Thursday 31st May 2007
08:34 BST |
Another
turnaround in the weather means this morning is bright and sunny,
although there are still a lot of clouds in the sky. The forecast in my
mornings paper suggests that this afternoon will probably bring some
heavy showers, some of which may be thundery.
This morning I feel a lot better than yesterday morning, and I am
now back at work after my rest and paracetamol. I don't think I feel
100% though, but I assume I will continue to improve as the day passes.
This might be a bit of a grand assumption. On Tuesday morning I felt
just a little under par, and as the day progressed I got steadily worse.
I have no specific plans for today (beyond being at work).
Tonight there is one of the "old pirates" meetings in Barming, but I
suffer from a lack of transport, and an unwillingness to get home drunk
at midnight, and start Friday morning with a hangover after only five
hours sleep. So i won't be attending that. Instead I think I might try
for an early night, or at least to be in bed around 9pm (just when the
boozing gets really going in Barming).
I must say good morning to Rebecca who I suspect might be reading
this. This Rebecca is not my friend Ivor's daughter, nor, as far as I
know a relation of my friend Mike in Canada who shares the same
surname, but just someone who I have exchanged a few pleasant e-mails
with. |
Wednesday 30th May 2007
07:16 BST |
The
weather has reverted back to being gloomy this morning. So far it seems
to be dry, but more rain, some heavy, and even possibly thundery, is
forecast for later today. Much of yesterday was OK. There were plenty
of warm sunny spells until it was time to go home after work. At 16:30,
while waiting for my train at Waterloo East, it poured down, but by the
time I got to Catford the sun was shining again.
It felt very cold at work yesterday, and I felt like I was in the
pre-stages of a cold.This morning I feel very rough. I think I have a
slight fever from the way I feel cold and yet slightly sweaty. So I am
taking the day off work sick. Maybe I'll feel better later in the day.
I certainly hope so. I don't want to miss going for a beer this
evening, and tomorrow I have to go to work. There is work to do that is
pretty important, but more than that, my workmate Stefan is returning
to work after a short holiday in Germany and I should be owing him some
money for some "duty frees" that he was buying for me.
I came home from work yesterday feeling rather tired. My initial
idea was to just spend my time relaxing before going to bed early.
Instead I got intrigued by a new computer operating system I had
acquired. So I fitted a spare 30GB hard drive into my fastest computer,
and had a go at installing it. The installation process reminded me of
some Linux installation processes, but that similarity faded as the
amount of restarts necessary mounted up. Once the installation was
complete I found that the login process, and the way the desktop worked
reminded me of SuSe Linux running the latest KDE desktop. It wasn't
Linux though, it was Windows Vista.
I can see that the amount of security in Vista has been improved
in some ways, but not really in the best way. The chief security
improvement is just a pop up windows asking if you really do want to
install the software that you are attempting to install. Say yes and it
just does it anyway. It would be much improved if Vista had adopted the
Linux way of forcing you to set up an administrator account, who could
do anything, but is not generally logged in, and a limited user account
that is used by default, and only has very limited privileges.
The Mac OSX operating system is actually a good halfway house between
the two extremes. In OSX I am not sure you can ever log in as
administrator, but the administrators password is required before any
major changes can be made to the computer. I guess Microsoft are
getting there, but they are so uptight about software patents, and the
like, that they possibly think that basic computer security is covered
by some sort of open source patent. (Now there's an idea for someone to
make a lot of money, or more likely make a complete fool of themselves
- patent the idea of locking your front door to prevent burglars from
getting in.) |
Tuesday 29th May 2007
08:23 BST |
Now the
bank holiday is over the sun has come out. At 4am, this morning, it was
lighter outside than it had been for the whole of yesterday. It was a
desperately grey and wet day yesterday. Records were broken in some
parts of the country for the amount of rainfall, and high winds added
to the misery. Despite this mornings sunshine it remains almost chilly
outside, and the clouds do seem to be thickening again. I don't think
that there will be any rain comparable to yesterday, but I am sure
there will be a few showers today.
After getting off to a reasonable start yesterday, I suddenly ran
out of enthusiasm to do anything constructive. That included my
mackerel pasta surprise. I resorted to just shoving some stuff in the
oven and letting it cook by itself. For a really boring, wet and
miserable day, I managed to eat comparatively lightly yesterday. Had I
dared to venture out to the shops it could easily have been a different
story. Several times during the day I had urges for stuff I didn't have
in the larder. One of those urges was for chocolate, and that is
slightly unusual for me. More often it would be for something savoury.
Thinking back to yesterday I realise I cannot really account for
my time. Could it be that I passed most of the day just watching TV ?
No, that can't be right because I did do some writing, and I did go
through some unlabeled CD's and DVD's to see what was worth keeping,
and what was worth throwing out. Now I have written that my thoughts
have become just a little clearer. One CD contained a back-up of some
old e-mails dating back to 1999. I managed to import them into Kmail,
the Linux KDE mail client (although I couldn't import them into
Thunderbird, my preferred mail client). Out of curiosity I did read a
few of those old e-mails. One in particular was interesting in
reminding me of the state of computing a mere 8 years ago. It was from
my friend Howard who was telling me how he had upgraded from a 1.2GB
hard drive to a 3.2GB hard drive. (I think I remember those figures
correctly, but I cannot check while I am work). He also went on to say
how much faster the new hard drive was. Today, to do comparable work
(which was mainly audio stuff) you would be talking of 320GB hard
drives. That old 3.2GB hard drive would be pretty much used up just by
the operating system these days. How much does Vista need ?????
Today I have no plans beyond calling in at Tesco's on the way
home for the inevitable catfood. Perhaps I should buy some chocolate
too, but maybe not. That urge has passed now. |
Monday 28th May 2007
10:19 BST |
This
morning it is cold, damp, and gloomy. Since last writing here, the
weather has definitely turned for the worst. Once today, an English
bank (public) holiday is over, and everyone is back at work, the
weather should improve again.
It's time to try and remember what I have done over the last three days.
Friday :
Friday was the free holiday from work. I had been hoping that I
would be spending a lot of time with Aleemah, but it never worked out
that way. Instead of her coming over here, I met her at Camden Town. I
have to say it was not very exciting. We first had a single drink in
The Bucks Head. It is worth noting that this pub has now installed a
roof terrace where smoking will be allowed after those state sponsored
terrorists, the National Health Service militia, get their draconian,
jackbooted, anti-smoking law in force on the 1st of July. Those
bastards are so intent on suppressing any enjoyment, on anything that
makes life worth living, no matter how short, that they make The Amish look like fun loving party animals.
After our quick drink we wandered over to Camden Lock market.
Allemah wanted to find some West Indian food ( peas, rice, and plantain
to be exact), but stall selling it could not be found. Instead we had
some Chinese food. I am not sure what I selected, it may have been pork
in black bean sauce, but although mostly pleasant enough, it was not as
tasty as I had hoped.
A bit of a wander round the market later revealed quite a
multitude of "ethnic" food stalls, and I think I am brave enough to try
more of them sometime in the future. The next stop, after leaving the
market was to visit a couple of shoe shops. Mercifully we did not visit
too many, and Aleemah had a pretty good idea of what she was after.With
Aleemah's new shoes bought we headed back to the pub for another drink,
and it was just one single drink. Neither of us felt like drinking any
more, and neither did we feel like doing any more shopping. So we went
back to the tube station and said our goodbyes.
It was only mid to late afternoon when I arrived back in Catford.
I called in at Tesco on the way home from the station, and bought a few
goodies. I then proceeded to do very little except to eat until it was
time for bed.
Saturday :
Saturday was very boring. I thought it would be exceedingly
unlikely, but I had hoped that Patricia would have contacted me
beforehand to arrange to meet her at Ladywell swimming baths for an
early morning swim. My idea for that had been earlier in the week when
it was hot and sunny. On Saturday morning it was still fairly mild, but
I was rather less keen to go out early to have a swim while it was grey
and cloudy, and not only that, but I was not feeling 100% after eating
so heartily the previous night.
With nothing better to I spent a lot of Saturday just lying
around reading or watching TV. It was not until the evening that I
suddenly found the enthusiasm to do some computer experimentation. I
decided to put into practice and idea that had been buzzing round my
head for several days, or maybe weeks. I have a very large old server
case sitting around not doing anything at all. It had once housed my
own server until I upgraded it. I had it in mind to stuff it full of
old peripherals and try and make it do something that could conceivably
be useful. To this end I fitted two CD rom drives. One was just a CD
reader connected via an IDE channel, and the other was an old burner
that connected via a SCSI interface. That filled two of the 5.25" front
slots. I then added an IDE connected 8GB tape drive (that I do not have
any tapes for, but I might find one, one day), and another slot was
filled with an ancient Syquest 88MB disk cartridge device also
connected via a SCSI interface. The final 5.25" front panel slot was
for a 3.5" floppy drive in an adapter.
Having shoved in an old ISA SCSI interface card, an old ISA sound
card, and hung a 10GB drive on the first IDE channel, I first tried to
install an old Linux distro. In fact it was Caldera open Linux owned by
the now infamous anti-Linux litigant SCO.
I had three reasons for doing so. Firstly the age of most of the
hardware was approximately matched by the age of the Linux
distribution. Secondly it was on an old magazine cover disk that I had
never tried before, and thirdly I thought that using a Linux
distribution by a company that is in dispute with many aspects of Linux
carried a certain nice irony.
For the most part, my idea of using a version of Linux
contemporary with the hardware I was using did work. Everything except
the ISA SCSI interface card was correctly identified and worked OK.
With some additional work I may have been able to manually configure
the necessary bits and pieces to get the SCSI card working (and I could
still do so by re-connecting the hard drive I installed it on). I then
thought I would see what Windows NT4.5 would make of the hardware. That
correctly identified the SCSI card OK, but try as I might I could not
get it to work with several alternative network cards. I also had
problems with the sound card, but I do have several alternatives I
could still try at a later date.
It was both fascinating, and frustrating, playing with that box
of "stuff", and it was not until 4am on Sunday morning that I finally
went to bed !
Sunday :
Yesterday was the special day where I was meeting up with Aleemah to go and see the play "Charlie & Henry"
at the New End Theatre in Hampstead. Getting to Hampstead was
"interesting". Someone had fallen onto the tracks, possibly underneath
a train, at Camden Town station. When I joined the Northern Line at
Waterloo station they were still scraping the mess off the tracks, and
all the trains were severely delayed. Well, I say severely delayed, but
my train was already there when I reached the platform, and it left
seconds later. At first we proceeded normally, but halfway between
Goodge Street and Euston we stopped in the tunnel for about 15 minutes.
It grew increasingly hot and it was a relief when we moved again.
Between Euston and Mornington Crescent we stopped in the tunnel again,
but this time it was only for about five minutes. Once we reached
Mornington Crescent station the driver announced that we would not be
stopping at Camden Town, and advised anyone wanting Camden to use
Mornington Crescent (which is only 10 minutes walk from Camden). We
remained in the station for over ten minutes before our considerably
emptier train moved off again. Apart from going very slowly through
Camden town station the rest of the journey was fairly normal. Rather
amazingly I arrived at Hampstead station just a few minutes late of the
time I had agreed to meet Aleemah.
I won't attempt to describe the play as that is done better on
the link I have provided. I will say that the play was enjoyable, but
watching it wasn't ! For the first half I was getting increasingly
uncomfortable. For one thing I found the seating to be bottom
unfriendly, and the leg space cramped. Then there was the matter of the
last pint of beer I had drunk wanting to exit again after being
processed in the kidneys. In another theatre it might have been
possible to sneak out to the toilets, but the only way out almost
encroached onto the stage itself (the stage being only 6 inches high,
and just 18 inches from the front row). So I sat and suffered for about
70 minutes until the interval. During the interval I had my pee and a
couple of fags before trying to find a comfortable position to sit out
the rest of the play. With no extra discomfort from my bladder I felt a
bit more comfortable, but it was nice when the play ended and I could
stretch my legs again.
Before Aleemah and I said our goodbyes we had one more drink in
Hampstead before going back to the station. The Northern Line had
returned almost to normal, and a train turned up for me almost
immediately, but I think Aleemah had a short wait for her northbound
train. I arrived at Charing Cross station and went up to the mainline
station where I discovered I had missed my Catford bound train by just
two minutes ! After the 18:54 train, the one I had just missed,
the service downgrades to a disgusting one-train-an-hour until the end
of service for the day. So I was pretty pissed off with the train
company at that time. After a wait of twenty minutes I was able to get
a train as far as Lewisham. From there I had a zero minute wait for a
185 bus back to home. It was about 8pm when I got in, and I was feeling
pretty hungry, but couldn't be bothered to do any cooking. I was
feeling rather tired after my excessively late night (early morning !!)
and poor sleep I managed to get during the five or six hours that I was
in bed. I had one and a half small (foot long) French sticks in the
fridge and invented a new international sandwich to eat. The filling
was Brie cheese, crinkle cut pickled gherkins with dill, and German
salami. Maybe it sounds weird, but it was really rather tasty.
I did not want to get to bed too late, but stayed up and watched
the repeat of Saturday's Dr Who on BBC3, and a programme about
children's TV in the 1950's before getting to bed at around 10pm. I was
so tired I fell asleep almost instantly, and slept until I was awakened
by a horrible taste in my mouth at 2:20am . At first I thought I
had, or was about to, puke, but I think it was acid reflux (although a
quick perusal of Wikipedia here, and here,
suggests it was not that, so maybe I was about to puke). The puke like
taste was in the back of my throat, and the back of my throat burned
like it had been exposed to acid. It took several mouthfuls of water to
wash away the acid, and a tiny bit more came back when I coughed.
Perhaps Brie, gerhkin and salami is not a good thing to eat shortly
before bed !
Today :
After my little mid sleep interruption I fell asleep again quite
quickly, and then slept right through until about 6:30am this morning.
Once I had fed the cats I had a shower and got dressed. For breakfast I
had some lovely kippers, and for an early lunch a couple of large
beefburgers. Later on, for dinner I will be cooking mackerel pasta
surprise (surprise because I have not invented the recipe yet, and even
when I do I have no idea how it will turn out).
So far I have spent my time watching TV, and writing this. What
I'll do next is a mystery, but I am feeling like a snooze could be a
good idea soon. Before I finish here there are a couple of photos from
my mobile phone camera I want to show.
The first picture was taken on Platform 5 at London Bridge as I waited
for a train home a week, or two ago. Sitting on top of the display
showing the stations my train will call at as a typical Windows error
message. The picture is not clear enough to show what the message was,
but it said something like "one, or more, devices failed to
start........". Despite that the display was still showing accurate
information. The display that was mounted back-to back with that
display was showing a BIOS screen. I did take a picture of that, but it
was far too blurry to mean anything here. Some information gleaned from
it was that the processor was (from memory) a Cyrix Media+ GL, and that
the box contained two 3.5" 1.44M floppy drives, and no hard drive. By a
strange coincidence another display unit was being worked on when I
passed through London Bridge yesterday. The computer itself was a very
small black box about the size of a small satelite receiver.
This next picture was of some graphiti written on the toilet wall
of the pub next door to The New End Theatre (whose name escapes me for
now). I found it intriguing as I do know know exactly what it
means beyond the fact that it must be something incredibly rude ! I can
think of several possible explanations, all of them potentially
offensive, but for now I'll just reproduce it here and I'll leave it to
your filthy imagination to come up with an explanation ! |
Thursday 24th May 2007
06:55 BST |
This morning
seems, potentially, to be as good as yesterday morning. Yesterday
turned out to be a brilliant day, and I have high hopes that today will
be similar. The only cloud on the horizon is that the forecast suggests
the high temperatures may trigger some isolated short showers of rain
later in the afternoon. Somehow I doubt that, but I know that rain is
forecast for tomorrow.
Yesterday was a pleasant day at work, but with two surprises in
store. The first surprise was the announcement that the production
staff, of which I am for about 50% of my duties, had done so well in
getting all the orders for this month fulfilled in record time, that we
were all being given tomorrow off with no loss of pay, or annual leave
entitlement. This is rather amazing, and something I have never come
across before in all my years. So, with next Monday being a bank
holiday, I am looking forward to a nice long weekend. I am seeing
Aleemah tomorrow, and on Sunday, so it won't be the lonely disaster
that last bank holiday was.
The other surprise was when I left work to go home. Upon arrival
at Waterloo I found the link to Waterloo East blocked off, and
announcements that all train services that go through London Bridge
were suspended. Once again this was because of a fire involving gas
cyclinders. I am slightly more forgiving for the service suspension
this time. Last time the fire was some way away from the railway.
Yesterday the fire was actually in the arches beneath the railway
arches.
The general advice at Waterloo was that passengers should go to
Victoria for service towards Kent, but I decided to see what was
happening at Blackfriars. I did get a train there, but I have to leave
for work now, and will finish this narrative later. |
|
08:38 BST |
Now in work, and the story continues.....
Getting to Blackfriars from Waterloo involves crossing the River
Thames, and jumping on the Circle/District line to Blackfriars tube
station. I had several possibilities to do this. I could have walked
across Hungerford Bridge (or whatever they call that footbridge these
days), or I could get a tube the one stop to Embankment station.
Another alternative could have been to walk along the Southbank, past
Festival Hall, The Tate Modern, and a few other tourist attractions,
and then over Blackfriars Bridge. I rejected that as a walk too far,
and opted for the tube. I had a choice of either the Northern Line, or
the Bakerloo Line. I chose the former and promptly got (almost) lost in
the subterranean labyrinth that is Waterloo tube station. After taking
the "scenic route" I found the Northern Line platform, and was on a
train within a minute or two. From then on it was a simple journey to
Blackfriars via Embankment station.
At Blackfriars I found a lot of crowds, and I feared that trains had
been suspended from there too. I knew that the services that go via
London Bridge would not be running, but I still had high hopes that
trains via Elephant & Castle should still be OK. In fact they were,
and there was a Sevenoaks (via Catford) train in the station and ready
to depart. I had to run the full length of the train, fortunately only
four cars long for the run, but unfortunate for it's passenger carrying
capacity, before I found a corner I could squeeze into. I thought I was
pushing my luck squeezing onto the train, but before we left another
three people somehow managed to get on.
I couldn't conceive that anyone else could possibly get on that
train, but at the first stop, Elephant & Castle, there was a group
of five young black men who would not give way, and literally barged
their way onto the train. It took several attempts before the doors
would close, but eventually they did, and we carried on with the
journey. Prior to that stop we were packed in to the point that
everyone was touching everyone else at some point, but after these five
barged in we were literally squeezed together. It was a hot afternoon,
and I am surprised that no one fainted. When I finally got off at
Catford station I was on the point of feeling wobbly. It took a good
five minutes in the fresh air until I felt totally OK, and far longer
before I had cooled down.
Later on I went to the pub for a drink with Kevin and Iain. Iain
was there already, but Kevin turned up later. He too had been caught up
in the train disruption, and his journey had taken two and half hours
from central London to Catford. I guess I had been very lucky, despite
the discomfort, last night. |
Wednesday 23rd May 2007
08:24 BST |
It's a
beautiful sunny morning. It's quite warm too. Last night it was very
warm going home. I carried my coat all the way until I reached Tesco's
in Catford, where it was more convenient to wear it while carrying
shopping. I arrived home quite damp with sweat. Today I have left my
coat at home for the frirst time in several weeks.
Yesterday was a quiet day at work. Most people were out at a
trade exhibition. So in the spirit if rebelliousness I left 10 minutes
early. It did make my journey home a lot more pleasant. Without
rushing, I got to Clapham Junction station five minutes earlier, and
that enabled me to catch a slightly earlier train. That train arrived
at Waterloo just that little bit earlier, and so I only needed an
(almost) sedate stroll over to Platform A at Waterloo East. From then
on it was just the same as if I had caught my early train back to
Catford Bridge.
Had I not drowned it in "piri piri" mayonnaise, I would have had
a very healthy sort of meal when I got in. It was smoked mackerel with
lots of green salad, tomatoes, peppers, spring onions, and some dill
pickle. Even without the excess (and delicious) mayonnaise, I ruined
everything by eating a very large chunk of date and walnut cake for
sweet. Nevertheless I feel fairly good this morning. I think my body
woke up a little earlier today. I don't mean that in the sense of
waking up from sleep, but feeling like my energy levels had returned to
day time standards. By the time I got to Wandsworth Town station I was
feeling almost frisky (although frisky is a very relative term !!)
I didn't do much last night. Apart from eating, and spending
quite a long time on the phone after Nigel called me, I filled in the
rest of the time watching a 1964 sci-fi movie called "Robinson Crusoe
On Mars". It was a sort of crappy film, and very American-centric, but
in a strange way was quite entertaining. After it finished I went
straight to bed, but by that time it was already well past 9pm and I
wanted to listen to more of of the story from my audio book that I have
been listening to lately. (If I haven't mentioned the name of it
before, it is "Starbeast" by R.A. Heinlein.) I can't remember if it was
at the end of the first side I listened to, or if I started a second
side, but I fell asleep while it was playing. So tonight I will have to
listen to part of it all over again once I am home from drinking with
Kevin and/or Iain.(assuming one or the other is available
tonight). |
Tuesday 22nd May 2007
08:25 BST |
At last,
a sunny morning ! It feels like it is going to be a good day today.
Maybe it will be too good. With the day being mostly sunny, and
temperatures of up to 23° C it may be too warm on the way home.
This morning I probably should have left my coat at home, but didn't.
If the forecast for tomorrows weather is to be believed, I will
definitely being enjoying commuting to and from work in my shirt
sleeves tomorrow.
Yesterday was not so good. It stayed fairly mild, and it did
brighten up from time to time, but I was lightly rained on after I had
arrived back at Catford Bridge station on my way home. That rain only
lasted a few minutes, but it did stay overcast for the whole evening.
What did brighten up my day was an unexpected visit from Patricia.
I was halfway through my dinner when the doorbell rang, and I was
stunned to find Patricia on my door step. She was looking good, and it
was great to hear all her gossip. It seemed her new man has now moved
in with her. So things are going well for her. She only stayed for 30
or 40 minutes, but it made an otherwise bland evening something special.
I went to bed very early last night, but listened to around 90
minutes of an audio book I have been listening to. So I did not get to
sleep as early as I should have. Nevertheless I do feel far better than
yesterday morning, and the aches and pains of a sedentary weekend have
almost worn off now. I had a dream that involved Patricia. It was one
of those dreams where everything seems to morph into something new. The
first bit I remember was being driven through Catford by Patricia. As
we approached where St Dunstans college would normally be, she said to
me that she had either been bad, or was feeling sad (I cannot recall
which it was exactly), and that she needed to go to church (which was
conveniently where the college should be). I was not too keen on this,
but agreed to go with her. As a possible excuse not to go I suggested
that it was not the done thing to appear in church wearing the bright
orange t-shirt that she was wearing. She said it would be fine, and she
turned into a place where once upon a time there used to be a load of
lock-up garages (demolished and built over years ago in real life).
Somehow she parked the car sideways in a garage, and we got out. As I
turned to go she asked me not to forget the keys. I found that there
were keys in both the rear and front doors of the cars. After making
sure the doors were locked I removed the keys, and turned around to
find that it was my friend Ivor wearing a bright orange t-shirt, and
not Patricia. It seems the curse of the morphing dream had struck again.
I doubt if much will be happening tonight. I need to call in at
Tesco on the way home, but after that I may watch what is probably a
really crappy sci-fi film I have acquired. It is called "Robinson
Crusoe on Mars". May it is good, but I have grave doubts about it. It
all depends on whether the story was written by a genuine sci-fi
writer, or some Hollywood hack I'm betting it was the latter. |
Monday 21st May 2007
08:11 BST |
Today
started fairly bright, but as I commuted to Wandsworth the clouds got
thicker and thicker. For the last minute of my walk from the bus stop
to work it started to rain. It was incredibly light rain. Initially I
felt two distinct drops some 10 or 20 seconds apart. Even as I walked
the last few seconds before coming inside, the rain had not got heavier
than a rain drop, or two, every second. I am not sure what it is doing
now, but I suspect it is just a slow drizzle. Later on it may rain a
lot harder, or so the weather forecast would suggest. there is a
suggestion too, that the temperature will only climb to about 16°
C. It feels warmer than that already though.
I do feel a little crappy this morning. Bits of me ache, and I
know that my blood sugar level is far too high. I did make an effort to
not get carried away with eating too much yesterday. For the most part
I succeeded, but I did have one bad lapse. Things started OK with
smoked mackerel and fresh crusty bread for breakfast. During the day I
did nibble on some fresh coconut. I suspect that like most nuts it is
full of oil and calories, but it's rough texture (and the difficulty of
extracting it from the shell) makes eating it less of a robotic
experience than scoffing through a bag of peanuts (mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
peanuts !!!!!). During the course of the day I did eat about half the
quite small coconut. The very bad thing I did was to eat some iced
yoghurt that was smothered in raspberry syrup. I knew this to be very
bad, and tried to eat it sparingly. Unfortunately, in the evening, I
had more smoked mackerel with chargrilled mixed Mediterranean
vegetables. By itself that was OK, but I decided to spice things up a
bit with some hot pepper sauce. That would have been fine, but I
somehow managed to get the distribution of the sauce very uneven. One
mouthful must have been 50% pure pepper sauce and it hurt ! The remedy
was to eat gratuitous amounts of more ice cream.
After a day of just lolling around reading, watching TV, and
dozing off, I felt sleepy, but not tired (or was it the other way
round). I went to bed feeling like lying down would be a good idea, but
I had difficulty getting to sleep. So I listened to another 50 minute
episode of an audio book I had been listening to earlier, and tried
again. The excess sugar in my blood made me feel hot, and also very
alert. Eventually sleep came, but it was not until 11pm (or
thereabouts). I woke early this morning, at around 5am, so I have had
rather less sleep than I desired (I also woke up to pee twice in the
night). I think I will be feeling a bit sleepy this afternoon. Right
now, having been sitting down for the last 30 minutes, I don't feel too
bad. Maybe I'll live for the next few hours ! |
Sunday 20th May 2007
09:13 BST |
|
It's a bright sunny
morning. If it warms up it could be quite a nice day. Yesterday was not
too bad. There was plenty of sunshine, but the wind kept thing it
cooler than it might have been.
As I was sure would
happen, I didn't hear from Patricia on Friday, and so I met up with
Aleemah for a couple of pints at Victoria. I managed to get my
preferred train home from Victoria, and was home by 7pm. During the day
I had eaten only one roll, and a very nice roll it was too. It was a
mozerella, sundried tomato, basil, and pesto (small) french stick. I
did have the opportunity to eat a lot more. During the afternoon we had
a sort of work social with a film and a rather grand spread of grub to
eat. I declined the food (and booze), and I had to miss the very end of
the film to get to Aleemah on time.
With so little food inside me, and the effects of the beer with
Aleemah, I was feeling like a big dinner when I finally got home on
Friday night. It was slightly weird, that despite my hunger, I was
fairly patient and decided to order some food from the local kebab
shop. I ordered, and ate, two large kebabs complete with salad and
chilli sauce ! They were very tasty, and filled me up a treat, but
I knew there would be a price to pay for eating them. The price
was was paid yesterday afternoon when I had to make a series of rapid
dashes to the toilet.
|
| 11:44 BST |
Since writing the first part of today's entry I have been shopping in Tesco, and had some breakfast. So, to continue......
Yesterday seemed to pass quite quickly. It was not a very
productive day, but I did achieve a few things. My first achievement
was to get another hour or two of sleep after feeding the cats at
05:30. I did a few of the usual Saturday things. I did the laundry, and
went shopping for catfood and cat litter (and emptied, and cleaned
Nelly's litter tray).
My only other achievement of note was to do a completely fresh
installation of OSX 10.3.9 on my iMac. The rest of the day was spent
either reading, or watching old episodes of Star Trek.
My iMac is a rather old version of it's species. It has a mere
233MHz processor and 160KB of ram. That makes it rather slow to
operate. It may well be that it would be faster to operate if I was
using an older version of the Mac operating system on it (maybe OS 9,
or even something earlier), but I stick by my original idea that I
wanted to know about using OSX to stay contempoary with other Mac
users. I was advised that using native Apple applications would be far
faster than some of my preferred applications (Firefox, Thunderbird
etc.). That is certainly true, but it comes at a price. Safari, the
native web browser, preforms well, but then again so did Firefox. Mail,
the email application, works, but is really horrible to use. iTunes, as
an mp3 player must be the crappiest application ever written. It is
hard to use, does everything exactly the way you don't want it to do,
and comes across as a mere vehicle to induce you to spend money
at Apple's iTunes online store. I will be most happy if ever Xmms, the
unix media player, is ever ported to operate natively under OSX. (There
is a way of installing it even now, but the method is complex, and
hardly worth the bother on my iMac).
I am obviously some sort of masochist because I am writing all
today's entry on my iMac. It is painfully slow. Using Nvu as the page
editor, and having Fugu open to download/upload the file to my server,
has slowed things down to the point where characters are added to the
page at approximately 1 second intervals no matter how fast I type ! I
would be curious to know if there is a cure for this behavior. I
suspect not, and that the real answer is in aquiring a faster machine.
If you have the answer to this conundrum, or have a very cheap iMac for
sale (very cheap !), get in touch ( bill dot kelsey at tesco dot net ).
I am not sure what I am doing for the rest of the day. What I am
sure about is that I will not be attempting to use this iMac for
writing any more web pages !!! |
Friday 18th May 2007
08:15 BST |
When I
left home this morning the sun was shining. It was only weak sunshine,
but there were lots of blue bits in the sky, and somewhere in London
the sun could have been much brighter. The sunshine has not lasted
though, or at least not here in Wandsworth. It is now fairly grey
outside, but I doubt it will rain for a little while yet. Last night I
saw a weather forecast that suggested overnight cloudy skies would keep
the daytime warmth in. Well the skies were not that cloudy this
morning, but it is certainly mild this morning. It is very close to
being warm out. One more degree, and 50% less clouds in the sky and I
might have even considered leaving my jacket at home. I think some rain
is expected for this afternoon, and so my jacket may well come in
useful after all.
I was disappointed that I never heard any more from Patricia
about visiting last night. In anticipation I cooked a large pot of tuna
and spinach pasta with anchovies for extra fishiness. It was very nice
when I finally gave up on Patricia and sat down to eat it. I had it
with some hot pepper sauce on, something that Patricia would not like,
and hardly authentic for Italian cooking, but it did give it a
marvellous extra "zing" ! With no Patricia to help me out eating it, I
ate the whole lot myself. It was a bit of a bloating experience, and
this morning I still feel a bit "lumpy". It certainly slowed me down on
my way into work, but did not make me late (there is a fair amount of
slack built into my commute to work).
Unless Patricia gets in touch with a 100% guarantee that she will
pick up her post tonight, I will be seeing Aleemah for an after work
drink in Victoria. I will probably be home by 7pm (if I get my favoured
train), and so there is still scope for Patricia to stop. I very much
doubt she will though as she will almost certainly be wanting to be in
the arms of her lover by then.
With Patricia being with her lover, and Aleemah off to Brighton
with her friend John, it looks as if I have another boring weekend on
my hands. Maybe I might go out and do some photography, or maybe I
might just mope at home watching old episodes of Star Trek. It depends
on the weather (should be bright with occasional rain), or it just
depends.............................. |
Thursday 17th May 2007
08:12 BST |
More rain
this morning, but so far it has been intermittent, and very light. In
Wandsworth, as I went to the bus stop, the rain was so light as to be
almost like a refreshing mist. I could not describe as be refreshing if
were not for the apparent fact that it is warmer this morning than of
late. The forecast for today's weather in this mornings Metro newspaper
suggests that this afternoon will be cloudy, but dry, and with the
temperature reaching a high of 22° C. That must be a good few
degrees higher than the afternoon temperatures of the last week, or
maybe even two. It would be nice to think that summer is restarting
again after the couple of weeks of summer weather earlier on this
spring.
I ordered myself a new toy yesterday. It should arrive today. The toy is an electronic, USB connected, microscope.
It cost a little more than I should really spend with another fortnight
to pay day, but at £58, including delivery, I think I can bear
the cost. For me it is a bit of a toy, but I think it could be useful
here at work, and if it is I will try an persuade the company to buy
one. Occasionally it is necessary for us to take close up pictures of
printed circuit boards to show modifications, or to berate the circuit
board manufacturer for poor quality work. Messing about with an
ordinary digital camera to take such pictures is often tricky, but my
hope is that this "toy" will do the job easily. It might even come in
handy to inspect my own repairs before I release them back to the
production people.
There is not much to say about last night. I met up with Kevin
and Iain for a couple of beers (and one scotch and ice) before heading
home again at a few minutes past 9pm. Actually, there is one thing I
was going to comment on. When I left the pub there was still a little
light left in the sky. No doubt that if it had a been a clear evening
it would have been a little brighter still, but it reminded me of the
first sign of hope that I would soon be getting home from work in
daylight from earlier in the year. Getting home from the pub in
daylight will soon come, but is a mere novelty compared to the first
joys of getting home from work in daylight after a long dark winter.
Travelling to, and from, work in daylight seems so normal now, but the
gloomy prospect of travelling in the dark is only, what, another five
or six months away.
Much to my surprise it seems that Patricia may visit me tonight.
It remains to be seen if she does, but I hope she can drop in on her
way home from work. I thought she was going to try and pop in tomorrow
night, but I guess she want to rush home into the arms of her lover on
a Friday night. |
Wednesday 16th May 2007
06:50 BST |
I woke up
at 04:59 BST this morning. That might have been OK if it had been a
fine sunny morning, but it is grey, very grey, and as I was about to
leave for work, raining very hard. So I am going to try my luck with
the next train. Hopefully, by then, the rain will have stopped, or at
least eased off. Right now it looks as if the whole day will be damp
and miserable, but there is always the chance that the sun might break
through for the odd moment or two like it did yesterday.
With far less aches and pains, my working day was more pleasant
yesterday, although nothing significant happened. On reflection, maybe
something significant did happen. I appear to have found a portion of
the universe where the laws of physics break down. I was working on
repairing a circuit board that passed all technical tests, and yet
would not work. Somewhere within one of the integrated circuits there
is probably a black hole, or something. I will be spending more time on
that circuit board today, but I have measured everything I can, and
everything tests perfectly. Maybe I should call in a priest or a
clairvoyant. It is obvious that science can no longer help in repairing
this fault.
My attempt to not buy anything outrageous in Tesco last night
failed, but only failed a bit. I was intrigued by "hot spicy sausages"
from the hot meat counter. I can't recall seeing them before and had to
try a couple. They were pretty nice, but probably laden with fat and
grease. Now my curiosity has been satisfied I will leave them alone
until next time.
The rest of what I ate was semi OK. I had half a stone baked
French loaf with some seafood cocktail sandwich mix. The latter is
probably unhealthy in large quantities, but I think I can get away with
it this time. What I didn't have was my spinach and tuna pasta, and I
won't be having it tonight either.
Tonight I hope to meet up with Kevin and Iain for a beer (and
Iain, try and remember my miniDV tape tonight - I'll call you later
today and remind you). I prefer not to eat too much before a beer so I
will probably just finish the rest of the French loaf off with some
spicy mexican bean spread. After the pub I expect I will indulge in a
post-beer snack. I have some Tesco southern fried chicken "slabs" that
I may cook before going out, and snack on them once I am home again. Of
course if I was feeling very healthy I would forego the snack and go
straight to bed. I might even do that, but it depends on whether I have
two or three pints of beer ! |
Tuesday 15th May 2007
08:03 BST |
This
morning has not started as gloomy as yesterday morning. There have even
been a few spells of weak sunshine. Unfortunately it seems the clouds
are thickening again, and I expect there will be more rain later on. It
might also be a tiny bit warmer than yesterday morning, but that still
makes it a little too cool for comfort.
As I made my way home from work yesterday, I felt cold, tired and
unwell. It was very tempting to buy something hot and filling on the
way home, but I resisted that. Once home, but not before the cats had
been fed, I resorted to a couple of instant noodle pots as a quick
means of getting something warm inside of me. With the need of instant
gratification settled I was able to cook something a little better. As
a counter to the aches and pains I had during the day, I opted for some
oily fish. I had two lots that were in need of consuming before they
went off. The first, some salmon, was actually on it "use by" date, and
the other, some smoked mackerel, was actually past it's "use by" date.
So I cooked both in the oven with a little olive oil to keep the salmon
moist. To accompany the fish I just had some peas. As an experiment I
tried cooking both some Tesco "value" tinned garden peas, and some
ordinary Tesco tinned garden peas. The "value" branded ones, at about
half the price of the ordinary ones, might just have had a slight edge
over the more expensive ones. I didn't bother to read the ingredients
of the tin, but I suspect that on average the contents are identical,
and the extra price is for more ink on the tins label.
That fish does seem to have made a huge improvement to the aches
and pains I was suffering yesterday. This morning I feel almost good. I
also slept a lot better last night. I got to sleep fairly quickly, and
only woke up once briefly. Maybe it was Nelly jumping off my bed (or
maybe jumping on, I can't remember). My sleep may have come from
earlier exhaustion, but I choose to believe that a couple of large
Scotch Whiskies helped most of all.
Tonight I have to call in at Tesco's for some essential supplies,
but I am going to try and reign in my enthusiasm for buying bargains
that I shouldn't really eat, or for tasty comfort foods. I have decided
that tonight I am going to have spinach and tuna pasta for my main
dinner, but if I am feeling tired and cold when I get in I may have a
little snacklet before I start cooking. One of the penalties of eating
nothing but fruit until I get home from work is that in cool weather,
such as we are experiencing now, I do feel starving by the time I get
home. Given a moderate rise in temperature the hunger becomes less,
although is still fairly strong, but I do feel like I have so much more
energy.
I am wondering if it is pure coincidence that my weblogs show
that in the last few days I have had visitors reading this page in
Finland, while at the same time I have recently exchanged a couple of
e-mails with a lady living in London, but originally from Finland. It
may well not be a coincidence, and have nothing to do with that lady
since I recall a few visits from Finland a month or two ago. If you are
reading this Veera, have a pleasant day. |
Monday 14th May 2007
06:55 BST |
It's another
cold, grey, and wet start to the day. It looks as if it will drizzle,
on and off, for the rest of the day. This is not too dissimilar to
yesterday, although in the early evening there was some weak sunshine.
Perhaps the sun may break through at some point today, but right now it
does not look like it.
I had a very lazy day yesterday. With al the computers working OK
there was little else to do. I could have done some intensive spring
cleaning, or something, but elected to just loll around the house
either reading or watching old episodes of Star Trek. Contrary to my
predictions of yesterday morning, this couch potato work did not
involve beer or unhealthy snacks. While there were no snacks involved,
I did manage to consume a lot of food. In the morning I managed to
munch my way through four (or was it five) small bread rolls with some
assorted fillings. In the late afternoon I had a rather tasty dinner.
While shopping on Saturday morning I came across a £5 pack of
steaks reduced to £3.85 (or something). They looked a bit grey,
but that does not bother me. What did surprise me was the amount there
was in the pack when I actually opened it up. They were packed in clear
plastic so I could see how much was there, but it was still seemed more
when I handled them directly. It was poor quality steak, as you would
expect from the price, but aside from a bit of toughness they were
quite tasty when served with a pile of "chargrilled mediteranean mixed
vegetables". It did make for quite a big, satisfying, dinner. With the
steak being very lean (and hence the reason for a lack of flavour and
texture), and the vegetables being cooked in olive oil, it was, if you
stretch your imagination far enough, almost, but not really, a healthy
meal. I did feel pretty stuffed after eating it, so I guess it was not
very healthy at all !
This morning I am obviously writing this from home. I did get
50ft from the house, heading for the station, but a rumble of stomach
pain drove me back again. I think it was just wind, and very soon now I
will be attempting to get to work again. |
| 08:37 BST |
I have
now arrived at work, just 30 minutes late. It is still very grey
outside, but at least it did not rain while I was travelling.
When I first started writing today I did not have time to mention
that I had a really rough night. I went to bed at a suitable time,
around 9pm, but could not get to sleep initially. It was one of those
nights where I felt stifled by the heat under the duvet, and shivering
cold without the duvet. After numerous experiments of leaving bits of
me outside the duvet, I finally fell into a very disturbed sleep. I
woke up numerous times, and at about 3am I woke up with a headache of
almost migraine proportions. A couple of Ibuprofen dulled the headache
enough to get back to sleep eventually, but I lost out on at least 30
minutes of sleep. I woke up feeling very stiff and sore after sleeping
in some bizarre awkward position. My pillows were all over the place,
and the duvet was twisted out of all recognition. So this morning I am
feeling quite rough, and I still have a mild headache. If that does not
improve in the next hour or so I think I will be forced to take some
more painkillers.
I am wondering what this week will bring. I know I am not seeing
Aleemah again until maybe Friday, and if not then it will not be until
sometime during next week. Although I do have the chance to go for a
drink with Aleemah on Friday, my preference is to hopefully see
Patricia . She was planning a visit to the dentist on Friday, and said
she may pop in afterwards. I would love to see her, and she does have a
good excuse to drop by to pick up several pieces of mail that have been
sitting at home for some time now. Besides I want to hear all her
gossip, and hear how well things are going with her new boyfriend
(assuming everything is OK on that score). |
Sunday 13th May 2007
09:16 BST |
No sun
this morning ! It is cold, grey, wet, and miserable. I haven't seen a
weather forecast for today, but I estimate it will stay overcast, with
frequent rain, for most of today. Yesterday was brighter than today,
and for odd moments it was pleasant and sunny, but at other times there
was plenty of rainfall, and some of that was quite heavy for short
periods of time. When I met Aleemah at London Bridge yesterday, she
commented on what a nice day it was. It seems that as she travelled
down from North London she experienced nothing but bright sunshine. So
it must have been a bit of a shock to her when we arrived back in
Catford and it rained on her !
We had a pleasant afternoon together, although whoever it was who
kept ringing me while Allemah and I were busy did spoil the ambience a
bit. Prior to being "busy" we watched the film "Hot Fuzz". It has seen
some good write ups in the papers, and they were not far wrong. It is
pretty funny, and the humour increases towards the end. Despite that I
did not think it was that well done. I am sure that some other
director, producer, cast, or something, could have made a better film
from the core of the script. As to who those other mysterious people
may I have no idea. I am not well educated on directors, producers or
actors.
This morning I have been busy - well, sort of. Although I am
still only partly washed and dressed, I have fed the cats, put a load
of washing in the washing machine, and fitted a proper graphics card in
the PC downstairs. Instead of the onboard graphics, it now has an
Nvidia Geforce 5200 128MB AGP graphics card. I think it was well worth
installing it. I am currently converting four 59 minute avi files to
DVD, and it id now doing it in approximately real time. That is getting
on for almost double the speed that it was achieving using the onboard
graphics adapter.
Once I am fully dressed I must go and buy some more washing
powder from Tesco (which opens in 30 minutes). While I am there I will
inevitably buy yet more catfood, and I think I'll look out for some
nice goodies for me. I have a plan for this afternoon that involves
watching a pile of old episodes of Star Trek (the original series) in
my best imitation of a couch potato. And if that involves eating
unhealthy snack food while doing so, then that is what I am going to do
(and probably drink some beer) - Homer Simpson ? Pah, mere amateur ! |
Saturday 12th May 2007
08:10 BST |
I am just
thirty seconds too late to say that the sun is shining. For the last
hour there has been intermittent sunshine, but the clouds are
thickening and it may be getting time for the next bout of rain. This
does seem to make the most recent weather forecast I saw look fairly
accurate - more rain with sunny intervals !
After just a little more preparation I started to put my rebuilt
Windows 2000 computer to work last night. It's first task was to
transcode some avi files to a DVD. There were still some Windows
updates taking place while it did it, but I was disappointed that it
seemed to take five hours to do what used to take four hours using the
old motherboard. I could blame this on the on-board graphics card, but
I have my doubts. At some point I will double check this by disabling
the on-board card and fit a proper graphics card. Maybe it will help,
or maybe it will make little difference. I believe that some graphics
cards can assist in mpeg encoding, but on the old motherboard I was
using a video optimised, but rather old Matrox PCI card. Curiously
enough, the PC I am using right now (upstairs, front bedroom, Windows
XP), that uses a theoretically slower processor, seems to win the race
for mpeg encoding. Both machines have the same amount of memory (1 GB),
and this machine has (I think) an old ATI "All-In-Wonder" graphics
card. I was about to say that it too was a PCI card, but on reflection
it may be an AGP card. I do know that it does have some mpeg encoding
hardware on the card for the TV tuner, and video capture, functions.
Whether the DVD encoding program I am using can make use of that
hardware is an unknown quantity, but perhaps that does explain why a
slower machine, by pure numbers, manages the job faster. It seems
like a good incentive to fit a faster, more upmarket (but actually
"last years model") to that machine downstairs, and see what happens.
Today Aleemah is visiting me. So far I have not had the dreaded
text message to say she is calling it off. It was about this time last
week that she did that. So theoretically I am in a bit of a rush this
morning to tidy the place up. I am now washed and shampooed, but have
yet to get fully dressed. I must get dressed soon and rush out to the
shops. I am hoping that one of the local shops will have a drive belt
for the beater bar of my vacuum cleaner. It still sucks OK without one,
but does not do a very good job of lifting some stuff from the carpets
- and they do need doing. The next stop after that will be the
inevitable visit to Tesco for cat food and cat litter. I don't need to
get any special food because Aleemah wants to eat in the Catford Cafe
(or should that be the Broadway Cafe) pie and mash shop. She has taken
a liking to their pie and mash in the possibly mistaken belief that she
is eating eel pies instead of mincemeat pies. (She doesn't eat mammal
protein, but eats any other animals). |
Friday 11th May 2007
08:12 BST |
The
weather is sort of half and half this morning. the sky has plenty of
clouds, some almost black and sinister, but between those clouds there
is some sunshine occasionally getting through. It seems to feel cooler
than yesterday, but the way I was judging the temperature yesterday
seemed highly subjective, and may not have reflected the true
temperature as felt by everybody else. I would guess that there wil
many times today when it rains just as it did yesterday, but for the
moment it is dry.
It was my intention to get home as soon as possible after work
yesterday. It didn't happen like that. I got half way to the bus stop
and made the decision that I would be a lot more comfortable if I
turned back and used the toilets at work. This decision turned out to
be a wise choice. With no chance of ever getting my early train home I
had a slightly more leisurely journey to Clapham Junction. It was lucky
I did not leave it until a bit later because the traffic on the way was
pretty heavy, and in all probability would have got heavier still.
Having arrived at Clapham Junction I assessed the available
trains and noted that there were two trains in quick succession from
platform seven. This is my favourite platform where all the long
distance trains call. These trains are most often partly empty after
Clapham Junction, and are usually fast to Waterloo (main line) station.
I didn't get to the platform in time for the first train, but the
second was only three or four minutes behind. That train was a class
159 diesel electric multiple unit. Travelling on these train is a
fairly rare occurence for me, and so injected a little novelty value in
my journey home.
I arrived at Waterloo a little later than I might have desired,
but still in plenty of time to catch the late train from platform A of
Waterloo East station. The ride from there to Catford Bridge was
uneventful, and I was looking forward to first grabbing a bite to eat,
and then getting stuck in repairing/rebuilding my downstairs, back
room, Windows 2000 computer. It didn't happen like that. I was two
thirds of the way from the station to home when I was suddenly greeted
by name from someone initially unfamiliar. After a double take I
recognised the man to be Andy Leaper who I hadn't seen for something
like 20 years. We had a long and interesting chat where we were before
he continued towards the station and I continued towards home.
[Andy, if you are reading this, I told you the wrong date. It is Thursday 31st May, and not the 30th]
It was 6pm when I arrived home, and the cats were very keen to be
fed ! I was pretty keen to feed myself too. So I fed the cats, and made
myself a couple of rolls. Between all that I put some salmon in the
oven to cook. The next thing that happened was a text message from
Aleemah asking me to call her at home. We had a long and pleasant
conversation while my salmon started to cremate itself in the oven. I
did nip out halfway through our conversation and turn the oven off, but
when I came to finally eat that salmon it was rather overdone (well, a
lot actually), but it was still quite tasty, and the soy sauce I had
experimentally basted it in ended up as a rather nice touch.
Finally I got to work on the computer. Everything seemed to go
well, and although I stayed up a lot later than I should have, I
managed to get most things installed (software, hardware and drivers)
that I wanted. This morning I found the new SATA hard disk was not
being seen, and a quick check showed that the drivers for the
controller card had been rejected by Windows. It was only a few minutes
work to install the drivers that Windows considered to be correct and
start the process of formatting the new hard disk. According to the
instruction sheet there should have been a choice of two drivers for
the controller card. One set was to use the controller for individual
disks, and the other to use a pair of disks in RAID formation. Windows
decided that it only like the RAID drivers, but then asked if the hard
disk it then detected was to be part of a RAID formation or to be
treated as a single volume. I opted for single volume and from then on
everything went to plan. There was just enough time to format the disk
before I had to leave for work, and now I look forward to putting that
disk, and the rest of the machine, through its paces when I get home
tonight. |
Thursday 10th May 2007
08:23 BST |
This
morning is a vast improvement on yesterday morning, or indeed the few
previous mornings. The sky still has some clouds, and is a little hazy,
but there is sunshine this morning. It also feels warmer than the
previous few mornings as well. My appreciation of the temperature may
be a bit wonky this morning. Perhaps it was the two and a half pints of
beer last night, or the hot chilli flavoured tortilla chips I was
eating last night, but I have felt quite damp and sweaty without
actually feeling exceptionally warm. Of course the other reason for the
sweatiness is that after the last couple of days the trains and buses
have their heating turned up rather high. Now that's OK for an empty
train or bus when it first goes into service in the morning, but once
it starts to get crowded a little less heat is desirable.
I got home on my early train yesterday, and although I went home
via Tesco, I was still in nice and early. That gave me a chance to fit
my new motherboard into my ailing computer. I didn't get a chance to
connect up the first hard drive and floppy disk before I went to the
pub, but I did get as far as checking the machine would P.O.S.T. (power on self test),
and this confirmed the board worked, and that I had set the CPU
parameters correctly. Perhaps it is wrong to say I confirmed the board
worked. The old motherboard, and the now abandoned faulty old, but new,
motherboard would get by P.O.S.T OK, and the troubles started after
that. I am confident that the brand new motherboard will work OK once I
have the hard drive connected up and Windows re-installed.
After my beers with Kevin, Iain, and a rare appearance of Howard,
I went home again just a little after 9pm. I was very tempted to do
some more work on the PC, but I knew if I started that I would probably
get carried away and not get to bed until midnight, or some such silly
time. So I ignored the computer and watched a bit of TV while munching
through half a large bag of hot chilli flavoured tortilla chips. Now I
realise that this was not very healthy eating, but prior to going to
the pub I had been very careful of what I ate. The trouble is that
alcohol, like smoking cannabis, can give you the munchies, and I most
definitely had the munchies after eating quite lightly through the day,
and drinking booze afterwards. All I could find on TV was an old "Carry
On" film (Carry On Doctor I think). It provided a bit of amusement
while I wound down, but I did not stay up to see the end of the film. I
think I was in bed by about 9:45pm (and the film finished at 10:00pm).
Tonight I was due to be seeing Aleemah, but she has texted in
sick. Although I am disappointed by this, it does come at a convenient
time. I can now devote the evening to setting up the new incarnation of
my "downstairs, backroom, Windows 2000 computer.
[In case you don't know me I had
better explain I have rather a large home computer network. In the
front room sits an old, slow, but still stylish, iMac computer. In my
bedroom I have a slow, but still useful for playing mp3's, and checking
e-mail, Windows 2000 computer. In the upstairs front bedroom I have a
reasonably fast Windows XP computer. Downstairs again, in the back room
I have a semi fasr computer running SuSe Linux, and that is used mainly
for internet based stuff. Then there is the fairly fast Windows 2000
machine that I am currently repairing. That is optimised for video
work. Also in the same room are three more machines. One is an ancient
machine that is used as a firewall. Lastly there are two old machines
that are both used as servers. One has these web pages on, and the
other is mainly for "network attached storage". It also has an ftp
server on it. I have several other computers, all fairly old, and one
pretty ancient. The ancient one is in good working order with Windows
For Workgroups 3.11 on it, and has had so much stuff added to it that
if it went back in time to when it would have been new, it would be
hailed as a super computer ! All of these last computers are just in
storage, but could be plugged into my network at any time, and used.] |
Wednesday 9th May 2007
08:10 BST |
It's
another rather grey morning. Not as grey as yesterday, maybe, grey
enough. It is also possibly cooler than yesterday morning. The forecast
suggests that the top temperature today may only reach 14° C, but I
suspect that here in London it may be a degree, or two, warmer. There
is also the suggestion of rain later on today.
After my rocky start to the day, yesterday, I began to improve as
the day wore on, but this was at the expense of a headache that ranged
from extremely mild to fairly bad. Despite still feeling like I was
almost, but not quite, ill, I surprised myself by running 50ft for a
bus with no ill effects when I left work. I didn't even feel very
winded, just slightly winded. Later on I thought I would try out my
stamina by racing up the stairs from the subway at Waterloo East
station. That almost killed me !
When I got home I did my best to eat fairly moderately, and in
some ways I succeeded. Ideally I should have eaten less, but what I did
eat was moderately healthy in some respects, bread with no butter or
margerine, but unhealthy in other ways, or to be specific, blue cheese.
I also had some leftover ham cooked with tomatoes, a red pepper,
sweetcorn, and some black bean sauce. The ham was fairly lean, and the
vegetables only cooked enough to slightly soften them ( a la dente is
the term, I believe). So do I feel better for it this morning ? Maybe.
My energy levels seem to be fluctuating wildly this morning. My walk to
the station was about average. The long rush from the platforms at
Waterloo East station to my platform on Waterloo main line station was
typically challenging (read - knackering). The walk from Wandsworth
Town station to the bus stop felt very easy, and the walk from the bus
to work seemed unusually tiring. I am not sure how I feel as I type
this, but I reckon I'll live.
I didn't do anything of any significance last night. I watched
some TV, wrote a semi long e-mail, and went to bed. It doesn't sound
like much, and I guess it wasn't. Tonight I could be really busy, but
won't be. I should be getting my new motherboard delivered today. were
it not for the fact that I will out having a drink with Kevin and Iain,
I would probably end up getting to bed stupidly late after playing with
the computer half the night. Tomorrow I should be meeting Aleemah, and
so I won't be playing with the computer then, but Friday night I should
have plenty of free time to get stuck into it. |
Tuesday 8th May 2007
08:14 BST |
The rain
gave up yesterday afternoon, and I don't think it has rained since.
This morning is overcast, and the forecast suggests there will be
plenty of opportunity for more rain today. When it did rain yesterday,
it really did rain. For maybe as much as two hours it pelted down. Once
it had stopped the clouds did break up, and early evening was quite
bright and sunny.
It is good to be back at work. Three days of eating and smoking
too much, while being mostly lazy, have left me feeling almost ill this
morning. Yesterday I did manage to curb the quantity I ate, at least to
a certain extent, but the quality of what I ate was far from healthy.
Mixing greasy Tesco's own "hot spicy chicken thighs" with a large bag
of peanuts, and chocolate covered ice cream things, has probably left
my blood pressure high, and my blood sugar level high (the humous
and fruit were probably blameless). So it will come as some relief to
my poor suffering body that I will only be eating fruit until I get
home from work. It is possible (but not necessarily probable) that I
might just eat some grilled salmon with vegetables for dinner tonight,
and nothing else.
Yesterday afternoon I spent some time playing with old computer
motherboards. Of the two old Socket A motherboards that I wanted to
try, I only got as far as the first one. Superficially it seemed to
work OK. I installed Windows without any trouble, and could read and
write to the floppy drive with no corruption to the hard disk. The AGP
slot seemed to work just fine, and I began to wonder just what I
originally thought was wrong with it. I soon learned that the major
fault was that nothing in the PCI slots was being detected, or at least
correctly detected.Also some jumper settings on the motherboard were no
being read properly. I was not sure if it was the onboard sound card,
or the PCI network card, that Windows kept thinking was a "VGA Device".
In desperation I tried flashing the BIOS chip. That worked, but didn't
help, and in one respect it made things worse despite being a later
release. The thing that was made worse was that the CPU was no longer
correctly identified, and it was impossible to set the frequency and
multiplier to the correct settings.
As an experiment I removed the flash memory device that holds the
BIOS from my recently condemned motherboard and tried that in the
new(old) motherboard. It was no great surprise that the computer would
not boot at all with that in there. So I resorted to the dangerous
practice of hot swapping BIOS chips. That was successful in as much as
nothing blew up, but I was unable to reprogram the alien chip to make
it work. So maybe tonight two motherboards will end up in the dustbin,
but that does leave one more to experiment with. That must be the one
where every time the floppy disk drive is accessed the hard drive gets
corrupted. If that is the only problem then I may still attempt to use
it with the floppy controller disabled, and no floppy drive
fitted.
I note that there is another bank holiday Monday coming up on the
28th of this month. I knew it was imminent, but it was only this
morning that I checked the actual date. I think that for that long
weekend I must try and do something more entertaining, or try and get
to see someone. I have felt rather isolated over the last three days,
and that is another reason why coming back to work is good. Kevin did
give me the opportunity to go for a drink on Sunday night, but without
any advance warning. There were essentially two reasons why I did not
join him. First I felt too stuffed from overeating to go out, and
secondly I had assumed that I would be safe in complete slob mode by
not even bothering to wash when I got up in the morning. Maybe a quick
rub over with a damp flannel, and a good spray of deodorant may have
fixed the latter problem, but the first problem was really
insurmountable. This was a shame because getting mildly drunk was just
what I think I desired on Sunday night. |
Monday 7th May 2007
08:52 BST |
It is a
bank holiday (public holiday) in England today, and in keeping with
tradition it is cold, damp, and grey outside ! From time to time it is
more than damp, it is actually raining. Yesterday was similar, but with
very little rain, and the day before was mostly grey, but without any
rain.
I haven't written anything for the previous two days. Does this
mean I was busy or away ? No, I just never got around to it despite
never really having anything better to do with my time. So let's see
what I can remember since last writing on Friday morning.
Friday :
Shortly after writing in the morning I found, and ordered a new socket A motherboard from Ebuyer.
I was surprised to find one so easily considering it is now just about
an obsolete system. At £27.84 it is a cheap buy, but the spec looks reasonably OK. The motherboard I am replacing has two extra IDE connectors that can be used for a raid array,
but I just used them individualy for extra storage when handling big
video files. The new motherboard does not have the facility. So I have
also ordered a SATA
controller card, and a 160GB SATA hard disk to go with it. This will be
my first taste of serial ATA working, and by all accounts it is
pretty fast - just the thing when working with huge video files.
On Friday afternoon we were supposed to be having a minor social
event at work. This never happened, and it may have been convenient
that it did not. I was due to meet up with Aleemah after work, and the
social event could have resulted in me not leaving work on time. I met
up with Aleemah, more or less on time, at Victoria station, and we
retired to the Wetherspoons pub on the station concourse for some
refreshment. We had a nice long chat, and I consumed several pints of
beer. I attempted to find out why Aleemah has abandoned for the entire
bank holiday weekend. I can't really remember her breakdown of what she
was doing, and when, but it confirmed I am a much lower priority to her
than I really hope for. It did not exactly leave me feeling sad, but it
did reinforce the depression I felt from having a depressing dream in
the early hours of Friday morning. I had intended to go home on what is
now my favourite train which leaves Victoria at 18:19 (to Ashford, but
conveniently calling at Peckham Rye where there is just a five minute
wait for the Sevenoaks train that calls at Catford). Unfortunately we
were chatting too much, and I missed that train. So I had another pint
before trying for an alternative train. I spied a Dartford bound train
that left at 19:16 and also called at Peckham Rye. I had hoped that
this would make for a reasonable connection too, but I was sadly
mistaken. Although leaving Victoria 3 three minutes after the hour
earlier, it was slower getting to Peckham Rye mainly because it also
called at Denmark Hill station. The train pulled into Denmark Hill
station thirty seconds before the Sevenoaks train, but we were held at
signals until after my Sevenoaks train had left. This annoyed me. In
fact it annoyed me a lot. Had I been in the middle of the train I could
have alighted from the train and rushed over the footbridge to
catch the Sevenoaks train at Denmark Hill. Instead I was right at the
front of the train - that being where the exit is assuming I had
eventually arrived at Catford station.
The rain I was on also called at Lewisham station. Rather than
wait nearly thirty minutes in my shirtsleeves as the day rapidly cooled
off at Peckham Rye, I stayed on the rain until Lewisham. Once again,
being at the front of the train was a big mistake. In fact it was a
bigger mistake because the exit at Lewisham is opposite the very rear
of the train (in fact it is even beyond that). I made my way along
almost the entire length of the platform, down the subway, and up onto
platform two, found there was a Hayes bound train (calling at Catford
Bridge) in about twelve minutes, and made my way three quarters along
the platform to wait in the now quite chilly air until my train arrived.
It would be a mistake to think I was happy when I eventually got
home. Well, I was happier to have got home, but I still felt pretty
depressed. I was also very hungry and decided the best cure for both
was to order some very tasty food. With no expense spared I ordered a
few Thai dishes from a local restaurant. They were very tasty, but at
£20 just to feed me (quite well !) it was a bit extravagant.
Saturday :
On Saturday I started off doing some domestic chores, but not
before I had a long lay in bed. I emptied Nelly's litter tray, emptied
the rubbish bins, did some laundry, and did some shopping. After that,
laziness took over in a big way. I had two magazines to read, and a lot
of tasty food freshly bought from Tesco. For the rest of the day I did
little apart from read and eat.
Sunday :
Yesterday was another mostly lazy day. My few achievements
included doing another load of laundry, and making the first
preparations to ready things to start re-building my downstairs,
backroom, Windows 2000, video orientated computer. The most important
part of that was to get my NAS (Network Attached Storage) machine onto
the shelf sitting next to my server. Since building it, it has been
sitting in the middle of the room on the little plastic chest of draws
that stores odds and sods, and makes a convenient place to work on the
insides of computers. I also dug out two old motherboards that could
potentially have been used to replace the faulty motherboard in the
Windows 2000 machine just mentioned. One in particular is a very nicely
specified motherboard that would make an ideal replacement.
Unfortunately both are faulty as well. As I recall, one has a faulty
BIOS chip and will not boot, and the other has a fault that corrupts
the hard drive whenever the floppy disk drive is accessed. I feel I
ought to re-evaluate these faults as I have a spare processor and
memory that could be used with them. I think, though I haven't checked
in detail, that the BIOS chips of the recent faulty motherboard are of
the correct type to fit in these two older faulty motherboards (though
first I will have to take the motherboard to work where I have the
tools to unsolder them). As those chips stand (I say that in the plural
because there was a main and emergency "hot spare" on the motherboard)
it is unlikely they will work in an "alien" motherboard, although there
is a very feint hope that there may be enough commonality in their
programming to allow booting from a floppy disk. If that did work it
would be possible to reprogram either (or both) of them to work in the
new motherboard. If that fails there is a very dangerous process where
the one working BIOS chip from the two almost identical boards is hot
swapped with the "new" chip that is to be programmed. These chips are
most definitely not designed to be unplugged/plugged in while the power
is on, but it can, and has been done before without catastrophe. In
this case I will have nothing to lose by trying, and maybe everything
to gain.
With everything set up for playing with old motherboards today,
slipped back into lazy mode. You could say it was ultra lazy
mode. I started to listen to an audio book - ultra lazy - I didn't even
have to turn the pages of a real book. The book was Robert A. Heinlein's "For Us The Living".
It was a good listen. So good that I listened to the entire book over
the course of the rest of the day. The entire story lasts for just over
seven hours, and although I took some breaks for eating, going to the
toilet, feeding cats, checking e-mail etc, it occupied my whole time
until it was time for bed.
Today :
So far today I have fed the cats, had a shower, and washed my
hair, and apart from writing this, that is all I have achieved so far
(10:28 as I write this). Soon I will be going out in the hope that
Tesco is open on this bank holiday Monday. There is some stuff I want
to get, and in particular I want some fruit to take to work with me
tomorrow morning. Some stuff, like Diet Cola, I could get from the
corner shop, and I know that will be open if I need it.
I find I have little enthusiasm, though a lot of curiosity, about
playing with the two old motherboards that may yet be resurrected. Once
I am happy hat any shopping I am able to do has been done, I must try
and engage my enthusiasm to play with those motherboards. It is either
that or spend a boring day just moping around (although the weather is
conducive to it). My two most important aims today are to eat
moderately, and to make sure I am in bed early enough to ensure a
comfortable journey into work tomorrow. |
Friday 4th May 2007
08:34 BST |
It is
possible that the temperature is even lower this morning than it was
yesterday morning. Ideally I should have worn a coat this morning, but
I think it will be quite warm enough to make a coat slightly
uncomfortable when I go home again after work. Of course I am not going
straight home, but meeting with Aleemah first. Provided I manage to get
the 18:19 train from Victoria tonight, I think I will be comfortable.
By then this mornings clouds should have dispersed, and the sun broken
through. Hopefully that will happen mid morning, or even earlier.
After eating last night I made a start on rebuilding my
downstairs, backroom, Windows 2000 computer using the new parts I had
bought. The first observation was that the AGP graphics card slot does
not work. I tried three different cards in it, including a brand new
one, and all the PC could do was to beep at me. So I put the old PCI
graphics card back in and re-installed Windows. Everything seemed to go
OK apart from one attempted reboot where the computer would not shut
down. Subsequently, whenever I did shut the PC down it would restart
all by itself (this was with all the "awaken on ......" settings in the
BIOS set to disabled. I finally shut down and turned the mains off to
it before going to bed. this morning I found the hard disk had once
again become corrupted and Windows would not finish loading. This was
another hard disk to the one when this behaviour first started. With
just about everything replaced in the PC I am left with the conclusion
that the motherboard is to blame for this happening. The AGP slot not
working is fair proof that the motherboard is faulty. I doubt if I will
find a new Socket A motherboard, but I have a couple of highly dubious
spares amongst all my computer debris. Over the weekend I will try one,
or the other, of them.
I woke up this morning from a rather depressing dream. It has
left me feeling low in some ways, but in other ways, and in sort of
contradiction to this, I feel more dynamic this morning. I have some of
the usual aches and pains, but somehow I feel very slightly more alert,
and with a modicum of more energy than usual. |
Thursday 3rd May 2007
08:17 BST |
This
morning it is overcast and fairly chilly outside. This seems to be in
direct contradiction to the weather forecast in my morning paper.
According to that it is supposed to be sunny all day today. Maybe the
sun will break through later, and maybe the clouds will thicken enough
for a spot of rain. Only time will tell. All I know is that when I got
off my warm train at Wandsworth Town station I had a strong urge to
dash round the corner to the BP petrol station and use their toilet to
have a wee. I did give into that urge, and arrived in work a few
minutes late this morning.
My commute home was uneventful last night. It was done in bright
warm sunshine, and so was a relatively happy experience, although late
running of my train from Clapham Junction made my connection at
Waterloo East a little tight.
When I got home I had a little time to experiment with the live
CD's on my iMac. Unfortunately no amount of fiddling would get any of
them to work properly. I suspect that my iMac, being the very first of
the iMac line, has a few subtle differences that are not allowed for in
these live CD's. I guess what I should do is to look around for a very
cheap G4 iMac. The power PC range of Apple Mac's is pretty much
obsolete now, and the G4 machines are now several generations old, so
if I am patient I will eventually locate, or even be offered one, ultra
cheap. Maybe even for free. I still regard owning a Mac amongst all my
Win/Lin/Intel machines as just being a novelty item - interesting, but
not really used for anything. So paying more than, say, £30 I
would regard as too much. My current G3 iMac actually does serve a
useful purpose, I have to admit. Using the open source clocksaver it makes for a nice living room clock !
After playing with the computers I joined Kevin and Iain in the pub for a couple of pints.
Today I should be getting a parcel of goodies delivered to me
here at work. Among the bits is the new power supply for my downstairs,
backroom, Windows 2000 machine. So I should be playing with that
tonight. |
| 17:10 BST - Footnote |
I ran out
of time to write all I was going to write this morning. I meant to
record some memories of an exciting dream last night...........
I was in some sort of field
with some people, and also a couple of vehicles. I have no memory of
what we were doing there. I looked up into the sky and saw a plane that
was very similar to Concorde, but also had a touch of the Gerry
Andersons (Thunderbirds) about it. It looked as if it had stalled or
something because it was only about a hundred yards up, and it was
pointing straight up. I thought the pilot was try to apply full power
to try and lift the plane while trying to get it level. I can't recall
hearing any sound, and there was no down draught from the engines which
were at full power (how I knew this without any sound is a mystery).
Eventually the plane started to level off and it circled around about
180°. As it reached level flight it suddenly dropped out of the
sky, and there was a huge, but once again silent, explosion behind some
buildings. Flames leapt high in the sky, and the burning aviation fuel
started to creep towards us. The flames coming toward us were actually
quite small, maybe just a few inches off the ground, but we knew we had
to get out of there. For some reason we could not se any of the
vehicles nearby, and we had to run up a slope towards some houses.
Still the flames crept towards us, and we went through some sort of
building like a school. Out the other side I came across a bright pink
Land Rover type vehicle. Although styled like a Land Rover it was very
narrow, and high sided. I got into the drivers seat and found the keys.
Somehow my companion, who may have been Jodie, squeezed into the narrow
seat beside me and we drove off. (I was driving somehow, although in
real life I have never driven before). As the dream faded away we were
driving through a village on a road that had once been a railway line.
The last bit I remember was driving past the remains of a railway
station platform alongside a row of shops.
Other late
news. My computer parts came today, and sooner or later I will be
fitting some of them into the computer and, once again, attempting to
re-install Windows 2000 on it. One bit of bad news I learnt today was
that after tomorrow (Friday) night, I will not be seeing Aleemah again
until next Tuesday. So I will be spending the entire bank holiday
weekend alone. |
Wednesday 2nd May 2007
08:14 BST |
The sunny
mornings continue. This morning is very much like yesterday. There is
not a single cloud in the sky, or at least nothing that I have noticed.
The temperature is about the same as yesterday - cool, but reasonably
comfortable for just shirt sleeves. I would conceded that it may be a
little too cool to stand around in just shirt sleeves in a draughty
place, but for commuting it is just fine.
My journey home after work last night was rather eventful. I
arrived too late to catch my early train from Waterloo East (if it
ran), and the next one was cancelled. If there had been any indication
that the 16:55 train would be cancelled early enough I could have got
the 16:44 Gravesend train to London Bridge, and tried for the 16:50
train to Hayes. Alas there was not sufficient warning, and could not
get to London Bridge in time. I went to London Bridge anyway to catch
the 17:10 train to Hayes. Both these two trains from London Bridge are
slow trains, stopping at all stations, and hence a little irritating,
but they do get me home. Soon after getting to platform 1 for the 17:10
train, an announcement was made that this was running late. It turned
up at about 17:18, and I did not get home until twenty to six. this
must be one of the latest times I have got home for ages (not counting
when I have not been going straight home from work).
I seemed to spend a lot of last night looking for, downloading, and testing live CD's for Apple Mac computers using the Power PC processors. I had varying amounts of luck. The first one I tried was a (presumed) abandonded version of Knoppix. That worked up to giving me a command line, but no graphical desktop. The next was Gentoo for PPC. That booted up to a Gnome
graphical desktop, but it did not seem to find the network interface,
nor the sound card. The last, and I only got to test it when I got up
this morning, was Ubuntu 6.10 for ppc.
That seemed to boot up, but at the time the graphical interface should
have come up the monitor went into standby. I suspect it has chosen
some outlandish screen resolution, and the monitor shut down for safety
purposes. I suspect that by experimenting with the options available
before booting it may be possible to get all three to work, but with
insufficient time to experiment last night (and this morning) I'll have
to experiment later. I have brought all three CD's in to work to give
to my workmate Sanjaya who is a Mac user at home, and who inspired me
to do this experimenting.
Tonight, being a Wednesday night, I hope to be doing some
drinking in The Ram with Kevin and Iain. With the end of the world now
rapidly approaching (July 1st) it is pretty important I should get to a
pub as often as possible before it becomes impossible.
From here:-
Simon Clark, director of pro-smoking group Forest, said many people had not yet realised how "draconian" the ban would be.
He said: "From July next year it will not only be
illegal to smoke in every pub, club and bar in the country,
it will
even be impossible to set up a private club run by smokers for smokers.
"That’s an amazing state of affairs but typical
of a Government which seems determined to
interfere in every aspect of
our daily lives."
|
Tuesday 1st May 2007
08:12 BST |
May has
started bright and sunny. It is most pleasant outside, although maybe
just a degree too cool. My gamble yesterday paid off. The thunderstorm
that some forecasts predicted didn't happen, and in fact the sun shone
for most of the day.
I went home via Tesco last night, where I bought the inevitable
cat food, but I also bought some goodies for me. I was starving when I
got home and had quite a lot to eat, although some of it, like the
couscous, was closer to the healthy side than the unhealthy side. Once
I had eaten, and done a little reading, I had a go at re-installing
Windows on my back room machine. I decided to use an old, but last
known to be in good condition, 30GB hard drive. There was one thing I
initially forgot when I started, and that was to remove the USB2
interface card from the PC. I can't remember being like it ages ago,
but now it seems that the Windows hardware detection sequence hangs
when that card is installed. On the second attempt I removed the card
and Windows installed with no problems. After shutting the machine down
again I re-fitted the card and attempted to reboot. Upon hitting the
power switch the fans started up, but the machine just sulked. This
gave me a possible clue as to what is going on in that machine. Some of
the symptoms felt like a faulty power supply, but the power supply in
that machine is only a few months old (maybe as much as 6 months), and
it should not have failed already, but maybe it has. So I am about to
order a new power supply. I am going to get the same one as I used in
my upstairs front room machine. That one seems nice. It has a large
downward facing fan that improves the internal cooling of the PC, and
being a large fan is runs slower, and most importantly quieter. At the
same time I will order a few more spares. A spare USB 2 card may be a
good idea, but anything in that PC could be suspect after the previous
power supply failed in a most destructive way (it killed a hard drive
and a graphics card).
After giving up on installing Windows (until I get the new power
supply fitted) I went to bed to do some reading. It was already gone
9pm and I decided that I would not read any later than 10pm. I wasn't
watching the time, but when I considered I had read enough I checked
the clock to find it was exactly 10pm ! I think I had a good nights
sleep. Yesterday I woke up feeling really groggy, and that feeling
persisted into mid morning. This morning I don't feel too bad. My guts
were a bit rumbly, which made my commute into work a little
uncomfortable, but some of the now usual assorted aches and pains seem
quite mild this morning. |
