Football fun!

Last Friday I went to a press event covering the announcement of Selco sponsoring the football Masters Cup for the second time this year.

It was held at the Woodlands Park Hotel near Cobham, which is a beautiful old manor type of building. It has the kind of staff that suddenly appear at your elbow very discreetly to enquire after your health when you're clearly not a paying guest.

To lower the tone somewhat, you know you're in a posh hotel when there's a very pretty basket of brightly wrapped, free STs and tampons in the ladies.

This particular event was my first experience of national press, and I was warned that they would steamroller over everything. And, erm, they did.

On the bright side, the back of my head may be visible at the bottom of the screen on Sky Sports one day. Plus, it was very productive for me in the end, including getting my pic taken with footballing legends Tore André Flo (ex-Chelsea – very sweet guy) and Uwe Rösler (ex-Manchester City – wears a pair of jeans very nicely).


Oh, bad news is that Turkey trip planned for May has been cancelled due to Middle Eastern conflicts. Good news is that I'm going to Italy in a couple of weeks. Just for an over night stay, but still, it should be fun!

Idiocy is breeding

I think busy, busy is the standard now, which is good in many ways, but does mean that when I stop, I snore.

Oh, and one really easy way to wind me up: call to offer an upgrade on my mobile phone – at midafternoon on a Sunday. I mean, who would?! Carphone Warehouse apparently. I told him very politely (all things considered) to go away.

And then they called again on Monday.

Twice.

Second time, I asked the girl to please note my answer on my records and cease calling me. She was very sweet and explained that she would try but couldn't guarantee that. I sweetly explained that she should note on my records that the next caller from CP would be taking instruction from me to cancel the contract entirely.

She then proceeded to tell me that someone calling from her department couldn't take a cancellation and that I'd need to call –

At which point I informed her that as a trade journalist I knew very well that actually they could take the instruction and pass it on to the relevant department and that the whole business of calling someone else and being passed from pillar to post was specifically designed to make canceling too hard to bother with. I have no idea whether this is true or not, but it sounded good and made her squeak and promise that no one would call me from CP ever, ever again. Ever. A promise that will last until next week if I'm lucky.

That Monday on the way home, I received the biggest shock I have ever had on a train. Not a Southeastern type shock because they no longer have the capability of doing that short of doing a jig on the third rail.

I was standing up, squinched between someone's armpit and someone else's rear end, as is usual on the 1742 at least until Bromley South, and with a practiced roll of the wrists opened my Evening Standard on exactly the page with the puzzles. Only to find that they've taken away my favourite puzzles! How dare they?! I stood staring at a silly anagram thing and 30-second number thing as my brain attempted to process the concept that what should be there wasn't.

Where was the warm-up Battleship puzzle? And more to the point, where was the juicy Killer Sudoku that usually keeps me occupied all the way home? I am henceforth boycotting the Standard. Except I haven't because it's the only decent free paper around in the evening.

Last Tuesday I went to Derby. It is a surprisingly quick trip from Ashford, just over two hours if you make the right connection. I didn't.

So with time to waste at St Pancras, and a sunny day outside, I wandered over to the British Library which has this nifty outdoor area with strange statues in it.

I didn't really see Derby itself as my appointment was at the college which is directly out the back end of the station. I did see the Roundhouse which is now a college building, and observed several car showrooms as I made my way around to the college building that I needed. It was a fun day, which can be seen in pictures (not mine!) here and may give you a clue as to what I do all day. Note that there are no pics of me. Well, there was one of me scribbling furiously and it was really unflattering so I deleted it.

Talking of unflattering. I discovered last week that if my histamine levels are up, then I can be slightly allergic to wine in the form of bee-stung lips. I now know that any form of lip-plumping treatment is most likely to leave me looking like a psychotic trout.

The census came and went. I toyed with the idea of filling it out from the point of view of a Martian, but decided against in the end. Maybe next time.

Last weekend I spent running around Brands Hatch with a fire extinguisher putting out cars that had been set alight. On purpose and complete with fuel-soaked mattresses in the back. It was quite surprising how much fire putting out one can do from up to six meters away from the flames.

Oh, and there were motorbikes racing around the Indy loop all day to keep us amused during breaks.

On the way home in the dark the other night I spotted an animal boinking across my road. It was black and silver, about the size of a large rat, had a pointy face, short legs and a fluffy tail. It stopped, and boinked back the other way as I approached. I stopped, then tipp-toed towards it and it boinked back again, disappearing under my neighbour's car. I tippy-toed onto my neighbour's drive a little bit, and it boinked out from under the car onto my feet. For anyone interested this excitable little creature is henceforth known as a 'greater twisted boinking binbag'.

Yesterday morning's treat on the train was a woman screaming at her husband down the phone. The things that he was guilty of ranged from mental abuse to unappreciation, from housework incompetance to narrow-minded frigidity (note that this latter was to do with his refusal to go to a wife-swapping party with her), and many other things that make me want to wash my brain. And as she was screaming this at 120 decibels or higher in the middle of a crowded railway carriage, and managed to carry it on for a good twenty minutes, I'm not convinced that it was him that needed the straight-jacket.

I've been reviewing Star Trek: Deep Space 9, the only Star Trek series I've never really watched because it originally showed in the late 90s, around the same time as Babylon 5, which was a far, far superior show. But DS9 does make for amusing wallpaper because you don't really need to pay a lot of attention to know what's going on. The early cancellation of B5 versus the extended seven year lifetime of DS9 only confirms my belief that American audiences don't like shows to be clever.

Kit loo training - proof! And other stuff.

For those with enquiring minds - see pic left of Neko providing evidence of work in progress. Actually we're another layer higher at the moment, so we're moving in the right direction - a bit hit and miss though, so I'm not inviting anyone to visit

I reported that the power cable for my Mac had split the skin a couple of weeks ago, so work replaced it with a new super-duper one - bonus!

Has anyone tried to give anything to charity? I wanted to give some  paperbacks away, but my back is complaining a bit at the moment, so didn't want to carry them. Having tried walking into shops to make an enquiry, I went on to telephone and email.

Pick a charity and then prepare to get passed from pillar to post, ending with a promise for someone to call. For reference, British Heart Foundation are the worst. Barnardo's on the other hand, are completely unorganised, but ever so enthusiastic and got there in the end.

Last Wednesday was a bit crappy, but mostly due to bad PMS. Scared most people, I think. Got very grumpy when super-duper new cable stopped working. No spares, so shared a power cable, alternating usage, with a co-worker who also has a laptop.

Thursday, on the other hand, was excellent. We had the annual company presentation at the Millbank Tower (right), and it was very cool that our sector (building and plumbing - two mags with websites), was the best performing. I am now officially web editor for our website, which I'm very pleased about.

No sign of new power cable.

Went to Purley for a weekend with the girls. Much enjoyed as always and watched way too many TV shows, over-analysing as we went. Because it's a fun thing to do.

Further to my comments on fog lights - when it's thick heavy rain, that's the time for fog lights. It doesn't have to be actual fog, just low visibility!

Spent Tuesday through Thursday at the Ecobuild trade show ExCel. This is now the biggest trade show for us, so we were there all three days, as well as having our own stand. It was very busy compared to other shows, and huge, taking up both north and south halls. Both good things as it's evidence that the construction industry is overall optimistic.

The Renewable Heat Incentive being delayed was the biggest issue. Suppliers have products to fit, but no one's buying until the RHI is in place, and with the Green Deal and FiT uncertain, confidence is rapidly fading, leaving suppliers with expenditure and products but little take-up, which in turn is effecting the construction sector and therefore the economy.

On a lighter note, the show map was interestingly designed - the south hall map was only of any use if one held it upside down.

Between us, boss and I saw nearly eighty suppliers in the end, which is a lot. We also ran a show enewsletter as well, which meant that we were both working well into the night from home Monday through Wednesday to get that done, but it was worth it in the end.

Getting there was an adventure. Stupidly, I went up the first day via mainline to Waterloo and took the Jubilee to Canning Town to change to the DLR. Which, by the way, is a bit like one of those rickety old wooden rollercoasters, except metal. The DLR train decided to go the wrong way to find some working points in order to cross over to the correct track, and it was while on this diversion that I noticed that Stratford features on the DLR.

The return journey using the DLR to Canning Town, Jubilee to Stratford, bus to Stratford International and superslug home was a lot quicker. Coming home Wednesday and Thursday was only about 20mins quicker as the bus dropped me off just in time to watch the superslug depart without me.

Going up on Thursday was an advanture as, after standing on the Jubilee platform for 15 mins, 3000 people were informed that the Jubilee line was suspended. 3000 people then surged towards the DLR and Central Line. I went into the DLR stream which, as Stratford is on the wrong DLR line, meant going all the way to the other end, changing platforms and coming all the way back.

I wish I'd had a map as I'm sure it would have been quicker to walk.

Friday was a full day in work, but there was the good news that our website is the UK leader in our sector. It's a bit of a bun fight and changes every day, but it's also a great place to be. No sign of power cable as IT lady is having fight with Apple.  I'm now totally and utterly cream-crackered. Going to sleep now - snxzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...