Category Archives: Life

Autumn updates

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Wow, it’s December (by the time I finish and post this, although I thought about writing it at the start of November).  Autumn turned up pretty quickly and then evaporated and turned into an early winter.  There’s snow on the ground outside, and more in the air.  Some parts of the country are really suffering but we’re not too bad around here.  Time has flown by.  Since I changed jobs at work I’ve been working harder than ever and have been much less interested in sitting behind the computer when I got home.

Speaking of which the new job is great, enjoying it much more than the last few years of the old one.  Change is always scary but it’s working out okay so far.  I’m lucky in that I’ve managed to hold onto my desk and so still sit with a great bunch of people from my previous team, and that’s made moving into the role a lot easier.  I’m pretty sure they want rid of me but I have the window seat and I’m keeping it as long as I can!

We’re staying in Nottingham this year for Christmas and New Year, so we’re not doing the whole country wide 800 mile round-trip to our families.  There are many reasons for that, but the greatest of them is that I want to have a nice, relaxing December where we don’t have to plan for two long trips, sort the cats, and squeeze the whole thing in around work and the holiday period.  Frankly – if this weather keeps up it might have been a moot point anyway.  Didn’t feel good telling our families, but we need a Christmas at home to recharge.

Just having a quick read back through my blog and it looks like I stopped posting The Guild episodes sometime around 6 or 7.  In fact, I may not have even watched them after that – because really I haven’t been sitting in front of this computer much.  I’ve been much more likely (as Grete will tell you) to be sitting in the lounge using the PS3 or the XBox.  The gaming diary thing is out the window as well though, just don’t have the enthusiasm to play a game and then write an update about it each time, especially since playing a game for me might mean a good few hours before bed, and then straight to bed.  On the subject of games, Fallout: New Vegas on the PS3.  Good game for the most part, nice update to the franchise, shockingly buggy both code-wise (crashes, bad clipping, falling through scenery) and logically (dodgy dialog options, broken quests).  A real shame and it’s totally killed any replayability for me (although I managed to actually finish the game despite the crashes every 3 hours or so).

We finally sorted out our sofas.  They’ve been bugging us for ages, we can’t afford new ones but the old ones are ratty and the cats have pretty much destroyed the arm on one of them.  We looked and looked for some huge throws to cover them but there wasn’t anything in the right size, so we ended up buying a bunch of small throws from Ikea and Grete made giant covers!  This link http://twitpic.com/37f5wt points to the picture Grete tweeted.  It doesn’t do them justice really, and while we still need to put the big sofa back together every week or so (the cushions slowly slide off), it’s a 1000% better than it was previously, and for a fraction of the cost of new ones.

We’ve bought new light fittings for the kitchen (simple ceiling roses with lamp shades) but haven’t gotten around yet to taking down the horrible 4-spotlight rail things in there at the moment.  Because one of the previous house owners loved DIY but was shockingly bad at it, I’m nervous because you never know what you’ll find.  Some of the things in the house truly terrify me and I wish I could afford to get it all fixed, but there you go.

Right, so ‘quick’ rambling Autumn update as if anyone cared.  See you in December!

Post Office Handling Charges

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Grr.  I ordered some paint from Reaper Miniatures in the states (around $36 worth), because the only UK stockist I know about didn’t have any in.  I knew there was a risk of paying some VAT, but they’re good paints.  So the VAT comes to around £4, okay I’ll survive, except the bloody Post Office then charge you £8 just for handling the parcel.

The company in the US mailed it to me free of charge.

But the Post Office in the UK charge me £8 because they have to hold onto it for me until I can turn up and pay for it.  There has to be a better way?

Anyway, the paints arrived safe and sound and pretty fast considering they didn’t charge for delivery.

Where have I been?

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I’ve been spending a lot less time in front of the computer at home over the last few months.  That means almost no time in Lord of the Rings Online and not much blogging going on (among other things).  The reasons are many and varied.  Using the PS3 and XBox360 a lot more (Dragon Age on the PS3, Mass Effect 2 on the XBox360, among other things).  Dragon Age especially is a huge time sink.  Partly it’s because I finally got sick of sitting at the PC all day at work – and then doing the same when I got home.  That’s probably because what I was doing on the PC at home wasn’t really engaging my brain enough though to keep me occupied.

I’m probably the luckiest guy alive, I have very few responsibilities that cause me any grief, I have an amazing wife who’s just as much a gamer as I am (computers, roleplaying, larp, board games), and so while many people settle down to an evening of TV, we often settle down to an evening of games of various kinds.  It’s just that at the moment, those games are not in front of the computer.  I’m also trying to get back into (again) painting miniatures, keeping a dedicated space in the house set aside for it so I can paint when the whim takes me rather than having to dig stuff out.  We’ll see how that works out.

The net result is that I’m not sitting in front of a browser all the time and so when I think up the random crap I used to blog about I either tweet a 140 character approximation of it, or I just chuckle evilly to myself and then shoot some more bad guys.  I’m pretty sure everything will go full circle, and when the next batch of new content for LotRO is released I’ll be back in game and at the PC.

Why I like Autumn?

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Off the cuff response I made on Facebook, just thought I’d blog it, as-is.

Bright mornings, with a soft mist covering the ground and the water on the canal. Watching the ducks float with ethereal grace across the water, pushing a veil of mystical white smoke ahead of them. That golden light that you only get early in the morning in Autumn, when the world is silent, poised, waiting for something significant to happen. Almost like the world is holding it’s breath, knowing that just around the corner is the bitter cold of winter.

In a final defiant act, the trees turn red and gold, bringing heat and warmth to the landscape.

The first moment in the year when you can sit in front of the fire, fighting back the chill and sharing a quiet moment reflecting on another summer gone.

Snuggling under the duvet at night, no risk of being too warm, but toasty and comforting.

A slow gentle rain, not the hard unforgiving rain of Winter, or the constant wet of Spring, but a refreshing, otherworldly curtain of rain which cleans away the sluggish feeling of Summer and ushers in the new urgency of Autumn.

So many things about Autumn I love.

Money is the root of all stress

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In May 2006 I wrote about how I’d paid off a significant personal loan that I’d had for quite a while (Loan Shmoan).  We got that loan because of a broad range of circumstances, and it really kept us afloat at the time, but paying it off was a pretty good feeling.

Three months later in August 2006, I wrote a post about how our credit card bill was still not going down quickly enough and that I was thinking of taking out another loan to get rid of it (Loan Moan).  We didn’t take out a loan at that time, we just tried hard to keep the credit card balance under control, and mostly we did.

It just stayed static (mostly), and it remained that way until the early part of this year.  Every now and then I would check and see how much interest we were paying on the balance and what the minimum payments were, and think about a loan, but it seemed like accepting defeat.  We weren’t buying anything big on the card, but a few small things here and there (literally £10 and £20 stuff) that wouldn’t get paid off and would mount up.  In the early part of this year we finally started making some progress on the balance and it was less each month, which is the first time that had happened for ages.

And then, in the middle part of this year we had a run of bad timing.  Car troubles, road tax, various other bits and pieces, and suddenly before you know it the balance is higher than it’s been for a long time.

I could pay it off over time, I could stop using the card, set up a direct debit covering the minimum payment + whatever I feel I can afford and the balance would eventually go away.  But the interest rate on the CC balance is significant (it’s not terrible, it’s a reasonable card, but it’s clearly higher than you can get with a personal loan).

So defeat or not, it finally made sense to take out another loan, clear the card down to a zero balance and start fresh.  Once the cash arrives I’ll set up a ‘pay off the full balance of this card’ standing order with the bank ((I know I should have done this last time, but I still have this weird concern that I need to micro-manage everything in my bank account, but it’s clear I’m not strong enough to actually do that)).  The payment on the loan is only 50% higher than the minimum payment was on the CC balance, and the loan repayment is four years.  So every month I know I’m better off than I was the month before and there’ll be no sudden increases.

I arranged the loan over the phone with my bank,  and despite the fact that I knew they’d give me the money, the conversation still made me feel nervous like I was being grilled and that I could somehow fail to meet their expectations.

So anyway, here we are again, September 2010, with a personal loan.  Hopefully, some time in 2014 I’ll be back blogging about how it’s paid off and how happy I am about it.

The key will be whether I’m back again three months after that saying the CC balance is out of control – let’s hope not.

Indesit Logistics get it right

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I hope I’m thanking the right bunch of people here.  I ordered a new Hotpoint fridge freezer at the start of this week.  I got a phone call on Tuesday telling me it would be here on Thursday.  I got a text on Wednesday telling me which 3 hour slot it would arrive in on Thursday.  I got a text 1 hour before it arrived.  The two guys who delivered it were polite, efficient and quick.

I haven’t actually switched it on yet, but it looks in good condition.

I just rang the telephone number I had (when they texted me the first delivery info) and told them how happy I was with their service, and I know I moan a lot in this blog (who doesn’t), so I just wanted to write something positive for a change.

The whole end-to-end process was slick, quick and the communication was fantastic.

Thank you Indesit Logistics.

Dry day for a change

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Last few weeks have been pretty wet (clearly, not on the same scale as some parts of the world), but it’s been a useful excuse not to get into the garden.  Today I’m on holiday and it’s sunny and dry, so no chance at any excuses.  To the left is the picture of one of our apple trees.  The other (much smaller, and looking pretty unhealthy) is in the middle of the garden.  This one is at the top, and despite some rather vicious pruning last year it’s grown huge again this year with a bumper crop of apples.  Which is nice, except it then slowly drops them onto the grass throughout the late summer and early autumn.  I’m not a huge fan of apples and Grete’s not a huge fan of apples which look like they’ve been used as living quarters.  Even if we were, there’s no way we could eat a tree’s worth.  Anyway, this is how it looks when it’s being nice and giving us gifts.

And here’s how those gifts look if you take a close look at them.

Anyway, we clear them up once a week or so, and I got them done today, so now it looks like this!

Since I was already wearing my gardening stuff I finally decided to move the wood from the side of the house and get rid of it.  Yes, it’s true, the deck is almost finally almost all gone nearly.

And while moving it, I found a guest.

Orange is a state of mind

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Finally settled on a new theme (the excellent Suffusion) which comes with a bunch of colour schemes, and I’ve picked Orange on Black (for now).  I know it makes little difference since the 6 people who actually read the blog do so via RSS so never see the colours anyway, and the other hits are all chinese ‘bots trawling data to try and gimp Google out of some cash.  Some folk are tired of dark themes, but I still like them.

The Orange on White version is pretty good as well and if I get bored with dark I might go for that.

I’ve had to work on some new headers, since the old ones were too tall and too narrow.  Managed to salvage the Matrix and floaty text ones, and added a couple of others.  Was very excited to find an Atari Space Invaders icon font!

Haven’t been doing much stuff out of work other than playing Dragon Age: Origins for the second time.  Tried playing it through a second time after originally completing it but it was too soon.  A lengthy break has done the trick and it’s almost as engaging the second time around.  Grete’s also playing it, so we’re taking turns like well behaved kids.  First time through I played as a warrior and was hugely frustrated by all the chests you can’t open until you find your first rogue companion.  So this time, started as a rogue!  Very different feel to the game, can’t go rushing into fights, need to somehow get the others engaged first, and if the warriors die, I’m not likely to survive (where-as when you’re the warrior you can hold on for quite a while with just Wynne).

Playing through again reminds me how good BioWare are at dialog and storyline.

Grete’s doing well at pretending I’m not annoying, when she plays and I shout ‘no, no, do Sten’s quest first’, or whatever.  So I thank her for that.

We bought a couple of the little add-ons, well bought one, got one free.  I’ve also bought Dragon Age: Awakening which was good but no where near worth the price.

I’ve also signed up to the PlayStation Plus service thing.  Got a few free games so far (Zen Pinball being the best).  Hopefully there’ll be enough free content in the next 10 months to justify the cost.

It’s just cricket

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There was something moving about in the lounge, near the bin in the corner.  Fizz was really interested but I couldn’t see anything and forgot about it.  Just been in there now, and there was a cricket about 3cm long hanging on the net curtain.  I grabbed a cup and slip of paper to get it back outside.  There’s just one thing – when crickets move, they jump, and they jump vertically.  However, vertically to a cricket which is hanging on your net curtain is essentially horizontally straight at your face.

I’m not nervous or scared of insects, but a 3cm cricket jumping for your face is always cause for a sudden involuntary grunt and duck.

Anyway, it’s safely outside now!