Category: Uncategorised

I got myself a new keyring on Sunday. For those who don’t know, this means I went to another football ground I’d not previously visited. At least, not since I started collecting keyrings. A lad I once worked with collected mugs from all the grounds. Given that there are well over 100 and he’d been to most of them he must have had huge cupboards and a very understanding wife.

Well, this one’s an Arsenal one. Technically, it’s a Highbury (or Arsenal Stadium) one which I wanted before it gets demolished in a year or so and they move round the corner.

I’d heard conflicting reports about the ground. One ex of mine said it was gorgeous and one of the nicest she’d visited. Another mate said he’d been a few times and it was crap. Well, I can only assume that the ex went on the stadium tour and saw all the marble hallways – because the away end’s fecking awful. Although the loos are nice, the actual standing area near the food-hatch bit is tiny and far too small for the number of fans it accomodates. Also, the club shop’s about the size of a Portakabin and was heaving before the game.

The sooner they shift to the (fantastic looking) new stadium, the better. I know Arsenal Stadium has a shedload of history, but for a team that’s reached their size it’s just too small and pokey.

The home fans were a good crowd, though. For once, we weren’t the only ones standing (despite the usual letters from the local council via the club asking us to park our arses). I think the stewards got half the home crowd next to us to sit down before one of them yelled "I’m not sitting down until you get that lot to sit down" at which point they all got back on their feet!

Shame the game wasn’t much to write home about (apart from Shay Given adding a few more digits to his net worth). But, hey, at least I can say I’ve been. I took some pictures, too, and they’ll be online shortly.

The rest of the evening was spent watching Amy panic over having read entirely the wrong notes for her class the next day and watching Spiderman 2 (again). Actually, I still enjoyed it. Not a bad film at all. Bed around 2am with an 8:30am rise for her lecture at 9. Not that I had a lecture! Not that I had a lie in either, mind. But that’s tomorrow…

First off, a whinge. Yay! Just for a change. I headed down to London on Saturday, having forked out an extra tenner on my train ticket to avoid the engineering works at Peterborough. The alternative was a coach service to Stevenage that I didn’t fancy. Fortunately by paying a little extra, I could change services and hop onto a different train. No worries.

Only when I got to Stevenage I found out that the service I was changing on to wasn’t running. Because of the engineering works. In fact, no services were running and none would be running and this had been announced when the works dates were set. This, however, hadn’t filtered through GNER’s booking system.

So basically, I forked out extra to take a bus that I’d actually paid the money to avoid. I am not happy.

That was about the only crappy but to the weekend, though. Except maybe the long walk to Amy’s when I got their because I decided to take the scenic route. I was not lost. I didn’t get lost. At no point had I lost my way. At all. At any point I could have retraced my steps to Kings Cross. I may not have known exactly where I was but I wasn’t lost. I hope I’ve made that clear.

Anyway, once I’d figured out how to get there I found out we were going out to a nice restaurant for dinner with about 6 other people. Great. I had nothing but t-shirts and jeans with me. Thankfully Camden’s open lateish so I got a nice black shirt in a sale.

Then the next surprise. We’re off to a Japanese restaurant called Wagamama. Great. The most exotic my diet gets are the spices in HP sauce. And putting mint sauce on roast beef instead of lamb. It was ok, though as I was assured they did Western food as well.

On arriving, I discovered that the Western food consisted of half the dessert menu. And they didn’t supply forks with anything other than the cakes. Oh bugger. And I’d not eaten before coming out either. I had downed two bottles of Dog, though, so I was feeling adventurous. With careful selection, I chose the blandest thing on the menu – some kind of pork soup with noodles, and about the only thing that didn’t mention garlic. And, hey, it was ok. And hey again, I can do chopsticks.

One large bill later and we headed for Yates where Amy proceeded to buy far too many drinks at far too silly prices and we all got far too wasted. Well, ok. Amy got far too wasted. She also got pissed off because I tried to snog the Portuguese guy she’d pulled and he ran off. Don’t shout at me – someone bet me a fiver to do it. What’s worse is I lost the bet because he turned away and wouldn’t do tongues. Bah.

Have to say I had a great time. I’ll apologise by saying I’m not 100% certain of the names of the people we were out with and it’s not their fault. Great crowd. If memory serves, there’s Erica (American but don’t hold that against her – she’s actually OK), Rascheed (really unsure about that one – American of Indian descent and not exactly happy that Arnie got voted in as her governor), Beckie (from "The Valleys" in Wales and has the most delightful accent that sends shivers up my back – how weird it that)… and three others whos names I really couldn’t even guess at! If any of them read this, kindly correct me to spellings etc.

End of night, Amy’s in bed, bucket is next to her and I’m cowering on the airbed on the floor every time I hear her turn over in case she misses and bits of Japanese food get expunged onto my sleeping bag. Fortunately, the chunder count was nill that night. Phew.

I don’t have too long as West Wing starts in about 15 minutes. I’ve just popped dinner on, which takes 30, and got Kim to wind the big time-reversal handle in the bathroom a bit so I’ve got time for it to cook. We can’t go overwinding it, especially after the last time. If you’ve ever had to take a Dyson to the results of a time rift, you’ll know what I mean.

I’m slightly more awake tonight so further details. My new job title is Implementations Consultant. Which is a posh way of saying Support Engineer, which is what I’ve been for the last 4 years and 9 months. They wouldn’t even let me call myself Senior Support Engineer when I was. Mind you, there were only two of us by then and the other guy was about 25 years older than me, but it’d have been funny for Stu to be a Junior.

Anyways, I got a car sorted today as well. Lease car until I sort out a permanent vehicle, so I didn’t get a choice but it’s nice enough. Toyota Avensis 1.8 T3. I think T3 just means "with all the bells and whistles" except for a means of adjusting the steering wheel which is just too high, but I’m being picky.

It even has a funky navigation system with a woman’s voice who tells you where to turn. Unlike a real woman, if you ignore her, she doesn’t start yelling at you and breaking down in floods of tears, screaming that her mother was right all along.

Which really does take some of the fun out of it.

Said navigation system doesn’t actually know my street, though. It knows the one that mine feeds off, and it knows the main road that it comes off, but it doesn’t realise that there’s a junction there where the roads meet. Which is strange. Fun toy, nevertheless. Best, though, is the 6-CD changer in the dash and the fact that – at last – I can pick up MW and Radio 5 again. Yay!

Work was a little busier / better today, but there’s a very steep learning curve on what I’m doing so I appreciate it’s going to be almost as difficult for them to feed me stuff as it will be for me to take it in. Guess I’ll have to be patient. At least I now have a notepad to jot stuff down in and I know that my internet connection was working from day 1 so I’m making careful use of that. So far I’ve only downloaded drivers for my laptop and information on Oracle. I’ll move onto porn and stuff over the next few months and see where their line is.

A quick rundown of the cast as they stand:

Roy – my boss. Seems like a nice enough guy and about as busy as they come. He kind of reminds me of James Cromwell‘s character in LA Confidential. Mainly in the way he looks rather than the fact that he’s secretly plotting behind everyone’s back and wants the new guy to take the rap for his illicit trade in pimping and drugs. At least I hope I’m right and it’s just the appearance. OK, I’m scaring myself now so I’ll stop.

John – who I sit next to but haven’t really talked to yet, but he sorted out my printer today so thanks for that.

Paul – two desks away and about as busy as a busy person. Bought me a bottle of Dog in the pub yesterday and probably doesn’t realise he now has a friend for life as a result. I’ll scare him with that later.

I’d like to say the next one’s George and then Ringo, but it’s actually Allen. The other chap who came to the pub yesterday and another one who seems to know flipping everything. Sat with him today and went through an upgrade procedure which was fun if you’re as sad as I am.

Pretty much everyone I’ve met has been happy, bouncy, friendly, welcoming, helpful. Part of me’s worried they’re all Stepford Employees so I’ll be watching for loose circuitry and sparking eyeballs.

Oh, there’s one guy caled Keith Gillespie and he is Irish, but I don’t want to seem a tit and ask if he’s related to the pixie who used to play for the Toon.

Things look good so far, but I’m just looking forward to being busier. There’s a sports and social club which I’ll have a look at, nice pension stuff (which I need to sort soon) and even a helping hand with the fees at either of the two local gyms. It’d knock monthly membership down to less than a tenner. Think I’ll have some of that!

Telly calls. Maybe more later, but I’ve got a maths coursework I want to finish tonight so I can head to London tomorrow with a clear conscience. Dirty mind still intact, however. That won’t change.

It’s 9:40pm and I’ve only been in the house for an hour and a half-ish. I’m knackered. My eyes are tired, though the thick smoke due to me burning two chicken burgers may have something to do with this. This will be a short post as I need to finish some coursework and get to bed!

I started my new job today and re-discovered the joys of public transport as a result. As the only way to get to Halifax from my place would involve a bus into Bradford, and then back out again I got a lift from a very handy Kim who dropped me off near her work. This reduced the ride to one travel-sickness inducing bone-rattle.

Half an hour later and I stepped back into the fresh air, swallowig the saliva that had been building up as my stomach prepared to hurl its contents on the passenger in front of me. Mind you, he was bald anyway so it’d not have mattered much. Not like he’d have had to carefully prise bits of carrot out of long, flowing locks or anything.

The day went… slowly. I don’t know how you lot have found your first days at work, but in my experience (4 jobs and this has always been the case), at some point you end up sat at a desk while everyone else gets on with their work. You have nothing to do. You can’t exactly pull this month’s Bizarre out of your briefcase, or fire up Tetris on your new laptop.

Actually, I’d say the working day split into three – all the "welcome" bumph which was good. Then the middle bit, which wasn’t. Then the bit where I sat with my boss while he did some funky stuff with SQL and explained some things which was back to being good again.

Oh, and there was the pub at lunch time. This was definitely good. Thank you to Allen and Paul for taking me somewhere that sells Brown Ale on my first working day.

First impressions are pretty good. I’m not going to decry my previous employer (much), but you take one look at SSP and SoftSols looks positively cowboy outfit in comparison. Cleaner, better premises, bigger, nicer kit, fuller desks, busier, nicer cars out front… Given that both companies started at the same time and do the same kind of thing (but in different market areas), it’s astonishing how far apart they are.

My one gripe is not getting a car on my first day as I was promised. My boss is blaming HR, HR and saying it’s his responsibility. However, a quick chat with Roy at home time and he’s said it’ll be resolved tomorrow. I hope it is or my long weekend is somewhat buggered!

Well, that’s it folks. Sorry I’m not more witty or interesting, but I am wasted so I’ll have to end there. I’ll try and think up something funny to post tomorrow once my brain’s woken up.

This is another of those lists that will grow with time. Last updated on the date shown at the bottom. All of the following are things my cat will eat. Voluntarily. Repeatedly. Then hound me for more, the greedy sod.

• Salt ‘n’ Vinegar Snack-a-Jacks
• Ready Salted and Beef Hula-Hoops
• Smarties (well, she sucks the sugar coating off and leaves the chocolate)
• Toffee Poppets (again, licks the choc off if you hold it for her)
• Malt loaf (preferably laden with butter)
• Toast (dry or buttered)
• Butter
• Muddles (Kellogg’s cereal)
• Jamaica ginger cake
• KFC chips
• KFC salt packets
• Refreshers ice lolly
• Solero berry-flavour ice lolly
• Home-made oven-chips, especially the crunchy ends from the overdone ones
• Salt & vinegar Hula Hoops
• Del Monte orange ice lolly

On the other hand, she hates root beer and will run a mile if a can is put anywhere near her.