Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Adventure 8: 22nd February 2005
"I know, kettle flex is best.....", reet a day on I know from yesterday, but yesterdays was all about last week, I've moved on and in 24 hours alone I've got more to tell you about...
08:30: Well I'm up, it's cold bloody cold, the cold snap they've been bleating on about is now upon us, it's only about 15 degrees inside and about 2 out. Also I have this sudden realisation that half term is over and the seemingly empty roads of last week are now a thing of the past.
08:35: I'm on the road behind a train of four by four's and people (or small people) carriers, with their huge off road tyres churning up the salt that the wonderful gritting guys have chucked out the night before, still I didn't actually like my paintwork anyway !
08:40: Nearly at work now, man it's heavy going, the wife had taken the car to the garage for it's 20,000 mile "service" and now I'm only £250 lighter as a result, so there's absolutely nothing worth listening too on the cd player, I kick it on to Radio 5 live, for some intelligent chat, and the top story ? The one they want people to phone in about, smacking ! That old chestnut... I would say that I don't know why they do it but that would be me pretending to be naive. I know damn well why, coz there's sod all else to talk about.
President bush is over schmoozing his way around european leaders quicker than a woman called alisha, who does a mean line in furniture preservation products (if you catch my drift), and I hear snippet of something remotely intelligent he said once (probably just after birth) by way of recognition.
08:45: Made it to work, just sitting down and he's there..."so how we doing?", "err not bad...." and that's hit he's off to a meeting. His mobile PDA is on his desk though, so every 2 minutes we get the annoying diddly diddly ding ding, which initally isn't a problem but some persistent arsehole is just going to ring it and ring it and ring it. I nearly phoned frank to tell him there was big mess in the patio outside the canteen, that no-one uses (primarily because the doors are locked but also because it's february and that would be stupid!), but I resist.
09:00: The magician's back, comes over "how we doin' then" ..."yeah alright" I say trying hard not to mutter some expletives under breath. "I've got a little project for you to do", "oh yes" I say trying to sound interested, "yes, the portsmouth users", "mmm ?", " they're all coming up here and I'd like you to sort out power and comms etc", "ok" I say, waiting for the finite detail to the project....but then nothing, obviously assuming telepathy is a god given gift that everyone has he turns and walks away, now I'm a little lost, should I know what the hell he's blathering on about ? Should I know how many users, how many, PC's, Printers, faxes and where everyone is going to sit ? Obviously not, I'll run up a project plan later with an estimated figure for everything costing millions, that'll spark some better information I'm sure.
09:30: Checking the snapshots on the file server and ooh yes they're all from the weekend, in fact no snapshots have happened today so I spend an hour trying to work out why.
10:30: I keep hearing strange chuckles from my left hand side, either Alex Brentboy, is drunk or high or both or he's reading something funny....I look over and my suspicions are confirmed. He has discovered the "Bastard Operator From Hell" section of the register and is intent on reading them, and letting me know everytime something is funny. I try and ignore it for a bit but the temptation is too much, so I end up reading it.
11:00: It's starting to snow, I say starting, when actually I mean there's the odd flek of something white falling from the sky. It could be that a passing helicopter pilot has just flicked his ash but I don't know at this stage. I know with hand on heart, that I'm going to be extremely disappointed by the snow united turn out, living in the mid/south of the UK doesn't lend itself to any extremes of weather usually so I'm not holding much hope out for this "BIG FREEZE".
12:30: Lunchtime, I go out and brave the driving nothingness that hasn't fallen from the sky and go for my bacon sarny.
13:30: Back, ready to fight the good fight...then I realise I have documentation to do, so I knuckle down, to write yesterdays blog, which takes a good hour to complete.
14:30: Done the blog, now I've gotta do some work ;-(....More chuckles from the Brentboy..
17:30: Another fruitless day ends...still I managed to resolve all my WebNonsense issues even without the help of Non-Technical Support.
17:35: Just got back home (man those long drives home are starting to take their toll!!)
18:00: Finish my dinner, the kids have escaped to battle some villanous breed of alien or drive far to fast and smash in to something semi-solid, so i'll wait for the screams to start.
18:30: Washing up is done, the wife mentions she's got to do some work, so I'm left with the onerous task of "looking after the kids", which is code for lay on the settee, and nod off whilst watching some worthless mid evening tv series about lesser spotted kites or something.
19:30: World war II has begun! I just mentioned to POD that perhaps if he wasn't too busy (I mean how busy can an 8 year old be ?) he might quite like to practice some spellings ? That was it, "huh! neeeeeeeeeeeeoooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwww I CANT DO SPELLINGS, I DONT WANT TO DO SPELLINGS, YOU CANT MAKE ME, AAAAAAGGGgHHHGHGHG", winning that one then ? As my child relationship skills are in full use I also suggest to my nearly 12 year old (T-minus 1 year and 1 day remaining) that he might like to do his maths homework....wadda mistaka to make a !!! "OOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOO " (wail sob, wail sob) stomp upstairs, slam door, shout scream, "oh I'll just do my homework then I won't watch my absolute monday night 7:45pm BBC1, favourite programme then, I have no life!!"... I mean CHRIST !!
20:00: The wife has finished her work (or was that the other way around), obviously she could hear the ensuing cries of children being abused by their father, and has come to help.....THEM!
We resolve our differences by me shouting louder than everyone else (always works that one !!) and we discover that I was in fact in the right all along (yeah right !).
21:00: Finally the kids are in bed, pretending to be asleep whenever I come upstairs so we sit down and watch what remains of the monday night telly.
22:00: Can't wait for tomorrow to begin, the snow is almost coming down 1 flake a minute now, I know the roads are going to be turmoil, I know I have to buy fags first thing and i know I'm going to get a snow flake go down my back just to really annoy me...it's great being alive !!
08:30: Well I'm up, it's cold bloody cold, the cold snap they've been bleating on about is now upon us, it's only about 15 degrees inside and about 2 out. Also I have this sudden realisation that half term is over and the seemingly empty roads of last week are now a thing of the past.
08:35: I'm on the road behind a train of four by four's and people (or small people) carriers, with their huge off road tyres churning up the salt that the wonderful gritting guys have chucked out the night before, still I didn't actually like my paintwork anyway !
08:40: Nearly at work now, man it's heavy going, the wife had taken the car to the garage for it's 20,000 mile "service" and now I'm only £250 lighter as a result, so there's absolutely nothing worth listening too on the cd player, I kick it on to Radio 5 live, for some intelligent chat, and the top story ? The one they want people to phone in about, smacking ! That old chestnut... I would say that I don't know why they do it but that would be me pretending to be naive. I know damn well why, coz there's sod all else to talk about.
President bush is over schmoozing his way around european leaders quicker than a woman called alisha, who does a mean line in furniture preservation products (if you catch my drift), and I hear snippet of something remotely intelligent he said once (probably just after birth) by way of recognition.
08:45: Made it to work, just sitting down and he's there..."so how we doing?", "err not bad...." and that's hit he's off to a meeting. His mobile PDA is on his desk though, so every 2 minutes we get the annoying diddly diddly ding ding, which initally isn't a problem but some persistent arsehole is just going to ring it and ring it and ring it. I nearly phoned frank to tell him there was big mess in the patio outside the canteen, that no-one uses (primarily because the doors are locked but also because it's february and that would be stupid!), but I resist.
09:00: The magician's back, comes over "how we doin' then" ..."yeah alright" I say trying hard not to mutter some expletives under breath. "I've got a little project for you to do", "oh yes" I say trying to sound interested, "yes, the portsmouth users", "mmm ?", " they're all coming up here and I'd like you to sort out power and comms etc", "ok" I say, waiting for the finite detail to the project....but then nothing, obviously assuming telepathy is a god given gift that everyone has he turns and walks away, now I'm a little lost, should I know what the hell he's blathering on about ? Should I know how many users, how many, PC's, Printers, faxes and where everyone is going to sit ? Obviously not, I'll run up a project plan later with an estimated figure for everything costing millions, that'll spark some better information I'm sure.
09:30: Checking the snapshots on the file server and ooh yes they're all from the weekend, in fact no snapshots have happened today so I spend an hour trying to work out why.
10:30: I keep hearing strange chuckles from my left hand side, either Alex Brentboy, is drunk or high or both or he's reading something funny....I look over and my suspicions are confirmed. He has discovered the "Bastard Operator From Hell" section of the register and is intent on reading them, and letting me know everytime something is funny. I try and ignore it for a bit but the temptation is too much, so I end up reading it.
11:00: It's starting to snow, I say starting, when actually I mean there's the odd flek of something white falling from the sky. It could be that a passing helicopter pilot has just flicked his ash but I don't know at this stage. I know with hand on heart, that I'm going to be extremely disappointed by the snow united turn out, living in the mid/south of the UK doesn't lend itself to any extremes of weather usually so I'm not holding much hope out for this "BIG FREEZE".
12:30: Lunchtime, I go out and brave the driving nothingness that hasn't fallen from the sky and go for my bacon sarny.
13:30: Back, ready to fight the good fight...then I realise I have documentation to do, so I knuckle down, to write yesterdays blog, which takes a good hour to complete.
14:30: Done the blog, now I've gotta do some work ;-(....More chuckles from the Brentboy..
17:30: Another fruitless day ends...still I managed to resolve all my WebNonsense issues even without the help of Non-Technical Support.
17:35: Just got back home (man those long drives home are starting to take their toll!!)
18:00: Finish my dinner, the kids have escaped to battle some villanous breed of alien or drive far to fast and smash in to something semi-solid, so i'll wait for the screams to start.
18:30: Washing up is done, the wife mentions she's got to do some work, so I'm left with the onerous task of "looking after the kids", which is code for lay on the settee, and nod off whilst watching some worthless mid evening tv series about lesser spotted kites or something.
19:30: World war II has begun! I just mentioned to POD that perhaps if he wasn't too busy (I mean how busy can an 8 year old be ?) he might quite like to practice some spellings ? That was it, "huh! neeeeeeeeeeeeoooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwww I CANT DO SPELLINGS, I DONT WANT TO DO SPELLINGS, YOU CANT MAKE ME, AAAAAAGGGgHHHGHGHG", winning that one then ? As my child relationship skills are in full use I also suggest to my nearly 12 year old (T-minus 1 year and 1 day remaining) that he might like to do his maths homework....wadda mistaka to make a !!! "OOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOO " (wail sob, wail sob) stomp upstairs, slam door, shout scream, "oh I'll just do my homework then I won't watch my absolute monday night 7:45pm BBC1, favourite programme then, I have no life!!"... I mean CHRIST !!
20:00: The wife has finished her work (or was that the other way around), obviously she could hear the ensuing cries of children being abused by their father, and has come to help.....THEM!
We resolve our differences by me shouting louder than everyone else (always works that one !!) and we discover that I was in fact in the right all along (yeah right !).
21:00: Finally the kids are in bed, pretending to be asleep whenever I come upstairs so we sit down and watch what remains of the monday night telly.
22:00: Can't wait for tomorrow to begin, the snow is almost coming down 1 flake a minute now, I know the roads are going to be turmoil, I know I have to buy fags first thing and i know I'm going to get a snow flake go down my back just to really annoy me...it's great being alive !!
# posted by cre8 @ 2:36 AM 
