Month: March 2010

Finished ….

/ Tony / 2 Comments

   Well, that’s it for 12 days. Seems funny taking holiday at the stat of the new year, but with our family situation, I have to book all leave well in advance. This week has been booked since January at least.

   Work was a bit of a pain today. I got the reports done, but there was no comments, so hopefully, they are okay. Mind you, there’s not a lot I can do about it now.

   Not looking forward to tomorrow. Youngest is going to the dental hospital for an extraction. Because of his condition, he will need a general. We have our fingers crossed that he does not wake too early, as he cannot have anything to eat from now, and nothing to drink from 06:30am. It’s going to be difficult. Especially as he seems to have a thing about waking between 04:00am and 05:00am.

   I think I’ll be driving the new car tomorrow. I’ve only driven it once, and that was only a couple of miles. It will be a bit of a tester, driving into Leeds centre at 08:00am !!!! Still, no worse than driving across the North Yorkshire Moors, which is what I’ll be doing on Saturday. Exciting days.

A struggle to post sometimes …

/ Tony / 1 Comment

   Well, we did not go to the quiz after all. The weather wasn’t too good, and I was a bit tired. There are many nights when I just cannot be bothered, and just want to sit and read, or listen to some music.

   The IT stuff got sorted. The folders that the staff needed access to are only available to staff who have a certain application, and although all the staff can see the folders, only certain ones can do anything with them. I have no idea why they do it that way.

   It was Mrs H’s birthday on Sunday. Eldest came over for the weekend, and they both went to the local music event. It is usually me that goes with S****, but we all thought it would be nice if him and K*** went. I think she enjoyed it. You never can tell, especially when she says things like ‘It was different’ and ‘I did not know what to expect’.

    A busy day coming up on Wednesday. It is the end of the financial year and I have a number of reports to run. We did a test run last week, and the Finance Manager (did I really capitalise that) seemed happy with them. Fingers crossed things stay that way.

   Youngest is supposed to be going to the dental hospital on Thursday. Trouble is he has started with a cold, and I don’t think they will let him have the treatment if he has a cold. Still, it will be another day off, and I think I will have earned it.

Work and stuff …

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Work went quite well yesterday, up until around 2pm. I had to demonstrate how to do a job, and it went completely wong. It would seem IT struck again. Some of our staff, need to save images on a computer network drive. However, they get an Access Denied message. Very strange, as the drive is a shared drive.

Leeds lost again last night, and to Milwall of all teams. That put Leeds in a very vunerable position. They cannot afford to lose anymore matches, as Milwall is only three points behind them. At this rate, Leeds could end up in the playoffs again, and I don’t think anyone wants to go through that again !!

Work today is problematic. The toilets are blocked again (seems to be every two weeks this happens). They know what the problem is, and ‘think’ they know who is causing it, but it is not getting fixed.

Quiz night tonight. Me and Mrs H are to have a go. Can’t see us winning, but whilst the youngest is away, it’s a chance to get out. And then I have a day off tomorrow. Last of this years leave.

A reasonable weekend …

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   I got the decorating finished on Saturday. Well, when I say finished, I mean all done bar the woodwork. That is going to have to wait a day or two. Saying that, there is not a lot of wood to paint. Just the door frames and the skirting board, so 4 or 5 hours should just about do it. About an hour per night (some chance).

   Youngest was out with his support worker today. We got the usual ‘no out’ from him, but then suddenly, he was fine with it. Off he went, without any fuss at all !! Really surprising. Might be a different story tomorrow, as he is off on respite for 4 days. He does not know yet, or more to the point, we have not told him yet. I shall leave that one to Mrs H in the morning.

   A busy day tomorrow. D*** is off, and I have a lot of renewal letters to get out. Plus three new zones to get up and running. Then there are the notices, and the normal daily stuff. I managed to get the Index done this evening, but I’ll need to check it in the morning.

… and so to the end of another week

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   It seems to have been a long week. Usually there are days when I struggle to fill the working days, and then other days, I struggle to fit all the work in. But this week, every day has been busy. Well, steady anyway.

   Youngest home from his adventure week today. From all accounts, he has had a good time. His photos look good, and he has done quite a lot of activities.

   Back on the decorating tomorrow. hopefully, I can get the bits of painting done in one day. That will leave me free to do the wallpapering on Sunday. House looks a tip though. The next stage, is the one I’m dreading. The staircase !!!! It’s not the fact that it will be tricky painting, it’s just that the walls there are even darker.

    Eldest is due home for the night tomorrow. One of his drama friends is having a birthday party, and he is invited. So it could be late when he gets in, if in fact he does sleep here. There has been many occasions, when he has slept elsewhere after night out. We shall see !!

…. fools ….

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   Work happened. That is about the only kind thing I can say about it. I really struggle sometimes to cope with the incompetence of some people. I do not have a problem with those who find things difficult, but know it. No the ones that are the problem, are the ones that think they are intelligent. The other problem is the arrogance of some people. those who are where they are, because they have walked over others. You know the type I mean, those that are so far up their bosses backside, that they can see daylight !!! We all have colleagues like that, don’t we !!! Rant over !!!

   Youngest seems to be having a good (?) time. His support worker rang tonight, to let us know how he is getting on, and everything seems to be going quite well.

   I’m starting to get quite a significant amount of junk mail. Insurance mainly. I’m usually quite careful when I fill forms in, to ensure that my name is not added any ‘3rd party’ contacts. I can only imagine that the rubbish I’m getting stems from when I used the comparison web-sites for my car insurance.

Back to work …

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   Mrs H was at the dentist yesterday, so that wasn’t good. In the chair for over an hour, putting a previous extraction right. Fingers crossed she won’t get an infection this time.

   Youngest went off on his school adventure week yesterday. It was a difficult morning, because as usual, he said he did not want to go. As usual he was quite adamant about it.  Got a txt from one of the school staff that have gone, to say he was doing fine and having a good time. To be fair, his teacher at school said he was fine when he got to school. Now whether they are just saying that to stop us worrying……

   Work was, as expected a bit of a trial today. It seems to be the case, that I only have to have a single day off, for problems to mount up. Thankfully D*** takes it all in his stride. A good ally and workmate. Finance is upset with me though. For the past 5 years, I have worked on the 1st of April (start of the new financial year). This year, I having the day off. R*** is having his dental treatment, and I need to be there.  So the reports that need to be run, will have to be run by someone else (probably D****).

If that was the weekend, it’s done ….

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   Paint, paint and even more paint. The dining room is proving to be a little better than I first thought. A base coat of white and two top coats, should see the majority of the wall covered. Just a few patches that may need a thin third coat. Then, it will be time to move the heavy furniture, and finish up. There are two small pieces of wall that are hidden behind the two units. Hopefully, I can get some the paint done on Thursday and Friday evening, then I can wallpaper on the Saturday. It will then just be the woodwork to do, and I can do that starting on Sunday.

   Youngest is going on a respite trip tomorrow. We have only just told him, and of course, he says he is not going. But that’s what he says to everything, which is why we have delayed telling him. All he wants to do is stay in his room or play on the internet.  His support worker came to take him out today, and he said he did not want to go. The place he is going to looks like fun, a type of outward bound centre for disabled kids. He’ll be going with his teachers and support workers from school, so it should be a good week. Just got to get through the next few hours.

   Mrs H is at the dentist tomorrow. she is not looking forward to that at all. The last treatment she had ended up with an infection and five days of pain. Fingers crossed it doesn’t happen again. I don’t think the anti-biotic worked too well last time.

   Eldest manage to ring and say Happy Mothers Day !! It took a lot of prompting, and the fool rang the land line, and not her mobile (free calls 3 to 3). Still, he called, I suppose.

   Car alarm keeps going off. Well ‘van’ alarm. It will probably be going off for a while yet. The guy who owns it lives a couple of streets away, so he won’t hear it. People who live nearby will not be very happy. They will both be on the lookout for the driver in the morning. Poor devil.

Weekend comes early ….

/ Tony / 1 Comment

   A couple of days off straddling the weekend, comes as a welcome break. Although more decorating is on the cards. This Dining room time its the dining room, and  aDining rooms you may be able to see, the colours are very strong to say the least. another problem, is the amount of furniture in this room. Against the other wall in here, is a drinks cabinet and a sideboard. Both of these will need to be moved, when I come to do that side of the room. This room poses many problems.

   I’m often quite amazed at the so called driving skills of some people. Three incidents, over the past three days have left me quite angry. On Tuesday, when I was turning right into the village, some half-wit decided to cut me up, by undertaking me on the turn. Tonight, the same idiot, passed me and another two cars, on the access road. We were doing at least 60 mph, when the clown decided to pass all three of us. He must have been doing at least 80mph. This morning, whilst travelling in the centre lane on the M1, I had left a two vehicle space, between me and the Mazda in front. This gap was then filled by another idiot, in one of those hybrid eco cars, who then proceeded to slow down quickly. I nearly had his battery in the front of my car, had I not had my wits about me. How on earth did these fools manage to pass any form of driving test ??? Or did they ? I read somewhere, that at anyone time, 17% of the vehicles on the road are either untaxed, unlicensed, or have uninsured or unqualified/banned drivers. Apparently that is a very conservative number.

Excitement !!!!!

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   An interesting day yesterday. Work was as usual, just work. But as I drove into the village, I was amazed at the size of police presence. To be honest, seeing two police officers in the same street is something special, but there was about six or seven of them wandering around. It then clicked !!! The post office has been hit again. That is the third time in two years. Two youths armed with a crowbar !! I’m not sure if they got anything this time though. I don’t mean to be sexist about this, but the place is run by two women. One in her late fifties, and the other in her late forties. It must look like an easy target.

   All the new doors have been hung. Mrs H is going oil them with linseed oil, to get a decent colour, and then we shall apply a silk varnish. Should look great.

   Time to go now. Youngest has gone to his bed (finally). He awoke at around 03:30 this morning, and of course so were we. He is still chattering away to himself, but I think both me and Mrs H will soon be asleep.

…..and not just printers !!!

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   Sunday was a  bit of a ‘technology FAIL’ day. It started, when read a report on ‘The Register’ that told me that my PC was in ‘DANGER!!!!’ The ‘danger’ was that much of my software ‘may’ be at risk, due to not patching. Being the careful IT nerd that I am, I immediately logged onto Microsoft, and updated everything they told me to. This took, being Microsoft, a good hour to do. And of course the obligatory restart was required.

   Now, the problems started. Or more to the point, now my PC refused to start !!! I spent the next 40 minutes, trying, without success to get Windows to start. The next 50 minutes were spent trying to do a systems restore from Safe Mode. This is not for the faint hearted, I can tell you. It was after nearly 2 hours worth of hair pulling, gnashing of teeth and copious amounts of swearing, that I noticed that the light on my portable hard drive was continuously flashing. This indicated that the drive was being accessed, which should not happen as Windows is loading.  I removed the drive, and guess what ……… problem solved. It would appear, that my £39.95, 80gb Maxtor pocket drive is goosed !!! The problem now, is, do I buy another ??? For the same money, I can get a 250gb drive, of better quality. I need to think about this one.

   Then, my blogging software packed up !!!! The system restore, had trashed some of the dot.net framework, that had been updated. So, I re-updated again, and everything is now serene again.

   Guess what though ? The HP printer, that I ‘borrowed’ from S****, needed a new ink cartridge. Not a problem, I thought as I had bought a couple, just after he had got the thing. So what is the problem. Well some silly sod, bought the wrong colour cartridge, that’s what. No names are to be mentioned (a no blame culture here), but as I bought the cartridges…… get my drift ?

It’s hard work ….

/ Tony / Leave a comment

   Back to the decorating today. Who would have thought, that a room 4ft by 4ft, would take so long to paint. I think the problem, lies with the previous paint. It’s green. Not just green, but what was called ‘antique green’. Now I don’t know what that means !!! What I do know, is that it is a pain to cover. The new colour is called ‘Natural Hessian’. I don’t know what that means either, but it is a neutral beige colour, that compliments the base colour in the wallpaper. Well, I thinks that’s enough Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen for one night, don’t you ?

   I have started reading The Sunne In Splendour again. It is an epic factual novel, about the War of The Roses, written by my favourite author Sharon Kay Penman. The knowledge this woman has about the Medieval Ages in Britain, is outstanding. No one comes close to her. When you read one of her books, you begin to feel that you are part of the tale, not just a reader of a book. I am determined to hunt down other books by the remarkable author.

   Another loss for Leeds Utd. I know it was a draw today, but at this stage of the game, anything that is not a win, is a loss. It means that other football teams are getting closer to the top, and it also means that we may be heading for the play-offs. There is still some way to go before the end of the season, but Leeds needs to play every game as if it is life or death. At the moment, this is not happening.

Bloody printers !!!!!

/ Tony / Leave a comment

   What is it with printers in this house !!! Is it the printers, or is just me ? We have had the Epson D78 about three years now, and it has now decided to be a pain. There always seem so be a problem with it recognising the magenta cartridge. Usually takes a few attempts at reinstalling the cartridge, before it accepts that it is genuine. Tonight, it was not having it at all. Then when I managed to get to recognise it, the damn printer would not print grey shades. We have always had printer problems!!! Right from the old Lexmark from 10 years ago, with it’s £20.00+ cartridges, up to the Lexmark multi function that we got 4 years ago. I’m now using S****’s HP DeskJet, that he got when he started Uni. It’s hardly been used, so I’ll use that for a while. I have a strong suspicion, that the problems lie with the ink.

   Work went quite well. The files I was sending off worked without a problem, so that’s another tick in the box. Another batch of files went off this afternoon, so I’m ‘flavour of the month’ at the moment. It won’t last !!

Friday is still a long way off ….

/ Tony / 1 Comment

   Another, more or less uneventful day. The IT guy I was trying to contact finally got back to me, so that was a success. I need to get some cases to the new company ASAP. Things are looking good for tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

   Not heard from the eldest, since Mrs H rang him on Monday to tell him that his phone bill was too high. I don’t know how anyone with 700 minutes call time can rack up another £26.00+ in call charges. He claims it must have been when he rang the ISP, but I’m not so sure. The final bill is due on Friday. I’ll know for sure then. I have an idea his flatmate has been using it !!!!

   Youngest was up very early this morning. First heard him at around 04:00am. He tends to make a kind of droning sound, which I think is an attempt to drown out the tinnitus, the we think he has. But he was making ‘his noise’ from the moment he awoke. We never got back to sleep at all really. Made for a tiring day. He is still awake now, although it has gone quiet.

   Watched the first half of the footie tonight. Not impressed much. I hear though, that they improved vastly in the second half ! Just my luck eh !

Soon be Friday ….

/ Tony / 2 Comments

   Today went as well as could be expected. By that I mean, nothing untoward happened. In fact, nothing really happened. The day just passed. And on the face of it, tomorrow looks like it will be the same. Still I got a through a lot of work, so I suppose that must count for something. God, I sound depressing !!! Not so though.