An old friend, who I haven't seen for a few years (but have known for about 26!) surprised me with an email today, just as I was about to leave work to fetch Frodo from school.
He's down from Glasgow to attend a conference tomorrow, so I managed to get a "pass out" from home to go out for a few beers with him at short notice tonight.
I'm really glad that I did, as it was truly great to see him again. Lots of catching up and reminiscing. Beer, burgers and chips at Blue in the Albert Dock.
(He went to see KISS in Mannheim last week - hence the title of this post).
Tuesday, 24 June 2008
Tuesday, 17 June 2008
Invisible Guinea Pig
Samwise has invented himself a new pet - an invisible guinea pig. He takes it for walks on an imaginary lead. It sits on the spare seat in the car, and wears an invisible seat belt. It wears invisible pyjamas, and has pretend pizza for tea!
I'm going to have to make an imaginary hutch for it.
Guess who'll be left to feed it and change the invisible straw when his imagination gives up on it :)
I'm going to have to make an imaginary hutch for it.
Guess who'll be left to feed it and change the invisible straw when his imagination gives up on it :)
Wednesday, 11 June 2008
Floating Hotel - Grand Princess
This monstrous vessel arrived early this morning and moored outside of the office.
It's a bit like having a block of flats suddenly appear overnight.
The extra bits of superstructure at each end make it look like it should be floating in outer space, rather than the high seas. Perhaps it's on it's way to Fhloston Paradise?
It's a bit like having a block of flats suddenly appear overnight.
The extra bits of superstructure at each end make it look like it should be floating in outer space, rather than the high seas. Perhaps it's on it's way to Fhloston Paradise?
Friday, 6 June 2008
HMS Ark Royal
Another battleship anchored outside of work today. HMS Ark Royal visiting Liverpool
It was supposed to be here in September, however the Royal Navy was too afraid to dock at the new landing stage until it had passed a safety check!
It's no wonder that we don't "Rule the Waves" anymore...
It was supposed to be here in September, however the Royal Navy was too afraid to dock at the new landing stage until it had passed a safety check!
It's no wonder that we don't "Rule the Waves" anymore...
Sunday, 1 June 2008
Aaaarrrgh!
Finished work at 03:00 with a successful release in the bag, after resolving a few problems encountered during the implementation.
Got back home around 03:30 feeling a bit too wound up to go to bed immediately, so with the dawn breaking and the dawn chorus birdies tweeting I spent about half an hour reading the second of Charlie Higson's Young Bond books.
Went to sleep at 04:00 and was woken up at 10:30 by the phone ringing. A heads up warning that a development/test server had a fault, and could I go in to escort the engineer into the secure server room when he and the part arrived?
14:00 and I was back in work. 15:00 and the engineer arrived, but he only had 1 part and needed 2. 17:15 the part arrived. Installed, tested and server booted and at 18:00 he left. 18:10 and the server crashed again. We managed to get it back up by disabling a memory board. The Engineer will be back next week.
I managed to bring up all of the environments on the server and dashed back home to arrive at 20:10, having missed the first 10 minutes of the Dr Who repeat (the first showing of which I of course had completely missed last night).
Then I found this response to my complaint to Orange in my Inbox...
Customer Service wrote:
> Hello [DarkDwarf],
>
> Thank you for your email.
>
> We are sorry for the inconvenience caused to you.
>
> We request you to follow the steps given below in order to improve the
> slow connection speed:
>
> Check if the equipment is setup correctly and connected to the master BT
> socket. Follow the link below for help:
>
> http://help.orange.co.uk/sessionBegin.do?solutionId=kb327
>
> http://help.orange.co.uk/sessionBegin.do?solutionId=kb264
>
> Follow the link below to perform diagnostics:
>
> http://help.orange.co.uk/sessionBegin.do?solutionId=kb165
>
> Follow the link below to reset your Livebox:
>
> http://help.orange.co.uk/sessionBegin.do?solutionId=kb18901
>
> If the issue persists then swap the filters as is possible that the
> filters could be corrupt and provide us with the following information:
>
> * Status of @ light?
> * Status of ! light?
> * Status of >> light?
> * Status of telephone light?
> * Status of antenna light?
> * Do you have Wired or Wireless connection?
> * What is the make of the Wireless adapter (speedtouch 121g adapter,
> speedtouch 122g or inventel adapter)?
> * Brief description of when problem occurred and time it affects the
> most?
> * Have you made any recent changes on your computer or internal wiring
> of your house?
> * Do you have Antivirus/firewall installed on your computer?
> * How many BT sockets do you have in use?
> * Do you have a splitter or an extension cable(If yes, specify the
> length)?
> * Is the equipment connected to the main BT socket?
> * Are the device filtered?
> * Do you have additional telephony devices like sky tv, digital phone,
> fax machine, etc?
>
> As soon as we hear back from you we can sort the problem out.
>
> If you wish to make a complain, we request you to contact our Broadband
> Customer Support Team on the number 0844 873 8586(IVR options 1-4) (they
> are open 7am -11pm, 7 days a week, calls are charged at National rate.)
>
> If you have any further queries then please do not hesitate to get in
> contact with us again.
>
> Kind Regards,
> Shraddha
>
> Broadband Support
> REF:WOOBB
Got back home around 03:30 feeling a bit too wound up to go to bed immediately, so with the dawn breaking and the dawn chorus birdies tweeting I spent about half an hour reading the second of Charlie Higson's Young Bond books.
Went to sleep at 04:00 and was woken up at 10:30 by the phone ringing. A heads up warning that a development/test server had a fault, and could I go in to escort the engineer into the secure server room when he and the part arrived?
14:00 and I was back in work. 15:00 and the engineer arrived, but he only had 1 part and needed 2. 17:15 the part arrived. Installed, tested and server booted and at 18:00 he left. 18:10 and the server crashed again. We managed to get it back up by disabling a memory board. The Engineer will be back next week.
I managed to bring up all of the environments on the server and dashed back home to arrive at 20:10, having missed the first 10 minutes of the Dr Who repeat (the first showing of which I of course had completely missed last night).
Then I found this response to my complaint to Orange in my Inbox...
Customer Service wrote:
> Hello [DarkDwarf],
>
> Thank you for your email.
>
> We are sorry for the inconvenience caused to you.
>
> We request you to follow the steps given below in order to improve the
> slow connection speed:
>
> Check if the equipment is setup correctly and connected to the master BT
> socket. Follow the link below for help:
>
> http://help.orange.co.uk/sessionBegin.do?solutionId=kb327
>
> http://help.orange.co.uk/sessionBegin.do?solutionId=kb264
>
> Follow the link below to perform diagnostics:
>
> http://help.orange.co.uk/sessionBegin.do?solutionId=kb165
>
> Follow the link below to reset your Livebox:
>
> http://help.orange.co.uk/sessionBegin.do?solutionId=kb18901
>
> If the issue persists then swap the filters as is possible that the
> filters could be corrupt and provide us with the following information:
>
> * Status of @ light?
> * Status of ! light?
> * Status of >> light?
> * Status of telephone light?
> * Status of antenna light?
> * Do you have Wired or Wireless connection?
> * What is the make of the Wireless adapter (speedtouch 121g adapter,
> speedtouch 122g or inventel adapter)?
> * Brief description of when problem occurred and time it affects the
> most?
> * Have you made any recent changes on your computer or internal wiring
> of your house?
> * Do you have Antivirus/firewall installed on your computer?
> * How many BT sockets do you have in use?
> * Do you have a splitter or an extension cable(If yes, specify the
> length)?
> * Is the equipment connected to the main BT socket?
> * Are the device filtered?
> * Do you have additional telephony devices like sky tv, digital phone,
> fax machine, etc?
>
> As soon as we hear back from you we can sort the problem out.
>
> If you wish to make a complain, we request you to contact our Broadband
> Customer Support Team on the number 0844 873 8586(IVR options 1-4) (they
> are open 7am -11pm, 7 days a week, calls are charged at National rate.)
>
> If you have any further queries then please do not hesitate to get in
> contact with us again.
>
> Kind Regards,
> Shraddha
>
> Broadband Support
> REF:WOOBB
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