31 Jul 2008

Grr again.

Posted in Life at 4:01 pm by alby

Am I coming across as angry today?

My bleedin’ broadband has died again.  The ADSL light is stuck flashing which seems to mean that it’s not getting any signal.

BT say it should be fine.  Onetel say it should be fine.  Neither seems to be able to help.

I’ve changed the filter, I’ve tried a different wire, I’ve switched off and on again about 9 times.  Still dead.

Now Onetel are going to zap my line with tests in the next few days.  Hopefully things will be better after that.  If that fails then the only thing I can think is that the router is buggered.  Maybe.

Sigh.

July searches

Posted in Blog at 3:35 pm by alby

  • norwich events 05.07.08
  • www.monkey what ever it says i tsay the same thing
  • alan beers -artist -art
  • youtube free music amazing grace pipes and drums of royal scots dragoon guards
  • coolie hats sold in shops in birmingham
  • meanderings monket juggler
  • dawn mank
  • roska outdoor
  • richard hammond no details
  • is lancaster uni full of hotties?
  • barnsey_2

Going nowhere

Posted in Juggling, Rants at 8:25 am by alby

Hah that title should have worried a couple of people who are going with me to EJC.

Anyway it is about juggling but not the EJC.  The EJC will be fun.

This Vova vs Gatto spinning round like a dick competition thing.  What a tedious waste of everyone’s life it is.

We have Vova’s mates hurrahing.  We have Vova cheating then getting arsey when people call him on it, we have people actually giving a toss about a completely contrived “record”.

And ffs this shite is still going on?

I’ve avoided it so far but frankly it’s bunging up the juggling pages with shit and I’m now annoyed by the level of seriousness that seems to be exercising people there.

“But he’s the best”, “No he’s the best”, “No he really is the best.” etc ad nauseum.  Massive stack of wank.  Well done.

I like my internet and I like reading the juggly stuff but frankly the week away at the EJC will give people time to chat about something even vaguely interesting.

Well done you’re very good, now go and do something a: worthwhile, b: interesting and c: else.

[edit]  I’ve just thought what this “contest” is like.  Imagine a local golf pro bragging that he’s better than Tiger Woods because he can play a local par 3 quite well.  That’s what it reminds me of.

28 Jul 2008

Quiet week

Posted in Blog, News, Work at 8:24 pm by alby

I had noticed.  And it was mentioned to me yesterday.

My blog has been more than a tad quiet this week.

A combination of business and not being in the mood I suppose.

But then there’s stuff to look forward to.

EJC is nigh on upon us.  Really looking forward to that.  At least I am assuming my keeping fingers crossed re car surviving works.  I’m half expecting me to be spending a day sorting car issues during the holiday.  But hopefully I’m just being paranoid.

Other stuff.

The Bugle remains the funniest thing I’ve heard for a while.  Certainly much better than the current Now Show series.  In fact radio 4 comedy is a bit rubbish now.  ISIHAC is finished what with Humph dying,  Now Show is a bit rubbish at the mo,  Just a Min has worn out its welcome to me as well.  It doesn’t leave much else there.

My brother hit 40 this week.  It’s the first time he has celebrated a birthday that I remember my dad celebrating way back when.  I am now starting to feel old.  No do though so he had to make do with a card.  I’ll take him booze next time I visit.

Work is interesting but summer always makes the world of work more fun.

I’ve had about 4 no shows today.  I’d be paranoid if I’d seen them before but they were all new patients.  Annoying but its occasionally nice to chill a bit on warm days.

There’s too much on in the news for me to get to all of it.  Although I do wonder what the hell Weston Super Mare has about it to warrant nearly lead item on the news today.  Nice to see that a damaged pier takes precidence over murder on honeymoon, 50 people killed in suicide bombings in Iraq, a dozen more in Turkey etc…  Our editors must all go to the school of mundanity.   V poor.

Have fun.

Scum!

Posted in Life at 7:16 am by alby

I love my neighbours.

Somewhere down the road last night there was a party.  Not normally an issue but they were spilling into the street and shouting and generally being a real pain in the backside.

It was warm last night and I didn’t want to close my window.  But drunken people shouting when there was no need to forced it on me a tad.

I was awake well past 1am.  I wouldn’t honestly mind if it’d been a Friday or Saturday but Sunday counts as a school night.

At one point I was harbouring fantasies of doing em a drive-by.

Gits.

23 Jul 2008

Swatted

Posted in People, Reviews at 6:43 am by alby

I was invited out last night by Ruth.  Two of her in-laws from SA are over at the mo and I went to their place when we were oer on holiday there.

We ended up at an Indian place with the least Indian name I’ve seen.

Swatlands it was.  And very nice too.  Top food.

Worth a trip one day.  Shame it’s a little way away though.

21 Jul 2008

Bored web designers

Posted in Blog at 8:53 am by alby

Have a look.  Just load and wait.

http://producten.hema.nl/

16 Jul 2008

I have a hot

Posted in Self-indulgence at 2:09 pm by alby

This may be slightly gross.

I’ve just had my dinner.  I bought a chicken samosa earlier and was looking forward to it.  I’ve just eaten it and nom nom…

Exciting eh?

But then I needed to blow my nose.  Not uncommon I suppose.  Hot food sort of does that to me.

So blow it I did.

Suddenly I feel like I need a proper “clear the sinuses” blow rather than the expected simple “stop the dribbling” style blow.  Deep breath and blow.

Out plops a chunk of spicy onion into the tissue.  Hmm lovely.

I now have slightly irritated sinuses prolly cos of the spices.

This really has never happened to me before.

14 Jul 2008

Can you tell me how to get….

Posted in Juggling, People, Reviews at 7:17 am by alby

…how to get to Honeystreet?

A nice small event this weekend.

Lynne had booked us a space at a camping site/pub in Wiltshire.

I decided to head down there a while back but no-one up here wanted to go.  Ah stuff ‘em.

I went via rural Oxfordshire to pick Tom up at his folks’ place.  But first I had to get past Coventry.  Bloody nightmare.  The trip, according to google maps should be 1hr 45mins.  I left work at 5.30 and got to Tom’s at 8.15ish.  Annoyed by the drive but his ma perked me up no end with her rather lovely dinner she’d made for me.  Star.

Anyway we left around 9pm for the site.  Google said it was in a place called Pewsey.  So we went there.  Drove around a while.  Found no venue.

Turns out that the place is miles away from Pewsey and by now it was dark so we had to keep asking people in pubs.  So a 2hr and a bit trip (according to google) took me from 5.30 ’til 11.15 with a short stop for food.

I’d decided before heading that I was going to sleep in my car, Tom had brought his huge 3 man tent to kip in.

Once set up we wandered back into the pub only to find they’d just called time.  So back to the tents for chat before sleeping.

Saturday was a great day of doing very little.  There are a few places of interest around the area but a short towpath walk was pretty much all that we worked our way into bothering with.  We met some interested cows and failed to find a memorial and that was that.

The rest of Saturday passed in a blaze of apathy, chatting and board games.  Lynne thrashed me at Scrabble and introduced us to Saboteur which was quite a nifty little card based thing.  I did spend a little time outlining the game Chain Reaction which led to some “ooh that sounds good” comments.  It does need to come to Germany with us.

The pub was ok.  The beer was varied and the people friendly.  The campsite was also hosting a small gathering of bikers.  They were nice enough and seemed to spend their days standing in circles nattering.  It was noticeable that their numbers were split into geeks and others just like the jugglers.  Interesting to see the same sorts of behaviour from a group into something totally different.

I’d not taken much food as I was expecting to eat in the pub for most meals.  I had a nice piece of chicken s my first meal.  It came with “baby new potatoes”; actually there were 4.  4 tiny ones.  Mandy had some fish and also had 4 tiny potatoes.  We both OD’d on carbs that day.

Later on I plumped for the steak and was really looking forward to it.

Hopes dashed when it arrived.  Firstly it looked grey and unloved.  Secondly it smelled of shit.

NB NOT smelled “like” shit meaning it just smelled bad.  But it actually did smell “of” shit.  Really unpleasant.

But I tried 2 mouthfuls before giving up.  Not impressed but Tom pretty much finished it despite the smell.  Ah the desperation of students.

So no more food at that pub for me.

Saturday was spent around a small barbecue that Tarim and Kate had brought.  Lots of alcohol drunk and a few hours of silly jokes and that.  One moment I’ll remember for a while was Void starting a “I’m just saying punchlines” bit and Tom immediately answered with “There are 20 of them”, confusing everyone but giving me a fine laugh.

I shall remain proud of the worst pun I have ever made which had the group groaning.  I liked it and it got me a salute.  And in my drunk state it had me giggling for about an hour.  One of my finer japes.  But it won’t work out of context so you’ll all just have to imagine.

Sunday was more sitting around until people started packing up.  Some of your actual juggling went on too.

Near us in the campsite were a lovely dutch family and we spent a while playing with their older child.  He spent his time believing himself to the “ballboy” at a game of volleyclub, or a saboteur to all jugglers by throwing a spare prop at them when they were practising etc.  He was alright but a bit of a pain on the Sunday.  Most weird of all though was that he was the exact image of the feral kid from Mad Max 2.

And then we went home, via some canal locks.  And that was that.

There were only just over a dozen folk there and all were lovely.  A nice and relaxing way to spend a weekend despite the hellish journey.  Homewards took about the right time despite having to leave the M40 early due to horrific delays around my preferred exit.

Photos taken and here (hopefully they’ll meet tehVoidz minimum standards).

Grand weekend.

Ta to all who chatted and played.

Have fun.

11 Jul 2008

Confusion

Posted in Life, People at 10:36 am by alby

Those potential couchsurfers got a bit confused.

They thought Leicester was in or near London so they’re now not coming.

So no pub with strangers on Tuesday then.

Pub visit anyway?

If yes then I’ll see you at the Swan on Tuesday.

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