| Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009 |
spellwight
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1:42p |
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julietvalcouer
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2:03p |
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| Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 |
julietvalcouer
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8:59p |
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| Monday, December 21st, 2009 |
spellwight
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8:39p |
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staglet_5
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10:29p |
My car is a right bloody nightmare.
Right from the first week that I have had my Renault Clio, it has been nothing but trouble. First the starter motor played up, and though I've had it replaced, the sonoid still plays merry hob. I've learned to whack the starter motor with a hammer and then get a jump start, it will then be fine for at least a month. Yeah, it's a bit of a palaver. Then I find that the tracking is off and was wearing down the tyres dangerously. I replaced the tyres, and was about to get the tracking sorted out by the garage next door to work when I had a bit of a catastrophe whilst visiting relatives in Somerset. Some dickwad decided that it would be a fine old joke to drill a hole in my fuel tank, which meant that I lost a quarter of a tank. I got an RAC man out who did a sterling job in patching it up, using a cunning method involving a screw and sealant. It got me home and so I've just left the little bugger outside my flat until I get time to do something about it (i.e. get rid of it). I haven't done anything because work is nuts during December - I get one day off a week and work eleven hour days. It's not exactly conducive to getting things done. Then to cap it all off, I come home tonight thinking that it might be a good idea to get the boots out of my car as it's beginning to snow. To my horror I found that my passenger door was open, and when I opened it, I found that the steering column has been ripped to shit as it's pretty clear that someone has tried to hotwire it. Oddly enough though, my stereo was intact, and nothing appears to have been nicked. Kids trying to joy ride? Your guess is as good as mine. Mind you I'm laughing to a certain extent because I know that the starter motor has been playing its usual fun and games (time for the hammer again), so the kids (if that's who it is) aren't going to get very far in it. Though with this snow, it'd be a wonder as to where they would go? Current Mood:  aggravatedCurrent Music: Victoria Wood on the TV |
| Friday, December 18th, 2009 |
kailisu
|
10:41p |
When will I learn? This is the second time I've bought a 20lb bag of Feline CD for the cats, opened it, and discovered that they gave me Canine CD. But I purchased Feline. *sigh* Half the bag was already in the large can I use to put it in. Chester and Flash like it, though. Must take it back to the vet's tomorrow. After pouring the food back into the bag. Dammit. Current Mood:  discontent |
cavaticat
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4:34p |
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cavaticat
|
1:35p |
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| Tuesday, December 15th, 2009 |
jhirat_dai
|
11:26a |
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jhirat_dai
|
9:17a |
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| Monday, December 14th, 2009 |
spellwight
|
8:41p |
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spellwight
|
5:26p |
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spellwight
|
4:22p |
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spellwight
|
2:14p |
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jhirat_dai
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12:41p |
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staglet_5
|
12:46a |
Gorillas in the mist
Watching this film reminds me of an anectode of my uncle Phil. Phil is a jeweller who works for a particularly swanky firm in Picadilly, London (Armour and Winston, a firm posh enough to feature during the BBC's coverage of Royal Ascot). Phil is a unprepossessing Welshman with a talent for finding all sorts of objects that lie on the ground. My family before my grandmother died always went to my grandparents for Sunday lunch, and then we would all go out into the countryside to walk the calories off. Phil has this unbelievable ability to spot a potential find. He can wander off the footpath all of a sudden and then appear with a flint in his hand. This flint he would crack open and lo and behold there would be some sort of fossil - usually a trilobite. He's also found pieces of archaeology as well as paeleontology, from Roman coins to memorably a neolithic granite axe head found in the flower bed of a pub in the Chilterns - an area known for its chalk and flint - there's no granite in our hills. The axe head had come all the way from Cornwall which is a good two hundred miles away from Buckinghamshire, which suggests a trade network extending across southern England during this time. Back to the film in question - one of Phil's finds was a flint tool that was rather unusual. It was clearly worked by a man's hand, but didn't have a clear purpose - it was neither obviously one tool or another. It just so happened one day that Phil had taken this piece to work with him in hope that he might get it looked at by an expert at one of the major mueseums in London during his lunch hour. However, he was luckier than that and had a prominent anthropologist walk into the shop to buy a piece for a family member. Phil of course took the opportunity to ask this man to take a look at this curious piece to see what he made of it. The man was most impressed and told Phil to take it to the British Mueseum to get it placed among its finds. So Phil did take it to the BM, and met up with a specialist who wasn't all that impressed. "So what have we here?", asked the specialist. "A neolithic tool" answered Phil. "Oh?" said the specialist, "and what do you suppose it to be?" "A tool to practice different methods of knapping", said my uncle. "Oh yeah?", sneered the expert, "and why do you suppose that to be?" "I had it verified..." "By whom?, the town 'expert'?" "No, by an anthropologist". "Who?" "Dr Richard Leakey". "..." Needless to say that the tool in question is in the keeping of the BM and apparently is significant due to its rarity and importance. Not a bad find for an amateur paeleontologist. Current Mood:  amusedCurrent Music: Gorrilas In The Mist |
| Sunday, December 13th, 2009 |
spellwight
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2:02p |
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spellwight
|
12:31p |
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| Friday, December 11th, 2009 |
cavaticat
|
6:09p |
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chesneycat
|
2:51p |
Something like 18 months ago...
... my parents were burgled. Amongst the things taken were five of my Dad's stamp albums (see tags for past posts). The police did a fair amount of legwork tracking down and charging one guy for handling stolen goods, but it's fair to say that my parents did most of the initial hard work. Thanks to a single number visible on a photo of the back of a stamp that I spotted on e-bay, Mum and the police together managed to track down the stamp shop in Manchester where the albums had been fenced, and the guy who was eventually charged. Today, after many, many delays, everyone was in court again. The defense managed to come up with a valuation for the five books that was actually higher than that of the prosecution (Dad was basing it off 10% of the Stanley Gibbons catalogue value, which is pretty standard for re-sale), but the judge was having none of it. He'd consulted previous cases, and as there was no dispute over what the albums contained, he decided that the albums were worth the full catalogue face value of £215K. And he found Wayne Taylor guilty as charged. And on top of that, he stated that despite the lack of evidence, it was pretty damn likely that he was present at the burglary as well, and gave him three and a half years. The tariff is actually higher for stolen goods than it would have been for burglary, particularly once they cross the five-figure threshold. Not something Mr Taylor was counting on at the start of the case, especially as he received only a few hundred quid from shop owner Mr Wang up in Manchester... Anyway, today there is much rejoicing in the chesneycat household. A lot of it is thank-god-it's-over relief, of course - the whole thing has been unbelievably stressful for my parents, and it's nice symmetry to know this fucktard will be inside for equally as long as my parents have been suffering, and also that he'll miss two christmasses. He's a career criminal this guy, with more previous than you can shake a stick at, and given the chance I'm sure he'd have ruined the season for someone else. *grin* Justice is served. For dessert, I'll be sending my mum the recipe for Schadenfreude Pie |
chesneycat
|
9:19a |
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| Thursday, December 10th, 2009 |
kailisu
|
10:01p |
Can this day - make it week - be over?
I had a doctor appointment today at 12:30, so instead of going in to work and leaving early, I asked BossWoman if I could work from home. This way I could put in my full 8 hours and still break up my day with the appointment. Doctor appointment went fine...I have arthritis in my knees. Yay. And I'm fat. Double yay. I'm supposed to exercise. But it hurts, and not in a good way. I try to exercise - especially walking - but honest to it hurts. And if I do too much I need a vicodin to go to sleep. *sigh* Fucking old age.
But, on to the fun stuff - not. ( Microsoft Office gripes )( Then we have Lotus Notes... )Then, to top it all off, today while I'm working at home, I plug my external keyboard and trackball in to my computer. Flash decides he wants to drink my water. I'm on the phone with BossWoman, and...Flash dumps my water all over my desk. Hosed my keyboard. I use an ergonomic keyboard, and now it does not work. I am using a "regular" keyboard, and just in typing this up, my hands are killing me. So enough of my whining. How's your day/week going? Current Mood:  bitchy |
cavaticat
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3:27p |
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julietvalcouer
|
12:23p |
So far today I have: -strained my back shoveling the driveway -gotten stuck in said driveway anyway -driven the long way to work because of whiteout conditions on the farm backroads -fallen in the grocery-store parking lot -had to creep through town because the 51/62 light is on the blink and visiblilty is at 50yards max (where there are buildings or trees to block the crosswinds) -done a 540-degree spin in the school driveway (WHEE) So why am I at work again? |
jhirat_dai
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12:47p |
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