I have my car back

My car was recently backed into by a van. This was rather inconvenient, not to mention a bit of a surprise. Thankfully the garage to whom the van belonged took responsibility and have sorted out the mess.

They took my car away for just over a week and mended the dent by replacing the door and wing on the passenger side. They also took out a dent that I'm pretty sure was nothing to do with them and sprayed the scratches on the bumper that were definitely due to a bush at Reading University.

So now It's all mended and shiny and clean. All good.

Now I have to learn to not reverse in first gear.

It seems to worry people as I zoom towards things instead of safely reversing away from them. Not least the people at the garage last night as they watched in panic at the attempt I made to leave their forecourt.

Worship Style

I've found a quiz that helps you to determine your worship style. Not because this is especially important, but because it might make you think a bit about worship and how you prefer to do it.

I found it through the Rejesus blog, but the direct link is here

Apparently I prefer to worship God by caring for others, which, to be fair, does fit with everything else in my life, so it's probably about right. Not sure about the things that come second and third as they both imply I'd prefer silent meditation and worship, which doesn't entirely sit right with my normal preferences.

It seems to be more of a character assessment than a worship style assessment, but maybe that's the point - worship is part of everyday things after all :-)

Thought provoking at the least.

Caregiver - Loving God by Loving Others:

Caregivers serve God by serving others. They often claim to see Christ in the poor and needy, and their faith is built up by interacting with other people. Caring for others recharges a caregiver's batteries.

Contemplative - Loving God through Adoration:
These Christians seek to love God with the purest, deepest, and brightest love imaginable. They want nothing more than some privacy and quiet to gaze upon the face of their heavenly Lover and give all of themselves to God.

Ascetic - Loving God in Solitude and Simplicity:
Ascetics want nothing more than to be left alone in prayer. Let there be nothing to distract them--no pictures, no loud music--and leave them alone to pray in silence and simplicity.


link

Dead flies.

On Thursday I went to see a friend in Oxford. She’s finally re-entered the world of sociable people, and as a result I didn’t have to be sympathetic about dead flies at all. This is good, because I’ve never really found the right words to express my true feelings on that matter. She did make me look at her thesis, and I proved, again, that I just don’t have the right vocabulary for the topic. But what a lovely front cover the document has. Beautiful.

We spent most of the day telling each other how wonderful our other halves are, and occasionally even also listening to each other. We may also have been shopping.

Incidentally, apparently Alice’s new bloke reads this blog occasionally. So I’d like to express my condolences on two points:
1. The content of this blog is hardly intellectual or, for the most part, intelligent.
2. Just general condolences/sympathies for coping with Alice. There were lots of reasons for that which were evident Thursday, but just now I can’t remember what any of them are. The principle still stands though.

Still, it was good to catch up with Alice. It also turns out that she is moving in the opposite direction to me. Just when we’d managed to live within shouting distance for a while. I’ve decided to take it personally.

Oh yes, the Birmingham move is now happening, which probably means that I need to get organised - you know, find somewhere to live, sort out all my junk (bet you didn’t know I had a Chinese boat).

Cardboard bridge.

I have a new aim in life. Amoungst the other life aims I now want to build a bridge out of toilet rolls.

It is possible.... link

Mousetrap for water engineers

What do you mean you don't know what mousetrap is? I think Gran still has the version we used to play. Hmmm. I think I need to head over to Gran's to check :-)

Either way, how cool is this? I want one!
link


link now corrected!

World Domination

You Are Not Destined to Rule the World

You are destined for something else... Like inventing a new type of cupcake. You just don't have the stomach for brutality. But watch out - because many people do!

Are You Destined For World Domination?

Pants. I'm going to have to rethink my career.

Are you a control freak?

You Are 32% Control Freak

You have achieved the perfect balance of control and letting go. You tend to roll with whatever life brings, but you never get complacent.

Are You A Control Freak?

I'm very amused at the concept of me having a perfect balance of control and letting go of things - that's something I'm renowned for, just take a look at my diary and the amount of committees I'm on.

I'd have put myself far higher than 32%.

Lying to journalists.

I have to talk to a journalist about my career. She will then write 200 words about me, based on what I say, to include in a supplement for a technical magazine. I think I'm only included if I’m interesting enough though.

This is slightly random, and involves me trying to remember things that I generally choose to forget, like what my degree title is (Thanks to a course mate for help on that one). I’m also likely to be asked about why, 4 years ago, I chose to work for this company.

I’m not sure that I can give the real answer of ‘Seemed like a good idea at the time, and God gave it the OK too’.

Which means I have to lie.

It's hailing.

It's July 3rd amd there's hail in that there thunder storm.

July. Hail.

:-(

Maybe I will have to buy a sun lamp after all.

Someone just sent a fax...

When someone uses the fax machine it plays a tune across the whole room as it sends - The tune being the dial sound for each number. That last one managed to sound like the theme tune to old disney cartoons.

I am very much amused and will now be singing it all night.

Bathroom fitting epidemic

Everywhere I go at the moment someone is sure to say ‘I’m redoing the bathroom at the moment’ or, as a variation on the theme, there are a few people redoing their kitchens. It’s right across the board, both friends and colleagues. It’s getting to the point where I can occasionally make intelligent sounding comments about them, which is a little worrying.

So, is it me? Am I somehow subtly affecting the people around me and making them want to redo their bathrooms?

And if that’s the case, is there any way that I can change this effect into something of more practical use to me. Instead or ‘redo bathroom’ it could be ‘give Mary chocolate’ or perhaps ‘give Mary a hug’ or even more useful ‘stop Mary volunteering for things’. Although I've been trying to talk myself into that last one for years - it never quite seems to happen...

It's 4 New bathrooms & 2 new kitchens at last count.

Office phones.

I have two phones on my desk. One is white. One is grey.

The grey one is a fancy new IP phone. The old white one is not.

Last week the white phone worked for everything I need a phone to do and the grey one did not.
Today the grey phone works, and the white one does not.

They both have different phone numbers. The number that people call me on is the one that doesn’t work.

I’ve tried calling IT about it, but I can’t call them from either phone.

My Old School

I was lucky enough to go to a very good state school - The Holt School, Wokingham. As with any school it had it's problems (Through winter, it was quite standard to heat the science labs by lighting all the bunsen burners that we could find), but I came out of 7 years there with some pretty good (if I do say so myself) qualifications, which set me up for Uni and my following career.

So I find it horrible to look at an article in the news today about the state of the school now. A lot of girls study there, and academically it's still a good school.

How on earth can any council allow it's buildings to get into such a state? Buildings, no buildings, should be allowed to get to this state of disrepair. It's a waste of money for one thing.

The scary thing is that this is a prosperous part of the country - what are schools elsewhere looking like? Surely there are people who can see the cost and social benefit of looking after the assets they have? Or do we really live in such a short sighted political climate the only short term budgets and projects can be considered?

Pictures of the school.

I'm peeved, both professionally as an engineer and personally as an old girl.

Blackboard paint

I found this link on Boingboing.net

Blackboard paint. I could have so much fun with that.

Imagine the scene. I've just got home and there are a million things that I should be doing, but I can't remember what they all are, but joy of joys - they're all listed on the blackboard paint :-) I can lose pieces of paper, but I'd have to be really unlucky to lose an entire kitchen cupboard :-)

And it'd bring a whole new level of excitement to parties - everything ends up in the kitchen anyway and you could have a fantastic work of art by the time everyone else goes home :-)

All I need now is a house of my own so that I can do it (I'm assuming that most landlords might have issues with it). Now there's the first time I've found an incentive for trying to get on the property ladder (reasons not to buy my own place include finances, and not wanting to live on my own as I need someone to get rid of spiders for me).

Which Harry Potter Character Are You?

You are Hagrid. You're an outcast with a heart of gold. Despite your own problems, you always find time to help those in need.

link

32.

I’ve just written a list of ‘urgent’ things that I haven’t done. There are 32 things on the list.

So, if I’m meant to have called you, sent you something, emailed you something, organised something, given you something, written up something, sorted out something, detailed my opinion on something, RSVP’d to something or just haven’t spoken to you in a while please accept my apologies.

I’m not quite sure how it all got this far out of hand.

Oops.

I'm tempted to leave it until there are 42 items for HHGTTG reasons, but that seems a bit of a self destructive attitude.

I'd like to apologise to my colleagues in the Red Cross...

...but let's be honest, you really shouldn't have let me stand on a step ladder with a bucket of water. It was always going to be asking for trouble. The Vehicle is now clean, although it needs polishing, and a white touch up stick (anyone got a faded white, mercedes benz touch up stick?). We even did the inside.

I also washed my jeans and J. and B. ended up with a fair amount of water all over them too.

Apparently I'm going to get cold in my kidneys too where my t-shirt didn't meet my jeans. If I do I suspect it'll be mostly to do with S. poking me in the back with a mop...

So tonight we decided to wash the First Aid Vehicle. The mould growing along the side really wasn't giving us a very professional image. Anyone who saw us actually washing it won't have seen a very professional image either.

However, the season is upon us - so anyone who sees us out an about will, as ever, ask us how much we get paid and where the toilets are. People are always suprised that we're volunteers as they can't understand why anyone would spend 10 hours at a time sitting in a field with an ambulance. It's a fair call. We don't know either. But at least this year we won't have a mouldy vehicle.

Tired.

For over a week now I’ve been tired. Sleepy tired – you know that feeling when you’ve just woken up and could just drop straight back off again? That kind of tired, except almost all the time. But sleeping doesn’t seem to help.

Given that I spend my life being tired you’d think I’d have got the hang of it now.

It’s probably a lot to do with getting bored at work and doing too much and not getting enough exercise – all the normal culprits.

So basically, I'm feeling sorry for myself. How attractive :-s

Ho hum.

The end is nigh

You know it’s been an ‘interesting’ work period when you take a complicated set of drawings to a colleague for him to action, say ‘they’re ready to go’ and he looks you straight in the eye, shakes your hand and says ‘Congratualtions’.

He’s as glad to see the back of them as I am, although I’ll be surprised if they don’t return with comments from the contractors about something I’ve overlooked.

It’s one of the great things about my job – you never know what problem you’re going to be faced with next, and there’s never an off the shelf answer. However, with this set of drawings there have been lots and lots of options that don’t really quite work. Most of which I developed at some point in the last few weeks.

Now we just have to see if they can build the thing.

It’s the last big bit of work on the project. Two years on this, and we’re almost done. It feels a bit like bereavement. I wonder what they’ll do with me next – The electrical engineer told me yesterday that I’m ‘going places’. I think I’d upset him .

Sitting in the sun.

Surely that’s got to hurt? It's hot and massive.

I spent much of the weekend doing it anyway.

Anyone got a tissue?

You come into work. You feel rubbish. You sneeze over everything. You consider giving up and going home, and you’ve only been there 30 minutes, and it seems a little early to make that kind of decision.

Then a colleague wanders up and gives you chocolate and it’s all better.

Ish.

Ahhhhh Chhhooooooooooooooo.

New York Manhole steam

Now what makes you think that I'm not quite in the working mood yet....?

Steam coming from manholes in New York are not to do with subways venting, or the sewers for that matter.

Many of the high rise buildings in New York are powered by steam in a network that is 50 to 100 years old. Steam is used as this is both more cost effective and efficient than many other systems for heating tall buildings. It's also used for sterilising equipment in some hospitals. Most of the steam plumes that you see coming out of manholes are due to water touching the outside of these steam pipes and becoming vapour.

Occasionally they are due to cracks in the pipework in, or near, those locations.

http://www.coned.com/history/steam.asp

So now I have an answer, and I'm happy. But I suppose I should really do some work now.

Jetlag

So far, I have:

• Fallen out of bed – a double bed no less. No idea how I managed that one, but my housemates heard the thump, so I didn't just dream it.
• Demolished the bathroom towel rail (about 5 minutes after falling out of bed).
• shut finger in kitchen door (The nail is going purple – it’s very pretty).
• used bruised finger to press buttons, empty tumble drier and generally lots of things that might also make the thing hurt.

I'm hoping not to hurt myself in any other ways for a while.

New York

New Year 2007. I was at a party and a conversation began about clothes. The general theme was that we didn’t have anything to wear for any of the gazillion weddings we're meant to be attending this summer.

I can’t remember exactly what time the suggestion was made – I may have a little to drink.

However, the suggestion was made that we would go to New York to go shopping for wedding outfits.

Suprisingly we actually made it. We went last week. There are photos, there are credit card bills and there are good memories.

But I still have nothing to wear for the weddings.

Normality is not a vector

• Normal means perpendicular to something.
• So if I take it as relative to the ground then if I'm perpendicular to the ground then I am normal.
• But the ground is curved.
• So I'm unlikely to be normal that often, but am more likely to wobble around on either side of normal as I wander through life...
• And even if I lie down I'm unlikely to be parallel as my curves don't match the ground's curve.
• You're either normal or you're not. Apparently. Does this make it bipolar? Should normality be on medication after all bipolar disorder is generally bad.
• But that would imply that normality is a vector as it has direction.
• And that would just be silly.

I'm a little tired, I think my brain has just given up on thinking about anything that might actually do it any good. Maybe I should have had a nap this afternoon instead of paddling in the waterfall at virginia water, and I wasn't analysing the flow patterns in my head. I mean, really, would I do such a thing? ;-)

Last night was the work party to celebrate how wonderful we all are. It was very impressive, with about 800 people there, but did involve introducing the boyfriend to some of my colleagues. He seemed to cope and I'm on leave all week so the office can gossip to their hearts content and I don't actually have to listen. I'm going to New York tomorrow :-)

Me, Mum, Best Friend from school and her mum. New York. Shopping.

Please pray for New York :-)

Ting

That is the noise that my necklace made as it fell off my neck and landed on my desk, narrowly missing my mug. This is unusual as i have a reputation for spilling my drinks, and dropping things in them, so I would expect the necklace to land in the mug. It's unfortunately fairly common for me to have to ask for reprints of my drawings because they're covered in water - the guys have got used to it now.

It might help if I had a tidy desk, but somehow that doesn't seem to be a way that I can work. I know where everything is and what it's for, but no one else does. But I'm going on leave so I'm sticking post-it notes on everything and putting it on other people's desks. I know it'll all be back on my desk by the time I get back but that doesn't change the feeling right now.

Must remember to take it to the parents for mending - pliers and a soldering iron should do the trick. That's the necklace, not the mug, and definitely not the desk.

In Heaven the postit notes will be great – they won’t fall off !

So you put 6 women in a room, and ask them to look at a passage in Revelation and somehow inevitably the discussion goes crazy.

We started off talking about sheep and goats. So far so good.

The sheep and the goats will be divided. Most people would probably move on from here but after about 10 minutes of discussion we were still working out the best way to distinguish the two species. It was decided that actually checking their tails to distinguish them would be easier than making cheese from all of them and tasting it. Not to mention a whole lot quicker. We just have to hope that they wouldn’t be pegged up by their tails, because once you unpegged them they’d probably run off.

Then of course there’s purgatory to discuss – I’ve struggled for a long time to care much about whether purgatory exists – after all it shouldn’t change how I live now anyway. But finally, an analogy that makes a kind of sense – once the sheep and the goats have been divided there’s the sheep dip to pass through...

And then there are the gates of heaven to provide a photo opportunity.

And all that was interspersed with singing the theme tune from the Poddington peas. (Heaven is perfect, Eden was perfect. There are peas in gardens. Honestly, there's logic in there somewhere.)

Down at the bottom of the garden,
Among the birds and the bees,
A little lot of little people,
They call the Poddington Peas.

There’s Creepy, Black Eye Pea and Dumpy.
Keep it a secret now please.
There’s Zippy, Happy and there’s Sweepy.
And all the Poddington Peas!

The Poddington Peas!

How on earth we’re going to turn any of this into a sensible session for the young people next week is a problem for Friday when we try to plan it before spending all evening watching Red Dwarf. This isn't going to get any more sensible is it...?

Rock Paper Scissors - the ultimate decision making tool.

I'm not that good at making decisions that affect myself. YouthNet leaders have been known to make decisions about which pub to visit based on the game Rock, Paper, Scissors when we can't come to an agreement any other way.

It turns out the game itself it's less uncommon than I thought. There's a league in the states, with referees and prize money.

So I'm taking part in a global sport. Not just putting off decisions. :-)

Go me.

Times Online Article - All together now . . . rock, paper, scissors

The Weekend

I spent the weekend in Birmingham again. It’s quite nice up there you know – lots of interesting attractions, lots of people to keep you entertained, and one particular person who manages to be both an attraction and to entertain me all at once. I shall be in Birmingham more often in future :-)

So I was up there to see the certain someone, to go to a birthday party (for which I forgot the present – must remember to post it sometime) and to meet someone else for lunch (I’m developing quite a circle of annual lunch dates – really must get better at meeting up with these people). In between all that managed to watch Eurovision (I wonder who they’ll vote for – oh Quelle Surprise. For an account of the entries... take a look at troubled diva's post), some of the Grand Prix (well, dozed through it whilst making confused comments) and went to a cheesy Christian Musical (where I was asked, of all things, what would happen if a terrorist bomb bit a sewage works).

So i'm not sure what to blog about. Sorry.

I also saw a marmite tanker on the motorway. I've never seen a marmite tanker before :-)

Doodle Analysis

Tonight in a meeting I was complimented on the intricacy of my doodling. Apparently the scale and complexity was impressive.

So I decided to analyse it. This is a picture of some of my doodle:


According to the BBC H2G2 I am a quiet individual who doesn't like to stand out in a crowd. This is because I start drawing at the edge of the page (it just expands to cover the whole page).

It also says that very detailed doodles are often drawn by people who have an obsessive nature, and who simply will not let go of their ambitions or loved ones. They are also likely to be jottings of highly introverted people.

However, according to this site the geometric shapes indicate an organised and efficient mind, possible even with a sense of direction and purpose. Now this sounds more like it. All the squares apparently represent the formal, mathematical, scientific order of the universe. I'm not sure what that actually says about me though.

So I'm quiet, introverted, efficient, organised and obsessive. Oh Good. That doesn't sound like me at all.

:-s

Gardening.

They let me have a saw. It had a curved blade and I ‘may’ have pretended it was a pirate sword once or twice. I didn’t chop down a whole tree though, just a little bit of one, but it was fun. The fact that I cut my finger while putting the sheath back on the saw was unfortunate, and did seem to worry some of the family. Whereas I was trying to decide what sort of bleed it was – I decided on arterial.

This weekend was the Gardening weekend when the whole family (or perhaps more accurately, those in the country at the time) descend on Gran’s house and ‘do’ the garden. This year there were 8 of us, and about 50 manhours later we’d finished the list. Gran kept saying I should try being constructive and plant stuff instead of just weeding and cutting branches off trees. She evidently doesn’t know me that well. Admittedly mum’s comment was fair. Whilst I weeded out long grasses that were in seed she said something along the lines of ‘it would make more sense if you took your hayfever tablet before doing that’.

The other thing that marked the weekend was the interrogation from both Mum and Gran. Starting with ‘So what’s his name’ and moving onto ‘So it’s not just lust then’. And people wonder why I’m turned out as I have. I blame the parents. :-D

Why I should probably not be allowed to drive.

• Open car door.
• Sit in driver’s seat
• Put keys in ignition.
• Put on Seat belt
• Check mirrors
• Release handbrake
• Reverse down hill

Everything was going well until I eased onto the gas to go forward up the hill and out of the car park.

These things are so much simpler when you’ve remembered to switch the engine on.

Today I became a real engineer

This is what I was told as I was handed one of these

It's a big day for me, I'd like to thank my mum, my hairdresser...

Old Children's TV

Last night people came round to our house to watch DVDs. We watched Morph, then some Fraggle Rock, followed by Dangermouse before finally moving onto Button Moon.

Oh yes, we projected them all onto a large screen in the living room . It was great. Thanks to Gemma for providing the Fraggle Rock DVD, the rest are all mine :-D

Unfortunately Suz informed us last night that Sharkey and George has not been released on DVD yet, and worse there are currently no plans to do so! So we all just had to eat lots of chocolate ice cream instead. There is a petition for that though... (for Sharkey and George DVDs, not the ice cream).

Oh I'm a simple child. :-)

Problem being that now I would far rather watch more dangermouse than go and help lead a confirmation session. I'm not sure how I'd explain that to the other leaders...

0550

0550.

It’s a fairly random number.

It’s also the time of day that I’ve been waking up every work day for about 2 weeks now. It means I’m awake to hear the alarm go at 0600.

I am not impressed.

Yesterday it meant that I sorted out my ‘to be filed’ heap before going to work, much to the amusement of my housemate who looked at all the piles of paper on my bed and accused me of being mad. Which given that she's trying to talk Bosnian to everyone whilst singing the milky bar song is quite a statement.

Things were not helped by the fact that I didn’t manage to get to town to buy files to put the heaps in, so last night I then had to put it all back together into a pile on the floor that looked a whole lot like the original mess.

And so the cycle of life continues.

I am tired.

Which Disney Princess are you?

You are Jasmine. You are loyal and would visit the ends of the earth for what you believe. You would never let obstacles stand in the way of true love.

Quiz link

How sweet.

Usefulness

A friend has just sent me some quotes from emails that I sent him dating back to 2002 when we were studying the same degree with most of the same modules and on most of the same committees in the chaplaincy. We basically ran the world.

Turns out that I was ever an idealistic soul. Just before graduation there is a note that says:

Don't worry about finishing the degree. It's a good thing. We get to go out into the real world and actually do useful stuff.

I wonder what I thought the useful stuff was going to be. I'm not sure I've done any of it.

They did it!

It's only taken them a few years to get round to it, but they finally made it. Mr and Mrs Fosker.

They had fish bowls of different sorts of sweets on each table to label them- I was on the Marshmallow table. I didn't drink much because I was too busy chatting and bouncing off the walls due to the sugar high. It turns out that sugar hangovers are worse than the alcoholic sort. :-s

Apparently I was the only person who looked at the water bottles, read the label and had visions of taking the bottle around some department store or other, and asking it's opinions on interior design as it has 'exceptional taste'. This might have had something to do with the aforementioned sugar high.

Randomness

What is the connection between a large plastic cutlass, a marriage proposal*, animal noises (with actions), baby photos and prayer?

A group of Christian youth leaders in the pub.

Noone ever seems to want to sit that close to us... wonder why ;-)

*For the record, I refused. He was only after my money.

Bumps and Bruises

In the Catholic Tradition confirmation candidates used to be slapped round the face by the Bishop in order to remind them that they needed to be brave when defending the faith.

Is there any second meaning to head butting a warderobe door? Is God trying to tell me something? I know I'm not that good at listening to him all the time, but this seems a little excessive...

I hope it doesn't bruise. At the moment it's just a cartoon style big red lump. What a way to start the week.

Jesus is Risen! He is Risen indeed!

Woohoooo!!

errm. I mean Hallelujah!

obviously.

Hungover without the drink

Hen dos. Random things. Ryan’s stag do was a lot more straightforward. At least on a stag do when someone compliments your errm… ‘assets’ you know where you stand (or look). I’ve never quite worked out how to react when a woman compliments them - Do you return the compliment? Does it become acceptable to stare? Or are you meant to be coy?

Apparently mine are apparently much envied so I think I’ll just enjoy the compliment without thinking about it too much!

Probably best not to say too much about the behaviour of everyone – except to say that it turns out that I really don’t need alcohol in my life to blend right in with the drunken people. However, as the main photographer of the evening there is no evidence to incriminate me. Jen is a bad influence, as is Charlie (but then, that’s not really news). I can’t say anything bad about Annette, as she’s my date for the wedding next week… ;-)

The theme of the night was ‘Married life – heaven or hell?’ so we were all dressed as angels and devils. Noone seemed to believe me that I am truly angelic and that the costume was just a reflection of the truth within, apart from the one comment of ‘well you do go to church so maybe you are more angelic’. Still chuckling to myself about that one.

Was a great night, but for someone who wasn’t drinking I seem to have a hangover. This is particularly unfair as Jen has already been on facebook to record that she doesn’t, and she’s normally under the table after one drink. My voice has also descended into a low growl - It’s probably due to the volume at which I was ‘singing’ along to the power ballads in the limo on the way home.

A good time was had by all.

The hen is apparently recovering well.

Skips.

Today I went to the pub for lunch. A colleague and I normally go every Friday, but tomorrow being a bank holiday meant that we needed to rearrange the day. We may not ever go again if she doesn't stop referring to my car share as my 'work husband' but that's a whole different issue.

I was happily sipping my lemonade when a skip lorry rolled up to the pub. From that point on I spent most of the conversation not listening to Clare at all, but looking at the way the lorry worked, how much space it needed and whether I could apply those factors and considerations to my detailed design work.

I'd say that I should get out more, but I'd probably end up watching more skip lorries...

I think I must be an engineer :-s

Worry

People worry about you, so you start wondering if they should be worrying.

You then worry that they can see something more than you can see in the situation – maybe they’re right after all and maybe you should be worried.

And the more you worry yourself into a mess, the more they worry, and the more of a mess they get into so you worry that they’re overdoing it and that it’s your fault because you’ve caused them to worry.

It’s all very worrying.

Maybe I should break the cycle and take all the advice given me in the last 24 hours – to eat nothing but fruit and veg, remember to take vitamin tablets, go home, to sleep, to listen to some music and to pray.

I note that work doesn't feature anywhere in the list :-)

me? a geek? huh?

Please find attached a link to Martha Freeman's myspace blog. If you don't know who she is then you should be ashamed :-)

I found it on someone elses blog (but not the gallifrey one forum, oh no - what makes you think I'm a member of that?) .

I should really develop a new hobby. Maybe one that even involves real people.

London

I’ve spent the weekend in London. It was exactly what I needed as I’m now back on full bounce.

Things started as they meant to go on Friday afternoon. Alice and I were due to meet at Paddington Station at 16:30. Now one of those things about Alice is that she has no sense of direction, mostly gets lost and is generally late. So I was a little worried when I got a text telling me that she thought she was going to be on time. If she got into town before I did then I’d never live it down.

Now, as you do when you’re going to be spending the whole weekend with someone it is normal to text continuously for the hour before you meet up. After all, you need something to talk about. Alice had decided that her train was supersonic and my timings were getting worse when I managed to get on a stopping train that was delayed. It stopped in all sorts of exciting places that I’d never heard of. I started to get worried that there were two Paddington stations and that I was going to the wrong one. Where was I going to end up?

I’ve never been happier to pull into Slough Station. At least I know where it is.

At about this point I got a text from Alice.

We're stuck behind a train in slough. Why anyone stops here is beyond me. ho hum. nap time, my old age is kicking in.

Alice’s supersonic train was stuck behind my painfully slow train. I was very much amused (which I might just have made clear to Alice, and the rest of the carriage). She was not so amused, but at least it meant that the laws of nature were not broken and that I was at the meeting point before Alice.

Only problem was that I was late too, thereby losing the moral high ground. You win some you lose some.


The rest of the weekend was great - went to see the Barenaked ladies with Alice and Seb on Friday (their last album was rubbish, but they still do a very good live show) followed by a drink to catch up with Seb. Very jealous that he gets to have occasional helicopter rides for work. Maybe there is something in this accountancy thing.

Saturday involved the Tate Britain. I’ve not been there since I was doing Art GCSE and it’s smaller than I remember. We spent ages wandering round and proved beyond doubt that Alice and I should not go to art galleries together. Things I liked were generally a little more abstract than her taste which seemed to involve pretty pictures.

And apparently the Victorians found this gallery incomprehensible. I’m with them on this one although I struggled with that whole gallery. look - Another painting where the sun has obscured everything else on the canvas. How innovative.

Some interesting exhibitions coming up though, so will probably go back to have more of a play. I can do cultured.

Update.

Apparently I haven’t blogged enough recently. People are starting to talk. The pause has been because I couldn’t think of anything interesting to write about that didn’t end up with me ranting about something or moaning. This is not to say that life is bad at the moment, I just seem to have got a little stressed by things. This is not entirely out of character.

The week has been punctuated by people who know me well enough saying things along the lines of

"You look awful"

"I’m a bit worried about you"

"You really should try relaxing"

People who don’t know me so well are just looking worried at me. All of which has really helped me to feel so much better about myself. No really.

Nothing like brutal honestly to make you want to hide underneath a blanket on the sofa watching archive Doctor Who episodes interspersed with Mysterious Cities of Gold off YouTube.

Ah yes, that was last night.

Thing is - this has been a good week. I’ve been down to site and seen my doodles drawn out in concrete (scary – they all seem to be a bit big. I really hope they’re all correct. Although I think that I still need to go on holiday over takeover, just in case it doesn’t all work - that’s March 2008. Anyone want to go away somewhere exotic that doesn’t have email or phones?).

I’ve even managed to get through some meetings I expected to be horrendous because I actually know my stuff on the topics (apparently some people believe what I tell them because I’m a ‘designer’. Please pray for them).

And yet still what I remember most about this week is the twit how tailgated me up the hill this morning (I have a 1 litre engine – I physically can’t go more than 20mph in most of High Wycombe. Back off Mr “My boot is bigger than your entire car” Audi.)

Just as well I’m away all weekend in London with old uni friends causing havoc (and trust me there's nothing like Cathsoc Graduates for causing havoc). Anyone who’s in London and fancies a pint/coffee/lunch this Saturday drop me a line – If you happen to be carrying chocolate so much the better :-D

Pencils

There is something about mechanical pencils that are just lovely, mine is a silver parker and is the only elegant thing I have on my desk. So I was understandably distraught when I lost it. It was one of those silly things – I had it in my hand, and then it wasn’t there. So I checked all the places that I normally lose it.

Is it in my coffee?
No. (I do sometimes get it confused with a spoon, not that I use spoons in my coffee)

Is it in the bin?
No.

Is it in my tissue box?
No. (You may laugh, but it’s crazy how often it ends up there – I think it’s making a nest)

Is it under my desk?
No. (But I can’t look too hard because I might pull out the network cable and cut off most of the room. And people have been really touchy about that recently)

Have I managed to throw it somewhere else?
No-one else has noticed a flying silver projectile, although it can’t be ruled out. The people sitting near me are getting used to me accidentally firing things across the desks – It’s got to the stage where other people will drop things when they’re talking to me in a sort of sympathetic response.

I was left upset and disorientated, and had to use a wooden pencil. Now, I’m sure that I’m not the only person who has this problem, but I tend to eat the ends of pencils. This is the primary reason that I use a mechanical one as even I can’t eat metal. However, when you eat a wooden pencil you run the risk of splinters. I’ve never got a pencil splinter yet, but I’m in no rush to get one either, I suspect they’d be painful.

So let’s all celebrate! My prodigal pencil has returned*. Let’s go kill the fatted calf and parrttttttyyyyyyy.



*I think that the fact that it was underneath my keyboard all the time is a detail that doesn’t need broadcasting.

So today is Friday ?

Last night on my way home I had a minor panic – I was sure it was Friday, and that meant I’d forgotten to interview someone, and more to the point reception hadn’t called me to remind me when said interviewee arrived. Not generally the best impression to give of the company.

It took a good couple of miles before I realised that it was actually Thursday and therefore I hadn’t forgotten to do anything (ok, so that’s a debatable point – there’s always something I’ve forgotten to do). I got home in a bit of a state and decided the best reaction to this whole panic involved hiding in my bed, in the hope that it would all make itself better and go away. I got up briefly to cook and eat Pizza before going back to bed.

When my alarm went this morning it was proved that the world was still in the wrong as it is apparently Friday. Again.

This wouldn’t be such a problem if I hadn’t also spent most of Tuesday being convinced it was Friday. The rest of the office was apparently much amused by my expressive comment of ‘Tuesday? What? Is that all?’

Surely it can’t be right to have three Fridays in a week?

It wasn't me.

bbc article

Whirrrrrrrrr whirrrrrrrr whirrrrrrr whirrrrrrrrr

If that was, say, a helicopter, that would be a good noise. As it was my car it was not such a welcome noise. Particularly given that my car doesn’t have rotor blades (How cool would that be?!).

So, that led to all sorts of excitement that basically proved, to all those people who weren’t aware, that I don’t have a clue about how my car works.

Firstly I woke up my housemate, J, who for someone who is really, really not a morning person, was an absolute star.

First job was to move the car out of the way of everyone else as I was blocking in the whole rest of the house – now how was I meant to know that the steering is locked when the keys aren’t in the ignition? These are details that I’ve never needed to know. However, J helped sort that one out – by telling me.
Mary’s learning point number 1.

We got the car moved and A went to work. Then my car share arrived. It was suggested that we tried jump starting the car. Somewhere in the house there are some jump leads. Somewhere. So J popped out to buy some more (we’ll now find the original ones this evening – them be da rules). They then tried to jump start the car (note, I had little to do with this – I just did what I was told).
Mary’s learning point number 2.

This didn’t work. I had already called the RAC, to get into the queue; A had suggested that would be a good idea as I could always cancel it later.

In due course, the RAC man turned up, said he knew exactly what the problem was – and proceeded to start the car. Apparently if you cold start and engine and only leave it running for a minute then the next time you start the car the engine might be flooded. It’s quite normal apparently. So swapping the cars round on the drive last night wasn’t the time saver it was meant to be. Ho hum.
Mary’s learning point number 3.

I’ve explained to my colleagues (now that I’m in the office) that I’m a civil engineer so not meant to understand things that move, and that I do know some things about my car – It’s blue, it has wheels and the petrol goes in the hole at the back. They are not looking that impressed.

And now, in the safety of the office I’ve just tripped over a flat bit of floor.

Sigh.

Extra Men and Chocolate

This morning a colleague was feeling a 'little' sleepy. By which I mean that stage of tiredness where you're bascially hyper (more so than me on a large bag of haribo). I explained to him that if he gave me chocolate then he'd feel better. I wasn't expecting the logic to work, but these malteasers are rather nice - Thanks Martin.

So when he suggested I post the puzzle that has caused all productivity to dive in our building it only seemed fair.



Where does the extra man come from?

There are various websites out there that can tell you, but lets be honest, it only took me a couple of hours of work time to get there, so don't cheat straight away.

Tesco Charity of the Year - The British Red Cross

This year Tesco is supporting the British Red Cross and as part of that they've produced a short video that they'll be playing in their stores. It sums up a little of the Red Cross activity in this country, and more to the point goes a long way to explain why I'm still involved after ten and a half years.

The Red Cross cares for people in crisis. Somedays that crisis is a scraped knee. Somedays it's a burnt down house. People like me will be there, because we all believe that people deserve to be loved and cared for, and that it's worth spending our spare time to do so.

So now you know.

Watch the video here

I saw a Blue Tit in the garden

And no, like the Thrush, it's not a medical problem.

You know who you are. :-)

I'm ill, I'm bored and I have nothing interesting to blog right now so here's a survey.

The Everything Test

There are many different types of tests on the internet today. Personality tests, purity tests, stereotype tests, political tests. But now, there is one test to rule them all.

Traditionally, online tests would ask certain questions about your musical tastes or clothing for a stereotype, your experiences for a purity test, or deep questions for a personality test.We're turning that upside down - all the questions affect all the results, and we've got some innovative results too! Enjoy :-)

Personality You are more logical than emotional, more concerned about others than concerned about self, more religious than atheist, more loner than dependent, more lazy than workaholic, more rebel than traditional, more artistic mind than engineering mind, more idealist than cynical, more leader than follower, and more introverted than extroverted. As for specific personality traits, you are religious (90%).

Stereotypes Young Professional 71% Hippie 57% Prep 46%

Life Experience Sex 8% Substances 8% Travel 25%

Politics Your political views would best be described as Liberal, whom you agree with around 50% of the time.

Socioeconomic Your attitude toward life best associates you with Upper Class. You make more than 0% of those who have taken this test, and 13% more than the U.S. average.

If your life was a movie, it would be rated G. By the way, your hottness rank is 57%, hotter than 82% of other test takers.

TAKE THE TEST
brought to you by thatsurveysite

I'm a little concerned about being more artistic than engineer - given my whole career choice and the fact that, even if I do say so myself, I'm actually a pretty good engineer. I guess that means I would make an awesome artist!

Persistance - I like that in a man

The Thrush is back.

I've tried sneezing at it, but that doesn't seem to have helped. However, it's fairly effective at getting everyone else to leave me alone so it was worth a try.

It’s 0850 and already I’ve had a random day

Whilst forwarding on an email from a friend who is asking people to collect tumble dryer fluff for Scouts (if you can help let me know…) a Thrush started head butting the window. Not once, but constantly – it’s been going for 50 minutes now. It’ll have to stop soon due to concussion. The window has a reflective film so it presumably thinks it’s attacking another male bird – it being the season and all.

I’ve never seen (or actually looked at) a thrush this close before – I’m reliably told that it’s a thrush by my staff manager. It’s a beautiful bird, but it’s not having the best day.

A colleague has suggested that it hasn’t stopped yet because it’s blonde. I suspect it’s more to do with the fact that it’s male.

Hats

I spent this weekend at SoulNet. It's a retreat for youth leaders/workers/ministers.

It's not designed to be a training thing - it's an opportunity to meet with God in a bit of time without worrying about whether the kids are 'getting it' this time or, as is more likely, actually throwing things at each other.
It's a time to praise God and let other people worry about whether there are enough donuts. As always it was a refreshing reminder that God actually is there in the midst of it all.

It was also fun to get away with some of the other leaders. However, when you put a group of leaders together in one chalet you realise quite quickly that the craziness that you thought was actually down to the kids is actually more to do with the leaders...

But then everyone looks for Elves in forests don't they? Particularly ones that ride two headed lions? Surrounded by pheasants in hats that look like ducks?

Quote of the day

Alice: You have to look at the right side of things
Mary: I normally find that I look at the bottom side and then it all falls on top of me

This sums up my diary/life/wardrobe at the moment. There are lots of things that I desperately want to do, and somehow they all clash. They don't clash in a way that makes it easy to choose between events; They clash when I really want to be at both things. Somehow, things never clash with boring meetings...

There's so much in the world to see/change - how to prioritise? And more to the point how do you stop doing something once you've started without feeling like you've missed something? I'm lucky to be involved in lots of great things, with lots of great people.

Next step is getting them to all work to my timetable. Yes, that's a sensible plan. According to an email we had today parts of the US have altered the day when they change their clocks - so how hard can it be to get the town of Reading to live by my diary? Although then I'd have to keep up with it too - foiled again.


I have a suspicion that I've blogged about this issue before. Nothing like consistency!

What I did on my weekend

I feel like I should blog about this weekend but I’m not sure what to say. So, to summarise my activities:

I went to see Hot Fuzz. It's very funny – go see it, it defies classification and I’m just guessing but I think it’s one of those great films that American’s just won’t get. Watch out for those decaffeinated corpses.

I had dinner at the London Street Brasserie with Alice. It's sooooo nice – definitely recommended. If you go before 7pm there’s a set menu that is a bit cheaper but still delicious. We had rather a lot of food by accident and sticky toffee pudding to die for, or at least to go back for again sometime.

I also went to a Tim Minchin gig. Again, very funny, although why, oh why, do comedians seem to think that they have to be crude to be funny? He was funny and tended to spoil it by needing to be crudely controversial, I just don’t get it. Are things really funnier when they’re crude? Or am I just getting/continuing to be prudish?

I had lunch with the Bishop, along with the rest of the newly renamed parish pastoral council. Again, fantastic food and the revelation that for lent the Bishop has given up checking his emails before Breakfast!

I helped run a confirmation session on the gift of wisdom, which left me feeing very unwise, but my group finally started to actually talk - Woohoo!


How did I fit that into a weekend? Hmmm… Must be time for more coffee so that I can start planning the next one... :-)

Work.

I really like being an engineer. I'm currently really enjoying it. Sometimes I even know what I’m doing. However, not as often as other people think I do.

And why am I enjoying my work at the moment? – I can’t help but think that it might just have something to do with the fact that I prayed about it. This happens every time, and yet I still somehow manage to completely forget to pray.

The sign that I’ve uploaded is one that always amuses me. It can be found on the edge of all deep water tanks. I’d love to know how it ended up with such random terminology – that must have been a brilliant meeting. I’m glad I wasn’t there.

I've just spilt a satsuma down my front.

What?

Just thought you might be interested.

Bottoms up, chests out, best foot forward.

Anyone would think that car manufacturers didn’t design their cars to allow for people getting all the doors iced shut. What an oversight. Essentially what this meant was that yesterday I had to access my car through the boot. Very glamerous - Bum through the sunroof, arms flailing, nosefirst into the steering column and finally upside down in the drivers seat (by which I mean feet still in the back of the car while I half lay on the seat).

In hindsight washing the windows the night before was a mistake, but then there’s also the argument about actually being able to see out once in a while. Thankfully the doors would open by the time I got to work in High Wycombe.

Speaking of High Wycombe... anyone been there? Anyone been there in the snow? It’s a nightmare. I’ve travelled 25 miles and got here. Half the office who live within 5 miles of here are stuck because of sheet ice on the hills. I think I’m leaving early today as the snow is getting heavier and heavier and I really don’t want to sleep under my desk tonight! And it's only 0845 - pretty early to make that kind of decision!

On the plus side it is very pretty out there.

Binge Drinking

Have decided doing things on the spur of the moment is a good thing. I’d also like to point out here and now that if I catch a cold it’s Alice’s fault.

The cause of this accusation started yesterday morning with an email titled ‘fancy a pint?’ in a sort of ‘we should catch up’ sort of a way.
Alice responded with ‘now?’
I said ‘tonight?’
And the rest is history.

We didn’t drink much, only about 4 units each, in 3 drinks, but that apparently counts as binge drinking in some researchers eyes. Probably not something that is recommended on a school night. Oh, apparently I’m a grown up and should refer to such things as a work night. Although that implies that I’m working (and not, for example, blogging).

I’m not normally very good at doing random things and actually seeing the world, I should do random stuff more often. Not today though. Today I must actually do some work.

And on the cold issue, part of the reason for drinking was to kill off the bugs causing Alice’s cold. That’s how it works isn’t it? Just as well neither of us is writing up a PhD on immune system type stuff...Oh, well I've not understood any of Alice's work for years.

So that still makes it Alice’s fault for misleading me.

Networks

Whether I like it or not I am part of a generation of people who communicate electronically. The online network is another way of creating a social network and learning more about friends through seeing what they say about each other.

I’ve never really worked out why I blog – I think it’s mostly down to the fact that I find it fascinating to people watch on the net by reading other people’s blogs. It’s a fun way of gauging what other people’s opinions are and using that as a jumping off point to research and inform my own.

However, reading and writing blogs is one thing but being part of a social networking site is another. Until about 2 weeks ago.

I’d been holding out against it – After all I don’t need to be a member of these things to see friends’ sites. But turns out that that wasn’t enough, if I wanted to comment I needed to be registered. So I’m now on myspace and facebook.

In the process I’ve discovered a new idea of what heaven is like – all my friends, from across the world, networking in the same place. One log on. One name. One God.

Let it snow Let it snow Let it snow.

Oh look the country has shut down. It must have been snowing.

The English are really rather bad at snow. There was about 2" on the car this morning, but at work there's barely 0.5". However at work we have no heating. And the caretaker is in Australia. I can't see him coming back to sort the boiler out.

Ho hum. That's enough moaning. (Although, lets make it clear - I really don't like snow. It's cold. I don't like being cold).

Not been up to a lot else recently. Had a meeting for the confirmation program at Church last night which was better than expected, although I'm still a little concerned. Unfortunately as a member of the Parish management group I suddenly developed a list of financial requirements for the program. And as ever, I'm concerned that so many Catholic Programs seem to happen without half the leaders even considering prayer. It's no wonder we end up with a weird reputation amoungst our neighbours. Ah well, I guess I'll jsut have to pray for them all... Anyone who feels like helping.... :-)

Government Petitions.

Sometimes you come across one that is simply brilliant. Like this. Mainly brilliant because they actually replied to it.

Free Monkeys on the NHS.


What do you mean you don't surf the government petitions website? I blame the BBC magazine monitor.

Catholic bishops have prettier dresses than Anglican ones.

I can’t help but think that there might have been more that I should have got out of the service last night ;-)

It was the Commissioning service for Regenerate which is a mission into Reading, where all churches, all denominations, are involved. We’re going to run a summer barbeque for our neighbours as a thank you for the way they put up with us parking in front of all their houses and causing parking chaos once a week.

What amused me about the service was spotting the stereotypes that churches, particularly ministers slot into. The Catholic priests all looked smart in their still black suits. They all gave the impression of having washed behind their ears especially for the occasion and were hunting in packs. The Anglicans and Baptists however – I don’t think I’ve ever seen beards like them in the Catholic Church, and on the most part a black suit really meant a dodgy grey, and they were to be found wandering about by themselves looking a little lost and chatting to anyone they found. All a bit bizaare.

People from various churches were harder to identify. Apart from the Salvation Army. The Uniform really does give them away…

Motivation

Motivation seems to be sadly lacking at the moment. Instead of doing what I'm meant to do I end up with all sorts of other things done. None of which are that exciting.

Like posting meaningless blog entries instead of writing up my CPD (Continuous professional development). Why is it so hard to write up stuff that I know like the back of my hand?

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Dreams

I don’t normally remember my dreams. This makes last night all the more random.

I had a nightmare. About an RC drawing.

An RC drawing is a engineering drawing showing the metal bars that are placed within concrete structures to give them tensile strength - on it’s own concrete isn’t very good, but with reinforcement it rocks.

So it’s a weird thing to dream about. Not least, because producing those drawings isn’t my job.

I’ve been trying to remember the details. It seemed to be something to do with people dying because they couldn’t find the drawing. And for some reason, I knew where it was but I couldn’t find the words or communicate with anyone.

And no, work isn’t stressing me out at all at the moment, why do you ask? ;-)

Virus

There is a virus on the network somewhere in the global company. It hasn’t caused any problems in the UK at all. However, IT’s attempts to upgrade the software have so far cost thousands in terms of lost manhours within the UK. Apparently it’s harder than I thought to upgrade virus protection.

Grrrrrrrr.

Currently I’d rather have the virus. At least I'd know where I stood and could officially not do any work.

Bags.

Sometimes I think I work for a global American business. Occasionally I am reminded that actually it’s a British engineering company. Today is one of those days.

Working in the environment sector we’re always keen to look like we actually are sustainable and environmentally friendly. Putting our money where out mouth is.

So today we all got given our very own shopping bag.

It’s not bad actually – blue canvas with the company logo on the side. The idea is that we can stop using plastic bags so much. It’s already been determined that the bags will make pretty good wine bottle carriers.

But somehow personal shopping bags seems more British than American. Is that stereotyping?


*I’ve just realised that I have referred to the business using the words ‘us’, ‘our’ and ‘we’ – It’s official, I’m a company girl. But I still have no intention of learning to play golf.

Kevin Lilley RIP

Kevin was in the same hall as me in my first year at uni. He was one of the same crowd as me, but I've not really seen him much since graduation. It's weird to think that he isn't about anymore, but good to know that he benefited from the charity set up in memory of another friend, Bryony, from the same group of friends and hall of residence, who also died of cancer.

Skittles. A very English game. And a slightly random one.

It’s good fun though – and I’m not just saying that because I won a pack of biscuits. The fact that I wasn’t drinking may have helped, that and the fact that I was hitting the skittles rather than those people at the far end of the alley. Rubber balls may be quieter than wooden ones, but wooden ones do have the advantage of not bouncing.

But it’s ok, of all the places to risk injury in a room full of 30 odd first aiders is surely a good place to do it….

And when I say odd, I really mean it.

USB gadgets

For Christmas (or was it for birthday ?) my brother gave me a USB powered heated coaster. The idea is that you plug it into your PC and it heats up. Any mug you place on it is therefore kept warm and you never have that horrible mouthful of cold coffee.

Great so far.

It may be a little gadgety – but hey, I’m an engineer. I’m not as gadget orientated as say, the electrical or mechanical guys, but they’re still fun.

It’s currently on my desk next to my USB powered fan, my mobile phone holder, my helicopter shaped pencil sharpener (when you press the tail the rotors spin round - and all supporting the Air Ambulance!)

Now the only problem with the USB powered coaster is that it doesn’t actually keep my coffee warm. A significant oversight. Apparently it only works if you have a steel mug. Now, the only time I would consider using a steel mug would be when camping. And, despite appearances, I don’t actually live in the office.

So I’m trying to work out how to set up the heating element of the coaster with the USB fan so that I have a sort of portable heater.

Problem is that since we ‘engineered’ the fan blades for grater efficiency (post it notes attached to each blade to provide a greater surface area) it now tends to fly across the desk when you switch it on unless you’ve selotaped it down first.

The trials of work. I don’t know how I cope...

Questionnaire

1.How old will you be in five years? From now? 31. But I feel the question needs more clarrification.

2. Who did you spend at least two hours with today? My colleagues, the Net Leaders and anyone else who makes it to the pub

3. How tall are you? 5'7"

4. What do you look forward to most in the next six weeks? Sleeping more?

5. What's the last movie you saw? The Holiday.

6. Who was the last person you called? Dad, to let him know what I’d volunteered him for in his absense.

7. Who was the last person to call you? A supplier for work

8. What was the last text message you received? ‘There is also chocolate’

9. Who was the last person to leave you a voicemail? no idea.

10. Do you prefer to call or text? Depends on what it is for. Normally text.

11. What were you doing at two last night? Sleeping

12. Are your parents married/separated/divorced? Married

13. When was the last time you saw your mom? Last Night for food

14. What time did you wake up today? 6am.

15. What are you wearing right now? Brown trousers, brown and blue stripey jumper, white shirt, brown boots.

16. What is your favorite christmas song? That Elton John one.

17. Where is your favorite place to be? I’ve been told before that just saying ‘bed’ to that one gives the wrong impression.

18. Where is your least favorite place to be? Anywhere where I have to talk into a mic.

19. Where would you go if you could go anywhere? other than the answer to no. 17???

20. Where do you think you'll be in 10 years? Still in Reading, a Chartered Engineer and, hopefully, married with kids

21. Do you tan or burn? Burn.

22. What did you fear was going to get you as a child? Using the telephone.

23. What was the last thing that really made you laugh? Trying to get a cork out of a corkscrew. Using another corkscrew and then a socket set. I’d explain more, but you mostly needed to be there.

24. How many TVs do you have in your house? Currently 3. All in the living room. 2 of them even work.

25. How big is your bed? Double.

26. Do you have a laptop or desktop computer? Desktop

27. Do you sleep with or without clothes on? I wear PJs.

28. What color are your sheets? Orange

29. How many pillows do you sleep with? Two

30. What is your favorite season? Spring.

31. What do you like about fall? Colours

32. What do you like about winter? It being acceptable to go to bed early.

33. What do you like about the summer? Daylight!

34. What do you like about spring? Smells.

35. How many states have you lived in? one. New England.

36. What cities/towns have you lived in? Reading, Boston, Wokingham, Birmingham

37. Do you prefer shoes, socks, or bare feet? Socks

38. Are you a social person? Ish. Depends on how much sleep I’ve had.

39.What was the last thing you ate? Porridge with golden syrup.

40. <---- where'd it go!?

41. What is your favorite ice cream? Have to be in the right mood for ice cream – no particular favourite. Just not cherry.

42. What is your favorite dessert? Chocolate.

43. What is your favorite kind of soup? Depends on the soup. Turkey soup was good but I also like Potato and Leek

44. What kind of jelly do you like on your PB&J sandwich? Probably Strawberry.

45. Do you like Chinese food? Yes. Mmmmmmmm.

46. Do you like coffee? This is a trick question? YES!

47. How many glasses of water a day do you drink? Depends. 2 or 3.

48. What do you drink in the morning? Water at home then coffee at work.

49. Do you sleep on a certain side of the bed? I have no idea. I’m asleep.

50. Do you know how to play poker? No, never really needed to learn,

51. Do you like to cuddle? Yes :-)

52. Have you ever been to Canada? No

53. Do you have an addictive personality? Not particualrly.

54. Do you eat out or at home more often? At home

55. Do you know anyone with the same birthday as you? Yes, at least two other people in my office. We have to make sure we don’t all bring cakes on the same day.

56. Do you want kids? Yes

57. Do you speak any other languages? Complete rambling nonsense. And some french.

58. Have you ever gotten stitches? No

59. Have you ever ridden in an ambulance? Yes – but only volunteer ones.

60. Do you prefer an ocean or a pool? Pool

61. Do you prefer a window seat or an aisle seats? Window

62. Do you know how to drive stick? Does that mean manual? If so, yes.

63. What is your favorite thing to spend money on? Books.

64. Do you wear any jewelry? Yes. A necklace and earrings.

65. What is your favorite TV show? Firefly or Doctor Who.

66. Can you roll your tongue? into what?

67. Who is the funniest person you know? I get the giggles with my housemate a lot – does that count?

68. Do you sleep with stuffed animals? sometimes. Mostly they sit on the shelf these days.

69. What is the main ring tone on your phone? Ringing.

70. Do you still have clothes from when you were little? No

71. Closest red thing to you? Coffee mug.

72. Do you turn off the water while you brush your teeth? Yes

73. Do you sleep with your closet doors open or closed? Closed

74. Would you rather be attacked by a big bear or a swarm of bees? neither?

75. Do you flirt a lot? I don’t know. Don’t think I do these days.

76. What do you dip a chicken nugget in? nothing

77. What is your favorite food? Chcolate.

78. Can you change the oil on a car? No

79. Have you ever gotten a speeding ticket? Yes.

80. Have you ever run out of gas? No

81. What is your usual bedtime? I aim for 2200.

82. What was the last book you read? Fiction: Winter in Madrid, Non Fiction: God’s Big Picture.

83. Do you read the newspaper? The Online versions of several.

84. Do you have any magazines? I get my professional one – the NCE.

85. Do you watch soap operas? Hollyoaks. Sadly.

86. Do you dance in the car? no

87. What radio station did you last listen to? Radio 2

88. Who is in the picture frame closest to you? I’m at work, I don’t have any pictures here.

89. What was the last note you scribbled on a piece of paper? Some actions from a committee meeting

90. What is your favorite candle scent? no real preference

91. What is your favorite board game? Again, no real preference. I like jigsaws and they’re on a board. Or maybe backgammon.

92. When was the last time you attended church? Last Sunday.

93. Who was your favorite teacher in high school? one of my maths teachers.

94. What is the longest you have ever camped out in a tent? Two weeks.

95. Who was the last person to do something extra special for you? Dunno. Probably Alice who organised some gig tickets for BNL and Tim Minchen.

The voices in my head...

OK, so how do I stop doing things? I couldn't sleep last night because all the things going round and round in my head were getting too loud. I've been told recently that I'm doing too much, but I don't quite know how to stop...

• Do I stop the voluntary society - despite believing in their principles, and the difference we make to the world?
• Do I stop the church committee - despite believing that there is important work to be done and things that need to happen in our church to glorify God?
• Do I stop the Youth Work - despite believing that young people need places to ask the questions that I never found anywhere to ask?
• Do I stop the paid work - despite needing the money?

Problem is something needs to give because stopping the sleep just isn't working! The alarm going this morning wasn't so bad as it could have been - not as bad as yesterday anyway.

However, lack of sleep and lots of things requiring conflicting emotional responses have meant that whilst I'm technically at work, and have been for 35 minutes, I haven't quite managed to actually do anything useful yet.

Ho hum. Maybe decaf coffee was a mistake...

Something profound.

Ok, so I haven't posted for ages, so I thought I'd break the silence with something profound...

Our cinema has new seats!!!!!!

They're big, and they're comfy! A whole new cinema going experience!

Went to the cinema and saw 'The Holiday' which is a cheesey rom-com. I quite enjoyed it, but then I really like rom-coms. You should see my DVD collection. Only problem with watching films where beautiful people get together against the odds and live happily ever after is that I come home and know that I'm not living that dream.

Which explains why I'm online and have a beer in hand. However, I don't have back ache from bad seats either.

Sick to the stomach

I woke up this morning and felt a bit sick, but it's ok I thought. It's just a morning thing. I'll just put the radio on to check the cricket score.

Decided after much deliberation that work wouldn't appreciate an illness form stating "Sick to stomach due to Ashes score"

Grumble grumble grumble we invented the game grumble

I get paid for this :-)

For the last few days I've had scale cut outs all over my desk and have been trying them in various configurations in order to get the whole thing to fit into the space available. There's something rather satisfying about the result. Other people are less enthusiastic.

In other news we have a church Christmas social coming up. Panic, toys out of pram and chaos. I don't understand why it's so complicated. Maybe I should have just volunteered for the organising group from the start.

And have I mentioned that young people are CRAZY? Almost, but not quite, as crazy as the leaders.

Long time no post

I got asked yesterday what exciting things I've been doing recently.

I'm not sure I've done anything exciting and I can't decide if that's good or bad -I do things because I like doing them, and some things I do because God tells me to do them whether I like it or not. But they're not exciting things. They're just every day things. Aren't they? Should I be excited about them? They never seem to sound exciting when I try and talk about them!

I'm getting paranoid!

The only thing I could think of in response to the question was 'I managed to make my finger bleed on a polystryrene toggle in aquafit'. Not just anyone can do that. And it supercededs my housemates injury with a mechanical pencil last week which, until now, was the most ridiculous injury we'd managed.

it may not be exciting, but it continues to be random. Ho hum. Here's hoping that I manage to work out what I'm doing sometime soon!

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 2,888 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Now what's even more random about that is the statistic the site gives me. Apparently in the US 99.66% of people with the first name of 'Mary' are female. Now, by my maths that gives 0.34% of men who are called 'Mary'. With the numbers the site gives that means there are 13452 men called 'Mary' in the US.

Doesn't that seem a little odd? (or am I just prejudiced?!)

Bleugh, I want to go home. Oh, I am home.

The above are the important and wise words uttered by yours truly when I got home last night. It's fair to say that my housemate was very much amused by the statement.

However, it does sum up things at the moment- I'm not quite sure if I'm coming or going!

Went up to Brum recently and caught up with the old Cathsoc committee. It was 2000 that we were in power, although I'm not so sure power is the right word. There are many other words that seem more appropriate. It's weird seeing where we've ended up - two auditors, an engineer and a PhD student. Sounds like it should be a responsible group till you put us all in one place. Ho hum. Was good to see them all anyway.

Also met up with more people down in Reading last weekend in the pub.

When we got home we later spent an inordinate amount of time at home trying to determine how many teeth we should all have. There's something very amusing about watching people try to count their own teeth. Following some research we determined that you should have 32, including wisdoms. Which means that I do have wisdom teeth - I just never noticed them coming through. Which means I am wise and grown up. Which I'm sure you all know anyway...

Mattresses

Sarah has the most amazing blow up mattress! You plug it into the wall and it blows itself up! You just watch as it pootles away to itself and then there is a fully blown up mattress! And you just reverse the fan to deflate it. It's sooo cool! And, apparently, I'm very easily amused.

The reason for the above discovery was that I stayed over at Sarah's last night for a proper catch up. We spent a lot of time nattering about all sorts of things - jobs, houses, her wedding, how cool her engagement ring is.

We also drank a pizza and ate a bottle of wine.

Which, along with the sleep deprivation, is making today rather more effort than normal.

Toes. Like Fingers but not.*

*Quote from McChicken and THE Chicken circa 1999. (Not to mention a whole lot of the other chickens, although those two started it. They have a lot to answer for.)

I never really think about my toes. They're just random things that are normally inside shoes.

However, since slipping half way down the stairs last night and stopping only due to the supreme effort of toe against banister, I've discovered a new appreciation for the things. I'd never really considered them or how much you use them to walk.

Ho hum.

Monday morning.

So, I'm back at work. Woohoo. And it's everything I remember from before I went on leave. And yet somehow worse. Ho hum. We've been playing 'nick the network cable' all morning as IT still haven't quite managed to provide one for each desk. We're going to be in trouble if the whole desk cluster is in the office at the same time. Various options have been suggested, and there is strong competition on the issue of which person gets to stay home so that they don't need a network cable…

Having spent much of last week asleep I've now had a busy weekend and could do with some more sleep. Such is life.

Saturday went to parents and ate lots of lasagne and met some peoples the parents know from Thornbury way (although now in Oxford). Mum admitted afterwards that maybe me and the boys have calmed down slightly since we were primary school age… Given that we're now all in our twenties this is quite a statement. Maybe it's just because we don't live at home anymore…

And for the record, it's not a good idea to get the giggles with a mouth full of mouthwash. It's messy, a little painful, and all Anna's fault.

Holiday

I'm on leave!

I recommend being on leave. It's far better for one's sleeping patterns than being at work. Apparently sleeping on one's desk is frowned upon. or at least, not advised if you want to progress at all in your career. ho hum.

So I'm at 'the Shed'. This is the new name for the 'other' house down in Bristol. Apparently other men have shed's in the garden. Dad has a whole house at the other end of the motorway but it serves the same purpose.

The theory about coming to Bristol was to get some sleep, some CPD done and to relax.
Sleep - yep. Relax yep. CPD - well, I kinda wrote an essay last night. Anyone want to know about the History of the Institution of Civil Engineers? It started in a coffee house, which is basically the 1818 equivalent of a pub. And that's still where you're most likley to find a Civil Engineer...

I've upgraded blogger. Anything could happen. Please let me know if it all goes pear shaped. Hmm... a pear shaped computer. Noone has built one of those. How do I get a patent?

I just shouldn't be allowed out.

As many of you know I recently got a new phone. My new new phone will be arriving this week after I broke the screen on the old new one. I'm not sure how. I think I sat on it.

This is brilliant. old but brilliant.

YAY! Dangermouse! Woooo!

Dangermouse is coming back to TV :-)

2 hours and thirty minutes, or 150 minutes, or 9000 seconds or 9e+012 nanoseconds

That's how long it took me to get to work this morning. Thirty minutes to get to the bottom of the hill. 2 hours to go about 4 miles across handy cross roundabout.

I've named various traffic cones on the route. Please say Hello to Jack and Tom when you pass them.

I think it's the first time I've been caught up in real gridlock. Something else to cross off the list of 'things to do'.

Then when I got to work, and got myself a coffee the milk was off… Things were just improving. Then I dropped my pen into my mug of herbally infused water.

Please can we rewind and start today again?

Just for Martin...

Martin is the best example of blokeness I have ever seen.

And this is not written under duress. And I'm sure his girlfirend would agree.

He's also asked for semi-revealing photos.

This is a semi revelaing photo...

They're married!

ok, so I should have posted this sooner, but hey. On the 19th August, two of my best friends got married. To each other.


I was one of the best men. (I like to think that I was the best best man).

So yes, I was on the stag do. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

The wedding was great. I've attached some photos. We all look very grown up. It was really weird because it was a very local wedding so everyone knew everyone else. Half of us had grown up on the same estate (that's essentially how I know both Natalie and Ryan). Natalie looked beautiful - she always does, but particularly on the day.

We all drank a fair bit at the reception - although not as much as we did the ngiht before. We were playing drinking games with Ryan's Dad. I have no idea what the rules were I just drank when told to. Dave was in a far worse state than me the next morning.


I think my tankerd was empty.


Me and Charlie.

Only downside of the evening was a minor onw - I lost my bag so had to crash at Ryan's parents house that night as I coudln't get back into my parents house. I also lost my phone so if anyone has been trying to contact me recently I'm sorry. My old number will be active again tomorrow when it's ported across to a new phone and network (which actually has signal in my house!)

Cold, Not Cold, Cold, Not Cold

It's amazing what you can learn when you're out with Friends. This weekend I went to Greenbelt.

I will never be the same again. Although, with luck a hot bath ought to sort out my back. Man was not meant to camp. Perhaps Alice and I should have camped so that we weren't on slopes such that we both ended up in the same corner of the tent by morning. On the other hand, that sounds a little dull.

Greenbelt was good. I kept bumping into people that I've not seen for ages. I was working in te ticket office again so I also met lots of new people who are all completely mad. There was a beautifulo moment where some people were pretending to be automatic doors at one end of the box office, and we were checking wrist bands while salsa-ing at the other end. Punters generally looked pretty scared - but we took lots of money - more than the target by LOTS. We rock.

Got to see some good bands - YFRIDAY, Sounds of Salvation, One Nation. Some interesting talks - Timothy Radcliffe, Norman Kember
and eat some great food. Although I'm still craving salad. And vegetables.

If you've not been to Greenbelt it's well worth a look. Don't expect a life changing experience, but it's good fun. And a lot less crazy than Reading festival. Which, incidently, my brother survived.

Incidently, the title refers to a discovey that a very intelligent PhD student made in the ticket office. When the door is open - it's cold. When it's closed - it's not. When you repeat this observation over and over again people start to go crazy. Here's praying that Alice's write up is more intelligent...

BBC NEWS | Have Your Say: Have UK airport delays affected you? ...

Second comment down.

Genius.

BBC NEWS | Have Your Say: Have UK airport delays affected you? ...: "Wednesday, 16 August, 2006, 11:34 GMT 12:34 UK "

Should I be worried...?

I just opened the office door to someone from another office. He works in a different field to me - Cleanwater instead of Dirty. Yet when I introduced myself he said 'oh, I know that name... not sure why'

It could be good.

Or it could be very bad.

Either way I appear to have a name for myself.