Time flies

Everythings been going really quickly now I've got some more work to do and I'm getting a bit more involved at work. I haven't had a lot of extra time to waste so my blogs don't get updated too often. Especially as nothing that interesting happens that I can remember by the time I get to writing anything.

Viv is getting more and more pissed off at work though. I've suggested many times that she leave. She has a pretty crap job, and she can do a lot more. She doesn't get paid enough for what she's doing and the odds of her being promoted, even after 3 years working there, are slim to none. I think it's time for her to move on. I'm trying to get her to look at other jobs but I think she's just a bit comfortable where she is, even if she hates it.

New Houses all round!

Everyone seems to be moving house this summer. We moved earlier in the year, beginning of May I think... my memory is terrible! John and Karen moved recently, well probably about a month ago now. Jayne and Al moved into their new house on Tuesday. They've had the week off and have been unpacking and sorting stuff out, we're going round tonight to check out their new place, and probably watch some football (this also means we'll probably miss House).

On another good note England managed to qualify. We didn't beat Sweden, but at least we came top of our group and we get to play Ecuador. After that we'll be playing either Holland or Portugal. Unfortunately I drew Portugal in a sweepstake so that's bad news for me either way.

England's Last Group Game

England is about to play their last group game against Sweden. Germany have also just beaten Ecuador, this means if we win or draw, we play Ecuador as we'll be top of our group. If we lose we'll play Germany.

Personally I'd rather play Ecuador and not play Germany until the final. Although this does mean that we'll have to beat Sweden, which apparently we haven't done since 1968. I knew we didn't do well against Scandanavian teams, but 1968? Really? Sweden aren't that good... Or should I say, we're not that bad...

Such a slow week

It has been a really slow week. I normally find after taking some time off work it's really hard to get back into the swing of things, and this has been one of those times.

It doesn't really help that I don't have a lot to do and there's not much work going around. I have to finish off a site, but I'm not really sure what to do. We have given the customer URLs so they can have a look at the site, but we havent received much back, and the things we have received back we can't really do much about.

So at the moment I'm trying to keep myself awake, trying not to leave early, and keeping my eye out for some interesting sites that I can read while at work to keep me interested.

Oh yeah, and my stone age PC is beginning to seem like torture.

Download Festival

Thursday - We decided to head down to the site on Thursday. Dom had stayed Wednesday night, so we loaded the car and got going. We were parked quite a way from the arena and the campsites. We had to carry loads of stuff and it took us about an hour to get to our spot. Very annoying. Then we went back to get food and drink and forgot the car keys, realising this only when we got to the car. This meant another trip. Three trips to the campsite and back in a day in the boiling sun was not fun. But we got very drunk to make up for it.

Friday - The music kicked off and we went to see Throwdown and Soil before heading back to the campsite for a bit. Later we headed back in for Deftones and finally Tool. Tool was an experience, needless to say, a few smokes helped. I don't know a lot of Tool, but it was absolutely amazing. Bizzarely the planes coming in to land overhead at the nearby airport were well timed and really added some extra noise to the performance. Very impressive and one of my Top 3 live performances.

Saturday - This was the day I'd been waiting for. We got up and ate, then sat about in the sun until 1pm. Then we headed into the arena and watched the England game at 2pm on a massive screen with loads of other people. England beat Paraguay 1-0! In the background I could see and hear Arch Enemy, Alice in Chains and Stonesour, all pretty good. Once that was over we headed to the main stage and watched Avenged Sevenfold and Trivium, both excellent. We found out later that Korn's singer was ill and in hospital, so they had guest singers come on and sing with the band, interesting and unique, but I'd rather have seen Korn. Finally Metallica came out. They played an absolutely stunning set for 2 and a half hours, including (as it's the 20th anniversary of the album) Master of Puppets from start to finish. It was very very cool. We also got very drunk after that.

Sunday - Sunday was a lazy day after the two days before. We'd decided to head off that night so packed everything up and carried it all to the car before heading into the arena. We started out on the main stage watching In Flames, who were cool. The lead singer was Swedish and said he was going to make a big speech about how Sweden were going to kick our ass in the football, but then he'd seen them playing yesterday and changed his mind, he now wants England to win so at least one swede can lift the Trophy!

Unfortunately we'd missed Dragonforce as we were carrying stuff to the car at the time, but Dom and Matt had caught the end. It was incredibly hot on Sunday, so we decided to find some shade. Luckily there was a fair bit right next to the Snickers Stage. We could clearly hear the stage as we were only about 50 metres away from the stage, but outside the tent. We heard Aiden, Hundred Reasons, Eighteen Visions, Alexisonfire, then the Prodigy! After that we headed to the main stage to check out Guns 'N Roses. All I can say is, I was disappointed. We watched about 40 mins, then got bored and decided to leave early to miss the traffic.

We stopped at Donnington Services on the way home for a cooked meal, where I lost my wallet. After keeping on to it for the whole weekend! I didn't realise till Monday though, so I have no idea where it is. Bit of a bummer, but still an excellent weekend!

Just found out there were some problems on Sunday night, makes me glad we left early!

Counterstrike Weekend

Now that we've got broadband I've been reverting to my 'Student' state. Meaning I sit around on my PC and play Counterstrike all day. I managed to not do this for most of Saturday, as England were playing football, and we beat Jamaica 6-0, come on! Although I did play a bit in the morning after hoovering and cleaning up a bit.

On Friday evening we went round Jayne and Al's for possibly the last night at their house, as they are moving soon. We had to leave pretty early as they were heading to Bristol the next day for a friend's wedding.

Saturday night was at Sarah and Glenn's, Martin and Josie were their and got very drunk. We ordered pizza later and watched Napoleon Dynamite again. It was a cool night.

Sunday Viv went shopping with Sarah, she went to buy clothes for work and got loads. I'm glad I didn't go, I hate shopping if I don't have money to buy stuff, it just seems so pointless. Plus this also meant I had the house to myself. Which meant pretty much an entire day playing Counterstrike. I'm so sad. Viv also bought a weights bench, which I'm halfway through putting up, and I cleared out the living room of the last of the stuff that needed unpacking. So now we have loads of space and it looks a lot cleaner. And I got a TV set up in the bedroom, finally!

Gate Issues Update

Our gate is still pretty bad. It opens now, and we know why it wasn't working before. Orion had changed the code and only told people later on on Friday. But at least we could get back in. Also if we open the gate too wide, it knocks the wiring for the gate, which is why our buzzers weren't working.

We now have a new code for our gate, and we seem to be getting some mail. Although our bins still really need emptying, as our bin shed is pretty full again as they didnt get collected last week. Hopefully at some point everything is going to get sorted out and it'll all calm down.

Lock Down!

Our gate is fucked. As I mentioned earlier there was a small fire in our Bike Shed, resulting in the building needing repairs and someones scooter being destroyed. This also meant that the gate wasn't working properly. So when the nice Firemen turned up in their jolly red truck to put out our fire, they had to ram the gate open to get to it. This further messed up the gate, meaning me had to open and close it manually.

That was a whole week ago. Since then the situation has not improved. The code to the gate no longer opens it, I don't know if it's been changed, as no one has told us. This also means that once again we are getting no post and our bins are not being emptied. On top of this, our buzzers are now not working. We were wondering around for about 10mins this morning trying to get the gate open. Eventually we found a gate key, but this will only work from the inside, as theres no hole for one on the outside. And theres only one key.

So we managed to get out to get to work, but we may not be able to get back in. We can't drive anywhere as we can't get to our car. The gate is also the only way in or out of our compound. Well I could always look on the good side, at least it's secure.

A not quite miraculous recovery

Viv was feeling better yesterday, after crawling out of bed, doing some washing and having a shower. She ate dinner, drank lots of water, but couldn't really sleep too well.

Today she was feeling Ok, but felt gradually worse on the way to work. After preparing herself for the worst, she's actually been told she can't do any overtime as she has been ill, which I think is brilliant, as she probably won't have to work on Saturday. She is feeling a bit rougher now, but she does also have a new temp to deal with and train.

She'll probably be home before me, which is annoying as I took the Car keys, thinking I'd be back first. So I can't even get a lift home! There's no justice in the world!