Hmmmm

I just got to my desk to find a note saying 'Please Resign'.

This is a lot more obvious than normal, and I'm not sure what I've done to upset them this time.

Of course it might just mean that they want me to re-sign the updated drawings - but that's not actually what's been written...

And finally the car is all mended

The trim which fell off the resprayed doors is now restuck. They told me not to wash the car for 24 hours to ensure that it stays stuck.

It's a sacrifice but I'll try. And just when it was due it's annual wash too.

So how is it that one of my eyes looks tired and the other one doesn’t? How does that make any sense? Particularly given the amount of sleep I’ve had this weekend. Hrumph.

I’m sorry, I’m not drinking due to the police incident. Yes, they asked me to leave my car there, hopefully I can collect it later.

I can play that up nicely until you realise that I have no idea what the police incident was, the car park exit was closed hence the car still being parked in the car park, and that all things considered it wasn’t that inconvenient, I just didn’t have a chance to get changed properly for the meal as it had taken me 1.25 hours to go down two floors of the car park. I listened to a lot of the book of Genesis on my audio Bible though so it’s not lost time.

I made it to J’s meal eventually – her second hen night. There were about 10 if us, and it didn’t take long for me to realise that a lot more people knew of me than I knew them

Oh so you’re Mary… I work with your mum…

Oh, yes, Mary knows him from Church…

Oh you’re Mary – you used to play with my daughter when you were 10, you have changed…

There are times when it’s good to still live in the community you grew up in, and times when it’s not. I’ll let you decide which is which.

Still, it made conversation easier over the food. As ever, when they all wandered off towards a bar I panicked and went home. Not quite sure why I like pubs so much but can’t handle bars… Although at the moment it’s more just not handling large groups of people in noisy places. Which, conveniently, is also my current excuse for not going to the gym... :-)

Happiness Survey

Oh no! I'm in a happiness dip.

Women were also happy in their late-teens and early 20s - scoring 7.55 - although they dipped to 7.1 between the ages of 25-34.

I figure this means that I need cheering up, so please feel free to send me chocolate, flowers, hugs etc... :-D

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6947481.stm

How do you describe people?

Yesterday I was back at my old university halls in Birmingham, UH, where we scattered some of Kev’s ashes in the garden. A couple of people spoke about him and H was able to come up with a few memories of Kev in UH that reminded that rest of us who’d lived with him of some happy, albeit random, times. Which sums up UH nicely too – happy but random. She picked out things that the rest of us had forgotten. It’s strange the things that you remember about people and the different things that people remember as important, but those anecdotes only add to the memories of Kev that I have, they don’t work as a whole description of the man.

Afterwards I went for a chat with L, after we’d wandered round UH trying to remember where the bar used to be and swapping memories of UH. She then asked me to describe my other half, and I was stumped. I couldn’t find a way to describe him that even began to cover it or that would make any sense to anyone other than me.

So how do you describe someone so that it actually reflects that person and that makes them sound as interesting to other people as they are to you? Or do you just have to resort to anecdotes, and hope that they’ll make sense if they ever actually meet the person you’re describing?

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).