colinmurtagh

For the first time in a long time, actually since February, we managed to grab some decent time off. Couple of weeks back we made our way back to Cambridge to say Goodbye to the flat, clear some stuff out of it, and hand over the keys. So that's us done with Cambridge then.
Did get to see some folk before we left. Wandered down to Savinios the best little coffee shop in Cambridge, and we wandered into Oxfam to see my old store. Anyone in the Cambridge area who has a few hours and is looking for something to do, wander into the Oxfam book shop and volunteer a couple of hours. Whatever you do though, don't tell Roger you know me. He'll spend hours telling you how bad I am.
Last week was our wedding anniversary so as is our habit, we took the week off and vanished off. Ended up in Glasgow for the week. It was so nice seeing the family again, it's been too long, but we were shocked at how big all the nephews and nieces had got. Who gave them permission to grow up?
We had a wonderful time, spent too much, ate too much drank too much (well Jill did), walked too much. It's strange going home, everything keeps changing until it gets to the stage where we get lost occasionally. Most embarrassing. As a wedding anniversary present, Jill got me the second volume of the Absolute Sandman. Have I mentioned how fond of her I am?
Got home late Sunday night which might have been a mistake. Straight back to work Monday Morning, and it's taken me until today to catch up. We both managed to pick up a cold while we were at it, so it's 9pm and I'm ready for bed. Think I'm turning into a soft southerner.

I finally got round to spending the Amazon voucher I got when I left Anglian Water. I wanted something I normally wouldn't buy myself, or something I couldn't justify spending so much money on. I wanted something that would be special, that I would keep. There was a couple of books I fancied, but they were a bit expensive. Well Amazon had a sale, knocked them down to half price, so I bought them both. No laughing at me!


The Complete Far Side

A two-volume collection features every Far Side cartoon ever syndicated, more than four thousand in all, presented in chronological order by year of publication, including more than 1,100 that have never appeared in book form.


The Complete Calvin and Hobbes
Brings together every "Calvin and Hobbes" cartoon that has ever appeared in syndication, along with stories and poems from classic collections.
Big box sets of books, both of them weigh in at over 10kg, and I had them delivered to the work so I had to carry them home. If nothing else it keeps me fit. It's a couple of books I'm really going to treasure. Now all I need is the time to read them

That's not me, that's budgie_uk

Colin Murtagh --
[noun]:

A master of storytelling

'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com</td>

I was so fed up listening to budgie_uk complaining about his foot, I decided I'd do mine in as well just to keep him company.
Walking to work yesterday morning, I was walking to work, slipped off the kerb, and twisted my ankle. Thought at first it was just a sprain, but by the time I got home last night, my ankle was three times the size it should be, and I couldn't put any weight on it. So about 8.30 last night we wandered, well hobbled, up to A&E to get it looked at. Took a while, but after an X-Ray it turns out it is just a sprain, but a bad one. The up shot is, I've got two days off, with my foot up, ice packs and extra strong pain killers. I feel like Dr. House

18 years after I finished my degree, and I'm going back to school. was in Sheffield today to enrol at college to start a new management course. For the next thirty weeks, I'll be spending one day a week at college, learning how to be a proper manager. I reckon it's a good idea, the course should be interesting and I'm sure there's lots of stuff I'll be able to pick up that I'm maybe not doing as well as I should.
However the idea at the age of 40-something I'm going back to school, does worry me. It's been a long time since I've had to do homework, or any real studying, so getting back into the swing of it may be tricky. College is for young, carefree, energetic folk, (yes 9livesbaby I'm thinking of you). How an old fart like me is going to do, is another matter.

Happy Birthday budgie_uk hope it's a good one

ever since we've moved up here, Jill has been fascinated with the garden and with growing things. I've been more fascinated with how much of my salary goes towards keeping her in plants. as we're only renting here, she's not keen on planting anything, but she's started growing lots of pots of things. I thought I'd share some of it, under a cut as it's a bit picture heavy, and there's a quiz at the end. There's no prize except her undying gratitude.
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Well the last week has been fun. Luckily the house is quite high up a hill, so that was OK. We had to evacuate the lab Monday lunchtime. lab lost power about 4pm. The house lost power about 930pm, didn't come back on in the house till about lunchtime Tuesday. Got power back to the lab about 5pm Tuesday, but didn't get the IT back up until Wednesday lunchtime.  I managed to make it into work on Tuesday, but there was only about 5 of us did, which isn't bad out of a workforce of 120. The road outside the lab was under about 5 foot of water, but at least it didn't make it into the building. Wednesday we found one of the eaves from a building site across the road outside the door. This was about 40 foot long by 20 foot tall solid wood. It must have weighed a ton. Still having problems getting into work. My normal route when I walk in goes under an underpass which is still under 4 foot of water. Better than the 7 foot it was on Tuesday.

The entire city centre was without power most of Tuesday, some of the shops are still shut due to water damage. In fact Meadowhall, the big shopping Mall isn't due to reopen until Monday, train station is still shut, so we couldn't get away like we wanted to at the weekend, and some of the out of town shops will be at least another fortnight until they get re-opened. Was only on Friday we managed to get a supermarket open. Thank gawd we'd only just done a big shop. Drying out now, just hoping the rain doesn't come back.

For the second time in a fortnight, I'm sitting at home when I should be at work. Fortnight ago the rain was so heavy we couldn't get into work. Most the roads around Rotherham leading to Sheffield were shut. The road outside the lab was under three feet of water. Today, the rain has been so heavy, and the standing water building up so much, we were scared we weren't going to get out. As it was a couple of the roads around the lab were already shut, so by lunchtime, we were all off home. I knew it could get a bit damp up here, but I wasn't expecting this.

Well this time tomorrow the flat will be packed up. Removal men have arrived already to make an early start to it, so I don't even know if I'll have a PC when I get home. My google mail account is active, and hopefully I'll be able to pick up my mail at work next week, but apart from that, I'm now offline until we get everything set up at the new place.
Wish us luck