No Christmas theme. Well, maybe - you'll have to ask nicely.
This is only because I forgot it was December today. Seeing as I just spent £1400 on bills and things, I'm feeling a bit grumpy. Actually, a christmas theme might just cheer me up!
But then again, it might not.
Ok, so it's lopsided. I'm working on it.
The snow is here though, so everyone be thankful!
This has got to be the worst christmas theme ever. Words cannot even describe how bad it is. I think I'm getting generally worse at design. Do not be surprised to see this change quite a bit whilst I agonisingly fail to get it right.
Hum.
This is awful. I've got a design that's good here, but you may notice that there are no links to anything. This is because I can't decide where they should go. So I've got rid of them.
If anyone's got any suggestions about where they should go, let me know.
/grump
It's been a while again. So this may be a long one.
Been doing a few things here and there. Work is good. I'm doing useful things which is a good thing, and there's other magic things like overtime that also need to be factored in to how good things are. Still need to sort that out. Ah well. I still hav e8 days of holiday to take which neatly covers the entirety of the last 2 weeks in December. So I'm on holiday from the 19th right up until the third of the new year and this year I shall probably be doing the same as last year and will go and enjoy the snow 'hup norf. Before I go, I've got to sit through another week at work which involves a whole two days of "training". "Training" usually consists of sitting in a room and sleeping. Actually, that's unfair - sometimes I learn things. On the whole though it does get in the way. This week, for example, the Queen of this fine land is coming to open our building (officially - I think they do it about 8 months after it really opens to make sure the lifts work and everything) on Tuesday morning and I could have been at the nice ceremony thingie, rubbing shoulders with the great and the highest. Could have even sweet-talked my way to a knighthood or something. Instead, however, I'm in "training". So I'll be learning about project management and not performing worthy self-promotion. Bah.
This morning I played cricket. This is something I do every weekend on either Sunday or Saturday morning at some ungodly hour and have done since we moved here in September. It started off as a sensible exercise, when the sun rose at 5am and set in the evening. Now, however, when it's pitch black at 9am and again at 3pm, the frost on the ground means that your feet are wet almost immediately, the ground is so hard and slippery that running is impossible, and you realise that despite best efforts, you're still playing with a tennis ball and a size 2 bat, you start to realise that this is getting a little silly. Actually, the darkness that set in in the afternoon may have been as a result of the big black cloud that's drifting across the south east at the moment. In any case, I managed to break my arm and be out quite a number of times in the 5 hours of play that occurred.
I'm going to see Narnia now. I shall report back.
Well, it was full. So I never got to see it. Now I need to decide what dinner will be.
My arm hurts.
'Twas the last day at work today. I've now got a blissful 2 weeks off before I have to do anything at all again relating to work. Obviously, that last sentence isn't true because I'll be leaving on my blackberry, phone etc. just so that I can swoop in to save the day on some catastrophy that might befall something.
Sri Lanka things are moving on a bit. In case you missed it, I'll be going to Sri Lanka in late April to build houses for the people who got theirs washed away after the tsunami last year. It costs around £500 for a new house to be built, and that's the amount the 15 of us going have to raise each. Reuters Foundation are paying for all the flights and accommodation, so all of the cash raised will go straight towards the actual house building bit. I'll put together a page here with some details if anyone feels kind enough to throw in a few pounds. :-)
And with that, I'm really really tired now and will go to sleep.
So I'm loaded up with presents and other nice things and am therefore off up to Manchester now for the remaining few days of this year. Leaving Euston about........... now. Wireless stuff is wonderful :-)
Thankfully, there wasn't such a heaving rush to race to the train as there usually is in Euston. So I've managed to bag a nice table seat with everything I need. Lunch is next.
So, it's Christmas Eve and it's not snowing. I suppose the northerners feel it's quite amusing, bringing me up here last year and decorating the place with lovely snow to make me nearly like it, and then providing just some sort of lame 'freezing fog' this year. Pah.
Not only that, but the house opposite were just thoughtful enough to set their burglar alarm off. Armed only with a small stick and The Blonde One's dad, a brief (cold) investigation revealed that people here sometimes just don't understand some technological stuff - like the fact you need to put the right code in to turn it off. Honestly.
I'm on the xda so long text is painful, but hope everyone has a nice Christmas where far too much food is eaten. That's what i'm planning anyway.
Soo........
Much...................
Chocolate..............................
I had a plan. It was a very good plan. I was going to go to New York in April, and buy a Canon 350D at some nice US price and get my £100 for buying it on a MasterCard. Then, I was idly browsing round, and found that the offer ends on the 31st December, which is about 3 days away. Sudden panic set in, so I bought one today. At a reasonable price, and with the £100 off, I'm getting it cheaper than I would do in the US without the £100 off (by about £60). The only problem now is that it's a body only, and I need a lens until I can use it so I'll be looking round ebay for something decent and cheap over the next few weeks. Ah well. Got the deposit back for the last house I lived in finally, so that's what's financing all of this, just in case my bank manager is reading......
Other things I did today was to do a new stylesheet for the new year. It's actually quite good (in my humble opinion) and is a little different to the designs I've had before. Not 100% sure about the main colour yet, but at least I've got everything in the right place in both FF and IE. It'll go up at the new year so everyone can go "ooooo" then as I know you all like doing that. And it'll stay unchanged for at least 3 months. Promise.
Now I've got to go to bed. It's cold and damp. And it's going to snow.