I’ve finally pulled the finger out and downloaded a bunch of pictures off of my camera. The two below the cut are of Ginseng.
yes, I am still alive but I feel like shit
I feel completely useless today. Katy has infected me with the most dreaded of diseases, man flu. I'll probably survive, but it's going to be at the cost of several days of moaning and groaning.
A brief recap of recent events:
– Katy's parents came over for 3 days over Easter. We ate too much, drank too much, gardened, and were told that we're horrible cat owners because we do not feed our cat enough.
– Katy had an interview for a potentially better job at a nearby research institute. On paper, everything looks better, with more money for less work. See what happens. She's also sent off (today) an application to become a mobility guide dog trainer for the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association. They have an opening in Essex, so we'll see what happens with that as well.
– We've been selling off CDs and DVDs that we don't watch or listen to anymore. So far, we've made close to a hundred quid. That's always good.
So yeah. Interesting times.
But I still feel like crap.
My waistline is expanding again
My exercise regime has been shite lately. And by lately, I mean since last october. There was the wedding, then Javapolis, then Xmas, then I just couldn't be bothered. As such, I've put on a stone. This does not please me.
I went to the gym yesterday and was happily surprised that I didn't die. I'm hoping to get the motivation to go every day this week. Katy and I are buddying up to go, as neither of us wants to be bothered otherwise.
Madness ipod
Ecclectic is a good word to describe my music collection.
This morning, on my way to work, I was serenaded by Pantera (Fuckign Hostile), Snow Patrol (Chasing cars) and Plume Latraverse (Rock 'n Roll du grand flanc mou).
Ayup, it's going to be one of those days :)
As a follow-up to this weekend's post
You know that horrible remix I was talking about? The latino-rap version of Oye Como Va?
And it's even more horrible that I remembered it. You just know they're using a cheap little electronic keyboard they bought from Radio Shack.
I have found it.
Click to listen at your own risk :)
I fear for the current generation.
A bit of a rant.. and get off my lawn!
This is another entry in the “I'm getting old” saga…
Katy and I are in Leics at the moment. Last night was one of her great-uncle thrice-removed-sort-of-thing's 50th wedding anniversary and we'd been invited to the soiree. At times, I felt like I was back in Buckingham with the the events organized by the Chevaliers de Colomb that all my uncles used to belong to. Same sort of social hall, same sort of crappy DJ, same sort of homemade buffet. The evening was being held at a “working man's” club (i.e. a big hall with a bar). It has the distinction of having the grossest toilet I've ever seen (and I've been to Mardi Gras in New Orleans). The floor was so slick with urine that I almost slipped and fell over. That would have been nice.
Anyway. The evening was mostly fun, except for the music. The DJ was pure and absolute shite. Some songs got played twice (or more) in a span of 3 hours. The rest of the time, it was just plain cheese mixed in with some truly bad remixes. The whole of it was just too fucking loud. Getting tinnitus is not my idea of a good time, nor is having to shout at the person sitting next to you to be heard.
Speaking of remixes though, let me interrupt this rant with a bit of a side-rant. I like music. I like many sorts of styles of music. Modern music is, sadly, trash that I would not feed to pigs (if such a thing were possible). A lot of what I heard last night was blatant riff rip-offs from golden oldies and the remixes… don't get me started on the remixes. Kung Fu Fighting was not the best ever song when it came out, but it didn't deserve the humiliation that it got last night. To date, the worst ever butchered remix I've ever heard is Gerardo Mejia's Latin Till I Die, a latino-rap remix of Oye Como Va. The truly sad thing? It was playing in the lab when I was doing my master's degree. A girl I was working with had never heard of Santana and thought this great song was the original version.
So yeah. I know everything old is new again, and that everybody is ripping off Pachelbel anyway, but still… Give credit where credit is due and try to respect the classics, for the love of God.
Time to update this thingie
I hate changing from DST to EST (or GMT, as is currently the case). I always feel fucked up for a few days as my internal clock struggles to adjust.
So yeah. Been quiet for the last little while. A few interesting things happened, but mostly it was a day-to-day thing. I was a pseudo-bachelor for most of last week, as Katy was taking some R&R in Leicester to go walkies, do puzzles and generally harass her dad. The whole week I was alone, I did not kill the cat. This is, for me, a major accomplishment.
We went on a little day trip to Norwich this saturday, which was nice and we went to see 300 at the cinema this sunday, which was decently bloody and violent. We'll probably buy the DVD when it comes out.
I found out last week that my contract is being renewed for another 3 years. It was a touchy thing for a while. They were always going to offer me a renewal, as my boss fairly lavished praise on my work (which, you know, is always nice!) but since we're funded by public research grants, balancing the books is always tricky. Our main operating grant is running out next year and they haven't secured a replacement for it yet, so they weren't sure if they could offer me a 3 year contract or simply a 1 year bridging contract.
I was fairly blushing when my boss told me that, although they don't have enough money to renew all the contracts they want, mine is one of those they really want to keep. I think I really hit a home run with the OLS. I never expected it to be so popular. The thing I'm working on right now could potentially be bigger, if I can get it to work properly.
So yeah. Happy dancies at job security :)
There go those plans straight out the window
Not a happy bunny at the moment.
I got my passport and visa application back today. I have just pissed away 350 quid, as visa has been denied. Well, not so much denied as me being told that I don't qualify for it as I'm currently under a pseudo-diplomatic visa. Reading between the legalese, it means that as long as I work for the EBI, I need the clearance exception visa that I currently have. As long as I have that visa, I cannot qualify for a spousal visa. As long as I can't get the spousal visa, I can't start the citizenship process.
What's even worse though is that when my contract runs its course, I'll need to apply for a spousal visa to stay in the UK. I'll have been there 9 years, but none of those will count for anything, immigration-wise. I will not have a job anymore, but I won't be able to apply for any until I get the spousal visa. Having a job will go a long way to being able to get a spousal visa. Anybody see the nice catch-22 in the making?
On the plus side, a job is not really a requirement, as long as we can show that we have means to support ourselves. That's a strong incentive to start saving; and the golden handshake I get from the EBI should help with that as well.
Still, I do not need this aggravation now.
That's a good workout!
A coworker and I went into the office this weekend and made creative use of the meeting room facilities. Get your mind out of the gutter, pervs. We plugged my Nintendo Wii into a LCD projector and proceeded to play Wii Sports for the next 3 hours on a giant projection screen :)
In other news, the cat. It was a toss-up until recently to see if our cat only had one testicle or had one that was still undescended. Turns out, he had another one hidden away so has now been snipped for the second time.
Not that going under the knife has slowed him down one bit… I caught him climbing up the sitting room curtains this morning. So yeah. Here's hoping that finally being snipped will turn him into a fat blob soon. He's a handful at the moment.
In the mood to save money
Orange has pissed me off for the last time (I hope).
I hate Orange. They're fucking evil and this will be the last time I have to deal with them or give them money. The first year of my contract was fine. Then my phone broke 1 week after my contract was renewed and it would have cost more to fix it than to buy a new one. So I did. And it sucked. Then I started traveling to the continent for work and my phone bill tripled in roaming charges. And Orange was laughing all the way to the bank the whole time, because I was paying £40 for about 30 minutes of airtime and about the same number of SMS messages. Fuck Orange. I have now switched to a pay-as-you-go phone on T-Mobile. I'm in the process of moving my phone number over so there should be no disruption on my calls and contacts.
I'm also in the process for shopping for a new broadband and phone provider, as well as looking into 0% balance transfers for the credit card. I read a very interesting article recently on how businesses make money on the laziness and inertia of people. We can save £240 a year by switching to a package deal on Virgin media and probably just as much with a balance transfer for the visa.
All things you should all be looking into :)