre into position. Then a snag. There was a loud rip sound from the back of my jeans.

As I got the flat tyre back into the boot, the 37th person to walk past and see me in strife offered me help, just as it was too late to do anything. I thanked him kindly anyway.

I got down the levels as soon as I could, but not soon enough to avoid my ticket having expired. I was holding up the traffic behind me who were getting irate and beeping their horns. I got out of the car and was met by the same parking attendant who still showed the "you silly plonker" face. After the brief explanation of events and examining the hole in my trousers her agreed to let me go without paying. The "you silly plonker" expression changed to one of "you poor kid" mixed with merriment.

Traffic was a nightmare. I reached the Gym about 6 to 10 mins late. The person doing my induction refused to see me as "punctuality is key". I once again explained my predicament and she seemed to think my excuses were valid, especially having a 6 inch hole in my trousers. (I still didn't get my induction though - bloody typical). Nevertheless I filled in a form to say I wasn't dying, wouldn't die from exercise, and if I did - it wasn't their fault. I did the workout of my life to relieve the anger I had accumulated and had a soak in the jacuzzi.

I put my torn jeans back on and wandered around Tesco getting some stuff for tea and headed over to Jo's house.

And Sleep.

The biggest Theo fans ever! (and other stuff..)

Currently listening to: JOHN PRINE "Standing By Peaceful Waters"

So, there I was, over at Shiny Sarah's house, waiting on Jo to finish her hair so she and Raj could head out to her formal lookin mighty fine. While making smalltalk with the adults they said they were talking to a couple of folks that had come over to Belfast 'specially to see Theoren McFleury play a game for the Giants.

Lance and Christie are from Seattle. Christie has been traveling around Europe and Lance had just joined her when they realized Theo was playing in Belfast. The hopped on a plane to see their hero play.

Tom and Joyce had got chatting to them, as they were at the game against Cardiff on Thursday night. They were so excited that Joyce asked if there was anything we could do for them, since they'd made effort to come see us and all. I asked the Giants folks and it was set.

I met with them and told them they could come meet Theo after the game. Lance was apparently speechless for about 30 mins.

At the end of the game I went to get them from the crowd. Nigel, Raj's dad, kindly lent us his digital SLR and so we headed down to the changing room waiting areas. We had to wait a little while for Theo to finish up showering, and he's apparently the quick one!

Theo was a true gent and chatted to them for a while, which I understand was some kind of life ambition for Lance! He's been watching him play hockey since he was a kid. When Theo realized the effort these guys had gone to to be at the games he said, "oh, hey sorry it was such a stinker tonight". (It was a little bit of a slow game, even if we did win).

Its always good to meet hockey folks from another country, 'specially when they are just so nice, and easy to get on with.

Me and Jo said our goodbyes and we headed to Four star to get some dinner. Incidently FOUR STAR pizza are opening up in newtownabbey, at fernagh. WHOOOHOO!

Lots of stuff has happened since my last post, I really should say more, and will soon. I did go see the excellent John Prine in concert at the Waterfront Hall and I will write something about that soon.

Also, I'm on a windows 2003 server course this week instead of being in work. I'm really looking forward to that. I might actually be able to pretend that I know what I'm talking about by the end of the week!