Blank blank blank

I've been sitting in front of the computer for the past half an hour trying to think of something to write in my first bad case of writers ( or I suppose in this case bloggers ) block I've had for sometime.

It's just been on of those days where things haven't been forgettable as that's the wrong word more, just pretty much standard and rather non descript. Which isn't that useful when it comes to writing a blog post as it's not terribly interesting really is it?

That's a rhetorical question by the way

I've spent most of the afternoon reading and then doing some clearing out through the boxes of models bits I have in the garage. I really do have way too much stuff.

The car is going in for it's MOT tomorrow. I am hopeful it will pass as it came through it's service all right but I guess you can never know with these things if irony is going to be just round the corner ready to stick his oar in.

anyway,

Later folks!

No plan survives first contact with the enemy

It's been a pretty hectic day today. Work was extremly busy as it was a 'release weekend' which is a technical term meaning a lot of new shiny models were released today. So if theres a big release it's a 'release weekend'.

Yeah I know, not exactly hard to grasp is it?

I had other problems to content with today however as both of the heels on my trainers yesterday somehow choose the exact same moment to collapse rendering them unwearable. This meant I only had my church shoes which are fine for church but after 7 and a half hours of standing around it was starting to feel like something had been chewing on my feet.

So first business of the day on Monday will be a hunt for some new shoes to wear.

Still this minor problem aside it was a shock to realise that this was indded the end of my second
week of secondment . I'm now a third of the way through! The time is moving so fast. Please excuse me if I have said that before as it's late and me brainee no thinkee and workee soo gud rite now.

After work we had a staff game which was a lot of fun even if my side got so painfully pummelled I'm sure we'll loose the next game as well. Still I'm sure my Dwarf army will return and take revenge on those that wronged them even if it's likely the best they'll be able to manage is a moral victory :-)

Later folks!

I don't think this was what they had in mind

I can't remember who it was exactly but before I started my secondment somebody said that I should enjoy it as much as possible as it was a good chance to see things from another angle. I had cause to reflect on this comment this morning as the angle I was seeing at that point was one I'm sure they did not have in mind. But then again even I was expecting to be looking upside down at a sink as I attempted to dry my wet hair under a hand dryer.

Before you wonder if I have finally snapped and gone totally round the bend allow me to explain. The hot weather finally broke this morning with a rather intense rain shower which would have been fun to look at if I had been inside. Unfortunatly I was not inside and managed to get a bit wet whilst getting to the shop. Fortunatly I had taken my coat with me as I hadn't liked the look of the sky which meant I didn't get as wet as I could have done but I was still quite damp. So with no towels other then paper towels in the shop I had to resort to trying to use the hand dryer in the loos to try and dry my rather wet hair at that point. But as it is in a awkward place I ended up having to do a lot of awkward manoevring to get my head under. Which is why I was looking at the world from a rather diffirent angle :-)

The rain continued for most of the morning which meant it was a lot cooler today that it has been. However the temperature suddenyl ramped up again suddenly in the afternoon which meant the last couple of hours were a bit sticky.

Today was even more fun then usual due to the sheer array of jobs I had to do, from the store walk, to repairing terminators, to helping a kid build a model, to fixing a building to finally painting the hobbits from Lord of the Rings, Sam even had his own saucepan which I found quite funny. I have one more day to work this week and then I will officially be one third of the way through my secondment which is weird as it doesn't seem like two weeks have hone by already!

anyway,

Later folks!

Giving it everything we've got

In the shop I'm currently seconded too we have two AC units and today as well as having them on at full blast as well as two large fans it was still getting just a bit warm in there. Yes the hot weather is continuing and as yet shows no sign of abating.

However according to the weather guru's it is supposed to be getting a little cooler tomorrow and theres a chance of some rain which might finally 'break' this heat.

Of course if you think about it, I do seem to be doing what most english people do, spend the last two summers moaning about how awful the weather is and wishing it would be warmer and when we finally get some warm weather I spend the whole time moaning wishing it would be cooler.

I guess the english stereotype will never be satisfied when it comes to weather :-)

It was a shock to realise we're now in July! The halfway point of the year has been passed already! I'm sure the years are passing quicker now, is it just that I'm getting older? Or is someone stealing days when we're not lookin? Why am I suddenly using lots of question marks? Who knows?

Torchwood season 3 starts on Monday and I'm really excited. However the downside is all five episodes will be played every day next week meaning the whole series will be shown rather quickly. Lets hope it's not too long until season 4!

anyway,

Later folks!

Drink, Drink, Drink

It's still hot, really really hot and I'm downing so much water at the moment I'm starting to feel like I'm in danger of becoming a swimming pool!

Still the water is a lot better for me then fizzy even the sugar free kind and a side benefit of the heat is that I don't seem to be eating as much. So bonus point there me thinks and right now I am seriously looking for all of the bonus points I can find when it comes to this heat as I did not sleep well in the slightist last night. But again looking for the bonus point no weird dreams last night involving muppets helping space marines clear a space craft. I'm sure Engineseer will find that funny even if the rest of you have no idea what I'm currently blithing on about.

I also lucked out today when catching the bus back to get my car ( yes I know this is complicated but it's the simplist way) as apparently there had been a bad accident somewhere in Nottingham meaning that all of the buses had been delayed exactly 45 minutes. However as the buses run every fifteen minutes it technically meant that I caught the bus that was three times in front of the bus I should have caught. At which point I decided it's far too hot for that kind of thinking and if I kept thinking like that my brain would probably melt, if it hasn't already. But then again I speak so much gibberish sometimes who would be able to tell the difference.

anyway,

Later folks!

Didn't really need to know that thank you

Well the warmest day of the year dawned all too early this morning as it had been quite a restless night for me as probably like most people I kept waking up of the heat and humidity and when I wasn't waking up I was having some darn weird dreams, as I don't think you would usually find the muppets clear a space craft with a group of space marines.

I'm really, really not liking this hot weather.

Trying to get out of the road this morning was interesting as yesterday they resurfaced it however because of the hot weather the tar hadn't tried so there were stones flying everywhere. And if that wasn't enough I was dumbfounded to see that they have put up a sign on one of the lamp post warning people to keep to 20 mph in our cul de sac because of the loose chippings. Why they thought this was needed I have no idea as our road is tiny, you barely make two mph went backing out of the driveway and leaving. If I tried to do 20 mph I would be in the kitchen of the house across the road in under a second!

I wish they'd credit some of us with intelligence.

Work at my secondment was once again very interesting and quite successful today which I was feeling quite pleased about. I was also feeling quite pleased about the AC units in the shop. Even so I was drinking fluid by what I can best describe as darn near the bucket full as I put away at least 2 litres of water at a minimum, I basically lost count after after the third bottle full.

Coming home was a a slightly distrubing experience as I ended up stuck on a seat with a pair of old people in front and on the seat behind me who seemed to be intend on hitting all of the old people stereotypes you can think of. The ones in front were talking about their health problems quite loudly and the ones behind were talking about what one of their grand daughters had been getting up to and their views of young people as a whole. Needless to say neither conversation was one I especially wanted to hear.

Anyway,

Later folks!

Where has all the common sense gone?

It's been the hottest day of the year so far so of course I'm sure that most people did what most people here in the UK do when it gets hot and humid. Spent most of the day moaning about it. To be fair howevert I am also in that group as I do not enjoy hot sticky weather like this in the slightist. Heat I can deal with, it's the humid 'closeness' which drives me battey.

We went into loughborough early as I had to go to the post office as it was time to give the government some more money for the privilage of driving my Car. Yes it was time to get another road tax disc ( the MOT is also due this month) however due to a appalling lack of common sense in the post office it turned into a bit of a slog in a building with no air con!

Usually when you get a MOT certificate from the garage you get a nice computer print out on a green form. However the last time I had a MOT their printer had broken so they issued me with a hand written one on a red form and although it said emergency MOT certificate they assured me that I could change for a green one at a later date or just leave it as it would be okay for the whole year. Indeed six months ago when I got my last tax disc it was no problem. However this time was someone different as the lady behind the counter seemed totally unable to grasp the fact that it was okay that the form wasn't green and started to argue with me that it wasn't a MOT certificate and that the sentence on the top of the form that sent it had been issued as the computised tester was down meant that I had only a 'partial MOT' certificate which meant it had only passed in certain areas and not the areas which required a computer to test.

By this point I was getting very hot and very annoyed with this women and tried to tell her politily as possible that she was wrong as there is no such thing as a 'partial' certificate. The MOT is basically a car safety check and they won't only test half the things. She proceeded to tell me with her best condescending smile that she was right and I was wrong. I then explained that they had accepted the certificate last time and it was fine then. She then gave me a look like I had insulted one of her children and said it couldn't have been as it wasn't a valid MOT certificate and the title " Emergecy MOT certificate" meant it was only valid in emergency situations when the full testing couldn't be done.

By then I was ready to start banging my head up and down on the counter as I wondered if this women could hear herself or if she was some form of advanced robot. Usually I try to be very sympathic towards people in customer service as I know what it's like to be in their shoes but this women had somehow managed to exhaust my patience. I decided to go for difficult and told her that seeing as it had been accepted last time and the garage who were very well experienced in what was and was not a valid MOT certificate said it was fine could she double check. She glared at me and said she would have to check in the book and walked off. I refrained from making any jokes about the bible.

She came back to the counter two minutes later and started talking to the trainee who she had been well training and started to tell him how to issue a tax disc without talking to me which let me quickly realise that I was in the right and she had been very very wrong. Which almost cheered me up enough to not feel annoyed over having to pay the government more money just for the privilage of driving my own car!

We got home from shopping to discover we couldn't get into the road as some work men had turned up to re surface the road. On the hottest day of the year! That planning went well! Of course it wasn't tarmac they were laying rather those bits of stone which is probably a lot cheaper as they use cars to compact it down for them. Grumpy was most annoyed as we had to park out on the main road and thought it was bad that they hadn't given us any warning.

We got in to discover they had, sort of. They had sent us a leaflet to give us advance warning of the work to tell us it was starting on Monday and it arrived this morning which was Monday morning. D'oohh! The leaflet then told us that the road was going to be resurfaced and then waffled on in great detail about how great the council and goverment is by investing in road. It then told us that to find out the exact time of when the road would be surfaced and access to our house wouldbe restricted we could ask any of the workmen on site.

However we live in a cul de sac which has seven houses and the road is so small one lorry will fill it up. So it wouldn't have mattered even if we had gone to ask the workmen on site when they were starting as they started as soon as they turned up meaning that the road was blocked anyway. Again D'ooh! I'd think you'd agree.

Well it's the start of my second week of secondment tomorrow. It should be interesting.

Later folks!