Category Archives: Life

One Day In History: a grey start

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I didn’t sleep well last night, and eventually got up at 6.40am (the alarm had gone off at 6.20). Showered while it was still dark; bring on the clock change – I want my sunrise back! Kathy brought me toast and tea, which I started to eat while I got dressed. Phoebe was still asleep, though she had woken up a few times around 6, calling for her mummy.

I synced my iPod to the computer. Despite Adam Christianson’s great tip about how to keep your iTunes music on an external hard drive, iTunes hangs on sync (at the “syncing calendars and contacts” stage) unless the external drive is connected. Oh well – I only did it to update my Last.fm stats. Kathy has the iPod today as she’s driving to Bristol Zoo with her mum, Grace and Phoebe.

We got to the station at 7.25. Kathy collected Grace, and Teresa (Grace’s mum) and I got the late-running 7.24 Cardiff Central train instead of our usual 7.37 Bristol Temple Meads. I was very nearly squashed by a middle-aged lady who, rather in a rush and keen to get off the train, decided to stand right in front of me (I was standing in the mouth of the bike compartment). It’s like I was invisible.

Anyway: I was in the office before 8, which is quite unheard of. I need to renew my season ticket later, which I’ll probably do at lunchtime. There are advantages to working near the station!

Bradford-on-Avon geeks meet-up

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I made the 8-mile, 50-minute (walk, train, walk) journey from Bath to Bradford-on-Avon last night for the inaugral Bradford geeks meet-up, organised by Giles Turnbull. The other attendees were:

Anyway: it was good to meet everyone and have a good chat about geeky stuff, like the best way to present massive numbers of product colourway combinations photographically on a website; paper lens hoods; and going on telly to be grilled by angel investors.

As a bonus, the pub (The Barge Inn) had Bath Ales on tap, which was nice. ;) I took one photo (from which I seem to have omitted Sam – sorry, Sam!) which I will post on Flickr at some point.

Final note: thanks to Big Dave for babysitting!

And the winner is…

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In my quest to find a finance package for the Mac, I finally capitulated and bought a (genuine) copy of Virtual PC 7 from eBay. I just don’t have the time to learn a new software package’s way of working – I’ve got my work cut out just getting the accounts up to date!

Respect to those who’ve made the jump to Moneydance and other packages; I guess I’m not that brave.

Phoebe’s splint: coming off soon

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Phoebe, in common with many breech babies, was born with a not-fully-formed right hip socket. Thus she has been wearing a plastic splint, which keeps her legs pointing outwards, since day 2 of her life.

Yesterday we took her to the RUH in Bath for her ultrasound scan. Her hip socket is now fine, and our paediatrician checkup tomorrow should confirm that the splint is no longer required. Phoebe will then be able to lie on her side, and the car seat will fit her for a few more weeks!

Can no-one write English any more?

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At Bristol Temple Meads railway station the travel centre has been renamed “Advanced Ticket Sales”. Shouldn’t that be “Advance Ticket Sales”, or are these tickets in possession of a higher-than-average IQ?

I should have taken a photo with my phonecam.

New car shopping.

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The Peugeot 106 is faltering. We’re considering replacing it with one of the following cars (in order of preference):

  1. Honda Jazz
  2. Toyota Yaris
  3. Skoda Fabia
  4. Nissan Micra
  5. Hyundai Getz
  6. Fiat Panda

Why the Jazz? June’s What Car (UK) magazine contained the results of the annual JD Power Customer Satisfaction Index survey. The Jazz came first. Out of all types of car. Not bad for a supermini.

We’re keen on it because it’s a roomy small car. I like the 106′s size – parking is easier for a start – but interior space is limited. The Jazz has the largest boot in its class, and has innovative seats that fold up as well as down, creating more vertical or horizontal space as required.

The downside? The price. They’re popular little cars, it seems, and finding an SE model (with air conditioning) within our budget of around £7000 will be a challenge.

Google Froogle is a good way to search for cars, though.

Information overload

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I’ve recently discovered a thing called GTD. It’s a philosophy based on a book by David Allen, which I haven’t read, but which talks about “Stress-Free Productivity”.

Thanks to a weblog called 43 Folders, and an article at O’Reilly by Giles Turnbull I’ve discovered some Mac-friendly GTD stuff. Apparently it takes some time to set yourself up to use GTD methods, but once you do, it’s well worth it.

So far I’ve just implemented a Hipster PDA – a stack of 3×5″ index cards and a bull clip. It’s already made a difference, though: when I think of things, I write them down rather than mulling them over and not sleeping. I then have a record of the thought, and can obviously recall it.

Another weblog of note is Life Hacker – lots of great tips there, like How to quiet noisy pipes.

Oh, and Stu: it was ace to chat to you last night. You need to get a web site, pal ;)

Not going to SXSW

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After hearing about how great last year’s South by South-west (SXSW) was, I quite fancied going. There’s a whole Brit contingent making the trip this year, which would have been fun to ride the coattails of. As you can infer from the title of this post, though, I’m not going. I don’t personally have the money, I didn’t ask work whether the training budget would stretch, and (to be honest, this is the main reason) I wouldn’t want to be out of the country for a week when Kathy’s six months pregnant.

However, like the Murphy’s, I’m not bitter.

Slightly Successful DJing

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Along with Jez, I DJd at St. Philip and St. James’ Christmas Party last night. ‘Twas a good laugh, especially the cheese/80s mix I finished off with. I had the incredible foresight to record most of it with my Archos, so if you have a nice fat internet pipe, feel free to download it (29.3 MB mp3 file). It’s the proverbial curate’s egg, as the foldback wasn’t great (yeah – I know: “Poor Workman Blames Tool” shocker), and the EQ and levels aren’t great, but it might provide some aural joy; you never know.

Tracklist

  1. Lou Bega – Mambo No. 5
  2. Wham! – Wake Me Up Before You Go
  3. Michael Jackson – Billie Jean
  4. Janet Jackson – What Have You Done For Me Lately?
  5. M.A.R.R.S. – Pump Up The Volume
  6. Betty Boo – Doin’ The Do
  7. Mel and Kim – Respectable
  8. Kylie Minogue – I Should Be So Lucky
  9. Band Aid – Do They Know It’s Christmas?