Plodding Along Merrily - Thu 16/10

Well here we are, nearly a week into my two weeks off. And it's *lovely*.

Started off with a very enjoyable weekend, and has meandered along quietly, without too much fuss, disorder on unrest. Just what the doctor would have ordered, I'm sure !

Trying to get the guitar playing chops back up again, and it's hard work - seems like my left pinkie has decided to give up and go home, which is rather annoying - and finding that playing at 95bpm, my hands seem to need a reboot periodically. If my left hand is moving position, that seems to be enough, but if the left hand is pretty static eventually co-ordination between left and right hands goes out until the notes go all the way through staccato to completely missed - that is, my right hand is picking in between when my left hand is fretting - a two-to-four beat reboot and we're off again, but hey...

Me and the dog are still getting along, even though I've started pulling her hair out :) Coincidentally I've discovered that she seems to respond to being called 'Trotsky'. Very odd.

Running Down - Wed 8/10

The batteries are running flat now - basically marking time until the weekend. Still managed to do something useful at work with networking and graphics transformation though, which is kinda handy.

The current financial "crises" recall a wonderful phrase of Karl Marx:

"All that is solid melts into air"

Trundling Along - Tue 7/10

The gentle trundle towards the weekend continues. Gradually slowing down and looking forward to the time off, and hopefully a fun weekend !

Missed out on an evening out with Maria tonight - she's down with a cold, so we'll try again sometime soon. I'm stiffening up badly from yesterday's badminton tonight so might not have been that great company anyway.

Dad's back is giving him gyp again - hopefully it won't last too long. Mum's not feeling too great either so it's not a joyous time in the house at the moment !At least the dog is predictably feisty !

Dog Tired - Mon 6/10

Now officially dog tired. Incapable of differentiating between a Blackberry and a Newton in an email at work today! My favourite expression for the way I feel right now is "having a head like a haunted barn". Seems spot on right now :(

Played badminton today for the first time in about three or four years today. Didn't win any games, and my upper arms are already sore. God knows how I'll feel in the morning...

Second in the pub quiz on Sunday, and second in the work quiz on Friday. We'll come first yet!

Aaaargh! - Sat 4/10

Today was spent mostly in bed - I think I needed a good long sleep as I didn't even rouse until about 1 in the afternoon. After that the usual round of dry cleaning & shopping.

Finally got round to taking the synth pickup back off the Strat. As it was it was too low to get a decent signal out, so I had to take it back off, shim it, and put it back on without stopping the strings ringing properly. Some good guesswork and a bit of luck (and having done it before !) meant I got it sorted out fairly quickly - still have to adjust the trimpots though.

After that, had to deal with Dad's laptop throwing another shit fit - Windows XP, networking - bag o'shite. Bah ! Fixed it, eventually, somehow...

Question Time - Fri 3/10

Quiz night - and after a decent showing in the first few rounds we eventually slipped to second place by three points. Not too bad but we talked ourselves out of enough correct answers to win it. Bah !

Apart from that a very pleasant day at work. Good lunch - Pad Thai - and a fun canter through the town at lunchtime too :-)

Bought Mark Thomas's new book about Coca Cola tonight and started reading it - and that's it. No more Coke for me - shower of complete scum. No trade unionist should ever buy any of their products. Ever.

Keeping The Habit - Thu 2/10

Keeping the habit of doing this blogging thing is surprisingly tough ! But hey, just gotta keep at it! One eventual use for this blog will be to be accountable for guitar practice, so expect to see lots of posts listing guitar exercises and number of reps completed soon...

Really tired at the moment, so I've decided to take a couple of weeks off work towards the end of the month. I've been expecting to be able to just stop for a while for a couple of months now, and I'm kinda running on fumes.

That apart, today was a really good day all told - more of those would definitely keep Tony a happy boy !

Near Misses - Tue 30/9

A day of near misses. Missing out on buying pastries for mum. Missing out on a concert by Amanda Palmer & Zoe Keating in Edinburgh. Nearly going somewhat off piste at work. Ho hum.

Didn't blog last night because I was feeling truly awful - severe belly ache, like I had a half brick in my guts! Oh well, not to worry. One of these days I'll have to take myself to the quack and let him have a guess what's going on in the old bran tub - but not just yet!