Stuff

I’m a house husband for the week! Only a week mind, just while I’m waiting to start my new job and Lyn is away in Plymouth training. As a side note to get Lyn to Plymouth, Morrison's are selling SatNavs for £60! It’s quite good as well as far as I’m aware a Navman S30 3D. I’m also, ‘technically’ unemployed for pretty much the first time ever. Although as it’s only for 6 days I probably can’t sign on.

I had my leaving drink last Friday. This was also a first as I have always managed to avoid these, either giving various excuses or just not bothering at all. If given the choice I would probably have done the same this time, but I really did want to buy everyone a drink and just say thanks. As it happens it was a surprisingly emotional thing and the team seem genuinely sad to see me go although as I said to one of them, give it 2 weeks and it will be ‘Mark who’ but that’s just the nature of the job. It really was and still is, hard to express how much I’m going to miss them all. It’s a rare thing (well for me) that you end up genuinely liking all the people you work with.

On the up side I’m now permanently home, it probably wont sink in for a while as it just feels like I'm on holiday. Also for the next couple of weeks I will be away (conversion training) but that first day when I finish work, get to go home, and then go back to work the next day will be good. I’ve also decided to learn to cook one meal from scratch with raw ingredients, kind of like a signature dish. I've not decided what this will be, you can’t rush these sort of things, but whatever it will be I'm sure it will be awful. Any suggestions on a postcard!

I’ve met my new boss who seems a very nice girl, and a couple of other people on my new team as well. I am slightly worried that their expectation may be a little high and I get the feeling that they are slightly worried that I’ll go mad with boredom but I’m sure I’ll adjust. There is always something going on and just in case there isn’t I’ve always got a plethora of gadgets to keep me amused.

Well I’d better start doing my house husband duties and get the boy up and ready for school, and then start on the basement.

I've been getting confused of late and am firmly putting it down to the ageing process. One of the things that have defiantly got me confused is Microsoft's changes to Live. I now have no idea where anything is, well not easily at any rate. The torturous process by which I had to navigate to find this space could be turned into one of those, ‘celebrity finding themselves by rolling around in their own filth on a funny continent’, type TV show.

That's the other thing I’ve noticed lately. Quite often I will say something, witty and insightful (well in my head at least) and just be met with a look of confusion and/or sympathy, often accompanied by the phrase ‘You're just like my dad’.

But enough of this self pity! It being the weekend and I having a rare weekend off I’ve decided to do those things that I used to do and write a blog entry. I have also resolved to document the ‘home improvements’ that Lyn and I are going to undertake.

Having been in the new/old house for almost a year we have, I feel, done a fair bit. We’ve installed secondary glazing after the listing officer said we couldn’t replace the existing windows. We have also replaced nearly all the ground floor lighting, wall lights, central lights, under cupboard lighting, etc. Although having installed one LED spot light I think we’ll have to get the electrician back and get him to put in another 2. Lyn also got me a Philips LivingColor Lamp which is great! We have also replaced one toilet (fixed the other 2) and moved the washing machine into the basement.

Well that's what we've done, the purpose of this post is to list the things we want to do in the next year then I can come back periodically and see how we’ve got on. Next on the list is a new boiler and removal of the old back boiler and fireplace which is horrendous. This should bring 2 improvements, lowering the fuel bills and also making much more room in the living room as well as getting rid of an eyesore.

When we do this I’d also like to get rid of the air conditioning unit (there really is no need) again making more space. When we do this we’ll also have to get new carpet, new sofas and wall mount the TV, in fact I might as well just call it remodel the living room.

We also want to ‘remodel’ the main bathroom, as Lyn pointed out if we get a combi boiler we can get rid of the airing cupboard, which will mean a lot more room.

Lastly paint the house from top to bottom, inside and out. It’s quite a list, especially in cost, if we can get just one done this year I’ll be pleased.

I had a very pleasant team day out the other day. We (the team) went to Thorpe Park, somewhere I’ve not been in quite a few years. The best bit was that there were very few people, it being a Monday and more importantly, very few kids who tend to ruin Theme Parks. In fact that would be quite a nice idea an ‘Adult’ theme park (not in that way) where grown ups can wander around, maybe with a beer in hand, without the worry of stepping on some kid or being assailed by the screeching of  child who has been sick/lost/tired/hungry or just generally ill behaved. Ban them I say and let the fun begin.

It’s Lyn’s birthday very soon so I’ve been shopping. It was very hard as she only told me one thing she wanted which was an Alive cub. It’s a very creepy robotic soft toy whose face moves when you touch it. I got her the polar bear as it seemed the least threatening. On going to their web site it appears you can also get a robotic Elvis head which is even more worrying. I keep getting an image of some middle aged woman snogging it at night whilst professing her love for ‘The King’.

Another present I got Lyn was a Wii. I’m not sure if she likes it. I know she loves her DS and she has said in the past that she wanted one but quite frankly that’s no guarantee. Having set it up for her there are some clever features like the ability to email people which I didn’t know you could do but on the whole it’s exactly what I expected, a novelty item. But it’s not mine and as long as she gets some enjoyment out of it that’s the main thing.

On a more practical note I also got PlayTV for the PS3. Practical because the PS3 has now completely taken over from the media centre. PlayTV is very good, I just hope they continue to develop it adding more features as time goes by. Given Sony’s track record on this I’m quite hopeful. Things I’d like to see is the ability to record 2 shows at the same time rather then record one whilst watching another and searching the guide by genre. and a better implementation for recording series.

Finally, I mentioned in the last post about some life changing opportunities coming up to do with work. Well to my utter surprise the least likely of the two has come to fruition and from March 2009 I will be transferring to Devon and will no longer be travelling to London every week. I’ll get to go home every day instead of every 3/4/7 days and will be staying there instead of having to pack and leave after just a couple of days. So happy times ahead and Lyn is very pleased, although I have warned her that she will probably be sick of me being home after about a month.

My God! Two entries in just a few days! That's what comes of being home for an extended period of time, which will soon end as I've got to go back to work on Saturday, Boo. The other thing about being home is that I've had time to mess around on the Internet looking at stuff that just happens to pop into my mind and over the last few days that's been Photos.

The iPhone can take pictures, it also has Google maps, Internet access and GPS so how hard can it be to take a picture, geo-code the data, bung it on a map and upload it to a social networking site. The answer appears to be, 'quite hard' especially for the sites I use and the price I want to pay, which is free.

The closest I found so far is AirMe, when you take a picture you have the option to upload onto flickr or Facebook, it will also automatically tag the picture with location and weather as well as date taken but it doesn't put it on a map.

I had a look at Google maps which does have photos set in it but that uses an application called Panoramio. You can locate the pictures and even put them in Google Earth but they wont show up automatically as they have to be reviewed first (for obvious reasons) so when they finally get around to doing that it will be interesting to see if the couple I've put up will get selected.

I also discovered Photosynth, which is a very clever bit of software from Microsoft. Take a load of pictures of a location (the more the better) and download the software. You then give the software the pictures and it stitches them together creating a 2D/3D mash-up of the location. It's very smart but in all honesty I can't really see a great deal of use for it from a Home point of view.

Not visited or posted anything here in quite some time. I've been mainly on Facebook as previously noted but quite frankly it's the Pot Noodle of blogging. That's probably and over statement if truth be told, a pot noodle is a banquette compared to the actual satisfaction and cathartic experience you get from writing a real blog. But then Facebook doesn't try to be a blog, in fact I'm not sure I've got the point of 'social networking' which is why I'm back here. So here I am in the basement of the new house tapping away at the keyboard knowing that no one will ever read this but fairly content anyway.

We sold the old house and moved which all went very smoothly, surprisingly. We made some money on the move, got a slightly bigger house with nicer views (I just typed moves instead of views what's that all about?) and Lyn and the children seem much happier here. I've got a few niggles about it, like the size of the living room, (which may change if we put a new staircase in) the noisy pub which thinks it's a nightclub (getting environmental health onto them and putting in secondary glazing) and the well under the basement which decides to push water up (not huge amounts, just enough to annoy) when we get a lot of rain, which we've had pretty much constantly this summer. Overall though it's been a good move.

I've had a lot of new gadgets to play with, far more then I deserve when I sit here and think about it. A new PS3 for the house all prepped and ready for PlayTV next month. A PSP GoCam which is an excellent bit of kit. A new laptop, Lyn's, I'm not allowed to touch it unless asked because of my new pride and joy, a 3G iPhone. Lyn wanted one last year and wont forgive me for getting it until her contract runs out and she can get one, but probably not even then. Add to that the new Sony Bravia TV we got for the living room because the old TV was too big and the Phillips razor I got the other day and quite frankly it's been and very enjoyable but disgusting splurge.

The real revelation has been the iPhone, For the past few years I've been a sucker for Microsoft Smartphones, and the odd occasion when I have got something else I've always gone back, even sticking with Orange despite the fact they are appalling and I can't get reception at the flat. I can honestly say that the iPhone is the best phone I've ever owned. It does everything I want a phone to do and does all the things I expected a Smartphone to do (and probably does do in the USA, thanks again MS for stiffing Europe) with a lot more besides. The only slight problems I have is the size and the battery life. To be fair the battery life might have something to do with the fact I can't leave it alone for 5 minutes without playing with it, probably a man thing.

Work has been going well, I enjoy what I'm doing although it's getting a bit repetitive and the people I work with are great but it's time for a change. There are a couple of things in the pipeline, one of which could be completely life changing (but less likely) the other a smaller change but challenging none the less. It should sort itself out in the next couple of months but either way I should be less tiered and have a bit more spare time, fingers crossed. I'll try and not leave it another 5 months before I update again.

I've started writing this post but in all honesty I have nothing to write about. It's primarily a matter of guilt  that's making me type. I have a lot less free time these days coupled with the fact that I can't access this blog properly from the PS3 (I can from the Linux portion of it, but dear god Linux is a pain). I have however been messing around with Facebook.

My initial skepticism when I first created an account back last summer has been replaced with a grudging acceptance. It's a bit like Big Brother' (not that I watch it) in that you don't really have to think, in fact it's a bonus if you don't. You just click on things and 'bang' it's done, unlike my PS3 blog, that's another source of guilt. I have lots of ideas for articles but it's just finding the time, but I've got 6 days off in a week and then another 2 weeks off next month so hopefully I can get the stuff written.

I have noticed that SkyDrive has increased in size again! You now have 5 gig of space to mess around  with so I'm busy uploading everything I can. I'm getting more and more paranoid about losing pictures and videos so it's nice to have somewhere to keep them.

I've had a couple of days off so I've been tidying the house, strange but true! It's serving a dual purpose because it's a nice surprise for Linda and it's preparation for selling. We've been painting everything magnolia and removing any signs that real people live here, de-cluttering I believe it's called. Quite frankly its a pain but it needs to be done not that we've found a house yet but it's best to be prepared.

Well there you go that's my guilt assuaged for a bit anyway.

We're downsizing, it's just trying to find the right the place. Well not only that, we have to get our house ready for sale as well, which is a pain. We looked at a very nice house yesterday, a Georgian town house in Bideford which has been completely gutted (see pics). I like this, I like it a lot but it has some problems firstly it's a listed building and the current owner has ripped out a lot of features without consulting the listings officer so these would have to be put back and other features retained, which wouldn't be so bad but then you have to renovate the inside, employee an architect, a builder, find somewhere to stay while the work is being carried out, etc. It's a lot to take on and I'm not sure if we can do it in our budget. If we could then it would be a wonderful house but it might just be taking on too much, especially for Linda and the kids. We're looking at a small cottage in Littleham today so maybe that'll be the one, I certainly like the location. 

This is one of my all time favourite Radio 4 comedy programs.

Just a quickie post as they've been a bit sparse both here and on AWPS3. The laptop is broken, well not broken as such, but after months of a the charger being very flaky it's finally gone and we've been having trouble finding a replacement, it shouldn't be that hard to find one but it is.

I was 40 a couple of days ago, lots of things to post about and people to thank but it will have to wait.

Linda got me a new gadget, the Tefal Quick Cup. This is brilliant I have no idea how it works all I know is that I push a button and out comes hot water. It like something out of Tomorrows World, which should be brought back.