Still busy!
Just a quick note today to record that Alexander passed his driving test first time yesterday. Swine! What's wrong with taking four goes like the rest of us then?
Finished Eats, Shoots & Leaves and found it brilliant. Never thought a book on punctuation would be so gripping. Have now started the final Melanie Rawn - Skybowl so will comment more on that later...
Now off across town to unload my new books.
Friday, June 11, 2004
Tuesday, June 08, 2004
Well, all told, things have been good and enjoyable since Friday. Big Brother ws a hoot on Friday night when they threw the Kitten out (and has been just as funny since with some real big arguments kicking off in the house and livening things up - headline today that Michelle the Geordie slapper is giving Geordie slappers a bad name!) and the weekend was properly relaxing.
Saturday was a scorcher (in fact the weather has been generally cracking for a week or so now) and we headed in to Ipswich where we did a bit of shopping and also hit the cinema for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban which was superb. OK, so as the series progresses the books have got thicker, which meant they had to leave more out this third time round. A bit of a shame there as that meant a few of my favourite bits of the book left behind and some of the explanatory stuff a bit muddled but the general story came through loud and clear. I was also impressed by the tweaks to the design of Hogwarts & surroundings, even if that does mean the first two will now look a bit odd with stuff missing or moved around! The acting has also improved from all the kids and Michael Gambon did pretty well as a replacement for Richard Harris. Another one where I'm looking forward to the DVD to re-watch it at our leisure.
Sunday was the sixtieth anniversary of D-day and there were loads of things going on round and about to commemorate that. We had been planning to go down to the event at Landguard Fort but decided against it in the end after Joan was too emotionally affected by the bits we saw on TV in the morning. A shame as her Dad was involved in the actual events of the time, but that was also why it proved a bit much for her. In the evening we went round to Ma & Pa for dinner as it was Mum's birthday yesterday. Another good celebration.
And so back to work. We have finally done what I have been after for 3 or 4 years and signed up a distribution company to take on shoving the books around the county. I just need to sort out a list of places for them and that's it, no more running round in vans and the like.
After finalising details yesterday, this morning has seen my first contract tender committed to the postal system. Timetable designed etc. And I have just realised that we didn't include a map with it. Oh bugger. Oh well, we learn from our mistakes. Will just have to make sure I get one ready if there are any questions. This morning also saw my PDR for the next six months (they are changing the system so next year we do them Jan - Dec rather than April - April, or in this case April but slipped to June - Dec). I think I will be a lot better off with my new targets than I was last year as they are better linked to the day job and tie in with learning objectives I wanted anyway. And there will still be chances to get out and about so I won't be stuck in the office all the time. Now all I need to do is write it up and sort myself out an action plan to get them done.
Finally for today, books. Finished The Dragon Token last night. Really just as good as I remembered (and it has to be said I didn't actually remember a lot of this one) and set up nicely for the reolution in book 3 (or is it 6?). Not sure how I have stopped myself diving in to the final book to get the series ended but I have now started the book of the year (it says on the cover): Eats, Shoots & Leaves - The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss. Fascinating stuff, interesting subject and you never know, I might even end up writing a bit better by the end of it all. I can't say I'm quite as pedantic as she obviously is, but I do cringe when I see stuff out in the public domain that is horrendously wrong...
Saturday was a scorcher (in fact the weather has been generally cracking for a week or so now) and we headed in to Ipswich where we did a bit of shopping and also hit the cinema for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban which was superb. OK, so as the series progresses the books have got thicker, which meant they had to leave more out this third time round. A bit of a shame there as that meant a few of my favourite bits of the book left behind and some of the explanatory stuff a bit muddled but the general story came through loud and clear. I was also impressed by the tweaks to the design of Hogwarts & surroundings, even if that does mean the first two will now look a bit odd with stuff missing or moved around! The acting has also improved from all the kids and Michael Gambon did pretty well as a replacement for Richard Harris. Another one where I'm looking forward to the DVD to re-watch it at our leisure.
Sunday was the sixtieth anniversary of D-day and there were loads of things going on round and about to commemorate that. We had been planning to go down to the event at Landguard Fort but decided against it in the end after Joan was too emotionally affected by the bits we saw on TV in the morning. A shame as her Dad was involved in the actual events of the time, but that was also why it proved a bit much for her. In the evening we went round to Ma & Pa for dinner as it was Mum's birthday yesterday. Another good celebration.
And so back to work. We have finally done what I have been after for 3 or 4 years and signed up a distribution company to take on shoving the books around the county. I just need to sort out a list of places for them and that's it, no more running round in vans and the like.
After finalising details yesterday, this morning has seen my first contract tender committed to the postal system. Timetable designed etc. And I have just realised that we didn't include a map with it. Oh bugger. Oh well, we learn from our mistakes. Will just have to make sure I get one ready if there are any questions. This morning also saw my PDR for the next six months (they are changing the system so next year we do them Jan - Dec rather than April - April, or in this case April but slipped to June - Dec). I think I will be a lot better off with my new targets than I was last year as they are better linked to the day job and tie in with learning objectives I wanted anyway. And there will still be chances to get out and about so I won't be stuck in the office all the time. Now all I need to do is write it up and sort myself out an action plan to get them done.
Finally for today, books. Finished The Dragon Token last night. Really just as good as I remembered (and it has to be said I didn't actually remember a lot of this one) and set up nicely for the reolution in book 3 (or is it 6?). Not sure how I have stopped myself diving in to the final book to get the series ended but I have now started the book of the year (it says on the cover): Eats, Shoots & Leaves - The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss. Fascinating stuff, interesting subject and you never know, I might even end up writing a bit better by the end of it all. I can't say I'm quite as pedantic as she obviously is, but I do cringe when I see stuff out in the public domain that is horrendously wrong...
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