Tuesday, 23 June 2009

Broken car and excessive heat

So, if paying £140 for the exhaust wasn't enough, this morning I became aware of a strange steering issue on the way to work. Investigation showed that there was a puncture in the nearside front tyre, caused by a huge splinter of wood. Annoyingly the tyre was unrepairable. The tyre was replaced, but the garage had a look at the other tyres and found that the other front tyre had no tread on the inside. So, on the weekend it'll need to go in for the tracking and yet another new tyre.

Bah.

It's also damned hot. I wouldn't mind but it's really muggy, need a really good thunderstorm to come along and clean up the air.

Watched the first episode of the new Top Gear series. It was pretty good. Shame the steam engine didn't win the race though, but it wasn't far behind. Amazing thing.

This is very cool.

Sunday, 21 June 2009

Fun and things and stuff and noise

Yesterday was Vicky's birthday so we all met up at Andy's to watch the start of the F1 qualifying before heading up to the pub to watch the Lions game in the pub. This would have been better if they had won, but oh well.

After that it was back down to Andy's before heading off to Rhyl. Unfortunately I didn't take into account the weight of five people and the metal thing in the middle of Andy's driveway for the gate. It caught underneath and snapped the exhaust clean in half. Unfortunately this meant the car was now completely unsilenced, and was unbelievably loud. Not the first time I've had this experience.

We headed off to Rhyl which was very embarrassing due to the loud noise scaring people, dogs and small children. Fortunately there were no police about, so that was OK. The evening was pretty good with lots of people, gossip and drink and then a really good meal. Finally though Andy and I had to head back. Word had got about of the Car of Death (tm) and a small crowd gathered to watch us roar away. It was even worse with the engine cold and there were a few backfires too. I dropped Andy off and got home OK, although coming up the track was a worry as what was left of the exhaust kept bouncing up and down and smacking the floor.

So today I took it down to Lobitos on the coast road and they said it will be £120 for the part as the whole front end needs replacing and it includes the cat. Oh well.

Haven't done much else today, took the neck off the fretless bass and put it back on properly as it wasn't quite right and put new strings on it, and about to sit down and watch some more Monty Python.

Monday, 15 June 2009

BBQ excess

The weekend was decent with a nice long BBQ at Rob and Caroline's, consisting of lots of talk, food and the usual things. All good fun.

Other than that watched Monty Python, a documentary about Iron Maiden's tour from last year, experimented with two old and battered Tablet PCs (one is now running XP Tablet Edition, the other FreeNAS) and not really much else.

Back in work today, fun fun fun. Trying to eat healthily again, today went reasonably well. I've made it through the day without a single sip of Coke, which is good given how bad I've been over the last couple of months, well, since London really.

Tuesday, 9 June 2009

Monday, 8 June 2009

Lost cows

Work was again busy but quite productive today.

It looked like it was going to be a grim evening so I settled down with a book and a web browser displaying live updates from the Apple conference. This however got boring and I found the weather was looking better so I took the dog out for a walk. It was very quiet, didn't see a single person until about half way round, when I got asked three times by seperate groups of people if I'd seen six cows that had somehow escaped. I hadn't.

Still unmotivated.

Sunday, 7 June 2009

Feh

Nothing particularly interesting this week. Work was busy busy busy. The weather was also excellent until typically it rained most of Saturday.

Yesterday was another Wii night with ex Proact people, always good fun. Plenty of food, Wii gamage and general stuff.

Today was my Dad's birthday so we went to Ruthin Castle for food. Pretty good. His wife had arranged for my cousin and I to appear unexpectedly which was a success.

Been playing on the DS a bit, and trying to summon up the energy to sort out the mess in my room which is now ridiculous. Can't see the point though. It's starting to remind me of my flat in Bath which was a festering pit of loneliness and despair.

Monday, 1 June 2009

10 things

1) Office fires are bad, especially when the people in said office have saved their work to their local hard drives and not the network.

2) It's been very hot. I wish the air conditioning worked in the Vectra but it just makes the air coming out of the vents smell slightly instead of making it cold.

3) Good Omens is a damned good book.

4) Why does every other dog have to attack our greyhound on sight? I'm developing a serious hatred of labradors in particular because of this.

5) The Vectra is running much better and stops better too with the new manifold gasket and rear discs and pads fitted on Saturday.

6) Coke is evil. The drink that is, although I'm sure the drug must be pretty bad too.

7) I have little to no self control when it comes to vintage Unix hardware.

8) Cardiff is populated entirely with promiscuous bisexuals and aliens, according to Torchwood.

9) Drug dealing is fun and productive in GTA Chinatown Wars.

10) Soul Calibur 4 is worth it just for the sheer hilarity of giving Voldo an afro, a Tyrolean hat and a monacle.