I can't believe I never told you the saga of my new car.
No, I haven't got it. They cocked up. Big time. When it arrived, they discovered that they had forgotten to order the extra's, that I had paid for up front weeks ago, the extra's that are factory fitted, you know, things like the full length panoramic glass sunroof. Can't exactly get the jig saw out and cut out a hole yourself. ( I did in around 1981 with my TR7 but that is another story).
So complete cock up. Tough, they had to order another one, another 6 - 8 week delay. Oh, they offered me an old wreck of a rover Y reg in the meantime. Big deal. I had no choice, I had an interview to go to (didn't get the job), and so I had to accept. When I went to pick that up, surprise surprise (as cilla would say), it had proved unroadworthy, and so they, and get this, are HIRING me a car in the interim.
My God, I couldn't invent this for one of my novels, I'm not joking.
Too busy doing tidying in the house to play with the cam corder today, oh, and also multi tasking (me, a bloke.....) and trying to get the network printer to work on the old XP base PC so that H could print off her 20th birthday photo's. Yes, another milestone passed this week - the last of fledglings are no longer teens, any way, back to the printer. Windows Firewall just refused to let it through, and in the end after interminal sessions of install and de-install (where is the BOFH when you need him?) I gave up with the windows firewall and installed Zone Alarm instead. Bingo, all working and 20 odd photo's suddenly burst into life.
Changed the PSU for the security camera's too, and so we are all seeing once more, thank goodness. So, too hectic a day to play with the camcorder I am afraid. Tomorrow I have to change at least one of the CDRW drives in the old XP unit - couldn't read Die Hard 4 today, and that is a real bummer. ( Did I mention I was multi tasking today? at least 4 things at once !!)
Must get back to the writing this week- too much time spent on other things recently, but at least we now have a tidy office and a spare bedroom that a guest can sleep in.
Off to play poker now
G'night
Sunday
Friday
Quite a busy day. I had my six monthly foot checkup at the clinic today. Seem to have lost some sensitivity in the left foot, the right is the same, more or less, as it was six months ago. Clinician was somewhat concerned at my 'ice cold' feet, but she did manage to find a pulse in my little toes, so all cannot be particularly bad. She advised that I took some photo's of my feet, so that if they changed, I could show the doctor what they should look like.Satnav played up today, took 15 mins to find the satelites, and then kept telling me to turn around when possible. 'Dort' fixed it when she popped round this evening with a magical reset. She stuffed a pin up its reset orifice. Nice one Dort.
I shall hopefully be doing a review of the new addition to the family, the Sony HVR-A1E, thanks to a really good price from Prestons of Malvern. Great price, knocked spots of anything I could get of the internet, and an authorised Sony UK dealer, so no dodgy imports. Fingers crossed.
Thing is, we have a bit of a jaunt coming up, and I really wanted to record it in the best possible way, and this semi professional HiDef unit seems the answer, so, I have to learn to use it, and in doing so, I will blog my thoughts.
First thing to note is how small the unit actually is. I will get the ruler and camera out tomorrow and show you. But for today, I am off to read the manual.
Tuesday
Interesting day. Great article in the UK Daily Mail about gastric reduction operations curing around 75% of operee's of diabetes. Now I know it's a bit drastic, but it is good news. Now all the clever guys have got to do is work out what the trigger is.
Signing on day to day. A new experience for me - never been unemployed before, so have to see if I can't add this new knowledge into a future book. Not surprised, but pleased, the people at the job centre have the patience of saints. I am sure that they really don't get paid enough for the things that they have to put up with, every working day, week in, week out. I take my hat off to them.
Had my first Job Application rejection today - yes this was good. I know I am going to get rejections, and I would rather they were for jobs that I really wasn't worried about, as in this case.
Heard today that my new car, Citroen Grand Picasso has been shipped and will be in England tomorrow. Should be able to pick it up on Monday or Tuesday - I will be mobile again - yeah ha! (Old car sold Subj to Finance last week)
Here is a new list, suggested by Little Bro
My Top Ten Albums
In No Particular order:
Neil Diamond - His 12 Greatest Hits (volume 1)
Deep Purple - Made in Japan
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Simon & Garfunkle - Bridge over Troubled Water
Santana - Abraxus
Blondie - Parallel Lines
Enya - Paint the Sky with Stars
Beach Boys - Sounds of Summer
Beatles - Sgt Pepper
Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells
now, zip of to Youtube and see if you can find the definitive version of a song from each album.
Here is a link for some of mine
There are loads of other good albums but those are my top 10.
Honorable Mentions:
Wings - Band on the Run
Dire Straights - Brothers in Arms
Carpenters - Singles 69 - 73
Led Zeppelin - 4
Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath
just too many good albums over the years.
Signing on day to day. A new experience for me - never been unemployed before, so have to see if I can't add this new knowledge into a future book. Not surprised, but pleased, the people at the job centre have the patience of saints. I am sure that they really don't get paid enough for the things that they have to put up with, every working day, week in, week out. I take my hat off to them.
Had my first Job Application rejection today - yes this was good. I know I am going to get rejections, and I would rather they were for jobs that I really wasn't worried about, as in this case.
Heard today that my new car, Citroen Grand Picasso has been shipped and will be in England tomorrow. Should be able to pick it up on Monday or Tuesday - I will be mobile again - yeah ha! (Old car sold Subj to Finance last week)
Here is a new list, suggested by Little Bro
My Top Ten Albums
In No Particular order:
Neil Diamond - His 12 Greatest Hits (volume 1)
Deep Purple - Made in Japan
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Simon & Garfunkle - Bridge over Troubled Water
Santana - Abraxus
Blondie - Parallel Lines
Enya - Paint the Sky with Stars
Beach Boys - Sounds of Summer
Beatles - Sgt Pepper
Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells
now, zip of to Youtube and see if you can find the definitive version of a song from each album.
Here is a link for some of mine
There are loads of other good albums but those are my top 10.
Honorable Mentions:
Wings - Band on the Run
Dire Straights - Brothers in Arms
Carpenters - Singles 69 - 73
Led Zeppelin - 4
Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath
just too many good albums over the years.
Saturday
It's a new year and I thought that I would review my films and compile my top 100. Of course my mood would dictate the position within the list of any film on any given day, and so therefore I have simply listed them alphabetically.
| Title |
| 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) |
| A Clockwork Orange (1971) |
| A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) |
| Alien (1979) |
| American Gangster (2007) |
| Back to the Future (1985) |
| Barbarella (1968) |
| Basic Instinct (1992) |
| Batman Begins (2005) |
| Blade Runner (1982) |
| Blue Velvet (1986) |
| Bonnie and Clyde (1967) |
| Brief Encounter (1945) |
| Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) |
| Capricorn One (1978) |
| Casablanca (1942) |
| Casino Royale (2006) |
| Children of Men (2006) |
| Cool Hand Luke (1967) |
| Dante's Peak (1997) |
| Deliverence (1972) |
| Dial M for Murder (1954) |
| Die Hard (1988) |
| Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) |
| Earthquake (1974) |
| Enemy of the State (1998) |
| Eyes Wide Shut (1999) |
| Four Weddings & a Funeral (1994) |
| Gandhi (1982) |
| Get Carter (1971) |
| Gladiator (2000) |
| Goodfellas (1990) |
| Gorky Park (1983) |
| Groundhog Day (1993) |
| Hot Fuzz (2007) |
| Independence Day (1996) |
| Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) |
| Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) |
| Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) |
| Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004) |
| L.A. Confidential (1997) |
| Léon (1994) |
| Life of Brian (1979) |
| Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) |
| Lucky Number Slevin (2006) |
| Nikita (1990) |
| North by Northwest (1959) |
| Once Upon a Time in America (1984) |
| Once Upon a Time in the West C'era una volta il West (1968) |
| One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) |
| Patton (1970) |
| Psycho (1960) |
| Pulp Fiction (1994) |
| Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) |
| Reservoir Dogs (1992) |
| Rosemary's Baby (1968) |
| Scarface (1983) |
| Se7en (1995) |
| Shaun of the Dead (2004) |
| Sin City (2005) |
| Sleuth (1972) |
| Snatch. (2000) |
| Star Wars (1977) |
| Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) |
| Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) |
| Stargate (1994) |
| Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) |
| The Birds (1963) |
| The Bone Collector |
| The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) |
| The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) |
| The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) |
| The Driver (1978) |
| The Exorcist (1973) |
| The Fifth Element (1997) |
| The French Connection |
| The Godfather (1972) |
| The Godfather: Part II (1974) |
| The Good The Bad and The Ugly Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il (1966) |
| The Graduate (1967) |
| The Great Escape (1963) |
| The Italian Job (1969) |
| The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) |
| The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) |
| The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) |
| The Matrix (1999) |
| The Night Porter (1974) |
| The Pianist (2002) |
| The Shining (1980) |
| The Silence of the Lambs (1991) |
| The Sixth Sense (1999) |
| The Sting (1973) |
| The Terminator (1984) |
| The Thing (1982) |
| The Third Man (1949) |
| The Usual Suspects (1995) |
| Twelve Monkeys (1995) |
| Unforgiven (1992) |
| V for Vendetta (2005) |
| Vertigo (1958) |
Monday
It's Christmas Eve. I have the proof of my latest book (Kings Ransom) back from the publishers, and I am about a third of the way through my screen play (Margarita Time). Meanwhile my back has been playing up and giving me@#@# ! Much of the time I have been laying down and playing poker on the pureplay site. Poker is an infuriating yet captivating pasttime. I am glad that I chose to play for free, otherwise I would have whittled away what few pennies I have.
One upside to my bad back I guess is that I have been spared the Christmas shops. I haven't been able to get out and so haven't been battered abd bruised in the rush to buy last minute stuff.
In the process of leaving my full time job of the past 33 years, and I am planning on embarking on a writing career, it remains to see how successful that will be!
Having dropped the doxazosin tablets, my daytime narcolepsy seems cured, thank goodness, it was not much fun dropping off to snooze during the day, and not realising you were doing it. Unfortunately the cause did not garner much support and caused me no little strife.
It looks as if I shall have to return to the water bed, the memory foam has not been a succesful substitute, and my back has deteriorated, and so the search will be on for a suitable water bed to go in our bedroom.
Have a great holiday season, and enjoy Christmas
One upside to my bad back I guess is that I have been spared the Christmas shops. I haven't been able to get out and so haven't been battered abd bruised in the rush to buy last minute stuff.
In the process of leaving my full time job of the past 33 years, and I am planning on embarking on a writing career, it remains to see how successful that will be!
Having dropped the doxazosin tablets, my daytime narcolepsy seems cured, thank goodness, it was not much fun dropping off to snooze during the day, and not realising you were doing it. Unfortunately the cause did not garner much support and caused me no little strife.
It looks as if I shall have to return to the water bed, the memory foam has not been a succesful substitute, and my back has deteriorated, and so the search will be on for a suitable water bed to go in our bedroom.
Have a great holiday season, and enjoy Christmas
Thursday
Saturday
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