Set Up Like A
Deck Of Cards

I’ve just gotten this overwhelming urge to watch Ronin.

It was a good day

I had a really good day at work today.

I didn’t get much of my own work done, which will probably bite me in the arse for the next few days, but I did help a load of other people out with all kinds of things, like:

• finding a recording of a telephone conversation from months ago
• working out formulas and graphs for a massive spreadsheet
• rewording letters
• fixing a printer that was refusing to work
• realising why a friend couldn’t get two accounts to reconcile
• helping out a customer who couldn’t reactivate their account
• holding the door open for a lady with a pram

Okay, that last one was a joke (but it did actually happen), but still, I really enjoyed today.

I’d love a job where I just wander around the office and try to help people if they need it.

Gratin Dauphinois

Last month, at Download, one of the highlights of the entire weekend was finding this food stall that served French food.  It was known around the festival as “The French Food place”.  It’s official name was La Grande Bouffe and, to people more familiar with music festivals than I am, it’s already well-respected.

They basically served gratin variations and the nicest sausages in the world.  One of the best parts is that they cook their food in these huge pans right in front of you:

I know that you have to take the “this is the first real food that we’ve eaten in four days” factor but, honestly, this was the nicest food that I’ve had for a long, long time.  If it wasn’t for the fact that I knew I had to leave room for more beer, I would have moved my tent outside their stall.

Anyway, last night I started craving it, so today I made it for dinner.  I went shopping after work, bought everything that I needed and 45 minutes ago (9pm), it was ready:

Hopefully, it looks close enough to give some of my buddies flashbacks.  I’ll be honest, it wasn’t as nice as the festival food, but it was pretty good and will definitely be made again.

Also, anyone with access to a Marks & Spencer needs to get down there tomorrow and buy a pack of their Aberdeen Angus sausages, because OH MY GOD!

He feints one way, dives another…

A few months ago, I went to an external seminar for work, with maybe 150 people there.  During the morning session, I passed out in my chair.  Apparently, I made a weird grunting sound, kicked back in my chair and then fell to the floor, bringing the whole thing to a halt while people tried to revive me.  Even though I came round after a couple of minutes (pale as a sheet and sweating bullets) and managed to walk outside, the hotel manager had already called an ambulance and insisted that I go to the hospital to be checked out.

So, feeling fine but kind of freaked out, I got strapped down in the gurney, taken to hospital in the ambulance (with no lights or sirens, sadly) and hooked up to all kinds of monitors for a couple of hours, only for the grumpiest doctor in the world to look at the charts, glare at me when I said that I’d skipped breakfast and tell me that it was from a combination of low blood-sugar, fatigue and hunger.  And then he ordered the qualified nurse that had been looking after me and others for a couple of hours to go and make me a cup of tea and some toast.  I felt like a tosser.

Tomorrow, I have another seminar, run by the same people, about the same stuff and in the same hotel.  I’m actually pretty nervous.  I don’t think I’ll pass out again, but most of the people who are going to be there will have been there last time.  I’ll walk in with my head held high, but I think there might be a few empty seats around me in the room and there will definitely be a few sideways looks.

Some friends at work have tried to make me feel better by reminding me that tomorrow’s seminar is only a half-day, from 9-12.  But then I’ve reminded them that, last time, I didn’t even make it until 10am.

Noticed Today…

It’s a shame the number 5 takes so much longer to write (relatively) to the other single digit numbers. No shortcuts to be taken or it looks like a messy backwards 2, and that’s not cool with me.

(Via lfarm)

I have never been able to write ‘8’ decently. As a kid, I used to write it almost sideways, like the infinity sign, which was fine with me. But then my teachers slowly started making me write it upright and it was difficult for me to do. Even now, I can’t write it properly. It starts off okay but then ends with an ugly straight line from bottom-left to top-right, occasionally followed by an ugly sharp turn at the top if I feel like trying to complete the loop.

So lay off the ‘5’, yeah? Join me in hating the ‘8’ instead.