Do my feet touch the floor?

...obviously not at the moment.

As regular readers know, I don't write much when I'm busy, and the last week has been utter chaos. So let's see if I can remember what happened.

2 Fridays ago... blimey, yes it was that long ago, was yet another day, punctuated by choir practise, which ended a bit late, so I didn't bother going to see my parents. Had a rare night in, celebrating posting my application for my new radio license.

...so on Saturday I mowed the lawns while Shelagh was at work. Then we went to Grantham to get the car washed, and see my parents. Ended up buying everyone (including my sister) a Chinese dinner.

Sunday... being the second Sunday of the month, it was the usual morning and evening services to play the organ for. Went swimming during the afternoon to take advantage of a "no rush" session to get some real distance in. Managed 32 lengths in 2 sessions either side of 10 minutes in the sauna.

Monday morning was an early start to go swimming again. Just a short session. The evening was when things began to get busy, when Mit and Vav turned up for a week of madness at the radio station. Spent the evening installing Gentoo on gateway. Left after midnight.

Tuesday was fairly uneventful. Lent Mit my studio keys, and he continued the install progress during the day. Management meeting at 19:30 to go through the new IT strategy, and draw up a list of things to do.

Wednesday... more of the same, and began installing Gentoo on more machines. Went to Radio Witham as usual. Got back to Newark in time for last orders, and continued the IT revamp.

Thursday... decided not to go to the radio club, but continue the IT work, moving machines around. Had a report that the PA for the studio monitor speakers was playing up. Suspected the amp was at fault rather than the desk. The evening inspection seemed to implicate the UPS in some way too. Replaced a load of bulbs in the mixer. No word from Bristol about my license yet...

Friday... no post - bank holiday. Spent a few hours at the studio swearing at cursing at the malfunctioning amp, before ringing a peal at Edwalton (2hrs 22mins, standard doubles). Then spent the evening adding finishing touches to the install on PDS, which is due to become the new studio computer, although it's been resisting the install (maybe a P266 just isn't powerful enough these days?).

Saturday morning was spent finishing off bit of the install remotely before sending Mit and Vav on their was on the 14:30 train. Then off to Grantham to see my parents again, and buy some much needed petrol. No Chinese this time - just a nice ham and chips tea. My parents had decided to get me a nice music stand for my birthday... I just need to get myself to a RPS meeting to get some use out of it! Spent the evening imaging STUDIO's hard disc onto what was COM-MIRC, now PRODUCER. Easier than fighting another install on a P266. The old MIRC machine is now ready to be returned to its former owner :-) No post today! So I'll be Tuesday before I get to see Thursday's Ringing World, or anything from Bristol.

Sunday was mainly a day off. Nothing to get up for, but a quarter peal in the evening (44mins, St Clement minor). Spent the evening watching TV.

Monday... another dose of swimming (32 lengths) and a visit to the studio to remove the faulty amp, and replace it with a spare... no room for the satellite receiver now though, and had to uncable-tie the rack. Also found a remote and manuals for the MDs we hired for the RSL - they need returning. Also took the CD and MD players out of the studio ready for servicing. Still nagging Andy to get that done. An early night tonight, with the clocks going forwards, etc, I was pretty tried. No Waddo net... not that I could hear. Don't know what happened there.

So today... well Shelagh chickened out of going swimming - not surprising as she was late to bed last night. Receieved my copy of the comic, and confirmation that I've got 2E0FKH from Bristol, but no validation document yet. Maybe tomorrow?

Annoying things

Last night, on my way back from Lincoln, I discovered someone had placed a rather large branch in the middle of the road at the end of my street. Not a very significant thing, really, but a nusance for drivers, posing a potentially damaging hazard. After I'd parked up, I decided to go for a walk and clear the road.

This is one example of a few annoying things that have been going on in the street over the last few months. Other things include someone driving down the grass verge that runs between the houses and the A1, and someone throw an egg at my kitchen window on Wednesday. I'm not amused. If I catch anyone doing any of the above things, there'll be trouble.

More Power and Party

Tuesday night turned into a really good night out... a well behaved post broadcast party with nice food, and lots of informal chat and a few drinks. So all that's left to do now is a new website (a few updates first I think)... a week with Mit and Vav coming up next week.

Wednesday was another busy day... lots of programming. And then onto my 2E0 exam. Ok, so I had 75 minutes to answer 45 multi-guess questions, and after 25 minutes I was twiddling my fingers. I wasn't able to leave the exam room until half the time had passed (37 minutes)... I wasn't going to sit there like a lemon - the bar was calling! I passed with 88% not quite managing the 100% that I scored when I did the M3 exam, but then one of the questions (regarding maximum antenna height when transmitting at 51MHz) was a bit below the belt. I also managed to mix up my D and F layers, balanced modulators, and a couple of other minor points... I'm not going to worry about it too much.

So I guess I'll be applying for my new callsign today :-)

Spending money

Well, by Friday morning, my back ache had subsided, and I spent the day working quite hard, and took a trip out to Grantham in the evening to see my parents again.

Shelagh was working on Saturday morning, so I took the opportunity to do nothing. Stayed in bed for a few hours, and when I eventually got up, I was able to spend some time just playing with my computers, sorting out an X server so that I can play with battenberg from eccles. Also managed to install a few apps, and straighten a few things out. Later on I went to the Boundary Sound studio to clean and lube the fader on channel 15 (OTS1) as I'd noticed it was sticking and not running very smoothly. I picked up a chinese on the way home, and then had a nice relaxing evening in.

Sunday was a bit more of a pain. After I'd played the organ for the morning service, Shelagh and I went shopping in Grantham (which I decided to pay for), which allowed us to pick up some oatcakes, and get the car washed. While driving around Grantham, I noticed that the car was sounding rather noisy - the exhaust pipe had finally given up, so I then had to pay for a new one - not as expensive as I feared, at £37, but still something I could have done without. Rang a quarter peal before playing the organ for evensong, and cooked oatcakes for dinner. Went to bed with another back ache :-(

Again, the back ache had subsided by yesterday morning. Spent the day working hard on a task list, which I managed to get through just about. Cooked a quick stir fry for tea, and went ringing. Didn't manage to escape early, and got roped into ringing a touch of Norwich Surprise Minor. Made it back home just in time to catch the last 6 minutes of the Waddo net, and as my radio was bearly warm, I decided to call CQ on 2 metres. Surprised by a very strong signal that came back from a G4 in Mansfield. Didn't realise it at the time, but his call (G4AAH) is very early on in the series, so it sounds like he only just missed out on being a G3. Spent a bit more time with my computers, and copied the last of the backed up data on eccles back onto battenberg. So eccles now has more than 30GB of free space, and battenberg is holding up fairly well, with plenty of free space available in its home directory areas.

Aches and pains

A slightly less earth shattering blog today... I have back ache again. I felt my lower back a bit yesterday lunch time, and it twinged a bit last night, and it's slightly uncomfortable now :/ I hope it doesn't get any worse.

Last night I made my weekly trip to Radio Witham. Interesting to note that there has been a little bit more progress on the studio rebuild, not a lot, but enough to show that things are still happening. Can't say last night was particularly enjoyable - I'm going to have to dig out some new 50s tracks from somewhere... no sure where though.

I also took the opportunity to clean some of the kitchen last night. I haven't been able to keep up with the house work over the last couple of months, and there are loads of jobs that need doing. The window frames need painting - actually they needed doing last year, but the paintwork is now looking very shabby. I also need to sort out the loose flag stones on the drive, and decorate the hallway. The whole house needs another general clean too... and I daren't even look at the garden. Grass cutting season starts again soon too :(

Body Clock

So much to blog about today, I've had to write this in Notepad to amke editing it easier...

Well, last night I had the night in I've been after for the last 4 weeks. Spent some time helping to make a nice healthy dinner (salmon with a leek sauce), then had half an hour playing my recorders (just to keep my fingers moving), then spent half an hour on IRC, then another half hour scanning around the 2 metre band for signs of life. I blipped open GB3MX, as I haven't done so for a while, and a chap in Stoke-on-Trent came back to me, which was nice. I then decided to watch some Harry Potter. Sadly, my DVD player doesn't always like reading that DVD. I don't know why, it reads ok everywhere else, including on my computer, which is where I ended up watching it.

Before I finally went to bed, I rediscovered http://www.hiltonweb.co.uk/ which I used to read on a regular basis, but haven't had time to. I actually read quite a few blogs, as well as writing my own, and since I've known Dean and Krissy for some time (first year at uni in fact), I like to keep up with what they're up to. No idea if they do the same with me though :/

Other exciting news (well, for me at least) in the last 24 hours is that the cover the the nexy Harry Potter has been released. A picture can be found at http://www.mugglenet.com/viewer/?image_location=hbpchild.jpg - only 128 days to go before I cas get hold of a copy of the book, which no doubt, Shelagh will read first, because she reads faster than me!

Managed to go swimming this morning, for the first time in a couple of weeks. I keep forgetting how hungry I become after a morning swim! Anyway, I only managed 24 lengths - I'm feeling quite unfit at the moment, and my weight has crept up 6lbs over the last 6 weeks or so. I'm to get that back under control.

In 25 days time, I'll be 27. Not in itself a very significant milestone, but one that has been playing on my mind for some time. The problem with my 27th birthday is that the earliest birthday of either of my parents that I remember is my mother's 27th birthday, which was shortly after my 5th. Now while I accept that my parents married very young, and my sister and I followed very shortly afterwards, I can't help thinking that there's something missing from my life. I think I'd decided as far back as during my early teens that I'd like to have children, but I'd never thought when. What's not helping is that I've started dreaming about the birth of my first child. That "body clock" that everyone keeps talking about, and I've been dismissing for years, has finally awoken in me, and probably within the next 3 years it will probably happen.

I've spoken to Shelagh about this, and she still isn't in any particular hurry. Maybe because her parents were so much older than mine when she was born (12 years in fact). There are a few things that stand in the way, and a few conditions that need to be considered.

Firstly, call me old fashioned, but I'd like to marry Shelagh before we have any children. I'm pretty resigned to the fact I probably won't marry in a church - I can live with that - it'd probably make me less nervous anyway (and I get very nervous about these things).

Secondly, our house isn't big enough. Shelagh and I are rather cramped as it is, and children would make things much worse. The problem is, with house prices at their current level, there's no way I can afford to buy a bigger house.

Thirdly, Shelagh has always said that if we have children, we should have more than one. She hated being an only child, and despite my painful experiences of having a sibling, I can't change her mind on this. I don't really mind how many children I end up with... but I don't want to break the bank in the process.

So, I've got a few things to work on before I'll have children, and some of these will take some time. I'm not in any great hurry yet, but time is ticking, and I'd like to get round to it while I still feel I have more years ahead of me then behind me.

The slow return to normality

Another very busy week, so a quick summary...

On Tuesday evening, I found that there was no album chart available, so the evening show was punctuated with live reports from the various FA cup 5th round replays... a theme that was repeated on Wednesday.

Wedneaday was interesting in that I woke up to find some snow had settled. Not a lot really, maybe half an inch, and it was all melted by lunch time.

On Thursday and Friday, the internet connection at work was down, but things carried on as normal with masses and masses of things to do.

After choir practise on Friday (having decided to not go to Radio Witham), I went to see my parents (drop off a card for Mothering Sunday).

Saturday was pretty indifferent, but I was so tired that I found myself in bed before 19:00, only to wake up at 21:30 to practise the hymns for Sunday, going to bed again at 01:00, waking up at 04:00... you get the idea.

Sunday was just one long hard push - getting through two church services, before going directly to jail... err... Gustos, where I had to wire up and then tech op and OB. Then return the kit to the studio, eat (it got to 16:00 before I managed to have breakfast), and eventually switch off the transmitter. Got to say that whoever is living under the studio was making a complete racket at 23:30... sounded like attack of the killer bass guitar, and the noise was coming across over the mic.

So having got to bed about 01:00, Monday was just a blur of work, followed by some yawn infested ringing (which in itself was quite enjoyable, with courses of Single Oxford, Oxford Treble Bob, Norwich Surprise Minor, and Plain Bob Major), and a quick chat on the Waddo net, not run by Bob due to a data contest, so Don (M0CES) was holding things together. I went QRT at about 20:30 due to extreme tiredness, and after a quick chat on IRC, fell into bed before 22:30.

...so I expect today will feel a bit more like life...

Stressed out

Heh - I mentioned "Drilling and Screwing" as a title for my last blog, and then didn't talk about it. Not to worry - the drilling was last Wednesday's visit the the dentist. Next appointment is in August :-) I can't remember what the screwing was about... probably something technical, but I've been doing so much on that front, it's all merged into one blur now :-/

Friday evening was another busy one, although it was nice to see my parents again. I've decided to pull out of next Friday at Radio Witham, in favour of going to choir practise.

On Saturday I did a few running repairs at the radio station... fixed the red mic live light over the studio door, investigated replacing the lock on the rack unit, and re-seated the phone channel on the mixer.

No organ playing on Sunday, but had to be duty manager at the studio during the afternoon. I hoovered the carpet (and discovered one of the tubes for my hoover is missing - I presume it's buried in the bath). I replaced the air freeshener. I dusted the mixer. I *moved* the phone channel, because it was still playing up. It's left me feeling a bit stressed and worn out really.

On Sunday night, after another nagging from Mit, I replaced the cdrom drive in battenberg, and booted it off the Gentoo CD he gave me back in November. I've forwarded ssh to it, and I've let him get on with installing it for me. Will be nice to have my fileserver back... I just don't have time to look atfer it at the moment though :-(

Work on Monday was busy, and there was no let up at the radio station. I noted that someone has fiddled with the record level on the MD player in the rack - it was turned up full. There's really no need for that - it'll just over-mod if you turn it up full. I'm guessing someone was after more volume on the monitor speakers? Maybe I'll sort something off the DA at some point. I now suspect that the phone fault is something to do with the TBU, and not just the channel. However, whenever I test it, it works fine, but it does seem to play up on air. Didn't update the website last night... too tired.

I'm also begining to "feel" fat. I'm going to have to up the exercise and sort out a diet. Too many burgers and kebabs.