Just to put the topping on a truly Crap Weekend - the job on Sunday morning took 6.5 hours instead of the 3.5 that was planned. Back into work again on Sunday at 6pm as planned for an hour.
Home again afterwards, boys bathed, stories and put to bed. Got everything ready for next week. Turned the laptop on at 11pm when the phone went. Called back into work again for yet another problem. Finished at 2am on Monday morning.
Much as I loathe weeks when I'm on-call, at least they bring in extra cash with which to enjoy those weeks when I'm not.
Hence no blogging, tweeting or facebook last night - catching up on ZZZZZ's instead.
Tuesday 23 February 2010
Saturday 20 February 2010
Crap Weekend So Far
Late finish at work on Friday at 20:30.
Walked out to the front car park - "Dude, where's my car?!"
Answer - in the multi-storey car park that's only paid for until 19:00. Forgot to move the car round to the smaller free car park outside the main building. Charged £3.80 for the privilege of the stay.
Drove home, just pulling up outside the house, when the phone rings, and I'm called back to work to fix the problem behind a system alert that's just cropped up which needs immediate attention.
Home again at 23:00 for a whole hour of Friday night! Cup of hot chocolate and bed.
Back in again this morning for another couple of hours of pre-planned work. Home again at 11:00. Nipped round to the very local coffee shop to fetch back a couple of Lattes and second breakfast (old Hobbit's die hard).
Popped out again to give a mis-delivered letter to a neighbour to hear a loud crunch! The very same neighbour had just managed to clout our car with his whilst trying to park!
His fault, so a phone call to insurance to arrange repairs and a replacement vehicle.
New flat pack furniture delivery actually arrived on time. Crash bang wallop! Off the truck and into the house. Spent the next couple of hours rearranging the unbalanced pile that they'd left, so there's less chance of it falling on anyone whilst I work up the urge to put it together over the next 20 weeks or so :)
More joys of being in work planned for tomorrow morning, and tomorrow teatime. Remind me to seek out and burn the essay about 'the future of home working' that I wrote at college!
Consoled myself by playing Rayman Raving Raving Rabbids TV Party with the boys. It claims to be "The only video game that you can play with your butt" - I'm sure that Samwise can prove them wrong :)
Walked out to the front car park - "Dude, where's my car?!"
Answer - in the multi-storey car park that's only paid for until 19:00. Forgot to move the car round to the smaller free car park outside the main building. Charged £3.80 for the privilege of the stay.
Drove home, just pulling up outside the house, when the phone rings, and I'm called back to work to fix the problem behind a system alert that's just cropped up which needs immediate attention.
Home again at 23:00 for a whole hour of Friday night! Cup of hot chocolate and bed.
Back in again this morning for another couple of hours of pre-planned work. Home again at 11:00. Nipped round to the very local coffee shop to fetch back a couple of Lattes and second breakfast (old Hobbit's die hard).
Popped out again to give a mis-delivered letter to a neighbour to hear a loud crunch! The very same neighbour had just managed to clout our car with his whilst trying to park!
His fault, so a phone call to insurance to arrange repairs and a replacement vehicle.
New flat pack furniture delivery actually arrived on time. Crash bang wallop! Off the truck and into the house. Spent the next couple of hours rearranging the unbalanced pile that they'd left, so there's less chance of it falling on anyone whilst I work up the urge to put it together over the next 20 weeks or so :)
More joys of being in work planned for tomorrow morning, and tomorrow teatime. Remind me to seek out and burn the essay about 'the future of home working' that I wrote at college!
Consoled myself by playing Rayman Raving Raving Rabbids TV Party with the boys. It claims to be "The only video game that you can play with your butt" - I'm sure that Samwise can prove them wrong :)
Tuesday 16 February 2010
Sunday 14 February 2010
Sherlock Holmes
Finished off our Valentine's weekend with a trip to the cinema.
Romantic Chick Flick? No - for us it was Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes, which was every bit as good as I expected it to be i.e. Ace!
Impworks has already given the film a review here, which I would say pretty well sums it up.
To me it was like The Strand Magazine meets Michael Moorcock (I'm thinking of the likes of Oswald Bastable here), and was just simply loads of action packed, high adventure, historical/alternative history fun.
It was refreshing to see a Dr Watson who isn't just a device for Holmes to explain what's going on to the audience, and a Holmes who is as much decadent and depraved as he is genius.
We were some of those people who stayed in our seats just to watch the end titles, and can't wait for the sequel.
Romantic Chick Flick? No - for us it was Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes, which was every bit as good as I expected it to be i.e. Ace!
Impworks has already given the film a review here, which I would say pretty well sums it up.
To me it was like The Strand Magazine meets Michael Moorcock (I'm thinking of the likes of Oswald Bastable here), and was just simply loads of action packed, high adventure, historical/alternative history fun.
It was refreshing to see a Dr Watson who isn't just a device for Holmes to explain what's going on to the audience, and a Holmes who is as much decadent and depraved as he is genius.
We were some of those people who stayed in our seats just to watch the end titles, and can't wait for the sequel.
For Those About To Cook... We Salute You
Rather than do the crowded Restaurant thing, this year in honour of Valentines day we decided to stay in whilst I cooked a decent meal.
So armed with a couple of cook books (Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food and Hairy Bikers' Mum Knows Best) I rustled up Vegetable Bhajis, Chicken Tarka Masala Curry and finished off with Baked Alaska.
The Bhajis were extremely tasty. There's a bit of mixture left in the fridge so I'll deep fry a few more tomorrow. The Curry was spicy, but not hot and went down OK.
Baked Alaska was an adventurous experiment. Ice cream in the oven! Turned out OK, but slightly overcooked due to trying to make sure that the meringue covering was starting to brown.
Meal was a success. The only thing missing was a couple 'sucking face' on the table next to us, and the annoying single rose sellers.
We've exchanged gifts. For Him - a new FatFace shirt. For Her a Sofia + Sam laptop desk (I got one of these for myself too, so we can tweet at each other in comfort.)
The title of this blog post is courtesy of a tweet from cha0tic on learning that I'd put some hard rock music on to cook to.
So armed with a couple of cook books (Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food and Hairy Bikers' Mum Knows Best) I rustled up Vegetable Bhajis, Chicken Tarka Masala Curry and finished off with Baked Alaska.
The Bhajis were extremely tasty. There's a bit of mixture left in the fridge so I'll deep fry a few more tomorrow. The Curry was spicy, but not hot and went down OK.
Baked Alaska was an adventurous experiment. Ice cream in the oven! Turned out OK, but slightly overcooked due to trying to make sure that the meringue covering was starting to brown.
Meal was a success. The only thing missing was a couple 'sucking face' on the table next to us, and the annoying single rose sellers.
We've exchanged gifts. For Him - a new FatFace shirt. For Her a Sofia + Sam laptop desk (I got one of these for myself too, so we can tweet at each other in comfort.)
The title of this blog post is courtesy of a tweet from cha0tic on learning that I'd put some hard rock music on to cook to.
Friday 5 February 2010
Disappearing Dates
Strange - my blog post dates have disappeared. The option is ticked on the widget for blog post, so I'm not sure what's happened here?
Hairy Bikers - Mums know best!
Every few months or so The Book People visit work with a pile of discounted books for sale.
The last time they came round, just before Christmas - after making a few purchases for Santa to deliver - I bought a slow-cooker recipe book, which got us dusting off our old crock-pot and producing some very tasty dishes. Making a welcome change from our old slow-cooker standard of sausage casserole.
This time I picked up some Oxford Reading Tree read at home books, and a copy of The Hairy Bikers Family Cookbook - "Mums know best!"
I've just spent the last hour leafing through it, and despite having just had a large fish supper, I'm feeling hungry from just looking at the recipes.
"Dave's Mam's Killer Fishcakes" look particularly good - I'll definitely be giving them a try, but I'll be keeping the kids out of the way whilst they're cooking.
The Hairy Bikers story is that they're so-called because they nearly were killers. "Three-year old Dave sat sucking the key to his clockwork monkey, he was distracted by the delicious smell of fishcakes cooking. One gulp and the key lodged in his throat - he had to have an operation to remove it!"
The last time they came round, just before Christmas - after making a few purchases for Santa to deliver - I bought a slow-cooker recipe book, which got us dusting off our old crock-pot and producing some very tasty dishes. Making a welcome change from our old slow-cooker standard of sausage casserole.
This time I picked up some Oxford Reading Tree read at home books, and a copy of The Hairy Bikers Family Cookbook - "Mums know best!"
I've just spent the last hour leafing through it, and despite having just had a large fish supper, I'm feeling hungry from just looking at the recipes.
"Dave's Mam's Killer Fishcakes" look particularly good - I'll definitely be giving them a try, but I'll be keeping the kids out of the way whilst they're cooking.
The Hairy Bikers story is that they're so-called because they nearly were killers. "Three-year old Dave sat sucking the key to his clockwork monkey, he was distracted by the delicious smell of fishcakes cooking. One gulp and the key lodged in his throat - he had to have an operation to remove it!"
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