I'm in Portugal!
I'm in a phone shop in portugal hijacking an unsecure wifi connection to fix a fuckup (not mine) at work!
Benny is outside enjoying the sunshine!
We have a pool!
Left hand drive cars are funny!
Driving on the right is funny!
Technology is awesome! Mobile phones, Wifi and Satnav make this all a fucking breeze.
I've falled in love with a girl! (...I know you've heard it all before, but it bears repeating now...)
Natasha is always right!
Bye!
May 15, 2007
May 07, 2007
No Benny, with your *hands*
First proper cricket game of the year, a friendly vs our landlords. And it was a friendly - the pitch is a slow one, so none of the bowlers were putting any pace of the ball and we were all fielding close in to the wicket. We batted first and made a respectable tally. I didn't bat - as perennial number 11 it's frequently the case that I get all padded up and then don't get in. Oh well - great fun to watch.
We were fielding very effectively. I stopped everything that came my way, anyway, which is the only test that mattered. The opponents had a number of left handed batsman which confuses things. When their 5th bat came on I was moved to a position next to benny. I was Forward, Benny was square leg. A key thing in cricket is to back everyone up - to run behind people who are going to pick the ball up in case they miss it. The ball was slogged over in our general direction. It was heading right for Benny. I started to run behind him to cover in case he fumbled it. I saw him go down for it. The ball came down, perhaps a metre in front of him, pitched up and smacked Benny hard in the mouth.
Benny went down, doubled over. I stopped chasing the ball - which went over the boundary to a chorus of abuse from some of the die hard members of the team - and ran over to benny. He lifted his head up and for a moment everything looked fine. Then an awful lot of blood started coming out from between his fingers, which were clasped over his mouth. Then it all went a bit nuts. Twenty minutes later we were in A&E in winchester. I don't mind saying I was pacing around outside like an expectant father or something. He was seen pretty quickly, but it seemed to take so long. Anyway. Upshot: the hole his tooth made in his lip has been glued together. At one point, apparently, he was stuck to a nurse. One of his front teeth was knocked back, but it's back in place now.
Best of all, we headed over to le garcon noire afterwards to meet Al, Debbie and some friends of theirs and heard via phone that we'd won the game by one run. Fantastic. Benny celebrated with a pint of fosters through a straw. A lot of top quality banter followed about Benny sounding like a spaastic. An impromptu game of poker followed. Awesome, brilliant evening.
We were fielding very effectively. I stopped everything that came my way, anyway, which is the only test that mattered. The opponents had a number of left handed batsman which confuses things. When their 5th bat came on I was moved to a position next to benny. I was Forward, Benny was square leg. A key thing in cricket is to back everyone up - to run behind people who are going to pick the ball up in case they miss it. The ball was slogged over in our general direction. It was heading right for Benny. I started to run behind him to cover in case he fumbled it. I saw him go down for it. The ball came down, perhaps a metre in front of him, pitched up and smacked Benny hard in the mouth.
Benny went down, doubled over. I stopped chasing the ball - which went over the boundary to a chorus of abuse from some of the die hard members of the team - and ran over to benny. He lifted his head up and for a moment everything looked fine. Then an awful lot of blood started coming out from between his fingers, which were clasped over his mouth. Then it all went a bit nuts. Twenty minutes later we were in A&E in winchester. I don't mind saying I was pacing around outside like an expectant father or something. He was seen pretty quickly, but it seemed to take so long. Anyway. Upshot: the hole his tooth made in his lip has been glued together. At one point, apparently, he was stuck to a nurse. One of his front teeth was knocked back, but it's back in place now.
Best of all, we headed over to le garcon noire afterwards to meet Al, Debbie and some friends of theirs and heard via phone that we'd won the game by one run. Fantastic. Benny celebrated with a pint of fosters through a straw. A lot of top quality banter followed about Benny sounding like a spaastic. An impromptu game of poker followed. Awesome, brilliant evening.
Drummer Found
Two drummers came down to jam with us on Saturday. Jemma came down in the morning - she was impressive but struggled a lot with the higher tempo songs and found holding some of the songs tricky. In the afternoon we were joined by Ash who totally blew me away. It was excellent to play with a proper person rather than a drum machine; we held every song together, he and I, in a way that I haven't been able to do by myself before. The Bends, especially, with the tempo changes and the drum / bass breaks sounded Fucking Awesome in a way it hasn't so far. Ash seems really cool. We had a pint after rehearsal, seems a sound chap. All we need now is a vocalist, baby, and then it's time to Rock :)
Was my job to call Jemma and tell her. That was a nasty job. She was really nice but we'd been straight with both of them all along. She's been playing a year, Ash has been playing for 7 or 8 years - not a straightforward comparison.
Onwards and upwards...
Was my job to call Jemma and tell her. That was a nasty job. She was really nice but we'd been straight with both of them all along. She's been playing a year, Ash has been playing for 7 or 8 years - not a straightforward comparison.
Onwards and upwards...
Next Slide, Please
What a week. Wharrafuckingweek. There's often a week like this on every project. If I thought I was eating it a week or two ago, this week they served up the main course and I stuffed my face. Serious targets for serious people with the promise of a ha-youge presentation at the end of it to the lady who's in charge of the area we're working in and her team. Only slightly intimidating as a concept, even moreso because of circumstance.
I was presenting a model I've made which takes in lots of data, mashes it about a lot and then makes a report that managers can use to run their teams better. It's difficult to explain in full, but it's the foundation of all the performance management stuff we're doing. Without it, there's no £2m savings, and thus no requirement for us. It's a significant piece of work. Because of other stuff that diverted me earlier in the week I was up until 11pm on Thursday finishing it. I was promised some data to work with on Thursday morning which would form the basis of the presentation. The data didn't arrive until 2 hours before the presentation started. Serious stress.
Then my Mac refused to talk to the projector in the meeting room when it was booted into Windows (which it needed to be). Then the model broke when I tried to use it on a computer that *could* talk to the projector. Presentation eventually delivered with people clustered around my screen. Went incredibly well. The consulting gang repaired to the pub across the road and they were all well chuffed. Dennis said I'd pulled a rabbit out of the hat. That was nice. When we were watching the Liverpool game earlier in the week Dennis told me he was going to lobby to increase my day rate! I mean, I think I'm already paid somewhat excessively, but hey - it's great feedback. Almost totally unprecedented.
On the way back I got a tube all the way from Bank to Waterloo. One stop. First time I've been on the tube in years. £4 for a single? Shocker. Thought it was £1.50.
I was presenting a model I've made which takes in lots of data, mashes it about a lot and then makes a report that managers can use to run their teams better. It's difficult to explain in full, but it's the foundation of all the performance management stuff we're doing. Without it, there's no £2m savings, and thus no requirement for us. It's a significant piece of work. Because of other stuff that diverted me earlier in the week I was up until 11pm on Thursday finishing it. I was promised some data to work with on Thursday morning which would form the basis of the presentation. The data didn't arrive until 2 hours before the presentation started. Serious stress.
Then my Mac refused to talk to the projector in the meeting room when it was booted into Windows (which it needed to be). Then the model broke when I tried to use it on a computer that *could* talk to the projector. Presentation eventually delivered with people clustered around my screen. Went incredibly well. The consulting gang repaired to the pub across the road and they were all well chuffed. Dennis said I'd pulled a rabbit out of the hat. That was nice. When we were watching the Liverpool game earlier in the week Dennis told me he was going to lobby to increase my day rate! I mean, I think I'm already paid somewhat excessively, but hey - it's great feedback. Almost totally unprecedented.
On the way back I got a tube all the way from Bank to Waterloo. One stop. First time I've been on the tube in years. £4 for a single? Shocker. Thought it was £1.50.
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