7 September 2011 (Wednesday) - Bras and CDs

A week without coffee, and no discernible effect on the insomnia; I’m going back on to the stuff. Also my blood test results have arrived with those who should be looking them up. I am reliably informed that I did mostly OK – but it would seem my thyroid’s not what it once was, and my cholesterol could be lower. All things considered, 7/10: could do better.

Which, as blood tests go, isn’t bad.

Work was OK – work was more than OK – work was good. Initially I wasn’t sure how I’d get on (temporarily) relocating to the Kent & Canterbury Hospital. But I’m rather enjoying it. The journey isn’t too bad, really. The people with whom I’m working are a good bunch, and the workload is much more manageable than that which I am used to.

And then home. Within minutes of arriving home the doorbell rang. ‘er indoors ^TM had been advertising her unwanted tat on Freecycle (an Internet site on which people unload their unwanted tat to pikeys). A “rather delightful lady” had called to pick up that which ‘er indoors ^TM  was giving away. Fifteen old bras, and a leaking air-bed. I couldn’t believe it – who on Earth would want fifteen used old bras, and a leaking air-bed?

I then spent a little while mucking about on the telephone to the bank and the building society. Twenty five years ago when we took out the mortgage we went with a financial advisor. Big mistake!!! Leaving aside the fact that it’s my father in law, we’re not so much having problems, as having a painful time of it all. Had the mortgage been done directly with the bank or the building society, then I rather imagine that the various financial institutions would have spoken with each other. But having had a financial advisor organise it all, everything seems to be operating in isolation.

 As it is we’ve had to get the endowment money (as a cheque) and pay it into the bank account. Actually getting that cheque wasn’t easy, and we paid the cheque into the bank account today. I then had to persuade the building society to wait for that cheque to clear, and to wait for me to come into their branch to pay off the money we owe. What with one thing and another that cheque won’t have cleared before early next week.

The building society had a plan to convert the money we owe them into another mortgage, and charge me seventy quid for doing so.

It’s all problems I really don’t need.

Yesterday I was given a CD. Tonight I thought I’d listen to it in the car. The car’s CD player wouldn’t play it, and now the CD is jammed in the CD player. I can’t budge the thing. I’ll take it to Halford’s on Saturday.

And then to the astro club committee meeting. Our chairman is a wonderful fellow – trying to keep order at the committee meeting can only be likened to trying to herd cats. But we had a really good time; and achieved quite a bit too. All sorts of plans for the next few months. Why not come along to astro club on the last Friday of every month….

6 September 2011 (Tuesday) - Stuff

Last week I grumbled about how rubbish I thought the new season of “Doctor Who” had become. I must admit I quite liked the most recent episode. “Night Terrors” was classic Doctor Who. Really good. But it would have been better in three or four episodes, each of twenty five minutes duration….

Talking of decent television, Downton Abbey’s second season starts in a week or so. The trailer is on-line.

I am told that my urine is a particularly volatile fluid, but there was something on the radio this morning which boiled my piss. And boiled it big-time. I’ve not had my kindle for six months and already it is obsolete. Amazon are (allegedly) about to bring out the colour version of the Kindle. It will be a book-reader, and a whole lot more. It will even stream video.

And you know what will happen next. Within a very short space of time, the Kindle will become yesterday’s technology; an unsupported format fit only for boot fairs and bins.

I was about to ask why technology is like this: why does the “next big thing” come so quickly. But the answer is obvious – because people will pay for it. Enough people will be happy to throw away their six-month-old Kindle and shell out good money on something else to make it worth the while of Amazon to bring out Kindle-II.

I’m hoping I can make my Kindle last for a little while longer before I’m forced onto the next great somebody-else’s-moneyspinner.

And just to add insult to injury, McDonalds have added calorie counts to their menus. I don’t care how many calories there are in a Big McScoff: I shall still yum it up…

I was early in to work this morning: I’m still figuring out  how long it takes to get to Canterbury, and I had to be there early. Last week the quack said I needed to do a fasting blood test (as part of the on-going insomnia investigations). So this morning I fasted and then had my bloods done. One of the disadvantages of working in blood testing is that looking up your own results is a disciplinary offence.  And bearing in mind that I’m in quite enough trouble already, I shall await to find my results through the proper channels.

I wonder how I did….

5 September 2011 (Monday) - Renewable Power

Just as I thought the coffee-free lifestyle was curing the insomnia, I was proved wrong. I woke at 2.50 am this morning. It was perhaps as well I didn’t oversleep, as today was the first day of my (hopefully temporary) secondment to working at the Canterbury Hospital.

The drive to Canterbury was quite pleasant – I shouted at the politicians on the radio, and I got there in plenty of time. The workload is somewhat more relaxed than I am used to, but it was good to be able to do a job well rather than a job rushed. And I got to come home via the Koi shop at Chilham where I picked up a ton of fish food. That should keep the greedy beggars fed for the next few weeks.

Meanwhile across the pond one of my Canadian cousins has raised an interesting point. Wind Farms – are they quite what they are cracked up to be? It wold seem that over in Ontario there is very little consultation with the public as to where wind farms are going. Added to which is the question of exactly how efficient (or not) the wind turbines are. Having a sunnier climate, there is a feeling over in Canada that maybe solar panels might be a more effective way to produce power.

I always thought that the production of solar panels involved the use of large amounts of dangerous chemicals, but I could be wrong.

Personally I like the idea of wind farms. Efficient or not, there are two wind farms within twenty miles of my house, and whenever I see the arrays on the Romney Marsh, or off the Whitstable coast I get a warm feeling inside. I *like* wind farms. And to be honest, despite the dangerous chemicals, I quite like the idea of solar panels too.

After all, once the coal and oil has all gone (global warming concerns aside), what will we do without “wind (and other renewables)”…?

4 September 2011 (Sunday) - Kites over Leeds Castle

Over a spot of brekkie I checked my lottery ticket. If ever I wanted to win the national Lottery, it was now. But no joy. I didn’t have a single winning number.

Following on from yesterday’s blog, it would seem that bean plants are supposed to go black and manky before they are harvested. One lives and learns.

Yesterday I mentioned that my original plans for the day didn’t come to fruition. The same was true of today. I’d hoped to go to the astro-festival at Hestmonceaux. But despite my best efforts, no one else was up for going to this. And I wasn’t going to go on my own, so instead we went to Leeds Castle with the kite fliers.

We arrived, and found ourselves directed to park at the far extreme part of a field: following a turnout of over seven thousand people yesterday, the staff were expecting a mammoth attendance from the public. And once parked we made our way to the entrance where our tickets were waiting for us. And before long we were with the Brighton Kite Fliers contingent, putting on a show for the public as part of the “Balloons and Bentleys” weekend.

We got on with the business of kite flying – with inflated monkeys, spinning doughnuts, lifters and the like. After an hour or so we got the kites in: the idea was that the balloon people wanted some space, and the weather was looking iffy anyway. We chatted with the balloonists who were very dubious about doing their thing because of the weather, but we decided to leave the kites down for a couple of hours to give the balloonists the chance to do ballooning if the weather did perk up. In the meantime we wandered around looking at the attractions.

First of all we had a look at the Bentleys. I suppose they were interesting if you like old cars. We then mooched up to the toilets (always a good place to stop), and as the rain got worse we wandered on to the aviaries to look at the birds. Birds are marginally more interesting that Bentleys in that they actually do things. We had seen a “Bird of Prey Display” advertised, but when we arrived we didn’t see what we had been expecting. Hawks and eagles are fussy things that don’t like the rain. So rather than showing off birds of prey, they wheeled out various parrots and storks. Parrots and storks don’t care about the rain (apparently).

Deciding that wandering around a maze (lost and in the rain) would be a silly thing to do, we made our way slowly back to base. Via the Dog Collar museum (really!), the ice cream stall, and various craft stalls. Billed as “craft stalls”, there was very little there which I would have described as “craft”: the fact that we came away with ten quid’s worth of sausages better describes what was on offer (!)

Rather than flying more kites, we spent half an hour untangling some kite lines, but just as the frostbite was about to set in (oh – it was cold!) we got some kites out for the last half hour. And then home – five miles away from Leeds Castle was glorious sunshine.

It had been gold and damp, but I for one had a really good day out with friends. But I must admit I pitied anyone who’d paid the entrance fee expecting to see what Leeds Castle had billed for the day. The weather was such that no hot-air balloons took off, and with the Bentleys…what can I say? If you see one car, you really have seen them all... (!)

3 September 2011 (Saturday) - Lenham and Fudge

One of the things the doc suggested to cure my insomnia was to cut out caffeine. I’m now onto day three on caffeine-free coffee, and I did sleep reasonably better last night. I was still wide awake at 6am worrying about that over which I have absolutely no control, but better 6am than 4am, eh?

I then had a bit of a sulk. This time last year I was camping at Sumner’s Ponds. I could have been camping again this weekend – some months ago I’d had an invite to a birthday party at Sumner’s Ponds. But I turned it down because I’d arranged to go to London. The plan was to see the dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum, and then on to a sci-fi exhibition at the British Library.

But I decided against going. In a rare triumph of common sense over idiot enthusiasm I realised that I couldn’t afford it. Just getting me and ‘er indoors ^TM to London will cost about forty quid. By the time we’ve bought lunch (fifteen to twenty quid) and had the obligatory pub stop (fifteen to twenty quid) and bought a couple of souvenirs, we could easily have spent over a hundred quid.

This month I shall need that hundred quid to pay my petrol costs of my (hopefully temporary) reassignment to the Kent and Canterbury Hospital

After a morning wasted playing worms, this afternoon we went on one of our AA recommended guided country walks – this time round Lenham. We started shortly after 1pm, and we started off with a rather interesting incident.

The route we were taking was quite clearly marked across some fields, and then through three gates. The map clearly said to follow the footpath through three gates, and each of the gates had footpath signs on them. As we went through the gates, I realised we were passing some rather posh houses in East Lenham: houses at which the arky-ologee club has dug before. And sitting outside the poshest house was a couple from the arky-ologee club. So I gave them a cheery hello.

They obviously didn’t recognise us, as the bloke rudely turned his back and went into the house, and the woman very rudely started a tirade at us about her being sick of hikers using the footpath, and weren’t there any other footpaths we could use. Her tone was one that I might use when cursing the dogshit I’d just stepped in.

And having gone from enjoying a lovely day in the autumn sunshine I was suddenly just as bad tempered as she was. My mood didn’t last long, but who do these people think they are? I will confront her about her attitude when we next meet. Which will be at the next arky-ologee club meeting.  And I tackle her in front of all her cronies. Rather loudly, rather obviously, and rather embarrassingly.

After a few hundred yards walking my snit subsided. Which was probably just as well. It was too nice a day to be sulking. And we continued our walk, pausing only occasionally to talk to the sheep. We did have a little part of the route where we went astray – the written instructions told us to walk along a lane looking for a stile by a sign for a fruit wholesaler. We couldn’t find any signs for a fruit wholesaler, but we found a stile just after a sign advertising industrial units. It was possible the fruit wholesaler had gone bust in the meantime, but I thought it best not to take any chances. So we abandoned that part of the walk, and continued along the lane to pick up where our route would eventually have come out.

We found ourselves passing Chapel Farm, and knowing that the arky-ologee club were digging there, we thought we’d call in. These arky-ologists were pleased to see us, and four feet under the field’s topsoil they’d found what they thought was an ancient ditch. (Those long winter evening must just fly by…)

We chatted for a few minutes, then continued on our way. At one point we walked through a field of beans. The plants hadn’t been harvested, and had all been left to go black. As far as the eye could see, there were bean plants unharvested and going bad. What was that all about?

And so back to the car, and after a much deserved bottle of pop we went round to Grafty Green to see if their pond section had any fish food. The young lad on the counter (aged about twelve) had the most expensive fish food I’d ever seen, so we gave that a miss and came home, where over tea we met our latest grand-pet. I am already a grandfather to two guinea pigs and two cats. Now I have a grand-dog. Fudge seems rather like hard work, but  “My Boy ^TM ” seems rather taken with him. I suppose to his credit, Fudge is a quiet dog. I’m told Fudge will come visiting from time to time. I wonder if Fudge will come round to drop off his laundry like his owner does….

2 September 2011 (Friday) - At The Cinema

The problem with having a new computer is that it does take a while to get it just how you want it. And over the years I’ve lost several CDs of programs that I really shouldn’t have lost. One of them was the FTP software. For the less-techie of my loyal readers, FTP software is what I use to back up my blog to its mirror site, and also to publish websites; something I don’t do as often as I used to. Basically it moves files from one computer to another via the Internet.

With a little rummaging round the Internet I found Coffee Cup FTP. Billed as “a simplified, intuitive, and best of all free FTP client” I wasted over an hour on it before I realised it would only move my files to its manufacturer’s web space. Eventually I found what I needed – but on downloading it and using it I found out that all I had was a free trial. They will want paying eventually.

Why is it I resent paying for computer-related things? If I buy a tent or a telescope, I’m happy to pay for it. But anything on-line I rather expect to be free.

And then on with fiddling about with my presentation for the South East Kent Astronomical Society, which is only eight days away. I’m terrified! I’ve given talks to our own astro club. About a dozen. But they are talks to our own club: everyone there knows me. They know I’m the harmless, amiable bloke what does the raffle and shouts “ANUS!” whenever the seventh planet from the sun is mentioned. I must admit I’m more than a tad nervous about talking to SEKAS – I’ve been on their website and their Facebook group: they are “proper” astronomers! But then, I was rather nervous about talking to the Wadhurst group, and they turned out to be really good people. I shall hope for the best.

I then wasted the rest of the day playing “Worms” whilst waiting for the phone to ring. It did eventually. I might blog about that phone call at some point (he wrote mysteriously!).

This evening I went to the cinema: I haven’t been there for ages. In the past I’ve mentioned that I don’t like the cinema. Because I’m lumped in with the Great Unwashed, all burping and farting. Because I have to sit through interminable adverts before the film actually starts. Because I get uncomfortable sitting still for any length of time. But tonight was different – the cinema was mostly empty; the adverts only went on for twenty minutes and were actually quite good, and being a short film didn’t leave me enough time to get fidgety.

Apollo 18 was a really good film. The premise was that a whole load of film footage from a secret Apollo mission had been found, and that the film was made from that footage. In retrospect the film would have worked better if it had featured unknown actors, but I liked it. I thought it was really good.

And after recently writing countless blog entries running down recent sci-fi offerings, I’m pleased to have found something worth watching….

1 September 2011 (Thursday) - Secure Key

I went to the doctor’s today: this insomnia is getting ridiculous. No matter what time I go to bed, I’m wide awake after four hours sleep. The doc has arranged for me to have some blood tests done. Let’s see what comes of that.

I then came home to find postie had delivered my banking “secure key” - allegedly a wonder of technology. It looks like a miniature calculator, and the idea is that whenever I log into my bank account, rather than putting my PIN into the computer, I put the PIN into the secure key. It then generates a (seemingly) random number that I put into the computer which acts as my PIN for that occasion.

So I have one PIN for the secure key, and a randomly changing one to type into the PC. What once was quick and easy now involves a lot of fiddling about: I don’t want to have to lug the silly little gadget about with me. I phoned the bank to have a whinge – they told me to suck it up and get on with it.

I then had a go with the astro club’s account: we’ve got an AGM coming up, and so it’s probably for the best that I give some kind of accounting of how we’re doing for money. There was a worrying half an hour in which I couldn’t find the club account’s cheque book – fortunately it turned up where I’d put it. It kept it somewhere safe (!), and then I lost it again.

I went through the last year’s accounts. And (would you believe it) the figures all totted up. We’ve probably got more cash in hand that we should have (I’ll go to the bank soon), and we’ve hall hire expenses coming up, but the balance sheet has been worse. I wonder if I should email it to the membership before the meeting?

After a spot of lunch I fell asleep on the sofa for over two hours (which is entirely why I went to the doctor this morning), and then I got up and cleared out my “keep this” letter rack. I have a rack into which I pop things which might be important, or which I will get round to later, or which I am a bit dubious about throwing away. There was loads of rubbish in that rack, including stuff going back over five years. And having got quite a nice pile of unwanted letters, I considered having myself a little bonfire.

But I decided against it, and played worms instead…