Steve's Blog

Been a while since the last update because I have been back to Bourne for the weekend. Left work a little early on Friday and hit the M5 for 5pm. Amazed that I navigated through Bristol in next to no time only to hit the delays on the M5 a few minutes earlier than I would have had I left the office later. Turns out that there had been a three car shunt south of Cheltenham. Made really good time after that and got home for 8.30pm. Carol was very pleased to see me after a whole week apart and she had several chilled beers waiting for me in the fridge bless her.

Felt good to be back in my own house too. The stretch of A46 between the M5 and Leicester is becoming very familiar and I no longer need the Sat Nav to feel comfortable that I'm on the right path. I leave it on for the traffic information but fat lot of good that was. It told me that there was a hold up at Cheltenham and asked me if I wanted an alternative route. Of course I responded in the affirmative as you would only to be told, a little too smugly I thought, there is no alternative route!

Had a brilliant weekend even though it was busy. We took down some fixtures and fittings in anticipation of the impending move and mowed the lawns, washed the cars and packed some things in boxes. We also drank a couple of bottles of wine and chilled in front of the TV. I think Carol has missed me as much as I have certainly missed her. Thankfully we only have this week before she joins me in Wales.

We had planned to hire a van this weekend to move the TVs and PCs etc. to storage in my parents spare bedroom, in fact we had booked a Luton and the services of my Brother-in-law. Got some unwelcome news on the chain today which meant that it is likely to be several more weeks before we exchange so seems a little premature to start shifting things just yet. Decided to postpone for a while and save on the storage costs until we get a firm date. We have pulled back on accepting a quote from the removal company too.

Drove into work today in record time, 45 minutes, and the journey was quite pleasant. Topped off with a delightful ten minutes watching a fox cub outwitting two cats in the office car park. At one point he was just 5 metres away from me and entirely unaware that he was being watched. Foxes are magnificent animals, just like miniature dogs, I can't understand why anyone would want to hunt such a noble creature. Cats excluded that is, obviously they have scores to settle.

Work was a delight again. I am really enjoying it and that is entirely genuine. I am left to get on with things with no distractions from PLs or emails, in fact I have still only got 5 emails in total after 1 full week. I'm about 3/4 of the way through my first development task and learning new stuff along the way. I'm quite pleased with what I have done so far but also amazed at how much stuff I had forgotten since my time at NatWest. I am now doing all the things I used to there and I am not restricted to a small aspect of UI, and not constrained by the frameworks.

The other developers are thawing and now laughing and joking with me a little more. I think they were sizing me up for the first few days but feel they can tease me a little now. Martin, the designer, is a petrol head (what is it with IT and cars?). He has three cars, one of them is a TVR, one an MG and the third a mini.

I have plugged in my old USB radio and I am catching up on the Archers.

Took a walk around Clifton again today. Getting a bit more adventurous and walked further down the hill toward the river Avon. Discovered a Subway sandwich shop and treated myself toa Vegi Delight. The whole village is now thronging with students. It makes for a very pleasant lunchtime stroll. Better than Tescos at Hampton at any rate :) I am toying with the idea of visiting the zoo one day. It's a ten minute walk from the office. In fact the Netherlands National circus has set up camp on the downs today. Loads of cars parked along the road as I made my way home. I can't believe that all the parking is free around Clifton. I guess that it is mainly residential but there are a lot of office workers out and about at lunchtime si there must be a lot of businesses like ours around.

Heard that Ian Mellor 'resigned' today. Haven't any details but chatted to Lionel on IM and he said he would fill me in on the details if I rang him. Foolishly I closed the IM session without taking his number down. Doh! He probably thinks I blanked him now? I even looked his number up on the BT directory site but it was not the right L Reynolds. The L Reynolds I called was a nice chap though, he was very understanding when I called him Lionel.

Had a quiet evening in with my parents. My mum had to brush away a tear because I bought her a little box of Cadbury's Roses. It was a last minute impulse buy too. They were on the till at Morrisons where I stopped off to buy a few veggie ready meals. Best 99p I have spent so far this week.