Busy busy busy!
9th January 2003

I've been adding to my Beginners' Guide To Perl this evening and now have to dash to pick up Sarah from somewhere.

We're both off to see a film with our mate Matt and (maybe) his girlfriend Lena tomorrow - we'll be seeing either Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, or Star Trek: Nemesis. Let's hope I don't spill me coke this time!

Archery A Go-Go!
7th January 2003

I'm going back to Archery today, after having had a break due to illness and Christmas and it's got me all fired up! I've devised an Archery score sheet (it's an excel sheet, and you're welcome to download and use it if you're interested, but I assure you, I've no idea if I'm adding up the right stuff in the right place!!!) which I intend to use on my Palm Pilot (when I finally get on!) and have printed to use tonight

I've also been looking into building some LARP arrows. Basically, the nock end is the same as an ordinary arrow (give or take) but the business end is padded to the hilt to make sure it can't hurt you. I've been asking the advice of a friend and Curious Passtimes Weapons Checker (Andrew - he is Albrecht Scarletti, if you are a CP Roleplayer) and have been getting the low down on how much foam to use and where. Look out for my article on the process, soon to be made available through my LARP page

I've also decided to change my email address, as it's listed on my site, because I'm getting rather a lot of spam these days. I know that Automatic Email Address Harvesters are sent onto the web to gather email addresses and one way to stop them is to quote your email address with something like ***REMOVE_THIS_BEFORE_SENDING*** in your address and that's what I've done (to this page at least - I'll be trawling the rest of my pages when I've got a minute)

The Lord Of The Rings:The Two Towers
6th January 2003

Sarah and I went to see LOTR:TTT (as the lazy have dubbed it!) yesterday evening and verily it was fab.

What wasn't so fab was that the minute I took a slurp from my stupidly large cinema stylee vat of Diet Coke, it leaked out of the lid and spilled down the front of my sweatshirt.

Naturally, I wasn't amused, so I struggled out of my sweatshirt and managed to lose my specs down the back of the seat in front of me in the process. Then to top it all, once I'd retrieved them, I went to get another slurp of my coke (hoping to get some in my mouth this time), fumbled it and managed to spill the whole lot....

On myself.

I wasn't amused, as you can imagine. Many "Bo11ocks!"es later, Sarah had dashed downstairs to get me some tissue paper so I could dry my leg and a refill of my coke (bless her!). However, now having one less layer than I'd intended, I spent the rest of the film shivering! (I don't know why, but I've been really cold, all weekend... and I'm still somewhat chilly now (though that's unsurprising, since I'm typing this during my lunch break at work and my boss insists on the room being about -4°C at all times!)

Anyway, LOTR:TTT was obviously a very popular film, because Crawley have been showing it for at least 3 weeks, and the cinema was absolutely packed (as was the car park!).

My only problem with films of this nature is that they are so well costumed and propped, that I spend the whole film thinking about all the cool costumes/props I could make for Live Role Play. I did remember, during the film, that I had a whole load of furniture foam that I had bought for a project and the [censored]ing ignorant, stupid [censored]ing [censored] of a shop assistant measured up wrongly for me (converting centimetres to inches by dividing by 3, rather than 2.45, I suspect) and which I now have to find something to do with... since my LARP character is an Archer, the words "LARP arrows" appeared in my head - especially since you need several if you're actually going to arch at all, and they cost about £8 each if you buy them from a vendor at an event. So, all I have to do is find out how to make them, cost them up and I'm sorted.

Anyway, apart from the coke spilling and LARP props planning, Sarah and I both enjoyed Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers and are very much looking forward to seeing Star Trek: Nemesis and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets sometime in the next week or so.

Ipswich 4:Morecambe 0
5th January 2003

Well, we did beat Morecambe in the FA Cup 3rd round yesterday (would've been embarrassing if we hadn't!!!) despite the fact that for quite a considerable time during the match, it was snowing! I was wearing 4 layers on my upper body and at least 2 everywhere else, but was still cold!

The match was great - we scored our first goal 2 minutes into the match (it's always nice to start scoring that early on!) and the other three came in the 2nd half (3 and 4 were within a few minutes of each other) and it would've been 5:0 except that one of ours was disallowed (we presume it was off-side, but neither of us really saw)

I spent the whole of half time (and a few minutes into the 2nd half! Grrrr!) queuing for a hot drink - only to discover when I got to the front of the queue, that I'd chosen a stall where the girl on the till was adding up in her head and failing miserably! No wonder there was such a queue - the exchange went something like this:

Me:	One hot chocolate and a bag of fruit pastilles, please.
Her:	Three eighty, please.
Me:	THREE EIGHTY?!?
Her:	No?      [confused look, turns around to the till and rings up £1.20 + £1.60, turns back to me] Two eighty, please.

Now, I know I might be a little bit idealistic, but surely if you've just spent 15 minutes adding up multiples of £1.20 and £1.60 (as far as I could see, they didn't sell anything very much other than hot drinks and fruit pastilles) you're liable to know what the most common combinations add up to, aren't you?

Anyway, moving swiftly on (before I start on a rant along the lines of "What do they teach kids in school these days, anyway?!") I've hit a small set-back in buying a Rio PMP300 on ebay - the PMP300s don't seem to work under Windows 2000. However, Diamond did make a Rio PMP300 SE which ran on a USB (rather than parallel) cable and had Win2k drivers, so I'm going to see if I can find the cable for my PMP300 and see if I can get it to work under Windows 2000. If I can't, I'll see if I can find myself a PMP300 SE, somewhere.

I'm still trying to bid on a Palm M130 though (I'd have got one yesterday for $165, if only my stupid effing mobile phone had set off the alarm at 8:20 like it was supposed to! I woke up at about 8:35 in the end, and by the time I'd logged in, I had missed the end of the auction by about 12 seconds... Grrrrr!)

Tonight, Sarah and I are going to go and see Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers. I've not been to the cinema in aaaaages, so I'm very much looking forward to it. I think Sarah's more into LOTR than me, but I enjoyed the first one and I always enjoy films at the cinema.

ebay Escapades
3rd January 2003

Well, not only am I going to be going to the footie tomorrow, I'm also going to be up early to see if I can win myself a bid on ebay.

I've got my eye on a PDA (the one I was using previously was the company iPAQ and has been commandeered for other work). The PDA I've got my eye on (a Palm M130) is currently sitting at $123 (about £80) which I'd be happy with, but I'll probably have to go somewhat higher if I want to win it.

I've also got to see if I can win a bid for a Rio PMP300 at some point - it's a fantastic little MP3 player - I got one as a leaving present from FAST (that must be a good 3 years ago now!) and I've somehow managed to misplace the lead which connects it to the PC (so I've been listening to the same 15 songs or so on it for months!). I've got my eye on a few and they're generally selling at about $30 on ebay (that's about £20) so I hope I'll be able to pick one up sometime soon to provide me with a spare lead (and possibly spares for the broken catch on the battery compartment which is known to be fragile on these models and which broke on mine when I'd only had it a few months).

Wish me luck :)

"Come On You Blues"
2nd January 2003

Well, here we are, nearly two full days into 2003 and Ipswich already have a 100% winning record for all their 2003 matches!

For those of you who didn't catch it, Ipswich Town FC thrashed Millwall 4:1 yesterday! Here's hoping they maintain this winning streak when they play Morecambe at home this Saturday in the third round of the FA Cup, because Sarah and I will be there to watch the match. Mind you, given the weather forecast for this weekend (cold!) we'll be wrapping up very warmly, I think.

Happy New Year
1st January 2003

Here's hoping that everyone reading this page had a great New Year. Sarah and I went to visit some friends in Brighton for the evening (and stayed over - which is just as well given the amount we'd had to drink!) and we had a fab time playing Crazy Taxi and listening to cheesy music. It was fantastic to see our friends (Jen, Jools, Smo and Cara) and spend some "quality" time with them. I do feel particularly embarrassed however, that I fell asleep on the sofa before anyone else (I'd been up since 6:45am and had spent 5 hours driving - that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!) and worse still that there is, apparently, photographic evidence of the fact!

Still, at least I there isn't photographic evidence of me doing anything else embarrassing *Wry look towards Smo and Cara!*

Full Clean Driving Licence?
31st December 2002

Well, it's all done and dusted. My licence was endorsed with 3 points and I paid a £60 fine. Seems like a lot for going 11 mph over the limit, but that's life, and like I said last time, I've definitely learned my lesson.

One thing I was quite pleased by was the fact that everything was dealt with pretty swiftly by Essex Police. I filled in the "You've been clocked!" form with an "It's a fair cop, Guv" response and had the decision through within a week. I sent off my cheque for the fine and my driving licence, as requested, and had my licence back, with the endorsement, within a few days. It was all done and dusted before Christmas, so I wasn't worrying over my holiday period about what would be happening, which is one (albeit small) mercy.

Who's Driving My Car?
29th November 2002

Sadly, I was when I exceeded a temporary speed limit recently and I've just received a nasty letter from the cops about it :o(

It scared the hell out of me when I first saw the letter (because I know it was me driving at the time and I also know it's a "fair cop") but I've had a little time to think about it and research what's likely to happen and I'm slightly calmer now.

Ask Jeeves.com (which though simplistic, has it's uses) came up with a top website for me when I asked it what was likely to be the result of my speeding. Speed-Trap.co.uk put my mind at rest slightly by pointing out that:

• If the limit is 40 miles per hour, then at 46 mph you'll get a fixed penalty, but you shouldn't get a summons until 66 mph
• Up to 15mph over the speed limit, a typical fine is £44 and the endorsement, 3 points
• Exceeding temporary speed limits is a non-endorsable offence (excepting where the temporary speed limit over-rides the National Speed Limit) so only liable to a fixed penalty fine

  (Source: Speed vs Fines page of Speed-Trap.co.uk)

I was doing 51 in a temporary 40 mph zone on a dual carriageway (The speed limit was only 40 mph because of roadworks). So with luck, all I'll get is a Fixed Penalty of about £45, not a court summons and if I'm very lucky not even any points!

Keep your fingers crossed for me.

One thing I will say is that there's no way I'll be speeding again! I know I'm guilty and I intend to learn my lesson!

On the CBB front, Sue Perkins was voted out last night. Which is a shame for us the viewing public (well, alright, for me the letching public ;o) ) but I doubt it was for Sue herself, because she did seem to be getting stressier and stressier the longer she stayed in the house. I have to admit that all along I didn't think she'd win, although I hoped she would.

Who's Driving Goldie's Train?
28th November 2002

It's my head of department's birthday today, so we're all going to the pub at lunchtime and she bought cakes in for everyone, which I thought was really sweet. Unfortunately my tummy's not feeling too good (I've got my Career Development Meeting - read "Assessment") this afternoon and although my conscious brain's not worried about it, I think I must be worried about it subconsciously.

Ah well.

Didn't see an awful lot of CBB yesterday - but I did see the task - the assault course thing. Thought it looked like lots of fun, but I think the laser beams thing was a bit much! Rope bridges and the like are difficult to negotiate at the best of times, without adding in the complication of making people step over beams of light which they may not even be able to see at the time! WELL unfair.

What I did find interesting, though, was that on Celebrity Big Brother's Little Brother, they were analysing pictures that the contestants drew of trains before they went into the house, but "didn't have time" to analyse Goldie's... Am I the only person who's thinking that's a little bit suspect and that perhaps they had to arrange not to have time to do Goldie's train?

OK, I've had my Career Development Meeting today and it was a lot more positive than I thought it would be. And lo and behold... no more tummy ache! So it looks like that was what it was. I'm all fired up now with lots of things I've got to do and I've even started to use the "Tasks" functionality of Outlook (which I've never bothered with before and just didn't get on with at all!)

So, I've now got lots to do, lots more responsibility than I perceived that I had before and am a happy bunny, looking forward to getting on with things and moving on!

Hoorah!

Bye Bye Ann!
27th November 2002

So, Ann Diamond was voted out of CBB last night - it's a shame, of course, but I'm sure you can't blame me for wanting Sue Perkins to stay in ;o) I felt so bad for her when she was crying under the quilt last night though :o( She's had a bad time of it in the house, what with nominating the two people she thought wouldn't get many nominations in the first round, only to find out that they were BOTH up for eviction, and then being up for eviction herself, very narrowly avoiding it and then going straight back up for eviction only moments later!

And it was VERY narrow - apparently there were only 1590 votes in it! That is that Ann was voted out with 50.6% of the vote (as opposed to Sue's 49.6%, of course). I'm glad I voted now!

Incidentally, while searching for info on Sue Perkins yesterday, I surfed into Pam Br's website. I particularly like the 100 Things page. I dropped her a line last night complimenting her on the site, and she wrote me a lovely email back returning the compliments to mine. So there you go - if anyone ever says that surfing the net is a waste of time, you can henceforth tell 'em they're wrong (though, frankly, if you're here reading this, I'm sure you would've done anyway!)

Sue Perkins Is In The House!
26th November 2002

Been watching Celebrity Big Brother recently? I know I have! Not that my being glued to the show has anything at all with Sue Perkins *swoon* being in the house or anything *grin*

I must admit that I'm rather disappointed that I didn't get to see Sue talking about Rhona Cameron outing her in the papers. I didn't see the story in the papers at the time, so I can't really comment on it, though I do think that outing anyone against their wishes is pretty awful. I would've loved to have seen Sue talking about it though - to see exactly what her perspective on it was (other than royally pissed off, of course - and who can blame her?)

Although I am enjoying watching Anne Diamond in CBB, I'm afraid my loyalty isn't tied so much that I would rather she stayed than Sue. Anne is very much playing the maternal figure and although this is good for the dynamic, I think Sue has more to contribute, but I think she's being somewhat overshadowed by the others at the moment.

If you're wondering what happened to all the stuff on my old front page, it's here