UK Watercooler Seven: Watercooler Heaven!

I deserved to be sick after all the nummy food I ate at H's dinner party.

It's not for weight reasons (though that is getting alarming) but more for generaly health. I'm also walking up stairs more, and going to make sure that I walk down to the river and back every day at lunchtime.

It's only five days. If I *do* actually feel any better, than I might consider doing it for all of Lent. If I don't, well, it can't do me or my liver any harm.

Fuck, man. Diet? That's already detox.

I won't have time to eat much lunch because I have to go into town to drop off my *four* rolls of wedding photos at the developers. So I'm eating chocolate now.

Diet Coke is full of unpleasant chemicals, but then again so is everything else.

(I am ignoring this talk of cake and doughnuts. You guys are sodding MEAN. Would it kill you to be supportive? I'm going to go and have some green tea now.)

(xpost: both the weekend in general and the wedding. And the FAP of course)

Cool. And I'm glad someone else uses film cameras too :)

What Kate said - admittedly, I think it's still not proved one way or another whether aspartame does odd things to your brain, but I'm guessing that cutting down will probably be good for me.

(has anybody tried that Coffee Pepsi? It sounds like a horrible idea for a drink, even moreso than Pepsi Blue)

Aspartame is carcinogenic. Allegedly only in high quantities. I don't know what a 'high' quantity is. Anyway, I don't drink diet or straight coke. I smoke though! Clever me!

Good luck w/multidetox, Kate!

I read a magazine interview recently with that hypnotist chappie, Paul McKenna. He said that the key to making yourself stop eating (or over-eating, rather) was an extremely simple mid trick - every time you really fancy a slice of cake or pizza or whatever, just imagine it in your mind's eye being covered with slimy wriggly worms (or something equally disgusting). It will put you off it, and if you do it often enough your mind will forge a permanent link between that particular foodstuff and the disgusting-ness, therefore you will go off it with no real effort at all.

I tried doing this with chocolate, and it actually worked for me. Very quickly, too.

The warehouse office have already eaten all the chocolate I took them on Friday, which is a good excuse to visit again when I'm passing *this* Friday.

(I'm going to Wales this time, so it's rather less of a detour to visit them)

xpost: Here, CJ, have a chocolate.

Works both ways.

(xpost)

FP did you meet your phone-flirt?

Oh oh oh I forgot to say also I have developed PALPATATIONS and an IRREGULAR HEARTBEAT. Hooray!

I did indeed.

Spoke to her on the phone again this morning, and she said I have to come back and visit again soon. Because they've already eaten all the chocolate.

Anyway, the Worm Lady says worms are great, but I'm a vegetarian and I can't.

I am drinking lots of water. First cup of green tea without honey tastes like pond water. Ugh. I have to keep reminding myself it's the only caffeine I'll get today.

kate i am v supportive of detox, hurrah! cake and all that is just full of refined sugar crap anyway. gurt solid slabs of bitter cocoa are where it's at. also after like 2 days of eating nothing but veggies i always feel superpowered, so you will too.

hey fp, good to see you friday. rest of the night sounded cool too, i am a bit jealous of the pizzaness but i had purple food to make up for it.

i have given in and joined myspace.

I should have invited a random ILXor to the wedding as my guest, seeing as I'd said I was taking one but didn't.

Also, I think the high cocoa content chocolate thing is something I should go back to. Stop eating rubbish pick and mix chocolate (despite the crazy Scandinavian illustrations!) and eat 70% dark chocolate which is actually GOOD for your BRANE apparently, according to that book that H had.

beetroot is better than worms for eating, beanz, but it would make a rubbish toy.

What is risotto - or, rather how is it made? (insert stupid web meme here?) And what is potch?

Approx. 1 litre/2 pints stock
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 finely chopped shallots or 2 medium onions
1/2 a head of celery, finely chopped (discard any tough outer sticks)
Maldon sea salt and black pepper
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
400g/14oz risotto rice
100ml/3fl oz dry white wine
70g/2oz butter
85-100g/3-3 1/2oz freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Heat the stock. Then in a separate pan heat the olive oil, add the shallot or onion, celery and a pinch of salt, and sweat the vegetables for about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and after another 2 minutes, when the vegetables have softened, add the rice. Turn up the heat now. At this crucial point you can't leave the pan, and anyway, this is the best bit.

While slowly stirring, continuously, you are beginning to fry the rice. You don't want any colour at any point (so remember, you're in control, and if the temperature seems too high, turn it down a bit). You must keep the rice moving.

After 2 or 3 minutes it will begin to look translucent as it absorbs all the flavours of your base (it may crackle at this point, that's fine). Add the wine, keeping on stirring as it hits the pan - it will smell fantastic! It will sizzle around the rice, evaporating any harsh alcohol flavours and leaving the rice with a tasty essence.

Once the wine seems to have cooked into the rice, add your first ladle of hot stock and a pinch of salt (add small amounts of salt to taste while you are adding the stock). Turn down the heat to a highish simmer (the reason we don't want to boil the hell out of it is because, if we do, the outside of the rice will be cooked and fluffy and the inside will be raw).

Keep adding ladlefuls of stock, stirring and allowing each ladleful to be absorbed before adding the next. This will take about 15 minutes. Taste the rice - is it cooked? Carry on adding stock until the rice is soft but with a slight bite. Check seasoning.

Remove from the heat and add the butter and the Parmesan, saving a little of the latter to go on top if you like. Stir gently. Eat it as soon as possible while it retains its moist texture.

x-post YAY! Will hvae to try that.

potch is mashed potato but with chunks of turnip/swede/parsnip/carrot etc in. i bet it would be nummy if you used beetroot.

xpost thanks cj!

What phorum phun you all missed this weekend.

Beetroot is great in this salad I make where you combine finely sliced onions (red is best) and cubes of cooked beetroot in a bowl. Make sure you get some of the juice the beetroot is packed in, add a glug of olive oil, a dash of balsamic vinegar, and some coarse salt and pepper. You can also add lightly cooked carrots (it makes them easier to grate if parboiled) to the mix and then dump it across whatever salad leaves you've got. I recommend any mix with watercress or if you're feeling really austere and St John-ish, watercress on its own.

If you are really serious about your detox, use rice sticks or bean thread in current versions of Thing and take a break from the dairy stuff too, especially CHEESE.

I definitely feel light headed and am having trouble concentrating.

That happens. When you go home tonight, score the skin of a lemon so you can smell the LEMON OIL. Cut it in half and squeeze it entirely into a VERY HOT BATH and cruciallly leave the squeezed lemon in the running hot hot water. Exfoliate with dry loofah or bath mitts BEFORE getting in, remove floating lemon husks, then soak for ages. Wet baking soda is also a good exfoliant in this bath, especially WRT washing the face. Tea tree oil baths and lavender baths are also your friends here, but the dry exfoliation thing is U&K whatever your choice of soak.

I wish I could take VERY HOT BATH every night, but my gas bill is already outrageous. It's a luxury I tend to do about once a week.

i considered Thing but i am trying to broaden my kitchen repertoire... having said that i also considered, um, chips.

mmm, pie.

or i could fry the mushrooms and broccoli and thinly sliced carrot up with garlic and stick some soy sauce on it. and/or make potch with the potatoes and swede.

The headaches were too much.

But you know, come to think of it, the coffee out of the machine really isn't that great.

stop drinking coffee!

xpost oh no kate! make him wear a wig.

Exciting task of the afternoon: cutting up laminated card into small bits. Arrgh I'm so bored.

Yes. This is withdrawal.

stop drinking coffee!

The headaches are the whole reason why I can't stop!

Though I will be the first to admit I drink far too much coffee. 'specially since the irregular heartbeat and palpatations diagnosis.

Emsk: you have the makings of PIE. Broccoli is not necessary.

Steam/boil the carrots and swedes so they can be cubed easily, then set aside to cool. Saute onions until golden, in butter or olive oil. Add half a mug of veg stock to the onions and then add in the cubed swedes and carrots. This will cook down to a nice 'gravy' consistency - pour the mix into the bottom of a casserole pan and then mash some potatoes to make a pie topping.

I just growled at one of my colleagues "I AM DESTROYER OF WORLDS" to get him to move away from the microwave. Where he was making a BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFUL CUP OF TEA. Argh.

I think coffee :: programmers what spice :: those weird worm creatures that "folded space" in Dune enabling space travel.

I know it's absurd to be upset by this, but I GUARD my highlighters so carefully. And someone has just walked off with it.

Arrrrggggghhhhh.

xpost: he fancies the Lake District.

Oh yeah, and a big, steaming, foamy cup of coffee.

However, I am super CLEVER because I have just figured out how to do this exact clever thing involving month to day, year to date and all data using THE SAME REPORT but only selecting a button first - WITHOUT having to change the DB code.

I don't know why it's taken me six months to figure it out. It is so so so so simple now I've thought it up.

However, I know that no one in ops will be impressed because even though I did that SUPER CLEVER THING, I have not been able to sort groups by a calculated field. Bah.

How are you all today?

And for the record, I'm sorry, g-kit, I was trying to make a joke of my crankiness. I didn't realise that you didn't realise I wasn't serious.

I feel sad this morning because I left my gloves on the train. Since I have little to do at work, I'm finding it hard to move on from thinking about my gloves. Oh gloves :(

And now I'm feeling a bit bummed. It's hard not to feel jealous when one of your friends gets something that you wanted, but at the same time you feel guilty for feeling jealous. Sigh.

Greeeeaaaaat. :-( Maybe I can find something to keep me busy.

Still, fingers crossed, I'll get the wedding photos back at lunchtime.

Lost gloves is rotten Archel. What were they like?

What didn't you get, Kate? Nothing wrong with jealousy as long is you don't hate her now :)

x-post oh no, those sound beautiful.

Archel will you try and get them back? It's not impossible, just a bit of a pain I think

::bashes head against desk::

And there was me thinking I was actually doing OK with this giving up coffee lark.

(apologies for not having any FAPshots, though)

You misheard. It's from some whales, and they've sent you a parcel of krill.

Going back to regular parsnip soup - and cheaper - tomorrow.

Also, elbow gloves are a bit irritating because you have to put them on BEFORE your coat really so you can pull them up properly, and if you do that you can't do up the buttons on your coat without help. Or look at your watch or anything.

I've just had my 15 minute walk. I'm breathing hard, but that could be from climbing the stairs.

*xpost*

Never! Keiko is my prisoner! Although it's a bit cramped sticking a killer whale under the stairs...

hahaha I consider myself a serious feminist and lover of lady bits and all, but I could not help snorting with laughter and boggling my eyes at the poster I just saw in the loo for a 'VAGINA PAINTING WORKSHOP'. Noooo! Occupational hazard of working at a university I suppose...

I wasn't sure either FP! But examining the small print revealed it's paintings OF vaginas, not um, ON them.

ihttp://mrankin.home.cern.ch/mrankin/Silly.jpg

(and then lots of photo-scanning to do when I get there. Boo)

(they cost me over £35 to get developed as it is)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/hottopics/climatechange/aboutexperiment1.shtml

also i was just talking to someone who's on day 6 of a 10 day detox and she said days 3 and 4 were teh nitemare from teh lagoon of death oh noes but now she's totally springy and feeling great.

i went to register with those ppl and they love me they do.

I feel a bit better about the decision, then. But still, it's hard for me not to beat myself up over things.

it does seem a bit odd they should be asking. the fan on the computer here will speed up and make a hell of a noise if asked to do too much for too long (because the processor is using more energy and throwing out more heat) and i've seen the increase in the lecky bill at home when i've left it on doing similar things for as little as a week.

maybe they have a way of getting the computers to be only a bit more busy all the time but i'm still a bit dubious. (they tend to max out the processor but have the background processes running at the lowest priority so they don't 'reduce user experience')

another note. is there any truth to the rumour that you lose the ability to handle meat if you've been a vegetarian for, say, 15 years? not that i'm thinking of becoming a carnivore again, am just curious.

I started to eat fish and foul again fairly recently after about 12 years as a veggie - the fish has been fine, but I still only eat chicken etc very rarely and it does have a noticeable (not good) effect on my digestion. I think I'm going to stay off it altogether now (at least until next Xmas anyway...)

No way I'd want to risk red meat.

The good news is, however, that I've lost 5 pounds in the past three days, but that could just be water weight because I ate so much/badly the weekend before because I knew what was coming.

I miss sugar most of all. My breakfast is just not the same without it. :-(

I just feel... down today and can't really say why. No particular reason, just existential angst.

freudian slip?

I don't like oily/salty fish which is the best kind so there's probably not much point me eating it from a health pov really, but sometimes I just get a fishfinger craving.

Because meat tastes really good, in a way that vegetarian stuff doesn't. And vice versa, of course.

I'm confused, what are you giving up, Kate, you seem to be shunning everything you enjoy at once, which is a recipe for giant flaming disaster. I mean caffiene + anything else seems a bridge too far for me.

So maybe I should concentrate on the good things about the detox. And stop feeling so cranky.

(This does nothing about existential angst, but still.)

I guess I should just learn to go to movies by myself. :-(

I guess I'm also just annoyed because Young Adam was hassling me for ages to change our rehearsal day to something that wasn't Wednesday (because that was his evening off) and now I have, he's never around on Weds, he's always out with his other friends.

Part of the whole reason of actually having a boyfriend/boything/whatever is to have someone to go to movies and gigs and things with. And he never does! So I feel like I've got all the hassle of having to deal with a boything, but none of the advantages. Except maybe sex. But, you know, there's more to life than sex. (no "is there?" joke answers, please.)

you should call your friend on the phone kate - guarenteed response (if you get through) and it's always nicer to be invited to things by phone cos that's so much more personal.

I think that the frustration is due to not really wanting to feel like I'm in A Relationship and nothing to do with this other friend at all.

There's a lesson here Kate: when replies to emails not received, don't assume you're being ignored, assume eye operation! Er, or something. Hope it's nothing too major, eyes are scary.

*waves*

But then again, it makes me realise that I'm not the sort of girl they're trying to chat up. Maybe that's why I've put all this weight on. When I was skinny, I used to get loads of horrible, random, totally annoying chatup attempts that I knew had nothing to do with me, and everything to do with what I looked like. Now I don't. And I guess if anyone actually takes the time to chat me up, they must be either A) desperate or B) actually like something about me.

Like girls are not separate entities with separate turn-ons and separate interests.

There is no one size fits all equation. That's why advice (good advice, anyway) is all so vague.

just saying like.

Take deep breaths. At this point coffee will probably make you feel worse before it makes you feel better. Go back to thinking of the lovely postive detoxy things above. Recall that men are just people too. Think about how sex is actually quite nice really.

xxxxpost

Sex is a bit rubbish, really. Even good sex. I'd rather have a NICE CUP OF COFFEE. Or a footrub.

those who are left constantly on the pull are those who are idiots, who don't succeed, giving the illusion that "omg all men are idiots!".

anyway, wrong thread for this but since the topic got brought up.

Maybe I should have lunch.

As I've never given/received a footrub, I have always been curious (and laugh as you will): is it just a rub? No technique has to be learnt, just ease off if the person in question looks in pain, go to other areas of the foot and try again there? Is there some secret I missed when I was ill from school after doing nasty things to my hip?

You can do it dry (though washing of the feet first is advised) or else you can do it with oils (Lush does great massage oil bars that are not all messy) or else with moisturisers (Body Shop Body Butter is the bizniz).

Well, if a person is ticklish, it actually helps to rub *firmer* - that way it becomes more obvious it is a massage and not a tickle.

Nah, with me, even firm rubs are very ticklish. If anyone tries to do it to me, I start kicking involuntarily.

Oh wait! Walk time.

I don't know about reflexology curing ailments but there's *something* good going on.

Best evah chat-up line: 'Hello'

Was just talking to the flirty woman at the other office. She said she wasn't very cheerful, and agreed when I told her that she needed someone to come over there and make her happy.

well, i did say foot rubs are mythical to me.

No, it's more that that my bagel is in something now, namely my stomach.

Mind you, if I'd left five minutes ago I would have missed my coworker arriving with MOZART BALLS, so who knows what treats I might miss in the final two hours?

Oh and my boss just pipped me to the post and announced she's going home because she's 'tired', so I can't really leave as well :(

(And then sneak out, because who's going to catch you if she's gone?)

Do both, obv.

I had a major blitz last summer, and pulled them all out, but now they have grown back. Thicker than they were before.

But still, they are at the stage where I can get them one by one.

Just found out that I have to interview a band tomorrow. That gives me lots of preparation time. So I guess I'll try and see what old Smash Hits questions I can recycle and go from there...

What's your favourite kitchen appliance?
What's your ideal holiday?
How many kinds of cheese can you name?
If you were made god/king/PM for the day, what would you change? (bear in mind, it cannot be changed back afterwards)

i'm sure if you point out to them that b*witched got there first they will drop such wankery immediately.

oh, heard a great new band name yesterday, made me laugh out loud in fact (although i'm not sure this is a good sign): Nosferatu D2

'cept west country englishes and east country englishes

Unless they are pirates, in which case they say YARRRRRRR!!!!

ARRRRctic pirates!

Hmm. From Saturday, I'm supposed to be doing some voluntary work. Outdoors. In Snowdonia. I really don't want it to snow.

FP, beware!! – http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_west/4741764.stm

Still, I'm not planning to go *up* Snowdon itself. Even if we are all going over to the Dark Side,* the nearest I'll get will be the base of the mountain.

* this is a technical term. The organisation I'm going to work for currently has two spheres of operation. The Dark Side is the less popular bit, although it's also called that for Technical Reasons.

And now I'm fed up with my mum because I have been back TWICE to Liberty to buy her a shirt and get it changed and she is still not happy with it. She won't tell me what she has, but I send her something and she goes "oh, I've got that one already, and besides, it doesn't fit" - WELL, YOU KNOW WHAT, THEY DON'T MAKE THEM ANY LARGER THAN THAT, LOSE SOME SODDING WEIGHT, THE ENGLISH ARE SMALL.

Grrrr. If she sends this one back, I'm going to go and exchange it myself for one *I* like and keep it, and if she wants a sodding Liberty shirt, she can come here and buy one herself.

Anyway, grrrrr.

I didn't get enough sleep last night. The Boy was sleeptalking and keeping me up all night, and when I finally did get to sleep, I had horrible dreams about my ex. Ugh.

(His friend who was going to see the movie with cancelled on him, so he came round mine instead. I tried to suggest that we go to see the movie I wanted to see, that my friend couldn't make, and he just started rubbishing my taste in films. I could not believe it! Here's a bloke in a Green Day t-shirt, expounding on how "deep" the Matrix trilogy is, telling me that *I* have rubbish tastes in films? Fuck off! And he's done something truly tragic to his hair. Sigh. Oh well, great sex, though.)

Well, you know, that film is probably overrated by certain people, probably a quite noisy segment, but that doesn't mean it should be dismiss....

trilogy

Oh. You should probably dump him.

So I can stay quiet about his taste in movies - even when he told me he'd been planning to see Aeon Flux - but I didn't even say what movie I'd been planning to see, and he was all "I bet it was crap" before he'd even heard what it is.

mozartkugel! are they available outside of germany and austria? i bought an embarrassing amount a few years ago in munich but they're long gone. i'd love a fresh shipment.

I mean, GREEN DAY T-SHIRT. It's one thing to own an album or two by them or whatever, but to actually own a t-shirt?

And then I had the nightmares about my ex. :-(

Or, be cross for a while and then get over it.

I don't know. Maybe I'm over sensitive at the moment, but many things he thinks are "just good fun and joking" I think are hurtful, disrespectful or negative. I won't even tell you what he said about my whole detox thing. :-(

I think I shall have to say this to him, quite seriously, tomorrow.

I am trying not to think about you stomping round in boots. Those thoughts would be wrong

Also, I am trying to spy on the warehouse via our newly-working cctv system

i have just ate three kiwi fruits and a norange. now i am going to eat broccoli and nonion and carrot and mushroooom and some kind of leafy thing that was in the fridge and potatoes. i am going to be the incredible hulk. also apparently i am giving up bouze for lent, except having sundays off. i may give up crisps too.

in WERK news, the lovely people i registered with on tuesday called me back yesterday morning for some work but i could not do it, bah. but that's got to be a good sign, right?

Anyway, veggies, yeah. I got parsnip soup for lunch today. I wish I could home make soup at work, but homemade soup I make at home never keeps well and goes soggy and yuck. Giving up crisps? YOU?!?!? That would be an accomplishment. But whoever thought I could give up coffee?

Anyway - did you let the agency know *why* you couldn't work? It's important to let them know what days you're already working or they might think you are just lazy. :-/ But it is good that they've offered you something already. Keep ringing them back and asking them/letting them know when you're available. They always remember the last person they talked to when it comes to giving out the new assignments.

And my throat numbing lozenge things leave a disgusting taste in my mouth like old metal pipes.

Plus, this time tomorrow I will be back home and on HOLIDAY TIME! Woo!

I have that lunch-timing problem too, Archel. I have to be back at 1 on the dot so the co-worker can go; but he always ends up taking longer than an hour, because he spent too long in the bookies or something like that.

Today, I stayed at my desk and read the copy of Digital Camera Shopper that co-worker Big Dave brought in. I am trying to work out if I can justify spending £1500 on a Nikon D200 - and if there is any risk of my parents putting the rent up if they realise I can afford to spend that much on cameras.

(line of thought: I've just got my student loan deferment approved for the next year. But if they hadn't deferred it, due to the high level of incompetance at the Student Loans Company,* I'd nevertheless have been able to afford the repayments. Now, if I *was* going to be making all those repayments over the next year, they would total up to about £2000, which is easily enough to cover the cost of a new camera and maybe a lens or two to go with it! So clearly, I have enough money if I really want one)

* last year they managed to defer three of my loans but not the fourth, and never did return the payslips I sent as evidence. So I'm always slightly wary.

I am my own worst enemy - I moan about lunchtimes and yet the technician just offered to cover if I wanted to leave early, and I was all 'oh no that's fine don't you worry'.

Giving up booze is universally difficult, but crisps seem to be your special thing.

did a pallet (nearly) fall on her?

(I think you should feel free to say whatever you want, personally)

(as well as the wrong thing at the right time, or the right thing at the wrong time)

Go FP! :)

Kate, your kitchen appliance question got a raised eyebrow and a laugh, so hurrah for that! (it was a very short five minute affair in the end; the first thing the guy from the band said was PLEASE DON'T ASK ME ABOUT THE ASTERISK. Oh, these decisions come back to haunt you. And he invited me to their show in Chapel Hill in April, so I guess it wasn't too bad ;))

(he says she's not his type himself - a bit *too* forward and dirty-minded for his taste)

-- The Forest Pines Dictionary Of Useful Internet Words, p. 492

The only thing I can say in the band's favour is that the drummer seemed as pissed off with it as you, Archel!

Ah. No I hadn't, and of course, now feel terrible...:(

I'm just hating everything, and not seeing the point of anything at the moment. And feeling harrassed from every angle. :-(

There's no need for *you* to feel terrible about Big Dave beating up scumbags.

http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1715269,00.html

> her blood nearly exploded!

sounds painful.

(I've decided to clean the office. Because 1987 vintage breakout boxes aren't really needed anymore, thank goodness!)

They didn't want to give me life insurance until 2007. Sod that. My advisor told me to apply to a different company he knows - that it might be more expensive but they won't put me through the ringamarole. Sigh. I have to have life and critical illness cover to cover my mortgage in the event that I get hit by a bus or something.

Anyway, I'm feeling somewhat slightly better today because I stepped on the scales this morning and this detox has caused me to LOSE HALF A STONE!!! To reward myself, I went and bought myself a beautiful skirt and silky vest thing which make me feel like a princess. I think it's better to reward myself with beautiful clothes rather than food. It was expensive, but I will tell myself that it was all the money I am saving by not drinking. I am going to cheat at lunch and have a hallumi sammich, though, because I wants one.

If you had my boss, he'd tell you to keep it for sentimental reasons. We still have a 1990 RS/6000 which would be running AIX if it could still boot, and some of the associated serial-terminal paraphenalia, because he won't let us throw it out.

I think what I'm going to do is the "lent" thing - but instead of Sunday as my day of sin, I'll have Saturday. That was I can eat my high cocoa chocolate and drink my sherry on Saturday and be really really healthy the rest of the week.

(I'd keep some of it if I wasn't quite so strapped for space, FP. Does anybody really need a 486SX processor sitting in their office cupboard? I have one in my draw at home, but then I am a little weird that way (I once tried to get one of the huge DEC/Alpha machines home when I was working for Oxford Brookes, just so I could run Linux on it and stand as a proud geek))

The last time we tried to boot it, it came up with a "cannot detect network bootable volume" error - I had to google for a list of AIX error codes to find out what the error code meant.

It's only really coffee that needs light or demarrara sugar, and that's one thing I've decided I'm staying off (except for special occasions and treats.)

However, the mother thought that as cod liver oil is VILE on its own, she would mix all three together. She managed about three spoonfuls before giving up as the mixture was so disgusting. And then she put the bowl in the dishwasher, and the cod liver oil, when heated by the water, stank out everything in there. A huge cloud of cod liver oil steam is not something you want to smell when you open your dishwasher.

EW EW EW what sick fuck came up with eating cods' livers? i had one once and it was filthy. in a bad way.

heh xpost

Oh god, ILX speak is infecting everything I do. I just sent this email to my line manager:

Subject: I am teh clevah!

I have got the percent report in descending order of percent.

Some of those quotas may not be right, as I used the most common quota statistically for ones where there was a 0 value in the quota field, as obviously, I cannot divide by 0, bad things would happen, infinity, oh noes!

K

And the most common place to get that oil is from oily fish, specifically the liver of the oily fish, which is the most oily bit of it. You can also get it from seeds and nuts, which is why I always eat Walnuts with my porridge (also they are teh num) and take linseed oil in capsule form, but still.

But I suppose Cod was just the most plentiful in the north Atlantic in the former days when people forced that down childrens' throats.

There is a big Seven Seas fish oil plant in Hull, on Hedon Road. It stinks.

(I am going to spend the last five minutes going round the other offices looking insufferably smug.)

I'm going to run out and get lunch in a minute, solely because I want to leave work early. (For me, that is.)

(Then again, I'm not even got a contract, so...)

AH well, I should go for my walk. In a few minutes, when this bread has stopped feeling like a brick.

Dammit, I'm trying to pay my gas bill and no one wants to take my call. If they don't want to take my money, well, that's their problem. I've moved suppliers anyway, so what are they going to do; cut me off?

centrica bloke on the news was funny the other day, complaining that they only saw half of their reported £1.5B profit after taxes. i make that half about £2M a day, the poor things.

Yeah, I keep reading these things in the papers about record breaking profits for British Gas - and then steep rate hikes because of "wholesale price increases" and I just think "fuck right off."

that said, and this may be more relevant to recent oil prices than gas, these prices are increased and increased but it doesn't cost them any more to extract the stuff or transport it so the increase is pure profit. market forces, eh?

Off work to-day w/some flu-like bug. Feeling better now, though (which is good) which means I'm back tomorrow (not so good)

Whilst laid up ill, I had this idea for a community-memory type website. I worked out an entire concept in my head. no idea how to code it, though, or even if it's possible to code such a thing.

I get this feeling where it feels like my esophagus is made of cardboard. I heard (while I was working at the nutricionist) that lots of "wheat intolerances" are actually caused by allergic reactions to the type of yeast used.

make a ginger lemon garlic etc mashup and go to bed with a dozen duvets...

ditto milk. is buying organic milk from sainsburys hypocritical?

pash, 'community-memory type website'. please explain.

I don't usually eat bread, which is what's weird. I tend to eat rice a lot more. But I didn't make a curry this week because I was busy. I got less hungry when I ate curry than when I ate soup.

WRT chocolate, don't eliminate it, as it does actually have good for you stuff in it. Just eat higher cocoa content chocolate.

No worries and thanks! I am in work briefly to take care of a few things but will leave mid-morning and go home to do nothing for the weekend but rest. Alas this means missing ArthurBall in LA, which saddens me. :-/ But other good shows are coming up!

the organic thing doesn't sit well with the big supermarket thing. especially given lord sanisbury being one of the big investors in genetic modification / biotech stuff.

Sigh. My mum just rang for no apparent reason and was surprised that I was at work. LIke... did you forget what day it was?

And I'm a bit... eeeeep. Because I'm going round to Young Adam's tonight for the first time. :-O

Yes, I feel awful, like a sodding cradlesnatcher, but he moved back in with them in order to pay off his debts. That just makes him sound irresponsible and feckless. Heh.

sainsbury's basics, 41% cocoa solids, 100g for 25p! part of me wishes i had not spotted this when i popped into town earlier.

oh, and re: The Matrix and it being 'deep'. just tell him that The whole premise of the first film is little more than a condensed dramatization of Descartes Meditations, specifically the first and second (of six) mediations, frequently excerpted for textbooks. Many have noted the connection with the Myth of the Cave, found at the start of Book VII in Plato's Republic, but the Cave Myth is effectively incorporated into the mediations by Descartes, and also the myth does not directly involve the technical problems Descartes proposed.

(etc. http://www.rimric.com/folio/su03/matrix.htm the dvd extras talk about Baudrillard's Simulcra And Simulation and other such stuff (nothing i have read myself). i only watched it for CAM in a shiny leather catsuit.)

I've had a rubbish weekend and I'm desperately in need of cheering up.

Ah well, at least I've got some lovely new green tea which has JASMINE in it and tastes like drinking flowers. Lovely.

http://destinationdaniel.smugmug.com/gallery/1213678/1/56764726

I want to go and see the Gothic art thing at the Tate, I keep seeing reviews of it that make it look really good. It was in Country Life, as well.

Also in Country Life, James Blunt's dad in the letters page (hah!) and my ex's former house in Wiltshire, back on the market again. :-( In the picture, you can see the window to the room where half of Shimura's set was written.

I didn't know that was Brothers Quay, Koogs!

Really want to go to the Gothic Tate thing too. Maybe next weekend.

Why is lego anything so brilliant? I wish I had time to play with lego :(

I'm reading a silly book though - How To Deal With People You Hate or something like that. Unfortunately, it's mostly office based. But I've already found myself in there twice. However, I haven't found much advice for dealing with the specific kinds of person that drives *me* crazy.

http://www.oncf.org.uk/images/thumbnails/bluebell%20wood.jpg

http://www.countrysideinfo.co.uk/bluebell_gallery/bluebel1.JPG

Well, well, well. Just had a phone call which I nearly didn't pick up due to its being a private number. And it turned out it was the amazing vanishing shrink.

Scheduled a time to "talk" on Thursday. We'll see if he actually turns up. :-|

However, I walked around the law courts and discovered this beautiful little antique silversmith around the back. They had lovely pearl necklaces and antique jewellery. My father still owes me a chunk of money, I might ask him to buy me a string of pearls. (no seX0r jokes, please, that would be icky.)

(heh heh heh. Sorry.)

Have you *read* Holy Blood/Holy Grail? DVC has lifted its entire back story. It crossed the line between influenced by/homage to, and crossed over into the realm of plagiarism. Not to mention that Dan Brown is a smug twit and a poor writer and deserves to be punnished for that, as well as his lack of originality.

"Suggested"? "Part"? Doesn't this belong in the inner circles of the bleeding obvious?

Kate, I meant JAMC got their name from HBHG, that's it.

Hopefully there will be a lot of pickup of HBHG because of this case, if anything - I really do not think the historians will win, or that Brown is original, but as to having an actual case to answer, that's a different matter entirely (I shall ask J upstairs, who is an IP lawyer).

x-post

I need Something To Look Forward To.

Suggestions, anyone?

::throws self off bridge::

http://www.phespirit.info/pictures/patchwork/images/p008.jpg

Oops - I'd forgotten about that. How about the onset of Spring and thus bigger potential for long walks on a Sunday? Lots of Boris in the news when he reports back on his plan to fix higher education (admittedly, it may help not to pay too much attention to what he's actually saying)?

I need to find something which is just purely pleasurable, without stress and annoyance. Though that probably just doesn't exist. Or maybe I need to stop expecting anything from other people, I don't know.

Or maybe just realise that *I've* changed, and stop trying to get pleasure out of things I've outgrown.

I'm supposed to be going out to dinner with a gang of my mates tonight who I haven't seen in ages, but THE MOOCHER will be there which just makes me already tense before the food has even been ordered, let alone the bill split.

Why do I let little things wind me up so much that I'm unable to enjoy the whole big thing?

oooh, kites! Lots of fun...although one of my childhood traumas involves my imaginary friend playing with a kite, an electricity pylon, and my mother telling me that he can't come back after getting 10,000 volts across him...

Ha ha, I like the crack about his "charity shop" clothes. Bless.

*xpost*

I think I was inspired by a public safety film that had lots of children falling to the ground because They'd Been Flying Their Kites Near Electricity. I would have been quite content to let Sam get up, but I think my mother seized on the chance to rid herself of my make-believe friend.

I've almost forgiven her :).

But! As long as there's wind about, kites are great! Especially when you do geeky things like strap a cheap-o digital camera to the underside and take aerial pictures! And for general flying as well.

There was a dronerock band in Portland that used to use it as a logo, let's see if I can find it...

but the dronerock band obviously made it a bit more... psychedelic.

http://www.fotosearch.com/comp/SIX/SIX137/040SI1.JPG

Grrrr, I'm getting more and more pissed off. How hard is it to answer an email? I'm just feeling more and more frustrated and less and less appreciated.

I'm reading this stupid book called "How To Get Along With People You Hate" and all it's making me realise is how other people trigger my worst behaviour.

Kate maybe you should look up Amazon for a book called 'How To Get Through Reading Books You Hate' :)

Anyway, whatever. Scary public service films. We never got shown these. The only one I can remember is one for my driving test which showed a woman who had been dragged through a windscreen/shield (to this day I don't know what the bloody thing is called). It was really vile.

So, should I apply for a job that's still here but in a different department? It's about the same pay, similar duties, supporting some interesting projects but definitely nothing to do with libraries, which is where I SHOULD be looking for jobs.

But not much is coming up and I'm bored. On the other hand it's fixed term initially til October, which isn't long considering all the hassle of starting something new.

-Will the "culture" be different - will you be better supported, work with less idiots?
-Will you get off a customer facing role?

(I am trying to resist the Green & Blacks chocolate bar in my bag. So far, my resistance has left it two squares shorter...)

It's still customer facing to some extent in that I'll be dealing with all enquiries, but not phsyically on a 'front desk'. That would be a relief.

xpost I remember being taught at school how Aids will kill us all using the rice-on-a-chessboard thing. The assumption was that everyone would have 3 partners iirc and the world was predicted to end for humans somewhere around 2020.

Oh god, I am, no wonder I'm so cranky. I should go for a walk and then get some high cocoa content chocolate. It's OK, I'm allowed chocolate when I'm PMSing.

but THE MOOCHER will be there

is that me? i feel like i have been doing this a lot lately :( i mean i know everyone's aware i have no regular ££ coming in but i hate it.

I want a Casiotone MT41.

I saw no snow today, which is weird. I've seen snow most other days.

I now have a brick of 70% cocoa Green and Blacks. And I walked past the shop with the pearl necklace again today. Still, I want it. It would be very bad to blow my mortgage padding on a pearl necklace, wouldn't it? (Besides, I'm not even sure if pearls are ethical. I certainly wouldn't eat an oyster, but I'm not sure if they kill them to get the pearls out.)

looked up 'moocher' having been not entirely sure of the meaning. it's very odd that halifax should decide to use that tune in their new ads then.

ha ha, my plan to subvert the workplace by getting them to use 'message to you rudy' as the test file instead of the usual pop tat seems to be working...

I feel kinda like I'm on drugs after all that chocolate.

There's been no snow down here, only lovely lovely (but cold) sunshine.

Anyway, I have to disappear into month end reports today so I can't make any more than flying visits.

Also, I am reading the most enjoyable book in a long time, all about Infinities. Oh yes.

On so many levels.

I feel like crying.

hellos!

Now no one is answering my emails. And everyone in my office has pissed off down the pub while I sit here and sweat through end of month.

8(

I think I should adopt a new attitude: "If you don't care, why should I?"

I feel like people are abnegating their responsibility to care onto me. And I'm not having it.

Weirdly, it is literally Matt's job to care. I don't think I could do his job.

I'm having a good day apart from WEIRD BANANA oh no. All hard and mealy.

Now, when all the Monkeys and the Conslutants are inputting this stuff, they don't give a toss whether it goes in right or not, they just want to make their figures look good by the end of the month. And it's my job to go through and pick out all the MISTAKES. And I just get so frustrated by all these errors. It's like, I'm the giant subeditor in the sky, and why should they bother getting their stuff right when they know that I'll fix it for them?

But lately this attitude seems to be just leaching into everything I do, my social life, etc. I go into super-organised mode, and get really wound up by disorganisation.

Except last night, I went to a dinner that someone else had arranged. And it was so... pleasant! I didn't have to organise anything, round up anyone, make any reservations, worry about anyone being late, do anything, except turn up, have a drink, eat my dinner and chat to my friends. And it was so relaxing!

I just don't feel like I have enough things like that any more, where I can just turn up without having to *worry* about anything any more.

Anyway, this is procrasturbation. I'm going to eat some lunch and then dive back into these stupid datadumps and see what other shining showers of shit the monkeys and conslutants have left for me.

Other than that, OH NO, WEIRD BANANA, OH NO! I hate that. :-)

I often slip into the fixing/organising role too, I wonder if there's a trick to NOT being like that in your personal life. I would like someone to teach me if so.

create a data quality report each month and name and shame the slack inputters, innit

It's the typical war between sales and finance where they think we're beancounters and we think they're slack bastards who would cut any corner or sell their grandmothers (and us) to win a client.

Archel, I don't *enjoy* things when I'm in Super-Organised Mode. I just feel like it's one more stress in an already overstressed life. So I guess it makes me very Not Fun to be around in those kinds of social situations. (Which in itself probably makes people not want to be around me, or invite me to other social situations I don't have to organise.)

I don't know. I was hoping CBT would help me sort this out, but we all know how badly *that* turned out. (Though I'm supposed to be meeting up with the Disappearing Shrink tomorrow.)

Does anyone know how I can view an access database from my mac for free? I know FA about databases and I don't need to do anything except maybe add entries.

I am happy because I went to Waterstones and came back with a joblot of cheap books. Hurrah!

Including Sinclair's London Orbital, which, surprisingly, I have never read. Also The Bus We Loved and a book about eclipses, a sociological treatise on drugs in history and a book about the Black Dead in Scotland.

It is the Waterstones attached to the London School of Ecognomics. I was thinking it would have more great MATHS books like my big book of infinities.

And yes, it's the big remainder section. They're all hardbacks, though, which is nice. Until I have to lug them on the bus.

Kate I used to live near a plague pit in Edinburgh. Now it's a corner of a park where the uneven ground makes it perfect for golf links.

um, answers appear to be 'maybe' and 'maybe'. Base (the access-y bit of openoffice) is said to be attachable to access and there's a mac option on the OO download page.

there's always the odbc / jdbc option. maybe. 8)

I tried to look for a free ODBC/JDBC driver but gave up bored after about 10 minutes. I'll keep looking.

Thanks for advice, I'm marginally less confused than I was.

s#:# #O#n# #w#h#a#t# #m#a#r#k#e#t#(#s#)# #i#s# #i#t# #l#i#s#t#e#d#?#######'#.G�ĶC�9FiNG�[####˷�����H�|n�DC�yW#h#a#t# #i#s# #i#t#s# #c#u#r#r#e#n#t# #(#a#p#p#r#o#x#i#m#a#t#e#)# #m#a#r#k#e#t# #v#a#l#u#e#?#######�#�X��?M��U`��|####˷�����H�|n�DC�yW#h#a#t# #w#a#s# #t#h#e# #O# #t#u#r#n#o#v#e#r# #d#u#r#i#n#g# #t#h#e# #l#a#s#t# #f#i#n# #y#e#a#r#?#######&�#?ae�L�vY(����####˷�����H�|n�DC�yW#W#:# #B#i#o#######�eñ�dG����w�####˷�����H�|n�DC�yA#d#d#i#t#i#o#n#a#l# #I#n#f#

http://www.openoffice.org/product/base.html

"For more advanced requirements, BASE supports many popular databases database natively (Adabas D, ADO, Microsoft Access, MySQL), or any database through industry-standard ODBC and JDBC drivers. It also supports any LDAP compliant address book, as well as common formats such as Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Windows, and Mozilla."

I'm still confused about databases. I've got OOv2 but no Base so I'll try finding that. By the time I've sorted this out I might actually be able to join in the database conversations... (I doubt it though)

Sigh. Just back from my therapist.

I still didn't get much of a reason out of him for his absence, except some kind of vague "personal reasons" but then he said that whatever it was, it was affecting his ability to be calm and non-judgemental, and he was worried that if he'd been working, he'd have caused more damage by saying the wrong thing. I don't know. I just lost it in the session and couldn't stop crying until I started on some totally random and dispassionate conversation about London Bus Routes. I don't know if that means I need to carry on therapy or stop or what. I guess I feel a bit better for having had a major crying jag. But I still feel pretty raw.

I need to make some big decisions. But I don't need to make them right now.

I downloaded openoffice but despite its promising name, it won't actually open. Ugh.

What do people generally want when they look at train websites? Timetables! Why make it so hard for us to get them?

Update on my database situation cos you're dying to know: I thought I needed x11 but when I tried to install it, it said I already had something 'newer'. But I don't have x11 and I don't know how to open openoffice. I must be really dense.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRLGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

It just isn't fair. :-(

Oh no! More boring computer problems! Oh no!

how complex / confidential is said database? and what are you planning on doing with it? am just thinking that porting it to, er, mysql or something might let you at least read it / query it.

These are all good points, yet none of them lead anywhere.
None of them are points at all.
There are no points.
There is no point.

-King Missile

What a great song.

You Don't Have a Boyfriend Because You are Too Busy

http://images.yournewromance.com/whydontyouhaveaboyfriendquiz/too-busy.jpg

While a relationship sounds nice, you're strapped for time

Whether you're legitimately busy or just making excuses...

... You don't give men enough of your time.

As nice as "instant love" would be, there's just no such thing.

Why Don't You Have a Boyfriend?

Also, I came up as an Extrovert in their test. In what WORLD?!?!? am I an extrovert?

Ah but how can a point lead anywhere? Then it would be a line!

God what a boring day I'm having. Boring meeting followed by mind-numbingly boring task for faculty member, followed by nothing at all.

And my long-awaited dinner out last night was a bit of a disappointment.

Sorry you missed the Boris kate, how annoying! And I think you should carry on the therapy, fwiw. Seems like your therapist was doing the most professional thing, from his point of view, even though it backfired and had far worse consequences for you than he intended. If it was helping you before, it would be a shame to abandon it.

Sorry your dinner was rub. What was the matter? Was the food just kind of meh, or something else?

kaet haet

All the work I just did yesterday, all the work I did last month - USELESS - because this sodding guy decided YESTERDAY to update some records from last year.

So now an entire year's worth of reports are totally useless. :-(

also true GOSSIP: Coupland to interview Morrissey for 0b$3rv3r.

I went for a walk, and now my colleague is making me camomille tea. I hope it does not put me to sleep, but just makes me calm.

I was just having my mid-afternoon cup of tea when I noticed it's actually 5pm - what have I been doing all this time that I thought it was 3pm? Oh right, filling in forms for my annual appraisal yech. Only an hour til I can go home then woo.

I am a happy girl. Shoegazing wub and lovely boys wubbed my troubles away. I want one.

also truck has sold like 2000 (of 3500 i think) tix already... anyone wants to go they should buy tix sooooon.

Jeebus, is there a Truck Festival thread? I will look.

And which random boy was this, Emsk?

dear guy at the pleasure unit tonight with the woolly hat, long coat and pretty indie girl, who the hell are you anyway? do we know each other? i kept having to look at you all night and i couldn't even work out if it was because i thought i recognised you or because i thought you were good to look at. you were doing the same damn thing - do you know the answer?

-- emsk (vomit.quif...), March 2nd, 2006 12:19 AM. (later)

the more i think about it the more i think the answer is "both". i *swear* i have met this guy somewhere, and had a conversation, but for the life of me i cannot work out where or when. and the fact that it's bothering me means i must've thought there was something very good about looking at him. he likes teh shouty indiepop though (shooting at unarmed men were playing, jon off mclusky's new band) so chances are i will see him again.

I have searched and cannot find a Truck Festival thread, but maybe he called it something silly like PEARY IN OXFORDSHIRE!!! or put it on the ILM board. Oh well, I will have to revive a Shimuras thread or start a new one or something.

yeh i know. but usually i remember, place or time or what we were talking about... perhaps i was heroically drunk. unlikely, i know, but it could happen. i have a vague feeling his accent is from the norf-east but that doesn't really help. perhaps he is just in a band, and that is why i think i know him?

**HELLO BOY IN HAT IF YOU ARE READING THIS I WILL BE WORKING AT THE BUFFALO BAR TONIGHT PLS COME AND MAKE YOURSELF KNOWN INSTEAD OF LOOKING AT ME SIDEWAYS ALL NIGHT IF YOU ARE NICE I WILL LET YOU IN FOR CHEAP kthxbye.**

I have searched and cannot find a Truck Festival thread, but maybe he called it something silly like PEARY IN OXFORDSHIRE!!! or put it on the ILM board.

i think it was on ilm. start a new one!

we don't always get what we want.

I think this is the kind of hangover that needs food thrown at it.

The criteria are a complete mystery to me.

Except now I am eating nummy Green and Blacks chocolate and I'm not throwing that any anyone because I want to eat it all myself.

Grrrr, in the 2 minutes between running the datadump and the report, the data shifted. How am I supposed to do my job under these conditions? I wish I could kick people out of the database while I do this. :-( The only time I get accurate results is if I do it after hours or at the weekend.

I am going to look at YET ANOTHER FUCKING HOUSE again soon. I'm getting pretty tired of it. Plus we are running out of time before we have to leave our current house. I can see us sleeping on sofas soon.

It is the weekend of the 22nd July. Book tickets now! They're going fast. x-post

Possibly.

Sorry, this is continuing a conversation we were having by email. And nothing at all to do with lovely TISSP and his lovely friend and mad backstage par-tays. With cows.

that was for tissp, multiple xposts.

No, no, Mad Cow disease is so last year. It's all about BIRD FLU now. It's a dairy farm and not a poultry farm, right, we should be OK?

microserfs, service pack 2? 8)

*though apparently there is one going in.

I feel rubbish. I should have had a nice, relaxing weekend, right? No, I spent all of Saturday coming down with a miserable cold and all of Sunday in bed. I should still be there now, but I'm getting worried about running out of sickdays and it's only March. Argh. Have run out of lemsip, too. :-(

Hi FP, welcome back. I always feel disastrous on returning to work after a holiday. This is why I often go nowhere with my annual leave but instead use it up lying in bed watching DVDs - much more relaxing.

Though plans to use my June holiday drinking beer and watching Wimbledon at a TV-owning family member's house have been dashed by people actually being organised and booking a trip to Germany.

I could do with a hot toddy, but I'm still not drinking.

Without a TV, you'll have missed PLANET EARTH which started last night with cuet polar bear cubs and amazing shots of birds of paradise trying to attract mates. It was a bit of a jumble though – not sure if the 'seasons' or 'sunlight' theme or whatever it was worked well. Just lots of cool stuff from all over the place.

Went to the birthday party of someone I'd never met before
Cut up some dead trees
Fixed some dodgy phone cables
Laid over a mile of cable for phones, and a quarter-mile for other stuff
Drank homebrew cider and G&T
Got the piss taken by everyone else - all real-ale people - for drinking G&T
Went up some telegraph poles
Rolled a train downhill with no engine
Built a snowman.

(not all on my own, obv)

x-post

Kate I wish I didn't have a TV cos I have no willpower and a big pile of unread books

xpost she needs someone else's hotty botty clearly.

We had a visit from the TV licence bovver boys on Saturday, but they only looked in one room of our flat which seems odd given the effort they expend on threatening letters. Not having a TV hasn't prevented me becoming addicted to Lost via teh curse of DVD though :(

And I got a free Guardian on the train. I always like when that happens. However, the person who left it got off at the stop before mine, so I didn't get to read very much of it. Ah well, save it for the trainride home.

Nowadays *supposedly* the Gravity Trains are only run on special events - but if you're up the line on a works train, the works train has possession of the line, and you need to work in two places, it's easiest to split the train up, leave the engine with the bottom bit and gravitate the top bit down to meet it when you're done. I am not sure how officially we were allowed to do it, but we did anyway.

Modern art often just seems like such a crapshoot. I kind of don't bother with is much any more (just had my limit of the bad kind with Joe and his mates). I don't even get entertained by taking the piss out of it, just annoyed. However, robotic arm sounds cool.

And kind of annoyed because of the endless lists of things I'm supposed to be doing - half the things are taken off that I haven't done, and the other half the things are things I either HAVE done already or have told my boss WHY I can't do them. It's making my life more confusing, not less. Grrrrrr.

We have finished recording our EP! I finished mixing and mastering on Saturday night, and am sat listening to it now, making a list of the niggling things that need changing.

Now I just need to fill my time that I would normally have spent mixing in with something else (I didn't realise how addicted I'd become to the process until I hadn't any to do yesterday...)

Spend the time you would have spent mixing WRITING NEW SONGS!!! On a sequencer, which is a bit like mixing, but more fun. (I hate mixing - do you want to mix Shimura Curves so I don't have to, if you like it?)

I did actually have to stop myself writing new material yesterday. I went for a lovely walk in the country instead. And watched an Arrested Development marathon.

Also, I had my geeky, loves-forms-and-questionnaires-of-all-kinds dreams come true when I was selected to take part in the national radio listening survey this week. I have to fill in a diary all week saying what stations I listened to, when, where and for how long. THRILLING ISN'T IT!