Pen test

Still works, quite a nice action.

Urgh

Stuck at work till 7pm today.  I'm the only one that knows how to submit our results to Lloyd's and some of our figures for a Lloyd's return wasn't ready.  In other submission news I submitted head office's finance risk return today.  No thanks to our finance team.  Bloody idiots.  I've asked them for more info to complete the return but until 4:10 today I heard very little back so as I couldn't hang around much more submitted my version.  with less than an hour to go I got a call from finance telling me that they'd been working on it all day.  I told him that it was too late and i'd submitted it anyway.  The guy had the cheek to have a go at me.  I had a go back and I beat him back down.  Idiot.  There's no way I could have used his results with that amount of time left as there was loads to do mapping it all to the final template.

On top of that i'm involved in a major project for our CEO, they're looking at ways to improve one of my syndicates.

Now I imagine head office will come back to me on Monday with a list of amendments.  Great...  I'm off for nearly a week on Thursday so someone else can pick it up.  Rant over.  April's due into Tonbridge at 9:15, straight from work so both of us are under the cosh right now.  Boo.

New Pen

I took my new pen into the pen shop in Leadenhall Market today to find out what sort of ink I needed and the lady behind the counter loved it.  I must have been stuck talking to her for a good 15 minutes.  She'd never seen that type before but reckoned the pen was made in the 70's as it was similar to others she'd seen. That's pretty cool.  It's probably older than me!

Urgh... that's a bit creepy.

I bet he sees his panto work drying up soon.  Also, what's going on with his head?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-14341304

Someone more sad than me

http://www.freakonomics.com/2011/07/27/the-economic-value-of-very-personal-data/

Something to aspire to at least...

How odd

Just seen on Sky Sports News that the Australian Olympic team will be based in Tonbridge next year. Shame we won't be there by then.

New hobby

Seeing as http://ifyoulikeitsomuchwhydontyougolivethere.com/ seems to be slowing down in its output I need to find my own idiots

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14305667

Scroll to the bottom where the comments are and use the sort options to sort by lowest and highest rated.

Lowest Rated (they needed to check on the internet if 26 was prime)

• Oh dear. Another attempt to convince us that 'mathematics is the language of nature'. Makes you wonder how anything in the universe got done until we came along and started counting things, right?

And another thing... if these cicadas respawn every 13 years to avoid predators, what happens in another 13 years? That's 26 years in total. I've checked on the internet, and 26 isn't a prime number.

Highest Rating (calling someone an idiot)

"Would I be correct in assuming then, that I am the first person to recognise that the two prime numbers are, in fact 1 & the 617 digit number in question?"

No you wouldn't, because 1 is not a prime number. Best to check before you assume anything.

Anyone for some jelly?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12910683

The guy that designed and made the original stormtrooper outfits in Star Wars has finally won his UK court battle with George Lucas.  He can now continue to make amongst other things stormtrooper jelly moulds!
 
http://originalstormtrooper.com/shop-online/accessories/jelly-mould.html


But if any of you guys out there wants to buy me this a birthday / wedding gift it will be much appreciated!!!

http://originalstormtrooper.com/shop-online/e11-blaster.html

7 years is a long time

As of today I have been updating my weather spreadsheet for 7 years.  Ha, ha.

First class or not first class

Between us we'll be saving £475 on travel costs per month if we were to move to Greenwich.  This will be going straight into the mortgage as we'll be upgrading (in terms of house price at least), but I am tempted to try first class.  The new season ticket is £652 / year, first class is £980.  For a 10 - 15 minute train journey I think this is a bit much but would be fun.  Maybe i'll just do it in the summer months when it's hot and I don't want to stand with the oiks.

Turfs up

I saw a car completely turfed in artifical grass this morning, it was advertising an artificial grass company.  Unfortunately it was going too fast for me to take a photo.

In other commuting news, the whole train was kicked off at Sevenoaks this morning meaning I added an extra 35 mins onto my commute.  Doh!

Not a bad first effort

I've just posed 7 xbox 360 games to various people around the UK

Total Sale Price:  £57.74 but postage comes out of that ( but I made £5 from the postage), that leaves me with roughly £54 so I bought myself a nice Mont Blanc pen.  Fingers crossed it's nice although that'll be going back on ebay!

What stumped me however was the fact that nobody put in an offer for my Showtime DVD staring Eddie Murphy and Robert De Niro, 5.4 on IMdb may explain things.  At least I think it's funny...

Selling some stuff

Finally getting round to getting rid of a few dvds and games. I don't play them so thought I may as well get a little cash for them rather than just gathering dust on a shelf.

My first hand full have a deadline tonight, a load of watchers and a few bids, 3 and a bit hours to go. It's quite exciting.

Not sure if it's worth the effort if I don't get more than a couple of quid each though. Charity shop might be the next place to hand them too as once i've got round to posting them I can't really see it being worth it.

That's nice of you

Biscuit kindly keeping my towel warm.

New fish

About 10 new graduates have just been walked through our office and it reminded me of the term "New fish" from the film The Shawshank Redemption. How long before one of them squeals I want to go home?

Yeah, my new favourite show has been renewed

Season 2 (2011)On February 17, 2011, Discovery announced that Gold Rush: Alaska had been renewed for a second season.[11] Season 2 will have the Oregon gold-miners working the creeks in the historic Klondike goldfields near Dawson City, Yukon, Canada.

House Hunting

We've seen six houses / flats so far and about to see another two tonight. But after that we're going to give things a break for a while. We've had 3 people round our place but no offers as yet. This leaves us in a tricky position if we were to put an offer in on a new house. We wouldn't be in a strong position when putting in an offer as we're still in a chain and even if the offer was accepted we'd be in a weak position when we're selling as we'd then need to sell quick. Boo, why can't it be easy?

New place for lunch

http://www.moogrill.co.uk/

Quite pricey as a regular haunt but good every once and a while for Argentinian steak and chips!

Courtesy of my brother

No offence to any Kiwi's, but why the fcuk were mossad even bothering to have a spy ring in Christchurch. They may as well have had one in Bangor or somewhere...


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/newzealand/8649223/Mossad-spy-ring-unearthed-because-of-Christchurch-earthquake.html

20,000 e-mails

Just looked at my work sent box in outlook and I have sent 19,998 emails.  That's roughly 20 per day.  How interesting...

Amusing picture

http://i.imgur.com/QTmdt.png

You'd think she'd tie her hair back

When speaking to the president.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-14171050

Tasteless?

http://www.crobar.co.uk/

How dare they?  Bloody idiots!

3rd time lucky

I'm been asked to be an ex colleague's best man for his wedding later this year.  That'll be the third time i've been asked.  I must be doing something right.

SC now in 3D

My 3D glasses from last night's showing of Harry Potter. 
IMdb Rating: 8.7 / (26,609 votes)
SC Rating: 68 / 100 (1 vote)
3D Verdict: Gimmick, pointless, in fact more of a distraction.  Apart from about three scenes where they bother to add 3D special effects it detracts from the viewing experience.  Wearing the glasses often makes some of the background sets out of focus and hard to see.  And although I imagine the film was supposed to be made with a grey filter to enhance the grim look and feel, I think the added effect of wearing the glasses made the film look more drab and unfinished.

Always blame the Chinese

When three of North Korea's players tested positive for steroid use during the Women's World Cup, team officials blamed it on the musk deer gland treatment used in Chinese medicine for the effects of lightning strikes.
Full story: Metro

Bath time

Biscuit trying to share my bath. I can't think of much worse than Biscuit jumping in, realising it's wet then scrambling around trying to get out. Claws everywhere. Perhaps an electric iron?

Pulp fiction?

No, actually it's a Pulp fact. April won an eBay auction for two tickets to see them on my birthday. Sounds suspiciously more like a present for April given that she told me that she'd run away and marry Jarvis if he asked.

First 3D film tonight

The new Harry Potter... not sure what to expect with the 3D part of it as I haven't heard much good about it. Mark Kermode in particular despises the technology for a start.

Genius

An ingenious gas fired cheese melting device in Greenwich Market. Perfect for adding a layer of cheese to a roast beef baguette. Plus a strawberry Margarita for April.

That makes two viewings tomorrow

We have two viewings booked in with our house tomorrow now.  Yikes.  I know it's far too early to get a sale but it would make things a lot easier at our end and put us in a much better bargaining position when it comes to putting in an offer for a new place. 

Watch this space for more exciting house selling news.

Security feature

Or bloody nuisance?

Natwest have added this security cage to their ATMs just off Fenchurch Street to obscure the keypad from would be robbers.  All it does however is make it difficult to type in your pin code and almost impossible to retrieve your money.

Idiots!

Good policy

Can I take out insurance in the event that I will not be selected by Germany in the 2012 Euros?

Lloyd’s insurer Talbot has seized £15,000 from former Arsenal goalkeeper Jens Lehmann after he refused to pay the premium on a 2008 policy.

The former Gunner purchased a "non-appearance policy" with the insurer to cover any financial losses he might incur in the event of not being selected to represent Germany in the 2008 European Championships, according to the Telegraph.


However, Lehman refused to pay the €12,000 premium and attempted to cancel the contract shortly before the German squad was announced.


The contract included a non-cancellation clause to prevent the player from effectively securing the coverage for free.


Talbot took out a debt order against the former Arsenal goalkeeper to secure the £14,819 payment.

http://www.insurancetimes.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=13&storycode=391821&c=1

Fingers crossed

We've got the first people viewing our house on Saturday, yikes.  Luckily we won't be around though as we're off to Greenwich again to look round four more.  They're all with the same agent so hopefully it'll be better than last time.

One agent only had keys for one of the properties we were due to see with her and it was the one we weren't so keen on, one showed us round a building site, as the flat we were viewing was still getting converted, it used to be a vicarage, and one very rude agent didn't bother to turn up!

Incidentally the first flat we saw has just dropped it's asking price from £440k to £400k.  Still can't see us putting an offer in as although it was bigger than the other flat (3 bedrooms) it was on the ground floor and it's patio doors opened straight onto the car park.  Not nice.

The Walkie Talkie

On my way home from work I took this photo of a new building going up in the city.  Luckily they've cut two viewing holes so people can keep progress on it as it gets built.  The foundations are about 50ft from street level.  Nuts.

I'm pretty sure it's going to be the 'Walkie talkie", as it's the only new one getting built at the moment on Fenchurch Street.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20_Fenchurch_Street
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_and_structures_in_London#Under_construction

Highlander: The musical

http://www.highlanderthemusical.com/

Fast track scheme

Should higher tax rate payers be given special privalages?  Answer:  Yes

3 Teared Scheme

Unemployed:  Curfew, they must do all their shopping during normal working hours so as not to clog up the supermarkets over the weekends (I count pensioners in this bracket too).  Banned from pubs.  Not allowed Sky TV
Lower rate:  Keep things the same.  Afterall they've done nothing wrong.
Higher rate:  Straight to the front of queues

4/5 stars

The kitchen staff at my office have proudly displayed their participation in a 5 star hygiene scheme.

Unfortunately they only scored 4...  Should I be worried?

Spooky owl

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-14111152

Tablet or not tablet

That is the question Shakespeare would be asking if he was around in the year 2011.

Here's my view:

I bought an i7 laptop a little over a year ago and it still kicks ass, 8 cores certainly run everything I need PC based quickly and smoothly.  My mobile phone is an HTC desire and is due for an upgrade a few months time.  The question is, should I get a tablet?  Is there room for it in my life?  I'd love to have one as it's a lot more portable than my beast of a laptop and has a much larger screen than my phone so I could use it for movies and books on my commute.  But as the Venn above clearly suggest that it is an unnecessary indulgence that I cannot in all honesty justify.  £500 is a lot of money for that.

Verdict:  I think not

Why haven't I heard of this film?

http://www.empireonline.com/futurefilms/film.asp?id=137285

Snakes on a Plane, Hobo with a Shotgun, Dumb and Dumber.

Does exactly what it says on the tin.

The price of cookery genius

My poor finger after chopping up the salsa for lunch yesterday, i'm sure only a little blood got into it... Sorry April, no need for additional salt I guess.

Amusing beer periodic table

Just sent round the invite to this year's Great British Beer Festival and was looking online for an amusing beer photo to attach to the e-mail.

Here it is...

All credits go to http://mantisdesign.com/

Lunch today

Seared blue fin tuna steaks on a bed of spicy couscous with a mango, cucumber, red onion and chilli salsa.

Verdict: Very nice indeed. Perhaps a little too much chilli...

Horrible, revolting, yuk

Purely because we laugh so much at the Courvoisier advert (sponsor of the Daily Show), I bought 4 last night for our friends.  I gave half of mine to April.

http://courvoisier.com/uk/

Verdict:  Revolting

Yikes, our house is on rightmove!

Send me an e-mail if you want a link.

Now we've got to sell the thing.  Fingers crossed it goes smoothly.

RIP Tackleberry

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0333701/#Actor

David Graf died of a heart attack on April 7, 2001 while attending a family wedding. 

How come I didn't know this?  Poor guy.

Best thing I have ever seen

Quite possibly the best thing I have ever seen!

http://animalsbeingdicks.com/post/7341302087/hovercat

If April's allowed a picture up in the house so too am I

April's put up a framed poster for a Mountain Goats gig (Perth Australia) up in our kitchen.  It's quite nice but there's nothing personal to me on show in the whole house.  Loyd Grossman would struggle give enough clues to the panel in Look Through the Keyhole for them to guess who I was.  That's why I want my own poster up in the house.  Preferably A3.

Wedding rings

I picked up our wedding rings this lunchtime.  April's ring looks great and fits inside my ring quite easily, but my ring doesn't quite fit, it feels one or two sizes too small.  Doh!  It's not a problem as we can get it resized for free and it only takes a day but it would have been nice to squeeze it on.  As it stands i'm too scared.  The lady said my finger may go down in size in the cold so have taken it home anyway to see if that helps.  Otherwise it'll need to be size Z+1 or possibly even Z+2.  Yikes!

Expelliarmus rain!

Ha, ha.  Fcuking losers.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-14060308

Anyone want to buy a house?

That was quick, I only signed the documents on Tuesday, and the sign was sitting proud outside the house when I got home last night.  The photos of the house look great though.  I might even buy it...

Our rings are ready

Our wedding rings are ready to collect so will pick them up tomorrow lunchtime.  Size Z for me, eek.  Must check that April's ring has diamonds.  As we were paying for ours to get made a couple came in to collect theirs and there were no diamonds in the ladies ring.  Oops!  Funny but will be annoyed if it happened to us.  Not to worry though, if it were the case we've got plenty of time to get it all sorted.  Only 122 days to go!

I'm going to be busy over the next couple of days

I thought I had until end of play on Friday to submit my data to Lloyd's, now it turns out I need to get it done by Wednesday!  Great.  2 days is not enough.  Idiots.

Better get a move on then...

Home sweet home

Finally back from the canal boat trip.  Good fun but shattered.  Some photos and perhaps a video or two to follow tomorrow.