A week in the life

What with all this having to do proper work, and learning lots of new stuff, I haven't had much space in my brain for thinking of fascinating and entertaining post subjects. So, I'll give you a rundown of my last week or so, and see what comes up. You never know...

Easter Weekend
It was a while ago now, and what I remember most about it is that I ate chocolate for the first time since Ash Wednesday. And, my Mum cooked a marvellous roast dinner and we had a family game of Trivial Pursuit. Just like Christmas.

Last Tuesday
Thomas was still off school, so he and I, along with Mum and my friend Sorcha, went to visit Wakehurst Place in East Sussex. This beautiful country house and gardens are managed by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and it houses the Millennium Seed Bank. Very well worth a visit. We were there in time to see the most magnificent magnolias in flower. A few more weeks and the bluebells will be out.

Thursday
Had my hair colour done. Something different. Bright (very bright) red bits and dark (very dark) burgundy bits. It looks a lot better than it sounds (I hope!).

Friday...
Was the day of my Nan's funeral. Of course a solemn time, but the service was beautifully conducted. The minister spoke about her as if he knew her. Her long-time friend and neighbour read a poem she had written about her. The choice of songs by Nat King Cole to begin and end the service was appropriate and very moving. I won't be able to hear 'Smile' again without it bringing a tear. Which is how it should be. What would once have been an innocuous song, will forever more remind me of Nan.

New job
Yesterday, I started my new job. There's a huge amount to learn. My new boss keeps starting sentences with "The first thing you should do is..." and "Top of your list should be...". It's strange to be learning a new job in the same place, with the same people around me, and even sitting at the same desk for the time being.

High tea
This afternoon my ex-team had afternoon tea. We all brought in tiny sandwiches with the crusts cut off, dainty cakes and suchlike. We had a cakestand. We had doilies. We had a teapot and drank Earl Grey. It was terribly civilised!

There you have it. I'm sure I could have done better, but my brain's fit to burst and I need an early night.

Don't ask me... I'm a newbie

I am very happy to announce that I have found a new job with my current employer, so redundancy no longer looms. And I managed to clock up 3 weeks' garden leave. And I've got a week's holiday next week. I think it's a win-win!

I will be part of the future of gaming technology. Online. ECommerce. Downloading. MMORPG. We have doors that go swish and we wear silver suits* and we talk to each other through communications devices.

*Actually, we don't wear silver suits. That's a fib.

Eggs-planation

Following Chux's comment on my previous post, I feel I should explain (to him, anyway...).

I was queuing (queueing?) in Addlestone Post Office (behind Chux and Delmonti, it turns out) with my good friend - she was posting Easter eggs to her parents, though the contents were much smaller than the box would have you believe.

Talking about eggs that are smaller than they should be reminded us of a previous conversation about eating Cadbury Creme Eggs with a teaspoon (as you would a boiled egg) and whether it was possible (the 'shell' of the chocolate egg being so thick and all). This led us down the natural conversational path of spoon sizes, and why is a coffee spoon so much smaller than a teaspoon. Presumably because an old-fashioned coffee cup is smaller than a tea cup. My question was: is the difference in size between a teaspoon and a coffee spoon the same, proportionally, as between a teacup and a coffee cup? To work it out, we decided, you'd need to do measuring and algebra and stuff. So we'll probably never know.


That was it. Not nearly as interesting and entertaining as the conversation itself, which passed the time quite nicely in the long Post Office queue.

Good day to you!

Surely I can think of an 'Eiffel Tower' pun...?

Inspired by PT's picture post, I thought I'd give it a go. I've fiddled a bit with light and stuff before (in fact, my 'me' picture on this page includes some 'artificial' sunlight) and some arty black-and-white-ness, but I thought I'd try something a bit different.

So, here's my modest effort. I rather like it, actually, and I think I might try more of the same with some other Paris pictures for a photo montage to put on a wall of my home... Or something...

Let's just do the paperwork...

Here's a thing...

I have no real sentimental attachment to material things. If my house was on fire I would grab: Thomas (obviously); my purse; my keys; my phone; a coat - all but the first one for practial reasons.

However, until a couple of hours ago, I had every payslip from the last ten years. Every bank, credit card, pension and mortgage statement. Every cheque stub. Every gas, electricity and phone bill.

I'm now halfway through shredding the lot. I was going to keep a year's worth, but I gritted my teeth and got rid of it all! Now, don't tell me I should keep everything for 7 years, or something. It's too late!

Rest assured, lest you think I'm some kind of crazy hoarder, I clear out my newspapers once a week and I don't keep my wee in jam jars (you just have to click on this link, by the way, if you have the same childish sense of humour as me...)!

Are you paying attention?

On 3rd April 1973 the first public cell phone call was made in New York. And on the same date in 1986, IBM unveiled their first laptop computer.

Which leads me to discuss the modern 'epidemic', continuous partial attention, whereby we never give anything our constant focus, so distracted are we by our mobile phones, texts, IMs, Blackberrys (Blackberries?) and the like. I'm not too guilty of this myself - mostly due to my limited social circle than my refusal to subscribe to bad technology etiquette - but I am very aware of the failure of most people to give their full attention. This has led me to do the same - when in conversation, I gaze out of the window or fail to make eye contact far more frequently than I ever used to - and I'm sure this is because I don't see why I should make the effort when other people don't grant me that courtesy.

Do we really have so much to do these days that we have to do everything at once just to fit it all in? I don't think so. And all this technology was supposed to make things easier, give us more leisure time. But most of our leisure time is now taken up with the technology. OK, so I'm spending some lovely free time, right now, on a sunny Spring afternoon, writing this rant on my wireless broadband-connected laptop. I'm also logged into 2 e-mail accounts, Instant Messenger and I have my mobile phone by my side. Oh, and my landline phone just rang (but I didn't answer it - number withheld - so I don't even want to talk to people who want to talk to me!).

So, what's my point? I don't really know! Except that there's never anything on TV that I want to watch, but I was bereft when my Sky+ box went kaput. And, the only text message I've had on my mobile all week was from Wimbledon greyhound stadium offering me a free night out at the 'dogs', yet if I leave my phone at home I feel like I'm missing a limb. The technology's all very well, but I still need to get a life! Still, at least my iPod understands me!

P.S. I just saw a TV advert for Rubik's Cube. Remember when we were all twisting and clicking those to the exclusion of everything else? Maybe times haven't changed that much after all...!