Chocywockydooda

Cake competition at work. This is April's cake and the competition. I spoke to the chief taster and he said it was touch and go between April's and the Pumpkin at the back to win. The pumpkin won. Doh!

Pumpkin carving 2012

This year's batch of pumpkins. Hopefully we'll get the right night this year.  My favourite is the skull candle that has begun to leak.

Gonad protection.

Just got my finger x-rayed again and on the wall were 6 gonad protectors in descending size, kind of like the 3 ducks you see in 70s sitcoms.
Made me laugh. Luckilly I didn't need them as I only need my finger x-rayed, but it would have been funny explaining to the nurse how big my nads were...

Biscuit likes hotdogs

PB for Poppet

Poppet brought home 7 sticks last night. A personal best I think.

Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh in Camden with April last night before heading to the Hobgoblin.

Knotslip!

Just before the Knotslip gig

Made me laugh

Walking to Bill Grainger's restaurant for lunch with April's boss and saw this not far from Notting Hill. Hilarious!

Away day fun

We had a team away day at work yesterday which was really good fun. The first half was fairly standard with the highlight of making the helicopter. In the afternoon we were treated to a 3 course meal lesson in a professional kitchen. Excellent.

Cat's eye view

Don't jump

Bloody cat. Everytime I have a bath Biscuit climbs up onto the window sill.

Ouch

Bloody rugby. I think it's broken.

Strike 1. English?

Just had lunch with my brother at an All Bar One in the city and out of two orders the waitress got two things wrong.

Firstly not getting one of the drinks.  When asking her where the drink was she said she didn't understand what Steve said.  Why don't you explain that you didn't understand at the time?  How hard is ordering a coke.

I ordered a lamb burger and ended up with a beef burger.  I didn't particularly mind so ate it anyway without complaining but come one.  You may be working in a bar in order to improve your English but the bar should require a minimum level.

Strike one.  They will be added to my boycott spreadsheet.

One days holiday spare

I have one days holiday left to use.  Unfortunately April has none so it's just me.

• I could take Friday 2nd November off as the new version of Football Manager comes out then.
• Long weekend away (Any dweebs free?)
• April suggested borrow a friend's dogs and just walk them all day
• Shopping (i'd go insane)
• Any suggestions?

Room with a view

The view from No. 30 St. Mary's Axe 40 stories up.  As mentioned yesterday a friend of mine works int he building so they get access to the building's restaurants.  This is the upper most part.  Where I had the 30/40 burger.  Only £15, considering the venue, fairly cheap.

The only downside is I still feel a little queasy.  It's a bloody long way up.  The last picture is of my current office, all the way down there on the floor.

It's insurance Jim, but not as we know it...

A similar company to mine in the London Market has just appointed a Chief Science Officer.

http://www.insurancedaily.co.uk/2012/10/09/catlin-appoints-chief-science-officer/

It's insurance not Star Trek!

Lunch tomorrow

An ex colleague is taking two of us for lunch in the Gherkin tomorrow.  I think the restaurant is on the second top floor.  Should be good, hopefully I won't have to pay.

In other London skyscraper news, we found out a few weeks ago that my company is moving into the Walkie Talkie.  A new high rise on Fenchurch Street that's about half finished.

http://www.urban75.org/blog/walkie-talkie-tower-fenchurch-st-crackles-into-life/

Not until Q1 2015 (Edit was 2014) though, so quite a wait.

What a week for breakfasts

Breakfast at my company
Week commencing 08 October 2012
Monday Breakfast - Greek yoghurt and fruit or Muffins £1
Tuesday Breakfast - Sausages in a roll £1
Wednesday Breakfast - Waffles creme fraiche raspberries or Cereal £1
Thursday Breakfast - Smoked salmon bagels or Porridge £1
Friday Breakfast - Danish pastries or Sausage rolls £1

What a week of breakfasts.  If our cook carries on like this, i'll be a stone heavier and ready for my santa outfit by Christmas.  Bring in on.

Two cats waiting

Waiting for April to get back so we can eat.

Running out of room

We're definitely going to have to move out soon. There's room for about 3 or 4 CDs more but that is it. Maybe we can use the hole where the DVD's used to be.

Feels odd

Steve's volunteered to rip all my DVDs for me so one side of our cabinet is now more or less empty. Looks a bit off balance to me.

He's also given me a 2tb harddrive full of his to act as a remote back up.

I now have the entire set of Police Academy to watch on my commute.

Thanks Steve!

Bass box

 April in the P&J (our usual spot by the juke box) on open mic night.  And some guy playing a bass box (Upturned box on top of a microphone and an rubber band streched with a pole at the other end).

Say cheese

 Cheese and meat platters at the cheese shop in Leadenhall Market, and the wine pouring machine in the off licence when we bought some gin for a house warming present.

Interesting graphic

I was checking out tropical storm Oscar's wind history and here's the graphic.  Made me chuckle.

We went here for lunch

http://www.reddogsaloon.co.uk/

Fairly good although the service was terrible and a bit too far to go for lunch when you work in the city as it's over on Hoxton Square, two £10 cabs away.  Luckily we were expensing it so who cares.

The highlight other than the buffalo wings, was the maitre d' who was no other than 'Shabby' from big brother 10.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=shabby+from+big+brother&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=wlRsUJeED-y10QWSqIC4DQ&biw=1451&bih=846&sei=XFVsUOD-N4HN0QW664DoCg

I didn't spot her as I wouldn't notice that kind of trash but my female colleague did.

Good show

We watched the first two episodes of series two of Boardwalk Empire last night.  Excellent.  If you haven't watched it yet, do.

Anyway...  it's taken me this long to realise that it's Boardwalk and not Broadwalk. April let me know last night by telling me that it annoyed her for me to call it that.  Sorry.  I must have misread it the first time then it just gets stuck in my mind and it there forever till i'm corrected.  Even then it's hard to get rid of. It's not the first time either.  I can remember Orc chefs and Autospys being two memorable examples (Heroes and XCOM).

My spelling is terrible (as most of you will have noticed from this blog), maybe I have a mild form or dyslexia or maybe i'm just an idiot.  You decide...

Idiots

What a waste of time and money for people to research this.


GM cows make 'low allergy' milk

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19785006

Most people who claim they are intolerant to lactose have been told so by their homeopathic specialist. They are the last people on earth to want to eat GM food.

New idea for TIVO

We upgraded to TIVO from Virgin about 6 months ago and quite like the new system.  If you don't know anything about it, it kind of works a bit like Spotify.  If you don't know how that works then...

... it basically 'learns' the types of show that you watch and then pre-records things that are similar to those based on what other people like with the same preferences.  The feature is not amazing but there have been a few things that i've watched because it's found something that I might like.  Anyway, I had an idea last night of improving the way they show adverts inbetween shows. 

If they're already tracking what I watch I bet it isn't long before they target what adverts are shown.  If you're a man who's into sport and action films, what's the point of showing you an advert for tampons? 

Upmarket?

How is Prezzo supposed to be upmarket?

http://www.northantstelegraph.co.uk/news/local/prezzo-s-opening-looms-in-kettering-1-4317158

It's on par with Pizza Express, Zizzis and Strada.  Nice enough for a chain but certainly not upmarket.

And another thing...  Isn't the headline a little foreboding by using the term loom?

Here's one definition

"To appear to the mind in a magnified and threatening form"
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/loom